madnovel Chapter 42 Blood-Stained Lotus, Formless Elephant
Chapter 42 Blood-Stained Lotus, Formless Elephant
When Cai Liang and Lin Dingxuan woke up, it was already night.
Jiang Jun lit the bonfire, holding a red lotus in his hand, examining it carefully.
"Teacher?" Cai Liang rubbed his head, somewhat bewildered. "What just happened?"
Lin Dingxuan, still shaken, stared at the lotus flower: "This strange object feels really eerie!"
Jiang Jun chuckled: "Some blood demon brat suddenly appeared out of nowhere, trying to cause me trouble, but I killed him."
"This blood lotus is his natal artifact, a lord-level one, heavily corrupted. Don't come near it."
Upon hearing this, Cai Liang and Lin Dingxuan quickly shrank to the other side.
Jiang Jun held the Blood Lotus and gleaned some information from it.
【Demonic Blood Lotus】: Nourished by essence blood, it can generate a highly polluting sea of blood. It can corrupt living beings into puppets or refine them into tainted blood to strengthen itself.
Pollution is a two-way phenomenon. The more essence and blood a user feeds themselves, the more polluted they become, eventually leading them to lose their rationality and do all sorts of incomprehensible things.
"Upon acquiring it, we were able to obtain relevant information. It seems this person hasn't truly refined this Blood Lotus..."
Jiang Jun secretly assessed: "This blood lotus is probably one of the less costly ones among the strange creatures, right? Especially since the cultists are already mentally ill, losing their minds doesn't really matter..."
After all, the negative effects of other strange creatures can be fatal at any time, but this one is at least not life-threatening, yet its strength is undeniably powerful.
As for why this person came to Xiaozhu Peak to cause trouble for him, Jiang Jun did not delve into it.
The dead cannot be brought back to life, and he had no source of information; making wild guesses would only lead him astray.
Right now, he's more interested in this demon-stained blood lotus.
His eyes were slightly closed as he cradled the blood lotus in his palm. Within his sea of consciousness, the pure lotus swayed, and the five-colored stone spun, emitting strange fluctuations.
Stimulated by this fluctuation, the blood lotus immediately emitted a strong pollutant, which spread to the surroundings.
Cai Liang was surrounded by a clear light and protected by true energy. He felt dizzy and lightheaded, as if he were surrounded by eighteen old ladies who were chattering away.
But Lin Dingxuan was in great distress.
His body was filled with surging Yin energy, and a strange aura emanated from him, carrying a desolate and chilling aura that froze his lips blue.
This is a sign that its natal monster has gone out of control.
He strained to activate the "Water Cloud Bamboo" and "Clear Sound Bell," using all his strength to mobilize Yin energy to suppress the backlash from the evil creature.
But soon, amidst the uncontrollable chill, the faint hissing of insects rose up, forming eerie musical notes, as if they were about to impart to him a scroll of the true method of the Demon-Infected Great Dao.
Jiang Jun sighed, raised his hand and pointed. A beam of fire flew out from the "Divine Rooster Talisman," circled around Lin Dingxuan, and dispelled the demonic fluctuations.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
Lin Dingxuan's face was deathly pale, he was panting heavily, his whole body was covered in cold sweat, and frost was faintly forming on his temples and lips.
Jiang Jun's eyebrows twitched slightly, and another burst of fire fell, finally suppressing the backlash from the strange creature within Lin Dingxuan's body.
Cai Liang quickly brought over his own yellow spirit plant and asked Lin Dingxuan to gather and refine spiritual energy to calm the yin energy that had been corrupted by the riotous monsters.
After a long pause, Lin Dingxuan let out a long sigh and repeated, "This strange object is really eerie!"
After conducting a series of experiments, Jiang Jun confirmed two things.
Firstly, with my current strength, I am unable to purify this demon-stained blood lotus for the time being, and therefore I have no way of knowing its effects after it is transformed into a spiritual plant.
Secondly, it is its own way of suppressing evil spirits, which is naturally able to overcome all kinds of evil and crooked practices, especially on the spiritual and soul level.
After all, Cai Liang was only at the second stage of the Spirit Realm, and when faced with the Blood Lotus Demonic Influence, he only felt that it was noisy and annoying.
Lin Dingxuan, who was in the second stage of the Fusion Realm, was genuinely affected and was at risk of going into qi deviation if he wasn't careful.
