Chapter 122: Overconfidence Will Kill You

Chapter 122: Chapter 122: Overconfidence Will Kill You

On the other side, the three newcomers began working on their assigned tasks.

Disciple Tang once again approached Chu Ran. Looking at the herbs in her assigned area, he hesitated before speaking.

"Junior Sister Chu, are you sure you want to take this task? Based on what I remember about the herbs in this area, they are all high-level spirit herbs that require a large amount of spiritual energy to cultivate. With your current cultivation level, I’m afraid it might be too much for you."

His tone carried the concern of a senior brother genuinely worried that she might overestimate her abilities.

Hearing this, Chu Ran’s expression immediately darkened. She was already dissatisfied with Disciple Tang after he had suggested that they follow Sui Sui’s instructions. Now, hearing him question whether she could handle the task only made her irritation grow.

"What? Do you think I won’t be able to do it?" she snapped, glaring at him. "Watch your words." ℴ

Seeing the situation quickly turning sour, Disciple Leng immediately stepped between the two.

"Junior Sister, don’t misunderstand Senior Brother. He’s only worried about you, so don’t take it to heart." He turned toward Chu Ran and smiled reassuringly. "We all know you can do it. After all, you’re already a Foundation Building cultivator. Even a Qi Refining cultivator was able to handle this task, so surely you can do it as well." He then looked toward Disciple Tang. "Senior Brother, you agree too, right?"

From the ease with which he smoothed things over, it was clear that Disciple Leng was already accustomed to coaxing up to people.

Hearing their words, Disciple Tang no longer bothered to argue. He had already given them a warning, so if something went wrong later, it would have nothing to do with him.

In truth, Disciple Tang was not particularly close to either of them. The reason he had been sent here as one of Madam Jiang’s trusted disciples was because his family was allied with the Jiang family, making him one of the people she thought she could rely on. Aside from that connection, however, he did not care much about these matters.

His earlier warning had only come from practical concern. If something went wrong after he had been responsible for supervising them, he feared that the blame would eventually fall on him. But seeing how poorly they had taken his advice, he decided there was no point in saying anything further.

He had warned them already. Whether they listened or not was no longer his problem.

Soon after, the three of them split up and headed toward their respective areas.

Chu Ran walked to hers with complete confidence. She did not even bother looking at the instructions Sui Sui had provided. If a lower-level disciple could complete the task, then surely she, as a Foundation Building cultivator, could do it as well. There was nothing for her to worry about.

When Chu Ran reached her assigned area, she looked over the spirit herbs and quickly realized that many of them were unfamiliar to her. Fortunately, she recognized a few of them from books she had read before, she figured that since they were all grouped together then the process should be quite similar and after recalling what she had learned, she decided to follow the methods described there.

She gathered her spiritual energy into her palm and slowly spread it across the entire field, allowing it to seep into the surrounding herbs. At first, everything went smoothly. She was able to maintain the flow without much difficulty, and a smug smile appeared on her face.

See? She could do it just fine.

She then began circulating her spiritual energy through the field as the books instructed. According to what she remembered, she only needed to maintain the process for around two hours. However, as time passed, the amount of energy being consumed gradually increased.

By the twentieth minute, her spiritual energy consumption had already doubled. Chu Ran noticed the change but paid little attention to it, believing she could easily endure it. Yet another ten minutes passed, and the consumption had already risen to four times the original amount.

Sweat began to gather along her back as she finally felt how quickly her spiritual energy was being drained. Realizing that continuing like this might become troublesome, she quickly took out a high-grade spiritual energy recovery pill from her pouch and swallowed it.

The pill immediately replenished some of her depleted energy, allowing her to breathe a little easier.

But her relief lasted less than five minutes.

Her spiritual energy was once again being drained at an alarming rate, and soon, she had barely half of it remaining.

Only then did Chu Ran realize that something was seriously wrong.

For a moment, she considered asking for help. But then she remembered everything she had said earlier. Her pride immediately stopped her.

She gritted her teeth.

No. There was no way she was weaker than a Qi Refining cultivator.

What Chu Ran did not know was that even Sui Sui would occasionally ask Elder Shan Li for help when handling these spirit herbs. Sometimes, he would even place spirit stones nearby to supplement his spiritual energy. Since Chu Ran had never bothered to read the guidelines Sui Sui had provided, she naturally had no idea.

Spirit plants, especially those that required large amounts of spiritual energy to grow, were far more perceptive than ordinary plants. After sensing that the spiritual energy they were receiving today was neither as abundant nor as pure as usual, they instinctively became even more greedy, desperately absorbing every bit of energy they could get.

It was only when Chu Ran felt a faint burning sensation in her dantian that she finally stopped. The moment she tried withdrew her spiritual energy, a loud scream suddenly rang out across the courtyard.

___

Sui Sui, who had been busy tending to the jade tree, was startled by the sudden scream. His spiritual energy immediately withdrew from the tree as he turned toward the direction of the sound.

It seemed to have come from the herb garden.

Sui Sui quickly stood up and headed over to see what had happened. As soon as he arrived, he saw Disciple Tang and Disciple Leng gathered around someone lying on the ground.

From the clothes, it was clearly Chu Ran.

She was clutching her stomach, her face pale from the pain. Sui Sui took one look at her condition and immediately understood what had happened.

Her spiritual energy was completely exhausted.

He had experienced something similar himself before, but Chu Ran’s condition seemed considerably worse than what he had gone through.

"Junior Sister Chu, what happened? Are you in pain?" Disciple Tang asked worriedly. He crouched beside her but did not dare touch her without permission. After all, she was a female disciple, and he did not want to accidentally damage her reputation.

"Senior Brother, we need to call Elder Shan Li. I’m afraid something is wrong with Junior Sister," Disciple Leng said urgently.

However, before Disciple Tang could respond, a familiar voice came from behind them.

"What’s wrong with your Junior Sister is that her spiritual energy has been completely exhausted."

The three turned toward the voice. Sui Sui had already arrived, his expression calm as he looked at Chu Ran.

"Didn’t I warn you earlier not to be careless? This is the most difficult portion of the task, yet she insisted on doing things her own way, she has no one else to blame but himself." His tone was matter-of-fact, he was simply stating what had happened.

"You—"

Disciple Leng opened his mouth to refute him, but the words died on his lips. He could not deny it. Sui Sui had indeed warned them beforehand.

"My advice is to let her recover naturally for now. Don’t give her any recovery pills. In her current state, taking one could place too much shock on her body and make things worse," Sui Sui advised, although he did not like Chu Ran, he wasn’t so bad that he would purposely put her down.

Disciple Tang checked Chu Ran’s pulse, and after confirming that Sui Sui’s assessment was correct, he nodded. "Take Junior Sister Chu somewhere she can rest and recover."

Disciple Leng immediately helped Chu Ran up. At first, they intended to take her to Elder Shan Li’s residence, but Chu Ran, who was barely conscious, weakly refused.

She absolutely could not let Elder Shan Li see her in such a pathetic state.

What if he learned that she had failed the task and began to think less of her?

In the end, she insisted on being taken back to her own residence to recover.

Once the two of them left, only Sui Sui and Disciple Tang remained. Their work was still unfinished, and there were two portions left—the ones originally assigned to Chu Ran and Disciple Leng.

Without needing to discuss it, Disciple Tang took Chu Ran’s portion while Sui Sui picked up Disciple Leng’s.

Neither of them mentioned what had just happened. They simply returned to work, quietly finishing the remaining tasks as though the commotion earlier had nothing to do with them.

Sui Sui glanced at Disciple Tang from the corner of his eye.

It seemed this senior brother wasn’t too bad after all.