Tang Yao flew to the very center of Free and Unfettered Valley. A gentle spring breeze brushed her hair, and directly above the valley, five Fusang Flowers in full bloom shone with faint halos of divinity.
They stood proud, with an immortal grace.
As though bearing countless years upon them, they were as beautiful as a painting.
These were the Fusang Flowers the world sang praises of.
Beneath their radiant exterior, their very core had long since changed!
She could roughly imagine how the people of Free and Unfettered Valley had once kept their benevolent hearts unchanged, their healing arts knowing no bounds...
But what about now?
"Stop! What are you planning to do to the divine flowers?!"
The valley master rushed over and glared viciously at Tang Yao in midair.
Tang Yao smiled at him with a trace of pity. They were pitiful, bodies infested by a parasite.
The true culprit was probably that "Medicine God."
Faced with her sudden smile, the valley master knitted his brows, not understanding what she meant.
Tang Yao gripped the Crimson Flame Sword tightly. Its blade reflected myriad golden rays in the sunlight, and its tip pointed-
Straight at the Fusang Flowers.
The enormous flowers seemed to sense something all at once and began trembling violently. Their once-pristine petals faded at a speed visible to the naked eye, and countless purple-black veins bulged at their bases.
It was as though thousands upon thousands of venomous snakes had burrowed beneath their skin, a sight that made one frown.
Seeing the divine flowers change, everyone erupted in fury.
"Stop! What have you done?"
The valley master immediately summoned his life-bound Law Treasure, the Medicine King Gourd. It spun and grew a hundredfold. "These are Fusang Divine Flowers! How dare you-"
A piercing cry from Vermilion Bird cut him off, tearing through the sky as his tail feathers swept across the enormous gourd.
In an instant, the clash of fire and treasure rang through the clouds.
With Vermilion Bird keeping him occupied, Tang Yao remained uninterrupted by the valley master. She gripped her sword hilt tightly as a scarlet bird totem emerged on the blade. Standing in the air, she had red lotuses of Li Fire blooming beneath her feet.
Working with the innate sword bone for the first time, the Crimson Flame Sword seemed exceptionally excited.
Tang Yao held the sword in both hands and raised it above her head.
Then she swung!
Flames took the shape of a scarlet bird, and Sword Qi arced like a rainbow.
A sword shadow cleaved through the flowers.
As the sword shadow fell, countless petals abruptly withered and dropped, scattering on the wind.
The disturbance successfully drew out a soul form.
The soul form floated in midair. His eyes met Tang Yao's, a strangely alluring smile on his face.
Everyone stopped moving for a moment and looked excitedly at the soul form. They all knelt and cried out.
"Medicine God! Please save us!"
"This wretch destroyed the Fusang Flowers! She destroyed the foundation of our lives!"
The soul form floated in midair, his mouth stretching into the widest possible grin.
"Don't worry. I'm coming..."
"To save you."
As his words fell, three-quarters of the valley's people began acting abnormally. An eerie red light shone in their eyes, and their movements twisted.
Watching it all, Tang Yao frowned. "It really was you!"
The soul form stared at Tang Yao with sinister eyes, like a venomous snake.
"The Devil Sword is with you."
"You were the one who fought me for it..."
After encountering its old acquaintance, the Devil Sword in her Divine Sense kept demanding to come out. Tang Yao helplessly raised her other hand, and the Devil Sword appeared in her palm.
The Devil Sword protested, "Old man! With you, I went hungry three meals a day. Whatever little Devil Qi there was, you sucked it all up! Get lost! Stop bothering me!"
It had had enough of living on nothing but "table scraps"!
The soul form: "..."
Tang Yao noticed that as the Fusang Flowers lost all their petals, their cores could no longer maintain their outward vitality. At the same time, the soul form was growing weaker and weaker.
Clearly, he had spent a great deal of energy demonizing the divine flowers, intending to use them as nourishment. Unfortunately for him, she had interrupted him, preventing his success.
As the saying went, take your life while you're sick.
Tang Yao wasted no more words. In the flash of a spark, she leaped before the soul form and swiftly drove the Crimson Flame Sword into its chest!
Li Fire burned at his wound, capable of incinerating all evil.
The soul form clearly had not expected Tang Yao to act so quickly!
A trace of suppressed pain crossed his face, and he thrust a palm through the air toward Tang Yao's chest.
Feeling Devil Qi churning through all her internal organs, Tang Yao had a trickle of blood spill from the corner of her mouth...
The soul form snarled sinisterly, "That's a mark."
"Just you wait!"
