The fruit of the Weedbane Tree ripens at the turn of spring and summer.
Right now, it’s exactly that time of year—the turn of spring and summer.
Up on the mountaintop, with plenty of sunshine, the fruit matures even faster.
Sure enough, the tree at the top of the mountain was covered in fruits about the size of goji berries, all dark purple and fully ripe.
This stuff is definitely not edible—eat one and you’re dead.
And you have to be extra careful—don’t let the juice get on the soil.
If even a drop splashes onto the dirt, every plant nearby will die off.
Grace eyed the tree full of Weedbane fruit, her smile turning wicked.
She picked a handful of fruit and slipped into her Sanctum.
She grew medicinal herbs inside her Sanctum too.
It wasn’t a hundred acres, but every herb here was rare in the Vermilion Kingdom.
For example, the patch by the lake grew something called Spiritbane Grass.
It only grew deep in the Great Chasm of Eastwood Forest—an absolutely terrifying place.
Grace had stumbled across a single plant in her last life and planted it by the lake here.
It’s a root-based plant, and after more than ten years, it’s sprouted seven or eight more around it.
Rare as it is, Spiritbane Grass doesn’t really count as a spirit herb.
It just has one weird property: it disperses medicinal effects.
If you add it during alchemy, it won’t mess up the process at all.
But depending on how much you use, after a certain time, all the spiritual power in the medicine will evaporate—leaving you with a pile of useless junk.
Grace’s lips curled up. She pinched off a few Spiritbane Grass leaves and headed for the Alchemist’s Hall of Illusions.
She planned to use Weedbane Tree fruit as the main ingredient to brew a plant-killing poison: Witherbane Elixir.
Once Witherbane Elixir hits the ground, every plant dies.
Doesn’t matter if it’s weeds or spirit herbs.
Her plan? To sprinkle Witherbane Elixir into the soil while she turned it over, wiping out all the Black Ginseng!
Of course, if it were just ordinary Witherbane Elixir, the Spirit Alliance could easily trace it back to her.
But by mixing in Spiritbane Grass during the brewing, by the time they started investigating, the medicinal traces would’ve already evaporated. They wouldn’t find a thing…
A big bottle of Witherbane Elixir, laced with Spiritbane Grass, was soon ready.
Once she finished, she returned to the Spirit Alliance and found Sophie Sun.
At that moment, Sophie was in the main courtyard, chatting with two vice presidents.
Grace saw there were plenty of people around, so she cleared her throat and called out, "President!"
Sophie Sun turned around and asked, "Chloe Zhu, what do you need?"
"President, Leo Bo wants me to turn over a hundred acres of Black Ginseng field alone in just ten days," Grace said.
Sophie Sun replied with a blank face, "I instructed you to assist Leo Bo with the Black Ginseng. That means he’s in charge of your tasks, not me!"
"But Leo Bo also said if I don’t finish, you’ll give me a major demerit! Is that true?"
Sophie Sun answered, "The Black Ginseng harvest is just a month away.
We have to turn it over to the Vermilion Spirit Alliance, and lots of spirit medicines are waiting for fresh Black Ginseng!
So right now, it’s the most important thing for our Blue Moon Spirit Alliance." Sophie Sun said. "If you slack off or try any tricks at this critical moment, I won’t go easy on you!"
"But—"
"President!" Bobby, who'd been listening nearby, protested angrily, "Turning the soil and planting is always handled by our maintenance department—why make Grace do it alone?"
Sophie Sun was about to speak when Leo Bo, who’d followed Grace back, overheard Bobby and shouted from the doorway, "Bobby Yuan, I assigned Grace to turn the soil—got a problem with that?"