BXBX NOVEL Chapter 111 - 109: Smiling Even in Death 1
While nurturing the Monkey-faced Orchids, Lu Xuan specifically selected six plants, marked them secretly, and used different types of Spirit Bugs to feed these Orchids. He recorded their delayed facial expressions and kept summarizing the patterns.
Three days later, under his adjusted cultivation method, all six Orchids maintained smiling or laughing expressions throughout the day.
“I guess you all are pretty comfortable.”
Lu Xuan sighed and decided to share his findings with Senior Sister Yao.
The beautiful woman lived alone in a small courtyard, with three elegant wooden houses and a small garden full of exotic flowers and plants.
“Senior Sister Yao, are you there? I need your help.” Lu Xuan knocked on the door.
“Junior Brother Lu, please come in. What can I do for you?”
The beautiful woman walked out from the house, smilingly asked.
“I have stumbled upon a discovery that might potentially improve the quality of Monkey-faced Orchids while nurturing them. Therefore, I particularly came here to report it to you.”
Is that so? What have you discovered?”
A hint of curiosity flashed in the woman’s eyes, she was half doubtful.
■Tve observed and summarized for a while, finding a strong correlation between the facial expressions inside the orchid petals and their overall status. If we can adjust the cultivation method according to its expressions, satisfying its needs as much as possible, we can improve the quality of spirit plant.” Lu Xuan spoke solemnly.
“Previous Spirit Plant Masters who cultivated Monkey-faced Orchids once made such a hypothesis, but they didn’t find anything extraordinary in the end, so they just used conventional cultivation methods without concerning those weird expressions.”
“Junior Brother Lu, could you please explain in detail, what mystery does facial expression conceal?”
Lu Xuan frowned and pretended to be pondering.
“If your method is indeed effective, I will honestly report it to the Foundation Establishment Uncle Master behind the Medicine Garden.”
The beautiful woman seemed to have perceived Lu Xuan’s worry and promised with a smile.
If it is true that the quality of many second-grade Monkey-faced Orchids in the Medicine Garden can be improved, when she would report to the Foundation Establishment Uncle Master, not only would Lu Xuan be rewarded, but she, as the manager of the Medicine Garden, would also merit greatly.
Therefore, there is absolutely no need to keep Lu Xuan’s cultivation method to herself.
“Senior Sister Yao, you are too kind, I was just organizing my thoughts.”
The hidden mystery is simple. The expression shown by the Monkey-faced Orchid has a very long delay, thereby misleading the cultivating Spirit Plant Masters very easily.”
“Two main factors influence the change in expression, the most important being the taste of the Spirit Bug. The difference in taste will make the Monkey-faced Orchid show its facial reaction after half an hour.”
“Another factor is the Spirit Rain Technique, the amount of Spirit Rain has a slight influence on the expression within the petals of Monkey-face Orchid, appearing approximately after two hours.”
“As long as one observes and fumbles the rules of it, keeping the Monkey-faced Orchid always satisfied, thereby enhancing the quality of plant.”
“I see.”
The beautiful woman kept nodding, suddenly enlightened because the mystery hidden within was simple, but if it weren’t for Lu Xuan’s unveiling, she wouldn’t know when she might have discovered it.
It seems that Junior Brother Lu has some remarkable talent in the realm of cultivating spiritual plants.”
She couldn’t help but sigh.
“Starting from tomorrow, I will cultivate the orchids in the Spirit Field according to what you mentioned, Junior Brother Lu. I believe your discovery will bring me a wonderful surprise.”
The beautiful woman made a decision quickly.
**
“I disagree!”
Monkey-faced Orchids are second-grade spirit plants, valuable and numerous. So, how can we frivolously change the cultivation method, treating it like child’s play?”
“Just continue with the original cultivation method. I strongly disagree with any careless changes!”
Outside the wooden house, Yan Ping with an ordinary appearance, his face flushed red, stated excitedly.
