Chapter 948 The Already Deceased Wood Elemental Embryo
“These… are all Plant Essences?”
I curiously spoke up and turned to Sister Bai.
Sister Bai understood and shared all the information she had previously seen regarding the Wood Elementals.
There was a lot of information, seeming to indicate that she had deliberately researched it in detail.
It appeared that Sister Bai had learned about the existence of Wood Elementals in the Instance Realm and had conducted this investigation on her own initiative.
Moreover, this investigation was not conducted in the Witch Academy, as the materials there might not be so detailed.
“Yes… yes… friend!” Ling Yi weakly corrected from the side.
“Sorry~ I, Xiao Han, made a mistake; it’s Ling Yi’s friend.” I quickly supported Ling Yi.
“Xiao Han, could you please not harvest her… she’s not Plant Essence, she’s not a resource; she’s my friend…” At this, Ling Yi pleaded once more, as she, having experienced darkness as a Wood Elemental, naturally understood the fear of greed.
“I didn’t think that way~ Since Ling Yi says she’s a friend, how could I do something like that to a friend?” I lifted Ling Yi to her feet.
“Thank you… Xiao Han.”
“Then can you call me Sister Xiao Han?”
“Hmm? But… I should be older than you; you should call me sister…”
Ling Yi seemed to have some peculiar insistence in certain aspects.
I knew that even within the Witch Academy, many upperclassmen called me Sister Xiao Han.
“How can that be? Clearly, I’m a bit older than you~ I gestured with my left hand.”
“Well… okay, you are a good person… Sister Xiao Han.”
In the end, Ling Yi yielded on the title; whether it was genuine or not didn’t matter much.
“Ah~ I got labeled as a good person.” I showed a slight smile and didn’t take it to heart.
Though externally it indeed was a particularly concentrated chunk of Plant Essence, I wouldn’t go so far as to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Besides, at this stage, I didn’t particularly need Plant Essence.
The materials Sister Bai shared did record Plant Essence, but it was far from such a degree of concentration.
So this must be another situation: the nurturing and birth of a Wood Elemental!
And this chunk of Plant Essence had similarly surpassed the limits of nurturing to some extent.
Moreover, I did not find any signs of life within it.
But considering Ling Yi’s sincerity, it seemed she wouldn’t lie to me about this nurtured Wood Elemental…
It was highly likely that it was dead.
“Ling Yi~ Is your friend still in a state of nurturing?” I tentatively inquired.
“Mm~ yes, she’s definitely still in the nurturing state! She’s the partner that has been in the longest nurturing process and needs the most Plant Essence! So she must be extraordinarily powerful!” Ling Yi said with great confidence!
Her tone even carried a slight pride when speaking!
“How long has she been in nurturing…?”
“Um… I don’t remember clearly, but it’s been a long, long time; she had already been in nurturing when those vile wizards were still around!”
“When the wizards were still around?” I said with slight surprise.
That does sound like quite a while.
However, nurturing Wood Elementals isn’t like human gestation lasting ten months; although the early stages of gathering the Wood embryo can take a long time and requirements for the environment can be strict, sometimes lasting several years or even more, once a certain limit is reached for gathering the Wood embryo, it won’t take too long for a new Wood Elemental to be born.
Moreover, the nurturing of Wood Elementals isn’t regular but depends on environmental conditions; when things go well, a few weeks is sufficient; when slow, it could even last several months.
After all, the size of Wood Elementals dictates that they won’t be nurtured for too long.
“Mm mm! Those wizards were so wicked! When they were capturing our partners, they didn’t even spare the Wood Elementals that were in nurturing! This… my friend here was… was lucky to be left behind by the wizards and then brought here by me…”
“The wizards… left her behind?”
Although I couldn’t witness the scene from back then, I could guess some situations.
It’s likely this Wood Elemental had already died at that time, right?
What puzzled me, though, was that even if the Wood embryo had died, it should still be an intensely concentrated chunk of Plant Essence and shouldn’t be discarded.
Or perhaps… it wasn’t discarded; it was ‘stolen’ by Ling Yi?
After all, a living being is valued differently than a dead one.
