His body healed and his spiritual flow newly optimized, Lin Feng faced a new problem, growth had plateaued. The Silverstream essence was no longer effective, the Frostbell Bloom was gone, and his internal adjustments, while beneficial, were like tuning a car with a cracked engine block, it ran smoother, but the horsepower ceiling was still laughably low. He needed resources. Real ones.
His gaze fell on the South Peak herb gardens. Not as a thief in the night, but as a potential participant. The memory of the blighted Silverstream Grass patch, and the Ledger's analysis of its fungal rot, lingered. He had used the blight's weakness to his advantage. But what if he could do more than just scavenge? What if he could solve the blight?
On the surface, it was madness. He was an outer disciple with trash roots, no alchemy training, and no authority. But the Ledger didn't see authority. It saw systems, conflicts, and potential for efficient resolution.
He spent a day observing. He took a long route past the garden's outer walls, using his Conscious Focus to sharpen his senses. He saw Overseer Liang, the crotchety garden master, stomping through the rows, his face like thunder. He saw disciples nervously tending plants, avoiding the western wall where the silver sheen of the grass was marred by ugly black patches.
He overheard snippets.
"Liang is going to have to report the loss to the Alchemy Hall"
"the purification arrays cost fifty contribution points a day to run for a moon-cycle. For Silverstream Grass? They'll just burn it and replant."
"a waste. A whole season's growth."
The problem was economics. The cure cost more than the crop. It was a classic loss-cutting scenario.
That evening, Lin Feng went to the Contributions Exchange again. He didn't browse for pills or manuals. He went to the public bulletins a wall of jade slips where disciples posted requests, traded odd jobs, or offered niche skills.
He found what he was looking for. A slip posted by a harried-looking inner disciple from the Alchemy Hall's auxiliary branch.
REQUEST: Field sample collection. Grey-Spore Fungal Rot specimens, specifically from afflicted Silverstream Grass. Must be freshly harvested, with clear spore clusters. Payment: 1 Contribution Point per five viable specimens. See Disciple Wen at the West Hall greenhouse.
Grey-Spore Fungal Rot. The exact contaminant the Ledger had identified.
This was his opening. Not as a healer, not as an alchemist. As a sample collector. A menial, slightly risky task others would avoid handling blighted plants could stain one's spiritual sense if done carelessly. But he already knew the rot's weakness from the Ledger's analysis: "vulnerable to concentrated applications of its own extracted essence, applied in reverse flow." A piece of knowledge worth its weight in spirit stones, if one knew how to use it.
He found Disciple Wen the next morning, a young man with ink-stained fingers and the frantic air of someone behind on research. Lin Feng showed him the bulletin slip.
"You want to collect Grey-Spore samples? From the blighted patch?" Wen looked him up and down, noting his outer disciple robes. "You know the spores can linger? Might give your energy a mildew note for a week or two."
"I am aware," Lin Feng said. "I have experience with careful harvesting." A half-truth built on a night of theft.
Wen shrugged. "Fine. Bring me five clean samples with intact spore clusters by tomorrow dusk. One point. Don't bring me rotten mush."
Lin Feng bowed and left. He didn't go to the gardens immediately. He went back to the dormitory and focused. "Ledger. Analyze the most efficient, low-spiritual-cost method to harvest Grey-Spore Fungal Rot samples from Silverstream Grass without damaging the spores or exacerbating the blight's spread."
Analysis Requested: Specialized Harvesting Technique.
Estimated Karma Cost: 2 Points. Proceed? Y/N
He confirmed. Knowledge was an investment.
Analysis Complete.
Method: Utilize the plant's own compromised structure.
Procedure:
Locate a leaf where the black spore clusters are dense but the leaf's central vein still shows a faint silver hue (indicating partial life).
Infuse a sliver of pure wood-attuned spiritual energy into the leaf's base. (Note: User's [Diffuse Wood Affinity] is sufficient for this minimal task).
The wood energy, seeking healthy growth, will create a momentary surge of vitality in the leaf, causing the parasitic fungus to release its grip slightly to re-anchor.
In that half-second window, sever the leaf stem with a sharp, spiritually-inert tool (e.g., purified copper). The spore clusters will remain adhered to the dying leaf, but separated from the main plant's flow, minimizing spread.
Schematic & Timing Guide Included.
Karma Cost: 2 Points. Current Balance: 3.
Perfect. He wasn't just picking leaves. He was performing micro-surgery.
That afternoon, he presented himself at the herb garden's main gate. He requested an audience with Overseer Liang, citing "a matter regarding the blighted Silverstream Grass."
He was kept waiting for an hour before being ushered into a small, cluttered shed that smelled of soil and bitter herbs. Liang was a blocky man with dirt under his nails and eyes that missed nothing.
