The Cornflower Witch

Book 2: Chapter 108: The Girl's Courtyard

Vol 2 Chapter 108 The Girl's Courtyard

After advancing, Sylutia was surrounded by curious apprentices and companions asking questions. She patiently answered everyone's queries, and also helped some gardener apprentices at the Second Tier stage analyze and sort out their situations, assisting in formulating advancement plans.

Three days passed like this before her life regained some peace, allowing her to properly test her brand-new abilities.

First was the 'Flower Blooming Method'. She picked up a blue Cornflower. Under the effect of the Flower Blooming Method, the pale blue flower tube swayed, and starlike stigmas faintly glowed in the wind, purifying the surrounding air and bringing a clean, pure sensation.

Many flowers, after condensing their Aspect, exhibit effects of different natures. For example, the 'Swan Orchid's' ability to purify the environment, the 'Fire Glow Orchid's' scorching aura, the 'White Camellia's' detoxifying effect, and so on.

But there are also some flowers that themselves have no overt effects. They are more suitable as raw materials or intermediate products for preparing other things.

The blue Cornflower in Sylutia's hand was like this. Even though it was stimulated by the 'Flower Blooming Method', it only displayed a weak power of purification, similar to the 'Swan Orchid' but more gentle and weaker.

It seemed using the 'Flower Blooming Method' on the Cornflower wasn't ideal. Even with the boost from her special innate ability, the effect was only on par with a 'Swan Orchid' of the same tier.

Switching to the 'Fire Glow Orchid' that Sylutia had cultivated for a long time and which had currently reached the Second Tier, driven by the Flower Blooming Method, surging orange-red waves of fire spread from beneath the young girl's feet, making her seem as if she were standing amidst rolling crimson clouds. Wherever the fire waves reached, trees burned and turned to ash, and even stones on the ground showed slight melting traces from the high temperature.

If she encountered that 'Second Tier Ogre' from the Hidden Grove assessment again, such flames could directly turn the opponent into black ash, no other means needed at all. However, the fire waves were, after all, just a derivative product of the 'Fire Glow Orchid', not a flame ability personally mastered by Sylutia. They lacked versatility. If facing that giant White Stink Spider from before, the opponent could easily escape relying on its speed.Afterwards, Sylutia's thoughts shifted. Another seed was grasped in her hand, then continuously grew. Hard wooden fibers extended, finally forming a long spear suitable for her grip.

Under Sylutia's direction, the spear shaft displayed intricate patterns, then twisted and rotated bit by bit, finally becoming a peculiar spiral spear. Its tip was as hard as steel, and the side blade was incredibly sharp.

Even if not thrown, holding it in hand for combat was quite a handy weapon, its power not inferior to meticulously crafted armaments.

Sylutia nimbly swung it within the training ground, then casually threw it. Electric light flickered across the spear shaft as it shot into a distant rock, piercing through it. The originally hard spear blade withered and decayed after the attack.

Recalling past enemies, if it were that Petrification Lizard, she could now easily pierce through two with a single spear throw. If she further activated the lightning residing within the 'Spiral Spear', even if the opponent could use Mist Form, it could inflict wounds difficult to heal.

After that, she tested abilities like 'Vine Overgrowth' and 'Vegetation Frenzy'. The grown vines, grass, and leaves also received significant enhancement. The vine whip she now held could, when tightened, strangle and break stone. The 'Demonic Blood Vine' could also reproduce more violently and rapidly, absorbing the enemy's blood.

After finishing these tests of her Ability Cards, Sylutia finally turned her gaze towards the new Core Card ability obtained from advancing.

Her mind stirred. Autumn winds and fallen leaves blew, a courtyard full of autumn scenery spreading around her. In an instant, she was standing within this forest laden with fruit.

