Similar Flowers

The Blizzard Mammoth herd crossed one towering snow mountain range after another, arriving at the Snowy Plateau.

The sunlight was gentle but brought no warmth. Flowers and plants grew everywhere, their colors vivid, but the Blizzard Mammoths had no intention of stopping. They headed straight for the valleys and peaks of the Snowy Plateau.

Blizzard Mammoths were extraordinarily huge, making the mountain climb arduous, yet they kept pressing on. Bai Cai vaguely sensed something was wrong.

They weren't looking for food or mates. Day and night, the Blizzard Mammoth herd traveled toward the Snowy Plateau, like devout pilgrims.

What were they searching for?

Seated on the broad, flat back of the Blizzard Mammoth leader, Bai Cai fell into thought.

Leaving the Blizzard Mammoth herd would be no different from courting death. The extreme cold, getting lost, and Soul Beasts—if he wandered the Extreme North alone, he wouldn't survive a week.

Whatever the Blizzard Mammoths were seeking, they weren't going to their deaths. At least, he was safe for now.

During mating season, the Blizzard Mammoths would surely return to the Ice-Sealed Forest to raise their young. Riding the Blizzard Mammoth leader, he could eventually make his way back to the human world.

Surrounded by thick, warm fur, Bai Cai pondered for a while, then closed his sleeping bag and turned over.

The Blizzard Mammoths traveled in fits and starts. After more than ten cycles of day and night, they finally stopped at an unfamiliar mountainside.

Snow blanketed the land, and towering mountains rose all around. Countless pure white flowers bloomed across the snowy slope. Their shape was neither quite lotus nor anything else, their petals moist and lustrous, with crystalline dewdrops glimmering on them.

Their fragrance was delicate and refreshing. Just smelling it lifted the spirits and made Soul Power flow with remarkable ease.

A natural treasure?

Dugu Bo was a Titled Douluo, yet he had nearly perished at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well after recklessly consuming natural treasures. Bai Cai had learned from that lesson, so he waited for the Blizzard Mammoths to try the flowers first.

The Blizzard Mammoths began feeding on the pure white flowers.

Bai Cai watched closely. The Blizzard Mammoths with a thousand years of cultivation only ate the nearly wilted flowers, carefully avoiding those in bloom and those still in bud.

The Blizzard Mammoths with a hundred years of cultivation occasionally curled their trunks around a budding pure white flower and chewed it. Those with a thousand years of cultivation did nothing to stop them.

Poison? Medicinal potency? Or some other factor?

The pure white flowers were shaped neither quite like lotus flowers nor anything else, and their exact effects were unknown.

Judging by the Blizzard Mammoths' eating habits, the nearly wilted flowers and those still in bud had weaker medicinal effects or lower toxicity, making them suitable for Blizzard Mammoths with a thousand years of cultivation or less.

Every Blizzard Mammoth, including the herd leader, ate only a few flowers before lying down to rest, either refining their medicinal potency or waiting for the effects to take hold.

Bai Cai frowned. If the Blizzard Mammoth leader entered a negative state, he might not be safe riding on its back.

Ralts understood at once. Confusion enveloped Bai Cai and slowly lifted him into the air, setting him down above the sloping snowfield.

Sure enough, the Blizzard Mammoths with a hundred years of cultivation gradually went berserk and started fighting one another. Those with a thousand years of cultivation and the Blizzard Mammoth leader began mating. The leader took on three at once, and the filthy spectacle was too vile to watch.

The Blizzard Mammoths with a thousand years of cultivation were female, while the herd leader was male. Bai Cai remained calm and gently covered Ralts's curious rose-red eyes.

"Ladies shouldn't watch this." Bai Cai quickly picked Ralts up. "At least, not yet."

"Ralts~" Ralts obediently closed her eyes.

After a long while, the Blizzard Mammoth herd quieted down. The Blizzard Mammoths with a hundred years of cultivation seemed to have grown a size larger.

