Wasn’t the burly man already tied up? Why did she hear the thud of someone falling?
She quickly turned toward the sound—and saw, to her dismay, that it was poor Shiqi who had collapsed.
The Illusory Dream Flower’s power made no distinction between friend and foe. Anyone who inhaled it—ally or enemy—would be pulled into Hua Jian’s soul space.
And Shiqi had been right beside her. With the power released without warning, by the time she noticed the scent, it was too late.
“Good thing I can let her out, or I’d have accidentally killed an ally…”
Hua Jian muttered quietly, then turned to Linglong and said, “I’ll go check the soul space. Guard things here for me.”
Linglong almost wanted to refuse, but what Hua Jian had to do this time was truly simple.
If she insisted on going in as well, it would almost seem like she didn’t trust Hua Jian.
It’s not like Hua Jian was going into the soul space to tie someone up and Linglong was worried about her.
If she really felt that way, she wouldn’t be letting Hua Jian run around in the first place.
She’d just knock her out and drag her back to the Jade Pool to live like a pampered flower.
Wouldn’t that be safer? Wouldn’t she never get into trouble again?
“Hurry back.”
“Understood. It’s just a Ling Master’s soul—I’ll deal with it easily.”
……
Once, Hua Jian’s soul space was a barren plain with few decorations.
But in just a month, it had become much more colorful. In the center of the soul space, a few saplings were slowly growing.
Amidst the saplings hung a cocoon of rainbow silk. This was A Meng’s place of recuperation.
When Hua Jian’s consciousness sank into the depths of the soul space, radiant seven-colored light poured forth, first forming a heart seemingly entwined with countless roots, then dense branches and leaves grew out, taking on the shape of a young girl.
Boom!
“I’ll kill you, you bastard!”
At the sound of a ruckus, Hua Jian snapped her eyes open. She saw Shiqi riding atop a gray werewolf, pounding its head with her fists.
Once, twice—blood streamed from the werewolf’s head, and its soul seemed on the verge of collapse.
No, if this continued, the werewolf’s soul would soon be shattered.
“Stop! Don’t kill it!” Hua Jian shouted in panic, dashing for the fight.
But after only a couple steps, she stepped on a stone and grimaced in pain.
She wasn’t wearing shoes or socks in her soul space!
“Ow, ow, ow…”
That finally made Shiqi stop, and when she turned and saw Hua Jian, her expression became rather odd.
The Hua Jian here was quite different from the one she knew outside.
“Are you that young lady?”
“Get off it first, it can’t die yet.” Hua Jian pointed at Shiqi, and Vines appeared from thin air to pluck her off the werewolf’s back.
In the soul space, Shiqi wasn’t much different from outside, though she looked more feminine here.
Her short hair had grown a bit, her figure was more pronounced, and if she could pass for androgynous outside, here she was clearly a girl.
So, she did acknowledge her own gender after all, Hua Jian thought.
And as for the werewolf—it could only be one person. If not the burly man with the Great Axe, who else?
“Can’t let you have a chance to escape. Sorry about this.”
Hua Jian considered for a moment. If the werewolf had all its limbs, her binding and sealing technique might not work as well.
To ensure he’d never resist, she’d have to break his limbs and shatter his teeth.
“What happens next might be a bit too much for kids. If you can’t handle it, Miss Shiqi, you might want to cover your eyes and ears.”
Shiqi blushed at the title, but knew she’d already exposed her true gender here.
As for Hua Jian’s second comment—she didn’t care. She was someone who’d personally avenged her father and killed her enemies. How could she be fazed by a little brutality?
Then she saw Hua Jian’s Vines lift the werewolf into the air, twisting his limbs into knots.
“Aaaaah…”
Not satisfied, Hua Jian then tore the shattered limbs from the werewolf’s body.
The scene was so violent and cruel that even Shiqi, who thought herself strong, went pale.
This young lady was a real lunatic!
Once she was done, Hua Jian summoned thorny Vines and wrapped the werewolf up in layers.