Brown-gold 'Gold Ingot Pears' hung high on the branches. She carefully counted them; there were 42 in total, of 'Second Tier - Rare' quality. Using them, metal of equivalent quality could be refined. Sylutia had a premonition that she could probably harvest them once every three months. Because the 'Autumn Garden' existed within her mental consciousness world, she didn't need to spend extra effort caring for it. During the entire courtyard's operation, it could spontaneously adjust, providing the most suitable growth environment to enhance its quality and yield.

This even saved labor. She just needed to wait for the season and pick the fruit.

No wonder gardeners took the 'manor' as their core secret art. It was just too worry-free and convenient.

However, what Sylutia didn't know was that not every gardener was as exceptionally talented as her. Many gardeners, when first stepping into the Third Tier, could only focus on cultivating one type of plant in the manor they built, and the yield wouldn't be this high, probably harvesting only once a year.

The fruit-bearing characteristic of the Autumn Garden greatly shortened the cultivation time for results and also boosted the yield.

Then she looked at the 'Blood Currants' in the nearby shrubbery. Compared to the mere 42 'Gold Ingot Pears', there were many more 'Blood Currant' plants. Vast swathes of red berries filled the view within the shrubbery. If all these were picked, Sylutia could probably make nearly 200 bottles of high-quality 'Blood Wine'. But she wasn't lacking in these currently, so she planned to continue cultivating them, letting their quality gradually improve.

Looking past the shrubbery, there were the tea plants beside the shrubs or under the trees, now blooming with delicate, pure white camellia flowers, emitting a faint, fresh fragrance.

These camellia flowers could be used for regulating detoxification or for brewing tea to soothe hidden injuries in the body. They were basically something everyone needed and were also convenient for gift-giving.

Finally, there were the green plant grasses and leaves that were everywhere in the courtyard yet particularly inconspicuous. Among them hid pale green buds the same color as the grass and leaves.

When Sylutia called out, these unremarkable grasses and leaves grew one after another. Small flower buds opened, and finally, a full view of blue Cornflowers bloomed, decorating the entire courtyard, making it appear exceptionally beautiful.

Different from those previous 'Second Tier' quality flowers, grasses, and fruits, these Cornflowers had all condensed the 'Third Tier - Verdant Nectar' Aspect. Even though they didn't exhibit additional ability effects, the accumulated power of the strong Aspect also provided Sylutia, who stood among them, with a tremendous boost, giving a sense of beauty from rapidly inflating numerical values.

If she performed Aspect resonance with these Cornflowers like breathing, her own 'Verdant Nectar' Aspect would receive an enormous enhancement, and the various abilities cast using it would also gain a huge bonus.

If Sylutia further learned a spell or ability that could use Cornflowers as a casting medium, then her latent power could be fully unleashed. And right now, she could hardly imagine what kind of power she could wield in such a state.

"Hmm, there's still so, so much to learn," Sylutia spoke softly after finishing her ability checks.

The formal progression path consolidation for gardeners, spells or abilities related to Cornflowers, the 'Verdant Nectar' abilities learnable at the Third Tier, such as 'Tree Sprouting' and 'Fruit Bearing Method'. Furthermore, she had cultivated so many fruits and crops; if she directly sold them to others, it would still be a bit of a loss. If possible, she also wanted to learn some production techniques like 'Floral Honey Pastries', 'High-Grade Tea Leaves', 'Secret Recipe Fruit Jam', and so on.

After she completely stabilized the 'Third Tier - Verdant Nectar' progression path and abilities, she could then in turn nurture the growth of the 'Luminous Moon' Aspect, cultivating various resources of the 'Luminous Moon' Aspect. This intertwined, mutually promoting growth.

Finally, after completing the 'Autumn Garden' and stepping into the Third Tier, she finally had sufficient self-protection ability and no longer needed to rely solely on the abilities of the 'Luminous Moon' Aspect side in every battle.

The greatest benefit of this was that she didn't have to avoid others during combat to use additional abilities, but could directly display the strength of being a 'gardener'.