Chapter 298: Vibrant Flower

Zhang Nuo's footsteps were not fast. He tentatively approached the Spiritual Medicine locked on by his Divine Sense, and only upon reaching it did he discover that, hidden amidst a cluster of green grass, a small five-colored flower was growing.

This small flower was brilliantly colored; its five petals displayed different hues. On a flower stalk as high as a finger grew several diamond-shaped leaves, and the stamen was dotted with starlight that dazzled the eyes. Even though it was concealed by the green grass, it could not hide the Spiritual Qi it radiated.

"What a vibrant spiritual flower!"

This was the first time Zhang Nuo had seen a flower possessing such dense Spiritual Qi, and he immediately let out a sigh of admiration! Chunyangzi, however, remained silent, scanning the spiritual flower with his Divine Sense several times.

"What is it, Senior?"

Feeling slightly surprised, Zhang Nuo noticed Chunyangzi's reaction was very different from before he had seen the spiritual flower; he seemed to have grown a bit uneasy.

"This spiritual flower is problematic! Let's leave here first!"

Given Chunyangzi's spiritual perception, if he had such a feeling, he certainly wouldn't be wrong. Zhang Nuo's figure drifted as he quickly retreated, but just at this moment, a bizarre scene occurred!

The five-colored spiritual flower grew rapidly, and a cold light shot out from the center of the stamen, rushing straight toward the space between Zhang Nuo's eyebrows.

Without the slightest preparation, Zhang Nuo was stunned by what was before his eyes! However, his reaction was still quick; with a flick of his robe sleeves, two streaks of white light flashed, intercepting the attack.

"Hum!"

As if a zither string had been plucked, a heavy, vibrating sound rang out. Zhang Nuo immediately felt his mind dazed, nearly losing his composure! As soon as his feet touched the ground, he looked toward the spiritual flower not far away, only to see that the flower, which had originally been only a finger high, had instantly grown to two zhang tall. The five-colored petals rotated slowly, looking extremely terrifying.

"This... what is this thing?"

Reaching out to summon back his Flying Sword, Zhang Nuo's eyes were almost fixed in a stare. This was the first time he had seen a flower that seemed to possess life.

When his gaze fell upon the cold light that had attacked him earlier, he was even more astonished. As the brilliance slowly dissipated, a white, transparent silk thread as thin as an ox hair was revealed inside.

Under the sunlight, the transparent silk thread shimmered with a faint light; if one did not observe carefully, it would be hard to spot with the naked eye!

"This is a 'Five-Colored Heavenly Silkworm Flower'. I didn't expect that after so many years, it would actually develop spirituality!"

Chunyangzi was not very surprised; he spoke the name of the spiritual flower while carefully examining it.

"A living plant?"

Various ancient texts flashed through Zhang Nuo's mind, but not a single one had ever introduced anything regarding living plants.

"Actually, it is no different from other spiritual plants. It is likely because it has grown on the Immortal Illusion Continent for too long that it developed spirituality! But this is also good! The more spiritual a medicinal plant is, the more effective the Pill made from it will be! Little Zhang, whether you can harvest it depends on you!"

A smile appeared on his face. Since it was something useful to him, Zhang Nuo naturally would not let it go! He scanned the 'Five-Colored Heavenly Silkworm Flower' with his Divine Sense and saw that the Spirit Power fluctuations radiating from it were at most at the level of the Foundation Establishment Late Stage. He immediately moved his hands and robe sleeves, and dozens of Flying Swords flew out one after another.

"Go!"

As he spat out the word "go," dozens of Flying Swords flashed with spiritual light, and the sound of "swish-swish" was incessant as they charged toward the spiritual flower together. In Zhang Nuo's view, let alone a Foundation Establishment Stage spiritual plant, even a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator would be no match for him.

But what happened next made Zhang Nuo gasp. Countless things like the crystalline thin threads from before sprayed out from the stamen, instantly weaving into a vast, white web!

All of Zhang Nuo's Flying Swords struck the web, but despite their sharpness, they could not pierce the silk net. Subsequently, as the silk net retracted, it trapped the numerous Flying Swords inside. A sound like flowing water emanated from the stamen, and the silk net was sucked into it all at once.

This made Zhang Nuo's head ache; this spiritual plant was too bizarre! The carelessness he had felt just moments ago vanished instantly! Now that his Flying Swords had been taken, Zhang Nuo had no choice but to take out the 'Measuring Heaven Ruler!' He tossed the small ruler into mid-air, where it transformed into shadows of the ruler filling the sky, all of which smashed toward the 'Five-Colored Heavenly Silkworm Flower'.

However, the scene from before repeated itself. Ten thousand white threads flashed within the stamen, one after another entangling the descending ruler shadows. A series of sounds of the ruler shadows shattering came from mid-air, and in the blink of an eye, the thousands of ruler shadows were all destroyed, turning into faint spiritual light that drifted away, leaving only the main body of the 'Measuring Heaven Ruler' floating in mid-air.

Zhang Nuo was truly dumbfounded this time. Neither his Flying Swords nor the small ruler had any effect on the spiritual plant, and these were the only Magic Treasures he had on hand!

"Hehe! Little Zhang, have you seen it now?"

Chunyangzi was not in a hurry, speaking with a playful laugh as if he were watching Zhang Nuo's predicament for entertainment! Only at this moment did Zhang Nuo deeply understand why even Nascent Soul Stage cultivators dared not easily enter the depths of the Immortal Illusion Continent. If even a spiritual flower at the Foundation Establishment level was this thorny, one could imagine that the further one went, the more bizarre things would become.

"A mere spiritual plant cannot stump me!"

