Chapter Fifty-Nine: Greed
The Underworld Soul Flower was entirely blood-red, resembling a rose, its body covered in thorns, its roots winding through the entire tower.
This flower was said to grow by the banks of the Underworld River. Legend held that it could summon memories of the dead from their former lives.
The phantom-like, chest-piercing figures were manifestations of memories awakened by this flower, as though hallucinations themselves.
For those cultivating meditation methods of darkness, the Underworld Soul Flower had miraculous effects; its liquid could cleanse the mind and purify the flesh.
The tower stood roughly eight fathoms high, and astonishingly, it was constructed entirely from a dense array of white bones. Countless hollow skulls stared at Lu Qian.
Bathed in the crimson world, it appeared exceedingly strange and bewitching.
Lu Qian tapped lightly beneath his feet, leaping high to reach the eighth fathom.
The moment his hand grasped the Underworld Soul Flower, a surge of extreme danger welled up within him.
Suddenly, from the pitch-black windows of the tower, a plume of eerie green smoke gushed forth.
“Not good!” Lu Qian hastily burned a paper figure, placing it before himself.
Hiss!
The paper figure disintegrated instantly into flying ash.
This smoke seemed the most sinister and evil substance under heaven.
The instant it touched the paper figure, Lu Qian felt all connection with the figure severed and sensed a chilling, corrupting aura threatening to taint his mind.
The ghostly green smoke moved swiftly, about to envelop Lu Qian’s face in the blink of an eye.
Buzz!
A blue radiance flared, slicing through the smoke.
“Corpse miasma!” Lu Qian’s pupils contracted. He acted decisively, storing the Underworld Soul Flower in his Heaven-and-Earth pouch and leaping backward.
The power of pitch-black true water wrapped around his body. He swallowed the Yin Ink of the Age, his black robe glimmered faintly, and his whole figure transformed into a shadow, vanishing beyond the horizon.
Boom! The moment after he departed, the crimson world erupted.
Crash!
From within the waterfall, a figure broke through the water.
Lu Qian sat upright on the ground, breathing deeply.
“It was corpse miasma.” He felt lingering dread.
Corpse miasma was the most yin thing in the world, capable of corrupting spirit treasures and true essence.
“In a place of deep underworld, saturated with death; its color ghostly green, accompanied by a poisonous stench. Likely brewed for a thousand years,” he pondered.
If he hadn’t disrupted the trap in advance, a few years hence, a true corpse fiend would have formed.
Corpse fiends were baleful energies born from millennium burial grounds, used by cultivators at the spirit-nurturing stage to condense fiend energy.
Corpse fiends were even more ferocious; a touch could tear soul from body and kill instantly.
Fiend energies that even spirit-nurturing masters could not control were far beyond his current capabilities as a mere qi-cultivator.
“Fortunately, I obtained the Underworld Soul Flower.”
Lu Qian retrieved the alluring red flower from his Heaven-and-Earth pouch.
Azure energy swirled, carrying an exotic fragrance. The instant he inhaled it, countless illusions buried deep in his heart manifested before his eyes.
Lu Qian chanted an incantation, and the illusions vanished.
This flower, grown in a place of extreme yin, was a supreme tonic for one cultivating yin methods.
He carefully stored the Underworld Soul Flower, found a concealed spot, and sat cross-legged.
He buried fire thunder medicine around himself, set up spells, and began to meditate and regulate his breath.
When his mind finally calmed, Lu Qian abruptly opened his eyes, a pale flame flaring in his palm.
Whoosh!
He burned the Underworld Soul Flower with netherworld energy fire. Wisps of yin energy arose, and the flame transformed into ghostly green.
This flower required no complicated refining; simply extracting its essence sufficed.
In this craft, Lu Qian was a master.
During the burning, faintly in his ears, thousands of malicious curses and shrieks from ghosts echoed.
An ordinary person would be easily affected.
