Chapter 292 - Life and Death Flower Sacrificial Art
In the dark, Ai Hui carefully looked through the blood elementalist secret arts database. Eventually, he found the secret art for the blood plum blossom on his chest.
[Life and Death Flower Sacrificial Art]. This was a blood elementalist secret art that existed only in theory and had never before been used in practice. Reportedly, this art was based on the Cultivation Era’s [Flower Demon Secret Art] and blood sects’ [Nine Tripod Cauldron Secret Art].
The requirements for one to practice this secret art were extremely stringent.
The one who cast the spell was known as the flower master while the one whom the spell was cast upon was known as the flower slave.
The flower master needed a powerful soul, while the flower slave needed a vigorous life force.
To practice this secret art, the flower master had to first form two seeds. One seed was to be placed in the flower master, himself, while the other was to be placed in the flower slave. The seeds were formed using the essence blood and spirit of the flower master. Once the formation of the seeds was completed, the flower master’s strength would be greatly reduced. On the other hand, the seed was greatly beneficial to the flower slave. In a short period of time, the seed could sharply raise the flower slave’s strength. The flower slave’s body would be cleansed until it was free of all impurities.
When the flower slave was in the process of being inoculated with the seed, he had to be willing to do so. Otherwise, the seed would either be destroyed or the flower slave would explode and die.
Once the inoculation was successful, the flower slave would be like a plot of soil, providing the seed with an endless stream of nutrients. Even though the flower slave’s energy would be devoured by the seed, the seed would also provide the flower slave with immense powers in return. Eventually, the flower slave would find himself addicted to the powers that the seed provided him, unable to free himself from the addiction.
The seed in the flower slave’s body was an Embryo of Emptiness, which would grow into a Flower of Destruction. The seed in the flower master’s body was an Embryo of Fullness, which would grow into a Flower of Life. Both flowers were complementary embodiments of Yin and Yang. When the flower slave’s embryo had matured, it would become the Flower of Destruction and fall off his body. By then, the flower slave’s life force would be completely devoured, and he would eventually die. On the other hand, when the flower embryo on the flower master matured, it would become a Flower of Life and drop off from his body. The Flower of Life would contain all the life force, elemental energy, the three incorporeal energies of essence, breath, and spirit, as well as the soul of the flower slave, becoming a supreme treasure.
The flower slave and the Flower of Destruction were the sacrificial offerings.
Upon reading this information, a cold s.h.i.+ver went down Ai Hui’s spine. He had never heard of or seen such evil secret art.
The information did not mention any methods to undo the secret art.
Perhaps even the a.s.sembly of Patriarchs would not believe that anyone could master such a secret art.
Ai Hui went into a daze before returning to his senses after a while. He tried to suppress his fear and carefully read through and memorizing the remaining information on the secret art.
This information broadened Ai hui’s knowledge of blood elementalists and their secret arts. The blood elementalist secret arts were weird and unique. The ideas behind these secret arts were ingenious and evil at the same time, causing him to exclaim in admiration. When compared to these secret arts, the mysterious technique of developing a sword embryo did not seem that mysterious anymore.
However, the database had also mentioned that most of the secret arts were only theoretically possible. Some were restorations of secret arts from the ancient blood sects and some were newly developed by the blood elementalists.
Ai Hui heaved a long sigh. When he raised his head and looked out of the window, the sky was speckled with the l.u.s.ter of dawn.
Another night had pa.s.sed.
At this moment, Ai Hui suddenly heard Lou Lan screaming happily, "Ai Hui, Lou Lan did it!"
Ai Hui was stunned. Then, a joyful look appeared in his face. He tiptoed, backflipped, and landed gracefully beside Lou Lan.
On the ground beside Lou Lan, there was a swirling whirlpool of quicksand. The quicksand whirlpool kept on swirling as the heart of the whirlpool caved in.
Ai Hui rubbed his hands as his impatient-looking eyes surged with greed. "Let’s see what treasure the famous s.h.i.+ Youguang has for us!"
"Ai Hui! Come on!" Lou Lan yelled, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with expectation.
Ai Hui reached his hands into the heart of the whirlpool. After a while, he pulled out a box.
