Clue

"You can collect the Soul-Devouring Flower's blossom. Soul-Devouring Flowers can be used as the main ingredient in Soul Power Potions, which can slightly increase soul power. This Soul-Devouring Flower is close to entering the ranks, so it has enormous potential as a main ingredient. It looks like it should make about ten bottles. You can take it and ask Lord Alex to make them for you. Just save two bottles for my sister and me."

"Soul Power Potions? The high-grade potions?"

"Yes, though judging by the quality of this Soul-Devouring Flower, a sufficiently skilled pharmacist should be able to make fine-grade Soul Power Potions or better."

Chen Chuan's expression changed at once.

Potions came in five grades: passable, good, excellent, fine, and perfect.

So far, Chen Chuan had only made excellent-grade potions.

He couldn't make fine-grade potions, mainly because of the limitations of his raw materials. After all, raw materials capable of producing fine-grade potions or better

were practically impossible to cultivate artificially.

Wild medicinal plants had a low survival rate, and high-quality ones were rarer still.

Chen Chuan looked at the Soul-Devouring Flower nearby and clicked his tongue.

After all, it was his first time seeing a main potion ingredient of such high quality.

The black hole at the center of the Soul-Devouring Flower was still opening and closing slowly, but the blossom had lost its former vitality. Thick purple sap seeped from the cracks along its edges, glimmering eerily in the sunlight and giving off a cloying scent of decay.

Chen Chuan nodded and cautiously approached the plant.

The three Magic Mushrooms on his shoulders trembled uneasily. Little Yellow, the defensive one, was particularly agitated, the golden light on his cap flickering as though he were wary of something. The little green Magic Mushroom even began to quiver.

As Chen Chuan drew closer, he saw a basketball-sized wound on the front of the Soul-Devouring Flower's twisted main stalk, and a wound nearly three times as large on the back.

Looking through the wounds, he saw that the Soul-Devouring Flower's entire stalk had been destroyed from within by the Gale Bomb. The tough, magic-infused plant fibers had all been shaken into powder, giving off faint fluctuations of magic power.

"Ding... Extraordinary material detected. Convert it into Source of Magic Power?"

The cold system notification made Chen Chuan's heart clench, and a layer of cold sweat instantly formed on his palms.

The sudden conversion option set alarm bells ringing in his mind—if the precious blossom were converted along with the rest, he would really have lost both the wife and the troops.

He forced down his doubts and chose to ignore the system's prompt for now, instead carefully approaching the Soul-Devouring Flower, which had already lost its vitality.

Chen Chuan took several specially made iron clamps from his storage ring, drew a deep breath, and brought them toward the point where the blossom joined the roots, his hands trembling slightly.

The moment the clamps touched the plant fibers, he seemed to feel a faint resistance.

He circulated his magic power, activating the runes on the special clamps. The first snip severed a thin root; the second, the third... With every connection he cut, his heart seemed to tighten a little more. Cold sweat slid from his temples down his cheeks, dripping onto the rocks with a faint sound.

At last, the blossom was completely separated from the underground portion.

Only then did Chen Chuan breathe a sigh of relief and begin carefully inspecting the remaining materials.

Fortunately, the central blossom was almost undamaged, with only a few petals around the edges harmed in the earlier battle.

He sorted the usable petals, stalks, roots, and other parts by type and carefully stored them in separate containers.

Finally, he took out a black crystal box inlaid with runes and carefully placed the Soul-Devouring Flower's blossom inside.

The moment the lid closed, silver runes lit up one after another, forming a tight seal.

Chen Chuan seemed to sense the blossom still struggling inside the box, unwilling to fade away.

Chen Chuan frowned, silently wary of this last eerie aspect of the plant.

"Confirm conversion." He gritted his teeth and made his choice without hesitation.

As soon as he spoke, the twisted branches and faintly glowing purple sap left on the ground began to tremble violently. Like wax thrown into a blazing fire, they rapidly melted and evaporated, finally vanishing without a trace and leaving only a faint, cloying scent of decay in the air.

