"You know the Record of Strange Spirits, right? This is the seventh-ranked Spirit Plant in it, Ink Bamboo. Its shoots are edible, and once fully grown, its body is pure black and incredibly hard. Even unforged, it's as hard as a spiritual artifact. The conditions it needs to grow are unknown, though.
"I happened to obtain this Ink Bamboo a few years ago. Originally, there were three shoots. Of the other two, I ate one and planted one, but the one I planted didn't survive. I've kept this last one until now. You have a Wood Spiritual Root, so perhaps you could try forming a contract with this Spirit Plant directly."
Xue Fuyao looked at what Zhao Sheng had taken out and nodded after a moment's consideration. "After considering it for a moment, Xue Fuyao nodded and said, 'All right,' then took some flesh out of the Storage Bag holding it and handed it to Zhao Sheng. She took the Ink Bamboo and its box from him, planning to find a time to form a contract with it."
Just as Zhao Sheng had said, Ink Bamboo was a Spirit Plant that was almost impossible to cultivate artificially. Each one preferred a different environment and absolutely refused to settle for anything less, yet they could not speak, so whether one could keep them alive came down entirely to luck.
The reason it was only almost impossible to cultivate artificially was that, over all these years, there were always one or two lucky people who, like blind cats stumbling upon dead mice, managed to keep Ink Bamboo alive by accident.
Still, with the Jade Glass of the Azure Moon, along with her Spiritual Root and constitution, keeping Ink Bamboo alive probably would not be difficult.
Soon, the scores of all the disciples