Xuande carefully extended his divine sense and gently touched the surface of the purified Black Lotus.
There was no rejection, no retaliation.
His divine sense made contact with the Black Lotus's true form without difficulty.
He carefully sensed it, inspecting it inch by inch.
Every petal of the lotus platform, every vein within it, the lotus seedpod at its core...
There were no abnormal fluctuations in its soul, no hidden restriction runes. He couldn't even sense the slightest fragment of Luohu's lingering will.
"Could Luohu's fall have been so complete that even the imprint he left on the treasure was erased?
Or does the Black Lotus have a spirit of its own, automatically rejecting every trace of its former master?"
Xuande's heart wavered with doubt. This was going almost too smoothly.
But the pull of their shared origin was unmistakable.
After the purification, that pull had not weakened. On the contrary, it had grown stronger and clearer.
He could even vaguely sense a faint, naïve "fondness" and "dependence" coming from the Black Lotus.
The emotions were so faint that he almost thought he was imagining them. Yet combined with the powerful pull, they seemed undeniably real.
"Fortune favors the bold."
Xuande gazed at the Twelve-Petal Lotus Platform before him, its Origin Essence in harmony with his own even as their attributes clashed. His mind was torn.
This was Luohu's treasure, one of the most powerful instruments of destruction in heaven and earth.
If he refined it, he would surely become entangled in its karma. It might even affect his Dao heart, rooted in Purity and merit.
But it had also been formed from a seed of the Chaos Green Lotus, sharing the same origin as he did.
If he could truly master it, perhaps he could comprehend deeper mysteries of destruction and creation, merit and karmic retribution, and complete his own Great Dao.
What's more, this treasure was key to repairing the Earth Vein here. Unless it was dealt with, the source of the demonic energy would remain, and the Earth Vein could never be truly purified.
After much deliberation, Xuande's gaze gradually grew resolute.
Since he had come here and sensed this connection—
And since this treasure was key to purifying the Earth Vein—there was no reason to turn back.
He once more confirmed that there were no other dangers nearby, then cautiously walked toward the Black Lotus, one step at a time.
He brought his protective golden light to its full strength, his divine sense taut and ready to respond to any sudden danger.
Even when he stood before the Black Lotus, close enough to reach out and touch it, nothing unusual happened.
Xuande drew a deep breath and extended his right hand, slowly pointing his fingertip toward the lotus seedpod at the Black Lotus's center.
At his fingertip gathered a trace of his purest Origin Essence imprint and Merit Golden Light.
The instant his finger touched the cool seedpod—
Humm!
The Black Lotus shuddered gently!
It wasn't resisting. It was more like... a faint tremor, as if awakening from a long slumber.
Then the powerful pull of their shared origin reached its peak!
Xuande felt his Primordial Spirit resonate faintly. The phantom of the Merit Golden Lotus in his Purple Mansion appeared of its own accord, slowly turning above his head and casting down a clear glow.
At the same time, a faint golden lotus phantom appeared atop the Black Lotus's pure, pitch-black form, its glow reflecting that of the phantom above Xuande's head!
It vanished in an instant, but Xuande clearly saw it.
It was the manifestation of their resonating origins!
There was no more hesitation!
At Xuande's fingertip, a mote of light held his Primordial Spirit imprint and the aura of merit.
Like a drop of water merging into the sea, it entered the Black Lotus's core without the slightest resistance.
A wondrous connection formed in an instant. He could "feel" the Black Lotus's existence as if it were an extension of his own body.
He sensed within it a vast ocean of destructive laws and energy, as boundless as a sea of stars—cold and still, yet containing terrifying power capable of bringing all things to an end.
But now, that power no longer rejected him. Instead, it slowly and obediently accepted his imprint.
He didn't immediately try to refine it further. He merely placed the first, most rudimentary imprint of ownership at its very core.
Even so, the instant the imprint was complete—
The last trace of uncontrolled demonic energy around the Black Lotus completely vanished.
It slowly stopped floating on its own and obediently descended into Xuande's open palm.
It shrank to the size of his hand and rested there quietly.
It was docile beyond belief for a destructive treasure that had once shaken the Primordial Wilderness.
He'd succeeded!
He had established an initial bond with the Twelve-Petal Destruction Black Lotus!
A great weight lifted from Xuande's heart, even as indescribably complex emotions welled up within him.
He had truly obtained this treasure.
