A Will Eternal

There were no restrictions in place, and thus, no need to be cautious. This was the moonflower’s third chance to grow, and it held nothing back. In a short three days, it grew more than it had in a month back in the Cloud Order.

Most of the immortal's cave that Bai Xiaochun had created was now filled with moonflower branches. As for the main stalk of the flower itself, it was already over a dozen meters tall.

Were it not for the fact that Bai Xiaochun had started to feel cramped, and voiced his dissatisfaction by clearing his throat, the moonflower would have taken over the whole cave. However, after sensing his irritation, it had left an area aside for his use.

Eventually, the moonflower began to spread out on the icy plain, until it filled the entire 5-kilometer area….

Bai Xiaochun had grafted the ice leaf onto the flower from the very beginning.

Back in the Nine Heavens Cloud Lightning Sect, there had been too many people keeping a close eye on him. Coupled with the five-point covenant, he had been too nervous to do any cultivation. But now, he was making slow progress with his Undying Blood.

Since he finally had an opportunity to practice cultivation away from any prying eyes, he pulled out the two skeletons he had in his bag of holding…. These were the skeletons that he had taken from deck 2 of Ghostmother’s ship, the ones which were partially fused at the skull!

Back when he had first touched the skeletons, he had sensed a powerful life force within the skulls that caused his Undying Blood to surge.

Unfortunately, there had been no time to do anything with them. But now that he had a chance to study the gold and crystal skulls together up close, he began to reach certain conclusions.

“I’m working on my Undying Blood, which means that I’ve almost finished cultivating the Undying Codex…. Unfortunately, I never found any information about the Live Forever Codex. These skeletons are the only clue I've ever come across.” With that, he reached out and placed his hands onto the two skeletons.

The instant he did, a powerful life force rushed into him.

He shivered. This life force was very different from the type he had acquired through medicinal pills that were concocted from plants and vegetation. The life force from the skeletons was perfectly suited for his Undying Blood, and in fact, didn’t need to be refined at all. It immediately caused drop after drop of blood inside of him to be converted to Undying Blood.

It only took a few breaths’ worth of time for the first drop to form, and then another.

“So fast….” he murmured, eyes shining with excitement. Now that he was in the mid Deva Realm, his battle prowess had shot to a much higher level. And yet, it would only get stronger if he upgraded his Undying Blood.

An entire month went by in which he was completely focused on cultivation.

During that time, no one bothered him. He spent all of his time absorbing life force from the skeletons, and building up more and more Undying Blood….

Soon, he had converted twenty percent of his total blood supply into Undying Blood!

And it kept going!

There seemed to be no end to the supply of life force in the skeletons. To Bai Xiaochun, it felt just like when he had been cultivating the Sun-Moon Vast-Sky Incantation in Lightning Penitentiary.

“Don't tell me that these two skeletons will push my Undying Blood all the way to completion!?!?” The mere thought had him itching with excitement, and so focused was he on cultivation, that he didn’t even spare a moment to check on the moonflower.

During the past month of wild, unchecked growth, the moonflower plant had expanded in shocking fashion. It was now several dozen meters tall, and extremely conspicuous in its location on the plain.

In fact, there were many locations on the ice in which little moonflowers were now visible…. The plain itself seemed to be shrinking, with moonflower roots filling an area hundreds of kilometers across.

The moonflowers seemed to pulse with life, causing countless wild beasts that inhabited the plains to flee in terror.

As the plant grew, absorbing more and more frigid qi, it never forgot what Bai Xiaochun had asked it to do. It continued to send the frigid qi into the leaf, which grew more and more complete.

Another entire month went by, during which Bai Xiaochun remained just as focused on cultivation. Only by this point did the life force within the two skeletons show signs of drying up. After he finally absorbed it all, he opened his eyes.

He almost immediately noticed the differences within himself. Although he looked the same, he now had a shockingly abundant life force within him. He could also sense that his powers of regeneration had improved. He even pulled out a sword and cut himself as a test.

The wound immediately closed… and a moment later, no sign of the injury could be seen.

“The Undying Blood’s greatest power has to do with regeneration….” Gasping, he cast his senses inside to check his blood, and soon found that in his two months of absorbing the life force from the skeletons… forty percent of his blood had become Undying Blood!!

“So fast!!” Almost unable to believe that it was true, he did some more checking, and then finally began to laugh loudly.

The two skeletons were now much darker than before. “But, I might still be able to use them.”

He put them away, musing about what good fortune they had turned out to be.

He rose to his feet and shook out his arms and legs, then sent his divine sense out to check on the moonflower.

Almost instantly, his eyes went wide. The once icy plain was now covered with dark soil… and was more than half filled by moonflower roots!

Although it didn’t count for much when compared to the north as a whole, Bai Xiaochun was still shocked by how much it had grown.

The plain was now covered with moonflowers…. Furthermore, the sky was also filled with the flowers, which had grown together to make a larger form that looked like a crescent moon.

In the very middle of that crescent moon was a huge flower.

After staring in shock for a moment, he murmured, “Moonflower, baby, is that you…?”

There was a crystalline leaf on the huge flower which was particularly eye-catching. In response to Bai Xiaochun’s question, the flower shivered, sending the ice leaf floating down toward him.

Even as the leaf settled onto his palm, the moonflower’s mind reached out and spoke to him. Not with words, but with thoughts alone. It was both thankful, and said that it would miss him….

It couldn’t grow any further on this ice plain, and hoped that Bai Xiaochun would agree to let it move on to another ice plain to grow even more.

Considering how many little animals Bai Xiaochun had fed medicinal pills to in the past, it was no surprise to him that the flower had become intelligent to a certain degree.

After all, it was a very mysterious flower that came from beyond the heavens.

In terms of the flower’s request to go out on its own, Bai Xiaochun was initially hesitant, but in the end, agreed. However, he gave the flower strict instructions not to harm any people.

When the moonflower received his answer, it shivered in excitement. Then, Bai Xiaochun watched as the enormous flower shriveled up into a multitude of dandelion-like seeds that floated out of the plain and headed in random directions.

For some reason, the sight of the innumerable dandelion-like seeds filling the sky seemed very familiar, although he couldn’t quite remember when he had seen anything else like it….

It was almost as if, somewhere deep in his soul… there was some sort of eternal memory that would always be a part of him….

“Maybe I saw something like this when I was a kid?” He shook his head as the seeds drifted off into the distance. A moment later, a bright beam of light appeared, within which was a young woman. Du Lingfei had returned….