Xu Bai’s words startled Liu San.
However, he quickly realized that when Xu Bai mentioned “suicide,” he was referring to his clone.
“Young Master, why go to such lengths? With Old Fang and me here, along with the Medicine King’s True Cauldron, even if we are outmatched, escaping shouldn’t be too difficult.” Liu San looked at Xu Bai with some confusion.
Xu Bai did not elaborate further. “This is just a precaution, nothing more.”
Seeing this, Liu San did not press the matter. Instead, he advised, “If it is for the sake of a swift end, Young Master can use spiritual power to envelop the Soul-Melting Body-Dissolving Pill and store it in your dantian. At the critical moment, dissolving the pill will allow its effects to spread throughout your body in an instant. During this process, you must also be mindful of…”
After listening to Liu San’s detailed instructions, Xu Bai calmly swallowed the highly toxic pill.
Feeling the lethal presence within his dantian, Xu Bai suddenly felt much more at ease.
“With the additional safeguard of the Mysterious True Spirit Transformation technique, which allows me to discard this clone’s life at will, I should never find myself in a situation where I cannot die if needed.”
After all, this clone was heading to the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance headquarters to meet with Law Derivation Jade. The level of power he might encounter there was unpredictable.
It was only natural to make thorough preparations.
“Next, it all depends on how Fellow Daoist Jiao performs.”
Standing in the void of the Beast Realm, Xu Bai gazed into the distance as if his vision could pierce through space and time, seeing the events unfolding in Tianling Prefecture.
“Damn it, the last time Tianling Prefecture was this lively was…”
Inside Tianling City, a guard cultivator responsible for maintaining order looked at the vast crowd of gathered cultivators and cursed under his breath.
However, before he could finish his sentence, his words caught in his throat.
It was as if he had forgotten something important, leaving him momentarily lost in thought. “When was the last time Tianling Prefecture had this many people?”
He was puzzled.
“It was during the Tianling Prefecture War.”
Beside him, a lean and serious-looking cultivator responded coldly.
As the lost memories resurfaced in his mind, the guard cultivator felt as if he had traveled back in time to centuries ago. His expression grew distant.
“Yes, before the Tianling Prefecture War, the city was just as crowded.”
“Old Sun, your memory is really something. I had almost forgotten about that…”
Sun Qi ignored his colleague’s mumbling. Instead, he carefully examined the Floral Invitation in his hands, his eyes flickering with excitement.
The Floral Invitation was an exclusive entry ticket to the upcoming Flower Viewing Gathering.
Due to the overwhelming number of cultivators arriving for the event, even the massive space that Tianling City’s Lord had prepared was nearly full.
To prevent chaos, all cultivators hoping to enter and witness the True Heavenly Spirit Flower had to do so in an orderly manner, based on their arrival sequence.
Since they had come from far and wide, most cultivators didn’t mind paying the 100 Contribution Points entry fee.
The real issue was time.
The queue of cultivators had completely filled Tianling City, and in an unprecedented move, the teleportation formations leading into the city had been temporarily shut down.
For ordinary cultivators, it was impossible to predict how long they would have to wait to see the True Heavenly Spirit Flower.
Moreover, the Flower Viewing Gathering had no official duration.
The True Heavenly Spirit Flower itself was merely being stored at Qianli Hall by its owner, who could retrieve it at any moment.
If one missed this opportunity, there might never be another.
Naturally, the sooner one could see the True Heavenly Spirit Flower, the better.
The Floral Invitation granted its holder priority entry, bypassing the queue entirely.
Rumors had it that these invitations had already been scalped to prices as high as 10,000 Contribution Points per ticket, and even at that price, they were extremely limited and difficult to obtain.
The only reason Sun Qi had one was because his uncle had gifted it to him.
Sun Qi’s uncle, Sun Liancheng, was the newly appointed Lord of Tianling City in Tianling Prefecture.
A Dao Integration cultivator, he guarded the entire Tianling region.
“This Tianling Flower does seem to have some unique qualities. It appears to be somewhat different from what I have seen before. You can take a look—perhaps it might help you break through,” Sun Liancheng said in a detached tone, as if he held little hope.
It was no surprise—Sun Qi had been trapped at the Golden Core stage for far too long due to the Calamity of Heaven.
He had exhausted countless methods, even risking his life by throwing himself into the battles of the Tianling War-zone, hoping that the immense terror between life and death would help him break through his bottleneck. But in the end, every attempt ended in failure.
Apart from Sun Qi himself, the rest of the family had already given up on him.
“Heavenly Spirit Flower…” A vivid image of it emerged in Sun Qi’s mind.
As a native cultivator of Tianling Prefecture, he was naturally familiar with it.
Before the great war, he would occasionally buy a few pots of the flower for personal enjoyment when the mood struck him.
However, after the war, the Heavenly Spirit Flower had become tainted with the scent of blood.
Every time he saw one, it would remind him of the hellish battlefield during the war in Tianling Prefecture. From then on, he never purchased another.
“I never expected that a original Heavenly Spirit Flower would still exist in this world.” Sun Qi was momentarily lost in thought.
After completing his task handover with a fellow cultivator, he hurried home, changed into fresh robes, and set off for the Paradise Amidst Flowers.
Paradise Amidst Flowers was the venue prepared for the Floral Appreciation Gathering in Tianling City. It had been jointly created by his uncle, Sun Liancheng, and a cultivator named Zhao Chong.
Zhao Chong was well-known for his love of flowers.
Upon hearing that the Floral Appreciation Gathering was to be held in Tianling Prefecture, he personally sought out Sun Liancheng and volunteered to help set up the venue free of charge—his only request was to witness the true Heavenly Spirit Flower with his own eyes.
Though Zhao Chong was only a Soul Transformation cultivator, he had an extensive network of connections, with ties to several esteemed Dao Integration cultivators within the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance.
Sun Liancheng found it difficult to refuse and had no choice but to accept.
The entrance to the Paradise Amidst Flowers was located at the Dharma-Transmitting Plaza within the city. There, a dark-skinned man named Jiao Xiuyuan had set up a table, beaming as he blocked the entrance.
Only after presenting his Floral Invitation was Sun Qi allowed to enter the Paradise Amidst Flowers.
Before he could take in his surroundings, a rich and intoxicating floral fragrance enveloped him.
In an open space covered in a vibrant array of flowers, rows of chairs woven from green vines were arranged neatly, already occupied by numerous cultivators.
Sun Qi, being a solitary individual by nature, scanned the crowd but found no one he recognized. Without hesitation, he located his assigned seat and patiently waited.
It was unclear how much time had passed when a sudden wave of noise rippled through the venue.
The first group of lucky participants had begun to enter the deeper parts of the Paradise Amidst Flowers.
Once all the cultivators had gathered inside, Jiao Xiuyuan abruptly appeared on the grand stage at the front, a platform adorned with beautiful and exotic flowers.
In his hands, he held a red wooden box, immediately drawing the attention of every cultivator present.
“Fellow Daoists, the Flower Appreciation Gathering officially begins!”
Without unnecessary words, Jiao Xiuyuan made the simple yet exciting announcement.