The Bloom of the Heavenly Limit Primordial Lotus
The Three Elders stood gathered, watching Tang Cheonwi.
“Poison Elder, what does that boy seem to be doing?”
At Yin Elder’s question, Poison Elder tilted his head.
“Cultivating?”
“Didn’t he say he was making an antidote?”
“That’s what I thought. Even I have no idea what Cheonwi is up to.”
Blood Elder, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke.
“Look at the Yin Spirit Ice Fox and you’ll understand.”
The two elders’ gazes shifted to the Yin Spirit Ice Fox. They still looked thoroughly baffled. Blood Elder clicked his tongue.
“Tsk tsk. Stuck at the peak of the Transformation Realm, of course you can’t see that poison flower.”
A black flower visible only to Blood Elder’s eyes floated in the empty air—formed from the combined internal energy of the Yin Spirit Ice Fox and Tang Cheonwi. The haze rising from that poison flower drifted outward, spreading through the surroundings.
“Poison flower?”
“An intangible poison flower has bloomed?”
“Even borrowing the power of the Yin Spirit Ice Fox, this is remarkable. Even you, Elder Brother, couldn’t create an intangible poison flower at that age.”
Intangible poison flower. It was a profound principle one could only attempt after reaching the Transformation Realm. A measure of true completion appeared only at the very end of that realm. To make it bloom fully and vividly like this required the Profound Realm. No matter how much he borrowed the Yin Spirit Ice Fox’s strength, it was not a force a fifteen-year-old boy should have been able to produce.
Perhaps it was thanks to that peculiar internal energy of his.
It did not feel like Tang Clan internal energy. It differed from both the Dao Companion Three Yang Returning Origin Art and the Myriad Poison Returning Origin Divine Art. It was as though the strengths of both had been completely fused into one. Even without standing in the Transformation or Profound Realms, that energy was perfectly matching and amplifying the Yin Spirit Ice Fox’s power.
“With that kind of strength, rare spiritual herbs will bloom exactly as Cheonwi claimed.”
Already the poison herbs and medicinal plants were reacting. As the energy of the intangible poison flower touched them, the grass and trees, the soil, the pond, and the river water began to change, slowly and steadily.
Poison Elder noticed it only belatedly and startled violently.
“Huh! The plants are reacting!”
The dark-crimson petals of the Bone-Melting Flower. The pure-white Dream-Illusion Lotus blooming upon a black pond. The bizarrely twisted, human-shaped Stone Spirit Root. New blooms unfurled, or fresh sprouts pushed up beside them.
“I can’t believe my own eyes even after seeing it.”
Blood Elder stuck out his tongue in amazement. The legends handed down through the ages had been true after all. The Yin Spirit Ice Fox’s Yin Spirit Energy truly could give birth to countless spiritual herbs. Now it made perfect sense why Mount Heaven teemed with so many rare plants—that mountain had been the fox’s territory for hundreds of years.
“Such a thing… was actually possible?”
Poison Elder muttered under his breath. Yin Elder looked ready to foam at the mouth and collapse on the spot.
The next day, and the day after that. By the time half a month had passed, the entire scenery of Poison Forest Valley had transformed. A far more vicious poison energy now filled every corner. The three elders, watching from a safe distance, felt even themselves threatened by the newly altered miasma.
“It’s been half a month. How much longer do you think Cheonwi will keep circulating his energy?”
At Yin Elder’s question, Poison Elder turned the same bewildered face toward Blood Elder.
“He said he intends to make this the nest of the Yin Spirit Ice Fox, so he’ll keep going until the whole of Poison Forest Valley has changed.”
“At this rate, won’t we get kicked out?”
Poison Elder tossed the remark as a joke. Blood Elder took it completely seriously.
“You two won’t be able to endure the poison energy, so you might indeed get driven out.”
Blood Elder himself was fine. Once upon a time he had competed with the Killing Emperor for the position of clan lord. He was strong enough that the intensified poison energy still failed to touch him. Poison Elder looked thoroughly aggrieved.
“Blood Elder, didn’t we swear we would die on the same day? Isn’t that going a bit far?”
