Chapter 218: Collecting More Spirit Soil
After Illya and Jocelyn joined forces to revive several nearly dead mulberry trees, the wariness of the Mulberry Maiden vanished entirely.
They chattered noisily around Jocelyn and Illya.
Chu Feng stood to the side, rolling his eyes in exasperation. The Mulberry Maiden’s hair was so long it nearly trailed on the ground.
These people could spin silk into webs, weaving their own homes out of it. When Chu Feng first came, he thought he’d see many beautiful women — but after arriving, he realized there weren’t beauties here, only something closer to female ghosts. Their legs were very flexible, able to coil around tree trunks like snakes. Their hair, besides being very long, was tangled with silk threads and somewhat matted, probably from not washing much.
Chu Feng thought they didn’t need makeup at all — they could go straight into a horror movie. He really couldn’t understand why nobles centuries ago hunted Mulberry Maiden so fervently. In his opinion, they weren’t just not beautiful, they were a little scary.
The human nobles here must have some heavy tastes — or maybe they just liked the novelty.
“Rumor has it the Mulberry Maiden are very beautiful!” Lan Hu had even said things like skin like ice and jade, tender as water. What nonsense.
Manning thought for a moment and said, “Maybe it’s because they’re not wearing makeup. Wash them up and put on some makeup, they might look good.”
Chu Feng nodded. “Possible.”
Illya finally managed to break free from the group of Mulberry Maiden surrounding him.
“You okay?” Chu Feng asked.
Illya shook his head. “I’m fine. They’re just… too enthusiastic.”
Chu Feng: “…”
He’d thought the people in Crescent Village were cold, and maybe the Mulberry Maiden would be even colder. But now it seemed… not exactly.
“I’m fine, but Jocelyn’s even more popular.” Illya glanced over at Jocelyn, his tone tinged with sympathy.
Chu Feng looked at Jocelyn, who was surrounded by Mulberry Maiden, and suddenly felt that not being popular wasn’t so bad after all.
The scene Jocelyn was in reminded him of a celebrity being mobbed by obsessive fans.
Several Mulberry Maiden were pulling Jocelyn this way and that, as if kneading dough. Chu Feng shook his head, giving him a small measure of sympathy…
“Have you finished negotiating?” Chu Feng asked Illya. “We can give them food, gold coins… anything, as long as they raise enough green silkworms to produce enough green silk.”
Illya nodded. “It’s almost settled. As long as we help them grow enough emerald mulberry trees, they’re willing to give us all the green silk they produce.”
Chu Feng nodded. “Good.”
Illya hesitated. “Abilities can speed up the growth of mulberry trees, but if the later growth can’t keep up, that’s still a problem. Jocelyn thinks that if we had spirit soil, the trees would grow better.”
Chu Feng nodded. “No problem. Spirit soil’s just a matter of effort — we can probably get a few cartloads.”
“Do you want to go over and talk to them yourself?” Illya asked.
Chu Feng quickly waved her off. “No, no.”
Illya tilted his head. “Weren’t you curious about the Mulberry Maiden? You kept bringing it up on the way here.”
Chu Feng blinked. “I suddenly think there’s a saying that’s quite true.”
“What saying?”
Chu Feng smiled. “Distance makes beauty.”
Illya: “…”
Chu Feng tilted his head. “Do you think I should send them a few crates of shampoo?”
Illya: “…”
Once the terms were agreed upon, Chu Feng took his people and left.
“Village chief, those outsiders took all the silk,” Sang Ming said regretfully.
“That was my oversight,” Sang Tian sighed.
Those hundreds of bolts of silk had been meant to trade with caravans for gold and grain — now they were gone in one sweep.
At the time, he had only wanted to test Illya’s abilities, not realizing he would be so powerful.
“Although losing so much silk is a pity, they did help relieve the Mulberry Maiden’s crisis. Losing some silk isn’t a big deal,” an elder said.
Sang Jin lowered his head, embarrassed. “It’s my fault. If I had stopped sooner…”
At the time, that surge of energy had been rampaging through his body, completely uncontrollable.
Sang Tian shook his head. “It’s not your fault — it’s just the difference in power.”
Sang Ming frowned. “That Chu Feng’s ability is really impressive.”
Sang Tian nodded. “Very impressive.”
At first, Sang Tian hadn’t realized it. He thought Jocelyn and the others were companions on equal footing, but after more interaction, he could see that Chu Feng was the leader, with Jocelyn as his subordinate. It was strange to see a pure-blood elf taking orders from a human — but it also proved Chu Feng’s strength.
