章 226: The Best Fertilisers
Who is he?
What is he talking about?
Those were the first questions that popped into everyone's mind.
Nie Hanchang and Lou Yuan struggled to look at the boy despite their warping senses, but Zhao Yunxiao did not waste any time on that.
Whoosh-!
He immediately threw the dagger in his hands, aiming straight at the young boy.
The other party had already started attacking them, so there was no way that he would just remain here and be a sitting duck!
Unfortunately, the dagger did not hit its target. Instead, the young boy's body simply opened up a gap for the dagger to pass straight through.
Zhao Yunxiao did not even bother watching to see the outcome.
The moment he threw the dagger, he had started making a dash for the entrance of the prairie.
Being caught in an unknown illusion technique was the most troublesome situation since there was no way to tell truth from lies.
He would always be at a disadvantage for as long as he remained here, so he had to get out of here as soon as possible!
But the moment he took his first step, Zhao Yunxiao froze and fell back to one knee, unable to resist his disorientating surroundings.
He realised that even his spiritual sense was also starting to be affected by the illusion technique. And with his physical senses warping crazily, there was no longer a way to tell left from right, not to mention identify the direction of the entrance!
His original plan had been to let his clone block the unknown boy while he temporarily escaped the scene, coming back to rescue Nie Hanchang and Lou Yuan after carefully analysing the situation.
However, his clones relied on nothing but spiritual sense. Now that spiritual sense was being blocked, his clone had absolutely no way to make a move, either!
"How rude, as expected of violent barbarians like you," the boy said with a hint of amusement in his voice. "But why did you stop moving? I assume you can't tell what is going on around you anymore?"
Damn it!
Zhao Yunxiao slammed his palm onto the ground.
With that, the ten tortoise heads released their grips on Old Niu and charged straight at the boy with their jaws wide open.
There were still a few moments before the Dark Tortoise Devouring Array ran out of energy, and Zhao Yunxiao was not about to let that go to waste.
The illusion technique might have affected his senses, but it was much more difficult to deceive a killing array!
Unfortunately, even that was all in vain.
"Cute."
The boy simply remained nonchalant, simply watching on indifferently as the giant tortoise heads clamped down upon him, and the next moment revealed exactly why. Despite their menacing appearance, the giant tortoise heads bit down on nothing but air, as though the boy was a completely intangible figure that existed outside of reality.
It would appear that even the Dark Tortoise Devouring Array was unable to cause any damage to the boy!
Zhao Yunxiao could not help but break out in a cold sweat.
Whoever this boy was, they were almost completely at his mercy right now!
"Who are you? What do you want?" Zhao Yunxiao finally stopped trying to escape and asked.
In any case, escape was impossible.
With his vision distorted and his spiritual sense blocked, he could not even accurately locate the direction of the prairie entrance, so what chances of escape were there?
Fine, he actually still had the spatial escape talisman that he had gotten from Elder He, but Zhao Yunxiao's heart ached just from the thought of using it.
Until the very last moment, he would definitely refrain from expending such a precious item!
"You can call me Hua Xian. I guess you can say that I am a fairymist flower who gained enlightenment," the boy answered with a faint smile. "That said, do you know how many of my friends have been crushed to death as a result of your fight? As their leader, don't you think I have the responsibility to avenge them?"
Zhao Yunxiao frowned at the unexpected situation.
He had accounted for various scenarios that could possibly occur here in Ghost Fog Valley, but who would have imagined that a fairymist flower would have gained enlightenment and turned into a flower demon that specialised in illusion techniques?
This was something that would not have happened even once in thousands of years!
Yet despite the almost abysmal probability, it remained a fact that this was the reality that he had to face right now.
That made things extremely complicated!
Zhao Yunxiao recalled how Old Niu had been charging into bush after bush of fairymist flowers earlier, and it was not surprising that plenty of flowers had been crushed under his weight.
No wonder this flower demon, Hua Xian, was upset.
Unfortunately, they could hardly absolve themselves from all responsibilities, either. After all, they had also been deliberately leading Old Niu into the bushes while dodging around earlier, hoping that doing so would delay him even one or two moments longer.
"We sincerely apologise. We truly did not know that this place is under your charge," Zhao Yunxiao said with as calm a tone as he could muster. "However, the true culprit here is still Old Niu. We are willing to hand him over to you, and you can do whatever you want with him."
"Oh? Those are some interesting words considering how you were just saying that Ghost Fog Valley is unclaimed territory," Hua Xian snickered. "And don't worry, I will definitely be taking him. However, you lot will be coming along as well."
"Let's not be rash and slowly talk things over," Zhao Yunxiao forced a smile. "Isn't the issue here the well-being of your fellow flowers? Why don't we think about what we can do to help with that instead? Perhaps that would be more effective in making up for what happened here."
"T-That's right! If you let us go, I will be able to gather precious materials and ingredients that can serve as great fertiliser," Lou Yuan quickly chimed in. "Not to mention here in this prairie, I will be able to help you and your friends flourish enough to cover the entire Ghost Fog Valley!"
Zhao Yunxiao instinctively looked in the direction of Lou Yuan's voice. He could barely make out Lou Yuan's figure through his distorted senses, but the latter seemed to be standing straight up instead of kneeling on the ground for support like he and Nie Hanchang.
Was his spiritual sense so strong that even the illusion technique could not block it completely?
What a shame!
If Lou Yuan had combat capabilities like a regular cultivator, he might actually be able to help them out in this situation!
