SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100

Chapter 609: A Root for Another World

Leon examined the dark fern without touching it.

”What does it do?”

”Nothing quickly,” Shen Yuanhe said. ”It will not raise your cultivation, heal a wound, or protect you from an attack.”

He removed the ceramic pot from its formation and set it on a lower table so Leon could see the roots through a narrow crystal panel in the side.

”A mature Earthmarrow Fern draws scattered earth qi from its surroundings and converts it into a form other living things can absorb. The process is slow, but continuous. Given ten years, the ground around it becomes suitable for valuable herbs. Given several decades, it can turn poor land into a true cultivation field.”

”Can it be harvested?”

”Two fronds in a season, safely. They form the base of several pill formulas and regrow if the plant remains healthy. Greedy owners cut too much, weaken the roots, and kill what took generations to mature.”

”Can it reproduce?”

”Rarely. It produces seed only after enriching its surroundings beyond a certain point. Under ordinary conditions, that takes close to a century. Most owners harvest it to death long before then.”

Leon studied the root system again.

Loriel’s Child of Life class did not guarantee success with a plant from a higher world. But she understood living energy better than anyone else he knew, and the dimensional world offered controlled land that could be isolated from every existing field.

One fern might become several. Even if it never reproduced, improving the soil around it could benefit generations of medicinal plants.

”How long has your family kept this one?” he asked.

”Four generations. We have taken almost nothing from it.”

Shen Yuanhe showed him the family record. Every harvested frond had a date, a purpose, and a note about the plant’s recovery. Some entries were separated by years. The Shens had used it only when a medicine could not be made another way.

”We tried three times to move it into prepared ground,” the old man said. ”Each time, the roots began rejecting the local qi before the first day ended. Returning it to this soil saved it. Since then, we have treated the pot as its home.”

”Then moving it anywhere is a risk.”

”Yes. That is why the record matters more than the stories surrounding the plant.”

”And you’re giving it to me?”

”You protected the refinement that may have given me many more years,” Shen Yuanhe said. ”The fern has spent decades in this pot because we possess no uncontaminated land worth planting it in. Keeping it alive has preserved its value, but it has helped no one.”

He gestured toward the weapon racks.

”If you would rather have something useful in battle, choose it. I will not be offended.”

Leon barely looked at the weapons.

”I’ll take the fern.”

Yanning, who had followed them into the treasury, glanced from him to the plant. ”You already have somewhere to grow it?”

”I have a cultivation project that may suit it.”

It was true and revealed nothing.

Shen Yuanhe nodded without pressing. ”Then take the archive record as well. It contains every successful feeding cycle and every mistake my family documented. Do not plant it beside anything valuable until you know how it reacts.”

”I won’t.”

Back in the guest wing, Leon waited until he was alone and every privacy formation was active.

He did not open a passage.

Through the private connection that already linked him to the dimensional world, he drew the sealed pot out of the room without creating a visible aperture or releasing a pulse of spatial energy into the estate. The fern appeared inside a quarantine plot Xyra had prepared in the eastern flats, three hundred paces from the nearest cultivated field.

The plot contained bare soil, layered barriers, and separate water channels. Nothing would leave it until Loriel understood exactly what the fern consumed and produced.

Loriel examined the pot before allowing anyone to break its protective seal.

Xyra kept the quarantine barriers closed while Loriel used thin strands of life energy to inspect the fern without feeding it. They tested water from three parts of the dimensional world on separate samples of its original soil rather than pouring anything into the pot. Even the air inside the enclosure was introduced gradually.

”It’s healthy,” she reported later. ”Older than Shen Yuanhe implied, too. The roots have been pruned several times, but carefully.”

”Can you propagate it?”

”Maybe.”

The cautious answer told Leon more than an easy promise would have.

”I need to test the soil first,” Loriel continued. ”Then its energy intake, its water needs, and how it responds to this world. If I move it straight into our fields and it reacts badly, I lose the plant and might damage everything around it.”

”How long before you know?”

”Weeks before I understand the basics. Months before I risk a cutting.” Her voice softened. ”But the soil inside the pot is changing exactly as the old man described. If it adapts, it could be very useful.”

”Could it damage the dimensional world?”

”Anything living can damage the wrong environment if introduced carelessly. That is why it stays sealed.” Loriel paused. ”So far, it is drawing only a small amount of earth energy. It is not spreading roots or releasing seed. Those are good signs, but they are only the first signs.”

”Tell me before you change anything.”

”I will. And send the full record, not a summary. Whoever kept this plant alive knew enough to be cautious.”

”I’ll send you the Shen records.”

Leon ended the connection and looked at the empty place where the pot had stood.

The fern offered no immediate increase in power. That was precisely why it had been overlooked in a treasury containing weapons and talismans. Its value grew with time, patience, and the ability to keep it alive.

For Leon, those were advantages rather than weaknesses.

The rest of the day passed in controlled urgency.

Shen Baoyuan began moving the most vulnerable warehouse records. Yanning sent messengers to trusted factors without telling any one of them the full reason. Formation workers from another ward arrived through the front gate under the excuse of repairing damage from an old settling crack.

By late afternoon, the estate looked calm from the street and remained tense within its walls.

The outer formation sounded a low warning note.

Every guard in the western yard reached for a weapon.

Leon sensed the approaching presence before the note finished. It crossed the third ward openly, making no attempt to conceal its strength.

He recognized it.

”Stand down,” he told the nearest guards. ”She is not with Ninefold Ridge.”

Yanning joined him as the main gate opened.

Qingyue stepped into the estate with travel dust along the hem of her robe and a shallow, half-healed cut across one forearm. She looked tired, but her steps remained steady. Her gaze moved over the repaired formations, the altered guard posts, and the servants avoiding the rear passage.

Then she looked at Leon.

”Good,” Qingyue said. ”You waited.”

”I completed the investigation in the south,” Qingyue said before anyone could ask. ”My report has reached the Palace. There is nothing more I need to do there.”