"Source of Magic Power +6,657 points"

The cold numbers flashed through Chen Chuan's mind, and he drew a sharp breath. Nearly 7,000 points' worth of low-grade magic stones had come from converting nothing more than the damaged scraps.

He couldn't help touching his forehead. Sweat had already soaked his hair.

"This Soul-Devouring Flower is worth far more than I imagined..." Chen Chuan murmured, silently grateful. If not for Alia's deadly strike, the few of them would probably have become nourishment for the plant.

In the distance, Alia merely glanced at the remains dissipating on the ground, evidently accustomed to the destructive effects of first-rank magic.

Supporting her sister, who had regained consciousness, she surveyed their surroundings warily.

Chen Chuan took a deep breath, suppressed the lingering shock in his heart, and prepared to leave this dangerous place.

The instant he turned around, he caught sight of the ground where the Soul-Devouring Flower had stood suddenly collapsing, revealing a dark passage that extended downward.

A crack suddenly opened in the sunken ground, revealing a flight of stone steps descending into the depths.

Chen Chuan took a deep breath and sent his spiritual power downward like threads.

The instant it entered, Chen Chuan sensed a faint trace of elemental energy drifting up from the depths, so elusive it was difficult to grasp.

The aura did resemble the light element, yet it also had an indescribable purity to it, with a trace of holiness.

But apart from that faint aura of the sacred element, he could sense almost no magic power in the surroundings.

Chen Chuan tried spreading his spiritual power outward in fine threads, attempting to catch any elemental fluctuations that might be present, but encountered only a silent void.

"The aura of the sacred element."

Alia's voice suddenly sounded behind Chen Chuan, carrying a trace of gravity.

Supporting Vera, who had mostly recovered, she had come to Chen Chuan's side. The two women stood shoulder to shoulder at the edge of the collapsed ground.

Vera's face was still somewhat pale, but her breathing had steadied considerably. Only a lingering trace of fright remained in her eyes.

Chen Chuan nodded slightly, his gaze still fixed on the dark passage. "This elemental power resembles the light element but is purer. It should be the sacred element, a higher element than the light element."

"Sunflower of holy light—a rare herb of the holy light element." Chen Chuan's heart began to beat faster without his realizing it. His main objective was the sunflower of holy light.

Yet his brow immediately furrowed as a question arose in his mind.

Alia keenly caught the change in Chen Chuan's expression, and the corners of her mouth lifted slightly. "You're wondering why, when a sunflower of holy light contains so little sacred element and this passage is so deep, we can still sense its aura, right?"

Chen Chuan turned to look at her, a flash of approval in his eyes. "Exactly. According to the records, the sacred element in a sunflower of holy light is extremely faint. There's no way anyone could sense it from this deep underground."

"I'm not certain either," Alia said, shaking her head gently as her gaze grew thoughtful. "

I think there are two possibilities. One is that there's a plantation down there, an entire sea of sunflowers of holy light. The other is that there are remains of someone who changed to a class using the holy light element."

She paused, lowering her voice further. "Either way, it's enough to make it worth the risk of finding out."

Chen Chuan raised his wrist and gently adjusted the magic dial beneath his cuff. The runes on its face glowed faintly,

and the shifting digits settled at "03:00."

Exactly three hours had passed since they entered this planar ruin, yet the dangers they had encountered had far exceeded their expectations.

He looked around, his gaze passing over Alia's and Vera's tired faces, and a sense of urgency rose in his heart.

The cold metal of the dial pressed against him through the fabric, reminding him of the passage of time and of the true objective of this trip—the sunflower of holy light, which he still had yet to find.

A faint smell of sulfur and rotting vegetation hung in the air, mingling with the lingering traces of magic power from the earlier battle to create an indescribably strange atmosphere.

Chen Chuan took a deep breath and suppressed his anxiety. He turned his gaze back to the deep passage, his eyes growing utterly resolute. "We don't have much time. We need to hurry."