Mu Yingying, who had just reached out to part the flower stalks, abruptly pulled her hand back.
She looked down at the indistinct thing writhing among the flowers and felt a chill in her heart.
‘This crack is very old.’
Mu Yingying stepped back two paces.
‘It’s terrifying inside.’
In the vast flower house where no one spoke, A Jiu led them along the path for a full 100 steps.
The sensation of stepping on the accumulated soil reminded White Night of the road in Hundred Flower Valley paved with bones.
Unlike the crunch of crushed bones, these remnants only silently sank and slowly rebounded.
The feeling was oppressive.
The light at the deepest part of the flower house was dimmer, and the heavy air nearly extinguished the oil lamp’s flame.
The person crouched before the huge black flower had his back to them, tending to the flower’s base.
His movements were exceptionally gentle.
Hearing their footsteps, he first withdrew his hands and wiped them on his hem, then slowly stood and turned around.
This man was none other than Lao Xing, with deep wrinkles on his face and sunken eyes. Over 50, he was extremely gaunt, looking much older than his actual age.
His eyes were unnaturally bright with extreme frenzy. This came from pouring all his heart and energy into this work.
Seeing him, White Night involuntarily floated back half an inch, her gaze falling on his thin fingers covered in black mud.
It was common for a gardener’s hands to be dirty.
The unusual thing was the small black rootlets growing from his knuckles.
The rootlets emerged from the skin and wound up to the back of his hand, and then their ends re-entered the skin, writhing in a specific rhythm.
When Lao Xing saw White Peace, he was momentarily stunned.
He scanned her from head to toe, then grinned.
“No wonder A Jiu came back yesterday completely absent-minded.”
He clasped his hands in greeting toward White Peace.
Though his posture seemed respectful, there was no real respect, only a scrutinizing look.
“So the town has a big shot here. A Jiu was frightened.”
White Peace did not respond to the pleasantries.
“You are raising a Sinister Flower.”
This cold statement was clearly an assertion.
Lao Xing stopped his movements and was silent for a moment, then returned to normal.
“You recognize it?”
“I have seen it.”
White Peace replied.
“In the Other World, someone used the same method to cultivate this thing, but he eventually reaped what he sowed and died from it.”
Lao Xing lowered his eyelids and was silent for a while, then his tone actually became more serious.
“That was because his skill was not refined. In the three years I have been doing this, nothing has gone wrong.”
“Really nothing gone wrong?”
Following White Peace’s gaze that lingered on the rootlets, Lao Xing quickly hid his hands behind his back.
Gu Jiao could no longer hold back.
“Lao Xing.”
She took a sharp step forward, pressing him.
“Those people sent into the Forbidden Area, were they all killed here?”
Turning his head to look at her, Lao Xing retracted his previous gaze and instead cast a condescending, scrutinizing look.
“Killed?”
He shook his head repeatedly.
“That statement is completely wrong.”
“They are not dead. They merely exist in another form.”
He turned and pointed to the largest black flower.
“See, they are all here.”
Everyone followed his finger to the enormous black flower with tightly closed buds. Its black petals bore dark gold veins, making it vastly different from the other black flowers.
From within the slightly writhing flower bud came a sound.
The thick flower stalk, covered in bumps, firmly adhered to the soil, with rootlets extending in all directions and burrowing into the roots of the surrounding smaller flowers.
“This is my King Flower.”
Lao Xing’s slowed voice sent chills down their necks.
“I have raised it for three years.”
“Initially, it was only this big. It took seven days to completely digest one person.”
“After it grew larger the following year, it only took three days.”
“As for now.”
He reached out and pressed his hand against the surface of the flower bud, letting the black rootlets on his fingers intertwine and merge with its veins.
“It can completely absorb a person and turn them into nutrients everywhere in just one night.”
Little Frost quietly pressed her finger against the trigger.
“How many people have you actually harmed?”
She asked expressionlessly.
Lao Xing furrowed his rough brows and turned his face.
“I have never harmed anyone.”
