Chapter 74 – Woodcore Flower: She’s a Live Target for the Other Chief Teams

Desolate. Silent.

Sunlight couldn’t reach the graveyard under the shade of trees, leaving the surroundings shrouded in darkness. No human voices could be heard, only the intermittent hum of insects.

The ground beneath her feet was covered in moss. It had just rained, and the soft earth gave underfoot. The air was laced with the faint scent of soil, mixed with the odor of decaying leaves and branches.

Lian Mu glanced around—she was alone.

Before being teleported in, she and the other second-seat cultivators had agreed to stick together, but she hadn’t expected her luck to be this terrible. She got separated the moment she entered—and worse, landed in a graveyard.

Small mounded graves surrounded her, each marked by two cypress trees, clearly weathered by time.

Lian Mu pulled out a talisman that Qu Ruotian had stuffed into her hand beforehand, hoping to contact the others. It burned halfway with no response, so she extinguished it immediately.

This place didn’t seem suitable for lighting fires. The color of the flames was off—normally bright yellow, but here, it turned grayish-blue.

Still…

Her eyes swept the area. There were many spiritual plants here—just at a glance, she recognized several important species she had memorized.

After a moment’s thought, Lian Mu decided to hold off on contacting the others and harvest the spiritual plants first.

Ever since memorizing the Compendium of Alchemical Spirit Herbs, her harvesting speed had increased significantly. Anything she recognized, she grabbed in handfuls. The ones she didn’t know, she tested for spiritual energy—if it had any, she picked it.

Alchemy cultivators located herbs through spiritual root resonance, and fortunately, she had a Wood spiritual root. It wasn’t as powerful as a single or Heavenly spiritual root, but it was enough.

Mature herbs could be sealed at the root with spiritual energy and tossed into a spatial pouch. Immature ones had to be wrapped in dirt to preserve the roots.

Lian Mu didn’t care if they were mature or not—she dug up anything with a sprout. Big or small, none were spared.

Before she entered, Ji Mingyue had slipped her a large spatial pouch. It didn’t take long before she had filled it with herbs.

Once she finished stripping the graveside, she silently turned her attention to the tops of the graves: “…”

The feng shui here was excellent, the spiritual energy abundant. Not just beside the graves—many spiritual plants were growing on them too.

After a brief moment of moral hesitation, Lian Mu opted for the shameless route—and began picking herbs off other people’s graves.

This place was also crawling with venomous bugs. Millipedes coiled into tight balls, multicolored and creepy, were scattered everywhere.

When she reached the last grave, she found it covered in yellow-and-black-striped millipedes, densely packed and nearly blanketing the entire mound.

Lian Mu: “…”

Everyone said the southern lands of Vermilion Bird were full of poisonous creatures—she hadn’t expected this many.

If they all attacked at once, they could probably devour a person down to the bones.

She drew her sword, and used it to prod the bugs away. They seemed to be in a dormant state—curled up and motionless—so a light flick scattered them.

Amid them, she sensed the presence of a spiritual plant. After clearing a path, sure enough, she spotted a freshly sprouted herb.

It was different from the others. It had just grown a new leaf, and the spiritual energy it emitted was faint—nearly undetectable. But it gave off a subtle fragrance.

Lian Mu couldn’t quite describe the scent, but it was undeniably alluring. After smelling it, she felt drowsy.

She quickly realized something was off. The surrounding millipedes might have fallen dormant because of this plant.

She immediately cleared the bugs beside it, plunged her sword into the soil, and dug out the herb, root and all. After wrapping the roots in soil, she was just about to place it into her pouch when—

Suddenly, the herb’s root latched onto her hand and began sucking her spiritual energy.

Lian Mu: “???”

In just a split second, it drained her dry and rapidly grew branches and leaves.

The two seed leaves fell off, and the original fragrance vanished, replaced by something stronger and more pungent.

In the next moment, all the millipedes on the grave uncoiled and began to move.

Sensing danger, Lian Mu didn’t hesitate. She stuffed the herb into her spatial pouch and ran.

—

Outside the Illusion Realm.

All the elders’ gazes were fixed on the recording stone displaying the location of the Returning Immortal Sect’s second-seat sword cultivator.

When they saw her dig up the just-sprouted Woodcore Flower, the other sects’ expressions soured.

Murong Yi watched Lian Mu flee and leaned back against his chair, lazily fanning himself with a silver fan. “Seems luck really is part of strength.”