Thinking of herself suffering such a fate, Shiqi felt a chill run down her spine.
“All done. Why are you looking at me like that?” Hua Jian asked, noticing Shiqi’s strange gaze.
Why are you looking at me that way? Shouldn’t you ask yourself?
Shiqi took a deep breath. Hua Jian’s innocent expression just made her seem even scarier.
It was as if, in Hua Jian’s mind, things like this were as ordinary as eating or drinking.
“Why did he and I take these forms?” Unable to answer Hua Jian, Shiqi changed the subject.
“Oh, this is the soul space. Here you appear as your truest self. Someone like you, who’s not much different from outside, must be a good person through and through.”
It wasn’t a secret. While she worked on the air around her, Hua Jian explained.
“And as for someone who’s barely human anymore—well, that means his heart’s pitch black. He’s beyond saving, deserves to die.”
“So your truest self is like this?” Shiqi asked, her expression growing stranger.
It wasn’t that Hua Jian looked bad, just… too alluring.
The light, colorful dress, the striking makeup, the bare feet under the skirt—anyone would have trouble keeping their composure.
Hua Jian sighed, rubbing her forehead. Why did everyone who saw her in this form have to ask the same question? It wasn’t like she wanted to look this way!
“I’m an exception. Don’t mind me.” Tearing open a path back to reality, Hua Jian tossed Shiqi through it.
Then, using her Vines, she rolled up the thorn-wrapped ball and tossed it through as well.
With her guests gone, Hua Jian didn’t immediately leave. Instead, she returned to the grove’s center to check on A Meng.
She gently nudged the colorful cocoon that was now A Meng, and asked softly, “A Meng, are you alright?”
Through the light, she could see a small figure shift within the cocoon.
‘Not very. Even just talking to you drains a lot of strength.’ A Meng’s voice was weak.
‘These saplings are branches of the Illusory Dream Flower. I have to rely on them to slowly recover.’
The Dream Butterfly and the Illusory Dream Flower are two forms of the same being.
When the Dream Butterfly is injured, the Illusory Dream Flower instinctively splits off some of its power to heal it.
Although Hua Jian hadn’t realized this, as the Illusory Dream Flower herself, the instinct was there.
She’d begun healing A Meng without even noticing.
The only problem was, the pace was rather slow.
She was just a Ling Master trying to heal a peak Ling King’s wounds—no easy feat.
‘If you want me to recover faster, just feed me the souls of two or three Ling King cultivators.’
A Meng offered her conditions for recovery.
But this made Hua Jian grimace. She couldn’t defeat Ling King cultivators yet, and even if she could, she couldn’t feed their souls to A Meng.
If the Hudaosi found out she was feeding cultivators’ souls to her spirit beast, she’d be fleeing to Beijing to hide with the Wanhuagu Cultivators.
That’s the way of the righteous path—so many restrictions. And yet, half her abilities were precisely in those forbidden zones.
Sometimes Hua Jian wondered if she was just born for the demonic path.
‘If not, you’ll have to wait until you reach Ling King level, then nourish me with your own soul power.’
“I’ll do my best.” What else could Hua Jian say but work hard at cultivation?
The sooner she reached the Lingwang Boundary, the sooner A Meng would recover, and the sooner she’d have a powerful ally.
If this were a game quest, it’d be:
Side Quest: Break through to Ling King realm
Quest Reward: Peak Ling King Spirit Beast · A Meng (Legendary Species)
Looked like a rich reward, and indeed it was—enough to motivate Hua Jian to train hard.
‘Good luck. I’m going back to sleep…’
……
After bidding farewell to A Meng, Hua Jian’s consciousness surfaced in the real world.
When she opened her eyes, Linglong was looking at her with concern.
Xiaolongnu was very close—so close that Hua Jian could see Linglong’s eyelashes.
In the darkness, Linglong’s golden eyes were as beautiful as priceless gems.
For a moment, Hua Jian even had the strange urge to hold those eyes in her hands and play with them.
“Why did you take so long to come back?” Linglong, seeing Hua Jian awaken, leaned her head back.