But Lu Qian’s Three Treasures Clear Mind Mantra was perfected; he paid no heed to such chaos.
After a long while, a thumb-sized drop of ghostly green liquid appeared.
He opened his mouth and swallowed it whole.
Boom!
A vast force of solar and lunar essence surged through his limbs and bones, an icy chill flowing through his meridians, settling in his dantian.
Lu Qian remained unmoved, closing his eyes to meditate, mobilizing his true qi, refining it to spirit.
The diagram of the Flood Dragon in the Underworld sprinkled sweet dew.
Flood dragons in the Underworld waters leapt and cheered, their golden eyes flashing with a hint of human-like joy.
Solar and lunar essence, transformed by the visualization diagram, became Yin Sunflower True Water.
The mysterious golden scale on the ancient mirror continually lit up.
One, two, three, four… twenty… thirty…
Unnoticed, five days passed, dust gathering on Lu Qian’s body.
Deep in meditation, a faint scent of the Underworld Soul Flower wafted from him.
…
At that moment, a man and a woman approached from afar.
The man wore azure, the woman scarlet.
Both carried matching swords, though their colors were opposite.
“This place looks dangerous. Maybe we should turn back,” the woman said, fear written across her face.
“What’s there to be afraid of? Fortune favors the bold. If we find something valuable, we can buy a cave-dwelling. Then…” The man’s tone shifted, a sly grin appearing, “...we can dual cultivate inside every day. Heh heh.”
“You’re so bad.” The woman blushed and playfully punched him.
“Quiet, what’s that smell?” The man raised a finger, sniffing intently.
Following the fragrance, they came within a mile of Lu Qian’s cave dwelling.
Through gaps in the woods and underbrush, they glimpsed a black-robed Taoist seated in meditation, blue smoke swirling, forming the phantom of a strange flower.
“That looks like the Underworld Soul Flower?” Both were so astonished their mouths hung open.
“Before he absorbs all the effects, let’s kill him and drain his blood.”
A seed of greed sprouted in the man’s heart.
“But… he doesn’t seem to be just a beginner qi-cultivator…” The woman was more cautious.
She herself was late in the fetal breathing stage, the man was in the early qi-cultivation stage.
“What’s there to be afraid of?” The man’s eyes reddened, his mind clouded by greed. “The Underworld Soul Flower and whatever he owns will keep us well-fed for a while.”
“Besides, he’s in the midst of cultivation. We could just steal…”
“Do you know Yulong?” A hoarse voice suddenly sounded at their ears.
They nearly screamed in fright.
The man turned trembling, and before him stood a monster, flesh mangled, draped in scales, nearly causing him to faint from terror.
“Dragon Skin Armor… Are you Brother Jikong?” Both were disciples of Seven Weapons Mountain and recognized Jikong at a glance.
“Do you know the black-robed Taoist Yulong?” The monster continued, a murderous aura enveloping both. “Speak, or I’ll kill you.”
The chilling murderous intent exploded, blood-light flashing, forcing the pair to prostrate in terror, not daring to raise their heads.
“Br—Brother… Are you referring to that person?” The man’s finger, quivering, pointed toward the distant cave.
The monster spun around abruptly, his keen sight easily piercing the darkness.
Seeing the black-robed Taoist’s features, Jikong’s throat let out a suppressed growl: “At last! I’ve finally found you. Ha ha ha ha!!”
Boom!
His feet smashed the earth, his whole body becoming a streak of blood-light rushing forward.
When Jikong departed, the pair finally regained their senses.
“We should leave!” the woman said, still shaken. “That Taoist must have wounded Jikong so badly. We’d best not get involved.”
“Shut up! If you’re scared, go back the way you came. When two tigers fight, one is bound to be wounded. We can profit as the fisherman.”
The man’s eyes burned with fanaticism, greed flourishing in his heart, muttering to himself, “If we pull this off, we’ll never have worries for the rest of our lives.”