But then again, this was still something that could come in handy. He just had to come up with a way to use this to their advantage.
Zhao Yunxiao probed his spatial pouch.
Good, his spiritual sense might be blocked out in the open, but he was at least able to access the items in his spatial pouch.
Next, he had to ensure that he was not under the threat of immediate danger.
"Fertilisers? That does sound like a tempting offer, but what guarantee do I have that you will return after I let you go?" Hua Xian shook his head with a faint smile. "On top of that, what fertiliser could possibly be better than the corpses of cultivators? By absorbing your bodies, my companions might even be able to touch upon the brink of enlightenment, joining me in gaining sentience!"
"W-What? Fertiliser? Us?" Lou Yuan staggered back in shock.
What's wrong with the inhabitants of this Ghost Fog Valley?
Old Niu was crazy enough to covet their flesh and blood, but this Hua Xian was no different!
"That might be true for higher ranked cultivators, but our cultivation level is not nearly high enough to have such a huge impact," Zhao Yunxiao was significantly calmer despite being in a worse condition than Lou Yuan. "If you don't believe me, I can prove it to you as well."
Zhao Yunxiao pulled a dagger out of his spatial pouch, then cut a small slit on his thumb.
Drip-!
A few droplets of blood fell onto the ground, quickly disappearing into the soil.
"What are you trying to prove?" Hua Xian scoffed. "If you are trying to let me sense the essence in your blood, I've already had plenty of chance to do so earlier. Do you think you haven't bled enough?"
"If that's the case, I'm sure you already know that our bodies will be far from nutritious enough to grant enlightenment to your companions," Zhao Yunxiao answered.
By making a slit on his thumb, it was more of a subtle test to determine just how much of his senses had been blocked.
Thankfully, he could not only feel the touch of the dagger, but also an aching pain at the spot where he had cut his thumb, which indicated that his sense of touch and sensitivity to pain were still working properly.
At the very least, this meant that he was not at risk of being slowly killed off while cluelessly engaging in this conversation.
After all, who knew what this illusion technique was capable of?
The last thing he wanted was to continue engaging with Hua Xian, oblivious to a plant root or any other weapon that was slowly drilling into his body and crushing his heart!
On the other hand, had he not been able to sense any pain, Zhao Yunxiao would have used that spatial escape talisman without missing a beat!
"It's not just him! My body is not nutritious as well!" Lou Yuan desperately added.
"That doesn't matter," Hua Xian shrugged. "There is a long road ahead. Even if you prove insufficient to close out the entire journey, you can still do your part by helping to bridge a dozen steps."
"Why don't you think about it again?" Zhao Yunxiao quickly retrieved a few spirit stones and slammed them onto the ground.
The spirit stones shone brightly, and the light from the golden emblem on the ground intensified once again.
As opposed to doing so through the array nodes, this was an extremely ineffective way of feeding energy to the Dark Tortoise Devouring Array. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it.
It was impossible for Zhao Yunxiao to locate the array nodes in his current state, so this was the best he could do to extend the duration of the array, which was quickly coming to an end due to its depleting energy source.
"Don't you ever learn? That thing doesn't work against me," Hua Xian tilted his head in confusion. "You humans really aren't nearly as smart as you think you are."
"You are mistaken. That's not the point that I am trying to make," Zhao Yunxiao continued. "I'm just showing you a preview of what we can provide if you simply give us the chance to serve you. Instead of our unimpressive bodies, isn't it much better to receive resources that can directly provide nutrients and energy to the environment?"
"Hmm, that does make sense," Hua Xian nodded. "All right, I'll let you go now as long as you promise to come back with all the treasures you have within a week's time."
"R-Really?" Lou Yuan's eyes lit up in surprise.
"Sigh, do you really think I am a fool? If I were to let you go, would I even see you again after a thousand years?" Hua Xian shook his head in disapproval. "All right, enough talk. It is time to act like the fertilisers that you are, and return to the ground in silence."
Crack-!
Thick plant roots broke out of the ground surface, slithering towards the trio like wooden snakes. Or perhaps it should be the quartet if one included the motionless Old Niu.
The plant roots moved slowly and would have been extremely easy to avoid in any other circumstances.
But right now, the young trio could no longer even see clearly, so how could they ever avoid these roots?
And just as the roots came into striking distance, they suddenly shot forward, wrapping around them in an instant.
"Get away from me!" Lou Yuan screamed and leapt away from the oncoming roots.
He was the only one who could sense the roots coming, so he reacted immediately. Unfortunately, his speed was too slow and ended up being captured as well.
"Argh!" Zhao Yunxiao let out a groan as he felt his wounds tearing.
The roots bound him so tightly that he felt like his ribs were being crushed. Even if he mustered all his strength, he could not break free from it.
But rather than despairing, Zhao Yunxiao actually felt excited at this moment.
He was not a masochist, so he was definitely not feeling excited about being bound by the roots. Rather than that, it was just that being bound like this actually allowed him to realise something important.
Hua Xian seemed to be completely untouchable, but these roots were definitely tangible!
This strongly suggested that Hua Xian's boyish figure was merely part of the illusion technique, while Hua Xian's true body existed elsewhere on this prairie.
It might seem like a small and insignificant detail, but its importance could not be understated.
At the very least, this seemingly insignificant detail allowed Zhao Yunxiao to finally see a way out of this situation – to potentially turn the tide against Hua Xian!
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