Once the distance was opened, Hua Jian could finally control her odd impulses.
She lowered her voice and explained softly, “I was talking to A Meng about a few things.”
It wasn’t something she needed to hide. Linglong would probably be happy to hear A Meng was awake.
Sure enough, when Hua Jian said A Meng had woken up, Linglong’s eyes widened in surprise. “She’s awake?”
“Yeah, but she’s still not doing well. She says I’ll need to reach Ling King level to fully heal her.”
This didn’t surprise Linglong at all. After all, A Meng was a peak Ling King spirit beast. It made sense that Hua Jian would need to be at that level to heal her.
If Hua Jian could heal a peak Ling King beast as a Ling Master, she’d be a divine doctor!
“By the way, I broke that guy’s limbs in the soul space, and then…” Hua Jian opened her hand, where a faint rainbow light hovered. “The leftovers turned into Spirit Liquid of the Soul. Here, you keep it.”
Hua Jian didn’t know how the remnants in her soul space turned into Spirit Liquid of the Soul—that was the Illusory Dream Flower’s innate power.
Somehow, she just found herself producing it without realizing it. There was only a tiny bit, but it was indeed the real thing.
Linglong quickly took out a little white jade bottle and collected the Spirit Liquid of the Soul from Hua Jian’s palm—she couldn’t let Hua Jian keep something so dangerous.
“Hua Jian, maybe you should just let Master Uncle take you back to the Jade Pool.” After stowing the Spirit Liquid of the Soul, Linglong couldn’t help but mutter softly.
Just look at Hua Jian’s skill set—if the Hudaosi learned of it, they’d come knocking and drag her off to prison.
A cultivator unlucky enough to fall into Hua Jian’s hands—if she felt even a little cruel, he’d die without even a scrap left.
His body would be absorbed by her, and his soul turned into Spirit Liquid of the Soul—nothing wasted.
“If even one of your abilities became public, it’d be a huge scandal. And you’ve mastered so many at once!”
“I can’t just get rid of them, can I? Besides, plant-based spirit skills—don’t other wood-element cultivators have the same abilities?” Hua Jian spread her little hands in helplessness.
If she was being honest, only her soul-absorbing power from the Illusory Dream Flower was truly unusual—the rest were ordinary wood-element skills.
Like extracting life force—other wood cultivators could do that, right? It wasn’t something unique to her techniques.
She’d only realized her absorption skill was special because Linglong pointed it out. If Linglong knew, surely others would as well?
Everyone had these skills. The righteous just never used them—that was Hua Jian’s take.
Linglong was speechless. The pit she’d dug for herself had finally caught her, but faced with Hua Jian’s naive confusion, she could only force a smile and nod.
Yes, yes, keep thinking that. All the other wood cultivators are just like you.
“Where’s Shiqi, by the way? Where’d she go?” Hua Jian glanced around, surprised not to see her.
“I’m here.” Shiqi walked out of the mist, black sword in hand, the blade still stained with blood.
Instinctively, Hua Jian withdrew the mist. Looking in the direction Shiqi had come from, she saw corpses strewn everywhere—none of the Gang Wolf Legion cultivators had been spared.
This girl was truly ruthless—to kill so many in one go without even blinking.
“You…” Hua Jian stared at the bloody scene, feeling complicated.
“They deserved it.” Shiqi wiped the blood from her blade with a white handkerchief, her voice cold. “When they slaughtered the innocent, they should have expected a day like this.”
Linglong caught Hua Jian’s right hand, signaling her to be patient and ask Shiqi about the story behind all this.
“Can you tell us why you bear such hatred for the Gang Wolf Legion?”
“If you want to know, I’ll tell you.” Shiqi’s eyes dimmed slightly. Raising her black sword, she spoke in a soft voice.
“This story starts with the sword’s original owner—my father. He was once a great general under the Gang Wolf Legion, outstanding in strength, with hopes of breaking through to the Lingwang Boundary and becoming another Deputy Commander for the Legion…”