Chapter 28: Gaining a New Follower

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Nightfall descended in deep silence.

Su Li lay prone atop Tiger Soul’s head, peering downward. In the hush of all things, a series of muffled, pulsing sounds rose and fell. She saw clusters of double-faced, five-petaled shadow aconites swaying violently. From the heart of each blossom, a new bud would slowly emerge, and in the blink of an eye, it unfurled into a blood-red spirit flower. As the thick fragrance spread, a blue glow seeped from the core of each bloom.

Amidst such beauty, there lurked an unmistakable air of the uncanny.

Su Li was inwardly shaken. Truly, these were rare marvels among earthly flowers.

“Look southeast! The Demon Flower King is about to emerge,” Tiger Soul warned.

Su Li looked up. Amid the sea of lurid red and blue, one stalk of double-faced, five-petaled shadow aconite stood tall above the rest. Its stem was five times thicker than that of any other spirit flower, and even its crimson petals were edged in shimmering gold.

At that very moment, a stranger sight unfolded. Skeletons began scrambling upwards, jostling for position, greedily absorbing the eerie blue glow. As if sated, they would then slide away, retreating like a receding tide.

Tiger Soul’s expression changed abruptly, eyes wild with excitement. “It’s a mutated double-faced, five-petaled shadow aconite!”

When spirit plants are nourished over countless ages, sometimes they undergo mutation. The fortunate ones awaken intelligence, and with diligent cultivation, may even attain the way of transcendence. Even without awakening, their rank would rise.

To their delight, the mutated flower before them clearly belonged to the former category.

A hint of pride flickered in Su Li’s eyes. “To subdue a battle spirit plant with intelligence—sounds like an excellent idea.”

After Bluebird’s abandonment earlier that day, her thoughts had become more far-reaching. Demon pets could not always be at Shen Luo’s side. If she tamed such a battle spirit plant, it might just turn the tide in times of danger.

Tiger Soul raised a paw in agreement, brimming with enthusiasm. “Having the Demon Flower King as a little brother would be far more reliable than that useless bird always dragging us down.”

After a brief discussion, the two beasts reached a conclusion: Fight!

Once the Demon Flower King was beaten into submission, it would naturally yield and agree to a contract.

A breeze swept through. The Demon Flower King swayed, releasing even more of its blue luminescence.

Suddenly, a sense of danger surged.

The flower’s fragrance thickened. The ground quivered as skeleton after skeleton clawed out from the soil, filling the air with the rattling scrape of bone.

As they drew near, Su Li leapt down from Tiger Soul’s back. Her sharp claws slashed across a petal rimmed with gold, immediately picking up a sticky, dark-red sap.

The Demon Flower King, pained, shuddered violently. Its stem ripped free from the earth, fleeing wildly in every direction.

Su Li barely gained her footing before being flung onto a yellow petal below. Her sharp claws sank into the tender flesh, instantly steadying her balance.

The skeletons had already begun their ascent up the petals. Su Li channeled her arcane energy through her four paws, weaving nimbly among the bones and sweeping them off the flower one by one.

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Just then, countless barbs shot skyward like green vines, cascading down from every direction. Su Li narrowed her eyes, using the barbs for leverage to leap higher until she landed squarely upon the true bud of the Demon Flower King. There, she unleashed several arcane blades toward the flower’s core.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Aside from a few tremors, the core remained utterly unscathed.

Su Li’s interest only deepened. She abruptly turned her assault on the barbed vines, successfully diverting their attention. After feinting a few more moves, she whirled away—“thud, thud, thud”—and the barbs stabbed fiercely into the red petals instead.

The Demon Flower King quivered, petals snapping shut.

Just as Su Li prepared to leap away, a flood of blue light blinded her. With a muffled boom, the petals folded layer upon layer, sealing her tightly within.

At once, the flower bud retracted swiftly downwards, burrowing into its tough stem, and the roots plunged deeper underground, returning everything to its original state.

Tiger Soul and Shen Luo exchanged glances.

Had the flower just eaten her?

Shen Luo’s expression darkened. “Is there a way to split open that flower?”

“Let me think.” Tiger Soul could easily dispatch a demon flower, but the real problem was how to avoid hurting Su Li.

Meanwhile, within the flower, it was another world entirely.

Sticky sap seeped through the seams of the petals, quickly rising until Su Li’s limbs were submerged. Watching the liquid climb, she swiftly realized the Demon Flower King intended to drown her.

Su Li shook her head and sighed.

What a pity—though it had gained intelligence, it was still a fool.

She summoned the power of the demon beast within her. As strands of dark-red glow rose from the barely cracked seal in her beast core, the manjusaka totem on her brow shimmered faintly with gold. She gathered her arcane energy at her claw-tips and launched herself upward.

Sensing the deadly danger, the flower nearly burst into curses.

Why did this demon beast refuse to follow any logic?

Before it could react, those feline claws tore through the shell it so prided itself on.

With a ripping sound, Su Li split the flower’s core from top to bottom. Simultaneously, flecks of dark-red demonic energy seeped through the wound, flooding the heart of the bloom.

Agony to the very marrow!

The Demon Flower King convulsed violently. Its bud shot out from the stem and blossomed in full, dazzling glory.

Su Li shook the sap from her fur in distaste and coolly declared, “Submit to me, or I’ll cut you down for flower fertilizer. Choose.”

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Damn!

Utterly ruthless!

The Demon Flower King trembled even harder, grief-stricken. Just then, a vast shadow loomed overhead. The flower king glanced up at the enormous demon beast above, and its spirit completely broke. With remarkable awareness of the situation, it bent its core in agreement.

Damn it all! Since when did demon beasts become so fierce and formidable?

“Master, go and form a contract with the double-faced, five-petaled shadow aconite king,” Tiger Soul suddenly said.

Shen Luo paused for a moment, swiftly understanding the good intentions of the two demon beasts.

The process of forming a contract was smooth and natural—partly because the Demon Flower King was willing, and partly thanks to Shen Luo’s outstanding talent in alchemy, which gave him an extraordinary allure for spirit plants.

Unlike demon beasts, spirit plants could only enter master-servant contracts with humans. As their master’s strength grew, so too would the contracted plant’s power.

For cultivators, spirit plants of different attributes could also enhance their own innate abilities. For instance, fire-aligned plants could help weapon forgers control spiritual flames, while wood-aligned plants could boost an alchemist’s affinity with herbs, greatly aiding in herb gathering and pill refinement.

Once the contract was sealed, the Demon Flower King shrank into a small bracelet, coiling itself around Shen Luo’s wrist. The gold-edged red flower swayed back and forth with a smug air.

It really was quite infuriating.

Su Li narrowed her eyes and whispered a few words to Tiger Soul. So Tiger Soul eagerly suggested to Shen Luo, “Master, Sister Tuan says we should call the Demon Flower King ‘Flower’ from now on.”

A silence fell.

Shen Luo looked over at Su Li.

The demon beast across from him tilted its head in a show of innocence, gazing at him with those sparkling eyes.

His heart melted completely.

Shen Luo nodded. “It’s rustic, it’s plain, and it rolls off the tongue—‘Flower’ is a perfect name.” Reaching out, he ruffled Su Li’s head, his eyes brimming with affection.

Tiger Soul: …

It thought privately to itself: Well, whatever Sister Tuan does or says, Master considers it right. It quietly resolved that if it ever felt like complaining about Sister Tuan, it would definitely keep it to itself. If need be, it could always make trouble for that stupid bird instead.