Chapter 29

The man-eating flower seed bound by Chun Chou’s contract had indeed mutated.

Originally, this type of seed belonged to a carnivorous plant. It fed on demonic beasts and… cultivators. Of course, when no flesh was available, it could survive by absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth or by drawing nutrients from spiritual plants. It hunted by releasing a unique, enticing fragrance that bewitched any creature entering its range.

However, after forming a contract with Chun Chou and undergoing mutation, the seed began to rely on Chun Chou’s spiritual energy or even his blood for sustenance. It would not actively drain him, but whenever Chun Chou cultivated, it would absorb the surrounding spiritual energy near him. The result was that his cultivation and recovery of spiritual energy slowed down. As for his blood, it would accelerate the plant’s growth—for instance, in battle, the seed could expand to full size in an instant.

This was one of the unavoidable costs of the Blood Servant Technique.

After mutating, the man-eating flower no longer fed on flesh. Its blossom, once an alluring, sinister red, became an ordinary red. Yet once it opened its gaping maw, it could swallow an adult demon tiger whole. Because of the contract, it could choose to simply swallow without digesting. This meant that in battle, it could devour enemies or their spirit beasts without consuming them. It could also, when necessary, swallow its master and companions to conceal their presence.

The reason the Blood Servant Technique was once considered an early-stage “cheat” in Liu Ting’er’s memories was precisely due to this unique trait.

Once the contract was complete, Chun Chou, as the master, could shrink the contracted spirit seed, either carrying it in a pouch or raising it inside a hollowed walnut shell. In battle, he could throw the walnut unexpectedly, and the seed would suddenly grow, bursting through the shell and appearing on the battlefield to help him secure victory.

Chun Chou: “…” So the next step is playing with walnuts? And nurturing the spirit seed by handling them?

Shaking off these strange thoughts, Chun Chou looked at the type of walnut mentioned in the Blood Servant Technique. After thinking for a moment, he remembered that he had once collected seeds of this kind—back then, he had thought they might produce tasty walnuts. Besides, they were small and quite pretty.

After spending some time, he found the seeds and planted them in the courtyard.

Once that was done, Chun Chou thought about what the technique stated: during the Qi Refining stage, one could maintain at most three spirit plants as blood servants. He had already contracted the man-eating flower, meaning he could still contract two more.

Unfortunately, good combat-type spirit seeds were hard to come by.

It had been half a month since Ling Wuji returned from his adventure in the demon beast forest. His injuries had fully healed. Now, aside from cultivation, he spent his days drawing talismans, selling them, reading, and helping Chun Chou search for suitable combat spirit plant seeds.

While staying at the City Lord’s residence, Chun Chou tended his own spirit herb garden. From time to time, his “colleagues” would invite him to demonstrate the skills of a second-rank spirit planter. In the evenings, he rarely went out, instead staying home to cultivate and nurture spirit plants.

Occasionally at dusk, he would visit the marketplace’s spirit plant shops and stalls, which allowed him to collect quite a variety of seeds. In particular, he had managed to obtain some seedlings or seeds needed for refining Marrow-Cleansing Pills and Foundation Establishment Pills. However, he still hadn’t found any suitable combat-type spirit plants.

In the small herb garden behind his house, aside from a few high-value spirit herbs that could be sold after a few months, most of the space was now planted with herbs needed to refine Xuan-grade Marrow-Cleansing Pills and Foundation Establishment Pills. Though the collection was still incomplete, Chun Chou wasn’t too anxious—there was still time before he and Ling Wuji reached the peak of the Qi Refining stage.

As for the Xuan-grade Marrow-Cleansing Grass growing on the roof, Chun Chou had already propagated it into eight pots. He had planned that before leaving, he would sell six of them. He had even decided the buyers—the spirit planters at the City Lord’s residence, who would surely be willing to pay a high price.

What troubled him now was: what kind of spirit seed should he choose as his second contract under the Blood Servant Technique?

Time passed swiftly.

In the blink of an eye, Chun Chou and Ling Wuji had stayed in Canglan City for nearly a year. To be precise, in another month, they could go to the City Lord’s residence to receive their identity jade tokens and leave for Guiyuan City and the Guiyuan Sword Sect.

Chun Chou was still working and had now reached the eighth layer of the Qi Refining stage. Ever since breaking through to this level, he increasingly felt that his cultivation speed had slowed down. He didn’t even dare ask Ling Wuji whether he had experienced the same issue before. Chun Chou didn’t think it was because of the spirit seed—he had even tried placing it far away and cultivating alone, yet his progress was still slow.

He felt a bit anxious. After going through various jade slips, he realized that at just seventeen years old, with his mixed spiritual roots, he had already cultivated to the eighth level of the Qi Refining stage—which actually seemed… quite impressive. After all, many cultivators with mixed roots struggled even to reach the third level of Qi Refining.

