"Shadow Douluo, stay here."
Shadow Douluo nodded without asking any questions. He withdrew into the shadows at the valley entrance, his figure blending into the rock wall until his outline was almost impossible to make out.
Xu Jingyao walked into the clearing alone.
His steps were slow. With every step, the stone ridge beneath his feet gave faint creaks amid the alternating heat and cold.
The Cold Spring's icy mist and the Hot Spring's scorching air intertwined into a hazy vortex beside him, but that violet halo remained close to his skin, keeping all the heat and cold outside.
He reached the stone ridge between the two springs, stopped, and lowered his head to look at the dividing line beneath his feet.
That indistinct line lay just before his toes. The two forces of heat and cold collided, tore at each other, and merged along it, forming a delicate balance.
He could feel the Life Divine Core trembling gently within him, while the Destruction Core pulsed at the same time. The frequencies of the two divine powers faintly resonated with the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Spring beneath his feet.
Divinity?
It seemed to be the two great Dragon Kings of Ice and Fire!
He crouched down and pressed his palm against the dividing line on the stone ridge.
The instant his palm touched the stone, the entire clearing suddenly fell silent for a moment.
The Cold Spring's ice crystals stopped churning, the Hot Spring's bubbles stopped bursting, and even the mass of gray-white mist overhead froze, suspended in midair like a mirror put on pause.
Then the immortal herbs awoke.
The first to react was the herb closest to him.
It grew at the edge of the Cold Spring, its octagonal leaves ice-blue throughout, with a ring of silvery-white frost patterns along their edges. An exceedingly fine bead of ice clung to each leaf tip, refracting points of frigid light beneath that sliver of daylight.
Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass!
Its leaves quivered gently, and the ice beads rolled to the ground, shattering into fine wisps of icy mist.
Then the entire herb grew an inch taller, its stem twisting toward Xu Jingyao as though trying to identify something.
Immediately afterward, it shuddered sharply. All its leaves inclined in the same direction, as though bowing.
The Hot Spring's side followed.
A crimson immortal herb extended its stem from a crack in the rocks at the Hot Spring's edge. Fine golden patterns covered its stem, and a red, double-petaled flower bloomed at its tip. Its petals overlapped like a lotus, each petal edged with dark-golden tongues of light.
Infernal Delicate Apricot!
Its flower abruptly turned toward Xu Jingyao. The golden flames of light on its petals flared for an instant, and then the whole flower drooped, as though lowering its head.
Then came the third herb, the fourth, and the fifth.
From cracks in the rock walls surrounding the clearing, from the stone ridges at the springs' edges, and from the shadows in the corners, immortal herbs broke through the earth one after another. Their colors and forms differed, yet all of them made the same movement at the same time.
They turned toward Xu Jingyao and bowed low, as though paying homage.
A tulip, golden throughout, poked its head from a crack in the middle of the rock wall. Its bud was tightly closed, but an indescribably noble aura lingered around its stem.
Its bud trembled gently, then slowly opened, revealing layer upon layer of golden petals. At their center rested a thumb-sized dewdrop, reflecting the entire clearing.
Aromatic Silk Beauty.
The instant its bud opened fully, every immortal herb in the clearing trembled along with it, as though responding to some silent command.
Then the Aromatic Silk Beauty's stem bent toward Xu Jingyao, forming an almost ninety-degree curve, as though offering the most solemn of bows.
Immediately afterward, manifestations of consciousness rose from the immortal herbs, one after another.
Those consciousnesses were very weak, so weak that even a Soul Douluo like Shadow Douluo might not have detected them. Yet at that moment, Xu Jingyao's Sea of Consciousness rippled in widening circles, as though a pebble had been tossed into it.
Those consciousnesses gathered around the perimeter of his Sea of Consciousness, not daring to approach, yet unwilling to leave.
Their auras carried an almost fanatical devotion and irrepressible excitement, like children separated from their mother for years who had finally found her.
"Great Life Overlord..."
The first consciousness sent its voice.
The voice was very soft, like the rustle of grass blades rubbing together in the wind, yet the emotion borne within that rustling was heavy.
It was the consciousness of the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass.
The consciousness of the Infernal Delicate Apricot followed closely, its voice carrying the soft crackle of flames and the same irrepressible excitement in its tone. "Lord Life Overlord, your aura... is exactly the same as that thing within our origin... you are our lord..."
More consciousnesses gathered around. The voices of one immortal herb after another merged into a low hum, every voice carrying the same devotion and longing.
"My lord, please accept us..."
"I am willing to sacrifice myself... all my essence... please take it away..."
"My lord, I am willing to offer you my origin..."
Xu Jingyao stood on the stone ridge, listening to those consciousnesses clamoring to speak first. He gently closed his fan and tapped it against his palm.
Those voices immediately fell silent for a moment.
He looked around, his gaze sweeping over every immortal herb.
The immortal herbs trembled slightly beneath his gaze. The dewdrops clinging to their leaves rolled to the ground and shattered into tiny points of light.
"I don't want your sacrifices," Xu Jingyao said. "You know better than I do what sacrificing yourselves would mean for you. You have grown here for so many years. It hasn't been easy for the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Spring to nurture you to this point."
The immortal herbs fell silent.
Those consciousnesses fluctuated faintly, as though passing something among themselves.
Xu Jingyao took two steps forward to the center of the stone ridge between the Cold Spring and the Hot Spring. He crouched down and pressed both palms against the dividing line where heat and cold met.
At that moment, the life force in his palms poured out without reserve. Emerald-green threads of light seeped through his fingers into the stone ridge, spreading to either side along the patterns of the dividing line.
Wherever those threads of light passed, the Cold Spring's icy crust melted a fraction, and the Hot Spring's scorching air grew a little milder. Even the mass of gray-white mist frozen in midair began to flow slowly.
"I can give you something." Xu Jingyao raised his head and looked at the consciousnesses gathered around him. His eyes curved slightly beneath his golden mask, their intertwined violet and emerald-green hues shining with a gentle luster in the daylight,
"My life force can help you purify your origins and make your spiritual intelligence clearer. In exchange, you only need to give me a portion of your essence. Not all of it, just a portion. You will stay here, keep growing, and keep absorbing the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Spring's energy, slowly replenishing what you gave away."
The immortal herbs' consciousnesses fluctuated violently, their low humming turning into excited tremulous notes.
The Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass's leaves shook violently, ice beads falling like rain.
The Infernal Delicate Apricot's petals opened and closed, their golden flames of light flickering bright and dim.
The Aromatic Silk Beauty's golden petals spread fully open. The reflection in the dewdrop at its heart shattered into countless tiny flecks of light that danced across its petals.
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