Chapter 196: Crystal Flesh

Chapter 196: Crystal Flesh

Huis foot sank deep into the loam, heavier than before. He stepped forward, reaching out for the sprout. In his other hand, he drew a fire talisman and held it at the ready, just in case. Carefully, he reached out into the sprout.

The plant shivered. Its roots shot up and wrapped around Huis body in an instant. Thorns and suckers slammed down on his arms. The root tips bored at his flesh.

The thorns skittered off his crystalline arms. The suckers grabbed onto the crystal, but couldnt harm him. The root tip pressed against his stiffened flesh, unable to break through.

Hui grinned. Perfect. Just like I wanted!

He closed his eyes and focused his energy on the plant. Before his vision, the plant burst with life qi, glowing with brilliant green-gold energy. Down below, in the depths of its roots, however, a black cloud of yin energy sat, thick with the aura of death. It spread in all directions under the earth, entirely encompassing the black, loamy soil of the garden patch. Within the aura of death slunk amorphous earthbound souls. Every now and again, one pressed against the verges of the black cloud, forming a fearsome crying, scowling, or screaming face. All the faces burned with madness, and only appeared for a second before the plants once more drew them into the depths of the cloud. In that moment, however, their lips formed curses, curses that only served to strengthen the cloud of yin energy and death qi. The curses spooled off into the cloud, streams of black symbols that swam through the cloud as if alive.

I dont need yin energy, but I could use that death qi! Ill draw the death qi out of the cloud, then use a burst of life qi to disperse the yin energy. Hui sent a bolt of his qi down through the plant, towards the cloud in the depths of its roots. The yin cloud surged at his approach, rushing up to meet him. Hui yanked his bolt back, afraid. If that touches me I dont want to be cursed! Death qi is one thing, but curses are totally different.

A faint quack sounded from his dantian.

Hui glanced down, startled. He stared for a second, then licked his lips. Are you hungry?

The quack came again, but louder.Updated from novelbIn.(c)om

Hui laughed. He reached into his second dantian and swirled his death qi, drawing the death qi ducks to the surface. Go! Eat your fill!

Hui shivered, looking around him. Seeing no sign of the reaper, he took a deep breath and focused on the plant again. No use worrying about whats already been done. As long as Im going to piss someone off might as well get as much as I can out of it! The real tragedy would be if I went this far and still left empty-handed!

Without the cloud of death qi to protect the sprouts energy, Hui quickly reached out to their life qi and qi and absorbed it. The green wood-elemental qi nourished his crystalline body, while the life qi swirled into his dantian and condensed into songbirds. One, two, three Hui rapidly absorbed the life qi from all the sprouts, tapping into the entire garden through the interlocking network of roots. Rapidly, he condensed a full ten songbirds, and still the garden provided more life qi.

Green and gold qi swirled around his arm, pouring into him. His body cracked and snapped as the crystal hardened and became tougher. The roots wrapped around his arms began to wither, and still he drew more qi from the plants. His crystalline body grew more powerful with every passing second, the thin qi passages glowing with qi. The thin qi passages became thinner, and his crystalline flesh refined, appearing less angled and more flesh-like.

Abruptly, the qi stopped. Hui opened his eyes, confused. Eh? I wasnt done refining my body.

He looked down at the plant before him. Nothing remained but a pair of brown, withered leaves.

Hui licked his lips. He glanced around him. The entire garden patch had become a field of withered brown leaves. Not a single sprout remained upright, nor did a single patch of green remain.

Laughing slightly in embarrassment, Hui scratched the back of his head. Whoops. I shouldve held back a little more!

Oh well. Now the threat to the Southern Sect Conference is thoroughly demolished. When the sects arrive, the Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect wont have any traps left to spring! He put his hands on his hips and nodded smugly to himself.

Hey! Are you done? Its almost time for the sects to arrive! one of the guards shouted, stepping out of the woods. At the sight of the garden patch, he stopped dead. His jaw dropped. He turned and looked at Hui.

Hui swallowed. He put on an innocent expression and shrugged at the guard. Er, Elder Brother it was like this when I arrived?