65: Chapter 65 Demon-Purifying Thunder Bamboo, the Core Trump Card

The Spirit Plant Garden is located on the southwest side of Qingyuan Terrace.

Originally, this place was just a few plots of spiritual fields and a seedling nursery. Later, after Su Qingli took over internal affairs, it was gradually converted into a specialized area on the island for trial-planting spiritual grain, Spirit Medicine, and salt-alkali resistant spiritual plants.

Outside the garden, a water channel encircles it. The bottom of the channel is paved with Star Sand and Mystical Ice Jade Powder, which can slowly draw the Spiritual Qi overflowing from the miniature water-system Spiritual Vein.

When Lu Changyuan arrived, quite a few people were already gathered in the garden.

No one dared to get too close.

Because when one approached the newly turned wet soil in the very center, the skin would tingle.

Ye Zhe was squatting there.

The young man's old clothes had been scorched black by thunder fire, and his bangs were curled at the ends. Yet, his two hands were still pressed firmly against a bundle of semi-charred thunder-struck wood; his fingernails were filled with mud, and his palms were cracked and bleeding from the tiny electric arcs.

Seeing Lu Changyuan approach, he immediately wanted to stand up and salute.

But his legs went weak, and he nearly knelt back into the mud.

Lu Hu frowned: "What are you messing around with, kid?"

Ye Zhe's lips were pale, yet he still shielded the bundle of wood behind him.

"Reporting to Master, your subordinate did not intentionally obstruct the work."

"There is living Qi inside this wood."

The manager of the Spirit Plant Garden nearby immediately said with a bitter face: "Master, this batch of thunder-struck wood is leftover scraps that have been sitting in the warehouse at Xingyan for many years. According to the accounts, it was originally meant to be split and ground into powder to be mixed into the Evil-warding Sand as auxiliary material for the array base."

"But when he was unloading the cargo, he insisted that there was a piece inside that wasn't completely dead."

"We were afraid of delaying the warehousing, so we were going to process it according to the rules. He got anxious, hugged the wood, and ran directly into the nursery, and even diverted the purification water channel to water it once."

Lu Hu's eyelids twitched as he listened: "And then?"

The manager pointed at the ground.

"And then it exploded."

Lu Changyuan looked in the direction he pointed.

Among the semi-charred thunder-struck wood, there was indeed a piece that was different.

It was not an ordinary wood core.

Its outer skin was charred black, but the inside revealed a faint, pale cyan-purple hue. Several tender shoots, as thin as hair, protruded from the cracked wood, with weak electric arcs coiling around the tips. Every time the electric arc flashed, the foul, fishy stench lingering in the surrounding air faded by a fraction.

Su Qingli had already squatted down.

She did not touch it directly but took out a small jade bottle sealing the residual blood of a demonized sea beast, opened the bottle mouth, and placed it three feet away from the tender shoot.

As soon as the bottle stopper was opened, a wisp of black Qi crawled out from the bottle.

The black Qi seemed to smell living matter and twisted to coil around the back of Ye Zhe's hand, which was closest.

The next moment, a flash of purple light appeared at the tip of the tender shoot.

"Snap."

A very light, crisp sound rang out.

The wisp of black Qi scattered into gray-white dust on the spot.

The garden immediately fell silent.

Lu Hu had originally wanted to scold Ye Zhe for being reckless, but at this moment, he swallowed his words.

Su Qingli's expression changed.

She switched to a bottle of more concentrated foul blood.

This time, as soon as the black Qi overflowed, the tender shoot did not disperse it immediately; instead, the entire wood core glowed slightly. Cyan-purple electric arcs traced a circle along the charred wood grain, as if a tiny bolt of thunder was being exhaled from deep within the wood core.

The blackness in the foul blood was forced out layer by layer.

In the end, only a bit of turbid but no longer maddened demon blood remained in the bottle.

Su Qingli did not stop there.

She had someone bring a pinch of Evil-warding Sand, a corner of old thunder-pattern talisman paper, and half a scoop of purification powder, and placed them near the tender shoot respectively.

When the Evil-warding Sand approached, the lightning arc on the tender shoot clearly stabilized by a fraction.

When the old thunder-pattern talisman paper was brought close, those thunder patterns on the paper, which were originally on the verge of breaking, were actually lit up by two lines; although they only lit up for a brief moment, it was enough to prove that this thing could connect with that batch of old goods in the Talisman Room.

The purification powder had the worst reaction.

As soon as the medicinal powder was sprinkled, the tender shoot shrank slightly, and the lightning arc dissipated a bit.

Su Qingli immediately swept the medicinal powder away.

"purification powder cannot be fed directly to the root."

"Just because it can cleanse Devilish Qi does not mean that every purifying thing can be piled onto it."

Lu Changyuan nodded.

This experiment was more valuable than simply seeing the thunder bamboo cleanse the black Qi.

Because it directly connected the three types of niche materials swept from Xingyan to the future anti-demon defense line of Blue Moon Island.

Su Qingli exhaled slowly.

"It's not ordinary thunder-struck wood."

"And it's not just dead wood coming back to life."

She looked up at Lu Changyuan.

"It is purifying the Abyss Demon energy."

As soon as these words fell, the expressions of the several managers nearby all changed.

