Yue Shi remained unaffected; the poisonous fragrance in the air couldn't get near him.
He stepped into the kitchen like a farmer harvesting fruit. With both hands transformed into talons, he worked them in quick succession, grabbing the stems of those human-faced flowers and tearing them out brutally.
The sounds of snapping and breaking were constant.
The human-faced flowers in the kitchen were easily uprooted by him, even causing the dried corpses tangled below to shake along with them.
The expressions on the human-faced flowers he gripped were replaced by pain and fear. They wailed and struggled in vain until they rapidly shriveled and decayed.
The remaining human-faced flowers let out sharp screeches. Sensing the threat, they trembled violently under Yue Shi's gaze and then actively shriveled and withered at an extremely fast speed.
The flamboyant petals quickly lost their luster and color. A few of them didn't forget to hurl curses at Yue Shi before they completely perished.
In just a few breaths, all the human-faced flowers had withered away, losing all vitality.
With the death of these human-faced flowers, what they had been concealing below was completely exposed—
A small mountain of corpses, formed from dozens of dried bodies piled together.
Every single corpse had been drained of its flesh and blood, their skin clinging tightly to their bones, frozen in twisted, agonizing poses of death.
Some even had their mouths stretched to the limit, with vines burrowing out of their eyes, ears, mouths, and noses.
Just as Yue Shi was about to step forward to investigate, the mountain of corpses suddenly twitched.
Something was burrowing around beneath the pile.
Puff, puff, puff—!
Vines as thick as an adult man's arm burst out.
It seemed the human-faced flowers that had actively withered earlier had been absorbed by the main body. These newly emerged vines were significantly sturdier and more powerful than the previous ones, constantly spreading in all directions.
Countless such vines crawled over every inch of the kitchen's space.
With a loud crash...
The pile of corpses was flung aside by a force from below. A tall, thick, giant demon flower rose into the air, standing majestically amidst the countless vines.
In the center of this giant flower, a massive human face was also embedded.
And this was a face Yue Shi had just seen at noon—it was Chen Biao.
The face belonging to Chen Biao was contorted in the center of the flower, his eyes filled with madness and chaos. The gaze he directed at Yue Shi was extremely strange, containing fear and resentment, but also fanatical greed.
Directly beneath this giant human-faced flower, the body of the thin youth was tightly entwined by countless thick vines. That shriveled face was identical to the giant face in the center of the flower; both were Chen Biao.
However, the face in the center of the flower was not introverted and reserved like the original Chen Biao. He suddenly burst into loud laughter, the sound vibrating until the windows hummed.
"Why am I not a transcendent? Why am I so weak! Hahaha... Now I have power too! I can protect everyone..."
As it spoke, the human-faced flower suddenly leaned forward, and the giant face in its center opened its bloody maw toward Yue Shi.
Whoosh—!
A thick cloud of yellow pollen sprayed out, instantly submerging Yue Shi completely.
The human-faced flower stared at the area shrouded in pollen, a cruel expression appearing on its face.
However, all harmful substances were isolated by Yue Shi, unable to get close to him at all.
He didn't even blink, calmly watching the human-faced flower. His fingers curled slightly; he only wanted to harvest it as quickly as possible and extract its source.
Realizing the pollen had caused zero damage and that its trump card had failed to harm Yue Shi in the slightest, the human-faced flower's expression froze, replaced by a look of shock and uncertainty.
Yue Shi slowly raised his hand. His fingertips were sharp and pointed, the dark luster of the decaying curse silently flowing over them.
At this sight, the human-faced flower's petals contracted sharply, and its thick stem began to tremble. On that giant face, fear overwhelmed all other emotions, and its features became distorted, appearing horrific and hideous.
The thick vines that had been faintly surrounding Yue Shi also seemed to have encountered their natural nemesis. They retracted at top speed, all gathering at the base of the human-faced flower.
Yue Shi took a step forward.
The human-faced flower's body shuddered, and it involuntarily squirmed backward, trying to open up some distance.
Fear submerged it, but that fear gradually turned into rage, followed by a burst of desperate, ruthless killing intent.
"Where is Bai Wanyang?" Yue Shi suddenly asked.
The name was like a fine needle, accurately piercing the human-faced flower's heart. It froze instantly, a brief look of confusion appearing on its face, followed by an expression of extreme agony.
It seemed as though it was caught in a fierce internal struggle between two different wills. Its voice became disorganized, sometimes manic, sometimes repeating low whispers:
"Why didn't I become a transcendent... Old Bai, I have power now..."
Taking advantage of the flower's confused state of mind, Yue Shi stepped forward and easily grabbed the thickest vine closest to the flower.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle...
The decay was spreading.
Simultaneously, a more eerie and secretive suction erupted from Yue Shi's palm.
It wasn't a physical pull or suction, but an occult absorption. It made no sound yet was very real; a certain 'power' within the human-faced flower was constantly surging toward Yue Shi.
Sensing that its core essence was being drained, the human-faced flower stopped whispering and began to struggle violently.
All the vines spreading from beneath it lashed out and thrashed around indiscriminately.
The kitchen counters, pots, pans, and the tables and chairs outside all shattered into fragments under the immense force of the vines.
Yue Shi remained motionless. The human-faced flower let out a terrified scream, its body constantly trying to retreat.
The vine gripped by Yue Shi was pulled taut. The human-faced flower's terrified screams gradually transitioned into mournful sobbing, before finally turning into an unwilling, venomous roar, still repeating that sentence: "Why am I not a transcendent..."
Amidst the constant roars, a corner of the corpse pile beneath the human-faced flower was suddenly pushed open from the inside.
A figure slowly crawled out from within.
It was Bai Wanyang.
His complexion was very poor, and he was covered in filth, but he had no obvious injuries.
Lifting his head to look at the demon flower that shared his friend's face, Bai Wanyang's expression was complex to the extreme—filled with sadness, pain, and anger, but notably lacking in resentment.
When 'Chen Biao' saw Bai Wanyang appear, all of its struggling ceased in an instant. It seemed to lose its will to resist; the roars and venom disappeared, replaced by mournful weeping, though it could no longer shed tears.
The crying lasted only a few seconds before falling completely silent.
The giant human-faced flower, no longer resisting, withered at a speed visible to the naked eye, losing its life force.
Perhaps because Yue Shi had drained its source, 'Chen Biao' regained a trace of humanity before completely perishing. He looked at Bai Wanyang and used all his strength to say hoarsely:
"I'm sorry."
"What's the point... of saying that now?" Bai Wanyang's voice choked, his eyes brimming with tears.
'Chen Biao' didn't say anything more; there really was no point.
His gaze finally turned toward Yue Shi, and he whispered a warning: "The supernatural creatures of the Mysterious Garden are very interested in you..."
Before he could finish, the human-faced flower completely withered, collapsing powerlessly to the ground into a pile of lifeless, withered vines and dead leaves.
Yue Shi's skill progress bar rose by a small notch.
Rate on N.U.
