Saving the White Moonlight Chapter 9

“Host, are you really confident?”
The system was both worried and expectant. It knew Host’s ability, but it did not know what Host planned to do, so its feelings rose and fell.
“Senior Sister will return in three days.”
For the sake of their own plans, the people of Yimiao Sect would of course try their best to delay Yun Mixue’s departure. But Yun Mixue was, after all, the eldest senior sister of Fenghua Immortal Sect. No matter how kind she was, she could not spend her time endlessly on Yimiao Sect.
So keeping her for three more days was already the limit.
Yan Zhuguang said, “Three days is enough.”
As she spoke, she was still tending the spiritual field. The system felt tangled watching her.
Dear Honored Host, could you please feel even a little urgency?
Fortunately, Yan Zhuguang also sped up her handling of the spiritual grain worms, greatly shortening the time needed to tend the field. The system let out a breath of relief.
It was good as long as Host was taking action.
Only after Yan Zhuguang used her true speed did the system know how much she had hidden before. Originally, she had spent two days clearing only one-third of the spiritual field. Now, in just half a day, she had already cleaned all of it.
Yan Zhuguang changed the water in the spiritual field. For the next few days, this field would not need her care.
She let out a breath, went up the small hill in the dark to fill her stomach, and when she returned to her little broken room, the surroundings were already so dark that the road could not be seen.
Yan Zhuguang took out a candle, lit it, and placed it in a far corner. Then she walked to the small cabinet and took out the clay jars holding the spiritual grain worms, arranging them one by one on the floor.
Counting them, there were exactly four.
Yan Zhuguang removed the stone covering the first jar and looked inside by the dim candlelight. At the bottom of the jar lay a large fat worm, white and almost transparent.
A section of its tail was still inside the cocoon, but its body had curled over into a circle as it gnawed on that white cocoon.
Yan Zhuguang curved her lips and said softly, “It worked.”
“It worked? What worked?” The system was bound to Yan Zhuguang, so no matter how quiet her voice was, it could hear her.
Originally, seeing Host fuss with those jars, it had thought she would again make worms eat worms like she had done a few days ago.
It had not expected success. What good thing had Host made?
The system eagerly scanned it, then immediately became a little disappointed. It was still that big worm. It was only a bit whiter and a bit larger than before.
“Host, what exactly are you making this worm for?”
Yan Zhuguang covered the first jar again, then opened the other three one by one. The spiritual grain worms inside had all turned big and white.
She seemed rather happy. When the system asked, she did not keep it in suspense this time. “The spiritual grain worms we usually see have already reproduced after devouring spiritual grain. I only raised and purified these worms, letting them return to their original state.”
“What is the point of returning them to their original state?”
Yan Zhuguang said, “Spiritual grain worms are a special kind of spiritual insect. They have no attribute of their own. Whatever they eat, they transform into that attribute.”
“Mm, mm.”
“Do you know how spiritual grain worms came to be?”
The system searched its data. “They seem to be spiritual energy lifeforms formed by chance. They do not have much intelligence. They only instinctively devour anything that contains spiritual energy.”
“But because they fall apart if they bear too much spiritual energy, they only appear on things with low spiritual energy content that are relatively fragile.”
Because spiritual grain worms came from spiritual energy, and cultivators could not live without spiritual energy, the conditions that formed these worms could not be guessed. So this kind of worm could not be cut off at the source. They could only be removed by human effort.
Yan Zhuguang nodded. “Spiritual grain worms are formed from spiritual energy. If you remove the appearance of the worm, then the worm itself is also a form of spiritual energy.”
The system thought about it, then suddenly had an idea. “Could Host be planning to use the spiritual grain worms like spirit stones?”
“But how much spiritual energy can a spiritual grain worm have?” The system was conflicted. “Doesn’t Host’s beginner gift pack have spirit stones? Those are much more useful.”
Yan Zhuguang ignored the system. She took out one water-attribute poisonous object from the inventory. It was a drop of poison water called Thousand-Cut Bone Water. Just one drop could dissolve a person’s bones and kill them.
The Thousand-Cut Bone Water was wrapped in a thin film, forming a strange black-blue bead the size of a fingertip. It looked as if the slightest touch would break it.
Yan Zhuguang threw that bead into the first clay jar.
“Eh?” The system watched the bead fall. “If the spiritual grain worm eats it, it will definitely be poisoned to death.”
Yan Zhuguang covered the clay jar with the stone. Then she took out an earth-attribute poisonous object. This one was also wrapped in a thin film. Inside was a grain of black sand. It was a soil called Solidified Black Earth.
Once touched by it, a person’s whole body would solidify into a stone statue and die. It was somewhat similar to the Frostflight Snow that Yun Mixue had suffered from. The difference was that Solidified Black Earth only worked on cultivators below Core Formation.
The same was true of the Thousand-Cut Bone Water from before.
