by Yuri Ajin
The Hidden Blossom Field turned out to be a real treasure trove.
Unfortunately for Kai and Lily, their plan to lure out their unknown assailant had failed. They hadn’t noticed anyone watching them during the past three weeks, and no one seemed in a hurry to attack them either. Perhaps the man with the demon mask was overly cautious or maybe he possessed very unusual abilities.
After waiting in line, they went to the Large Garden. It was there, in the city of alchemists, that they were going to sell their loot. Lily had managed to find nearly three hundred Herbs and ten Fruits. As for Ivsim, he had gathered one hundred and sixty Herbs. He also got lucky with Fruits. He had found five instead of the usual three.
They arrived at the city by the end of the day and immediately headed to the largest trading house. After passing through the luxurious hall, they stopped at the counter.
“Good evening, we’d like to sell Spirit Herbs and Fruits,” Ivsim said to the employee behind the counter.
Looking up at the suppliers, the man sighed. He had never seen these three before.
“Do you have a lot of them?” he asked. “If you have less than a hundred, then you’d be better off selling them directly to an alchemist.”
The three friends looked at each other.
“I have more than a hundred and fifty,” Ivsim said. “Will that do?”
With a condescending chuckle, the employee leaned back in his chair and gave the trio an appraising look. I wonder how long it took them to collect all that… They’re beginners, I suppose...
“Nearly three hundred,” Lily said.
“Pardon?” The man snapped out of his thoughts. “Is it more than one hundred and fifty or almost three hundred?”
“Um… Both.” The girl smiled. “I have almost three hundred Herbs. I also have ten Fruits. Ivsim, my friend here, has his own share.”
The man raised his eyebrows in surprise. I’ve never seen these guys before. They’re definitely newbies. How in the Heavens did they find so many Herbs and Fruits? Either they are geniuses or they’re trying to pull something!
“I have my own share as well,” Kai added. “No less than them...”
A lot more than them, but that doesn’t matter…
After a few seconds of silence, the man jumped up. His tone and expression changed instantly.
“Oh, well, in that case, let me take you to our evaluators. They’ll take a look at your Herbs and Fruits and see how much they’re worth.”
Kai, Lily, and Ivsim were taken to separate rooms, where they had their goods weighed and evaluated by experts. After half an hour of being told information about plants that they didn’t really understand, Lily and Ivsim were finally paid and allowed to leave. Kai stayed there for an hour longer.
Having received one thousand and five hundred coins of hardened gold, Kai didn’t immediately leave the trading house. He found one of the many alchemists working there. For one and a half hundred coins, the man agreed to prepare for him two bottles of the Calm Endurance Potion, each at least five times stronger than the one Kai had used the first time. It would take the alchemist two months to prepare them.
Enough time had passed since Kai had reached a new level. His body was fully strengthened and accustomed to the new abilities, so he could continue to develop.
Having finished his business in the Large Garden, Kai set off to the Small Garden, where Julie, who had recently arrived at the Plateau, was waiting for him. Having agreed upon their next meeting and said goodbye to each other, the trio parted ways. Just like Kai, Lily and Ivsim had some private matters to attend to.
A day later, Kai finally met up with Julie. She lived on the outskirts now, which allowed her to quickly get to the fields where she worked. She could’ve refused to work, she had the right to, but in that case, Kai, as her guardian, would have to pay for her stay. And although he had a relatively large amount of coin, Julie refused to be a burden to him. Still, he left some coin for her to have just in case.
During his two-day stay, Kai learned that instead of the clan mark, Julie was given a special bracelet, which, besides her name, also had his name on it. She also said that during the days she was waiting for him, she had met and made friends with one very kind pregnant woman, whose husband, a disciple, worked as a guard in the Heavenly Port of the Lower Nest. He was very lucky to become a member of the clan. And if his child was born in such a place full of prana, it’d definitely surpass its father.
The time they spent together flew by very fast. Kai was eager to go to the Middle Wasteland again to collect more Herbs. The coin he had earned would’ve been enough to live comfortably in some Lowland country for more than a hundred years, but not here. He had to work hard if he wanted to buy the Particle he saw in the Temple.
Having met up with Lily and Ivsim near the border gates at the appointed time, they went to the same place where they had camped before. This time they’d stay in the Hidden Blossom Field for three months.
***
Moving through the fog, Kai searched for Herbs. He had stopped relying on normal vision, as he did much better with the energy one. Less than two weeks ago, he had discovered a connection between Herbs and the giant concealing array that stretched over the vastness of the Hidden Blossom Field.
He had spent an entire day observing these connections. Soon enough, his persistence bore fruit. He now had a better understanding of how the array worked, how it hid the flora from unwanted visitors, where it drew its energy from, and much more. With each passing day, his understanding grew. He was amazed to find out that the array was coming from some sort of Spirit Plant.
In the beginning, he didn’t believe it himself, but everything pointed at this being true. That was why he was now investigating the very depths of the Hidden Blossom Field, slowly approaching the mysterious Plant.
