Chapter 524 - Vitality Branches
Inside a tent.
Standing beside the ice coffin, Nangong Wulian stared at Ye Baiyi, who was still in a deep sleep, and murmured to himself, "Why is he still unconscious? He is supposed to be awake by now. Is it because the base level of the blood fiends was not high enough?"
In the ice coffin, Ye Baiyi looked as if he was really just sleeping. His long hair was like seagra.s.s, and his eyes were closed.
A wicked smile appeared on Nangong Wulian’s face, "Let me add some more tonics."
Then he walked out of the camp, and caught sight of a group of people in preparation to go to the battlefield. The leader looked familiar. Nangong Wulian remembered his background and murmured, "It turns out to be him."
That man was Xing Shan. He’d once received blood refinement at the Beast Venom Temple. He was the one who held the record in blood refinement before the Red Devil.
Nangong Wulian collected many useful pieces of information from Xing Shan, from which the Red Devil also benefited a lot. But Xing Shan was not as talented as the Red Devil, so he couldn’t improve further after reaching his current level.
It was said that Xing Shan joined the army later on and had made a lot of contributions so far.
Nangong Wulian never a.s.sociated himself with generals. He clearly knew his position. As long as the people of the Beast Venom Temple did a good job, his position would be stable enough. An a.s.sociation with generals would only incur his majesty’s suspicion, which was very likely to lead to death.
Even though the Red Devil was from the Beast Venom Temple, they stayed away from each other and hardly had any interactions.
Xing Shan’s fighting skills were good.
Well, that would be fine. Since Xing Shan had taken the mission, their victory was just around the corner. This could save him a lot of trouble, as those guys would stop buzzing around him like flies.
Now his main task was to find a solution to wake Ye Baiyi up.
There had to be more tonics!
An announcement was put up at the camp which astounded everyone.
A day later, twelve people stood in front of Nangong Wulian, who looked at them with complacency. He had just put up a post yesterday, and surprisingly, more than one hundred people were willing to sacrifice their own lives to save Ye Baiyi. These twelve people were selected as the most outstanding and talented ones. Fastidious as Nangong Wulian was, he was very satisfied with the physical conditions of these people.
And he was shocked by how Ye Baiyi was adored by his people.
At first, Nangong Wulian had intended to take some guys by force, but since the process would be very miserable, and it was impossible for any involuntary partic.i.p.ant to make it to the final stage, he finally gave up on the idea.
But it turned out that so many people were willing to save his life with their own life!
He glanced at Ye Baiyi, and wondered where this guy’s charm and charisma came from.
Nangong Wulian asked with interest, "I would like to know why you are willing to sacrifice yourselves for Ye Baiyi. What is more important than your life? Let me tell you in advance that during the process you will suffer a living death. Are you sure you want to do this? You are allowed to give up now."
n.o.body moved.
Nangong Wulian said in surprise, "What favor did he do to you on earth that makes you all so loyal to him? I’m really curious. Tell me your stories, one by one."
A strong man with a scar on his face said in a deep voice, "I was a former member of Icy Flames Division. He once saved my life."
The person beside him said, "I was a former member of Icy Flames Division too. I was once besieged for fifteen days, and was abandoned by the Elders Guild. It was him who led an army and fought for three days without sleep or rest to save me."
"I was a former member of Icy Flames Division too. I served him for ten years and never encountered any unfairness."
Some looked aloof, some excited. Some spoke in a deep voice, and some were impa.s.sioned.
Nangong Wulian’s eyes focused on the last one, who was a young man. He looked like a boy and was still shy. Nangong asked him curiously, "What’s your reason?"
Under Nangong’s gaze, the young man looked unprepared and embarra.s.sed. Face flus.h.i.+ng, he stammered, "Sir, Sir…"
Nangong Wulian laughed out, "You are free to pull back."
"No I won’t!" The young man’s face got even more flushed, and he stammered, "During the blood disaster, he, he asked me to run, but I, I didn’t…"
Nangong Wulian was a bit surprised. He nodded and said, "You can have a good rest for the next few days to retain your energy. I can’t guarantee you that Ye Baiyi can wake up. But what I can guarantee is that you will die a worthy death, and your blood spiritual force will not be wasted."
The twelve people said in unison, "Thank you, Sir!"
Just as Ai Hui jumped down from the Pinwheel Sword and let loose of the sword hilt, he felt tired and flopped down on the ground. Overwhelmed by tiredness, Ai Hui felt like he was totally soaked in his sweat, as if he was just picked up out of the water. The impact was short, but really consumed a lot of energy.
"Ai Hui!"
Lou Lan carried Ai Hui on his shoulders and ran fast into the valley.
Ai Hui said weakly, "I’m fine, Lou Lan."
"One more minute, Ai Hui," Lou Lan encouraged him loudly, "Lou Lan has found a use for Vitality Branches."
Ai Hui was surprised, "Really? Lou Lan you are great!"
Lou Lan’s eyes were like two crescent moons. He said earnestly while running, "The Vitality Branch’s spirit is wood elemental while its soul is metal elemental, water elemental, fire elemental and earth elemental. This is how it should be used."
