Chapter 28: Ginseng Doll

To be fair, burrowing through the herb garden is indeed an excellent method. It allows me to practice the "Shrink Earth" spell while simultaneously learning about medicinal herbs in a practical setting, making up for my lack of knowledge. It's truly killing two birds with one stone.

My senior sister is looking out for me.My senior sister is looking out for me.My senior sister is looking out for me.

After Lu Yang hypnotized himself into truly accepting that his senior sister had good intentions and that he had to replace the earthworms in burrowing, he suddenly remembered something: earthworms shouldn't have genders.

"Why would earthworms have spouses?"

Grandpa Ba explained, "Mortal earthworms indeed don't have genders; that's a characteristic of lower-level beings. Oh, I don't mean that in a derogatory way. Earthworms with intelligence and the ability to shapeshift do have genders, especially the Silver-Ringed Heavenly King Earthworms, which are a royal clan among earthworms and have a bloodline suppression over all other earthworms."

"I understand, please continue."

Grandpa Ba continued, "Originally, with the Silver-Ringed Heavenly King Earthworm couple here, loosening the soil was no problem. But it's all my fault for being a busybody that day. I asked the wife of the Silver-Ringed Heavenly King Earthworm, 'Everyone says an earthworm can survive even if it's cut in half. So if you were also cut in half, wouldn't you be able to work one day and rest one day, with you and your new self taking turns?'"

"She was tempted by what I said and immediately cut herself in half, splitting into two individuals."

"They were truly identical, like twin sisters—no, it was exactly like a duplication spell. I watched with my own eyes as one person became two, unable to tell which one was the original."

"Fortunately, they themselves could tell the difference."

"When her husband returned and saw two wives, he was completely bewildered. The two of them then asked him, 'Which one do you like?'"

"The husband was also straightforward, speaking without reservation, and honestly stated that he liked 'the sisters'."

"Then a family civil war broke out, and the three of them began a series of love-hate entanglements, leaving them unwilling to work to this day." Grandpa Ba's words were filled with self-reproach.

Lu Yang: "..."

Damn it, what lunacy.

"What exactly should I do?" After finishing his internal grumbling, Lu Yang quickly calmed his mind, gradually adapting to the cultivators' way of thinking. These were just minor matters.

Grandpa Ba stroked his white beard and smiled, "Go on in; someone will guide you. However, I must remind you: you are entering the herb garden to loosen the soil. If you dare to secretly pick any herbs, Law Enforcement Peak will definitely hold you accountable!"

Law Enforcement Peak, presided over by the Grand Elder, is fair, strict, and shows no favoritism.

Lu Yang thanked Grandpa Ba and walked into the herb garden.

As soon as he entered, Lu Yang smelled a medicinal fragrance dozens of times stronger than before.

The scent couldn't have differed so much over a mere few steps. Lu Yang immediately realized that although it seemed only Grandpa Ba was guarding the garden, in reality, a complete set of formations protected it, preventing outsiders from entering.

This set of formations locked down the garden's aura, but the medicinal fragrance within was so intense that even the grand formation couldn't seal it completely, allowing a wisp to leak out. This single wisp of fragrance alone could prolong a mortal's life, so one could imagine the miraculous effects of the scent inside the garden!

Besides the medicinal fragrance, the most striking sensation was the spiritual energy. It was incredibly dense. Lu Yang suspected that the droplets on the herb leaves weren't dew but water condensed from spiritual energy, each drop no less valuable than a low-grade spirit stone!

Everywhere Lu Yang looked, it was lush and green, with all sorts of unseen and unheard-of herbs spread out before him.

The herbs were neatly planted in rows, divided into distinct sections according to their species, making Lu Yang dizzy with wonder.

He didn't dare to move his feet easily, fearing he might step on some precious variety.

Lu Yang crouched down and examined several herbs in a row until he finally spotted one he recognized. That plant had three leaves with clear veins, appearing as if formed from condensed ice, emitting a faint chill.

"Ice Soul Grass. I remember this flower helps cultivate ice-attribute cultivation methods and increases the speed of spiritual energy absorption."

Each Ice Soul Grass was planted far apart, likely to prevent the cold emitted by the flowers from merging and freezing things over.

Lu Yang had once fought against a puppet and was badly defeated. Afterward, the puppet used Ice Soul Grass to treat his wounds, a memory still fresh in his mind.

He truly didn't recognize any of the other plants.

"Hey, who are you?" an not-so-polite voice called out. Lu Yang instinctively turned his head but saw no one.

"Who's speaking?"

"Hey, look down," the voice prompted.

Lu Yang looked down. A three-inch-tall ginseng doll was hopping around by his feet, seemingly annoyed that Lu Yang was too slow to notice it and needed a loud reminder. "You're so clumsy! Why didn't you look down? Did I really have to tell you?"

The ginseng doll had stout, chubby legs and ran around Lu Yang. Its two roots served as arms, bobbing up and down as it moved, while its body patterns formed facial features, giving it expressions as rich as a human's.

"Youngster, who are you?" the ginseng doll asked in an old-fashioned tone.

Being a ginseng spirit, its age was certainly considerable. Lu Yang didn't dare be disrespectful and bowed, saying, "I am Lu Yang. I have taken on the task of loosening the soil in the herb garden."

"Oh, so you're just here to loosen the soil." The ginseng doll let out a sigh of relief. It had thought another detestable human had come to harvest them. All the herbs in this garden were cultivated by it.

"Since you could get in, you must have received little Ba's permission. Speaking of which, besides little Ba and that female demon, it's been a while since we've seen an outsider."

To the ginseng doll, the elderly Grandpa Ba was merely a junior. What use was high cultivation? For them, the herbs, what mattered was who lived longer. It looked down on every single person in the Dao Seeking Sect.

Lu Yang had heard about the rules of the herb garden: the herbs within were precious. If one wished to obtain medicine, they had to instruct the garden's guardian to retrieve it. No one apart from the guardian was permitted to enter the garden. Had Lu Yang not received this task, he would not have been able to enter either.

He wondered who the ginseng doll's "female demon" referred to. Was it another guardian of the herb garden?

The ginseng doll put its two roots on its "hips" and grumbled, "Why are all you humans so tall?"

Lu Yang also found it cumbersome to talk while looking down, so he used the "Shrink an Inch" spell to reduce himself to the same three-inch height as the ginseng doll.

"Oh, you're quite enlightened for a junior; much better than little Ba." The ginseng doll was first surprised, then delighted. It was rare for a human to be as tall as it was. It always disliked craning its neck to look at humans. The ginseng doll's head and torso were a single entity, with no neck.

"From now on, just follow me in this herb garden!" the ginseng doll declared magnanimously, patting Lu Yang's shoulder with its root-arm, a gesture of approval.

"I still have some things to attend to. You can follow me, and once I'm done, I'll take you to meet the other Herb Kings."

Herbs that become spirits are "Herb Kings," the most precious of all herbs. Even extremely powerful sects might not possess one; if one were obtained, it would be revered like an ancestor. From the ginseng doll's words, it seemed there were quite a few Herb Kings like itself in the garden.

Lu Yang secretly clicked his tongue, marveling at how formidable the Dao Seeking Sect's foundation truly was.