“Before you start complaining, move your residences first. At this rate even the treasures you cherish might melt into nothing.”
At Blood Elder’s kindly spoken warning the two elders’ eyes flew wide. The place where Tang Cheonwi sat was extremely close to their own dwellings.
“Damn it all! My spiritual pills!”
“The gold I gathered with blood and sweat isn’t melting, is it?!”
Cold sweat pouring down their faces, Poison Elder and Yin Elder vanished in a hurry.
By the time a full month had slipped past, Yin Elder came rushing to Tang Bi with a face full of panic.
“B-Big Brother, big trouble!”
“What is it this time!”
Tang Bi snapped irritably. He had wanted to forge a dull hoe, yet the more he struck with the hammer the sharper the blade became. His mood was already foul, and now Yin Elder had barged roughly into the forge.
“F-Fruits have r-ripened.”
Yin Elder stammered. His fluster showed plain on every line of his face.
“M-Mushrooms have grown, and even… lotuses have bloomed!”
“You raised this ruckus over something so trivial?”
Tang Bi lifted the razor-sharp hoe. He looked ready to bring it down on Yin Elder’s head that very instant.
“Dragon Blood Fruit has formed, I tell you!”
“Dragon Blood Fruit?”
“Dark Heart Fruit, Tiger Heart Lotus, and Heavenly Limit Primordial Lotus have bloomed!”
Nothing else registered. Only the words Heavenly Limit Primordial Lotus rang through Tang Bi’s ears. In that instant—
Whoosh—
A wind rose and Tang Bi vanished. Yin Elder patted his chest in relief, then spun around and raced once more toward the place where Tang Cheonwi sat.
In the blink of an eye Tang Bi stood before his grandson. The drastically altered Poison Forest Valley ought to have seized his attention, yet his gaze locked solely upon a single lotus.
“That… is the Heavenly Limit Primordial Lotus?”
The legendary lotus that held the light of the primordial beginning. Legend claimed it purified every poison and granted infinite internal energy. The details were uncertain; every martial artist had seen it only in paintings—no one had ever beheld it with living eyes. Yet Tang Bi knew. From that exquisite lotus a spiritual aura of unmistakable potency was pouring forth.
Flash!
At that very moment Tang Cheonwi opened his eyes as well. He halted the circulation of his energy and rose to his feet.
“Grandfather, you’ve come?”
“What in the world happened here?”
“I received help from the Yin Spirit Ice Fox.”
“So the stories handed down were true after all.”
Tang Bi still could scarcely believe it. And it was not only the Heavenly Limit Primordial Lotus that had bloomed.
“Look over there as well. An Ice Hidden Comet tree has appeared.”
“That cold fruit which grows only inside the Cold Ice Jade of the North Sea Ice Palace?!”
Ice Hidden Comet. A rare fruit said to grow only in lands of extreme cold. A spiritual fruit of the North Sea Ice Palace that had never even appeared on Mount Heaven. When eaten it suppressed stray energies and powerfully purged both heat toxins and poisons. Yet its greatest virtue lay elsewhere.
“There will be no need to fear qi deviation any longer.”
A miraculous transformation wrought in a single month. Without the Yin Spirit Ice Fox and Tang Cheonwi it would have remained an event beyond even the wildest of dreams. Poison Elder’s eyes glittered like a madman’s.
“Hehehe, now I can die without a single regret.”
His words were pure bravado; the old man had not the slightest intention of dying. His entire face screamed that he was desperate to begin research into poison and pharmacology. This place was paradise itself for Poison Elder.
“Elder Brothers and the youngest—do not come looking for me for a while.”
Ignoring the dense poison energy that filled the air, he busied himself gathering poison herbs, fruits, and mushrooms. He vanished carrying armloads of materials he clearly intended to test upon his own body.
The Yin Spirit Ice Fox was no different.
“Kyuing!”
It bounded about in every direction. The place brimmed with yin energy, an environment almost identical to Mount Heaven.
“Kyung-kyung.”
It cried cutely, declaring the territory its own. Watching the little creature, Tang Cheonwi smiled and spoke.
“The variety of materials is still limited, but give it one more year and they will be far more diverse than they are now.”