Having finished his words, Lou Lan brought Ai Hui to a place in the valley where he had already prepared everything he needed.
A handful of sand, a basin of water, a bowl of snow lava and a piece of ingot were placed around Ai Hui. Then Lou Lan put an empty vase in front of Ai Hui, and put three Vitality Branches into it.
Ai Hui sat on the ground cross-legged.
Lou Lan shouted out loudly, "Ai Hui, get ready. I’m going to start!"
Then he threw a flash of flame into the snow lava, sending bursts of fire into the sky. The yellow sand suddenly floated into the air, as if held by an invisible hand. Then, the ingot iron melted into liquid, which, surprisingly, was not hot at all. Smog rose from the water in the basin and transformed into a cloud of mist.
Gu Xuan and the others were worried about Ai Hui too. They ran to him fast, and saw the peculiar scene.
Suddenly, the vase in front of Ai Hui produced a suction force that attracted all the raging fire, the floating sand, the cold, melted iron and the clean mist into the vase.
And to everyone’s surprise, the three Vitality Branches began to sprout!
Green, tender shoots appeared on the black and hard surface of the branches, giving rise to everyone’s exclamation.
The shoots were quivering and were growing larger at a speed that was visible. Then, in the blink of an eye, three branches were full of green leaves, const.i.tuting a beautiful scene.
When buds grew out, everybody was quiet, as they were afraid to startle the three branches.
Then, the buds burst into bloom. They could smell a peculiar fragrance from the pure flowers.
Everyone was fascinated by the fragrance.
When the flowers withered away, fruits grew. After a short period of time, three juicy fruits were hanging on the branches, which made everyone dumbstruck.
Lou Lan said hurriedly, "Ai Hui, catch the fruits. Don’t let them fall on the ground!"
Just as Lou Lan had finished his words, the three fruits began to fall from the branches towards the ground.
Ai Hui had been very focused from the very beginning. When he heard Lou Lan’s voice, he stretched out his hand without hesitation and deftly caught the three heavy fruits in his hands.
He was marveling in his heart about how some methods of wood elementalists were unimaginably weird.
The whole process, from sprouting to fruit yielding, was silent, but was more shocking to Ai Hui than a ma.s.sive killing move.
Lou Lan shouted loudly, "Ai Hui, eat the fruit!"
Ai Hui was dazed. When he heard Lou Lan’s shout, he sent the fruits to his mouth subconsciously.
He could feel coolness floating into his throat when the fruit touched his mouth.
Three streaks of weak, but highly pure, life force were flowing into his body.
The lightning in his body could destroy almost any life force except forthese. They were totally uninfluenced, and could flow freely in his body as if the lightning did not exist.
No wonder why the Vitality Branches was so famous!
But what happened next was beyond Ai Hui’s expectations.
The three streaks of life force flew around his body, and then wormed their way into the sword cloud!
When Ai Hui came to his senses, three jade-green leaves were flickering among the sword cloud.
Ai Hui was astonished.
He had thought that the life force could nourish his blood and flesh so that he would not be so frail and weak. But it was never expected that the three streaks of life force would dive into the sword cloud as if they were attracted to it.
Ai Hui couldn"t understand what on earth in the sword cloud was attracting them.
And his body was still frail, which meant that his attempt to improve his physical condition with the Vitality Branches had failed.
Mu Lei looked at Ai Hui enviously when he was eating the fruits. Those were fruits from the Vitality Branches! How many people could get a Vitality Branch in this world? Few! And how many of them could use three Vitality Branches at a time? None, at least he’d never heard of any.
Ai Hui opened his eyes and looked a bit sluggish.
Lou Lan asked with concern, "Ai Hui, how is it?"
The others thought Ai Hui was shocked by the excellent effect when they saw him sitting there motionlessly. Mu Lei’s eyes were red. He didn’t even try to conceal his envy.
Ai Hui said weakly, "Seems that it didn’t work."
Lou Lan was surprised, "Didn’t work? Did I get anything wrong?"
"No, it’s not Lou Lan’s problem. They dived into the sword cloud."
"Into the sword cloud?" A red light kept flickering in Lou Lan’s eyes as he was a.n.a.lyzing the phenomenon, "Lou Lan needs to think about it."
Ai Hui noticed that the three green leaves were tossing about in the sword cloud. But when he took a closer look, he found nothing weird. Actually it was not useless at all. Ai Hui could feel that he got tired much slower now, and even if he had used up his strength, he could soon recover.
However!
That was all!
This was the only benefit he’d gotten.
But this was Vitality Branch, the thing that, in legends, could bring back anyone’s life as long as he or she was still breathing.
The previous changes were amazing too. But why was its effect so ordinary?
Or was it because his body was too special?
Ai Hui tried a few more times, but nothing happened. The three leaves were still tossing about in the sword cloud leisurely. He was disappointed and didn’t want to think about it anymore.
Since his strength had been renewed, he thought he’d better continue to explore the pinwheel sword.
He wished he could go to the battlefield right now. But he also knew that without strength, he would only enc.u.mber Iron Lady and put everyone’s lives in danger.
This was not what he would do. But he was more than pleased to give everyone an exciting experience.
"Let’s start practicing on Pinwheel Sword from today!"