Spiritual Beasts (Seeking Support!)

"Hmm... judging from the footprints, it's an animal—neither too large nor too small, similar to a hunting dog..."

Fang Yuan crouched on the ground, observing the crystal-clear claw marks left in the soil, analyzing carefully: "Not deep into the earth, so it shouldn't be a large beast. A wolf? A fox? Or maybe a yellow weasel or a badger?"

"What a clever beast, to destroy all my arrangements completely..."

Having grown up deep in the mountains, Fang Yuan's trapping skills were beyond question; he often caught mountain chickens and wild hares as extra meals.

And the traps he set could even trip up wild wolves and boars.

But now, they were all destroyed, and so brazenly at that—it almost felt like a provocation.

"Master once said that deep mountains and great marshes breed dragons and serpents. Even ordinary beasts, if they live long enough or encounter a stroke of luck, will gradually awaken their intelligence. Could it be that this time, that's what's come?"

This 'thief's' methods gave Fang Yuan a strong sense of 'intelligence,' as if he weren't facing a wild animal but a living person. His expression turned grave.

"Hmm... the losses aren't too bad..."

He looked around, then suddenly jumped up and rushed frantically toward the tea grove: "No good... my spirit plants!!!"

Since the thief wasn't an ordinary beast, ordinary things probably wouldn't attract it. The only possibility was the Heart-Questioning Tea Tree and those Crimson Jade Rice Seeds!

Once he figured this out, Fang Yuan felt as if his tail were on fire—he couldn't sit still any longer.

Moments later, a roar of frustration echoed through the hidden valley: "Damn it... don't let me catch you..."

Fang Yuan stood before the Heart-Questioning Tea Tree, looking thoroughly dejected.

Before him, the once verdant Heart-Questioning Tea Tree now had several branches missing, with gnaw marks visible at the broken ends.

The entire tree looked wilted and weak. Fortunately, the roots hadn't been damaged, or else this sole mutated spirit plant would have been lost to Fang Yuan forever.

"What's this?"

After closer inspection, Fang Yuan found more things around the Heart-Questioning Tea Tree.

He touched the wounds on the tea branches with his right hand, and a layer of fine, translucent crystalline grains fell onto his fingertips. Not only were they around the breaks, but there was also a layer at the base of the tree.

"I definitely didn't put this here. Could it have been brought by that thief?"

Fang Yuan brought the semi-transparent grains to his nose, and a light fragrance mixed with a fishy, gamey odor reached him.

"Fertilizer?!"

Looking at the wilted tea tree, he made a guess, feeling both amused and exasperated.

This Spiritual Plant Thief had actually treated the Heart-Questioning Tea Tree as its own property, even tending to it after eating and drinking its fill. It seemed it had marked this place as a long-term meal ticket.

"But it's definitely not here now. Otherwise, seeing me show up, it would have come running in a panic..."

Fang Yuan shook his head and quickly walked to the edge of the Crimson Jade Rice Field.

There, the rice seedlings were completely unharmed, even having grown a little taller. But the surrounding vegetation had all withered and yellowed, clearly dead.

"It didn't even spare a glance for the Crimson Jade Rice seedlings. This guy has pretty high standards..."

Seeing that the entire plant garden was intact, and the creature seemed fixated only on ravaging the Heart-Questioning Tea Tree, Fang Yuan was speechless: "I'll set new traps right away. From now on, I'll guard this place day and night and see which beast it is!"

By now, his anger had faded, replaced by a sense of curiosity. He couldn't wait to meet the thing that had stolen from his tea tree.

After tallying the losses, he still had to carry on with what needed to be done.

Fang Yuan first processed the Realgar Powder, mixing it with other materials from the valley in a specific ratio, then stored it in the cellar for three days. This yielded a large batch of 'Fire-Returning Liquid.'

This formula was also passed down by the Heart-Questioning Hermit, and it worked well as a fertilizer for many fire-aligned plants.

And even though the Crimson Jade Rice was a spirit plant, under Fang Yuan's diligent watering three times a day without rest, it grew quite robustly. With sufficient nutrition, it no longer needed to drain the surrounding land's strength, which greatly relieved Fang Yuan.

But the mysterious thief never showed up again, while Fang Yuan, staying up night after night, began to feel he couldn't hold out much longer.

Deep Night.

Moonlight like water.

Fang Yuan set his traps as usual and hid to the side, silently observing.

In the tea grove, all was silent, save for the distant chirping of insects echoing through the hidden valley.

"Could it be that it saw someone and doesn't dare to come?"

After keeping watch for half the night, Fang Yuan's eyes grew drowsy, and he felt disappointed: "I'll guard one more night. If there's still no result, I'll transplant the Heart-Questioning Tea Tree... though it's a shame about those crystals..."

Over the past few days, through observation, Fang Yuan had become more certain of his deduction. Those crystals were indeed very beneficial to spirit plants.

Not only had the Heart-Questioning Tea Tree improved—its branches had healed—but he had also deliberately collected a bit and sprinkled it on a few Crimson Jade Rice seedlings. Those seedlings had grown noticeably better than the others.

