Chapter 65: Visitors From Afar
Sitting at Winnie’s for a whole day, in the evening, Xilutiya and Talil returned satisfied.
This time, not only did they bring thanks to Sister Winnie, but they also learned quite a bit about the preliminary screening assessment news for the Secluded Forest.
It seems to be held every two years, and four years have passed since Winnie’s time. The previous time Scholar Heide retired and did not host, the one who obtained the spot was a commoner from Jiaoshi City. His father was a Merchant Guild employee, and the family was relatively well-off, supporting his studies. Moreover, he himself had considerable talent, showing special talent in the ‘Death Ash’ nature.
At just seventeen years old, he had mastered two abilities of the ‘Death Ash’ nature and successfully killed the second-stage target in the assessment by relying on the ‘Corpse Decay Poison’ he made himself, obtaining the qualification.
As for Winnie’s batch, the two who finally killed the target were one a skilled hunter who greatly weakened the target’s stamina with a specially made trap before completing the kill, and the other a warrior wielding a Great Axe who defeated the target in direct combat.
Although that young warrior was also severely injured after killing the target, because of his brave performance, he was favored by Viscount Xue Feng and Scholar Heide, and obtained the spot.
In these past few days, Xilutiya finally fused the Dew Prayer Method and Branch Combing Method she had learned before, completing the transformation to the 【Gardener Apprentice】 class.
Afterward, her Fate Card changed from 【Girl in the Sea of Flowers】 to 【Girl Gardener Apprentice】, and on the basis of 【Discernment Eye】 and 【Natural Perception】, it added another 【Dew Prayer·Branch Combing Lv.2】. Its effect was the fusion of the previous Dew Prayer Method and Branch Combing Method, thus freeing up two more slots in her ability panel.
This method of converting a Fate Card to a specific class can absorb and fuse multiple abilities, leaving empty slots for the individual to continue growing and learning. It is an important indicator of whether a Transcendent is powerful.
Organizations with deep inheritance often possess condensation secret arts for many high-order professions, which is why their members are stronger than ordinary Transcendents.
With empty slots in her ability panel, Xilutiya could start learning new abilities.
Returning to Madam Fran’s mansion, Xilutiya took out the transcribed ‘Flower Blooming Technique’ and read it over again. The learning difficulty of this ability was clearly a level higher. Even for her, after spending a week, she still couldn’t fully master it.
She still needed more practice, the maiden thought to herself with a complain, then went to the pot of ‘Swan Orchid’, lightly placed her hand on the Swan Orchid, closed her eyes to sense it, and synchronized her ‘Emerald Honey’ nature with this Swan Orchid, drawing out the ‘Emerald Honey’ power contained within the Swan Orchid.
This subtle feeling was like searching for a fragile thin thread in the darkness, requiring extreme patience to capture, and it was traceless, with no other methods to assist.
Sometimes it was just like trying one’s luck, Xilutiya thought.
This time, she finally found that thin thread, gradually synchronizing her rhythm with it, then aligning with the Swan Orchid below her hand along this faint perception. A wonderful perception synchronization unfolded, as if she were that Swan Orchid, sensing a completely different world through the plant’s way.
This wonderful realization immersed Xilutiya, making her unaware of the passage of time.
When she came back to her senses again, the sky outside had already turned completely dark.
How long has it been? It’s already eight in the evening, Xilutiya was surprised by the rapid passage of time, then came back to herself. Just now, she seemed to have fully executed the Flower Blooming Technique without the previous mid-process disconnection or loss of perception.
【Flower Blooming Technique Lv.1】（Emerald Honey）: Magic to make flowers bloom, which can stimulate the weak effects inherent in the flowers themselves and spread them to the surrounding environment. （Completion 4/300）
Phew, finally learned it. It’s been a week already. I wonder if I’ve gotten dumber or if there’s a problem with the learning method, the maiden thought to herself.
Having preliminarily learned this ability, Xilutiya was somewhat happy, stood up, and wanted to tell Madam Fran, but unfortunately, Madam Fran had gone out again yesterday, and she didn’t know when she would return.
Forget it, better continue learning. Also, she needed to check how the ‘Fire Cloud Orchid’ nurturing was going.
Coming to her small garden, it now had transparent Glass lattices installed, making the entire space like an exquisite Glass greenhouse where Xilutiya’s flowers and grass were placed.
At night, Xilutiya held a Candle and came here, placed the Candle on a tray stand nearby, then eagerly went to the row of Fire Cloud Orchids.
