Chapter 14: Ghost Hand Flower (2)

Posted byYours TrulyOctober 1, 2023Posted inZanxing

The selection competition began.

The giant mushroom was still slowly rotating, and the cultivators below the Immortal Viewing Platform had already swarmed towards it, each displaying their supernatural abilities as they climbed towards the conical stone mountain.

Zanxing also went up.

As she drew nearer, she noticed the unique nature of this stone mountain. When looking up from beneath the mushroom cap, the stone wall was incredibly steep with a significant incline. Fortunately, the stone surface was not smooth, providing footholds, although the spacing between them was not short, making it much more challenging than ordinary rock climbing.

Zanxing attempted to climb up by gripping onto the stones.

Her movements were deliberate, and with each step, she felt her body sway significantly. The mushroom mountain continued its slow rotation, making it difficult to climb up the moving mountain.

Some cultivators with higher levels of cultivation had already reached the top, and their pace gradually slowed. Zanxing remained patient. Although she couldn’t recall the specific details of this particular stage in the original story, she had a vague sense that it might not be as straightforward as it appeared.

Indeed, when she had only climbed halfway, a strong male cultivator in front of her had already noticed a Lianshan flower right before him. Without hesitation, he intended to pluck the flower. However, as soon as his hand touched the petal, that petal suddenly expanded in the wind. Its five purple petals rapidly elongated, instantly transforming into a thin, black-purple hand that viciously slapped towards the man’s chest.

This mushroom mountain lacked safety ropes, relying entirely on people using their hands to cling to the stone wall as they ascended. Caught off guard, the strong man was struck in the chest by the hand-like flower, vomiting a mouthful of blood, and toppling backward.

A dull “thud” resounded, sending a chilling sensation through everyone’s spines.

At the same time, cries of agony echoed from all directions, along with the sound of people plummeting from a height, landing with a “thump”, one after another, in an unending sequence.

Ziluo stood with her hands behind her back on the Immortal Viewing Platform, observing as disciples from the Taiyan sect moved the injured cultivators who had fallen. She commented, “The Lianshan flower has another name, it’s also called the Ghost Hand Flower. Trying to pluck one is not a simple task.”

The cultivators who had rushed to pick the flowers moments ago had mostly been affected.  Only a small number of higher-level cultivators managed to barely hold onto the stone wall and avoid falling. Even so, the number of participants was instantly reduced by half.

The burly man in front had fallen, and Zanxing carefully observed the flower before her.

It was a small purple flower with five petals, and its stigma was golden and glowing. Upon approaching it, there was also a faint, pleasant fragrance. From its appearance, it seemed entirely harmless. However, Zanxing still remembered the scene that had just unfolded. This flower would instantly transform into a dead person’s hand when someone approached it. Those with poor mental fortitude wouldn’t even need to be slapped; they’d be frightened to death.

Should she engage in a battle with this flower?

Zanxing hesitated for a moment, and just then, she felt a slight warmth in her chest, and the Xiao Yuan Pearl began to stir again.

Whether it was her imagination or not, Zanxing could see a faint glimmer emanating from within the purple flower before her, gradually seeping out from the golden stigma. It was as if it possessed a form of life, resembling the rising steam from freshly brewed tea. It appeared to be a manifestation of the elemental power of the heavens and earth. Zanxing extended her hand, not to pluck the flower immediately, but to hover it over the blossom.

As soon as her hand hovered over it, the Xiao Yuan Pearl within her suddenly began to spin wildly. The elemental power oozing from the stigma gradually infiltrated Zanxing’s body, being voraciously devoured by the Xiao Yuan Pearl. In no time, the flower had been drained of its last hint of golden radiance, becoming dim.

After a brief moment of consideration, Zanxing extended her left hand while firmly gripping a protruding corner of the stone wall with her right hand. She carefully plucked the Lianshan flower.

The flower lay silently in her palm, showing no signs of transforming into a ghostly hand or launching an attack on Zanxing. It remained unchanged.

Zanxing suddenly realized that the flower’s transformation was due to a certain type of elemental power within its stigma. However, this very elemental power happened to be absorbable by the Xiao Yuan Pearl. After Zanxing used the Xiao Yuan Pearl to absorb the elemental power from the stigma, the Lianshan flower turned into an ordinary flower with no trace of violence.

It was indeed quite convenient.

As a result, Zanxing felt no hurry. While other cultivators had to endure countless hardships and battles with the Ghost Hand Flower to pluck it, she only needed to use the Xiao Yuan Pearl to absorb the elemental power and then pluck the flower. Slow and steady wins the race. She continued to climb upward without worrying about running out of flowers to pick.

At the same time, she spotted a familiar face—Mu Cengxiao, who was using both hands and feet to ascend. When Mu Cengxiao saw Zanxing ahead of him, he was momentarily taken aback. He had thought that Zanxing had already been eliminated from the competition, but to his surprise, she was not only still in the race but also casually waved to him with a relaxed expression.

“You’ve picked quite a few,” Zanxing glanced at the flowers in Mu Cengxiao’s basket on his back. In such a short time, he had already plucked five.

The young man eyed her warily, “What are you planning?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t snatch yours,” Zanxing continued to climb upward. “I wish you success in advancing to the next stage.”

Mu Cengxiao hesitated for a moment, finding the current Zanxing rather peculiar. However, at the moment, he had no intention of wasting time on her.

As they ascended, the mushroom mountain’s stone wall became smoother, and at the same time, the rotation speed of the large mushroom began to increase, causing dizziness. Although there were more Lianshan flowers at higher elevations, climbing higher also grew more perilous. There was a risk of falling before even plucking a flower. Many cultivators refused to climb any further, worried about their limited number of flowers and looking to target fellow competitors instead.

For a while, on the mushroom mountain, there was a struggle among participants to snatch flowers, accompanied by the sound of “thump, thump” (sound of people falling).

“I can’t go any further,” Wang Shao exhaled heavily, panting, “I can’t climb any higher.”

Duan Xiangrao furrowed her brows, a hint of disdain flashing in her eyes, but she smiled and said, “Indeed, this mountain is quite high.”

Both of them were at the mid-level of Foundation Establishment, which was considered good in this competition. However, continuing to climb higher was becoming somewhat challenging. They stuck together, which deterred other cultivators from openly trying to snatch their flowers. Their journey had been relatively smooth. Taking care of each other was far better than facing the challenge alone.

However, it seemed they had hit a bottleneck.

Duan Xiangrao glanced at her own and Wang Shao’s baskets. She had twelve Lianshan flowers, and Wang Shao had sixteen. Although it wasn’t a small number, it wasn’t particularly abundant either. But the cultivators who had reached this point had already been carefully selected. Taking a risk to snatch from others might result in losing what they already had.

While she was pondering, Duan Xiangrao’s gaze suddenly fell on a familiar figure behind them. She blinked, then quickly called out to Wang Shao, “Lord Wang, look!”

Not far from them, Zanxing was slowly climbing up with a basket on her back. Her movements were as slow as a tortoise. But what astonished Wang Shao was the fact that she was still in the competition.

“Lord Wang, look at her basket,” Duan Xiangrao reminded.

Wang Shao glanced in that direction, and his eyes widened.

There, stacked neatly in her basket, were at least twenty Lianshan flowers.