Resolving the Contract's Hidden Danger

"A cultivation method of middle heaven rank, and it's only a fragment?"

Before the stone doors of the ancient cultivator's ruins, Feng Zhuo muttered to himself.

The Spirit Taming Instruction: Plant Taming Chapter was a middle heaven-rank cultivation method. Its opening line read: "With Essence Blood as the guide and spiritual awareness as the bridge, forge a shared life wheel..."

Sharing one's life with a Spirit Plant was the Spirit Taming Sect's supreme Secret Method that Nangong Tang had mentioned before entering the ruins-the Symbiotic Contract!

Feng Zhuo was shaken. As expected of one of the seven great sects of High Antiquity, they had actually devised such a contract!

He wanted to read on, but found the rest of the cultivation method blank. It recorded only the method and Mnemonic for forging a Symbiotic Contract with a Spirit Plant.

Anyone else would have had to consider what kind of Spirit Plant to share a life wheel with, but Feng Zhuo had no such need.

He and Nangong Tang had come to the abode in the first place to resolve the problem of his contract with the Nine Nether Soul-Devouring Vine.

The Symbiotic Contract method he had obtained was enough to put out the fire on Feng Zhuo's doorstep. How to cultivate the method afterward using his Life-Bound Spirit Plant was a secondary concern.

Steeling himself, Feng Zhuo called out, "Yanba!"

At the same time, he threw out a defensive formation disk to guard against enemies.

The instant the Heart-Scorching Flame withdrew from his meridians, a web of cracks burst open across his flesh.

As soon as the Everlasting Spring Scripture stopped circulating, the rampaging Soul-Devouring Vine tore off Feng Zhuo's left arm and spread through the rest of his body.

This was why Feng Zhuo still had to suppress the Soul-Devouring Vine at all times, even after surviving the contract's backlash.

Although they had forged a Life-Bound Contract, the vicious plant, which had no intelligence and killed on instinct, was still attacking its host.

Feng Zhuo needed to draw the Soul-Devouring Vine into his Dantian.

Under his guidance, the Soul-Devouring Vine advanced, its pitch-black tendrils piercing out of his chest before driving into his heart, carrying bone fragments with them.

His meridians were collapsing.

Every tendril that slithered through him felt like a hard object scraping against his bone marrow, while ghostly faces formed from blood and resentment gnawed at the meridians throughout his body.

Veins bulged on Feng Zhuo's neck, and dozens of lumps swelled and moved beneath his skin.

His right eye suddenly burst in a spray of blood. A vine tip stabbed out of the socket, curled around the eyeball, and withdrew back into Feng Zhuo's body.

When the young main plant of the Soul-Devouring Vine reached deep within him-

"Cough... now!"

Feng Zhuo clenched his teeth and forced his Qi sea open. The explosive agony from his Dantian nearly shattered his Divine Sense.

Three drops of heart's blood, streaked with golden lines, hovered in the center of his Dantian.

The ghostly face shrouding the Soul-Devouring Vine's main body abruptly bared its fangs. The vines rushed madly toward the three drops of blood, utterly unaware that each drop concealed nine prohibitions recorded in the Spirit-Taming Instruction.

The instant the vine tips pierced the drops of blood, the entire ghostly face froze.

The forbidden incantations in the blood turned into green chains that spread back along the venomous barbs, binding every vine in an instant.

The ghostly face let out a soundless shriek, trying to taint the chains with blood and resentment.

Feng Zhuo suddenly made Hand Seals and detonated the drops of blood.

Amid the bursting golden light, three threads of blood pierced the Soul-Devouring Vine's core and forcibly stitched themselves to the veins of its life wheel.

The Soul-Devouring Vine struggled on instinct, countless venomous barbs bursting from its body. Yet, restrained by the restrictions, it was forced to sink its roots into Feng Zhuo's Dantian.

The agony of the roots taking hold sent Feng Zhuo's entire body into convulsions.

He fell to his knees, his hands still held in a seal as he let his bones pierce through his robe.

Each venomous barb that penetrated his Dantian fused their life wheels an inch deeper, and made Feng Zhuo's suffering a measure worse.

When the last vine sank into his Dantian-

"Essence Blood seals the pact!"

Weblike cracks tore across the surface of his Dantian. Golden blood seeped along the cracks into the vine's veins, burning away all the blood and resentment in its path.

"You are my root, and I am your soul!"

As the final incantation fell, the ghostly face suddenly cracked down the middle.

One half turned to black mist and dissipated. The other branded itself onto the surface of Feng Zhuo's Dantian, forming an inky vine pattern.

The once-rampant Soul-Devouring Vine finally grew docile, and Feng Zhuo collapsed unconscious.

"Master!"

Yanba wanted to carry Feng Zhuo, whose exposed bones made a gruesome sight, but was afraid of worsening his injuries.

After struggling with himself for a while, he noticed Feng Zhuo's breathing gradually steadied, and the worry in his heart slowly faded.

Inside Feng Zhuo's body, the following was taking place.

The Soul-Devouring Vine wrapped itself around Feng Zhuo's entire Dantian as if depending on it. Unconsciously, it resonated with the Everlasting Spring Scripture, which was circulating on its own, and supplied it with wood Qi.

Wherever the stream of wood-attribute Spiritual Qi passed, severed meridians knitted back together, and flesh and bone regenerated.

