Chapter 289 – Ten Pounds per Bloom

Mo Lan made as if to leave. The Vampire Vine panicked, shooting out a small tendril to hook the hem of her robe and hold her back. Then another small tendril kept poking at Lilith.

This time even Lilith had no idea what it meant. She checked with Heart Speech and said, exasperated:

“You’re willing to lower the price? Then why did you charge me so much?”

The Vampire Vine: “(°grass°)” Oh no, it let that slip!

“I don’t care—I want the same low price too! Otherwise I’m never buying your flowers again. There are plenty of other ingredients I could brew potions with!” Lilith said, displeased.

The Vampire Vine had no choice but to nod, urging her to continue negotiating on its behalf.

Mo Lan could tell at a glance—Lilith had been ripped off by this Vampire Vine.

Without waiting for her senior to relay the discounted price, Mo Lan spoke first:

“Ten pounds of flesh per bloom. If you agree, I’ll come back for more trades. If not, I’ll go find another Vampire Vine that blooms normally—and I won’t need to pay anything at all.”

Even among awakened Vampire Vines, not every one had spiritual awareness as high as this specimen.

This particular Vampire Vine happened to grow near the path witches frequently took when entering and leaving the Inner Region. Thanks to its prime location, it had absorbed who-knew-how-many casts of Tree Friend over the years, which was precisely why it had become so clever.

With any other Vampire Vine, you could simply go during its blooming season, restrain its tendrils, and pick the flowers directly.

Lilith swallowed back the “ninety pounds per bloom” she’d been about to say and looked at the Vampire Vine beside her.

Surely it wouldn’t agree to this—the price had been slashed to a tenth!

The Vampire Vine poked frantically: “No way, no way! Tell her eighty is the absolute lowest!”

Lilith: “!!!”

It hadn’t flown into a rage and started whipping people! Could the price actually go even lower?

Although Mo Lan hadn’t yet studied Mind Magic in depth and couldn’t use Heart Speech, she had learned mind-reading magic in her All-Element Magic introductory course. Even at a low level, she could tell the Vampire Vine was unhappy with this price.

“If you don’t agree, that’s fine,” Mo Lan said. “Senior Lilith, I’ll just be on my way—”

Before she could finish, her robe was hooked again.

This time, two small tendrils had latched onto her robe.

“Moira, it wants you to use Tree Friend to negotiate with it directly,” Lilith said, her expression strange.

But Mo Lan shook her head. “If you want me to use Tree Friend, fine—give me three flowers! After all, Tree Friend enhances your spiritual awareness.”

Both Heart Speech and Tree Friend could be used to communicate with plants. The difference was that Heart Speech could also interpret the intentions of animals and plants with low spiritual awareness, while Tree Friend only worked on plants that already possessed a certain level of spiritual awareness.

Moreover, Tree Friend was inherently beneficial to plants—it exchanged energy that nurtured their spiritual awareness for sincere informational cooperation from the plants.

This Vampire Vine was spiritually aware enough to sell its own flowers at inflated prices, and it had even scammed Lilith. Mo Lan certainly wasn’t about to cast Tree Friend on it for free just to haggle over prices!

“There’s no way it’ll agree to that!” Lilith said—then glanced at the small tendril beside her. It was actually nodding!

Though it was clearly pained by the cost, the vine produced three tiny white flowers, each no bigger than a fingernail, and presented them to Mo Lan.

Mo Lan plucked the flowers, and only then did she cast Tree Friend on the Vampire Vine.

The next moment, a consciousness squeezed into her mind.

“I can sell you flowers at ten pounds of flesh per bloom, but you absolutely cannot tell Little Red how cheap your price is!”

“Who’s Little Red?” Mo Lan asked, puzzled. She had her suspicions, but she wasn’t certain.

Then the tip of a tendril pointed straight at Lilith, and Mo Lan couldn’t hold it in any longer. She burst out laughing. “Hahaha! Little Red!”

Lilith’s face flushed scarlet in an instant. “This rotten vine! It’s making up nicknames for me again!”

Her Wand was already out, and a massive fireball coalesced with a whoosh.

What followed was Lilith threatening violence while the Vampire Vine desperately pleaded its case, ultimately having to offer up five small flowers as compensation.

Mo Lan was thoroughly entertained. It seemed her senior wasn’t always on the losing end against this Vampire Vine after all!

After placating Lilith, the Vampire Vine furiously confronted Mo Lan: “This is all your fault for running your mouth! I’m not selling to you at ten pounds per bloom anymore—twenty pounds at most!”

“Oh really? Then I’ll just tell Senior Lilith what you said earlier,” Mo Lan replied with a smile.

The Vampire Vine: “m9(`Д)”

“What did it say? What else did it say?” Lilith raised an eyebrow, pressing for answers.

“Fine, fine, fine! Ten pounds per bloom, ten pounds per bloom—just don’t tell her!” the Vampire Vine hurriedly conceded.

“Deal. Let’s trade right now. I have fifty pounds of meat here—hunted this morning, though it’s been frozen so it’s not exactly fresh. How about we call it thirty pounds?” Mo Lan said.

Seeing the Vampire Vine nod, Mo Lan pulled out the leftover horse-deer meat from her satchel and began thawing it.

The Vampire Vine’s thick main tendrils began stirring with anticipation.

“Flowers first!” Mo Lan said.

The Vampire Vine produced three more flowers.

Mo Lan plucked them, then tossed the meat to the thick tendril.

The large tendril rolled the meat down to its roots and buried it. The vine’s entire body unfurled with visible satisfaction.

“You rotten vine! Refund me the difference for every overpriced purchase!” Lilith brandished her fireball menacingly.

The Vampire Vine, deep in the bliss of digesting flesh, went rigid.

How did she find out? Little Purple didn’t say anything!

“I bought from you five times—five hundred pounds of flesh should have been fifty flowers! Hand over the forty-five you owe me right now, or I swear I’m burning at least three of your tendrils today!” Lilith threatened.

The Vampire Vine shuddered. It was afraid of fire—terribly afraid!

And even more than fire, it feared losing this “generous” ally.

It had no choice but to grudgingly produce the owed flowers, then asked in bewilderment: “How did you find out I was selling at ten pounds of flesh?”

Lilith: “…”

Call it stupid, and yet it had swindled her out of so much flesh. Call it clever, and it couldn’t even figure out where it had given itself away despite the deal happening right in front of it.

But she certainly wasn’t kind enough to explain right now. She gave a cold snort and said: “Don’t even think about cheating me again! I know everything!”

The Vampire Vine: “⊙▃⊙”

Mo Lan smiled, her contributions hidden deep beneath the surface.

Plants were limited by their fixed growing positions. No matter how high their spiritual awareness, they would always lack worldly experience and adaptability.

Only plants that grew near intelligent Races could be somewhat more flexible.

This Vampire Vine might have traded regularly with young witches, but its experience was still limited in the end.

“Senior Lilith, you really should study 《The Earth Compendium of Commerce》 more carefully! No matter who you’re dealing with, you can never let your guard down.”

“I know, I know,” Lilith said, a guilty edge to her voice.

She’d been scammed so badly by this vine precisely because she’d assumed a plant couldn’t possibly know how to jack up prices and cheat people.

Especially this vine—whenever she’d used mind-reading magic to check its thoughts, all she’d seen was a desperate craving for flesh. Who could have known that it wasn’t just dark on the outside, but dark on the inside too!

If it charged this much for flowers, the price of its contract had surely been inflated as well.

Unfortunately, the contract had already been signed and couldn’t be changed.