Chapter 91 Lotus Flower
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Each person held a thin book, containing only a few pages. When they opened it, they found a technique called “Soulchasing.” Surprisingly, the book provided detailed instructions, clearly depicting the paths of energy circulation.
The people became doubtful and hesitant, unsure about pursuing the practice.
The Bone Witch noticed their expressions but didn’t say much. She calmly said, “Whether you can leave or not depends on your luck. Those who want to enter Zhuihun Palace probably have enemies in the outer city and can’t stay there anymore. But entering my Zhuihun Palace won’t be easy either. I suggest you value this time. If you can’t reach the Cultivation Realm within ten days, you’ll end up as food for the worms in the pool.”
She smirked coldly, then turned around and said, “Don’t try any tricks. I’ve seen enough foolishly clever people.”
After the Bone Witch left, she waved her hand, causing the lotus leaves that formed the stairs to quickly disappear into the water. The river churned, teeming with countless worms.
They were a group of people without any spiritual power, left alone high above.
In the midst of the solemn and oppressive atmosphere, where everyone’s faces were serious, Pei Jing yawned, breaking the atmosphere of despair.
The crowd turned their heads in his direction, their gazes towards him had changed from initial disdain and scorn to a deep scrutiny.
However, this girl, who had a terrible reputation, seemed unaware of her uniqueness.
He rubbed his eyes and lazily said, “Since we’ve become ordinary people, it’s time to sleep. I’m so tired. Let’s go, Qiao Qiao.” Seemingly genuinely exhausted, his eyelids kept drooping as he turned around and headed upstairs.
Qiao Mucai wanted to flatter Pei Jing so badly in this place. He hurriedly followed him, while the others in the hall stiffened for a while before going their separate ways. Luckily, the palace was spacious enough, with many vacant rooms.
Pei Jing chose a room at the far end, where he could open the window and see the boundless lotus pond.
Qiao Mucai caught up and asked, “What should we do next?” As he walked, he flipped through the book, completely unfamiliar with the cultivation techniques inside. “Is this really how we cultivate?” Pei Jing leaned against the window, observing the lotus under the moonlight, and spoke in his usual voice. “Forget about cultivating.”
Qiao Mucai: “…Then what should we do?” At this point, he only knew how to ask such questions.
In Pei Jing’s plan, he didn’t intend to involve Qiao Mucai. However, since he was already here, leaving him unattended wasn’t his style. The young man leaning against the window extended his hand, and from his wrist, a slowly crawling green worm emerged.
Qiao Mucai: “We still need to eat. The food in this lousy place definitely won’t be good. Do you want to…” He looked up, suddenly fell silent, his eyes bulging as if they were about to fall out, staring at the scene before him.
Pei Jing toyed with the worm in his hand, a faint smile appearing on his lips. “I think this little thing might be the key to our escape.”
Qiao Mucai, resembling someone being choked, exclaimed, “You didn’t eat it?!!!!”
Pei Jing: “This ugly bug is so disgusting. Only a fool would eat it.”
Qiao Mucai was infuriated. “—Then why did you hold my chin and force-feed me this bug?!”
Pei Jing. “Because I’ll be fine if I don’t eat it, but you’ll die if you don’t.”
Qiao Mucai swallowed his anger and asked, perplexed, “Why?”
Pei Jing ignored him, patting his shoulder gently. “Just get a good night’s sleep.”
Qiao Mucai was kicked out of the room.
After he left, Pei Jing glanced at the lotus pond and then shifted his gaze to the worm in his hand. “Without you, I probably wouldn’t have been able to enter this area. You’re truly delicate, relying on absorbing spiritual energy to survive. If it weren’t for me breaking through the Nascent Soul stage, it would have been impossible to bring you here alive.”
Pei Jing stared at the fat worm that only knew how to eat, drink, and sleep. “I’ll crush you if you try to leave.”
The fat worm rolled around angrily in his hand!
