The monster’s target wasn’t them, but rather the Spirit Lords hovering in the sky ahead.
Among them were Spirit Lords from three major factions, as well as a few rogue Spirit Lords, all tangled together in a chaotic brawl that made it impossible to discern the current situation.
It was too chaotic; everyone fought like headless flies, attacking indiscriminately without caring if those nearby were friend or foe.
Hua Jian saw a Spirit Lord from the Gang Wolf Legion fighting with another Spirit Lord from the same legion.
Although they exchanged a couple of blows before being distracted by other Spirit Lords, it still happened.
They’ve already been affected to the point they can’t distinguish friend from enemy.
Looking past the warring Spirit Lords, Hua Jian saw a mass of Blood Cloud in the distance, a swirling red vortex in the sky, with something seemingly glowing directly beneath it.
There was no need to think—it was obvious that the core of Bai Hua Zun Zhe’s plan was under that vortex.
“Linglong, we need to go over there!” Hua Jian shouted, pointing in that direction.
“I see it, but how are we supposed to get around?” Linglong, with her sharp eyesight, could easily spot the red cloud covering half the sky.
But the problem now was that so many Spirit Lords were blocking their path, and their own strength wasn’t enough to cut through their ranks.
Linglong, even going one-on-one against a Spirit Lord, would have to use every trick just to avoid defeat, and to actually win would require Hua Jian firing from the side.
And there was more than one Spirit Lord ahead—no matter how many bullets Hua Jian had, she couldn’t take down so many at once.
“So should we detour?” Shiqi glanced around, a little hesitant.
The Spirit Lord battlefield was much larger than the Spirit Master one.
The path from their side to the area beneath the red cloud was completely blocked, so their only option was to take a massive detour, circling around the other half of Huahai.
But even that was risky. This field of flowers was at the edge of a danger zone. The half where most cultivators entered was close to the safe area, relatively secure.
But the other half? There, they could run into powerful spirit beasts—exactly why everyone charged in from the safer direction.
If they wanted another route, they’d have to go bargain with the spirit beasts in the unexplored, dangerous mountains.
“It’s better than charging headlong into those guys. Let’s go around!” Hua Jian chose to detour without hesitation.
On one side was a battlefield of Spirit Lords for sure; on the other, maybe some spirit beasts, maybe not—she’d obviously pick the latter.
And if there weren’t any obstacles, wouldn’t she profit?
As for the chaos behind, she didn’t have to worry for now. With the Spirit Lords, deciding a real victor would take at least half a day.
Like that Hei Long Gang Spirit Lord turned black dragon monster—thick-skinned and tough, it wouldn’t be easy for the others to deal with.
When it came to things outside of combat, Hua Jian was the backbone of their trio. Whatever she said went.
Once she made the decision, the three of them immediately started heading away from the Spirit Lords’ battlefield.
The White Flower Sea was immense, but since the battlefield had shifted closer to its center, Hua Jian’s route wasn’t too difficult to pull off.
After a not-too-long but not-too-short journey, the three finally escaped the endless clamor of the battlefield.
They had ventured into the deep heart of Huahai, a place where no one had ever entered before.
In the midnight darkness, the faint glow of the Night-Luminescent Pearl in Linglong’s hand was the only source of light.
It was as if all sound had vanished. Walking through flower clusters only knee-high, the deeper Hua Jian went, the more complex her feelings became.
It was a mixture of excitement, fear, and anticipation. She seemed to be looking forward to meeting Bai Hua Zun Zhe, yet also feared that the other might mean her harm.
“Wait, something’s off… There’s something ahead.” Linglong suddenly reached out to block Hua Jian.
Her night vision was far stronger than Hua Jian’s. While Hua Jian and Shiqi could see only darkness, Linglong could already spot strange shapes in the field ahead.
They looked like corpses lying among the flowers.
Drawing closer, Hua Jian saw them too. “Why are there so many corpses here… Wait, are they really corpses?”
If they were corpses, they should look like those of the cultivators outside—completely drained.
“No breathing, no heartbeat, not even any body heat. They’re definitely corpses.” Shiqi, steeling her courage, stepped up and observed closely before coming to this conclusion.
But soon, she realized something was wrong.
Huahai wasn’t some frigid, frozen wasteland. On the contrary, it was warm and humid. Human and spirit beast corpses here should rot rapidly.
Yet these corpses showed no sign of decay—not even a stench.
It wasn’t that the flower fragrance masked it; they simply weren’t rotting at all.
“Whatever, I’ll check them out myself.” Hua Jian was exasperated by the situation. In the end, it always fell to her to identify things like this.
Waving both hands, she summoned her fine vines and sent them to pierce the bodies lying among the flowers.
With that single jab, she discovered the problem—these weren’t corpses at all. From the start, they’d never been alive.
They were more like life-sized human puppets. The flesh was real, but the skeletons weren’t human; they were made of wood or something similar.
Fine tendrils extended from the wooden frame, replacing human meridians, but as for vital organs, there was nothing imitated inside.
These puppets didn’t even have brains—just a tangle of twisted vines inside an empty skull.
“They’re just puppets. Abandoned Human Puppets at that—” Before Hua Jian could finish, the puppet she’d examined suddenly opened its eyes.
The puppet’s eyes were also made of wood, crudely fashioned, which only made it even more terrifying.
Then, one after another, the other puppets opened their eyes too.
