Chapter 223 White Orchid Rain Festival (V)
"Please be sure to protect your sacrifices. This is an indispensable requirement to become a true saint."
The butler was very considerate and waited until the players had digested the system's task prompts before continuing to speak.
Nan Huan didn’t know if it was her illusion, but she always felt that the housekeeper’s words seemed to imply something, as if he was just looking for a good show.
But before she could think about it, the housekeeper ordered the servants to put down those strange flower pots and began to order them to leave. "After all, everyone has been running all the way today and is very tired. It is better to rest early. The rooms and courtyards have been arranged for everyone. Everyone, please follow me with your offerings."
The flowerpot is not too big, so it is not tiring to hold it in your arms.
But whether it was the housekeeper's intention or the black flower bud and the white soil were really weird, the players all chose to bring their trays with them and stay away from the flowerpot as much as possible.
As they turned out of the courtyard, they ran into a group of people coming out of the right hall.
Because they have the eldest lady here, they can guarantee that the water they drink is safe, but what about the players in the other hall?
President Alice and the others unconsciously turned their gazes towards the players from other guilds, with inquiring eyes, as if they wanted to see any different reactions from the other party after drinking the water.
But unfortunately, I don’t know if it’s because they don’t have the ability or because the eldest lady has some special ability, but in any case, they can’t tell there’s anything wrong with the clean water, nor can they tell what’s special about the players on the other side after drinking the problematic water.
Nan Huan's gaze also fell on them, but there was a hint of confusion on her face, because she did not see any black energy from the other group of players.
It was not certain for a moment, was it that after drinking the water with black gas, the black gas would not attach to the player's body, or was it that they had some way, had already sensed the existence of the black gas and tried to remove it?
However, many of the other players were experienced guild leaders, so no one dared to look too obviously.
On the contrary, when the Gambler's Guild President brought the players out, he was also looking at the Young Lady and the others, but his purpose was simpler. It seemed that he only wanted to know whether the Young Lady had received more information than them. As a result, he realized later that publicly dividing into two camps like this was not very convenient in some ways.
There seemed to be a lot of unspeakable information hidden in the eyes of both parties, but in the end they did not communicate anything, but followed the housekeeper to their respective residences.
The high priest's palace was much larger than they had imagined, because the housekeeper allocated a room to each person, with four people in one courtyard, in the name of ensuring the saint's good rest.
There are ten courtyards alone, and the area looks quite large. Although the courtyards are adjacent to each other, Nan Huan noticed that the east and west doors of each courtyard can be locked. In other words, four people can form an enclosed space in one courtyard.
However, I don’t know whether it was because the system suddenly showed kindness or because players from the same guild would have priority in allocation. In short, the four people assigned to the same yard were all players from their own guild, which made communication very convenient.
The housekeeper brought them to his own yard, told them to return to their own yard at 11 p.m., and then left.
Seeing that there was still some time before returning to the room, President Alice, President Pink, President Barbie, and President Worker all gathered in the eldest lady's room with the players and sacrifices in tacit understanding.
"Well... I can't see anything except that it's ugly."
President Hongfen walked around the twenty flower pots neatly placed on the ground for several rounds but still couldn't figure out what was going on. In the end, she could only come to this conclusion.
President Alice nodded in agreement, crossed her arms, and spoke with an academic mindset, "Apart from being ugly, these twenty flower pots, including the flowers growing in them, all look like they were 3D printed. Even the patterns on the leaves are exactly the same."
She had just randomly selected a few pots of flowers as samples and conducted a detailed comparison, so she was shocked by the result. "It is impossible for two flowers in the world to be exactly the same. Moreover, there are twenty pots in front of us now. No..."
She seemed to feel that her wording was inappropriate and corrected herself, "If there are no accidents, it should be forty pots."
President Barbie squatted near a flowerpot, sniffed it, and wanted to reach out but was stopped by Uriel beside her.
"The color of this flower is not right. It has no fragrance or taste at all, not even the scent of a plant. Also, when I came here just now, I looked around and found that the soil in the courtyard where trees are planted is normal. I have never seen this kind of white soil in a flowerpot."
President Barbie touched it but to no avail, so she had to stand up from the ground.
Everyone expressed their opinions, showing an appearance of unity and cooperation. Finally, everyone's eyes turned to the Tenth President, who suddenly stopped yawning.
"I think the weirdest thing is the side quest that the system just released." In order to not seem out of place, the Workers' Guild President joined the discussion. "It's clearly stated in the plot summary of the dungeon that the white orchids in Bailan City have never bloomed since the sacrifice a hundred years ago, but the side quest we received is about blooming, and this flower..."
When she said this, she turned her head and looked at the dark bud. "It doesn't look like a white orchid, does it? Normally, the offering should be a white orchid, right?"