Compared to the native Swan Orchid, the Fire Cloud Orchid is a new species artificially bred by gardeners, with higher environmental requirements. If not nurtured properly, it dies easily and can hardly survive in the wild.
【Fire Cloud Orchid】（Excellent-63）: A variant of the Swan Orchid, with flowers colorful like red cloud flames. Requires good lighting, ventilation, dislikes humidity and low temperature, afraid of direct sunlight and dryness.
It dislikes both humid low temperatures and direct sunlight and dryness, so taking care of these guys is more than one level harder than Swan Orchid.
Their growth environment requires a mix of special red-reflecting iron stone and fir bark. Normally, they can’t be watered too much, but can’t be left dry either.
Holding a small Watering Can, Xilutiya pressed the spout, spraying bursts of mist to give these Fire Cloud Orchids some water, then brought her hand close to the Flower Stems to sense their current growth situation.
It would probably take a bit more time to raise the quality from Excellent （60+） to Excellent （70+）.
As for the ‘White Camellia’ nearby, it was much less troublesome. The small sapling was growing slowly, currently in the stage of flourishing Branches and Leaves. Its nurturing time was longer than ‘Fire Cloud Orchid’, but the advantage was it didn’t require much worry, with lower difficulty.
After tending to them, Xilutiya’s gaze turned to the ‘Bubble Grass’ nearby. This flowers and grass was growing well, but according to Madam Fran’s view, with Xilutiya’s current strength, she probably couldn’t make them bloom. She would have to wait until the maiden entered ‘Second Order·Emerald Honey’ to truly cultivate them.
‘Bubble Grass’ is an important raw material for ‘Floating Potion’. This type of potion is not cheap; not only can it be used to prevent falls from high altitudes, but also for practicing certain ‘Dome Sky’ nature abilities, and is expensive.
Picking up a Booklet in the Garden greenhouse, Xilutiya recorded today’s watering amount and situation, then closed the door and left.
In the evening, she looked at the ‘Swan Orchid’ in the Glass Cover by the bedside, said ‘good night’, and entered dreamland.
Late at night, the frequency of her breathing in the dream gradually synchronized with the Swan Orchid by the bed, as if practicing the ‘Flower Blooming Technique’ even in the dream, making her rhythm closer and closer to that Swan Orchid.
……
The next day, Xilutiya, as usual, watered the flowers in the early morning, patrolled the Flower Field once, and handled some necessary minor situations.
But today seemed different from usual; someone was ringing the Bell at the Main Gate in the Front Yard.
Without needing Lining’s call, she skillfully returned to the Bedroom, changed into a bright yellow Dress, groomed herself in front of the mirror, then slowly walked down the stairs.
Today’s guest was a middle-aged man who looked over thirty. He wore a black Formal Dress, had capable demeanor, and a handsome mustache under his nose.
Guided by Lining, he came to the Living Room of the mansion and waited patiently. When he heard the sound of Xilutiya coming downstairs, the man immediately stood up and bowed deeply to this beautiful and delicate maiden from afar.
“Very pleased to meet you, Miss Anluo’er.” It seems he had done his homework in advance and knew Xilutiya’s current title in Jiaoshi City.
“Hello.” The maiden came to the Living Room, simply lifted her skirt in return salute, then sat down.
Lining silently served Tea Water to the two, then stood quietly behind Xilutiya.
“I come from the distant Fengqiao City, which is in the north of Regas Kingdom.” He first introduced himself.
“Due to proximity to the Border battlefield, Fengqiao City needs a large amount of medical potions, and I am the local Merchant Guild representative, specially coming here to request your assistance.”
“Medical potions…” Xilutiya pondered.
Among the many Transcendent natures in this World, those with healing effects are not many, mainly Blazing Sun, Brilliant Moon, Emerald Honey, Blood Law, with Dragon Eye, Snail Fish, Sleeping Winter as auxiliaries.
The effective ranges of each nature differ: Blazing Sun and Blood Law suit severe external injuries; Brilliant Moon and Emerald Honey suit diseases and internal injuries conditioning; as for Snail Fish and Sleeping Winter, their healing methods are some roundabout ways, like freezing severed wounds or petrifying them—wouldn’t that stop the bleeding?
Since it’s a battlefield, external injuries must be predominant, which means urgently needing raw materials for ‘Blazing Sun’ and ‘Blood Law’. Although Sunflower itself has no healing effect, its ‘Blazing Sun’ nature can excellently stimulate the effects of certain drugs, replenishing the vitality of the wounded.