Sang Jin hesitated, then took out the witch stone.
“Why don’t we sell this witch stone? That way we could make up for the silk we lost,” Sang Jin suggested.
Sang Tian shook his head. “Since they gave you the witch stone, you should use it. If your power improves, you’ll be able to dye more cloth in the future. This thing is dangerous to keep — if word gets out that Rainbow Village has a lot of witch stones, we could be destroyed.”
Sang Jin felt relieved at his words.
The Witch Stone had a huge allure for him — if he really sold it, he’d be reluctant to part with it.
“Village Chief, that Jocelyn seems pretty amazing! While the Elves often produce plant-type ability-users, ones this powerful must be rare, right?” Sang Ming said.
Sang Tian shook his head. “I’m not sure either.”
Hundreds of years ago, the Sang Maiden Tribe actually had good relations with the Elves, but once they each withdrew into their forests, contact was cut off. Rainbow Village did keep some records of Elven deeds, but the details were vague. And such accounts tended to be exaggerated.
Lately, the Sang Maidens’ situation had been rather dire, so Jocelyn’s arrival was like timely rain.
If the production of green silks really increased, losing a bit of silk cloth was no big deal — after all, green silk was of much higher quality.
“They shouldn’t have any ill intent, right?” Sang Shui asked.
Sang Tian shook his head. “I’d imagine not.”
As Chu Feng said, if the other party really wanted to do something, they wouldn’t be able to resist anyway — their abilities were simply too terrifying.
Sang Jin rested his chin on his hand, a little dreamy. “I wonder what the Crescent Village is really like.”
When Jocelyn negotiated the green silk trade with Rainbow Village earlier, she had mentioned some things about Crescent Village, which naturally stirred Sang Jin’s longing…
Chu Feng appeared in the Crescent Group’s lounge carrying several hundred bolts of silk.
Zhuang Feixue was startled by his sudden appearance.
“What’s this?”
Chu Feng glanced at her. “Silk cloth — very soft and strong.”
Zhuang Feixue felt the fabric and sighed in admiration. “This is nice material!”
As the eldest daughter of the Zhuang family, she had an eye for quality.
“This is top-grade cloth, made with absolutely pure, natural, and non-polluting dyes — very healthy.” Clothing dyed with an ability-user’s powers should be free of pollution, right?
Zhuang Feixue looked at him. “If my dear little brother rates it so highly, it must be something good.”
Chu Feng smiled. “Probably.”
“Where did you get all this cloth?”
Arms crossed, Chu Feng replied, “Tricked it out of them.”
Zhuang Feixue: “Tricked? Why would you do that?”
“They didn’t give me any face, so I played a little prank on them.”
Zhuang Feixue frowned in puzzlement. “They probably didn’t know who you were, right? These days there aren’t many people who would slight you. Were they from some mountain backwater with no internet?”
“Something like that.” Indeed, Rainbow Village had no internet.
She shook her head. “Why even bother with people who don’t have internet? That’s pretty pitiful!”
Chu Feng: “…” Well, that’s one way to look at it.
“What are you going to do with all this fabric?”
“Get some people to make clothes with it. No point wasting it.”
She nodded. “Alright.”
Running her hands over the fabric, Zhuang Feixue was reluctant to let go. “I can use some to make a few dresses, right?”
“Of course. If you like it, go ahead.”
After all, it was something Illya had picked up effortlessly. The cloth was nice, but still inferior to green silk.
With Jocelyn and Illya’s help, the Sang Maidens’ mulberry trees were growing in abundance, so it wouldn’t be long before he could get a large supply of green silk.
*
At the National Bureau of Paranormal Abilities.
“Young Master Chu, you’re here for nutrient soil?” Shen Yuxing asked.
Chu Feng nodded. “Yes.”
Shen Yutong was quietly pleased — she had been planning to discuss nutrient soil with him, but he had come to her first.
“Is your side running short on it too?”
Chu Feng raised an eyebrow. “‘Too’? You mean the National Bureau of Paranormal Abilities is also short on it?”
She muttered inwardly: Isn’t that obvious?
“We have a lot of organizations needing it, and it’s been out of stock for a while. After that video about collecting spirit soil went public, many departments thought that since it wasn’t that hard to collect, they might as well get more.”
Professor Cong, who had gone collecting with them last time, had even come to her several times asking for help.
