Chapter 374: [Nether Lotus Glow]
Translator: TYZ Editor: TYZ/KLKL
Beast Venom Temple.
The figure lying at the bottom of the blood pool was motionless, resembling an ancient monster in slumber.
A middle-aged man stood beside the blood pool and observed the bottom of it. The man was approximately forty years old. He was thin and weak looking,his face was pale-white and his eyes were sunken. The scholar’s robe that he wore was wrinkled.
This seemingly haggard and sloppy middle-aged man had single-handedly established Beast Venom Temple. He was also the one who devised the blood catastrophe that struck Induction Ground. A lot of policies in God Nation today were planned by him.
He was the master of Beast Venom Temple, Nangong Wulian.
Nangong Wulian stared at the figure lying at the bottom of the blood pool. Without turning his head, he asked, "How many times have you changed the blood water?"
One of his subordinates quickly replied, "Six times. We have to keep on increasing the concentration of the blood water. Up till now, the concentration of the blood water has broken the all-time record, so much so that it has surpassed the concentration used for most of the blood fiends. Will it be too dangerous?"
The most important material in the blood water of the blood pool was blood core. Blood core was a material that was of a higher grade than a blood crystal. It could only be produced by using high-level blood fiends. The price of a blood core was not cheap in God Nation as well. For a blood pool like this, the number of blood cores used was astonishingly huge. And Beast Venom Temple was the only department that could spare no effort in carrying out such an operation.
Nangong Wulian’s eyes lit up with a demonic glow, as if he was admiring an exceptional treasure. Without turning his head, he replied, "Continue to increase the concentration. Don’t underestimate his limit, he will be a legend in Beast Venom Temple."
His voice seemed to contain an indescribable excitement and anticipation.
After a slight hesitation, the subordinate replied, "It seems that he does not want to wake up."
Nangong Wulian burst into laughter as his eyes filled with fervent joy, "Don’t worry, he will wake up. I have already found the key to wake him up and I have spent a lot of effort finding it."
All of his subordinates looked at each other with blank looks on their faces.
"Everyone has a weakness. If one loves money, then you give him money. If one values comradeship, then you will use comradeship to move him."
A water coffin was carried over and placed beside the blood pool. Indistinctly, one could see a female figure lying in the water coffin.
"Even though I don’t know how to make grass-lotus puppets, my understanding towards human anatomy far surpassed Dai Gang’s," Nangong Wulian muttered. He shifted his gaze from the water coffin to the blood pool and grinned, "This is my present to you. As long as you are willing to open your eyes and start a new life, she will be yours."
The blood pool remained tranquil, resembling a smooth mirror. The figure lying at the bottom had no reaction.
Nangong Wulian chuckled and turned around to leave.
After a few minutes, the peaceful blood pool suddenly tossed and turned frantically.
…..
An intense battle was a disaster for the ancient Ye Residence. Its old structures had received irreversible damage and the fragments of its old, moss-covered walls could be seen everywhere.
Upon sensing that Ai Hui had not completely lost the ability to retaliate, She Yu became energized and focused on fighting Old Ling. Gradually, she recovered from the difficult situation she was in previously.
Qing Feng’s awful voice could be heard incessantly, making one feel as if his or her head was going to explode.
The beams of green light from the lotus leaves on the ground became thicker and stronger. These beams of green light converged at the body of Ai Hui.
Faint flames were emitted from Ai Hui’s body. When the beams of green light made contact with the flames, they immediately turned into wisps of black smoke.
What kind of flame was this?
Qing Feng widened his eyes. He could not believe what he had just seen.
Since he was a grass-lotus puppet, he naturally did not have the system of five residences and eight palaces. However, his master was an exceptional genius. Using the technique of making elemental elixirs from dire beasts as a reference, his master produced a man-made elemental elixir for him. Possessing the man-made elemental elixir, Qing Feng could train like a dire beast. Furthermore, after his master made some modifications to him, his training efficiency was higher than the usual dire beasts’.
