Chapter 1122: Li Clan Reserve Power

In the sky over the west was an enormous flower that virtually no one could see. And it was swaying back and forth dramatically. It was also starting to get blurry. Of the twelve petals with the beautiful women in them, two had vanished. There were now ten left. Of those, two were very blurry.

The two petals which had vanished were now visible on Li Mengtu’s forehead! As the apprentice of Poison Monarch, this legacy had been provided for his sake, and he had prepared thoroughly. He knew more than anyone what the legacy was. In fact, he had even been able to study images of it on multiple occasions. Each time, he had gained some enlightenment.

In fact, he had made every advance bit of preparation possible. He had put a lot of thought into poison, and had come to a deep understanding of it. And now, all of that preparation was paying off and giving him a huge advantage in seeking enlightenment.

On the other hand, Xu Qing had made some mistakes, wasted time, and was now quite behind. However, after he realized how to do it correctly, his enlightenment proceeded with spectacular speed. Unfortunately, that speed was still slow compared to Li Mengtu.

This period of enlightenment required advanced preparation and sudden inspiration.[1]

It wasn’t as simple as just branding the information onto one’s mind. It required comprehension, and a deep realization of something’s inner nature. That was the way to truly get the legacy.

Li Mengtu’s advance preparations were completely and utterly thorough.

But Xu Qing was only just starting to explore the situation. That was why there was such a clear difference between the two in the early stages of enlightenment.

It didn’t take long for Li Mengtu to be able to sense what was going on through the flower. The realization made him relax a bit.

It’s impossible to say why things changed like this, or how this other person has qualified to seek enlightenment of the legacy. But in the end... weak people are weak. My Master prepared this legacy for me personally. There’s no way some outsider could prepare properly. Comparing this guy to me is like comparing the mud to the clouds.

Li Mengtu’s eyes gleamed icily as a third flower petal formed on his forehead.

***

Back at the Primary Dao Precipice, Xu Qing’s facial expression was completely placid. The flower petal on his forehead was about twenty percent complete. In other words, it had a long way to go.

He could tell that the flower overhead was getting blurry, and he could sense that the threads leading off to the east were getting denser. But he wasn’t feeling anxious. He knew that he wasn’t the only one in existence with freakish powers of understanding. Clearly, whoever else was seeking enlightenment in this moment was actually superior to him.

What was more, this session of enlightenment was obviously a competition. Coming out ahead in the competition would be great. But failing to do so wasn’t a reason to get angry.

I’m doing things correctly now. This legacy is different from all those legendary places I visited in my travels. What I need to do is get this legacy into my sea of consciousness, just like I did with the Ghost Emperor mountain all those years ago.

Xu Qing looked up at the flower. That was his reference point. Then, he started making an outline in his heart, over and over again, all with the goal of understanding the inner nature of the legacy. Based on his experiences, the better he understood it, the more smoothly the enlightenment would go. Unfortunately, after studying its inner nature for a while, his gaze hardened, and his heart started beating faster.

This legacy....

Being a bit uncertain of what he was dealing with, he temporarily ceased trying to put it in his sea of consciousness. Instead, he focused on trying to seek enlightenment of what he had already brought into himself. After some analysis, a puzzled expression appeared on his face.

“It’s a kind of poison?” he murmured. He thought about it for a moment.

He was skilled in poison. After all, the taboo poison he had made part of himself had already become a godly authority. He didn’t have the taboo poison with him in this immortal body. It was in his god clone. But poison was part of the dao of plants and vegetation. And that dao was one of learning and knowledge. It had been fixed within his mind, meaning that it wasn’t isolated in one particular body.

So this legacy is about the dao of plants and vegetation....

Xu Qing shifted his thoughts as he recalled what he knew about plants and vegetation. Then he went back to observing the legacy flower, and now he started noticing details he had missed before.

This flower has sawtooth leaves, a hollow stalk, and has typical characteristics of perennial plants. It’s similar to a mountlong orchid, except that this flower is illusory. It has twelve petals, each of which has the face of a woman. Each facial expression is different. It contains the power of longing, making it similar to seven emotions grass. It exudes a poisonous air, and it has tentacles that produce a toxic serum. Even the veins in the leaves contain poison, as do the roots.... This is definitely a poisonous plant....

It contains powerful poisons from top to bottom. Though the poisons don’t seem impressive at first, when you combine them, they create millions upon millions of variations. In fact, that combined poison is nothing short of astounding. An ordinary person who looked at this poisonous plant wouldn’t see much special about it. But when you analyze it based on the dao of plants and vegetation, it’s obvious that someone bred it!

They used no less than ten million different types of plants, extracting their medicinal properties to make a new plant.... There are also other unique items added in. This plant has an extremely high level of personhood! Whoever did this was nothing short of amazing!

Xu Qing’s heart was pounding, and he was visibly moved. The more he understood about what he was looking at, the more surprised he was.

To breed a poisonous plant like this would require an outlandish level of skill in the dao of plants and vegetation.

Xu Qing was really starting to get excited.

That means that ordinary enlightenment won’t do much here. And a broad overview of it isn’t going to do anything. The best thing to do here... is to analyze the poison! And poison....