Chunchou could only feel somewhat helpless about his aptitude. Since his talent was what it was, he decided to accept it for now and shift his focus elsewhere—like earning more spirit stones, gathering seeds for the spiritual plants needed to refine Marrow-Cleansing Pills and Foundation Establishment Pills, and practicing body-refining techniques and whip skills.

Eventually, Chunchou found a spiritual whip that could be used all the way up to the Foundation Establishment stage and grew extremely fond of it. In the market of Canglan City, he also spent a high price to buy a manual titled Basic Whip Techniques and began practicing diligently. After three months, he felt quite satisfied with his progress. He thought that with his whip skills, the man-eating plant seed, and the talismans given by Ling Wuji, he would have some means of protection when they traveled—as long as they stayed cautious, they shouldn’t have to fear being robbed.

Meanwhile, Ling Wuji had stabilized his cultivation at the tenth level of Qi Refining. His spiritual sense had improved significantly, and with his jade flute, talismans, and the Rainstorm Pear Blossom Needles, he didn’t feel too troubled about going out on a journey.

Still, since they were about to leave, it was always better to carry more spirit stones. Both Ling Wuji and Chunchou thought of this at the same time. When news spread that Chunchou would be leaving in a month, the spiritual farmers of the City Lord’s residence filled up his schedule. For the next month, they arranged for him to visit their spiritual fields every afternoon to perform second-tier planting techniques.

On one hand, this would improve the quality and yield of their crops; on the other, many wanted to observe the skills of a second-tier spiritual planter, hoping to advance themselves someday.

Although there were other second-tier spiritual planters in the City Lord’s residence, most of them were arrogant and charged high fees. Chunchou, having initially accepted work for just one hundred low-grade spirit stones due to not knowing the market rate, found it difficult to raise his prices later. But because of this, many people sought him out. The other second-tier planters couldn’t really hold it against him—even if they wanted to, they had no justification.

Thus, in the month before leaving, Chunchou spent his mornings tending to his own spiritual herb and bamboo gardens, his afternoons taking on private jobs, and his evenings practicing body-refining techniques and whip skills. At night, he would occasionally stroll through the market with Ling Wuji, but most of the time they stayed home cultivating together.

They had grown up together as childhood companions. Sometimes, there was no need for romance or poetic affection—just being by each other’s side was enough.

At least, before reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, that was enough.

With memories of a past life, Chunchou occasionally found his thoughts drifting into more indecent territory.

As for Ling Wuji, a native nineteen-year-old, all he wished for was that Chunchou would remain by his side and keep him in his heart.

Though he sometimes had the urge to use a love parasite (qing gu) on Chunchou, his sister’s warnings still echoed in his mind. He couldn’t help but wonder: if he did use it, would Chunchou truly love him of his own will, or merely be controlled into loving him?

At that point, Ling Wuji didn’t know whether he would feel joy or sorrow.

Perhaps that was why, among his lineage, even those who had used love parasites on their beloved ultimately met poor endings. And those who revealed their true identities to their lovers fared even worse.

The human race simply could not accept love between different species.

Looking at Chunchou beside him, Ling Wuji tried hard to suppress his darker thoughts.

He told himself that as long as Chunchou loved him and stayed by his side, nothing else mattered.

And the condition for that was keeping his secret—never letting Chunchou discover his true identity.

All his kin had told him that humans were cunning and untrustworthy.

But how could he not trust Chunchou? How could he not fall for him?

The Guiyuan Continent had seven great sects, forty-nine mid-sized sects, eighty-one great clans, countless small sects and families, and even a loose alliance of independent cultivators—a truly flourishing era.

Yet only the leaders of the seven great sects and the heads of the nine top clans knew a secret foretold a thousand years ago:

The heavens would collapse.

When that day came, the entire Guiyuan Continent would cease to exist—humans, demons, beasts, spiritual plants, mountains, rivers, all living things… everything would vanish.

Even so, power struggles between the sects and clans never ceased. This secret was tightly guarded, never to be revealed to outsiders.

Three hundred years ago, however, the former sect master of the Tianji Sect defied the heavens and cast one final divination in his lifetime:

“A divine maiden descends; when seven stars align, there may be a turning point.”

A hundred years ago, the divine maiden appeared, bringing great hope to those who knew. But just a few years later, she vanished without a trace. As for the “seven stars alignment,” no one had yet uncovered its meaning.

The heavens will collapse.

All who knew the truth waited anxiously—either for that day to come, or perhaps for the “seven stars alignment.” But what exactly did those four words mean?

And the divine maiden—was she alive or dead? Did she understand the true meaning of the prophecy?

Or perhaps… had she left behind descendants?

💝 Support the Team

Kairat

✍️ Translator

🍵 Ko-fi