Xu Bai's words gave Liu San quite a startle.
Yet he soon realized that the suicide Xu Bai spoke of referred to this avatar.
"Why must Young Master go to such lengths? With Old Fang and me here, along with the Medicine King Cauldron, even if we are outmatched, escaping wouldn't be difficult." Liu San looked at Xu Bai, somewhat perplexed.
Xu Bai did not elaborate: "It is merely a precaution."
Seeing this, Liu San pressed no further. Instead, he cautioned, "If it is for the sake of convenience in ending your life, Young Master can wrap the Soul-Melting Body-Dissolving Pill in spiritual energy and swallow it into your dantian. At the critical moment, simply dissolve the pill, and its medicinal potency will spread throughout your entire body in the span of a single thought. During this process, you must also take care to..."
After listening to Liu San's detailed instructions, Xu Bai calmly swallowed the lethal poison pill into his abdomen.
Feeling the presence in his dantian that could claim his life at any moment, Xu Bai felt much more at ease.
"Coupled with the method from Wondrous Profound True Spirit Transformation that can discard an avatar's life at any time, with this double insurance, it shouldn't come to a point where I am unable even to die."
After all, the avatar needed to journey to the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals headquarters to behold the Yanfa Jade, and there was no telling what level of powerhouse he might encounter there.
Moreover, Xu Bai possessed an unusual appearance and temperament...
Taking every conceivable precaution was only natural.
"Next, it depends on Daoist Jiao's performance."
Standing in the void of the Beast Seed Realm, Xu Bai's gaze seemed to pierce through layers of space and time, looking upon the scene within Tianling Province.
-----
"Damn it, the last time our Tianling Province was this lively was..."
Inside Tianling City, a guard cultivator dispatched by the Tianling City Castellan to maintain order cursed under his breath as he stared at the dense sea of cultivators filling the city.
Yet the words suddenly caught in his throat.
As if he had forgotten something of immense importance, he stood dazed for a long moment. "When was the last time our Tianling Province had this many people again?" he asked in bewilderment.
"During the Great War of Tianling Province," a lean, stern-faced cultivator beside him said coldly.
The lost memories resurfaced in his mind. Recalling events that felt as though they had occurred centuries ago, the guard felt as if a lifetime had passed, his expression turning dazed. "Right... Before the Great War of Tianling Province, just as many people poured into the city."
"Old Sun, you have quite a memory. I'd almost forgotten all about it..."
Sun Qi paid no heed to his colleague's muttering. Instead, he checked the Huajian Invitation tucked inside his robes once more, a flicker of fervor gleaming in his eyes.
The Huajian Invitation was the invitation card for the upcoming Flower Appreciation Assembly.
Because the sheer number of cultivators drawn here by fame was overwhelming, even the colossal space previously opened up by the Tianling City Castellan proved insufficient.
To prevent any chaos, all cultivators wishing to enter and gaze upon the true form of the True Tianling Flower had to queue and enter on a first-come, first-served basis.
Having traveled from afar, the cultivators naturally did not care much about the admission fee of one hundred contribution points and were more than willing to pay it.
The real issue was time.
Cultivators waiting in line had already packed Tianling City to the brim. In an unprecedented move, even the teleportation formations leading from the outside world into Tianling City were temporarily shut down.
Ordinary cultivators had no idea how long they would have to wait just to catch a glimpse of the True Tianling Flower.
Furthermore, no one had specified how long the Flower Appreciation Assembly would last.
The True Tianling Flower had merely been left on consignment at Thousand Li Hall by its owner, who might retrieve it at any moment. If they missed this chance, it might never come again.
Naturally, the sooner one saw the True Tianling Flower, the better.
This Huajian Invitation was precisely the credential that granted early entry without having to wait in line.
Rumor had it that prices had been driven up to ten thousand contribution points apiece, and with limited quantities available, one could not buy one simply by wishing to.
The reason Sun Qi held one in his hands was that his uncle had gifted it to him.
Sun Qi's uncle, Sun Liancheng, was the newly appointed Castellan of Tianling City.
A Dao Integration cultivator garrisoning the domain of Tianling.
"This Tianling Flower indeed has something to it. It seems somewhat different from the ones seen in the past. You can go take a look; perhaps you might successfully achieve a breakthrough."
Sun Liancheng's tone had been rather lukewarm, evidently holding little hope.
For no other reason than that Sun Qi had been trapped at the Golden Core realm by the Heavenly Calamity for far too long.
He had tried every possible method. Sun Qi had even risked his life, fighting desperately on the Tianling battlefield in a bid to break through the bottleneck using the great terror between life and death, but all had ended in failure.
Aside from Sun Qi himself, everyone else in the clan had already given up.
"Tianling Flower..." The image from his memories surfaced in Sun Qi's mind.
As a native cultivator born and raised in Tianling Province, he was naturally no stranger to it.
Before the war, whenever the mood struck him, he would occasionally buy a few pots and bring them home to admire.
Only, after the war, the Tianling Flower became tainted with the stench of blood.
Every time he saw one, it reminded him of the purgatorial scenes from the Great War of Tianling Province. Thus, he had never bought another since.
"To think that a primordial Tianling Flower still exists in this world." Sun Qi could not help but space out for a moment.
Once a colleague arrived and finished the shift handover, Sun Qi hurried home, changed his clothes, and headed straight for the Huajian Grotto-Heaven.
The Huajian Grotto-Heaven was the venue prepared by Tianling City for this Flower Appreciation Assembly, jointly opened by Sun Qi's uncle Sun Liancheng and a cultivator named Zhao Chong.
This Zhao Chong was renowned for his obsession with flowers.
Upon hearing that the Flower Appreciation Assembly would be held in Tianling Province, he asked someone to contact Sun Liancheng, offering his labor free of charge to open up the venue, purely for the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the True Tianling Flower's beauty.
Although Zhao Chong was merely a Soul Formation cultivator, he had an extensive network of friends and relatives spread far and wide, intertwined with several venerable Dao Integration cultivators within the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Sun Liancheng found it difficult to refuse, so he could only agree.
The entrance to the grotto-heaven was situated right upon the Dharma Transmission Plaza in the city. Jiao Xiuyuan, his face dark-complexioned, had set up a table and was blocking the entrance with a beaming smile.
Only after presenting his Huajian Invitation to him was Sun Qi permitted to enter the Huajian Grotto-Heaven.
Before his eyes could register the surroundings, an intoxicating floral fragrance wafted into his nostrils.
Across an open space paved with hundreds of flowers, quite a few cultivators were already seated on chairs woven from green vines.
Sun Qi, who had always been rather aloof and solitary, scanned the area and recognized no one. He went straight to the seat corresponding to his invitation, sat down, and waited patiently.
After an unknown stretch of time, a sudden clamor arose within the grotto-heaven.
The first batch of lucky cultivators had begun trickling inside.
Once all the cultivators had entered, Jiao Xiuyuan abruptly appeared on the elevated stage ahead, which had been assembled from an array of gorgeous blooms.
The red wooden box in his hands immediately drew the gazes of every cultivator present.
"Fellow Daoists, the Flower Appreciation Assembly officially begins!"
Without unnecessary pleasantries, following that brief opening statement, Jiao Xiuyuan made his announcement.
Chapter 704