This mysterious fertilizer, useful for spirit plants, immediately piqued Fang Yuan's interest. He even thought that if he could find where the fertilizer came from this time, it might count as making up for the damage, and he'd let the beast off with just a lesson.

"Yawn..."

By the latter half of the night, Fang Yuan's upper eyelids felt unbearably heavy, like a thousand-pound gate ready to fall at any moment.

"Forget it... looks like it's not coming tonight. I still have to get up tomorrow to loosen the soil in the Crimson Jade Rice Field... Huh?"

Just as Fang Yuan was about to stand up, in an instant, the corner of his eye caught a white shadow under the moonlight.

"It's here!"

Fang Yuan instantly perked up, his entire body tensing, blood rushing hot as his drowsiness was swept clean away.

The white shadow sprinted with incredible speed, arriving outside the plantation in an instant. It spotted the animal trap Fang Yuan had reset, a look of disdain flickering in its clever eyes as it nimbly circumvented it, occasionally using its claws to grab a branch and trigger the trap with a flick, only to come up empty.

"Damn! What a huge, smart white sable!"

Fang Yuan couldn't help but marvel inwardly.

That was right.

What appeared before his eyes was unmistakably a massive white sable, with big eyes, long whiskers, astonishingly dexterous claws, ears twitching now and then as if listening to its surroundings, and a coat of white fur gleaming under the moonlight.

An ordinary sable was only about the size of a cat, but this one here was a full meter long, practically a small leopard.

"Holy cow! A white sable this big..."

Watching the sable swagger into the tea grove without a care, Fang Yuan glanced at the gear on his body, his confidence wavering: "Maybe... I'll just let it get away with it one more time, and I'll call some people to come back another day!"

After all, he wasn't a professional hunter. Though he'd prepared quite a bit, facing this unnaturally eerie white sable, he still felt uncertain.

"Giggle!"

But the moment the white sable entered the tea grove, its jet-black, gleaming eyes locked directly onto Fang Yuan's hiding spot, spotting him at once!

"How bold! You beast!"

Fang Yuan had no choice but to leap out: "Ruining my tea tree once is bad enough, but coming back a second time? Do you take me for a dead man?"

As he jumped out, he blew on the fire striker in his hand and lit a torch.

Under the blazing flames, the white sable's expression twisted into a human-like sneer. It didn't run at all, staring back at Fang Yuan.

'Damn it, aren't wild animals supposed to be afraid of fire and strangers? Why isn't this one following the rules!'

Fang Yuan groaned inwardly.

But when he saw the white sable completely ignoring him and casually moving to gnaw on the Heart-Questioning Tea Tree, he couldn't hold back any longer: "How dare you!"

He swung the torch in one hand and a machete in the other, striding forward: "Don't touch my stuff!"

"Hiss!"

The next instant, he saw the white sable whirl around, fur bristling, letting out a hissing sound. Knowing trouble was coming, Fang Yuan instinctively raised the machete to block.

Whoosh!

A white blur flashed by. Fang Yuan felt a tremendous force on his hand, stumbling back several steps as his grip loosened, sending both the machete and torch clattering to the ground: "This beast is so fast, and its strength is enormous too!"

"Giggle!"

Seeing Fang Yuan so easily defeated, the white sable rolled its eye orbs, clutching its belly with its paws, and burst into a very human-like belly laugh.

It was a spirit-touched creature. It waved a small paw at Fang Yuan, then pointed at the Heart-Questioning Tea Tree, as if to say: 'This spiritual plant is mine from now on!'

"Damn... if Uncle can take it, even Auntie can't!"

Being mocked by a beast was too much even for Fang Yuan. He rolled over and rose up: "Take this!"

With a wave of his hand, several small paper packets flew out.

Bang! Bang!

A few puffs of smoke exploded midair, carrying a sharp, pungent smell.

Then, with a resolute expression, Fang Yuan turned and ran without hesitation!

That was right—since the fight had gone badly, it was only natural to seize the chance to retreat and settle the score with the white sable later. After all, a gentleman takes his revenge even ten years later!

"Hiss..."

But from within the smoke, a sharp screech from the white sable suddenly made Fang Yuan stop.

He turned around and saw the sable circling away from the smoke clouds, looking extremely wary.

"Oh?"

A trace of delight immediately spread across Fang Yuan's face.

In truth, those smoke bombs were just preparations for his escape, filled with ordinary stuff.

"If the Beast-Repelling Powder, which I had the most of, actually worked, could this beast have even gotten in? It doesn't seem to be the pepper's fault either... So that leaves... realgar! Haha... just you wait!"

Fang Yuan's eyes lit up. He dashed back to the front valley and soon returned with a large number of powder packets: "So you're afraid of realgar? Wahahaha... Watch this! Take that!"

Bang! Bang!

As he raised his right hand, clouds of realgar powder formed a haze, blanketing the area.

Though the white sable lunged as if to attack, hissing loudly, it truly seemed terrified of the realgar and dared not enter.

Once the mist cleared, it fled without a trace.