Chapter 206 Tracing the Origins:
Rong Xie and Shen Bingsi were both shocked to see Elder Bai again.
On the bed, a shrunken body was wrapped in a quilt. Because the body was so thin, the quilt seemed unusually heavy, making it difficult to tell whether the old man inside was dead or alive.
"Master!" Qingfeng knelt by the bedside. "Sword Saint Chen and Cultivator Rong have come to see you."
The person on the bed made intermittent sounds and slowly opened his eyes. Fortunately, his eyes were still clear, and his gaze immediately fell on Rong Xie and Shen Bingsi, muttering something under his breath.
"Come on in, Master really wants to see you." Qingfeng stood up and made room for her by the bed.
Rong Xie and Shen Bingsi then approached and, following Qingfeng's actions, moved closer to the bedside.
"You...have you seen Elder Hong?" Elder Bai asked, his gaze falling on Shen Bingsi. "Is your Dao Heart...already alright?"
“That’s right, I have abandoned the Path of Ruthlessness and started cultivating another path,” Shen Bingsi said. “Thank you Elder Bai for introducing Elder Hong. His method is very useful.”
"Then..." Elder Bai hesitated, "Could we ask Ying Qi to go and take a look as well? Ying Qi... sigh, it's all my fault!"
Elder Bai's gaze became blank and helpless. The divine light from before had disappeared, and he seemed to have fallen into some kind of illusion.
"Elder Bai? Elder Bai?" Rong Xie saw his appearance and knew that he was being manipulated by the Nightmare Technique. He felt a pang of sadness in his heart.
"Elder Bai, don't be silly! Lu Yingqi isn't a three-year-old child. He decided to prove his Dao himself, and he should be responsible for the outcome. You don't need to think too highly of yourself!" Shen Bingsi raised her voice and said decisively.
Rong Xie looked at Shen Bingsi in surprise, and Shen Bingsi gently shook her head at him.
A moment later, Elder Bai let out a long sigh and slumped into the bed.
“Elder Bai, this is not your fault. It was the flower demon who used her nightmare magic to control you. She is best at manipulating people’s hearts,” Rong Xie explained gently. “You have done your best. Originally, according to your plan, Xiao Zhi would not have died, and Lu Yingqi could have continued on his path. It’s just that… something unexpected happened, which is why this happened.”
Rong Xie then recounted to Elder Bai the method that the flower demons had taught them, which was how the Judge Jiang had manipulated dreams.
A short while later, intermittent sobbing could be heard from under the covers.
Qingfeng stood to the side, quietly wiping away tears.
Rong Xie couldn't bear to see the elderly shed tears; his heart felt as if it were being crumpled into a ball.
Seeing this, Shen Bingsi punched the bed frame. Fortunately, Elder Bai's bed was made of high-quality hardwood and could withstand Shen Bingsi's punch.
Shen Bingsi took a deep breath and said, "Elder Bai, the flower demon is still rampaging outside. We came to you to ask if you know the flower demon's weakness, or a way to restrain it?"
Elder Bai remained silent for a long time, buried under the covers.
“Sword Saint Shen, Master hasn’t recovered from the flower demon’s nightmare yet. He’s only just woken up and doesn’t have the energy to talk much. Otherwise, we could stop here for today.” Qingfeng walked over, clearly indicating that he wanted to see the guest out.
"It's precisely because he didn't have much time to regain his senses that we need to find out now! Do you know how many people outside are being controlled by the Nightmare Technique? If this continues, the entire Xuantian Sect will be destroyed!" Shen Bingsi said anxiously.
Rong Xie pressed Shen Bingsi's shoulder and said to Qingfeng, "Senior Brother Qingfeng, I have also read some introductions about the Acacia Flower and the Nightmare Technique. It says that if the caster dies, the Nightmare Technique can also disappear. In other words, if we find a way to eliminate the Acacia Flower Demon, Elder Bai can fully recover. It's not that we don't understand Elder Bai, we just want to eliminate the flower demon as soon as possible and completely remove the Nightmare Technique so that Elder Bai and many others can get better."
Qingfeng hesitated, a glimmer of hope flashing in his eyes: "Really?"
“Of course it’s true,” Rong Xie said confidently.
Qingfeng gritted his teeth and slowly made way: "Then... don't push too hard."
"Alright, Senior Brother Qingfeng, don't worry, we'll only ask a few questions," Rong Xie said.
Qingfeng cast a healing spell from within the Dao Palace on Elder Bai, which could refresh the mind and had an effect similar to the Ice Heart Technique.
Elder Bai let out a heavy sigh of relief, feeling much better.
Qingfeng helped Elder Bai up, put a cushion behind his back, whispered a few words to him, and then gave the place to Rong Xie and Shen Bingsi.
"Ask whatever you want," Elder Bai said, looking much better.
"We'd like to ask, do you know the weakness of the mimosa flower spirit? Or how to subdue it?"
Elder Bai said with a wry smile, "If I knew, would I still not have said it?"
Shen Bingsi pondered for a moment: "Before we came here, we asked Elder Hong if the Hehuan Flower Demon might have escaped from their sect. He said no, he said the Hehuan Flower Demon should have been born in the Wuqing Dao Palace. We asked Elder Bai if you know the origin of this monster."
"I really don't know. If I had known earlier, would I have let it grow so big?" Elder Bai shook his head. "The first time I heard that there was a monster here was when you, Sword Saint Shen, broke into our place in the middle of the night, saying that you were ordered by the Heavenly Mirror to search for monsters... Sword Saint Shen, was the one you were searching for the Acacia Flower Demon back then?"
