Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Give the Fire Qilin Lotus a Slap

A sudden strike made Qian Qi break into a cold sweat; luckily she had stayed on guard, so she lifted her hoe at once and blocked the root whip that lashed at her.

But the hit from the lotus root was so strong that the skinny girl flew through the air in a neat arc and crashed down.

Qian Qi froze: [???]

[Pfft.]

She landed hard on her backside and stared, pointing at the lotus root still swaggering in the air as her voice cracked: “How is it this strong?”

Not only that, this lotus root was much darker than what the books showed, almost twice as long and thick, and worst of all, the inhibitor didn’t work on it at all.

Could it be she raised it too well, so it got stronger?

But she had been eating well and sleeping well too. She was Qian Qi 2.0, stronger than before. Why couldn’t she beat it?

System Panel: [Your second skill, did you forget?]

Qian Qi frowned, trying to remember her second skill, then her face fell dark.

Second skill: Hand of Inspiration. Any Magiplant planted by the Awakener gets higher yield and a higher demonization level.

A higher demonization level means the danger shoots up too!

Great. She was just a weak girl. Why give her a skill with such a mean side effect?

[Don’t be sad. A higher demonization level also means the Fire Qilin Fruit will be more potent.]

[The fruit on this Fire Qilin Lotus could sell for at least 30,000!]

Qian Qi lit up: [!!!]

Suddenly, higher demonization didn’t seem so scary after all.

“So how do I deal with it?” she asked, because the sodium bicarbonate solution had stopped working; she needed a safe way to pick the Fire Qilin Fruit.

[Analysis Skill.]

Qian Qi pressed her lips together: “I can only use Analysis Skill three times a day,” she grumbled, “and a demonized Fire Qilin Lotus wants me to waste one use?”

System Panel: [^_^ analyze it or don’t, your choice]

Qian Qi narrowed her eyes: “Is it provoking me?”

Could she swallow that? Of course not. She mixed a tube of high concentration sodium bicarbonate solution, and just in case, she grabbed a handful of sodium bicarbonate granules and scattered them over the soil.

Sodium bicarbonate is what people call baking soda. It’s usually a food additive, and sometimes used as medicine, like to reduce excess stomach acid. If you take too much, it can cause indigestion or even diarrhea in serious cases.

The textbook never explained why sodium bicarbonate suppresses the Fire Qilin Lotus’s root attacks, but Qian Qi suspected the solution messed with the lotus’s “appetite.”

Or maybe it made the roots turn soft and lose their bite? After all, baking soda can make steamed buns soft too [hmm].

Thinking all kinds of nonsense, she raised her hoe and carefully stepped into the plot. This time the lotus root didn’t attack. She stomped her foot; still no reaction. Getting bolder, she even reached out and gave the Fire Qilin Lotus a crisp slap.

[…] [She really is asking for a beating.]

Seeing the root still calm, Qian Qi finally bent down and felt the Fire Qilin Fruit. The fresh fruit was bright red and clear, with a thin layer of dewy shine. She barely held back her professional habit and did not peel a strip to make a sample.

If she ruined its look, it would not sell for 30,000!

She opened her Light-Brain to contact Li Shu Yun. Half an hour later, Li Shu Yun rushed up the mountain, out of breath.

When she saw the three Fire Qilin Fruit hanging from the lotus, she froze on the spot.

What was going on? It actually grew?

Li Shu Yun felt the world tilt under her feet. To figure out how Qian Qi cultivated the Fire Qilin Lotus, she had staked out this plot every day. Her pretty fair face had even tanned.

But Qian Qi hadn’t shown up at all.

Yet the lotus grew better day by day, and today it had gone straight to fruit.

Did Fire Qilin Lotus fruit if you just let it grow wild?

Impossible. She shut that down at once. Back when her grandpa did the research, free-range Fire Qilin Lotus always caught a withering disease and died. So there was no way Qian Qi raised it free-range.