The closer he got, the more the fog around him pressed on his mind. At some point, the earth and sky switched places, and he lost his balance and fell. There was a strange, low hum in his ears, and every time a way out appeared, it turned out to be the way back. The goal seemed out of his reach. He had no idea what he was defending himself from, but it wasn’t any kind of energy he knew. Some kind of unknown Forces kept misleading him.
Luckily, they didn’t affect his energy vision. Barely moving forward, at some point Kai wandered onto a clearing free from fog. He instantly felt better.
Catching his breath and raising his head, he froze. Ten paces away from him was the thing he had been looking for this entire time ― a gray tree with bare, twisted branches, from each of which at least one Fruit hung. They were rather small and looked like rotten apples. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of roots spread under the dry grass, intertwining under the entire Hidden Blossom Field, connecting the tree with every Spirit Plant in the area. It was a symbiosis — the tree made it possible for the Herbs and Fruits to conceal their presence, and they gave it part of their strength in return.
[Misty Tree]
Rank: Gold
Quality: Peak
“Incredible...” Kai whispered.
He knew that Plants were divided into Herbs and Fruits, out of which the latter were more valuable. But this Tree turned out to be all the Plants at once! There was nothing about it in the information Dee had given him.
Peak-quality Plants were very rare and were mostly found in the Far Wasteland, not here. It was difficult to imagine how this Tree could grow here, and how it could’ve reached such a level. Staring at it, Kai realized that he got crazy lucky today. If this Tree possessed abilities that influenced consciousness, what would’ve happened if he had run into something similar, but with combat skills?
Fascinated by what he saw, Kai approached the Tree. Sensing danger, he abruptly pulled his hand away. However, he was too late. Feeling pain, he looked at his right palm — three of his fingers were missing.
“Fuck!” he hissed.
It was only then that he noticed a strange, cubic array located around the Tree. Judgi
ng by what his energy vision showed him, it didn’t belong to it. It was man-made.
The array was so powerful that it made Kai’s hardened flesh disappear. He had only one guess about who could have put it there ― an Elementalist from their clan.
“Of course,” Rune’Tan muttered, watching Kai struggle to regenerate his fingers. “Long ago, a strong master must’ve found this Tree and realized that it grew slowly, entering symbiosis with other Plants in these lands. They probably wanted to take possession of it, but before that, they wanted it to reach a certain level. Thus the array.”
“That makes sense.” Kai nodded. “What should I do now?”
“I don’t know.” The redhead shrugged. “Nothing, probably. I think you can go back. I doubt you’ll be able to do anything about the array. I feel its master’s will in it, which means that even your energy-taming ability won’t work here. It already has an owner. A pity...”
Kai stood still for some time, silently looking at the Tree. Finally, shaking his head, he turned around, ready to leave.
In the next moment, he felt like his back was pierced by something. Turning around abruptly, he stared at the Tree. Fragments of some images suddenly surfaced in his mind.
“What’s this?” he asked aloud.
“Wow! Turns out this thing has potential!” Rune’Tan exclaimed enthusiastically.
“What are you talking about?”
“Take a closer look! See how many Forces are hidden inside it? Seems to me that this tree has every chance to become a Spirit in the future! Not any time soon, of course, but maybe in five, ten, or even twenty thousand years... Well, provided that it survives, of course.”
While Rune’Tan was explaining, Kai was trying to decipher the images that had appeared in his mind.
Turning to the left, he walked along the side with the protective array.
“What are you doing?” Rune’Tan asked in surprise. “You came here from the other side.”
Kai didn’t answer right away. Somehow, he was able to decipher the short but very direct message that the Tree had sent him. The fact that it showed even a semblance of reason seemed incredible.
As for the images themselves, there were no words in any human language to accurately describe them. Only one word came very close in meaning — freedom.
“Tell me, can a Spirit Plant... move?” Kai suddenly asked. The question sounded absurd but it made Rune’Tan think.
“Hmm… Well... if it surpasses the Gold rank, then yes, it can,” he replied. “Don’t ask how, but it’s possible. Why? What are you up to?”
“Look.” Kai pointed at the spot where the array touched the ground. He had been looking at it for several seconds. It matched one of the images he had seen.
Since Rune’Tan could see the same things Kai could, he, too, took a closer look at the spot. There was a thin, but very obvious root there. Like the others, it pierced the protective array without problems, but it didn’t go anywhere. Thanks to his energy vision, Kai knew that this little root was waging a lonely and relentless war against the array. To his surprise, the Tree did make little progress in this endeavor.
“Oh, I see…” Rune’Tan drawled, no less surprised. “So this Plant is even more unique than I thought. How long did it take it to drain this small piece of the array? I doubt it would have time to destroy it and then reach the next level in order to escape.”
“You’re missing something here.” Kai smiled. “The will. I don’t feel the Elementalist’s will here. This means that I can tame at least some of the array’s energy!”
Kai immediately got down to business. The damaged part didn’t exceed the size of a playing card, which, compared to the array’s size, looked like a small dot. Even if he destroyed this piece, he wouldn’t leave so much as a dent in the array.
And then it dawned on him. If he couldn’t destroy it, he could try to remake it.
