NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 238: Gathering Enough Void God Flowers
Chapter 238: Gathering Enough Void God Flowers
Xu Lian appeared in a “valley,” though it wasn’t a valley in the conventional sense. The entire valley was made of crystalline space, solidified like glass. This was undoubtedly the interior of the Rift Valley.
Countless spatial rifts, like terrifying abysses, stretched across the area. Within these rifts, clusters of Void God Flowers were growing, each guarded by a ferocious and terrifying beast.
When Xu Lian entered, the chubby young Taoist was momentarily stunned, then said with a meaningful tone, “To break through a siege of over a hundred people and still make it here… it seems the treasure you’re carrying is no ordinary one.”
Xu Lian glared at him. “I was only surrounded because I grabbed an extra teleportation token for you. And yet you abandoned me and ran away.”
The chubby young Taoist quickly apologized with a smile. “With so many people attacking you, I couldn’t have been of much help. I thought it was better to go ahead and not become a burden for you. You see? It worked out well. We both made it in.”
“…” Xu Lian knew that there was some truth to his words, but he still felt annoyed. “Regardless, it doesn’t change the fact that you abandoned your teammate. As compensation for my wounded heart, you’ll have to give me an extra 10% of the Void God Flowers you collect.”
The chubby young Taoist winced in pain. “Fine, I’ll give you an extra 10%.”
Satisfied, Xu Lian said nothing more.
One by one, ninety-seven more people teleported in. Including Xu Lian and the chubby young Taoist, there were now ninety-nine people in total.
Originally, there were a hundred spots, but since Xu Lian had taken an extra teleportation token… only ninety-nine people had made it inside.
In this rift valley, there were fifty spatial rifts, which meant that two people could share one rift.
Some, like Xu Lian and the chubby young Taoist, had already formed teams. Others had come alone and had to team up on the spot.
“We’ll take this rift,” the chubby young Taoist declared confidently, pointing to a rift with a relatively large number of Void God Flowers. His tone brooked no argument.
No one contested his choice. They knew that his companion was carrying a powerful treasure, making it pointless to fight over it. Besides, the number of Void God Flowers in each rift was about the same, with only minor differences.
The main problem was the guardian beasts, which were at the Return to Void level of strength. They were incredibly powerful, and even harvesting a dozen or so Void God Flowers was considered a great achievement. It was nearly impossible to clear out an entire rift, so it didn’t matter much which one they chose.
And so, the cultivator pairs jumped into their chosen spatial rifts.
Since Xu Lian and the chubby young Taoist had already formed a team, they naturally entered together.
The chubby young Taoist laid out the plan. “You are carrying a powerful treasure, and your defenses are strong. You’ll distract the guardian beasts while I harvest the Void God Flowers. Once we’re done, we’ll split them fifty-fifty. Then I’ll give you an extra 10% as compensation, so you’ll get 60% and I’ll get 40%.”
“Don’t even think about running away with the Void God Flowers. If you do, I’ll find you and you’ll regret it,” Xu Lian warned.
The chubby young Taoist looked innocent. “Do I look like that kind of person?”
Given his earlier behavior, Xu Lian wasn’t about to trust him easily. “Let’s begin.”
Xu Lian charged straight at a Guardian Beast, drawing its attention. Once the beast was focused on him, he led it in a circle, buying time for the chubby young Taoist to harvest the Void God Flowers.
The Return to Void-level Guardian Beast couldn’t kill Xu Lian, and Xu Lian couldn’t kill it either, so there was no point in wasting energy. All he needed to do was to keep it distracted.
“Got one!”
The chubby young Taoist successfully harvested the first Void God Flower.
Xu Lian then moved on to the next guardian beast, but the first one continued to chase him relentlessly. He had no choice but to lead both beasts around in circles.
The chubby young Taoist harvested the second Void God Flower.
Next, Xu Lian led three guardian beasts in a circle while the chubby young Taoist harvested the third flower.
And so it went: Xu Lian kept “pulling” the beasts while the chubby young Taoist harvested the flowers.
The first few dozen flowers were harvested without much trouble, but when dozens of guardian beasts were chasing Xu Lian, things became much more difficult.
Even with his movement techniques and evasion skills, being pursued by dozens of Return to Void-level guardian beasts was like dancing on the edge of a blade. He was constantly getting hit.
Although the divine bone of the strongest deity and the laws of the divine kingdom protected him from injury, the attacks still sent him flying, causing disruptions in his “pulling” of the beasts. This allowed the aggro of the beasts to shift to the chubby young Taoist, who was then chased around frantically, unable to harvest any more flowers.
The chubby young Taoist wailed, “We’ve already harvested over sixty flowers! That’s a new record for the Rift Valley. Maybe we should stop here.”
Xu Lian needed a total of five hundred and eleven Void God Blossoms. The Heavenly Mystic Sacred Land had given him a hundred, and he had obtained two hundred more from the Void Fishing Platform using Heavenly Serpent Grass. He was still two hundred short.
The chubby young Taoist had harvested over sixty flowers. With a 60-40 split, Xu Lian would only get forty at most, which still wasn’t enough.
Reluctantly, Xu Lian looked deeper into the space rift. There were still a lot of Void God Flowers there. If they could harvest them all, it would be more than enough for his entire Divine Source Realm cultivation.
Unfortunately, pulling dozens of Guardian Beasts was already his limit. Any more and he would fail, making it impossible to harvest.