At last, all the spiritual power flowed toward Feng Zhuo's pierced right eye, and a new, inky-black eyeball formed.

Thus, apart from the blood covering the ground and Feng Zhuo's red robe, which had been reduced to tatters, nothing showed what agony he had endured.

Once the healing was complete, the Soul-Devouring Vine rooted in his Dantian seemed tired as well, and the entire plant disappeared from sight.

"Master, you're finally awake!" Yanba roared from the bottom of his heart.

Feng Zhuo was the one with whom Yanba had forged a Life-Bound Contract. If Feng Zhuo died, Yanba's vitality would suffer a severe blow.

Of course, they had spent nearly a year together by now, and there was some affection between master and pet.

"Not dead yet."

The first thing Feng Zhuo did upon waking was change into a fine set of clothes, then clean up the blood covering the ground before him.

He then looked inside his Dantian and confirmed that the Nine Nether Soul-Devouring Vine had taken root completely. He could also faintly sense its unconscious thoughts in his sea of consciousness.

The first stage of the Symbiotic Contract was complete. The Soul-Devouring Vine would regard Feng Zhuo as its own body and would no longer pose any threat to him. Instead, it would become the sharpest weapon on his Dao Path.

As for the second stage, the jade talisman had already conveyed its contents.

Feng Zhuo needed to awaken the Soul-Devouring Vine's spiritual awareness before he could formally begin cultivating the method.

But vicious plants of High Antiquity were despised by the Heavenly Dao and could not develop intelligence.

Although the cultivation method recorded how to awaken a Life-Bound Spirit Plant's spiritual awareness, Feng Zhuo was uncertain.

So he was in no hurry to delve further into the Spirit-Taming Instruction.

"No one broke in while I was unconscious, right?"

After thinking it over, Feng Zhuo had decided that underground was the place where Su Ruanruan and her companions were least likely to find him, so he had not left.

Receiving an affirmative answer, Feng Zhuo took out the prayer mat he had obtained in the abode and prepared to have his Life-Bound Spirit Fire devour the wisp of Divergent Flame Yunxiaozi had given him.

When Feng Zhuo broke through to Foundation Establishment, the Nirvana Heaven-Burning Instruction had failed to break through to the second layer, but it had strangely granted his Life-Bound Spirit Fire an ability-it could temporarily separate a devoured Divergent Flame from itself and use it against enemies!

No cultivator of the Feng Household had ever possessed this ability, yet it had appeared in Feng Zhuo.

With none of his family's elders nearby, Feng Zhuo could only keep his doubts to himself and ask his mother or maternal grandfather when he had time to return home.

Of course, the rank of a separated Divergent Flame could not exceed that of Feng Zhuo's Life-Bound Spirit Fire, nor could it exceed the flame's own rank before it was devoured.

Take the Glazed Purifying Fire, for example.

His Life-Bound Spirit Fire was third-tier, so the Glazed Purifying Fire was also third-tier after being separated.

But if Feng Zhuo's Life-Bound Spirit Fire were fifth-tier, the Glazed Purifying Fire would still be only fourth-tier after separation, since it had been a fourth-tier Divergent Flame before being devoured.

And the wisp of Divergent Flame Yunxiaozi had given him?

It was called the Green Vine Heart Flame and ranked 198th on the Divergent Flame rankings. Its ranking was not high, but to Alchemists, it was a supreme treasure.

It was an exceptionally rare wood-attribute Divergent Flame.

Unlike the destructive nature of ordinary Divergent Flames, the Green Vine Heart Flame could speed up the healing of wounds and the growth of Spirit Plants.

It could even improve the quality of pills somewhat.

Of course, that did not mean it could not be used against enemies; it was merely weaker in attack.

Moreover, the Green Vine Heart Flame Yunxiaozi had given him was a third-tier Divergent Flame. However ill-suited it was to attacking, it could still break through the defenses of a human cultivator in the Golden Core Realm.

Feng Zhuo was preparing to face Chu Yunfei.

Inside the secret realm, Feng Zhuo had already reached Foundation Establishment Middle Stage. Even if Su Ruanruan gathered everyone to wait by the exit inside the realm, they could do nothing to him.

But Chu Yunfei, outside the secret realm, was no easy opponent.

If Feng Zhuo emerged safely from the secret realm, Su Ruanruan would surely turn to Chu Yunfei for help.

Chu Yunfei already bore a grudge against Feng Zhuo. Now that he had a legitimate reason, how could he not seize the chance to act?

Feng Zhuo was not afraid, however.

Before entering the secret realm, Feng Zhuo had agreed with his junior senior brother to seek revenge on Chu Yunfei. Now it would merely happen sooner.

Yanba had become a seventh-tier Demon Beast, while Feng Zhuo himself had reached Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, with spiritual power in his body comparable to that of an ordinary Peak Foundation Establishment cultivator.

With three wisps of third-tier Spirit Fire and a vicious plant from High Antiquity to help him, could he not exchange a few blows with Chu Yunfei?

If he truly proved no match, he had plenty of life-saving items from his parents and elders on him. Getting away in one piece would surely not be difficult.

To clear up any confusion in the next chapter: the Azure Wood Illusory Forest Secret Realm has a fixed exit. Cultivators inside the secret realm must also go to that spot to leave, and after exiting, they arrive at a fixed location as well.