“Scratch that, do you know where they grow their incense plants? Incense plants meaning weed.”

“They grow them in the greenhouses,” said Hui Ming, “Do you plan on copying them?”

I stowed away my jade slips. “Exactly.”

“The greenhouses are locked down, they don’t let anybody in,” she said.

“Do you think we can slip in?”

“I doubt we can do it without getting noticed, but breaking in should be no problem.”

“All the better.” It’s not as if we were stealing anything. A little breaking and entering to spice up my day.

We walked through the multicolored streets again, arriving at a greenhouse. I could smell a minty forest smell coming from within the greenhouse. It was tall enough for us to see it behind a stout brick wall. The sunlight turned blue after passing through its tinted glass. Watchtowers stuck out of the roof, each stationed with three people.

I didn’t put on a disguise, I knew I could get more from this than some weed. I stared at one of the people on the watchtowers. He stared back.

“No killing,” I said. Hui Ming nodded. We jumped over the fence and strolled to the greenhouse at a leisurely pace. Thirty men and women gathered in front of us, blocking our path. They assembled into five man units.

Out of the corner of my eye, the people on the watchtowers were setting up a turret.

A representative from their group walked forward. She had the soft eyes of a mother and the beauty of a young woman. “Good afternoon,” she said, “may I ask what had brought you here today?”

“We would like to take a look at your wee- incense plants.”

She gave me a pained look. “We can’t do that unless you have permission.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“Indeed,” she said.

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“We can’t reach a compromise?”

“Indeed,” she said.

“That’s unfortunate,” I said again.

Both of the watchtowers had a long rod pointed at us. A flash, and the area lit up in red. Red light covered everything, giving the surroundings a tint of red. Three men poured a bag of spirit shards on to the rod. The spirit shards disappeared into the machine, further lighting it up. The thousands of spirit shards turned into small particles of glowing red mist. They pointed it at me and fired.

The glow disappeared for a split second. The particles of mist formed into one red shard floating at the tip of the rod. The glow returned, stronger than ever. The shard blasted out.

“That’s yours,” I said.

Hui Ming jumped towards the shard. Her sword lashed out like a striking snake, meeting the shot head on. The shard cracked. The crack resulted in a quaking rumble. It was as if there were a monster resting within the stone, about to be released through the crack.

The shard exploded in a blinding display of light and force. Hui Ming brought her sword across the center of the explosion, splitting it in two. The residual blast shattered some of the greenhouse windows and blew away the earth. The teams of five charged at me and Hui Ming. They tried to overwhelm us with numbers.

The second watchtower had almost loaded their rod. Hui Ming landed on the earth, her legs bending to absorb her fall. She darted backward to protect me. “Come on Jin,” I whispered to myself, “do your part.”

I extended my arm and let a couple seeds slip out of my grasp.

One of transformed into a small wooden tube. It was about as long as it was wide, with a small hole in the center.

You’ve created a new type of plant! What would you like to name it?

“Cannon Segment” has been named!

Cannon Segment has reached level two!

Another seed became a bundle of vines. It stabilized the Cannon Segment and pointed it at the watchtower. The vines put a seed into one end of the cannon segment. A smooth sound, like a sword leaving its sheath. The seed shot out the other end.

The seed landed on the shoulder of one of the men on the watchtower. It transformed into a Twentytacle trap and swatted them off. My cannon swiveled and shot another seed at the other watchtower. It turned into another Twentytacle Trap and knocked them off the tower. I disabled the two turrets.

Hui Ming dashed around me. She blocked arrows from hitting me and cut down the enemies. I ignored their fight and walked into the greenhouse. The broken glass crackled beneath my feet. Before me were endless rows of weed. “Jackpot.”

I ran my fingers across a leaf and used Identify. Information about the plant entered my mind. I knew I would be able to copy it later. I ran across the aisles, feeling everything plant in my sight. Not all the plants were weed. There were many other rare herbs, some of which I’d never seen before.

But the greenhouse was too big. I couldn’t touch all them before reinforcements arrived, at least not by running through the aisles. The noises from outside stopped. Hui Ming stepped past the pile of broken glass in time to see a wave of vines spread through the greenhouse. The vines were thin tendrils, instead of the thick vines I used for combat. They lifted the rows of pots and brought them to me.

All the pots of pot brushed past me. I felt like I was running through a forest, except the forest was running through me. Hui Ming stared in awe as the torrent of green followed by. I Identified every one of them. Information flooded my consciousness.

The plants returned to their original places. I collapsed to my knees. My head felt light, my body disconnected from my mind. I felt muddle-headed and dizzy, as if I hadn’t gotten any sleep in days. “Ugh. Look what you’ve done now.”

Hui Ming put me on her back. I had one of the Twentytacle Traps toss over one of the rods. I Withered every plant I had made. We ran before more powerful cultivators could show up.

The trip back was a blur. I fell asleep halfway.