“Yes. Live plants are always worth more,” the attendant said. “Well. Almost always. Properly dried Spotted Ear Moon fungus sells for three times the fresh ones. And Green Cow Eared blossoms are only taken dried. Too poisonous to transfer otherwise. And… well, you can study the rest.”
Wu Ying flashed the attendant a grateful smile as he finished putting away the coin. He would have to split the profits with Tou He when he arrived, but this amount would be a decent amount of savings for additional equipment. Right now, outside of his sword, Wu Ying lacked any real equipment. Admittedly, that was due to his rising standards—he no longer wanted mortal equipment but cultivator equipment. Equipment that would either aid his cultivation or, at the least, last him while he was in the Energy Storage stage.
Almost whistling as he left, Wu Ying skipped out of the building, his earlier exhaustion held at bay by the unexpected bounty. Rather than waiting for his exhaustion to catch him, Wu Ying headed directly for his residence.
“Long Wu Ying.”
Wu Ying adjusted his robes, wincing as he bowed and greeted his unexpected visitor. The Elder had just turned up, without an invitation or calling card, later the day Wu Ying had returned. The sole thing keeping Wu Ying awake was the rush of adrenaline that had shot through his body when Ah Yee mentioned an Elder had come visiting.
“Elder.” Wu Ying desperately wished he could remember her name, but the older woman with the cane had only introduced herself once. And his sleep-addled brain refused to function.
The old woman’s eyes crinkled, perhaps realizing that Wu Ying could not recall her name. Ah Yee stepped forward, refilling the Elder’s tea and turning her head so that she could meet Wu Ying’s eyes. As she did so, she mouthed the Elder’s name.
Memory triggered, Wu Ying quickly added. “Elder Li. May I know what brings you to visit me?”
Shooting a suspicious glance at Ah Yee, the Elder leaned back in the hard-backed visiting chair. “I was informed you brought back four sets of Night Blossoms. Still alive.”
“Yes, Elder.”
“Poorly taken care of. But still alive,” Elder Li said, tapping her cane. “Did you know you could have sold the location information instead?”
“I did not know that,” Wu Ying said. “I’m sorry, Elder. I will stop bringing back the plants.”
“Did I tell you to stop?” Elder Li said waspishly, smacking the top of Wu Ying’s bent head with her cane. He winced but did not move to rub his head. “You brought back four Night Blossoms alive. That’s better than some of my recent recruits.”
“Thank you, Elder.”
“They were in poor condition, mind you. Take us at least a month to care for them. Where did you learn to care for plants?”
“I was a rice farmer before, Elder. I also helped my mother with the family vegetable garden.”
“A farmer with a small gift, it seems,” Elder Li said, tapping her cane on the ground. She stared at Wu Ying before she pushed herself to her feet with the help of the cane. “Very well. Make your way to my residence tomorrow.”
“Elder?”
Rather than answer, Elder Li walked out of the house, swinging her cane in what Wu Ying could almost describe as a jaunty manner. When he turned to Ah Yee, who had begun to pack up the tea and snacks laid out for the Elder, Wu Ying only received a shrug.
“Would it hurt them to actually answer questions sometimes?” Wu Ying said with a sigh. At least he was not expected in class tomorrow.
To Wu Ying’s surprise, Elder Li’s residence was not above the inner sect members’ residences but situated among them. The residence itself was quite small, at least a quarter of the size of Elder Hsu’s and Elder Cheng’s residences. What it had that the other Elders did not was an extremely large greenhouse next to it, along with garden plots situated around the residence. The total grounds of the residence itself, when these garden plots and the greenhouse were taken into account, was at least thrice the size of the other Elders’.
At a glance, Wu Ying could tell many of the plants in the garden were not usual vegetation. The gardens consisted of spiritual herbs and uncommon variants of rarer plants. Even in the chill of the early winter morning, sect members moved among the garden, working on the plants with the aid of lanterns.
Wu Ying hesitated before approaching the actual residence, knocking on the door and being shown in by the servant. A short while later, Elder Li clumped out to greet Wu Ying. This time around, Wu Ying noticed the dirt under her fingernails and the mud stuck to the edges of her cloth shoes. This was an Elder who worked the dirt─who got her hands dirty.
“Elder Li,” Wu Ying greeted the Elder, straightening from his bow.
“You’re early.”
“Elder requested I come in the morning,” Wu Ying said. “I assumed the Elder meant a farmer’s morning.”
A wide grin broke across the Elder’s face. Her cane flicked up from the ground and swiftly approached Wu Ying’s face. The cane came to an abrupt halt before dipping to tap him on the shoulder. “Smart boy. Just be careful. Those who are too smart can get hurt. Come.”
Wu Ying rushed to follow the stooped woman, and together, they made their way from the visiting room he had been deposited in past the inner courtyard to the back of the residence. Wu Ying found it amusing to see that throughout the house, numerous pots of plants resided, scattered about as if they had been tossed there. But working on instinct, Wu Ying studied the plants and their locations before he sensed there was a method to their placement. What it was, he could not ascertain, but he grew increasingly certain the haphazard placements were not as random as they seemed at first sight.
“Seen enough?” Elder Li’s scornful voice broke Wu Ying’s concentration. He flushed, opening his mouth to apologize, before Elder Li cut in. “What did you learn?”
“Not much, Elder. I know the placement is not random, but I cannot understand the reasoning,” Wu Ying admitted.
When he finished speaking, he received a smack on his leg from the cane, one that stung as badly as a full-blown kick from Senior Ge. “Of course not. You’re barely an inner sect member. Stop paying attention to things outside of your experience and focus on what is important.”
Elder Li proceeded to exit the building through its back door. Outside, the pair were able to see the full extent of the Elder’s gardens and the greenhouse resting next to it.
“You start work here today. Ru Ping will show you to your workspace and teach you what you need to know.”
“Elder, I do not—”
“A properly cared for Night Blossom in excellent health would garner around a thousand contribution points.”
Wu Ying’s snapped his mouth shut.
“Of course, from the state of the Night Blossoms you brought in, they probably were never more than average to begin with. Worth three hundred contribution points or so,” Elder Li continued. “Still. A fortune to an inner sect member like you, no?”
Wu Ying nodded dumbly.
“You should also consider the fact that I have already informed Elder Hsu you have chosen to work with me. He was quite unhappy when I told him so. He said, and I quote, ‘He was just getting decent.’ I understand your latest bonus will not be coming,” Elder Li continued.
Wu Ying winced, anger sparking at the woman’s high-handed tactics.
“I’ve also informed the assignment hall to refuse to allow you any further assignments until I say so. Elder Pang was quite happy to accede to my request.”
Wu Ying had angered Elder Pang by defeating his sponsored choice, Yin Xue, last year. For a moment, Wu Ying wondered how the man was doing as an outer sect member before he discarded the erroneous thought. He had his own troubles here. “Why, Elder Li?”