“Crap, are these things turning into zombies?” Hua Jian drew a sharp breath. Before the puppets moved, she quickly checked for the cause of their malfunction.
She noticed that the vine inside the puppet’s head was starting to stir—blood-red Miasma was running through the vines, which must be what triggered them all to awaken.
“So much Resentment!”
Feeling the red aura, Hua Jian’s face paled.
She could sense endless wailing and hatred in it; even touching a little made her feel like she’d turn into a puppet herself.
She hurriedly withdrew her vines from the puppet’s head and looked down at the Flower Ring on her wrist—only to find it was gradually turning red.
What did that mean? She couldn’t be sure.
“Venerable, are you alright?” So she asked directly.
“The Resentment is beyond imagination, but I can control it.”
Soon she heard Bai Hua Zun Zhe’s reply, though the voice sounded as if she was barely holding something back, and Hua Jian felt things weren’t going well.
This Venerable used to be emotionless, someone who showed nothing. But now?
Her feelings were so intense that even Hua Jian could hear them. Wasn’t that telling enough?
“Venerable, maybe you should give up. This is too dangerous!”
‘I must try.’
Well, that was that—persuasion failed. Hua Jian couldn’t do a thing with such a stubborn elder, and she couldn’t just go smack her on the head.
“Then what about these puppets?”
‘They were previous test subjects, linked to me, so they’re affected by the Resentment. Do as you wish with them.’
Even though persuasion failed, Bai Hua Zun Zhe was still quite helpful, directly telling Hua Jian the cause of the puppets’ abnormality.
To spare Hua Jian’s group any trouble, she even generously said they could dismantle the puppets as they liked.
She just seemed to forget one thing… The puppets she’d made might not be so easy for them to handle.
One of the puppets rose, shrieking, and lunged at Linglong.
Linglong was ready. She’d already drawn her sword. As the puppet charged, she swung it in a slash.
Crunch!
The spirit sword tore through the puppet’s flesh, but got stuck in the wooden frame, unable to go further.
Linglong wrenched her sword, flinging the puppet away. But as soon as it hit the ground, it recovered and charged her again.
For these things, which had no concept of life, injury was meaningless. As long as they could move, they wouldn’t stop fighting.
And they were the work of a Spirit Lord. Though they couldn’t use spirit power or techniques, their tough bodies weren’t something a mere Spirit Master could break.
Linglong and Shiqi were quickly surrounded by Abandoned Human Puppets. They could defeat them easily for now, but their enemies didn’t fear injury and never tired. If they didn’t finish them off fast, they’d be worn out.
Worse, as time passed, the puppets actually learned to use Resentment in their attacks.
Their attacks weren’t powerful, but they struck directly at the soul. A cultivator with a weak soul would quickly become a puppet controlled by Resentment.
Fortunately, Linglong and Shiqi were wary and didn’t fall for these tricks.
Meanwhile, Hua Jian was entangled by a few puppets herself. She couldn’t take them apart and couldn’t shake them off—utterly stuck.
In a panic, she desperately searched her mind for a solution, but no matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t figure out how to deal with something that wasn’t even alive.
Until another voice echoed in her head.
“Hey… Did you forget who you are?”
Hearing A Meng’s voice, Hua Jian paused. “I’m Hua Jian, what about it?”
A Meng’s voice was even more exasperated. “Besides Hua Jian, who else are you?”
She was trying to guide Hua Jian to the answer, but Hua Jian, used to being human, just couldn’t say the right thing.
In the end, A Meng couldn’t stand it anymore, and with a ‘hate iron for not becoming steel’ tone reminded her: You’re not just a person, you’re a flower—a flower called Illusory Dream Flower!
You grow by eating souls, a terrifying flower indeed. This Resentment is just a snack for you, understand?
If an Illusory Dream Flower was afraid of this stuff, it wouldn’t rank in the top ten of the Flower Chart!
“I’m not afraid of this Resentment?” Hua Jian gasped. Did she really have that power?
“If the things Illusory Dream Flower eats carried Resentment, would it be afraid? If it was, how could it live on souls?”
When it came to souls, Illusory Dream Flower was unstoppable. No matter how tough or poisonous, a soul was just a uniquely flavored dish.
Now that Hua Jian was Illusory Dream Flower, naturally she wouldn’t fear such things.
So, dealing with these puppets was simple—just use her Illusory Dream Flower ability to swallow all their Resentment in one gulp.
“That simple?”
“Yep!”
“Then I’ll try it.”
Hua Jian trusted A Meng. After all, she was her other half—she wouldn’t lie in a place like this.
She dragged the pursuing puppets over to Linglong and Shiqi, stood between them, and began to release Illusory Dream Flower mist.
“Don’t worry, you two. I’ll get you out soon!”
The awkward part of the Illusory Dream Flower mist was that it didn’t distinguish friend from foe—whoever inhaled it would be dragged into Hua Jian’s Godsoul Space.
So with Hua Jian releasing it amid the group, the first to fall were Linglong and Shiqi.
Both collapsed at the same time, and Hua Jian quickly caught them by the arms.
Soon, the nearby puppets were also affected by the mist and lost all ability to move.
In no time at all, every puppet activated by Resentment was dragged into the Godsoul Space.
Once she was sure none had escaped, Hua Jian closed her eyes and focused her consciousness into the Godsoul Space.
When she opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed was the overpowering smell of blood.
The sky in the Godsoul Space was covered by a Blood Red Raincloud, and the bloody raindrops pattered down.
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