He had never studied the art of array creation, but during his short stay with the clan and the studies done in the Fallen Star Sect, he had learned a lot about their structure and design. Defense or combat, main or the auxiliary ones, big or small, it didn’t matter, they were all based on the same principles.
Following some of Rune’Tan’s tips, who over the millennia of his life had managed to learn a thing or two about this craft, Kai replaced the existing structure with a completely different one. From now on, this new piece would slowly affect the rest of the array. Like a faulty cog in an otherwise perfect mechanism, it would slowly cause the entire machinery to halt.
Years would pass, perhaps even a decade, but, one way or another, at some point, there would be no trace left of the current defense mechanism. Most importantly, the Tree would absorb the energy of the array, allowing it to move to the next level.
Rising from the ground, Kai dusted himself off. There was a wide smile on his face.
“I’d love to see the face of that Elementalist when they return here in a couple of hundred years and find nothing. A-ha-ha...” He laughed and turned his gaze to his hand. “This is for my fingers, you bastard!”
He was about to leave the clearing and return to the camp when something made him turn around. Another impulse pierced his mind. However, this time he was ready. The message was easy to decipher. The Tree was grateful for what he had done.
For some reason, he waved the Tree goodbye before walking away. Upon reaching the fog, he was surprised to see it flow around him, forming a way out. The Tree no longer wanted to attack him.
Kai decided to try to return to the camp before sunset. This task took him about four hours, but only because he’d occasionally stop to collect more Herbs. He didn’t know if it was because of the Tree or the experience, but it had become easier for him to find the Plants.
When he finally got to the camp, he didn’t expect to see a group of several dozen inner-circle students talking to Lily and Ivsim in a rather impolite manner.
Chapter 13
A MONSTER INVASION
“What’s happening?” Kai asked.
Lily and Ivsim immediately turned to look at him. The trio exchanged glances and nodded subtly.
“And there’s the third one,” said a young man and grinned. He seemed to be the leader of the group. “You owe us.”
The intruders were mostly students at the Mind Stage. Several of them, including the leader, were at the Opening of the Acupuncture Points level. They smiled, waiting for Kai’s reaction. In their opinion, he was the weakest member of the trio. How would he amuse them? Would he become confused, start to ask questions, or get scared? Or maybe all of the above?
“I’ll wait for you to clean up the mess you’ve made, and then, maybe, we’ll talk...” Kai said condescendingly, and gave them a look that said that he wasn’t messing around.
Lily and Ivsim smiled. Kai seemed to be in the mood to argue.
The young man’s mouth opened in shock. This wasn’t the reaction that he had expected.
“What? Are you an idiot?” he asked in surprise.
“I don’t think I am,” Kai replied with a shrug. “Idiots are those who break into someone else’s camp, destroy everything, and then see fit to make demands.”
Weapons appeared in the hands of the intruders. Their auras merged into a single wave and fell upon the trio like a bag of bricks.
“Listen here.” The leader came close to Kai, glaring into his eyes. “We’re members of Lei Ming’s faction, and this is our part of the Hidden Blossom Field. We’ve been nice so far, but now, because of you, we can’t find any goddamn Plants! I was going to ask each of you for a third of what you’ve found, but I just changed my mind. Now you’ll give us eighty percent, or we’ll take all of it by force!”
Kai tilted his head slightly to the side and then looked at Lily and Ivsim. They nodded.
“You should’ve looked harder then!” He smiled. The three of them broke into a run, instantly leaving the clearing.
Frozen in surprise, the perplexed intruders just stared at th
em.
“Motherfucker!” their leader swore. He was about to run after the trio when several huge monsters at the Meridian Formation level jumped at them, seemingly out of nowhere. It didn’t take the students long to realize that they needed to run if they wanted to survive.
***
“You’re not bad!” Ivsim blurted out. “They were too busy threatening us that they didn’t notice the approaching monsters. How many of them are there even? I keep hearing new ones coming. It feels like all of the creatures of the Middle Wasteland are running around. There’s so many of them!”
“I feel them, too...” Lily muttered. “It seems… It seems like they’re heading west. Straight to the border!”
“Bastards!” Kai swore. “They’re catching up with us! We need to get to the clan lands as soon as possible.”
If it weren’t for his energy vision, which showed dozens of dots approaching the camp, he would’ve also remained unaware until the beasts were too close. As for the assholes who demanded Plants from them, it was their own fault for not being careful. Their lives were in their own hands now.
A huge shadow loomed above them. The trio looked up and almost tripped over their own feet when they saw a pair of huge birds diving down toward them. Having barely dodged, they noticed several gigantic porcupines running out of the thicket to the right and rushing straight at them.
Dodging the needles, the trio ran to the left... Only to almost run into another group of monsters.
Trying to avoid attacks and continuing to run, they were no longer sure if they were going in the right direction. Dozens, if not hundreds, of monsters kept jumping out in front of them, blocking their way, and trying to eat them. They had to look for shortcuts in order to get out of the stampede.
Feeling death breathing down his neck, Kai drew his sword and threw himself to the side. A large sphere of compressed flame hit the spot at which he had stood just a second ago. Among the beasts that were pursuing them was a Dragon Turtle. Oddly enough, the monsters didn’t attack each other, only them.