He lowered his head and looked at the small, exquisite black lotus platform in his palm. It turned slightly in accordance with his will.
The destructive Dao aura it emitted formed a curious balance and contrast with the Merit Golden Light surrounding him.
Suppressing the tumult of his emotions, Xuande turned his gaze to the God-Slaying Spear on the other side.
If the Black Lotus had drawn him in with a shared origin and accepted him—
Then the God-Slaying Spear gave him a completely different sensation: a piercing, razor-sharp "gaze."
Even without a master to wield it, this supreme weapon of slaughter still radiated an aura that made even a Grand Unity Golden Immortal tremble.
"Formed from the stem of the Chaos Green Lotus..."
Xuande recalled the legends surrounding the spear.
The Chaos Green Lotus had given birth to Great God Pangu. Later, unable to withstand the pressure of the world's creation, it fell apart. Its stem landed in the Primordial Wilderness, absorbed the baleful energy released when the world was opened, and became the God-Slaying Spear.
Its five immature seeds had each become—
The Twelve-Petal World-Purifying White Lotus, the Twelve-Petal Destruction Black Lotus, the Twelve-Petal Merit Golden Lotus, the Twelve-Petal Karmic Fire Red Lotus, and the Twelve-Petal Samsara Purple Lotus.
Its one mature seed had become the Twenty-Four Petal Creation Green Lotus.
The other parts had also given rise to many famous Innate Spiritual Treasures in the Primordial Wilderness.
In terms of their origins, he too was of the same lineage; they were all parts of the Chaos Green Lotus.
He followed the same procedure, first bathing the God-Slaying Spear in Merit Golden Light.
The demonic energy coiled around its dark-red shaft reacted just as violently, and was rapidly purified.
Compared with the Black Lotus, the demonic energy on the God-Slaying Spear was more superficial.
It mainly came from the aura it had absorbed while Luohu wielded it, rather than from its essential nature.
The God-Slaying Spear's Origin Essence was pure "slaughter" and "annihilation."
It wasn't entirely the same as "demonic."
The purification went just as smoothly, without triggering any restrictions.
Once purified, the God-Slaying Spear's dark-red shaft looked even more ancient and profound, as if the dust had been washed away.
Its aura of slaughter had also grown purer and more concentrated, with less savagery and a more imposing, chilling authority.
Xuande probed it again with his divine sense, but found no lingering imprint or trap left by Luohu.
After a brief pause, he once more separated out a wisp of his Primordial Spirit imprint, mingled it with the aura of merit, and directed it toward the spear shaft.
Just as the imprint was about to touch the shaft, the God-Slaying Spear suddenly let out an extremely faint hum of its own!
A cold gleam flashed across the spearhead!
Xuande stopped, his entire body on guard.
But the hum quickly faded. The shaft trembled slightly, as if... responding?
Then Xuande sensed that faint pull as well.
It wasn't as strong as the Black Lotus's pull, which came from sharing the same kind of Origin Essence. Instead, it carried the recognition and acceptance of something "of the same origin."
After all, his true form was the Merit Golden Lotus, a "child" of the Chaos Green Lotus.
And the spear was the Chaos Green Lotus's "stem." Their connection was real.
The imprint settled smoothly into the spear shaft.
A connection formed—cool and deadly, yet astonishingly smooth.
Xuande felt as if he had grasped a dormant, savage dragon.
He could sense the terrifying power within it, enough to slay immortals and butcher gods. But that power had now acknowledged him, at least in part.
At a thought from him, the God-Slaying Spear shrank to little more than a foot long and flew into his other hand.
Holding the Destruction Black Lotus in one hand and the God-Slaying Spear in the other, Xuande stood in the vast underground cavern, his emotions too complicated to put into words.
An underground exploration had somehow brought him two of Demon Ancestor Luohu's most important treasures!
His luck was simply unbelievable.
But he also understood that these two treasures carried enormous karma.
They had only just recognized him, and he was still far from refining them.
How he should use them in the future, and how to balance them against his own Way of Merit, were serious questions he would have to consider carefully.
But this wasn't the time to think about them. Now that the two treasures had recognized him, they naturally stopped releasing demonic energy.
Xuande could feel the pure demonic energy that had filled the cavern rapidly dissipating.
The demonic energy that had seeped through cracks in the rock toward the deeper parts of the Earth Vein had also been cut off from its source.
It would likely be slowly purified by the Earth Vein itself before long.