Xie Zhaolin had already sent her divine sense into the stone chamber ahead of time.
The chamber wasn't large, only about ten zhang across. It was completely empty, aside from a few rotting wooden shelf fragments and shattered clay jars piled in the corners. Dust and cobwebs covered everything, clearly abandoned for ages.
A heavy stench of mold filled the air, but beneath that, there was a faint trace of something else, a strange metallic sweetness mixed into the rot. The scent was so weak that anyone without extraordinary senses would've missed it.
"Looks like… there's nothing special?" Jiu Jiu poked her head in, sounding disappointed. "It's just an abandoned storage room. We came all this way for nothing."
She was about to turn around when Xie Zhaolin's sharp gaze swept across the floor. Her divine sense picked up something odd. The dust wasn't evenly spread. Near the inner wall, there were faint dragging marks, so fine they were almost completely hidden under the dust.
And that strange sweet odor seemed to be leaking from that exact spot. She stepped lightly into the chamber, her movements so controlled that not a speck of dust stirred. The Liuyun Ribbon slid silently into her hand, ready for anything.
Jiu Jiu stopped and glanced back, curiosity flashing in her eyes. "Benefactor, did you find something?"
Xie Zhaolin didn't answer. She walked straight to the corner, gathered a thread of spiritual power at her fingertip, and brushed away the thick dust.
What appeared beneath wasn't a flat floor at all but a massive stone slab with fine seams around the edges. Those faint drag marks stretched right out from the slab's edge. The color was nearly identical to the surrounding ground. If she hadn't looked closely, she never would've spotted it. And the strange metallic sweetness, now stronger, was seeping up through the cracks.
"There's a hidden compartment?" Jiu Jiu hurried over, her eyes lighting up with surprise and excitement. "Something this well hidden, there's gotta be treasure inside!"
Xie Zhaolin didn't act rashly. She scanned the slab and surrounding ground again, making sure there were no obvious restrictive fluctuations. Only then did she motion for Jiu Jiu to step back.
Gathering more force at her fingertips, she jammed it into the stone seam and heaved.
Creak—
The slab groaned as it lifted, revealing a narrow, pitch-black hole just wide enough for a person to squeeze through. Immediately, a far stronger wave of that sweet, metallic stench gushed out. From the depths of the darkness came a faint, unsettling rustling sound, as though something had been disturbed.
Jiu Jiu's face tightened. She instinctively leapt back a few steps, clutching a talisman sparking faintly with lightning. Her eyes locked on the hole, wary.
Xie Zhaolin also stiffened, baleful qi rising in her chest as the Liuyun Ribbon floated protectively in front of her. She leaned forward, peering into the darkness.
Beneath the opening was a small chamber, dimly lit. Thanks to her sharpened vision, she barely made out the scene within.
The chamber was empty, except for a single bizarre plant growing in the center. It stood half as tall as a person, its entire body dark purple. It had no leaves, only a twisted trunk with a few crooked branches. Viscous slime coated its surface, pulsing as if alive.
At its crown, a blood-red flower, half-bloomed and half-shut, exuded that sweet metallic stench. Wisps of faint pink mist swirled around it. At its roots lay the half-buried bones of beasts, not yet fully rotted, shriveled as if every last drop of essence had been sucked out.
"That's… a Corrupt Marrow Demon Flower?!" Jiu Jiu gasped, her voice filled with disbelief. "How could this thing be here?! It should only grow in…"
She abruptly cut herself off, her eyes flickering wildly as if she'd realized something terrifying. She whipped her head toward Xie Zhaolin.
Almost at the same instant—
The flower atop the twisted stalk suddenly burst fully open!
Whoosh!
A dense, sticky spray of pink pollen shot straight toward Xie Zhaolin, so fast it blurred. The stench instantly thickened, the hall filling with a cloying sweetness that clawed straight at her Primordial Soul. Her head spun, hallucinations clawing at her divine sense.
Xie Zhaolin had been ready. The instant the pollen erupted, she leapt back. The Liuyun Ribbon lashed out, forming a barrier in front of her.
Hiss hiss hiss!
The pollen sizzled on contact, corroding the ribbon's glow until the light dimmed visibly. Even through the barrier, a wave of intense hallucination and paralysis slammed into her sea of consciousness, stabbing at her divine sense. She skidded back several zhang before steadying herself, her face pale. The sting in her sea of consciousness told her how dangerous that pollen really was.
Hallucination, paralysis, corrosion of spiritual power—this was far deadlier than the hallucinatory demon flower field she'd encountered on the outskirts of the Endless Beast Plains.
This one's power was on an entirely different level.
When the first blast missed, the flower's blood-red petals trembled. At its core, pink light condensed furiously, preparing a second strike. The narrow hole left no space to dodge. Another direct hit would overwhelm even the Liuyun Ribbon.
She couldn't just defend.
Xie Zhaolin's eyes went cold as she made her choice. With a thought, the soul of the Dian Diao burst from her beast pouch in a streak of lightning.
"Zhi!"
The weasel screeched, its innate blink ability activating.
Flash!
Her figure vanished from the hole's mouth, reappearing a breath later perched on a rocky outcrop to the side, safely out of the flower's range. Almost simultaneously—
Whoosh!
Another massive cloud of pollen blasted out, drenching the spot she'd just left.
The ground and walls where it struck corroded instantly, hissing and smoking until they turned into pitted, blackened rubble.
If she'd been even a second slower, she'd have been swallowed whole.
Jiu Jiu had already retreated to the chamber's entrance, lightning talisman at the ready, her expression grim.
The two were about to strike together when the plant changed again.
The Corrupt Marrow Demon Flower twisted violently. Its purple trunk swelled, and countless dark red roots exploded from the soil. But instead of digging deeper, they surged outward, stabbing through the chamber walls and ceiling.
The underground chamber shook, stones raining down as the roots burst into the hall above.
They spread like wildfire, latching onto walls, floor, even the dome overhead. In moments, they were racing outward into the abandoned side hall, and beyond, toward the main hall itself. Everywhere they touched, stone cracked and crumbled beneath their advance.
Jiu Jiu's face went pale. "Shit! It's activating the entire hall, trying to trap us inside!"
Xie Zhaolin's pupils narrowed.
This demon flower was far worse than she'd expected. Not only could it launch deadly spiritual attacks, it could even change the environment itself, turning the whole Silent Hall into its hunting ground. If its roots spread unchecked, escaping would be nearly impossible.