He opened the box and found that it was filled with sparkling essence elemental beans. There were roughly 200 of them.
"This is the way to go! How can the great s.h.i.+ Youguang be a poor fellow? Does that even make sense?
When Ai Hui saw these essence elemental bean, his eyes glittered like a hungry wolf’s.
He continued to feel around inside of the quicksand whirlpool with his hands. After a while, he dug out a piece of crystal. Inside the crystal, there was a faintly discernible light flowing about.
"An inheritance?" Ai Hui squinted his eyes and identified the item. Then, he casually threw it to Lou Lan and asked, "Lou Lan, take a look. What inheritance is it?"
Lou Lan’s palms transformed into a puddle of quicksand and engulfed the piece of crystal. The red glow in his eyes flickered for a while and he replied, "Ai Hui, it’s the [Earth Elemental Deciphering Technique]. This technique can decipher the chaotic earth elemental energy waves on the ground and obtain relevant information. For example, this technique enables one to track the path that someone recently took, identify the types of ore veins underground, etc."
Ai Hui thought about how he racked his brains and still could not escape from s.h.i.+ Youguang. The [Earth Elemental Deciphering Technique].
"Can Lou Lan learn it?"
"No problem, Ai Hui," Lou Lan replied.
"Lou Lan should learn it then." Ai Hui chuckled. "Next time Lou Lan will be my tracking master."
"Yes, Ai Hui!" Upon knowing that he could help Ai Hui in a new way, Lou Lan was overjoyed.
Next, Ai Hui pulled out a yellowish tome ent.i.tled . Upon seeing this book, Ai Hui suddenly came to a realization. "No wonder s.h.i.+ Youguang was so powerful. He was a transfigured elementalist!"
Upon learning that he had killed a transfigured elementalist, he felt rather pleased with himself.
"I will give this to you as well, even though you have no use for it." Ai Hui threw the book to Lou Lan. Body transfiguration was specifically designed for elementalists and was worthless to sand puppets.
Lou Lan took a closer look at it and replied, "Alright, Ai Hui. Lou Lan will treat it as updating my knowledge base."
Subsequently, Ai Hui pulled out a pile of stuff that was mostly earth elemental materials. Currently, there were more than enough materials to upgrade Lou Lan’s body.
Even though there weren’t many things that Ai Hui could use, he was still very happy since these things could be used by Lou Lan.
"Oh, oh, there’s one last thing. Is this a letter?" Ai Hui pulled out a letter from the quicksand whirlpool. "By the way, does Lou Lan know how to bind a sand compa.s.s? If you know how to do it, then we won’t need to bring our luggage along when we travel in the future."
"Ai Hui, Lou Lan knows how to do that!"
"Lou Lan is great! All right, this really is a letter." Puzzled, Ai Hui looked at the letter in his hand. "Who still writes letters nowadays? Wouldn’t it be much more convenient to use a message tree? Sigh, how good would it be if the s.k.a.n.k wrote letters instead? Then, I wouldn’t need to be vexed by her every now and then."
"Yes, Ai Hui," Lou Lan agreed with Ai Hui.
"I like your honesty, Lou Lan! Haha, let’s see what’s written in this letter?" Ai Hui flipped open the letter in his hand and read it. Subsequently, he exclaimed in surprise, "Wow, I couldn’t tell that s.h.i.+ Youguang had such wide connections."
The letter was not really long and mainly asked s.h.i.+ Youguang to think of a way to s.n.a.t.c.h the ancient treasure from the Great Wei Enterprise, explained how important that ancient treasure was, etc.
Judging from the tone of the letter, the sender and s.h.i.+ Youguang were very familiar with each other. One could sense an authoritative undertone from the sender as well. This implied that the sender was of a higher status than s.h.i.+ Youguang.
Ai Hui did not find this weird at all. After all, transfigured elementalists had always been looked down upon by people. There would also be underground organizations that accepted them for who they were, mutually benefiting each other in various ways.
It was a pity that the letter did not mention what exactly the ancient treasure was. Ai Hui was extremely curious about this so-called ancient treasure. The Great Wei Enterprise had suffered a lot and lost almost everything because of this ancient treasure.