"But it may be due to the lack of water. On the way here, I found that there were almost no green plants in the city. Although there are trees in the courtyard of the High Priest's Mansion, I didn't see any flowers. Either they can't be grown, or they are weird. And we want them to bloom overnight?"
Due to physical reasons, the working person president does not have the same meticulous observation skills as other presidents, so her attention is always on the task. She always feels that the task of growing flowers is not that simple.
"Flowers don't bloom for no reason. You should have heard the system's reminder just now. Flowers need nutrients, so there may be some changes based on this later."
Nan Huan had no choice but to give advice based on the existing clues. "But don't forget what the housekeeper said. Unless it is absolutely necessary, you must protect your sacrifice. This is an important matter for the saint."
"There are also the other two requirements mentioned by the housekeeper," Bei Xi added, "Don't leave the High Priest's Mansion at night, and don't eat ordinary food. I just checked the control panel and found that all the food and nutrients in the mall are prohibited. However, the nutrients we stored in advance can still be used, but whether this situation is considered eating remains to be verified. Don't use them tonight. Wait until tomorrow to find an opportunity to test it."
"Also, don't forget that this is the High Priest's residence. We haven't seen the High Priest himself yet. It has always been the Butler who has been acting. He may be a potential threat, but we cannot be sure at the moment. Tonight, protecting yourself is the most important thing. If you have spare energy, you can explore the Flowering Mission. If it is too difficult, you can give it up. Protect the sacrifice. Even if you fail to complete the mission, you will just not be able to become a Saint, but your life will not be in danger."
For some reason, Bei Xi always had a bad feeling. Ever since she saw that the difficulty of this dungeon was only A+ level, she felt a little uneasy, always feeling that the difficulty of the dungeon seemed a little low.
After all, the forty players in this copy can be regarded as the players with the strongest combat power and abilities in the entire game, and the system does not seem to want to give out the Faith Totem Fragments for free, otherwise it would not have to go to such great lengths to make the final selection result close to agreeing to start the league.
Judging from the tone of the system, it is very likely that this copy contains some kind of danger that they are not aware of, so she reminded everyone that completing the task is secondary, and the most important thing is to protect themselves.
After all, they had just entered the dungeon not long ago. Even though the main quest had been revealed, the clues were limited, and they could not discuss a useful conclusion for the time being. They could only follow the leader's instructions and be careful.
Soon the time the housekeeper had given was almost up, and the other players returned to their rooms with their flower pots.
Originally, Bei Xi was going to stay in Nan Huan's room together. After all, given the current situation, something would definitely go wrong at night.
But after two prompts from the system and Nan Huan's strong opposition, Bei Xi finally returned to his room reluctantly, and asked Nan Huan to open the door of his room to ensure that he could rush over as soon as the other party was in trouble.
As the gong sounds of the midnight hour began, all the doors of the rooms and courtyards were closed at the same time, turning everyone into an isolated island.
Inside the room, Nan Huan changed his original posture of standing at the door to sitting directly facing the flower pot.
The room was not particularly large. There was an area on the south side that looked like an old-time tea area where one could sit directly. Nan Huan was leaning against the window, his chin supported by one hand, staring at the strange flowerpot meticulously, and from time to time he pricked up his ears to listen for any strange sounds in the yard.
Bang--
Suddenly, there was a loud noise in the yard. To be precise, it came from Room 19 in the east, as if something had hit the wall heavily.
Nan Huan narrowed his eyes and the moment he turned around, he saw that the flower bud in the flowerpot opposite, which was originally closed, suddenly began to open rapidly at an odd speed without any warning.
The entire flower bud began to grow rapidly as if it had suddenly absorbed nutrients, and even the rhizome grew to more than one meter in height. Originally there were only two leaves, but they also began to reproduce rapidly.
Until the black flower grew to the size of a basketball, the petals opened, revealing the sharp fang-like serrations inside, and it attacked Nan Huan directly with lightning speed.
The green rhizome suddenly lengthened, so that its roots could stretch their necks to attack Nanhuan without leaving the pot.
Nan Huan's first reaction was to use the Blood Waterfall's attack skill, but when she thought about the task descriptions from both the housekeeper and the system, which told them to protect their sacrifices, she instantly gave up the idea of a head-on counterattack.
Instead, he suddenly had an idea and the wings behind him appeared. He flew around the house, avoiding the attacks of the flowers.
The room was not spacious and was rather low, which was not very convenient for Nan Huan. Occasionally she would accidentally bump into the decorations in the house.
In order to test the attacking power of the flowers, Nan Huan deliberately ran straight towards the bookshelf in front of him, which attracted the flowers behind him to seize the opportunity to attack. Then he flapped his wings and made a sharp turn at the last moment.
Then it watched helplessly as the teeth of the flower, which should have been very fragile, bit off half of the bookshelf.