Shen Bingsi had completely forgotten about this, but after connecting the dots, he remembered: "There was indeed a period when the Heavenly Mirror showed a monster wandering around, sometimes appearing in the Heartless Dao Palace, sometimes elsewhere... but the Heavenly Mirror didn't show its image, could it be...?"
"Are there any similarities?" Elder Bai asked. "For example, do they both appear at night?"
“Indeed!” Shen Bingsi suddenly recalled, “The Sky Mirror only shows night scenes.”
“That makes sense. The mimosa flower demon feeds on nightmares. Before it could use its magic, it could only eat ready-made nightmares. Nighttime is when the most nightmares are generated.” Elder Bai sighed. “And our Ruthless Dao Palace also has many… nightmares.”
"You mean the illusion test?"
"Indeed." Elder Bai smiled bitterly. "Who would have thought that the painful memories generated by the illusion test would become nourishment for raising a monster? Our Ruthless Dao Palace is truly a paradise for the growth of the Acacia Flower Demon..."
By comparing the two, the growth history of the mimosa flower fairy was deduced.
The Hehuan Flower Fairy was probably a product of the time fifty years ago when Elder Red and Elder White parted ways. For some reason, when it was still a flower spirit, it did not leave with the people of Hehuan Tower, but stayed in the Ruthless Dao Palace. It survived by eating the nightmares generated by the illusion tests of the Ruthless Dao Palace and gradually grew stronger, able to move around, thus expanding its prey range.
While wandering around the Ruthless Dao Palace, it discovered Xiaozhi and lured him into signing a contract with it. While Xiaozhi was alive, the Hehuan Flower Fairy provided him with spiritual power to help him cope with the various tests of the Ruthless Dao Palace. The flower fairy was very good at this because it grew up in such an environment and even knew how to pass the tests better than those high-level disciples.
In exchange, Xiaozhi agreed that after her death, she would give her soul to the flower demon to eat. This might be a way to cultivate into a demon, which is very evil, but effective.
After the mimosa flower demon devoured Xiaozhi's soul, it indeed became much stronger. It could manipulate people's nightmares more unscrupulously and control cultivators, even powerful beings, through the method of rebirth dreams. As long as they had a dark and painful side in their hearts, they could be controlled by the mimosa flower demon.
Controlling these powerful beings, in turn, provided the Albizia Flower Fairy with even more abundant nutrients for growth, causing her to grow stronger rapidly at a rate ten or even a hundred times faster than before, until she reached an uncontrollable state today.
"So, the Acacia Flower Demon really is a sin born from our Ruthless Dao Palace..." Elder Bai smiled bitterly, then he coughed, his chest heaving rapidly like a bellows, and Qingfeng had to come up and use magic to relieve him.
Even after this relief, Elder Bai's spirits had not recovered. He seemed to have been deeply affected, and all his energy and spirit were gone.
"Sword Saint Shen, I think we should... forget it." Qingfeng lowered his head and straightened the blanket for Elder Bai. "Master has said everything he could. He needs to rest now..."
"No, Qingfeng, go to the side first," Elder Bai suddenly reached out and stopped Qingfeng. "I still have something to say."
Qingfeng looked reluctant, but still withdrew.
Elder Bai looked at Shen Bingsi: "You also know that the Hehuan Flower Demon is good at controlling dreams and feeds on the darkness and pain in people's hearts. In that case, only by finding someone who has no darkness and pain in their heart, who will not regret it, and who would make the same choice even if they were given another chance, can we deal with the flower demon."
Shen Bingsi looked at Elder Bai: "You mean..."
"That's right, he is such an upright and noble person of extreme Yang. The trickery of the Albizia Flower Demon is no match for him. We need such a person to launch a direct attack on the Albizia Flower Demon. When it thinks it has this person under control, we should deliver a fatal blow, and the Albizia Flower Demon will die from the collapse of its primordial spirit."
In fact, when Judge Jiang mentioned that he had too much of a dark past and was powerless to fight against the Hehuan Flower Demon, Shen Bingsi also thought that if there were someone without a dark past, upright and honest, who was very firm in the path he had chosen and never regretted it, then the Hehuan Flower Demon could be defeated in one fell swoop.
"But where is this person?" Shen Bingsi murmured.
"Yes, where is this person?" Elder Bai asked with a sigh, his gaze fixed on Shen Bingsi's face. "Three months ago, I would have said Ying Qi's name without hesitation. Now, I can only trust you."
Shen Bingsi was taken aback: "Me?"
After leaving Elder Bai's bedroom, Shen Bingsi and Rong Xie were both completely bewildered and looked at each other in confusion.
“No,” Shen Bingsi said, puzzled, “Elder Bai really thinks I am upright and of noble character? And… that I never regret it?”
Rong Xie coughed lightly: "Elder Bai doesn't know you very well either, so don't take these words to heart."
"No, Elder Bai has always been harsh in his words, except for his precious Lu Yingqi—don't you think it's some of my actions that left him with this impression? It was only at this desperate moment that he had to admit that I am indeed the kind of upright and noble person?"
Rong Xie pushed away Shen Bingsi's smug face that was leaning close to him: "I don't think so. I don't know who cried so much about something that happened thirty years ago, or who jumped into Lan Yuan's courtyard and told me that they regretted it. I advise you not to make such a dangerous attempt. Facing the Hehuan Flower Fairy is tantamount to suicide for you."
"..."
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