In the blink of an eye, Ai Hui put all of these thoughts out of his mind. The so-called ancient treasure had nothing to do with him.
Lou Lan was currently sorting out the various materials and treasures. Upon seeing Lou Lan working hard and seriously, Ai Hui could not help but smile. This time around, he had gained more than he had expected, especially with regards to the earth elemental materials. Lou Lan’s body could now be significantly upgraded.
He looked forward to an upgraded Lou Lan. How powerful would he be then!
Actually, Ai Hui felt that the current Lou Lan was already very powerful. For the last three years, if Ai Hui had not had Lou Lan, he would have led a miserable life. The only reason Ai Hui could continue improving while his elemental energy was devoured by the blood plum blossom was because Lou Lan kept on making elemental food for him.
Ai Hui did not bother Lou Lan and began to think about the blood plum blossom on his body.
He had regained his calm. The [Life and Death Flower Sacrificial Art] was mysterious and unpredictable. The database stated that no one had succeeded in perfectly executing this secret art yet.
One Thousand Yuan was far more powerful than he expected.
Ai Hui felt fear and worry, but he did not harbor a grudge toward her.
It had been a deal.
At that point in time, did he not know that the blood plum blossom was something harmful? Yes, he knew. The iron lady and the others hated One Thousand Yuan for taking advantage of his misfortune. However, from Ai Hui’s point of view, what One Thousand Yuan did was fair. Was One Thousand Yuan obligated to help him? No, she was not.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Back then, he was like a penniless gambler who had lost it all. Other than his wretched life, he had nothing left.
Without One Thousand Yuan’s blood plum blossom, he would not even have had the power to make his final decision.
Actually, Ai Hui felt grateful for this deal since it helped him to fulfill his master and mistress’s wish. He was willing to pay any price just to fulfil this wish. Any price.
However, despite feeling grateful for the deal, Ai Hui did not intend to resign to his fate. Right now, whether One Thousand Yuan got what she wanted or Ai Hui broke free from the curse would depend on their individual capabilities.
A deal was supposed to be risky!
A cool-headed Ai Hui had recovered the clarity of his mind.
Even though the [Life and Death Flower Sacrificial Art] was powerful and mysterious, that did not mean it did not have any flaws. The relations.h.i.+p between flower master and flower slave resembled that of master and servant, but there was no guarantee that the slave would be dominated by the master.
The Flower of Life and Flower of Destruction were embodiments of Yin and Yang. They affected each other and restricted each other.
For example, One Thousand Yuan definitely would not want Ai Hui to die. If the flower slave was to die, the flower master’s body would begin to devour itself. In mild cases, the flower master would become a handicapped person. In severe cases, the flower master would die.
This was an important factor that Ai Hui could take advantage of.
If he purposely went to some dangerous places, would One Thousand Yuan followed him? His life was wretched anyway. If he really died, then so be it. On the contrary, One Thousand Yuan enjoyed a sublime status in the Blood of G.o.d and had boundless prospects. Wouldn’t it be a pity if she died?
So what if she didn’t want to die?
Then she had to sit down and have a good discussion with him!
How about compensating me with some capable bodyguards? Nah, bodyguards would be rather inconvenient for me. It would be more practical to compensate me with essence elemental beans. If not, I’m fine with blood crystals and blood cores as well.
How could I feel safe without money? How could I live comfortably without money?
You must pay me some remuneration for helping you grow your flower.
All right, all right, let’s not talk about the remuneration right away.
If you don’t nourish me, how can I provide enough nutrients for your flower! How would the nutrients be enough!
Once Ai Hui started to think clearly, ideas flowed into his mind endlessly.
The Yin and Yang relations.h.i.+p between the Flower of Life and Flower of Destruction could be taken advantage of as well. Since the Flower of Destruction was a projection of the Flower of Life, if he could control the Flower of Destruction , then wouldn’t it be possible for him to control the Flower of Life as well?
Sure, it might be unlikely for him to control the Flower of Life, but what about affecting it? Could he affect the growth of the Flower of Destruction and Flower of Life?
Ai Hui’s eyes became brighter and brighter.
The [Life and Death Flower Sacrificial Art] was indeed a good thing!