Upon knowing that all the Monkey-faced Orchids in the Spirit Field were going to have their cultivation methods changed, his strong reaction was beyond Lu Xuan’s imagination.
“Senior Brother Yan, I have observed for a while and can determine that the expressions on the Orchid petals is closely related to their status. As long as we follow the rules I have summarized and cultivate, we can improve the quality of mature Monkey-faced Orchids.”
Lu Xuan calmly advised, he originally thought he only needed to convince Senior Sister Yao and then the way forward would be smooth. However, he didn’t expect to run into Yan Ping, like a blocking tiger, halfway.
“Junior Brother Lu, there are so many Spirit Plant Masters in the Sky Sword Sect. Many, even including Foundation Establishment Uncle Master, have cultivated Monkey-faced Orchids.”
“All of them didn’t uncover the mystery within the Orchids’ expressions, but instead a newly joined outer-sect disciple like you did. Aren’t you being a bit too confident?”
“You came m at the last minute, saying you want to change their cultivation methods. If anything goes wrong and Foundation Establishment Uncle Master blames us, can you bear the responsibility?”
Yan Ping’s chest rose and fell dramatically, showing the strong fluctuations in his heart.
Lu Xuan remained silent as Yan Ping did have a point.
Although Lu Xuan was absolutely confident that he could improve the quality
of the Orchids, Yan Ping found it a bit hard to believe.
If the changes indeed worked, he wouldn’t share much of the credit. But if anything went wrong, as the one who had been cultivating and nurturing the Monkey-faced Orchids for such a long time, he couldn’t escape the blame.
In the midst of the silence, the beautiful woman spoke.
“Junior Brother Yan does make sense. After all, he has put a lot of effort into these Orchids. Any changes in the cultivation methods must be agreed by him.” “Junior Brother Lu, the method you mentioned is currently in the experimental stage. So, as for the nearly a hundred Monkey-faced Orchids in the Spirit Field, let’s split them in half. Half of them will be cultivated routinely by Junior Brother Yan and the other half will be cultivated according to your method, Junior Brother Lu.
What do you think?”
Lu Xuan and Yan Ping looked at each other and nodded in agreement.
It was the mature stage of Monkey-faced Orchids in the Spirit Field two months later.
During this close to two months, Lu Xuan and Yan Ping each took great care of the Orchids allocated to them separately.
After that disagreement, their relationship had somewhat distanced. They would occasionally exchange greetings when they met, but there was little further communication.
Lu Xuan didn’t mind this and devoted himself wholly to the cultivation of Monkey-faced Orchids.
As soon as the Monkey-faced Orchids entered the mature stage, Senior Sister Yao, unlike Lu Xuan who waited until the progress bar of the spirit plant was completely filled, immediately picked all the Orchid petals.
The piles of Orchids harvested by the two of them were put separately.
All the ones that belonged to Lu Xuan showed smiling expressions. More than fifty smiling faces crowded together, however, looked somewhat eerie.
“Even in death, you all keep smiling, at least you didn’t let me waste my time satisfying your every little demand.”
Lu Xuan sighed and looked at the Monkey-face Orchids cultivated by Yan Ping.
The expressions were all different, a clear contrast.
“You two must have worked hard during this period. Let me count and sort out these piles of mature Monkey-faced Orchids.”
Senior Sister Yao said with a smile.
Lu Xuan and Yan Ping nodded, and Yan Ping looked serious. With his rich experience in cultivating Monkey-faced Orchids, he could naturally see the subtle differences in the quality of the two piles.
Senior Brother Yan, from the fifty-five mature Monkey-faced Orchids harvested, thirty-eight are of ordinary quality, fourteen are of ‘good quality’, and the remaining three are of superior quality.”
Yan Ping’s expression remained calm, the quality of these Monkey-faced
Orchids did not vary much from his expectations.
However, when he looked at more than fifty Monkey-faced Orchids cultivated by Lu Xuan, he was overwhelmed with mixed feelings..