She thought to herself: These people talk big, but last time the soil seemed easy to get only because Chu Feng and his crew are powerful — he’s not even with the National Bureau of Paranormal Abilities, and he won’t take my orders.
Chu Feng nodded. “My supply’s getting tight too.”
“Then let’s gather more.” Shen Yutong agreed.
She was curious, though, where Chu Feng had taken the several truckloads from last time. That was a lot of soil to make vanish. And this wasn’t the first time strange things like that had happened…
Chu Feng went to Shi Qi and began another spirit-soil collection.
This time, the trucks were provided by the National Bureau of Paranormal Abilities.
They had prepared over a hundred trucks, and the sudden sight of so many vehicles almost made Chu Feng think he’d walked into a truck factory instead.
Looking at the lot packed with vehicles, he couldn’t help remarking, “Miss Shen, you sure have a lot of trucks here.”
She gave an awkward smile. “Not too many.”
With Chu Feng personally offering to help, the National Bureau of Paranormal Abilities’s higher-ups were overjoyed.
They cleared the entire parking lot of luxury cars worth millions and replaced them with trucks.
“Young Master Chu, long time no see!” Professor Cong hurried over.
After his last trip with Chu Feng, Professor Cong had become a star at the research institute, his status rising considerably. For this soil collection, he had elbowed out several competitors to secure another chance to work with Chu Feng.
Chu Feng nodded at him. “Let’s get moving.”
Professor Cong eagerly replied, “Yes, yes, yes!”
Shi Qi already had one experience collecting spirit soil, so this time she was much more adept.
Chu Feng led the convoy of trucks deep into the mountains. The mission had barely begun when an accident occurred.
“It seems the truck ran over something,” Illya said.
Chu Feng nodded. “It looks like…”
He looked toward the truck just in time to see it suddenly lift upward—a several-meter-tall bull had emerged from beneath it.
Professor Cong, standing nearby, went weak in the knees at the sight of the overturned truck.
Chu Feng raised an eyebrow. That truck was far from light, yet the bull had tossed it aside with ease. Its strength was extraordinary.
The giant bull let out a fierce roar at them, causing Professor Cong to collapse in fright.
Chu Feng lifted his hand, ready to unleash a spatial slash, but the bull seemed to sense danger and bolted away at full speed.
Shen Yutong looked at Chu Feng. “You scared that beast off.”
According to the National Bureau of Paranormal Abilities’s research, beasts were extremely sensitive to danger. Perhaps it had sensed Chu Feng’s threat and fled.
Chu Feng chuckled. “Guess it’s lucky it ran fast—otherwise we’d be having beef for dinner.”
“Let’s hurry up and collect the spirit soil,” Illya urged.
Chu Feng nodded. “Agreed.”
He led the group from site to site. High-grade spirit soil was rare—sometimes an entire mountain yielded only enough to fill a single truck.
This time, the National Bureau of Paranormal Abilities had tightened quality control. Their location tracking was more precise, and the selected spots all produced exceptionally high-grade soil.
Shen Yutong glanced at the trucks full of soil. “These ten are yours.”
Even with Illya’s help, Shi Qi could only use her ability a limited number of times. After filling twenty trucks, she declared herself completely exhausted.
Chu Feng nodded. “Alright.”
Several trucks loaded with spirit soil had barely arrived at the National Bureau of Paranormal Abilities before various major forces set their sights on them.
Last time, some factions had missed out because they got the news too late. This time, the moment the National Bureau of Paranormal Abilities mobilized trucks, everyone grew restless.
“Linlang, quite a lot of soil this time,” Dong Yu said.
Mu Linlang nodded. “Yes, Chu Feng really gets results.”
Recently, many powers had been trying to collect nutrient soil, but most got poor returns for their efforts. Only Chu Feng could pull it off so cleanly.
“With so much collected, your botanical garden should get a bigger share,” Dong Yu said.
Mu Linlang nodded. “Probably.”
Dong Yu rested her chin on her hand. “Where do you think Chu Feng takes all the soil he collected before?”
Mu Linlang shook her head. “No idea.” She figured it was one of his secrets.
“I heard the Yangfan Group is also short on spirit soil,” Dong Yu added. “But last time Chu Feng brought so much, it seems they didn’t get any at all.”
Mu Linlang glanced at her. “And how do you know that?”
Dong Yu shrugged. “Heard it from someone in Yangfan’s staff—should be true.”
Mu Linlang: “…”