"You. Outer disciple. What's this about my Silverstream? If you're here to gawk or offer some half-baked folk remedy, save your breath. I've heard them all."
Lin Feng bowed. "Respectfully, Overseer. I am not here to offer a remedy. I am here to request permission to harvest a small number of the blighted leaves. Disciple Wen of the Alchemy Hall requires Grey-Spore samples for research. I wish to collect them, but I would not trespass on your domain without consent."
Liang's bushy eyebrows rose. He'd been expecting nonsense or insolence. This was bureaucratic. "Wen, eh? Always poking at things. Fine. You can have the blighted leaves. They're garbage anyway. But you follow my rules. You enter only where I say. You touch only the leaves I point to. You use the tools I provide. And you work when my disciples aren't in that sector. Dawn shift, tomorrow. Be here before first light. Now get out."
Permission granted. Access secured. And a built-in alibi he was there on official, if lowly, business.
The next morning, in the grey pre-dawn light, Liang himself led Lin Feng to the blighted patch. The air smelled of damp earth and a faint, sweet decay. The overseer handed him a small pair of copper shears, their metal cold and non-reactive. "These are cleansed. Don't contaminate them. Take what you need from this row only. When the bell rings for morning shift, you leave. Understood?"
"Understood, Overseer. Thank you."
Liang grunted and stalked away, leaving Lin Feng alone with the dying plants.
He didn't rush. He walked slowly along the row, his Conscious Focus active, his eyes scanning. He found a leaf matching the Ledger's description: mostly black, but with a thin, desperate line of silver tracing its central vein. He knelt.
Holding the copper shears in one hand, he placed a finger on the leaf's base. He reached for his weak, diffuse wood affinity. It was like trying to whistle a specific note with numb lips. He focused, imagining a single drop of green vitality, and pushed.
A tiny, almost imperceptible pulse of energy left his finger. The silver vein in the leaf seemed to brighten for a heartbeat. The black spore clusters twitched, their grip loosening.
Now.
The copper shears snipped cleanly. The leaf came free. He placed it gently in a lined basket Liang had provided. He repeated the process four more times, each cut precise, each application of wood energy minimal and surgical. He was not a cultivator harvesting herbs. He was a technician extracting contaminated samples.
As he worked, he observed the wider patch. The blight was aggressive, but not uniform. Some plants were completely black, dead. Others fought a losing battle, silver and black in a lacy, tragic pattern. He saw where Liang's disciples had tried to cut away the infected parts, but the cuts were crude, torn, likely spreading the spores further.
An idea, vast and quietly audacious, began to form.
He had five samples for Disciple Wen. That was his official task. But what if his unofficial task was larger?
The morning bell rang. He left the garden, basket in hand, and delivered the samples to a grateful Disciple Wen, who paid him one contribution point without a second glance. The point was immaterial. The real value was the knowledge and the access.
That evening, in the dormitory, Lin Feng activated his sole contribution point on a jade slip at the Exchange, copying a publicly available Basic Guide to Sect Flora - Pest and Blight Identifiers. It was a dry, illustrated catalog. He cross-referenced it with the Ledger's deeper analysis of the Grey-Spore.
The public guide confirmed the blight was considered a low-grade nuisance, economically impractical to cure. The recommended solution: "Isolate and burn affected plants. Sterilize soil with low-grade fire-attributed array (cost-intensive)."
The Ledger had given him the key: the fungus was vulnerable to its own essence in reverse flow. That wasn't a conventional cure. It was homeopathy. Or more precisely, a targeted, conceptual poison.
Could he scale it? Not to cure the whole patch that would be impossible and attract far too much attention. But what about a proof of concept? A single plant?
He needed a test subject. He needed more samples to refine an "essence." And he needed to do it under the continued, bored permission of Overseer Liang.
The next day, he returned to Disciple Wen. "The samples were acceptable?"
"Adequate," Wen said, not looking up from a bubbling crucible.
"I could procure more. A larger batch. If your research requires it." Lin Feng kept his voice neutral. "Overseer Liang has granted me access to the blighted patch for harvesting."
Wen finally looked at him, interest flickering. "More samples would be useful. I can pay the same rate. Bring me twenty by the end of the week."
Contract extended. Alibi reinforced.
For the next three days, Lin Feng's routine included an hour at dawn in the blighted patch. He harvested with meticulous care, always under the watchful, if disinterested, eye of Liang at a distance. But he began to harvest two sets. The pristine, spore-rich samples for Wen went into one basket. The partially-blighted leaves, the ones with more living tissue, he secretly tucked into a small, lined pouch inside his robe. Theft, but theft from a garbage heap.