Elementalists had a wide variety of fighting styles and the system of five residences and eight palaces was just a framework. Everyone used the framework differently and uniquely. The training method and fighting style of a dire beast was much more simpler. A dire beast usually had a few killing moves and these killing moves complemented their natural instincts. Daily training would make their strength terrifyingly powerful.
Qing Feng, being a grass-lotus puppet, had a human head. His killing moves were extremely powerful. With three ultimate killing moves and a unique and unmatched grass-lotus body, he possessed the strength of a Master.
And [Nether Lotus Glow] was one of his three ultimate killing moves.
These lotus seeds were not the usual lotus seeds. They were the lotus seeds of the extremely rare nether lotuses. Reportedly, the nether lotuses only grew in the Yellow Springs of Netherworld. They were exceptionally precious. Of course, no one knew where the Yellow Springs was. In reality, nether lotuses grew on dead lands that were completely devoid of life and vitality. For example, a necropolis.
Dai Gang had obtained the nether lotus seeds in Qing Feng’s body by chance when he was roaming across Wilderness in the past.
The nether lotus seeds might have come from Dai Gang, but [Nether Lotus Glow] was created by Qing Feng himself. Even Dai Gang marvelled at this technique. After so many years, countless experts had been killed by this move.
From Qing Feng’s perspective, even though Chu Zhaoyang’s swordsmanship was rather good, his base level was only at Second Elemental Realm. The moment [Nether Lotus Glow] was unleashed, his hands would be tied and he would only wait to be captured.
As such, when Qing Feng saw his time-tested ultimate killing move facing resistance from Chu Zhaoyang, he was startled.
[Skyheart Flaming Lotus Lamp] was not a very well-known inheritance and not a lot of people practiced it. When Qing Feng saw the weak flames on Chu Zhaoyang’s body, he did not recognize them.
Luckily, he intensified the strength of [Nether Lotus Glow] and the flames on Chu Zhaoyang’s body became much weaker.
Qing Feng heaved a sigh of relief. This was the first time he’d encountered such a situation.
Qing Feng might appear muddle-headed and careless, but in reality, he was extremely cunning and paranoid. He did not like to fight with unknown enemies. Even though he was a grass-lotus puppet that trained like dire beasts and had many marvellous tricks up his sleeves, he still had weaknesses.
His body was not as strong and sturdy as a dire beasts’. If he was struck by a brutal attack, his body could get damaged easily.
Once his body was damaged, he had to return and stay in his master’s lotus pond for a long time to recover fully.
He did not like staying in the lotus pond at all. His entire body would be lodged under the sloshy mud with only his head left outside. That was a terrible experience.
Usually, if he sensed something was not right, he would immediately retreat and wait for a new opportunity to strike again.
Even though Qing Feng had loosened up, his gaze still did not leave the trapped Ai Hui.
He did not go and capture Xiao Shuren immediately. Since the situation was well under his control, how was it even possible for her to run away?
Ai Hui noticed that [Skyheart Flaming Lotus Lamp] was beginning to dim. The surrounding emptiness and darkness was boundless. Gradually, the [Skyheart Flaming Lotus Lamp] dimmed and its operating speed became very slow.
The glimmer of hope he had just seen was being extinguished in an instant. However, Ai Hui’s mind did not falter because of this. At this point in time, his mind had already returned to its normal state.
What should he do?
Ai Hui was exceptionally calm. His brain was operating very fast as he thought of ways to break out of the green glowing ball.
[Skyheart Flaming Lotus Lamp] suppressed illusions and psychic attacks. Since it worked against the void of darkness, this meant that the surrounding emptiness and darkness was some kind of illusion.
This illusion was so real that Ai Hui could not even budge the slightest bit when he tried to move his body,
The [Skyheart Flaming Lotus Lamp]’s operating speed decreased. This showed that the other’s party’s psychic attack was very strong and the [Skyheart Flaming Lotus Lamp] was being suppressed.