“Alright,” Xu Lian conceded, knowing when to give up.
The two of them leaped out of the spatial rift.
Looking around, they saw other pairs struggling to harvest flowers in their respective rifts.
Their eyes lit up as they exchanged glances. Their rift was now “useless” because the guardian beasts, enraged by the loss of their flowers, were too chaotic to handle. But if they moved to another rift, they could continue harvesting.
“Shall we go to another rift?” the chubby young Taoist suggested, his eyes gleaming.
Xu Lian held out his hand. “First, give me the flowers we just picked. Sixty for me, forty for you.”
The chubby young Taoist reluctantly handed over forty Void God Flowers.
Xu Lian stored them away, and then followed the chubby young Taoist into another rift.
In this rift, a middle-aged man and a middle-aged woman were working together. The woman, with her superior movement skills, distracted the guardian beasts while the man harvested the flowers. They had already managed to harvest a few, even though it was a struggle.
When Xu Lian and the chubby young Taoist entered, the couple frowned.
“What are you doing? This isn’t how it’s supposed to work”.
“You’ll make everyone angry.”
The chubby young Taoist smiled. “You’ve been at this for so long and only managed to get a few flowers. Since you can’t clear the rift, what’s the harm in us taking a few?”
Xu Lian added, “You do your thing and we’ll do ours. No interference.”
Although the couple was unhappy, they had no choice. They knew that the seemingly ordinary young man was carrying a powerful treasure and wasn’t to be trifled with. The chubby young Taoist was also strong, probably from a Buddhist or Taoist holy land.
Xu Lian and the chubby young Taoist bypassed the pair and went deeper into the rift.
Seeing this, the pair’s expressions softened. As long as they weren’t being interfered with, it was fine.
Deeper in the rift, Xu Lian distracted the guardian beasts while the chubby young Taoist harvested the flowers just like before.
When the chubby young Taoist had harvested seventy flowers, Xu Lian was sent flying by the seventy guardian beasts chasing after him. Since the “pulling” had failed, the two of them quickly abandoned the rift and left.
The middle-aged woman had also reached her limit in distracting the beasts and had to give up the rift with her partner.
Seeing the chubby young Taoist hand over forty-two Void God Flowers to Xu Lian, the pair couldn’t help but feel envious. Although it had nothing to do with them, those flowers had been harvested from their rift.
Xu Lian and the chubby young Taoist ignored them and moved on to the next rift.
And so they continued, “exhausting” one rift after another.
By the time Xu Lian had collected two hundred Void God Flowers, the Rift Valley’s opening period had ended, and everyone was teleported back to the open area they had first entered.
Some were overjoyed after harvesting a large number of flowers. Others looked unhappy, having harvested little. A few had met their end, either torn apart by the guardian beasts or devoured, never to return.
The middle-aged man and woman exchanged meaningful glances. The woman suddenly pointed at Xu Lian and the chubby young Taoist. “Those two have harvested at least three hundred Void God Flowers – dozens of times more than us!”
The crowd’s attention immediately focused on Xu Lian and the chubby young Taoist, and they were quickly surrounded.
“These two entered my chosen rift and harvested a lot.”
“Besides the Void God Flowers, that young man is carrying a powerful treasure…”
Faced with over ninety high-level Divine Source cultivators, the chubby young Taoist felt his scalp tingle. “Fellow cultivators, what’s the meaning of this?”
It was worth noting that these ninety-plus high-level Divine Source cultivators were the survivors of the second trial, stronger than the hundred who had surrounded Xu Lian earlier.
“Those who block me will die!”
Xu Lian suddenly shouted, charging forward with his head leading the way.
He was going all out.
The crowd was terrified. Knowing the power of his head… they all dodged out of the way. No one was foolish enough to stand in his path and risk their lives for others. Thus, Xu Lian easily broke through the encirclement.
“What a head!”
The chubby young Taoist let out a strange cry and quickly followed Xu Lian through the gap.
Once they broke through the encirclement, their superior movement techniques came into play. The crowd chased after them for a while, but soon realized they couldn’t catch up and gave up, watching helplessly as the two escaped.
Once outside the Rift Valley, Xu Lian and the chubby young Taoist arrived at the foot of the waterfall. They plunged into the waterfall, and the world spun around them.
When they emerged, they were back outside the Divine Barrier Waterfall.
The plump young Taoist smiled. “It was a pleasure to travel with you, fellow cultivator. May I ask your name? Someone as young as you, with a Divine Source Realm cultivation and carrying such a treasure, must be quite famous.”
Xu Lian said, “You first.”
The chubby young Taoist replied, “I am a disciple of the Buddhist-Taoist Holy Land, with the Taoist name of Donglai Zi.”
Donglai Zi? Xu Lian found the name amusing and remembered it instantly. He was also curious – this world had both Buddhism and Taoism, and they were combined into one. How strange. “Who founded your Buddhist-Taoist Holy Land?”
Donglaizi was puzzled by the question. “Naturally, it was the Buddha and the Taoist Ancestor.”
Xu Lian didn’t understand much about Buddhism or Taoism, so he didn’t press further. He clasped his hands and said, “Until we meet again,” before plunging into the void and traversing space to return to the ancestral lands of the divine race.
“Wait, you still haven’t told me who you are!” Donglai Zi called out, but Xu Lian was already gone – or perhaps he had deliberately left without revealing too much about himself.