Xu Qing’s eyes glittered mysteriously. Information about plants and vegetation was now swirling in Xu Qing’s mind. One by one he made comparisons, organized, and combined. The information became a tool for him.

He imitated similar poisons, mixing their poisonous properties. Inspiration would hit him as he observed the flower in the sky. And thus, an image of a flower was slowly being imprinted in his sea of consciousness.

In that manner, time passed.

***

In the tower in the Li Clan’s restricted area, Li Mengtu was fully immersed in seeking enlightenment of the legacy. The third flower petal on his forehead had fully formed.

The process had slowed down. The deeper his enlightenment became, the more difficult it was. Although he was fully confident, and knew he had extraordinary powers of understanding, that didn’t mean he would succeed instantly.

Master said that gaining enlightenment of the legacy would probably take ten days or so. It seems he was right.

Taking a deep breath, Li Mengtu prepared to continue with the process. But then, the flower overhead shivered and suddenly got more blurry. Of the nine remaining flowers... one had just disappeared!

“Hmm?” Li Mengtu’s pupils constricted, and at the same time, flashed with cold light. Then he looked in the direction of the Primary Dao Precipice, his expression grim.

***

Over at the Primary Dao Precipice, a flower petal had appeared on Xu Qing’s forehead.

I’m doing the right thing!

Xu Qing was delighted to sense the flower petal. It had been a long time since he felt this happy. One reason was because he was acquiring the legacy now. The other reason was that the process was really improving his understanding of plants and vegetation. He had finally noticed that the legacy contained the aura of something that surpassed a dao lineament of authority.

This poisonous plant is a postheaven entity. There was never a plant like it before. It’s unprecedented. In other words, it’s coming into existence was an act of creation! And then, it was blessed in a way that ensured no second version could ever come into existence. Not even its creator could make another one. And that means that... it’s essentially extinct already.

It has no past and no future. This is the only plant like it in the world. And when you add in its astonishing personhood.... So this unique dao is used to summon something truly mysterious. It can form a power that surpasses dao lineaments of authority?

Xu Qing’s mind was spinning. Eyes glittering, he looked up at the flower and murmured a single word.

“Canon?”

The moment the word left his mouth, his mind suddenly opened up. From that point, there was nothing stopping him! After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, a second flower petal appeared on his forehead.

An hour later, a third petal formed! The process was shockingly fast.

Though Xu Qing had started late, as of now... he was about to catch up to Li Mengtu. None of the other people with permission medallions in the west could tell what was going on. Otherwise there would have been a huge commotion. Xu Qing was succeeding far too quickly.

***

Li Mengtu was about to go mad. He had three full petals on his forehead now, with a fourth one that was only about forty percent complete.

Where’d this person come from?? He was going slow before, but then suddenly sped up to a freakish speed!

Li Mengtu’s heart was racing, and he could hardly control his breathing. To see someone stealing his destined opportunity right out from under his nose caused his killing intent to surge. At the same time, it made him very nervous.

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

I can’t let this happen!

Li Mengtu’s eyes filled with determination. He still had trump cards left to play. He had originally planned to use them only after he acquired the eighth petal, to get a sudden burst of speed. But now....

Li Mengtu lifted both hands and performed an incantation gesture. The tower beneath him trembled, and then a red beam of light shot up from it into the air. At the same time, other towers in the restricted area did the same, their red light arcing up into the sky.

There were a total of 9,000 towers, and now all of them were bolstering Li Mengtu’s powers of understanding. As a result, the fourth flower petal on his forehead was now rapidly approaching completion.

And yet, he didn’t think that was enough. The flower only had twelve petals, and if he didn’t act fast enough, his opponent might surpass him, and he couldn’t accept that.

Gritting his teeth, he pulled out a scroll painting! It pulsed with an ancient aura that caused wild colors to flash in heaven and earth. This was the only legacy treasure of the Li Clan! Years ago, the clan patriarch had brought it from their homeland. Just before passing away in meditation, he had passed it on to later generations, along with an explanation.

“This scroll can be used three times. Crack it open, and it will seal anyone under Quasi-Immortal. Open it halfway, and it will devastate Quasi-Immortals. Open it all the way, and it will seal Lower Immortals!”

Countless years had passed, and the Li Clan had managed to maintain ownership of the scroll the entire time. For generation after generation, Li Clan cultivators had tried to use the scroll. To open it. All of them had failed.

Only Li Mengtu... had succeeded in ancestral awakening. He could use the scroll painting, although at the moment he was only strong enough to crack it open. This was the true reserve power that made him one of the Shining Stars of the Fifth Star Ring!

1. What I’m rendering as “inspiration” is actually just another word that dictionaries/MTL will define as “enlightenment.” The first version of enlightenment, which is the word most commonly used in this novel when Xu Qing “seeks/gains enlightenment,” contains a sense of feeling, emotion, and time spent. The second term which I’m rendering as “inspiration” here, contains a sense of sudden and unexpected enlightenment, as if something becomes clear in an instant after a certain time of confusion or lack of understanding. Normally I would also render it as just “enlightenment,” but since it’s contrasting them here I’ll use these two different versions to make sure the difference is obvious. That goes for the rest of this scene. Any time over the next couple chapters that you see “inspiration,” it’s the same term being used to indicate some sort of

sudden

enlightenment. ☜