Vermilion Bird was blocking the demonized valley people. They were like puppets, devoid of consciousness.
Sensing Tang Yao's injury, Vermilion Bird shot like an arrow loosed from its bow, arriving at her side with lightning speed.
When the soul form saw Vermilion Bird arrive, he narrowed his eyes and sized him up.
He was too weak now to withstand Vermilion Bird's wrath...
He immediately turned into a black shadow. As he left-
He looked at Tang Yao with a strangely alluring smile, like a venomous snake crawling through a swamp, carrying a bone-chilling damp cold.
His lips seemed to say.
I'll remember you.
Vermilion Bird glared furiously back.
After the soul form fled, the valley people still did not return to normal. Looking around, only the Zhongli siblings were normal; everyone else had become a puppet completely.
Zhongli Si was scared witless. She and Zhongli Yun had been separated, and without Vermilion Bird holding them back, the puppets attacked wildly. A clan elder stretched out an arm like steel and smashed it toward her!
Just then, a figure rushed out and shoved her away.
Zhongli Si's pupils contracted sharply. "A-Yu..."
"A-Yu!!"
Blood poured from the corner of A-Yu's mouth, staining her chin red.
Just as the puppet tried to attack again.
A sword of fire suddenly pierced its chest!
Then plunged three inches into the ground!
The puppet instantly collapsed.
The dancing firelight and her friend's pained face were reflected in Zhongli Si's eyes.
Tang Yao leaped in front of Zhongli Yun, grabbed him, and lifted him up before setting him down beside Zhongli Si. Looking down at him, she said, "Quick, take your sister and leave!"
Seeing Zhongli Si still staring blankly at A-Yu.
Tang Yao said helplessly, "Her chest was pierced through. There's nothing we can do..."
Zhongli Yun knelt on one knee. He suddenly raised his head, clutching the soil hard. "Please, kill them..."
"Kill them all..."
As he said this, he held back his tears. He remembered his father's tireless teachings, his aunt's kindness, that trace of tenderness beneath his uncle's sternness...
In the end, tears blurred his vision.
That elder who had once possessed a healer's benevolent heart had become like this. Surely he would not have wanted it either...
Surely he could not accept it!
His father... was the Medicine King who had made his name through compassion!
"Please, kill him..."
"Kill him!!"
Tang Yao tightened her grip on her sword hilt and nodded. "Go, quickly. Leave this to me."
Supporting the distraught Zhongli Si, Zhongli Yun left the place where they had grown up, one step at a time. With his head lowered, he murmured weakly, "Thank you, thank you..."
Tang Yao watched the siblings' retreating backs and sighed.
She raised the Crimson Flame Sword and slashed at the dozens of puppets on the ground. Enormous flames spread across the sky.
Every puppet that touched the Li Fire let out a miserable scream!
Half an incense stick later.
Panting, Tang Yao looked at the puppets strewn about. If that voice had not magnified her strength tenfold, she really might not have been able to defeat them...
She then flew toward the divine flowers and pressed her fingers against a withered core. Li Fire flowed along its channels as she prepared to cut the weeds out by the roots.
But from within the withered stamens, a pulsing emerald ball of light floated into the air.
Pristine and sacred.
It gently lifted Tang Yao's body. Countless emerald-green firefly lights drifted out, transforming into the sacred phantom of a white-robed goddess.
"Child, thank you."
That voice-it was her!
It was the voice that had kept ringing in her mind.
"I was the one who brought you here. Thank you for helping me escape the sea of suffering... and break free of reincarnation..."
The gentle female voice echoed throughout the valley.
Then the goddess's phantom began to dissipate. Those firefly lights dimmed, transforming into fragments of memory.
A healer in moon-white robes knelt before a tiny flower and swore a resolute oath. A child gazed with gratitude at a divine flower ten times his size. A youth's burning blood watered stamens that had long since changed beyond recognition...
A spatial vortex suddenly tore open in the sky, sucking in both Tang Yao and Xiao Linyu, who had been hiding in a corner.
A breeze blew past, and the goddess was no more.
In the vast center of the valley, not a trace of life remained...
Thus, within this closed loop, the Fusang Secret Realm three thousand years in the future was severed.
This was the Fusang Flower Spirit's salvation of herself, and also her release.
After a dizzying whirl, Tang Yao and Xiao Linyu returned once more to the Fusang Secret Realm-
Unlike before, the place was now deserted, empty all around. The bloodthirsty Fusang Flower had vanished as well, and sunlight spilled across the lake's shimmering surface.