Pei Jing put it back into his sleeve, closed the window, and didn’t make any other moves. He went to the bed, opened the book “Zhuihun Technique,” and quickly skimmed through it. He found it quite weird. The first requirement was to close one’s spiritual consciousness.
Already devoid of spiritual energy, closing his spiritual consciousness would make his completely indistinguishable from an ordinary person. From there, it would be like starting over and re-cultivating the technique from scratch.
The next day, everyone woke up feeling famished. As they descended the stairs, they spotted a creature with greenish-blue skin carrying a wooden barrel emerging from the pond. The barrel was filled with thick, greenish liquid that slowly flowed as the creature moved. Following behind it were a group of small frogs, each with a tiny bowl on its head.
The creature placed the wooden barrel in the center of the hall, while the frogs stacked the bowls one by one.
The creature and the frogs had empty, hollow eyes. After completing their tasks, they all hopped back into the water without saying a word.
The wooden barrel and the bowls.
Witnessing this scene, someone among the crowd erupted, “Is this what she expects us to eat?! I’d rather fight to the death with the Feixie Sect outside the city than endure this punishment inside.” Some people joined in, becoming extremely irritable, while others remained silent and started approaching to take a bowl. There was a large spoon in the barrel, but no one had the appetite to take more than a shallow scoop of the contents.
Qiao Mucai was pushed forward by Pei Jing. The sight of the greenish liquid made him nauseous, but there was a faint fragrance emanating from it.
Eventually, unable to resist their hunger, nearly everyone held a bowl and squatted in a corner on the first floor, sipping the liquid while contemplating the future.
Qiao Mucai felt a bit queasy. “Do we really have to eat this?”
Pei Jing: “If you’re hungry, just eat. Without a full stomach, how can you have the energy to work?”
Pei Jing walked towards the door, where many people were gathered on the raised platform, gazing intensely at the lake below.
Pei Jing pulled Qiao Mucai to sit in the center. They had become well-known figures by now, and as soon as they appeared, they unwittingly attracted everyone’s attention.
Qiao Mucai took a sip, smacked his lips, took another sip, and smacked his lips again.
During the day, the sight of the lotus pond was still beautiful. The sky was clear, with gentle clouds drifting by. The lotus leaves swayed gracefully, extending for miles with the blooming water lilies.
Qiao Mucai started a conversation with Pei Jing, “Who is that man with black clothes and white hair?”
Pei Jing’s expression turned complicated as he thought of Chu Junyu. He said with resentment, “He’s my little brother.”
Qiao Mucai spewed out the water in his mouth in one gulp.
Pei Jing cast a look of extreme disdain and moved slightly to the side.
Qiao Mucai nearly choked on his own words and said, “So he’s the one you’re looking for, your little brother? Are you sure he’s your little brother and not the other way around?”
“……”
Qiao Mucai was taken aback by this news and exclaimed, “Your brother has been captured by Zhuihun Palace?” His imagination began to wander as he expressed his heartfelt thoughts, “Why? That’s so pitiful. Has he been treated as a male pet by the old immortal master of this wretched palace, resulting in such strong evil aura?”
Pei Jing pushed his head into the bowl and coldly said, “Just shut up.”
Qiao Mucai mumbled with his head buried, “Mmm…”
Just as Qiao Mucai finished wiping his face and turned his head, ready to reason with Pei Jing, he suddenly saw Pei Jing wearing an embarrassed smile and saying, “What should I do? I feel like I want to go and admire the lotus flowers in the pond.”
Qiao Qiao: “……”
However, before he could speak, he felt a rope being tied around his waist. Staring into Pei Jing’s smiling eyes, Qiao Mucai held back the blood in his mouth and ingratiatingly said, “If Madam likes it, then I am willing to die countless times for you!”
And then he was pushed down by Pei Jing.
“Ahhh!”
The shrill scream of the young boy echoed throughout the place.
Almost everyone was shocked, hastily drinking a bowl of water to suppress the feeling of nausea. No need for sympathy anymore, let this pair of self-proclaimed heavenly beings torment each other.