But clearly, now wasn’t the right time to inquire about these; the truth and process weren’t important at this moment.
What mattered was… the result.
This silly Wood Elemental had cultivated a dead Wood embryo into such a concentrated Plant Essence, showing the effort involved.
But life can never be born again just because of highly concentrated Plant Essence.
“Ling Yi~ Since she’s your friend, let’s bring her to Lake Heart Island; that’s where my sister and I reside, as well as where you reside, so it will be more convenient, okay?” I suggested.
“Eh? But… but the Plant energy there isn’t as rich as here, and…”
“For the environment, I can handle it.” I naturally had no worries regarding Ling Yi’s concerns.
As I took action to gather a few runes and arranged them in a ritual configuration, the surrounding rich Plant energy gradually began to gather.
And this was merely a simple technique for me—an array for gathering specific extraordinary energy.
To me, this was hardly even a spell, just a ritual construct for achieving a specific effect. If one had to label it a spell, it would be a typical minor spell.
“Eh?! The Plant Essence has… gathered?!”
“That’s right~ As long as Ling Yi takes her friend over, I will use this array to stabilize the area; this way, you won’t need to travel far to care for your friend each time~”
“Really… really! Thank you! Thank you, Xiao Yao!”
“Hm? What do you call me?”
“Sister Xiao Han! Thank you, Sister Xiao Han!”
“Mm~ that’s more like it~ I said with a full smile.
After that, I and Ling Yi carefully took care of this ‘friend,’ traveling from here to Lake Heart Island.
Upon returning here, Ling Yi quickly noticed the energy-rich fruits under the He Ya Tree!
“Eh! Are these fruits… for me?”
“Mm~ What a pity, if only Ling Yi had been here at that time, you could have picked them yourself.”
“Thank you, Sister Xiao Han! You really are a wonderful person! I shouldn’t have doubted you!”
“Let me correct that; I’m a Little Witch~ I should be a good witch!”
“Mm! Sister Xiao Han is a good little witch!”
“?”
“She’s a good witch~ I corrected again.
“Oh~ Sister Xiao Han is a good witch!” While saying this, Ling Yi carried all the fruits to her tree hollow.
“Aren’t you going to eat one yourself?”
“I’ll save them to share when my friend wakes up!”
“You don’t need to be so frugal~ If your friend wakes up, I’ll prepare even more fruits for you!”
I soothed Ling Yi while beginning to cement this guiding array for Plant energy under the He Ya Tree.
This is an Instance Realm, so using excessively powerful gathering arrays isn’t practical; it’s sufficient to choose a softer approach that aligns well with the natural operations of the Instance Realm.
While I was cementing this array, Sister Bai also came to my side, speaking in a voice only I could hear.
“Miss, why did you go to such lengths?” she inquired curiously.
To Ling Meng as well as this Wood Elemental, she found Xiao Lian’s kindness excessive; perhaps the natural abundance of extraordinary levels had enriched her perception so that she remained unaffected by the external cuteness, only displaying acceptance if it was spontaneously expressed.
This situation was applicable to most witches.
For instance, witches often look down on all non-extraordinary races equally; however, they can easily lower their guard around cute beings like cats, and some witches have no resistance to them at all!
“Do you not understand, Sister?” I asked quietly, tilting my head.
“Is it a feeling similar to… Ling Meng?”
“Mm→no~ I shook my head to indicate it’s not right, ‘The Wood Elemental hasn’t reached the bond that exists between me and Fool Dream, but there is definitely fondness; if Sister doesn’t understand my complex considerations… let me explain it this way.”
“What is it? Sister Bai asked, curious.
“This Wood Elemental is dead… but… it still has value in allowing me to explore cultivation topics, life experiments, soul drawings, and other techniques, experiments, and topics.”
Once I said this, Bai Yu understood.
Such a straightforward explanation lacked some human sentiment, but for the tragedy faced by this Wood Elemental, it undoubtedly represented a flicker of hope for life!
After solidifying this gathering ritual, I could already sense the gradual gathering of wisps of Plant Qi energy above Lake Heart Island.
