Chapter 389: 22. Red and White Petals
Had it been any other cultivator facing such a giant monster, they might have ended up in a flustered mess.
But none of those present were mediocre, and they each quickly realized that the beast’s massive body was not its true form—the core was likely hidden within the layers of vines, mud, and roots.
Generally speaking, to injure the core located at the center, one would need to peel away the outer layers.
However, Wei Dongliu possessed the Hundred Poisons Golden Silkworm Gu, which could penetrate the swollen protective layer and corrode its way directly to the heart.
Therefore, Jiang the Witch and the Flying Asura intentionally entangled and restrained the creature’s tentacles, preventing them from attacking Wei Dongliu, who was in a critical position.
Wei Dongliu, in turn, commanded the ferociously active Hundred Poisons Golden Silkworm Gu to madly burrow into the interior of the vine monster.
The beast struggled for a moment, realizing it couldn’t deal with its opponents, and sensing something burrowing inside its body, it suddenly let out a shriek and executed its killing move.
The sea of flowers that covered its body suddenly blossomed in unison, emitting a blood-red, dense fog.
Wei Dongliu and the others were standing too close and had no time to react. Breathing in a little of the mist, their minds instantly became muddled.
Before their eyes flashed countless images at rapid speed, towering skyscrapers, subway stations, moving crowds of people… Numerous scenes from Earth passed through their minds in a rapid slideshow.
He had almost forgotten his memories of his past life, and now that he suddenly saw them again, he was struck as if by a heavy blow, standing frozen on the spot, unable to speak for a long while.
In a daze, he heard Ah Jing’s voice:
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“Mirror Flower Water Moon, Silent Photographic Void, break for me!”
Wei Dongliu jerked as if electrocuted, his divine sense immediately clearing just in time to see the giant beast’s vines reaching toward his waist.
He pretended as if he was still trapped in the illusion domain, and just as the tentacles nearly touched him, he suddenly manipulated the Myriad Demons Evil Spirit Sword and sheared them all off in one stroke.
Looking around, he noticed that both Jiang the Witch and the Flying Asura were caught in a kind of trance, lost in the throes of their pasts.
The Demon Lord Wei quickly swept Jiang the Witch into his arms and retreated rapidly, while once again urging the Hundred Poisons Golden Silkworm Gu to accelerate its corrosion towards the inside.
The vine monster, as if driven mad, fiercely wrapped the only remaining Flying Asura, and then split open a large mouth on its surface.
Just at that moment, the Flying Asura finally snapped out of it, its vision filled with the retreating Wei Dongliu and Jiang Liyan, as well as the rapidly closing maw of the giant beast.
I have been swallowed!
As the thought flashed through its mind, the already deathly pale face of the Flying Asura turned even darker.
It was merely a collective consciousness of otherworldly flowers turned into a spirit—such a lowly creature dared to attempt devouring me, the Flying Asura?
Its body radiated lethal energy, the muscles of its arms suddenly bulged, veins popping, as it spewed out a thick, yellow-green liquid from its mouth.
This was one of the innate divine abilities of the zombie race, the so-called Corpse Decay Poison, one of the fiercest toxins in the world.
Yet the Flying Asura’s cultivation level was sealed, the strength of its refined toxins already insufficient, and coupled with the fact that the vine monster had been watered and grown by the water from the River of Forgetfulness, its natural resistance to poison was at full strength, and it easily resisted the assault of the Corpse Decay Poison.
Seeing this, the Flying Asura was stunned, realizing that the toxin was useless against it, and in a fit of annoyed rage, it wildly flailed its claws, tearing and trying to break free from the restraints on all sides.
The vine monster’s anger was provoked, its desire to feed flared up, and it tightened its entwining vines around it, enveloping the Flying Asura tightly like a pitcher plant trying to refine it.
Suddenly, its body shook violently. It was the Hundred Poisons Golden Silkworm Gu controlled by Demon Lord Wei, which had found the core of the vine monster.