Crimson Sky Sect Elder: “…Don’t celebrate too early. Didn’t you see that flower drain the spiritual energy from your disciple?”

The Woodcore Flower goes through three stages of growth.

Stage One: Sprouting.

When the seed breaks through the soil, it emits a fragrance that lulls nearby living beings to sleep. The Woodcore Flower then drains their spiritual energy as nourishment.

“She’s covered in the flower’s scent. It’ll attract surrounding magical beasts, but she’s in no real danger,” Xin Wanbai said calmly. “In fact, it’s a bonus for her ranking.”

Stage Two: Growth.

After absorbing enough spiritual energy, the Woodcore Flower prepares to bloom and alters its fragrance to attract magical beasts for pollination. The scent is merely a distraction—after the beasts brush against the flower, they lose interest and wander off.

For a sword cultivator, it’s child’s play to kill these disoriented beasts. The number of beasts slain directly affects their ranking on the Yulan Board.

“…”

Shang Liu’s expression remained impassive, unreadable. He said meaningfully, “With that flower’s scent on her, all the other sects’ chief teams will trace her spiritual energy trail. Whether she can survive to the end… depends on fate.”

That was exactly what Xin Wanbai was worried about. Magical beasts were nothing. But if she ran into the chief teams of the other three sects…

Right now, Lian Mu was basically a moving target for the other chief teams.

“Relax. I know her temperament—she’d never stick to one path,” Murong Yi said with a blank look, remembering all the times he had supervised her during illusion realm trials at the Returning Immortal Sect.

“She’s alone and unsupervised—she’ll just run around wildly, turning every place she can reach upside down.”

Murong Yi believed Lian Mu’s chaotic movements would mess up all the other sects’ strategies.

Xin Wanbai: “…Let’s hope so.”

—

Inside the Illusion Realm.

Lian Mu had finally shaken off the pursuing millipedes and now rested under a giant tree, panting.

After she picked the herb, the bugs had chased her like mad. They didn’t bite, but kept trying to crawl all over her. A few bugs were fine. A swarm was not.

She caught a whiff of the fragrance on her hand—it wouldn’t come off, no matter how she rubbed.

She shook her sword and flung off the bug corpses. Her body felt severely drained of spiritual energy.

Her head felt woozy. She popped several spiritual replenishing pills into her mouth, but even after eating more than half, it wasn’t enough.

She hesitated, unwilling to use them all at once, and put the rest away, planning to find something to eat.

With her energy drained, she couldn’t fly—she’d have to walk.

When Lian Mu looked around, she realized she had wandered into an abandoned settlement. In front of her was a row of wooden houses, most of which had rotted and collapsed, with only a few standing here and there.

She chose the most intact-looking abandoned house, planning to search for something useful inside. As she pushed open the door, a wave of heat hit her face.

Two enormous red eyes met hers, and the soft, hairy mouthparts twitched.

Lian Mu took two steps back and immediately drew her sword.

A giant spider squeezed out of the wooden house, towering several meters high. It had two pairs of eyes in the front, with the rest of the eyes circling its body in a ring, leaving no blind spots.

It seemed the wooden house had been propped up by the spider. As soon as it emerged, the house immediately collapsed.

The spider’s body was covered in thick, long, hard hairs, and it appeared to be a golden beast. Its eight legs had hardened tips, forming sharp claws that could deeply pierce the soil with every step.

Lian Mu took the initiative, thrusting her sword toward the spider’s eyes. The spider did not dodge. Instead, it lay down and remained motionless.

Lian Mu: “…?”

The sharp-clawed spider’s eye was pierced and exploded, but it did not show any signs of aggression. Instead, it lay in front of her, rubbing its legs against her hand.

Lian Mu narrowed her eyes, realizing something was wrong. She cautiously raised her hand, and the spider lifted its legs, rubbing them frantically against her hand.

Lian Mu understood—it was the spirit plant that was the problem. Its fragrance could confuse magical beasts.

Without hesitation, taking advantage of the spider’s dazed state, she raised her sword and stabbed out its remaining eyes, then cut off its legs and stored it in her spatial pouch.

Once she confirmed it was immobilized, Lian Mu glanced around at the other wooden houses and rushed in, searching them one by one.

The place had been abandoned for too long, leaving only the most basic of living tools behind.

After thinking for a moment, Lian Mu walked over to the stove, pried a pot off it, and began searching further.