After all, this wasn’t an area with already substantial Plant energy; it would require at least a day or two to reach a comparable condition to that previous area.
Moreover, Plant energy is among the few extraordinary energies that inherently nurture life, so having a higher concentration is definitely not a problem.
“Alright~ Ling Yi, now you can take good care of your friend here~ After about a day or two, the environment here should be roughly comparable to how it was originally.”
“Woo woo woo… Thank you, Sister Xiao Xi! Thank you…” At this moment, Ling Yi already didn’t know how to express her gratitude, continually repeating her thanks.
Amidst a flurry of thanks, I shifted my tone.
“By the way, Ling Yi, I understand Wood Elementals somewhat; with your friend in nurturing for so long, might there be some kind of issue?”
“Eh? How could that be! It definitely won’t! Absolutely won’t!” Ling Yi hurriedly responded.
“I’m just saying it’s possible~ Don’t worry, I care about your friend too~ But she has indeed exceeded the usual nurturing time for Wood Elementals; how about this, I’ll look for some information to see if I can help you resolve this issue and speed up your friend’s nurturing process, how about that?”
“Eh? Really… can that really be done?” Ling Yi asked with some uneasiness.
She actually felt there might be some problems, but she didn’t dare think too negatively.
She just hoped her friend was simply special, being a Wood Elemental who survived at the hands of those evil wizards!
—Surely, there must be something special about her, right?
“Of course it’s true~ Just looking for some information is all; once I find it, I’ll bring you good news next time!”
“Mm mm!”
After calming down this Wood Elemental, I also planned to leave the Instance Realm with Sister.
The reason I didn’t take action immediately was that I had other matters to attend to; experiments on this deceased Wood embryo needed ample time, so that could wait. Moreover, giving Ling Yi some time to acclimate and accept was also important—being overly hasty wouldn’t do any good.
Naturally, the place I was headed was the Primordial Dream Laboratory.
After all, I had opened it for nearly a day, and I wanted to check if Mu Li and the others could adapt.
Of course, the main reason was to observe if Chu Chu had any abnormalities.
Even though Chu Chu’s life experiment had independent clones watching over her, and there were also monitoring insights from the Great Knowledge Tree, in psychological terms, it was always better to take a look for reassurance.
And this trip, of course, was alongside Sister Bai; as the Body Cultivation Witch who mastered the order of the Dream World, she naturally had access to the Primordial Dream Laboratory.
No need to worry about that.
“Oh~ is it Xiao Lian? Hasn’t it just been a day since you left? And you’re back again?”
“Haha~ Bai Hua is also here?”
Upon seeing the two familiar figures arrive at the laboratory, it was mostly witches I knew. Moreover, there were so many privileges within the laboratory, so the faces were quite familiar.
When it came to the arrival at the laboratory, the ones most concerned were naturally the three Body Cultivation Witches.
Currently, Mu Li was still maintaining the Primordial Dream, and I could feel her control over it becoming increasingly adept.
“I didn’t expect Xiao Lian to return to the laboratory so quickly; I thought you would take at least a ten-day long break to relax~”
“Right? It’s only been a day, after all! Taking a proper rest aids in improving efficiency!”
“If I remember correctly, the semester has already passed, right? Aren’t you planning to take a break during the holiday?”
“The main thing is, I just can’t let it go~ I purposely came back to take a look,” I casually responded.
“No worries, you don’t have to be concerned, Xiao Lian, I know you maintained the Primordial Dream for so long; there’s no way we could be worse than you! Besides, we’re three witches.” Mu Li spoke first.
“It’s not that I don’t trust all of you~ I’m mainly worried something unexpected might happen; the Primordial Dream is a terrifying place, and even I don’t dare explore it endlessly; I’m also considering your safety.”
“Then thank you for your concern~” Mu Li didn’t continue on this topic but instead turned her attention to Bai Yu.
These witches held a deep impression of Bai Yu.
If one had to use a term to describe her, it would be… genius!
She was the most talented extraordinary Body Cultivation Witch they had ever seen!
Of course, Xiao Yuan was a Little Witch, so she didn’t count in the ranking for now.
