The Invincible Supreme Medical God-Chapter 1045 - 560: First Place_2
"The seeds of these two flowers can be catalyzed with spiritual energy. The level of your plant and vegetation skills will determine how many spiritual flowers bloom. This is how we decide the winner of the first round." Li Qinghou waved his hand, sending two seeds to Yan Xiaobao and Du Lingfei.
Du Lingfei unhesitatingly grabbed the seeds. At the same time, Li Qinghou sent a pill flying her way, which she also caught, a hint of shock on her face.
"Take this pill to restore your cultivation base," Li Qinghou said calmly. Du Lingfei's face lit up. After expressing her gratitude, she consumed the pill. After a few breaths, she shuddered, and her eyes began to shine bright; her cultivation base was fully restored.
Yan Xiaobao was not too pleased about this but did not dare to say anything. Instead, he lowered his head to look at the elf seed lying in his palm, beginning to study it closely.
"Can't admit it?" Du Lingfei mocked. "Well, I can tell you, this is a Blue Elf Thistle Seed." With that, she completely ignored Yan Xiaobao, closed her eyes, and channeled her spiritual energy, then poured it into the seed in her hand.
Almost immediately, an emerald green sprout emerged from the seed. It quickly grew until it was about a third of a meter tall. Then, with a blue bloom, it began to grow taller.
Yan Xiaobao watched what happened, then turned his attention back to his seed, continuing to study it intently.
Li Qinghou had been watching Yan Xiaobao, and soon, a barely perceptible surprise could be seen in his eyes.
While Yan Xiaobao stood there thinking, all the surrounding Outer Sect disciples were watching Du Lingfei. The plant in her hand was now two-thirds of a meter high and had produced a second flower.
When Yan Xiaobao transmitted some spiritual energy into his seed, Du Lingfei's spiritual plant had already sprouted three flowers. Yan Xiaobao didn't maintain a steady flow of spiritual energy but instead sent it into the seed. In fact, when the seed sprouted, he even blew away the first few sprouts with a breath.
After enough time to burn an incense stick, Du Lingfei's face turned pale, her teeth gritted. With her last bit of energy, she coaxed the sixth blue flower to bloom, after which she took a breath. Setting the plant by her side, she tightly clasped her hands and bowed to Li Qinghou in salute.
Li Qinghou nodded. "Six flowers, all of excellent quality. Nice work."
Du Lingfei was quite satisfied with herself, glancing at Yan Xiaobao. When she saw his spiritual plant was less than a third of a meter tall, her sneer deepened.
The surrounding Outer Sect disciples were very excited.
"Sister Du absolutely deserves her reputation. The Blue Elf Thistle bloomed six flowers. It's unbelievable! Yan Xiaobao didn't even produce one flower. He's completely at a disadvantage."
"The plant catalysis competition first involves studying the seed, then using unique catalytic methods to make it grow. In this regard, Sister Du is really ahead."
In the midst of all the chatter, Yan Xiaobao's spiritual plant gradually reached a third of a meter in height. Next, a slightly wilted blue flower appeared. Compared to Du Lingfei's flowers, it looked malnourished, even eliciting some laughter from the crowd. But suddenly, a second blue flower appeared on the short stalk. Then came the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh...
In the span of just a few breaths, Yan Xiaobao's spiritual plant bloomed with nine flowers!
This instantly sparked widespread shock and disbelief.
Du Lingfei stared in utter disbelief. "Bluespirit Thistle blooms one flower every three minutes. How can this short plant have nine flowers!"
However, the matter wasn't over. Even with nine small blue flowers appearing, Yan Xiaobao shut his eyes, took a deep breath, then suddenly exhaled loudly. That breath contained spiritual energy, landing on the nine flowers, which instantly began to tremble and change color. They were no longer blue but indigo!
Indigo starts as blue, but its hue is deeper![1]
Once people realized what had happened, their eyes widened in astonishment.
"That's... That's not Blue Elf Thistle!!"
"Indigospirit Thistle! It's Indigospirit Thistle, whose seeds are hard to distinguish from Blue Elf Thistle seeds! In fact, if you use catalytic methods on Indigospirit Thistle with Blue Elf Thistle methods, you'll actually produce an indistinguishable Blue Elf Thistle, unless you waste the seed!
Everyone was stunned, incredulous as they started at Yan Xiaobao.
Yan Xiaobao opened his eyes, then set the Thistle aside. Smirking, he clasped his hands behind his back, looking at Du Lingfei.
His plant and vegetation skills had reached an indescribable level. After studying the seed for a while, he noticed the differences, easily identifying what type of seed it was.
Du Lingfei's face flushed; it felt to her as if someone had just slapped her. She stepped back several paces, first looking at her despondent Bluespirit Thistle and then at Yan Xiaobao's Indigospirit Thistle. Suddenly, her face reddened with heat. Earlier, due to lack of understanding, she had accused Yan Xiaobao, but shortly after, he clearly proved she wasted the seed.
"That Yan Xiaobao certainly was very lucky," she thought, grinding her teeth. "I thought it was a Blue Elf Thistle, and he guessed it was an Indigospirit Thistle. Well, it's just a stroke of luck for him, not that he truly identified the seed!"
"Yan Xiaobao wins the first round," Li Qinghou calmly said. "This was indeed an Indigospirit seed, not a Blue Elf Thistle. They look alike, but some of the veins grow differently. If you don't research deeply into the nuances, it's easy to be confused by them." Looking at Yan Xiaobao, he waved his hand again, causing a spiritual plant to appear.
It was very unique, with four colors and nine differently shaped leaves. It also had two flowers, one black, one white. The flowers seemed almost to have feelings as they frequently struggled against each other, as if trying to overpower one another. Though this plant resembled a single one, if you observed carefully, you'd see signs of grafting into it.
"The first round focused on catalysis. As for the second round, it will focus on identification. This special spiritual plant has been grafted from numerous other plants. Whichever person can correctly discern the most grafted materials... will be the winner."
Li Qinghou sent the grafted plant floating in front of him, then looked at Yan Xiaobao. Considering he brought Yan Xiaobao into the sect, he was quite curious to see what surprising things he could accomplish.
Du Lingfei clenched her teeth. In her view, she had been careless just now. Now, she was more focused than ever before. Taking out a jade, she approached the spiritual plant.
Yan Xiaobao's eyes shimmered as he also stood up, starting to examine the plant, occasionally using the jade method. After a while, Du Lingfei stepped back, rubbing her bridge of the nose. Then she looked at Yan Xiaobao with a serious expression on her face. She had identified eight plants. The others were unfamiliar types to her.
However, Yan Xiaobao was not yet finished. As he buzzed around the plant in circles, the light from his eyes grew brighter. Occasionally, he even shouted in surprise as if he'd just noticed something very interesting.
"Wow, can you pull this off!?
"Well... this is intriguing!"
The crowd watched silently. None believed Yan Xiaobao could identify any of the plants; indeed, most believed his catalysis of the Indigospirit Thistle was just luck.
"Faker!" Du Lingfei thought. "Yes, just keep pretending!" Deep down, she started feeling uneasy, her hatred for Yan Xiaobao only continuing to grow.
Incense had burned for a sufficient amount of time, yet Yan Xiaobao continued. He was truly immersed in what he was doing, even forgetting he was in a contest. Seeing such a grafted plant seemed to open a doorway in his mind about plant and vegetation skills. All of a sudden, he realized the thousands of medicinal plants he was familiar with not only served their own purposes but could actually be mixed together.
Ultimately, he reluctantly stepped back, eyes glowing with fascination and admiration.
...
