Man-Eating Flower

He pressed in at close range, his steps constantly squeezing forward, fists swinging in rapid succession, one punch after another.

"Ara ara ara ara ara ara ara!"

What began as fists striking flesh soon became fists striking bone.

Flesh tore, bones snapped, yet the Elder truly deserved to be called a monster. Even after such a beating, he still clung to his last breath.

His body was nothing but a lump of mangled flesh, lifted into the air by Lu Bai's hand clamped around his throat.

Looking at Lu Bai, his face could no longer twitch into any expression.

"Monster..." After spitting out that ambiguous word, the Elder finally breathed his last.

Lu Bai waited for a while before tossing the corpse aside.

Several modules had appeared in his hand.

He had chosen this Elder as his target because the man was somewhat withdrawn, always putting on the airs of an Elder and seeming to sigh mournfully over something every day.

Lu Bai had pried all this out of a disciple during interrogation. As for that disciple, he was the one the Elder had constantly whipped before.

Quickly searching through the Elder's room, Lu Bai gathered every book he could find. There were quite a few Martial Arts secret manuals among them, along with a diary.

"Who the hell writes a diary?" Lu Bai said, yet he still opened it.

After all, he was very interested in what exactly had happened at Hundred Flower Grave.

Third Senior Brother was dead. Fifth Junior Brother had been driven out. Martial Uncle had even been buried in the flower fields. I did not step forward.

Perhaps that was a good thing. Only by borrowing the power beyond this realm could we fight the fiends beyond this realm.

My Internal Force has indeed gained a fresh vigor. That ritual truly worked. But Life-Eroding Flower—no matter how one hears it, it does not sound like a good thing. Yet our hearts and lives are bound as one; there is no room for regret now.

They proposed raising gu in the sect, no longer using Sworn Followers as nourishment. Or rather, disciples are high-grade Sworn Followers. Should I oppose it?

Many people died today. Ah Qing died too. He used the Blood Burning Technique I taught him, but before he could even approach those people, his body instantly withered and became nourishment for the Life-Eroding Flower. He had once been a genius I thought highly of, the hope of Hundred Flower Grave's rise. Unfortunately, now everything is gone.

Or perhaps everything had already been gone the moment we accepted the Life-Eroding Flower. Hundred Flower Grave was finished. I was finished too.

Everything from beyond this realm is a fiend. Even if they belong to different camps and different powers, they are all fiends. And now, I am a fiend's lackey.

The disciples are becoming less and less human. Perhaps the Phoenix Flying Ladies of the Holy Land experienced the same transformation. They slaughter one another, treating each other as nourishment for the Life-Eroding Flower so it may grow strong. I only wonder when they will turn their eyes on us Elders.

Probably soon. Recently, some disciples have been looking at me strangely. Who told me to waste so much time?

It seemed somewhat too late to study the Withered Glory Scripture now. Senior Brother Sect Master would not give me another chance, and simply absorbing Nutrients no longer seemed to be enough.

Perhaps this was for the best...

The diary bore neither dates nor times. It was more like a collection of scattered reflections, recording what its writer had encountered and felt.

From the diary, Lu Bai witnessed how a man who feared death yet had some ideas of his own had gradually fallen into his current state.

"So other powers really did interfere. Through that plant called the Life-Eroding Flower, they formed a symbiosis with these natives and drained the natives for Nutrients."

"This is far more long-term than simple hunting. A path of sustainable development."

Lu Bai caught a glimpse of how those major corporations operated. All of it was experience. As a newcomer, he might not be able to use such methods yet, but who could say what the future held?

"This Elder was not up to the mark either. The greatest taboo in doing anything is to be like a rat with its head in one direction and its tail in another. Since he entered the demonic path out of fear of death, he could only walk one road into darkness. If he truly wanted to be lofty and pure, he should have stood up and resisted with the others instead of lingering endlessly at the edge."

This Elder had started from a good position. He did not need to compete with the disciples. He possessed secret manuals passed down from above, and could kill disciples at will, using them as Nutrients.

Yet on one hand, he pretended to be lofty and disdained doing such monstrous things; on the other, he did not dare stand up and resist, and could only endure in silence.

Even if Lu Bai had not acted this time, perhaps before long, some disciple whose strength had surged would have used him as a sacrificial target.

"But the Withered Glory Scripture?" Lu Bai's heart stirred. He searched through some other books, but failed to find this so-called scripture.

He possessed only three Martial Arts manuals: Flower Fist, Embroidery Leg, and the Blood Burning Technique.

The panel also responded to these three Martial Arts manuals.

"Acquired 'ancient book'; can be dismantled into corresponding modules."

All three books had been read through many times. The marks on them could not be faked.

"The key point is that it specifically marked them as ancient books?"

"It seems ordinary secret manuals alone are useless. They need a certain amount of accumulation—perhaps time, perhaps people reading and studying them."

It was not hard to make that guess. If any Martial Arts secret manual could be dismantled into modules, then one could simply open a printing factory here.

Lu Bai did not believe everyone else was an idiot.

After carefully reading through the manuals, Lu Bai discovered the problem: he could not understand them.

It was not that he could not recognize the words. The writing here was virtually identical to Earth's, with only a few obscure characters he did not know, but those did not matter much.

The crux lay in all sorts of specialized terminology.

Martial artists loved this kind of technical jargon. Even before Internal Force existed, mere body training had all kinds of terms.

Not to mention this sort of cultivation involving Internal Force. After reading through them, Lu Bai roughly guessed that Internal Force alone had more than ten different names.

Qi, qì, body spirit, source, wandering spirit, and so on.

That was only what Lu Bai had guessed from the meaning of the surrounding sentences. There were surely even more terms he had failed to decipher.

And what those terms truly meant could only be passed down by word of mouth.

"Looks like I need a 'teacher.'" Lu Bai put away the three secret manuals.

For now, these gains were enough. He needed to digest them properly.

By the time Lu Bai had sorted through everything he had gained, sunlight had already brightened the window outside.

A group of half-grown children had long since risen. Facing the winter sun, white breath streaming from their mouths, they stood in the open ground, grunting and shouting as they practiced their Fists.

"An age like flowers in bloom." Watching them, Lu Bai said, "But now, they are all man-eating flowers."

These Hundred Flower Grave disciples were now desperately striving without pause. Anyone lacking strength could become someone else's flower fertilizer at any moment.

Thus, they were crazily caught up in an arms race. They wanted to be the one eating others, not the one being eaten.

And in such an arms race, traitors were very likely to emerge.

"After all, their recognition of the sect has been twisted to nearly below zero. Setting aside the perverts who became warped enough to fall in love with a sect like this, the rest would make rather good partners."

Lu Bai thought this, then silently made his way toward a certain place while the sky was still not fully bright.

Second update. Good night, everyone—please send all kinds of votes!