Qiao Mucai hung suspended about one meter above the water’s surface, his soul scattering. He reached out his hand towards the nearest lotus flower, intending to pluck it. However, the stem of the lotus flower was incredibly sturdy, and he couldn’t break it no matter how hard he tried.
He attempted to uproot it completely but almost got sucked into the pool by an inexplicable force.
Qiao Mucai burst into tears and shouted, “I can’t pluck it! I can’t! Let me up there!”
However, on the elevated platform, Pei Jing held onto the end of the rope and replied, “Ah, Qiao Qiao, what did you say? Can’t reach it? Should I lower it some more?”
Qiao Qiao: “……”
Just as he was going mad, something suddenly slid down the rope and landed on his nose—it was that green-colored worm. The chubby green worm crawled across Qiao Mucai’s pale and stiff face, then made its way along his fingers and onto the tendrils of the lotus flower. It began nibbling little by little. It ate quickly, causing the lotus flower to tilt, but Qiao Mucai swiftly caught it.
The chubby green worm also had a thread on its body, a silver thread so faint that it was barely visible.
With the lotus flower in his hand, Qiao Mucai suddenly felt a tightness around his waist. He was swiftly lifted into the air and thrown back onto the elevated platform.
The onlookers regarded them as lunatics.
Pei Jing exclaimed in delight, “Qiao Qiao, well done!”
Qiao Mucai swallowed his pride and forced a smile. “As long as Madam is pleased.”
The ethereal fingertips received the flower. Beauty unmatched.
The bystanders all sneered, thinking this wicked woman had wasted her face.
The green worm lay on the heart of the flower, tired from eating, and fell asleep.
A hint of coldness flickered in Pei Jing’s eyes.
After finishing their meal, no one lingered downstairs. They all returned to their rooms to cultivate their techniques.
After all, they were inside Zhuihun Palace, and they had no choice but to abide by the rules.
Pei Jing took the lotus flower back to his room and carefully examined its structure. He noticed something unusual at the tendrils, where there seemed to be a silver shimmer. He placed the lotus flower in a dark corner and observed that there was indeed an extremely fine thread at the center of the branch.
“Transient Jade Lotus…”
There must be something different about this underwater lake.
In the late hours of the night, he rode his sword to the surface of the lotus pond. The night was silent, and the breeze was gentle.
He brought out the chubby worm that had secretly devoured an entire lotus flower during the day.
Pei Jing said, “You should be familiar with this place. Lead the way, and if you guide me astray, I’ll kill you.” The chubby green worm, having eaten and drunk its fill, lazily turned over, and after Pei Jing placed it in the water, it moved forward without haste.
Pei Jing followed it, diving into the water.
It was pitch black beneath the surface, with no moonlight penetrating through. The green worm emitted a faint glow all over its body, while other creatures in the water seemed to slowly move away. Eventually, the green worm stopped at a certain spot, and Pei Jing also came to a halt. He saw the deep and silent bottom of the pond, where thousands of silver threads erupted from a single point, spreading throughout this realm and emitting a faint greenish light at the edges. At the same time, his Cloud Slayer Sword in his hand emitted a low hum.
Violet light bloomed, resonating with those silver threads.
The chubby green worm tilted its head, antennae twitching, sensing familiarity, and climbed onto Pei Jing’s hand.
The light of the Execution Sword illuminated this dormant land.
After a long silence, amidst the thousands of silver threads, a faint green flame slowly emerged, as if someone was awakening.
Pei Jing remained silent as he gazed ahead. He saw the ethereal flame gradually taking shape, forming a tightly closed flower bud.
This was not the Transient Jade Lotus, but this object was definitely related to it.
Pei Jing suddenly remembered something that Yu Qinglian had entrusted to him at the Institute of Celestial Ascension. He took out the golden bell from his sleeve and gently shook it in the depths beneath the lake.
Ding-ling—
Ding-ling—
The flower bud began to unfurl, petal by petal, slowly blossoming.
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