Purification.

These two words didn't mean much on a normal day.

But placed in the current context, facing the first wave of the Abyss Demon tide in three months, it was a completely different matter.

Evil-warding Talismans would be exhausted.

Heart-cleansing Pills would be eaten up.

Paving Evil-warding Sand into the array base was just resisting by force.

But this charred wood core before them was alive.

As long as it could be kept alive, it would grow.

Lu Changyuan squatted down, looking at the few weak tender shoots.

"How did you know it wasn't dead?"

Ye Zhe said in a low voice: "Your subordinate used to chop wood and move materials in the Zhao family's backyard, and I have seen a few spiritual bamboo roots."

"Living roots are different from dead wood."

"No matter how hard dead wood is, it is empty inside. This one is not empty."

He lowered his voice even more when he said this.

"When it was thrown in the corner of the ship's cabin, I was guarding the cargo at night, and I heard a very light sound inside."

"Like a sword scraping in its scabbard."

Lu Changyuan glanced at him.

This reason sounded crude.

But for many people at the bottom of society to survive, it wasn't based on profound insight, but on the meticulousness forced out over long years.

Others only saw a bundle of warehouse scraps.

What Ye Zhe saw was a breath that might not have been severed yet.

Lu Changyuan reached out, feeling the thunder intent on that wood core from three inches away.

It was very weak.

So weak that any Qi Refining Cultivator could crush it to the root.

Yet its restraint against the Abyss Demon energy was so clean that it was almost unreasonable.

"devil-cleansing thunder bamboo."

Lu Changyuan spoke slowly.

"Record it under this name first."

Su Qingli nodded, not refuting.

Now was not the time to research what it was originally called. What Blue Moon Island needed was a designation that could be immediately written into the combat readiness manual.

Lu Changyuan stood up.

"Mark off a small plot in the Spirit Plant Garden, divert the water channel, pave the bottom with Star Sand, reduce the Mystical Ice Jade Powder by half, and don't suppress the thunder nature."

"Only surround the outer circle with Evil-warding Sand; do not bury the roots directly."

"Test one-third of the dosage of the purification powder first, and record the sprout color, thunder arc, and purification reaction daily."

Su Qingli immediately followed up: "I will modify the array myself."

She paused, then looked at the several managers.

"Everything seen today is to be recorded in the internal ledger of the Spirit Plant Garden."

"Whoever dares to leak a single word will be dealt with according to wartime leak regulations."

The several managers lowered their heads in unison.

Ye Zhe also lowered his head, but his hand still hadn't left that wood core.

Lu Changyuan looked at him.

"From today on, you are no longer just part of the temporary guard."

Ye Zhe looked up suddenly.

Lu Changyuan said: "Transfer to the Thunder Bamboo Garden of the Spirit Plant Garden as a trial manager."

"This is not a promotion to a confidant, nor is it giving you a meteoric rise."

"This bamboo root was protected by you. You will continue to protect it."

Ye Zhe's Adam's apple bobbed.

He wanted to speak, but couldn't for a long while.

Finally, he just knocked his forehead heavily into the mud.

"Your subordinate will remember."

Lu Changyuan did not help him up.

He did not want momentary gratitude.

He wanted this young man, who had crawled out of the mud of the Zhao family, to understand that on Blue Moon Island, keen insight, patience, and merit could all be exchanged for a position.

Su Qingli immediately appointed two veteran spiritual farmers on the spot.

"You two follow him."

"Not to work under him, but to monitor the rules."

She stated it very clearly: "When to divert water, when to withdraw water, which medicinal powder can be brought near, and which cannot be touched in the Thunder Bamboo Garden—everything must follow the manual. It is his merit that Ye Zhe was able to keep the root alive; but if he relies on momentary courage to experiment blindly and injures the root, it will also be his crime."

Ye Zhe lowered his head and answered quickly.

"Your subordinate understands."

At this, the managers in the garden who had originally looked at him with complex expressions became much quieter.

If there is merit, you get a position.

If you have a position, you must follow the rules.

What truly makes people fear Blue Moon Island has never been momentary rewards or punishments, but the fact that both rewards and punishments can be recorded in the same ledger.

The news was kept very tight.

But the disturbance caused by the devil-cleansing thunder bamboo could not be suppressed for too long.

That night, Su Qingli personally led people to modify the array base of the small garden. After the Star Sand was paved, the charred wood core not only did not go silent, but in the second half of the night, it sprouted a second tender shoot.

The purple electric arc jumped along the water channel.

Above the Spirit Plant Garden, a layer of very faint thunder clouds gathered accordingly.

Lu Changyuan stood under the veranda, watching the clouds, but his brows did not relax.

Su Qingli was also beside him.

She said in a low voice: "An ordinary Spirit-concealing Array cannot suppress it."

"Forced suppression will hurt the roots."

"If we don't suppress it, at most in three days, any sea demon or Cultivator with some cultivation in the vicinity will notice that a thunder-attribute spiritual object has been born here."

Lu Changyuan looked toward Qixia Peak.

The clouds on the peak were quiet, with a line of cold white Sword Intent hidden in the night.

"Then don't force the suppression."

He said.

"Invite someone who can suppress it."