In the solitude of the dormitory at night, he worked. Using a clean mortar and pestle borrowed from the Scriptorium annex (another grey-area loan), he crushed his stolen, partially-silver leaves. He added drops of distilled water he'd condensed by leaving a bowl out in a cold, high-altitude breeze. He filtered the pulp through cloth, again and again, until he had a small vial of murky, silver-black liquid. The "essence" of the blight and the plant's dying vitality, mixed.
Then came the riskiest part. He needed to "reverse" the essence. The Ledger hadn't given him a recipe. It had given him a principle. He pondered. Reversal inversion
Alchemy spoke of balancing energies. If the fungus was a parasitic, draining force (negative), its reverse would be a nourishing, purging force (positive). But he couldn't just flip it. He had to subvert it.
He held the vial in his hands, closed his eyes, and focused not on the liquid, but on the concepts within it, as the Ledger had taught him to see.
[Concept: Fungal Rot (Grey-Spore)] - Invasive, Consuming.
[Concept: Gentle Water Purity (Silverstream)] - Weakened, Compromised.
He imagined them not as substances, but as vectors. Arrows. The fungal arrow pointed inward, draining. What was its opposite? An arrow pointing outward, expelling.
He couldn't change the substance. But could he change its intent? Through sheer will? He had no such power. But the Ledger the Ledger dealt in concepts.
He had one Karma point left. A reckless expenditure.
"Ledger," he thought, focusing all his will on the vial. "Analyze the possibility of conceptually inverting the [Fungal Rot] vector within this preparation. Cost: 1 Point maximum."
There was a long pause. The Ledger usually responded instantly. This time, it seemed to consider.
Analysis Requested: Conceptual Inversion Feasibility.
Assessing…
Conclusion: Direct inversion beyond current integration level.
Alternative Pathway: Conceptual Tagging and Redirection feasible.
Method: User can spend 1 Karma Point to tag the [Fungal Rot] concept in this specific preparation with a [Command: Seek Origin]. When applied to a living fungus of the same strain, the tagged essence will be drawn to and attack the fungal core, triggering a self-destructive loop. One-time use. Limited radius (single plant).
Cost: 1 Karma Point. Proceed? Y/N
It wasn't a cure. It was a targeted, conceptual missile. A single, magic bullet.
Lin Feng didn't hesitate. Yes.
The last point vanished from his balance. A strange sensation flowed from his mind, down his arm, and into the vial. The murky liquid didn't change color, but it seemed to shimmer for a second, the way heat shimmers off stone.
He had it. One dose.
The next dawn, he was in the garden earlier than ever. He had his basket for Wen. And in his inner pocket, the vial.
He found his test subject: a plant on the very edge of the blighted patch, half-silver, half-black, still fighting. A survivor. If this worked, the change might be noticeable, but it could be attributed to the plant's own resilience or a random fluctuation. If it failed, the plant would die, which was its destined fate anyway.
While pretending to examine leaves for sampling, he uncorked the vial. Using a clean copper probe, he dipped it in the liquid and, with a motion that looked like he was steadying the plant, touched the droplet to the blackened base of its main stem, where the fungal rot would be most concentrated.
He felt nothing. No surge of energy. No visible change.
He completed his harvesting for Wen and left.
For two days, he watched. He made excuses to walk past the garden's outer wall. On the morning of the third day, he saw it.
The test plant, which had been half-black, was now two-thirds silver. The black patches had receded, turning dry and flaky, falling away from the healthy tissue. The plant stood a little taller, the surviving leaves gleaming with a healthier sheen in the dawn light. It was recovering. Rapidly.
A fierce, quiet triumph burned in Lin Feng's chest. He had done it. Not with cultivation power, not with alchemical genius, but with applied conceptual theory and a single point of Karma. He had created a cure the sect's economics deemed impossible.
He didn't report it. He didn't show anyone. He simply observed. Overseer Liang, stomping past the patch that afternoon, paused. He squinted at the recovering plant, scratched his head, muttered, "Stubborn thing," and moved on. A minor anomaly in a field of failure.
But to Lin Feng, it was a monument.
That evening, as he meditated, the Ledger delivered its judgment.
Karmic Opportunity Detected: Resolution of 'Economic Impasse' via Unorthodox Means. Creation of Niche Solution.
Karma Points Gained: +5.
Current Karma Balance: 5.
He had spent three points and earned seven, for a net gain of four. And he had proven a devastating principle: in a world that valued brute force and rare treasures, the most powerful currency was sometimes a specific solution to a specific, overlooked problem.
He now had five points again. A recovered plant. And a secret that tasted of silver and shadow.
He looked at the mountain peaks, at the grand halls where real power resided. They were playing a game of accumulating vast, generic wealth. Lin Feng was learning to profit from the tiny, specific bankruptcies they left in their wake. The garden' blight was his first ledger entry. He was now in the business of turning trash into value, one optimized, subverted concept at a time.