"So, why did that blood demon brat have to come here to die? I didn't do anything to anyone..."
*
The next morning.
Lin Zhengyang returned to Qingzhu Temple.
Accompanying him were two important guests: Su Tie from the Qingjiang City Mystic Affairs Task Force and Liu Yan from the Logistics Center.
Upon seeing the blood lotus in Jiang Jun's palm, Su Tie's eyes narrowed: "May I ask, senior, what is this...?"
Jiang Jun said nonchalantly, "A blood demon brat came yesterday and inexplicably started messing with me. I killed him with a single sword strike."
Su Tie's body trembled upon hearing this: "If I'm not mistaken, this person should be one of the nine cunning individuals of the Blood Demon Organization, who once escaped unscathed from the hands of three Transcendent Realm experts. I never expected that he would be dealt with by you, senior."
He had previously harbored doubts about Jiang Jun's identity as a "pathfinder." After all, this person had appeared suddenly and lacked sufficiently convincing achievements.
Perhaps it's just that the magical object he possesses is exceptionally powerful and unique that he was able to concoct such a magical treasure as a "suppressing object," which is neither scientific nor bizarre.
But with the Blood Demon's mysterious death here, there is no doubt about Jiang Jun's strength.
After all, using supernatural objects, especially for fighting enemies, comes at a price.
For those who wield the uncanny, "Taoist transformation" is even more unsolvable than "uncanny transformation".
Even when the city was besieged by the Ghost Cult and suffered such heavy casualties, they only used "Chen Wangjian" to assist in the defense.
If we were to actually provoke it into a battle, it might kill eight hundred enemies but lose a thousand of its own.
Liu Yan was also unsettled, but she knew now was not the time to dwell on it.
"Senior, we received the spiritual plants gifted by Master Lin. Director Li asked me to convey his sincerest gratitude to you. This is our gift of thanks; please accept it."
As she spoke, she handed over a jade box and opened it.
The next instant, a dazzling golden light burst forth from the box, pushing away the eerie aura that lingered all around by more than a meter.
Jiang Jun's gaze narrowed slightly as he looked closely and saw that it was a golden lotus seed with strange runes flowing with the light.
"A god... a divine object?!" Lin Dingxuan was so surprised he couldn't close his mouth.
Jiang Jun raised an eyebrow slightly and accepted the jade box without ceremony: "This gift is rather heavy."
Seeing this, Liu Yan smiled and said, "Compared to your great virtue in purifying strange creatures and cultivating spiritual plants, this faint-light level divine artifact is nothing."
"Faint Light level?" Cai Liang looked puzzled. "Are there different levels for mystical objects?"
Jiang Jun mentally gave his cheap apprentice a thumbs up. This was also something he wanted to ask, but was too embarrassed to.
Liu Yan explained with a smile, "While mystical objects are precious, not every one is powerful. Based on the amount of mystical power they possess, and referring to the levels of strange objects, we have also set up five rating systems."
"The 'Faint Light' class corresponds to the 'Incomplete' class. Following that are the 'Dawn', 'Sunrise', 'Radiant Sun', and 'Elephant' classes..."
"Of course, although the grades correspond one-to-one, in terms of power, in the real world and the mirror world of ghosts, with the support of the world's laws, divine objects are far superior to ghost objects."
"If one can decipher the mysteries of this faintly glowing, wondrous lotus seed and utilize them, it would be sufficient to contend against elite-level monsters."
"Conversely, if one enters the Abyss of Ghosts, the divine creatures will be suppressed by the laws of the Abyss of Ghosts, and their power will be no different from that of ordinary ghost creatures."
"Huh? What does this have to do with elephants?" Cai Liang's focus was a bit off.
"The greatest sound is silent, the greatest form is formless. The so-called 'great form' is taken from the Tao Te Ching," Lin Zhengyang explained with a smile.
Cai Liang felt embarrassed, and then wondered, "But the glimmer of light, the dawn, the rising sun, and the dazzling sunlight in front of us don't seem to match this elephant quite well?"
"Because the first four names were chosen by the Department of Mystic Arts, referencing the settings of online novels, striving for simplicity and clarity so that people can understand them at a glance."
Su Tie said helplessly, "But the first known fifth-order divine artifact in the world was discovered by that old celestial master of Longhu Mountain."
"He was a high-ranking Taoist priest who was very dissatisfied with the terms 'dawn' and 'sunrise,' so without saying a word, he directly named it 'elephant.'"