Chapter 62: Nine-Petal Lotus
Ding!
[Qi increase by 1,440. Current Qi 1,433,829/1,495,000]
Three days passed uneventfully.
Snowy initially wanted to spend the day hunting spirit beasts, but somehow there was a sudden decrease in their population as if they were migrating elsewhere.
The only remaining spirit beasts near the campsite were the Qi Transformation Spirit Beasts which couldn't give any substantial Qi for Snowy to advance her cultivation.
She had informed this strange occurrence to Feng Xue and Rong Hua; she even asked Feng Xue's help to monitor the whole inner sanctum, but Feng Xue also failed to find spirit beasts beyond Qi Transformation stage.
Her gut feeling told Feng Xue that something big was going to happen soon. And it most likely was something troublesome for them.
Rong Hua was also concerned about the spirit beasts' disappearance, but she was busy enough guarding the Nine-Petal Lotus in its critical period.
Even though the spatial barrier was formidable, the light emitted by the lotus could still penetrate and leak outside due to its magical properties.
If she was careless and forgot to constantly move the lotus, many Nascent Soul Stage spirit beast would be able to locate its position. By then, It would be a lot harder for Rong Hua to send the Nine-Petal Lotus to a different location.
This could be detrimental for the lotus in its last stage before it was blooming.
In the end, they decided to keep their guard up and prepared for the worst-case: spirit beast tide!
The event was so rare that only a few scrolls and tales recorded their existence, albeit not clear enough and sometimes contradicted each other. But, there was one fact that those records agreed upon: every time spirit beast tide happens, it heralds destruction.
Snowy searched all the records within her memories to find a possible solution or trump card for her if they had no choice but to face the disaster directly. She looked at her latest memory, and a thin smile appeared on her lips.
In the past three days, besides hunting for food and cooking, Snowy also spend a lot of her time with Feng Xue.
They were sparring and discussing cultivation, which slightly focusing on Feng Xue, who still barely scraped the surface of her Divine Phoenix Scripture. Feng Xue asked Snowy for pointers to improve her understanding of nature and the dao of Phoenix further with Snowy's guidance.
Thankfully, with her talent and potential, she could feel her golden core became more solid, and the quality of her Qi became purer and denser; all in all, her cultivation increase tremendously.
Snowy had also improved her cultivation by a considerable margin. Most of her offensive skill level up caused her battle prowess could already match a cultivator who recently breakthrough to Nascent Soul Stage.
Although she couldn't kill them, she still could inflict heavy damage by using her World Devouring Twin Daggers and some of her most potent moves consecutively.
However, she would still fell short if she wanted to contend with Nascent Soul Stage Spirit Beast.
Her only option was to depend on special means or to perform a joint attack with Feng Xue. With Feng Xue's bloodline suppression, her winning chance might increase significantly.
Besides sparring and cultivating, they also spend their sweet time going bath together. Although they didn't act intimately like before due to Rong Hua's presence, they still helped washing each other bodies and sneak a kiss or two when the mood was getting good.
Snowy was still bashful every time her lips felt the softness of Feng Xue's lips, and Feng Xue acted very boldly and aggressively as if she was a different person every time she saw Snowy's shy attitude.
They also spent the night together, sometimes cuddling, sometimes just talking. Even though they didn't define their relationship clearly, they seemed aware that they felt very comfortable in the presence of each other, more than with just a close friend.
They only need to cross the final hurdle to finally be together, but it seemed that they didn't want to rush it.
Just before the night fell, Rong Hua appeared out of thin air, surprising Snowy and Feng Xue, "C'mon, let's go inside the Nine-Petal Lotus' pocket space before the moon fully rising."
Snowy and Feng Xue nodded and followed Rong Hua to the lotus' location. As they moved closer to their destination, Snowy and Feng Xue felt disturbance similar to when they went to the old man's home, albeit a lot weaker.
The barrier's size seemed to be much bigger than the rumor said. They had not seen any light or lotus, but the space around them had already started to be affected by the spatial displacement.
After a few minutes, they finally reached their destination and welcomed by the sight of a flower bud, around 1.8 feet in height, and had nine different colored petals closed, rotating in perpetuity while radiating light with ever-changing color: sometimes white, sometimes rainbow-like, and when they turned black, instead of emitting light, they absorb them instead.
When the lotus ready to bloom, its color would stay black since it was the most effective color to absorb the energy from the moonlight. This was the reason why Rong Hua chooses the lake as their rendezvous point, so the lotus could gather enough moonlight to open its petals.
Feng Xue stared at the light show in amazement. She didn't expect that the Nine-Petal Lotus to be this magnificent. Although she needed the lotus to cure her father, she couldn't help but feel it was a shame that such a majestic flower was used as pill ingredients.
"Most of the people don't know the true worth of Nine-Petal Lotus and think that the peerless treasure is the flower itself," Snowy shook her head and glanced at the lotus with a solemn look, "but they are wrong. The most precious thing about the Nine-Petal Lotus is the moment when the petal open. Anyone nearby that could see its actual appearance behind the dazzling light will get a benefit for their dao comprehension worth of 100-200 years cultivation, hence its other name, Dao Lotus."
Feng Xue and Rong Hua's jaw wide opened, and their heart thumped harder when they heard Snowy's words. 100-200 years' worth of cultivation could improve their Dao comprehension by leap and bound.
If, say, a master swordsman spent 100-200 years to comprehend Sword Dao, he or she most likely could breakthrough to grandmaster swordsman and might grasp enough Sword Law to make their own domain. It wasn't impossible for exceptional prodigies like Chosen or Heaven Favor Children to reach Sword King level.
This was an earth-shattering fortune, and they were the only lucky persons who had a chance to earn it.