Then how could a lazy slacker who never did her proper work grow a top grade Fire Qilin Lotus in just seven days, and even break the usual fruit limit to produce three high quality Fire Qilin Fruit?

She stared at Qian Qi like a hungry wolf, green-eyed with envy, and asked, “Junior Qian Qi, you… how did you grow it?”

Qian Qi waved both hands and glanced up with an innocent look: “No idea. Maybe it was a blind cat catching a dead mouse.”

“Not a chance,” said Li Shu Yun, who didn’t buy that at all. A few days ago Qian Qi had acted so confident; now she was playing dumb?

Still, Li could understand. Fire Qilin Fruit sells for a lot. If you can mass produce it, the profit is huge.

That would make the planting method incredibly valuable, so it was normal if Qian Qi didn’t want to tell her.

But if she tried to figure it out herself… the soil sample she had secretly taken had already been tested. It was just normal fertile soil. As for the fertilizer ratio, no matter how she analyzed it, something felt off.

Taking a deep breath, Li Shu Yun grew serious and asked, “Junior Qian Qi, tell me the truth. Can you really grow Fire Qilin Lotus?”

Seeing Li serious, Qian Qi dropped the silly face and nodded.

Li Shu Yun sucked in a breath: “I knew it. This is a huge deal! Junior Qian Qi, are you willing to share the planting method? I can make sure you get your diploma without trouble! And if you want planting rights, I can help you apply too!”

Qian Qi rubbed her chin.

To her, a diploma was something she could earn with her own effort. No need to waste a planting secret on that.

As for planting rights… she had already checked. As long as she passed the A level planting exam at the Magiplant Research Institute, she could buy the Fire Qilin Lotus planting rights for tens of thousands.

However, sooner or later the news that she could grow Fire Qilin Lotus would spread. She didn’t dare underestimate human greed. What if someone kidnapped a soft, weak girl like her for profit, forced her to spill the secret, then silenced her forever…

Oh no. What if it led to someone dying?

Would she go to jail? She was so young with her whole life ahead…

Watching Qian Qi go from thoughtful to worried, Li Shu Yun’s heart rose and fell with her mood. At last Qian Qi spoke: “Forget the diploma and the planting rights. But in one week, I can consider selling you the planting method.”

She smiled so sweetly: “Senior Sister Li, if you truly want the method for the Fire Qilin Lotus, then get enough money ready.”

“How much do you want?” asked Li Shu Yun at once, hearing there was a chance to buy.

“I haven’t decided yet,” said Qian Qi after thinking. “I’ll give you an answer in a week.”

“Oh, right,” she added, pointing to the fruit with a squinting smile, “each Fire Qilin Fruit sells for at least 30,000. I’ll take two, you take one. You help me sell them, okay?”

“Of course, no problem,” Li Shu Yun agreed right away. She had only used her status to get one Fire Qilin Lotus Seed before. Now she not only had one top quality Fire Qilin Fruit, she also had a real chance to buy the true planting method. No matter how she counted it, she was winning big.

Watching Qian Qi’s back as she left, Li Shu Yun turned and opened her Light-Brain, then dialed a video call to her grandpa.

“Hello? Yun Yun, what is it?” On the other end, an old man in white appeared on the screen.

“Grandpa, I think I found the correct way to cultivate Fire Qilin Lotus,” said Li Shu Yun. She quickly explained about the fruit, then switched the view to show the lotus in the plot: “Can you believe it? It has three Fire Qilin Fruit, and the quality is more than three times better than what your team grows.”

“This!” The old man on the screen, Li Hong Sheng, widened his eyes in shock: “Your academy produced such a genius? Which student is it, Lin Qi or Xu Fei?”

Lin Qi and Xu Fei were top seniors already reserved as probationary hires by the Magiplant Research Institute. If they passed probation, they would become full Researchers. If anyone could discover the correct Fire Qilin Lotus method, Li Hong Sheng would think of those two first.

“Is it one of them?” he asked, excited.