Chapter 621: The Corrupted Flower
Bai Tianyi looked at the ground beneath his feet. The lush green grass seemed more gloomy than before, and he could not help but clear his throat a little uncomfortably.
As he looked at the many flowers surrounding them, he knew that the Intractable Mirage Peony looked different from these flowers, but he was also quite certain in his own guess. Their abilities and reactions were exactly the same, and even if the origin of these flowers was not as the legend had explained, he knew for a fact that they needed to grow in corpses to gain nutrients.
"I always felt that this place is a little too fake. It is as when you enter the Red Light District. Although it looks glamorous and opulent, it is only on the surface. Beneath the beauty lies a gruesome and disgusting world full of death and blood." Ling Xiao could not help but shiver as he looked around. He felt rather uncomfortable and wanted to leave the area as soon as possible.
Although he was not a superstitious person, he still felt rather disgusted when he knew that these flowers had grown by consuming corpses. Even if he had found them somewhat beautiful before, he now just wished to be far away from them.
However, Ling Xiao's words did not make his friends feel worried. All of them knew that this area was nothing like how it portrayed itself. Instead, it was rotten to the core, but they still found it amusing listening to Ling Xiao continuing to compare it to the Red Light District. He did not even realize how much this place had influenced his mind to make comparisons with bad things whenever he encountered them.
Luoluo, who was still very sensitive towards the strange temptation surrounding the flowers, had also listened to Bai Tianyi's words. She had, however, never heard about this legend before, and could not help but feel amazed.
While Bai Tianyi had heard the legend back when he was still a human being, he had focused on the flowers that needed to be nurtured within a human corpse, but Luoluo was a spirit herself. She knew more about spirits than human emotions, and she could not help but feel that many things made sense.
There were both demonic and righteous spirits. Although the righteous spirits were no saints, they would not harm the innocent as the evil, or demonic, spirits would.
Even so, a spirit had a specific core that made them what they were even up to this date, much as how Bai Tianyi was a sword spirit, she also had a core.
This core was very important when the spirit was created, and it was also the decisive factor about whether or not the spirit would become righteous or demonic.
A peony was inherently righteous. They were the symbol of prosperity and fortune, so it was not possible for this spirit to become demonic upon creation. Especially when one considered the many treasures it had been gifted, and the reverence it had gained throughout the many years as it was admired.
"Corruption." Luoluo's voice was somber as she suddenly uttered a single word.
She did not speak loudly, but everyone was silent as they tried to accept the legend that Bai Tianyi had recounted and thus heard her uttering the word with such solemnity.
"What is it?" Xue Wei continued to survey their surroundings as he asked Luoluo about her sudden outburst. Although he did not seem fully focused, everyone who knew him understood that he was in fact very interested to hear her words.
"The spirit was corrupted from before it even gathered enough energy to become sentient." Luoluo lowered her eyes and looked at the ground in front of her.
"A peony will not become a demonic spirit. Even if it was drenched in blood or surrounded by gloom, they would not willingly submit to evil, so for this spirit to submit to its desires, it can be said that there is something wrong with the spirit instead." Luoluo sounded hesitant as she spoke.
She had always known that corruption was something that spirits had to fear. It was not an issue for the demonic cultivators, as their core already reeked of death, but the righteous spirits were often preyed upon by these demonic cultivators that wished to eat their cores and consume their cultivation base.
However, these Intractable Mirage Peonies were no ordinary flowers when looking at them with their naked eyes. They were clearly peonies, but they seemed to be lacking something. Perhaps due to the extravagant amount of treasures, the spirit had been tempted from the moment of creation, and thus the corruption had been deeply rooted within this spirit's core?
"I fear that the spirit has been corrupted from the moment of creation. Look at these flowers. If they truly are what Bai Tianyi assumes, it would make sense why any pure spirit-core gets corrupted upon touch.
"This Peony Spirit that Tianyi mentioned should have been powerful and noble, but from its very creation, it was used to being admired and served with too much admiration and faith.
"Its world-view was twisted from the very start, and its energy was not pure. This energy slowly twisted together and made the peony become corrupted little by little, which also allowed it to become the only kind of spirit that is able to live with a corrupted core.
"This kind of spirit is much more dangerous than the evil spirits. Although the evil spirits are ruthless and bloodthirsty, they are perfectly well aware of the consequences their actions have. Some of them might choose to destroy to satisfy their own happiness and bloodthirst, but they do know that their actions are wrong, while the corrupted spirits are just twisted.
"Their minds are in a constant daze that makes them experience reality different from the rest of us. We never know what they are thinking, nor what their next movements will be.
"Such a spirit is hard to control, and also many times more difficult to prepare against. Just listen to the legends about how the spirit got his revenge by planting its own seeds in these numerous corpses and creating a new bloodthirsty version of a peony."