The system could not exchange for absolutely anything at will. Its authority was limited. The kind Yan Zhuguang had mentioned before, a life-bound spiritual object that could grow along with its owner through cultivation, could only be obtained by completing special quests or through the one chance of a Lucky Draw.
So the poisonous objects the system could exchange freely could not be of very high quality.
But for Yan Zhuguang, this level of poison was more than enough. If it were stronger, she might not be able to bear it.
“It will not be poisoned to death.”
Yan Zhuguang threw the Solidified Black Earth into another jar. Next, she did the same thing and fed the remaining two clay jars fire-attribute and metal-attribute poisonous objects.
Then she carefully put the jars back and sealed them. After that, all that remained was to wait.
“Tao Zhi’s side quest is complete?”
The system returned to itself. “Mm.”
“What is the reward?”
The system said, “Quest rewards are all things Host needs. Host needs to improve your spiritual roots now, so it is still a treasure for washing and refining spiritual roots.”
A trace of speechlessness flashed through Yan Zhuguang’s eyes. “Exchange it.”
The system had already prepared itself, so it was not surprised. “What does Host want to exchange for?”
Yan Zhuguang thought for a moment. “Something gentle that can quickly repair the body. It would be best if it works on injuries from lightning tribulation.”
The system let out a breath. Host had finally chosen something normal. Healing items were the favorite reward of most hosts. After all, they were used to protect one’s life, and one could never have too many.
The system looked through its options. “How about a Yellow-grade upper quality Bright Mending Pill?”
Pill quality, from high to low, was divided into Heaven, Earth, Black, and Yellow grades. Yellow grade was the lowest, but it was also the most suitable grade for Host to use. Any higher, and she would not be able to bear the medicinal power.
Yan Zhuguang calculated. “It should be enough. Exchange it for the Bright Mending Pill, just in case.”
The system happily exchanged it for Yan Zhuguang. Host had finally become normal. This was worth encouraging.
Then it hesitated. The strange voice sounded again in Yan Zhuguang’s mind.
“Do you accept the main quest: Within three days, follow Yun Mixue to Fenghua Immortal Sect?”
“Host,” the system said carefully, “will you accept this quest? The reward is rich, but if a main quest fails, the punishment is very severe.”
Yan Zhuguang asked, “What is the reward?”
The system said, “A special physique.”
Yan Zhuguang’s gaze sharpened. She had always thought the system’s rewards were material things. She had not expected that even a special physique could be used as a reward.
Without showing it, she asked in a calm tone, “What special physiques are there?”
“Anything Host can imagine.”
“For example, a Pure Yang Body, a Pure Yin Body, an Immortal Spirit Body, a Demon Spirit Body, and all kinds of elemental bodies.”
Yan Zhuguang could not help rubbing her fingertips together. “For this main quest, what physique is the reward?”
“Special physiques cannot be rewarded at random. It should be a physique that matches Host’s current physical condition. Do you want me to scan Host and see what physique you might match?”
Yan Zhuguang thought for a moment, then nodded. “All right.”
As soon as she spoke, a faint sensation fell over her body and swept past. It felt a little like being inspected by someone’s spiritual sense.
Because Yan Zhuguang had turned off sound effects, she could not hear the system’s dinging. After a while, the system suddenly said, “Wow, Host. I would not know without scanning, but once I scanned, I was shocked. Your body is so bad.”
The original owner of this body had been a little beggar who starved to death by the roadside. The system had only thrown Yan Zhuguang’s soul into the body and changed the appearance a little. It had done nothing else. How good could the body be?
This body originally had only mixed five spiritual roots. It had stayed in the servant disciples’ area of Yimiao Sect, where spiritual energy was thin, and after cultivating for half a year it was only at the first level of Qi Refining. The spiritual energy in the body had no surplus at all and could not be used to nourish the body.
The system felt distressed. It knew Host’s body was poor, but it had not known it was this poor. With such a body, even living each day must be hard.
Yan Zhuguang naturally knew what her own body was like. She did not care much. “What physique does it match?”
Why did Host care so little for herself? The system hated that iron could not become steel. Its tone became a little sharp. “Host’s wood spiritual root is the thickest. Your body is weak now and cannot bear other special physiques. Only the gentlest and most repairing Wood Spirit Body can match.”
Yan Zhuguang thought about it. The Wood Spirit Body was indeed the most suitable for her. Even after changing into a poison spiritual root later, it would still be so. The system’s match was not wrong.
“Good. I accept the quest.”
“Host, you are not going to ask what happens if the main quest fails?”
“A special physique is attractive enough. Whether I succeed or fail, I would accept it. Knowing the consequence is not important to me.” Knowing would only add worry.
The system: …
It had thought its host would say she definitely would not fail.
After thinking about it, the system felt this was right too. Its host seemed rather forceful in front of it and outsiders, but in private she was actually quite modest.
Host was only too powerful, and that had given it the false impression that she was extremely arrogant.