“How did you ever come up with such an idea?”
He could not admit it was knowledge gained through Hwancheonjihwan, so he glossed over the truth.
“Most spiritual herbs seem to grow near spiritual beasts, so I simply decided to try it.”
“Was that all?”
“Unlike Yuhyeon I was born with a strong yin nature, so my internal energy is heavily yin as well. I thought that if I combined the two yin energies and spread them throughout Poison Forest Valley, the plants and trees already steeped in poison energy would transform into something new.”
Tang Bi’s face filled with pride.
“Truly worthy of our family’s eldest grandson. Muheon, you think the same, don’t you?”
Blood Elder answered in a gentle tone.
“A sharp and capable grandson.”
“If only those sons of ours had been half as fine as our eldest grandson—tsk tsk.”
Tang Bi rubbed his cheek against Tang Cheonwi’s face and refused to let go.
“It’s hard to breathe, Grandfather.”
“Did this old man change Poison Forest Valley because he was worried?”
Tang Bi was probing about his own illness—whether his grandson knew the true nature of the Soul-Sealing Extreme Poison.
“I need to teach them that only the lowest of scoundrels dare use poison against the Tang Clan.”
“Hehehe, well said. There is no greater shame than a member of the Tang Clan dying from poison.”
Tang Bi’s laughter rolled across the whole of Poison Forest Valley—a sound of pure, unrestrained joy.
At that very moment a shadow dropped soundlessly beside the grandfather and grandson.
In a room thick with darkness, in a damp and clammy place, figures wearing masks had gathered.
“Word is that Poison Flower Rain has been expelled from the Tang Clan.”
“Couldn’t even handle one little brat properly and got bitten instead. I knew how it would end the moment he started strutting around.”
“It’s merely one piece removed from the board. No need for concern.”
The masked ones showed not the slightest worry. Even with Tang Cheong cast out, none of them felt troubled.
“The Tang Clan is a truly troublesome place.”
“There is a reason people call it the greatest clan under heaven.”
“Hmph. That title of greatest under heaven originally belonged to us, did it not?”
“Watching the creatures born atop the order we created now strut about as if it were theirs is utterly disgusting.”
The masked shadows harbored deep hostility toward the Tang Clan. Most of them shifted restlessly, as though they longed to rush out and butcher every last one of them that very moment.
“Everyone settle down. We gathered for a different purpose, did we not?”
“The whereabouts of the Three Great Treasures remain as murky as ever.”
“After the Cheongang Clan the trail went cold… The Tang Clan is forever tripping us up.”
“At least we learned the locations of the Heavenly Weapons even without the Map of Sealing Ten Thousand Weapons.”
“Tch. If only we had that map, the grand design would proceed far more smoothly.”
“Still, we possess the fatal card that is the Soul-Sealing Extreme Poison. If we buy enough time with it, we will eventually uncover the treasures’ locations.”
The masked figure at the center spoke with absolute certainty. His subordinates would soon bring favorable news. The grand plan would advance with speed.
“More importantly, rumor has it that the sap of Soul Brightening Wood will appear at a secret auction in Zhongjing.”
Soul Brightening Wood sap was one of the materials required for the antidote to Soul-Sealing Extreme Poison. Until now the masked ones had systematically destroyed every antidote that existed.
“We will have to move again.”
“Jaeik, you will have to work hard once more.”
“Is this not the perfect chance to swallow Geumru Merchant Group, the greatest mercantile power under heaven? Leave it to me, Giik.”
“You have never once disappointed me. I place my trust in you.”
“My thanks. We shall bring every coin on the continent under our control.”
“In that case the antidote for Soul-Sealing Extreme Poison will never be completed.”
The easiest way to obtain rare materials was through the merchant groups. The only remaining method was to seek them out personally. Even searching alone or mobilizing an entire family, acquiring such precious ingredients remained extremely difficult. Fail to create or obtain the antidote, and death was the only end.
What the masked ones intended was nothing less than the control of every clan through the Soul-Sealing Extreme Poison. The work continued even now. If only the Tang Clan fell, the grand design would surge forward on a rushing tide.
If only the Killing Emperor falls, the martial world will once more become ours.