“They all came voluntarily.”
“Voluntarily?”
Gu Jiao clenched her molars tightly, staring at him.
“Using a knife to coerce is also called voluntary?”
Lao Xing shook his head repeatedly and let out a long sigh.
“They would eventually become Strange Monsters.”
“Once they lose their senses, these people only run amok and cause trouble everywhere.”
“Better to let them become part of the King Flower, thereby retaining some value.”
He swung his arm to point around.
“The Weird Stones rely entirely on this residue for refinement.”
“This is enough to screen patients and save more healthy people.”
“Therefore, this is a highly meaningful sacrifice.”
As he spoke, he wiped the corner of his eye. If not for the remains covering the ground and the faint groans coming from the flower buds, this rhetoric would be highly deceptive.
Mu Yingying stepped forward directly.
“Then what about the Uninfected who have disappeared recently?”
“Young Wu’s son from Lao Wu’s family has had no news since last month.”
Mu Yingying clutched the hem of her clothes with both hands.
“Can this be forcibly attributed to voluntariness?”
Lowering his arms, Lao Xing silently stared ahead. His facial muscles twitched several times, then he turned his head toward A Jiu beside him.
“This is the news you leaked.”
When this ruthless accusation fell, A Jiu remained frozen in place. Even though his legs could not stop trembling, the man did not move half a step.
“Master.”
He gritted his teeth heavily.
“Last month, you ordered me to find ordinary people, and I did as you said.”
“There was a disease-free youth and a mother with a child.”
“After bringing them here, I witnessed them being pushed into this flower bud.”
Hearing this, Lao Xing averted his gaze and closed his eyes, saying nothing.
After exhaling two puffs of breath, he seemed completely hunched and weary.
A Jiu did not mind his gaze and continued to speak.
Every word seemed to be dragged out from his throat, mixed with blood.
“Before that youth was pushed in, he kept calling for his mother. That mother knelt and begged you, saying her child was waiting outside for her to return.”
A Jiu’s voice suddenly rose, echoing in the flower house, startling several flower buds to shrink sharply.
“What did you say?”
“You said, ‘Don’t worry, your child will soon come to accompany you.'”
Lao Xing’s lips moved, as if to say something, then he swallowed it back.
“I did it to cultivate the flowers, for everyone!”
Lao Xing finally spoke, his tone rising with a hysterical urgency.
“Bright Natured People have stronger vitality. They can provide three times the nutrients of Infected! The King Flower is about to bloom; it needs more…”
“What it needs is not nutrients.”
A Jiu interrupted him, his voice eerily calm.
“Look at what you have become now?”
Lao Xing was stunned.
The flower house was so quiet that the sound of the flower buds squirming could be heard.
“What?”
A Jiu reached out and pointed at Lao Xing’s hand.
“Look at yourself.”
Lao Xing looked down.
The small black rootlets on his fingers were writhing.
They had their own rhythm, not following his pulse.
That rhythm was exactly the same as the writhing frequency of the King Flower behind him.
His face changed color.
A Jiu’s voice sounded like a chant, word by word.
“A year ago, I discovered that the King Flower’s roots had burrowed into your body.”
“I did not dare to say it, because you would not believe it.”
“Six months ago, I noticed you started losing weight. No matter how much you ate, you did not gain weight.”
“You thought it was because you were too tired, but that was not it. The King Flower was draining you.”
“Three months ago, the rootlets on your fingers started spreading to your arms.”
“I advised you to stop feeding it, but you said I was jealous, afraid that after your success, I would lose my position.”
“One month ago, you started asking me to find Yin Natured People.”
A Jiu looked at Lao Xing, his eyes red, but his voice no longer trembled.
“I knew you were no longer fully yourself.”
“Every word you said, every decision you made—how much of it was your own thought, and how much was it making you think? Can you still tell?”
Lao Xing’s face turned pale.
He looked at his hands. The rootlets were visibly spreading from his fingers toward his wrists.
He clenched his fists, and the rootlets tightened, then released and continued to climb.
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