The tusks of the Blizzard Mammoths with a thousand years of cultivation and the leader, whose cultivation had reached two thousand years, had grown thicker and more curved.

Apart from the side effect of leaving them full of energy, the pure white flowers had potent effects. They truly lived up to their reputation as natural treasures.

Night slowly fell. Ralts used Confusion to carry Bai Cai down to the edge of a flower field on the sunny slope.

The Blizzard Mammoths didn't notice a thing. Carefully parting the pure white flowers on the outskirts with both hands, Bai Cai calmly slipped into the field.

Though the Blizzard Mammoths had no trouble eating them, the pure white flowers were much larger than they looked: nearly a meter tall and about half a meter wide, with each white petal almost bigger than an adult's palm.

The closer he got to the center of the flower field, the richer the fragrance grew. The pure white flowers there were especially enormous, so large they could completely conceal Bai Cai.

By the time he reached the center of the field, the pure white flowers stood more than two meters tall. Their petals had grown translucent, and their crowns were larger than sunflowers.

Something was wrong. It seemed something was missing. Bai Cai suddenly sensed it.

The pure white flowers were distributed in a radial pattern, growing larger from the outskirts of the flower field toward its center.

And yet, even after reaching the center, Bai Cai still hadn't found a pure white flower with an unusual shape.

With no source to speak of, could the pure white flowers have grown here naturally?

The night sky glittered, and the moon shone bright. Bai Cai raised his head slightly. High atop a cliff on the towering snow mountain, a faint light flickered.

Ralts carried Bai Cai with Confusion, slowly lifting him through the biting wind until he reached the cliff top.

In a hollowed-out rock cave, a deep-blue glacier glimmered. Its flower crown was like a bright moon. A Giant Pure White Flower, three or four meters tall, took root in the shallow cave and swayed gracefully.

The cave was about four meters deep. The Giant Pure White Flower seemed to notice Bai Cai landing nearby. It slowly drew its petals together, pretending nothing had happened.

Bai Cai landed beside the cave. Ralts used Confusion to touch the Giant Pure White Flower, and it trembled slightly.

"Ralts..."

She says not to hurt her...

"Can you communicate with it?" Bai Cai asked curiously. It had developed intelligence and reached the Immortal Herb rank. Why was it so timid?

Ralts prodded the Giant Pure White Flower with Confusion. It seemed to be startled and instantly closed its calyx.

"Ralts, Ralts."

She says we can eat the child beneath her, but not hurt her, Ralts added.

"Worse than a beast," Bai Cai judged.

A natural treasure with intelligence had at least ten thousand years of cultivation. Willingly offering up its own child was simply beyond saving.

The Giant Pure White Flower shrank back in distress, trying to hide inside the shallow cave.

"Ralts."

She says she's a plant, Ralts explained.

"I don't care if you're a beast or a plant."

The Blue Ring flashed, and a shovel dropped to the ground. Bai Cai smiled. "Either way, I want you. You and only you."

Faced with a fifty-percent profit, humans would take desperate risks. How much more so when faced with a natural treasure on the level of an Immortal Herb?

Having already coerced the Giant Pure White Flower, Bai Cai slowly backed away, ready to jump off the cliff and escape at any moment.

The Giant Pure White Flower's branches and leaves stirred slightly. Its calyx and petals gradually opened.

"Ralts."

She says at most two petals, Ralts said in surprise.

"Fine. Don't resist."

Bai Cai agreed. The Giant Pure White Flower was delighted, and two enormous petals were ready to fall.

"Wait." Bai Cai suddenly stopped it.

The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was a treasured site of geomantic fortune, which was why Immortal Herbs grew there so freely. The Giant Pure White Flower had become an Immortal Herb; perhaps rare treasures were buried where it grew.

"Losing petals from its main body would surely damage a natural treasure's vitality."

Bai Cai declared with certainty, "To be this generous, either you have more than fifty thousand years of cultivation, your bloodline is extraordinary by nature, or there's a rare treasure buried in this cave."

The Giant Pure White Flower trembled violently, filled with unease.