It was a vivid red kernel, tightly entwined with numerous fine roots, inhaling and exhaling thick poisonous gas in all directions.
Of course, this type of Illusionary Poisonous Gas, primarily targeting the soul, was like using a cannon to kill a mosquito for creatures such as the Golden Silkworm Gu, whose souls are inherently deficient. It was utterly ineffective.
Very soon, the three Golden Silkworm Gus had enveloped the fruit core and devoured it in a few bites, breaking apart the surrounding roots and fibers.
The entire vine behemoth disintegrated the moment it lost its fruit core. Countless vines, roots, and clumps of soil collapsed and shattered, revealing the Flying Asura inside, covered in dirt. His body was riddled with rotting wounds, making him almost indistinguishable from a corpse.
He awkwardly stood up, spitting out large quantities of fluid—it turned out that the vine behemoth had injected its digestive juices into every hole on his body during the battle, almost causing him to explode from the pressure.
The damage was moderate, but the humiliation was unbearable.
Wei, the Demon Lord, set Jiang the Witch down by his side. As the vine behemoth perished, the illusions from the poison rapidly dissipated.
Jiang the Witch still had a resentful look on her face, teeth clenched in frustration. One could not tell what scenes she had recalled, but she suddenly let out a scream of surprise upon regaining her consciousness and covered her cheek, saying,
“Wei Fellow, I didn’t… blurt out any nonsense just now, did I?”
“No,” Wei Dongliu thought to himself with a chuckle while deliberately keeping a straight face, “Aside from the words ‘impossible,’ ‘why,’ and ‘I refuse to accept this,’ you didn’t say anything extra.”
Jiang Liyan: ………
With her suspicious nature, she couldn’t possibly take Wei Dongliu’s words at face value. She assumed that he had heard something unsightly but pretended not to, considering her dignity.
It was truly a social death without a doubt.
Seeing her humiliated expression, Wei Dongliu also silently took note; the witch must have recalled some embarrassing memories.
“There’s more to it than that,” the Kunlun Mirror suddenly spoke, “The true effect of the Red and White Manjusaka’s poison is to make one recall fragments of memories from past lives.”
“Oh?” Wei, the Demon Lord, had an epiphany, “So, was my previous life before I traveled here?”
After pondering for a moment, he heard Jiang the Witch cough to shift the focus and said,
“Wei Fellow, this Red and White Manjusaka… how should one consume it?”
Wei Dongliu looked down and saw that aside from the large flower field ruined by the vine behemoth, there were many intact Red and White Manjusakas in the distance, a striking mix of red and white, enchantingly beautiful.
He glanced at the Flying Asura, questioning with his eyes, and the latter immediately shook his head, indicating complete ignorance.
After a moment’s silence, Wei Dongliu picked a Red and White Manjusaka and was about to tear off a petal to put into his mouth, but then he heard the Kunlun Mirror suddenly say,
“Wait, that flower is poisonous.”
“Poisonous?” Wei Dongliu frowned slightly.
“The red ones are poisonous,” the Kunlun Mirror replied, “This flower… is indeed rare. The white petals can regenerate flesh from white bone, while the red petals can cause one’s soul to perish.”
“The same calyx can produce petals with completely opposite effects; this is my first time witnessing it.”
“I see,” Wei Dongliu mused for a moment, then suddenly noticed the Flying Asura crouched at the edge of a nearby flower field, tearing off a red petal and carelessly chewing it.
Seeing this scene, Wei Dongliu could easily guess his intention:
The creature had deliberately disclosed that the Red and White Manjusaka was a secret medicine of the Purple Mansion, but withheld the fact that the red petals were toxic. Most cultivators would certainly not waste a single petal.
Add on the fact that this zombie was deliberately eating the red petals in front of you, leading you to subconsciously assume that the red petals are harmless—except the toxin in these petals targets the soul, something a zombie lacks and thus fears not.
He had almost fallen for that damned Asura’s trick!