Zhang Nuo's stubbornness flared up again. He flipped one hand, and a cluster of Silver Flame appeared in his palm. Then, a flash of Yin energy appeared between his eyebrows, and the black Butterfly Wings emerged from his back.

The next moment, his entire body was enveloped by the Butterfly Wings, and as the surrounding space fluctuated, Zhang Nuo disappeared from where he stood. The 'Five-Colored Heavenly Silkworm Flower' not far away seemed to sense something; its flower stalk trembled slightly, and two clusters of white transparent silk threads shot out from the stamen, but their target was a void in space.

If there were any cultivators watching this fight at this moment, they would certainly think the 'Five-Colored Heavenly Silkworm Flower' had missed its mark completely, but what happened afterward made even Zhang Nuo cry out in terror!

Just as the two clusters of white transparent silk threads struck the void, Zhang Nuo's figure suddenly emerged from the void, exactly where the flower had attacked.

He had not expected that a seemingly ordinary spiritual plant with spirituality could actually foresee his location of appearance. Even Chunyangzi inside the Sword Box secretly gasped!

At this time, the two clusters of silk threads were less than a zhang away from Zhang Nuo's body. After his shock, he reacted quickly, throwing the Silver Flame in his hand forward with force. With a soft 'whoosh', the flame rolled toward the silk threads like a sea wave.

The 'Red Glow Fire', having been continuously tempered by Yin energy during these twenty years in the Mi Hai Vortex, was no longer what it used to be. As soon as the scorching silver flame made contact with the silk threads, it immediately emitted a 'hissing' sound.

The silk threads that could bind Magic Treasures in the blink of an eye were burned away by more than half! Zhang Nuo felt a surge of joy in his heart, and then, with his Butterfly Wings flapping, he charged forward once again, leaping right to the five-colored petals of the 'Five-Colored Heavenly Silkworm Flower'!

Moving his hands in succession, two clusters of Silver Flame were unleashed, both sinking into the stamen! In an instant, the body of the 'Five-Colored Heavenly Silkworm Flower' shook violently; it seemed unable to withstand the attack of the 'Red Glow Fire'! The silk threads that had just emerged from the stamen turned into nothingness the moment they touched the flames!

A cold sneer appeared at the corner of Zhang Nuo's mouth. With a slight movement of his Divine Sense, the 'Measuring Heaven Ruler' floating in the sky instantly grew longer, reaching a size of two zhang.

With a 'swish!', the giant ruler fell from mid-air, piercing straight through the 'Five-Colored Heavenly Silkworm Flower' from its stamen! A dazzling white light erupted from the body of the 'Measuring Heaven Ruler', and in a few flashes, it split the large flower stalk in two! The Flying Swords that had been taken by the flower earlier all scattered out.

Taking this opportunity, Zhang Nuo summoned with one hand, collecting all the lost Flying Swords back into his body. His body slowly landed on the ground, and he retracted the wings on his back. He looked up at the flower stalk pierced by the giant ruler!

At this time, the 'Five-Colored Heavenly Silkworm Flower' had lost all signs of life, and the five colors on its petals were fading at a speed visible to the naked eye. With a movement of his Divine Sense, he retracted the 'Measuring Heaven Ruler', and the entire flower stalk immediately shrank back to its original size.

Zhang Nuo stepped forward and pulled it out of the ground with one grab. The spiritual flower, which had been full of spiritual intent just before, was now as withered as dry grass!

"Senior, is... is this still useful?"

He was somewhat speechless, not expecting this result!

"Little Zhang, you don't know about this! It was a medicinal plant with spirituality while alive; even if it is withered now, it is still a very good medicinal material. Keep it for now; it might be useful for refining some kind of Pill in the future!"

Chunyangzi did not value this spiritual flower much now; it was just that the process of Zhang Nuo's battle with the spiritual flower had taught the boy many things.

"Now you know that in the Cultivation World, anything can happen, and battles are everywhere! It's not just between cultivators and demonic beasts; even every blade of grass and every tree here requires you to be careful!"

Nodding slightly, Zhang Nuo also deeply understood this point. It seemed there were various dangers waiting for him on the road ahead; if he were negligent or careless, he would perish on this mysterious continent.

Putting the 'Five-Colored Heavenly Silkworm Flower' into his Storage Bag, Zhang Nuo checked the Magic Treasures in his body again. Seeing they were undamaged, he steered his escape light and flew away into the distant sky.

…………

"Zhang Nuo! You bastard!"

Su Haizhen stood in the room of the small shop, cursing incessantly. She had never expected that Zhang Nuo would sneak away without a word!

"Zhen'er, who is the person you are talking about?"

At this moment, an old man in white, who looked to be about sixty years old, stood beside Su Haizhen. This person had a glowing red face and a faint ruddy complexion, yet his cultivation had reached the Nascent Soul Middle Stage!

"Fourth Uncle! Zhang Nuo and I escaped from the bottom of the Mi Hai Vortex together. Although this person's cultivation is not high, his various methods are incomparable to those of ordinary cultivators. I originally wanted to bring him into the Su Family, but I didn't expect that he would actually... Sigh! That guy, don't let me meet him again!"

As she spoke, Su Haizhen became even more furious! She stomped her jade foot hard on the ground, her pretty little face full of anger! Zhang Nuo had already promised to return to the Su Family with her, but she hadn't expected him to go back on his word!

"Forget it, Zhen'er! A cultivator at the Golden Core Middle Stage, no matter how great his divine abilities, could he really reach the heavens?"

The man whom Su Haizhen called Fourth Uncle had a faint, cold sneer hanging from the corner of his mouth; he simply did not put Zhang Nuo in his eyes at all! As for what the young girl had said, he only believed half of it! No matter how powerful, Zhang Nuo was still just a cultivator at the Golden Core Middle Stage.