Chapter 136 – Plants Eager to Please

Chapter 136 – Plants Eager to Please

Mo Lan didn’t even know what Liquid Grass essence looked like, so using a visual command wasn’t really appropriate.

Instead, she focused her command more on the functional aspect of the Liquid Grass juice essence.

She’d issued a rather vague command to her mana, and had originally expected mediocre results—but to her surprise, it worked quite well! The mana emerged carrying a mass of pale cyan liquid extract.

It felt as though the moment her mana extended its tendrils, the Liquid Grass couldn’t wait to squeeze out its own juice essence.

Mo Lan looked at the plant in her hand, its stalk now all shriveled and wrinkled, and felt almost flattered. That was way too smooth!

She’d thought it was a coincidence at first, but after she stored the Liquid Grass juice essence in an empty potion vial for later use and moved on to extracting daisy pistil essence, the “coincidence” happened again.

The belladonna essence extraction was no exception either.

“The quality of your essences is quite good! You can start brewing now!” Lady Amisha remarked as she passed by.

Mo Lan couldn’t help but voice the question on her mind.

“This is perfectly normal! When your Plant Magic aptitude is high, the extraction step is simply easier. These are all the most basic magical plants—for young witches with high aptitude, extracting essence is as easy as crooking a finger. The clarity of your command is just icing on the cake.”

Lady Amisha said matter-of-factly, “Look at the other young witches… they don’t have it nearly as easy as you three young Sorceresses!”

A Sorceress’s magical aptitude was good enough to make any witch jealous!

Mo Lan looked around. Vasida had just finished extracting her essences at the same time as her, while Sylph was well ahead of them both—she must have been brewing for a while already, as the liquid in her crucible was already boiling.

As for the other young witches, they were still working on extracting the Liquid Grass juice essence. Some had already ruined several stalks of Liquid Grass, and even the better ones had gone through quite a few stalks just to obtain a tiny bit of essence.

It seemed that Plant Magic aptitude really did determine how difficult essence extraction was.

It truly wasn’t this easy for every young witch.

“Plant Magic aptitude, to put it simply, is the affinity between your own magical power and mana with the forces of nature. The higher your aptitude, the easier it is to exert influence over plants, and the easier it is to learn Plant Magic.”

Amisha continued, “So magical plants are more obedient in the hands of witches with high Plant Magic aptitude.”

Mo Lan understood now. Even though her casting commands were somewhat lacking, the magical plants were practically falling over themselves to comply!

The feeling was… rather peculiar.

She looked at the three magical plants on her desk that had given their all and were now thoroughly wilted. She suddenly found them rather endearing and felt it was a shame to just throw them away. “Vasida, does your Devouring Stomach eat magical plant dregs?”

“Yes, yes, yes!” Vasida stuffed the dregs Mo Lan handed over into the Devouring Stomach, along with her own. “Huh? These dregs work better than regular food! If just the dregs are this effective, then whole magical plants…”

A vein pulsed on Amisha’s temple. “The magical plants in the greenhouse are for you to brew potions with. You may not use them to feed your Devouring Stomach.”

Given the appetite of Vasida’s Devouring Stomach, without some restrictions, all the magical plants growing in Greenhouse No. 1 might end up devoured!

Even if the Sprites could replant them, they couldn’t keep up with Vasida’s consumption.

Since the Academy’s founding, the Breadfruit trees had never needed replanting. In previous years, not even half the fruit that grew had been picked by the young witches.

The reason they’d had to replant and expand this year wasn’t just because the progress bar Mo Lan had created had driven the young witches into a frenzy of leveling up their magic—it was mostly because of Vasida.

The appetite of Vasida’s Devouring Stomach was still slowly growing.

“…” Vasida’s hopes were dashed. “Then can I grow my own?”

“Of course! If you really want to study magical plant cultivation, you can apply for access to a greenhouse. As for magical plant seeds, you can just ask the greenhouse Sprites. Books on magical plant cultivation are available in the second-year library—I’ll give you a pass so you can go copy them in advance,” Amisha said.

As long as someone wanted to learn, the Academy would provide support!

“Alright! Let me think about it,” Vasida said.

She hadn’t even figured out regular vegetable gardening yet! Magical plant cultivation would have to wait!

When Lady Amisha circled back to Mo Lan’s side, Mo Lan stopped her again. “Headmistress, there’s still something I don’t quite understand. Sorceresses have high aptitude in all schools of magic, right? So why are magical plants so compliant with us because of our high aptitude, while Attuned farming tools—especially the big hoe—are so… so rebellious?”

“Different temperaments, of course! Plants just sit there quietly growing in the ground day after day. With very few exceptions, they generally have good temperaments—which fits the nature of natural forces. Farming tools, on the other hand, have fiercer tempers. You’re making them do all that work—no matter how much goodwill they have toward you, it’s going to be discounted,” Amisha answered without missing a beat.

“…”

So they’d give you their lives willingly, but ask them to do manual labor and it’s a no-go?

And how was extracting plant essence any different from taking a plant’s life?

Forget it, forget it. Best not to think about it—the more she thought, the weirder it got.

She obediently began heating her crucible and brewing the potion.

First, she added the Liquid Grass juice essence. Following the textbook, she lit a small flame about the width of a thumb and heated it slowly.

After the first boil, she removed the flame. Once the bubbles subsided, she heated it to boiling again—repeating this three times before adding the daisy pistil essence.

This time, she waited for it to cool completely, until the crucible no longer felt hot to the touch, then added the belladonna essence. She simmered it over low heat while stirring with a long-handled spoon—three circles clockwise, three circles counterclockwise.

She stirred and simmered, stirred and simmered, and the steam rising from the crucible grew thinner and thinner.

Then suddenly, the liquid went still for a moment—and expelled a ring of potion mist.

It was done!

“Not bad at all! That mist ring is tight and dense, and the liquid is crystal clear—that’s top-grade! Your technique is very polished!” Amisha praised. “Brewing top-grade on your first attempt is truly rare!”

Meanwhile, Sylph, who had finished before her, and Vasida, who had finished just after her, had both produced mist rings that were much looser—only qualifying as low-grade.

“Sylph, your timing and temperature control during heating were off. Vasida, you stirred too fast! Moira, brew another batch and show them how it’s done!”

Mo Lan nodded. She set her current batch aside to cool, extracted fresh essences, and brewed another batch of recovery potion in a different crucible.

Once again, it was a success—the mist ring that emerged was just as tight and dense as before.

If there was any secret to it, it was simply that she had an excellent memory, which made her exceptionally good at imitation.

Every detail of Lady Amisha’s demonstration—the timing, the force, every subtle nuance of each motion—she remembered with perfect clarity. All she had to do was copy it exactly.