Chapter 81: The Other Shore Flowers of the Nether Kingdom
“Go, quickly.”
The cultivators who had entered the Nether Kingdom began to panic.
When most of the lanterns turned white, the night of the Nether Kingdom quietly replaced the day.
A sudden mist arose, and from within it ca the wailing of enormous creatures.
Soone still had not found a house. The lanterns around him had already turned completely white, and he himself was swallowed by the mist.
At first, when he saw i Zhao Zhao and the other two so anxious, and Li Lang being devoured by the spirits, he too had been deeply frightened. Yet once he truly stood within the mist, he cald down instead.
He wasn’t dead yet, was he?
The man frowned. “It doesn’t seem that bad.”
The enormous creatures in the mist seed to exist outside of this space and ti; they brushed past him without causing harm, moving farther away into the distance.
He let out a sigh of relief.
What was that all about?
The Nether Kingdom wasn’t as dangerous as they said, after all.
He felt nothing at all. It was better to focus his attention on finding the direction where the Three-Life Fruit grew.
They used to say one must not remain outside after nightfall—but that was in the past. The rules of the Nether Kingdom must have changed.
Then ca a terrified scream, the sound carrying into his ears.
“Your body—your body!”
Only then did he look down at himself. He didn’t know when it had begun, but red flowers had started growing on his body. At first just a few, and then, blooming completely, they engulfed him whole.
Those flowers were like flas blooming in the Nether Kingdom. Their slender petals twisted violently, curling back upon themselves, shining with a sheen akin to crow feathers—a red so vivid it seized the heart.
The most terrifying part was that from the stans of these Other Shore Flowers extended long, thin threads, binding him in an instant, wrapping tightly around his entire body.
A shrill, agonized scream erupted from within the flowers.
The onlookers were horrified. “Find a house, quickly!”
But finding one wasn’t that easy. Entering soone else’s house might lead to being devoured by spirits—and the sky was growing darker by the second.
The group ran around like headless flies in chaos.
Not everyone had entered the Nether Kingdom unprepared.
Among them was a cultivator of the Fourth Realm who sighed. There was no ti now to search for an empty house. He could only find a small, shabby one that looked barely inhabitable.
Knock, knock, knock.
The Fourth Realm cultivator rapped on the door.
With a creak, it opened, revealing a spirit in the shape of an old man standing before him.
The cultivator took out a bowl and murmured, “The Lord of the Nether shall one day return. A wandering soul from afar begs to stay one night.”
Tss.
He cut open his hand, letting his crimson blood flow until it filled the bowl completely, then handed it to the old spirit.
The spirit took the bowl and stepped aside.
The cultivator, pale-faced, breathed a sigh of relief and hurried into the house. The scarlet hue that had been following him faded at last.
The dim room seed to have decayed through a thousand years of silence. The entire house had only one chamber—small and dilapidated, to say the least.
But it was enough for him. Anything larger, he could not afford to stay in.
The night had not yet ended.
The lanterns were only faintly turning red, and the mist outside had rely thinned a little.
A mournful wail echoed from outside. Su Youwan’s eyes opened at once.
She could divine nothing.
Lu Changyuan said, “If one cannot find a house, they can only sell their spirit.”
Cultivators rged their spirit and consciousness into blood, offering it as paynt to the spirits in exchange for the temporary right to stay in a house.
But this thod wounded one’s very essence.
If the two of them did not have the house Lu Changyuan had once left behind, and could not find an empty one, perhaps they too would have to sell their spirit like that Fourth Realm cultivator.
The silver-haired girl tied the white blindfold back over her eyes. “Whether it be the Three-Life Fruit or the Nether River, both are great fortunes.”
Since Lu Changyuan had awakened, everyone he t—from Xia Lianxue to Qiu Yuehan, and now Su Youwan before him—were all geniuses among geniuses.
Even among the Nine Sects and Twelve Palaces, they were the most exceptional of their peers.
Such people had been blessed with extraordinary talent from the beginning of their cultivation; achieving enlightennt was rely a matter of ti. Yet not everyone in this world was born a genius.
Enlightennt—entering the Dao of the Fifth Realm.
How many had been stuck below the Fifth Realm, unable to advance an inch?
Thus, for countless cultivators, whether it was the Three-Life Fruit that allowed one to “experience three illusory lives,” or the Nether River that could illuminate one’s path, both were rare opportunities beyond asure.
Lu Changyuan chuckled softly. “When I ca here before, I got along well with the locals. There was once a spirit next door nad Luo… Never thought that upon my return, even the spirits here would have changed. I always thought they never did.”
Su Youwan paused slightly.
It seed she could faintly hear so emotion in his words—a trace of nostalgia or perhaps wistful detachnt—but it was subtle, almost imperceptible.
“Is Young Master Lu a sentintal person?”
Lu Changyuan hadn’t expected the question and replied, “Not really.”
“Then you’re soone who loves the new and hates the old.”
“Your Highness, why must everything be seen in black or white?”
Su Youwan didn’t respond. Her voice was ethereal. “Those who are sentintal often deny it—lest old feelings grow too heavy.”
Lu Changyuan changed the topic. “Your Highness truly doesn’t speak kindly.”
The girl’s lips curved faintly.
That was already her greatest show of emotion.
She hadn’t liked talking to others before. Recently, however, she had found that conversation could be rather interesting.
The silver-haired girl no longer relied on the Destined Heavenly Dao to foresee the future, but she had made up her mind—if Lu Changyuan truly had been corrupted by the Desire Demon as she suspected, she would save him.
A Bodhisattva saw all beings as equals—yet this ti, she would grant Lu Changyuan special rcy.
“The Nether River has yet to appear. What will Young Master Lu do next?”
“When day breaks, I’ll go to the Nether King’s palace to seek the Sun-Moon Sundial.”
Lu Changyuan did not conceal it. Why the Sun-Moon Sundial had returned to the Nether Kingdom was indeed sothing that needed to be investigated.
“Does Young Master know why the Sundial returned to the Nether Kingdom?”
The girl suddenly smiled, her face exquisitely delicate, as though sculpted by Heaven itself. Her flowing silver hair fell smoothly like fine silk, a few strands slipping over her chest, outlining her graceful figure.
Clearly, she was a cultivator—yet her beauty was breathtaking.
Lu Changyuan stared blankly at her.
“Why does Young Master Lu keep staring at Youwan?”
“I’ve said it many tis already—Your Highness is beautiful.”
“If I’m truly that beautiful, then when Noodle Granny asked Young Master to take back that ti, why did you refuse?”
“I don’t think that’s the sa thing.”
Su Youwan didn’t pursue the matter. Her voice softened. “After the Palace Mistress of the Sun-Moon Palace attained the Seventh Realm, Jade Radiance, she shattered the Sun-Moon Sundial for a special reason. This divine artifact of the Nether King was later sent back to the Nether Kingdom by her order. After hundreds of years of preservation, it should have recovered so of its power.”
Lu Changyuan narrowed his eyes slightly. “How does Your Highness know this?”
The silver-haired girl brushed aside a lock of her pale hair. “It’s written in the palace archives. If Young Master wishes to know more, then co back to Cihang Palace with Youwan.”
“Would I be able to leave afterward?”
The girl smiled—so beautifully it stole the breath away. “I don’t know.”
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