His body was imprisoned but his mind was free. What else could he do?
Eh? Ai Hui suddenly realized that the elemental energy in his body could still flow. Previously, he felt that his elemental energy was being devoured. Apparently, that was also an illusion.
It was incredible to see an illusion being so real.
Ai Hui’s eyes lit up when he knew he could still channel his elemental energy. But every time his elemental energy reached the periphery of his body, the elemental energy could not proceed on. This applied to his palms as well. When the elemental energy reached his palm, it could not escape his palm and entered the Silverfold Plum.
His elemental energy could only flow within his body...
Ai Hui was slightly disappointed. If his elemental energy could not enter Silverfold Plum, he could not utilize his swordsmanship.
Almost all of his fighting capabilities were based on his swordsmanship. The inability to utilize his swordsmanship was equivalent to him losing more than half of his strength. Furthermore, with the [Skyheart Flaming Lotus Lamp] being suppressed, he lost the tiny bit of strength that he was left with.
The situation was becoming worse. However, Ai Hui did not intend to give up just like this.
He kept on channeling the elemental energy within his body and the elemental energy flowed faster and faster. Ai Hui wanted to see if the elemental energy could break through the confinement of the illusion. An illusion spell that could confine elemental energy had surpassed the usual illusion spells in terms of strength and level.
Ai Hui’s movements immediately caught Qing Feng’s attention.
When Qing Feng saw what Ai Hui was doing, he could not help but laugh. He was very proud of himself.
He stepped on the lotus leaves and walked nearer to the green glowing ball. He widened his eyes and admired his masterpiece.
The fact that Ai Hui could still channel his elemental energy was a trap set up by Qing Feng on purpose. Just as Ai Hui had expected, the illusion wasn’t any ordinary illusion. He certainly did not expect that what he had encountered was a type of illusion poison.
Nether lotus seeds grew in places which had the highest concentration of aura of death. These places were also known as gateways to the netherworld. The green light emitted by the lotus leaves was actually a bizarre mixture of light and smoke.
The light could imprison Ai Hui and create illusions, but it was not deadly. The deadly thing was the smoke. The smoke was a formless and invisible poisonous smoke. It could seep into an elementalist’s body without him knowing.
The faster the elementalist channeled his elemental energy, the faster the poisonous smoke would seep into his body and the stronger its toxicity would get. It would draw the elementalist nearer and nearer to his death.
Qing Feng purposely designed the green light to only imprison an elementalist’s body and not the elemental energy within his body. By designing the green light this way, an imprisoned elementalist would see this as his only chance to escape and keep on channeling his elemental energy. Doing this would only give the poisonous smoke the chance to strike.
Therefore, when Qing Feng saw that Ai Hui kept channeling his elemental energy, he broke into laughter. It was a pity that his smile was extremely ugly and weird-looking.
The numbness caused by the poisonous smoke was very subtle, making it difficult for one to sense it. However, Ai Hui could immediately sense something was wrong.
When Ai Hui was in Wilderness in the past, other than the sword embryo, poison was the greatest helper. He had spent a lot of time and effort studying and using poison. As such, he was extremely sensitive to the presence of poison.
When the first trace of poisonous smoke entered his body, he could already sense it.
Poisonous!
The first thing he did was to stop channeling the elemental energy in his body. He knew of a lot of poisons that could use elemental energy as a medium of travel to spread throughout a body.
At this moment, a trace of weird energy suddenly emerged from his body.
Ai Hui was stunned. Wasn’t this fusion elemental energy?
In order to spend a longer time in the Hall of Ancient Records, Ai Hui trained diligently to develop his fusion elemental energy. His training progress in fusion elemental energy had improved extremely fast.
The trace of fusion elemental energy pounced towards that trace of poisonous smoke, like a predator that spotted its prey.