But the black flower soon realized that the wood stump in its mouth was not the prey it wanted to eat, so it vomited it out and continued to rush towards Nanhuan.
It has no eyes and cannot see what is inside the room, but it can accurately capture Nanhuan's location again and again.
Occasionally when it pauses, Nanhuan will find that its bloody mouth seems to be able to smell something, which helps it identify Nanhuan's location.
So that's what the glass of water was originally for? To help the flowers determine their position.
But Nan Huan was sure that she had absorbed the black air, so logically speaking, there shouldn't be any smell of black air on her body.
She flapped her wings and made many turns, trying to prevent the flowers behind her from guessing where she would land next. She tried to make the flowers' growing roots get knotted together, while her mind was racing.
Unless there is something else besides the black gas that can guide them to determine the player's position, or the black gas is just a bonus to some effect.
Could it be that the nutrients mentioned in the system prompt are...
Thinking of this, Nan Huan freed one hand and flipped it upwards, revealing a dagger in her hand.
Without hesitation, she cut a cut on her palm and blood quickly flowed out. Nan Huan did not stop immediately, but jumped up and down in the room, smearing her blood on several different parts of her body.
It was obvious that the black flower behind him had accelerated its attack speed since it smelled the blood. At the same time, Nan Huan could see from its brief pause that the smell of blood did confuse the opponent for a short time, so that it lost its direction within a few seconds.
It quickly came to its senses, found the first blood-stained spot, and swallowed the entire blood-stained corner of the wardrobe into its stomach.
While the other party was too busy looking for blood and had no time to pay attention to him, Nan Huan quickly used the medicine Bei Xi had prepared in advance to heal the wound.
With the bonus of blood, the flower seemed to move faster and soon found the second and third locations. However, it seemed to have no interest in anything other than blood.
After swallowing the food and absorbing the blood, it spit it all out in the same state, just like a picky eater.
It seems that the blood of the saint is the nutrient of the flowers. However, it is not clear what bonus other players will get from drinking the cup of water with black air, and how long this nourishment will take?
Nan Huan was measuring how long this amount of blood could last, when he caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye that the black flower had somehow stopped eating after swallowing the third amount of blood.
As the night deepened, different sounds were heard from other courtyards.
The Gambler's Guild President naturally noticed the inconsistency between the side quest and the plot outline, so after closing the door, he stared at his flower pot motionlessly.
He watched the plant grow more leaves all of a sudden, and the black flower bud turned into a giant bloody mouth and attacked him without warning, as excited and thrilled as a hunter who finally found his prey.
The Gambler's Guild President activated his skills in just two or three seconds. He closed his eyes and let the golden light wrap around his body.
After a moment, he pulled out a dagger with his backhand, blocked the flower's jagged mouth, and looked down to check the probability in his palm.
Click——
The dagger was bitten off by the flower, but the Gambler's Guild President did not continue to attack, but chose to dodge.
But Huaduo's attack was obviously fierce and even fast, as if there was some kind of locator installed on her body, and the opponent could always capture where she would land next.
Even the leaves on the rhizomes flew towards him like hidden weapons when the Gambler Guild President turned.
Once or twice, he was able to dodge and use items to block the blade attacks.
But he found that every time he resisted, the next time there would be multiples of leaves flying towards him.
The furniture in the entire room was soon cut in half by the leaves like flying knives, and the room was in a mess.
The Gambler's Guild President tried various methods to open the door of the room and expand his range of escape and hiding, but the doors and windows of the room were different from the furniture that was cut in half at once, and were extremely solid.
It seems that it should be the system setting, or the task conditions of this side quest, which is not subject to the player's will.
He can still barely withstand the opponent's attack, but because of the probability tested by the skills just now, he cannot choose to attack and can only dodge.
But he soon discovered that every time he successfully resisted, the flower would grow a little taller, a little bigger, or have a little more leaves, launching a more violent attack, as if it would not give up until it achieved its goal.
He is not a perpetual motion machine, but the flower is like a perpetual motion machine. If he doesn't find the core point of this task quickly, he may not be able to last for too long.
The Gambler's Guild President quickly turned his attention back to this side quest. The quest required the flower to bloom. If we ignore the abnormal state of the flower now, its current state can also be considered as blooming.
But this shouldn't be the case. After all, he did nothing and did not provide any nutrients to the flowers.
Oh, yes, nutrients.
What if the flowers attacked him now for nutrients?
Soon the Gambler's Guild President closed his eyes again. This time, there were more golden circles, densely packed around his body like chains.
It took a little longer than before, but at least it wasn't a wasted effort.
After he opened his eyes and confirmed the two probabilities on the palm of his hand, he did not even try to run away this time. He seized the opportunity and angle, cut his palm with a dagger, and fed the blood into the serrated mouth of the flower.
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