F-ranker Sword Saint: My Soulbound Sword is Secretly SSS-tier!-Chapter 352: Chi Xiao

Daru and his comrades gathered water by the lake.

They were unsure whether it was safe to consume, yet they refilled their canteens and bottles anyway.

There are very few things a good boil cannot kill. Furthermore, this was simply to give themselves a desperate option.

They wouldn’t drink it and would probably even discard it once a cleaner source was available.

Elara suggested that they adjust their bodies to a polyphasic sleeping cycle, and so they’ve also been doing that in the past few days.

While Daru was still feeling a bit weaker than usual, his body was finally catching up.

He was initially reluctant, as he was a firm believer of the eight-hour sleeping schedule, but since they’re in a race, they must maximize their waking hours.

This was progress in being flexible and flowing like his swordsmanship.

Thus, they would only sleep whenever the Hissing would happen, though even that would be in a rotation.

One of them would have to stay awake so their trio could immediately leave once the deathly phenomenon ended, then that person would sleep in the next cycle, replaced by another.

The result was more than just excellent.

While their bodies were never truly in absolute peak condition, they felt fine enough to both move and fight well if needed.

They can only move around for a maximum of half an hour before having to hide and sleep again anyway...

But the best thing about the adjustment is that they’re more or less starting to double their travel time, meaning that they can cover two days’ worth of distance for just one.

This would be a tremendous lead...provided their enemies wouldn’t think of this method.

Elara doubted it.

The Vesharis, at the very least, would be adopting or have already adopted the same strategy, and there was a decent chance that the Aetherborns, too.

It would be the muscle-brains who are doomed to fall behind.

Done with their preparations, the trio moved past the lake, vigilance on high, though Peter would ruin the serious atmosphere occasionally.

Daru and Elara expected to meet a Veshari ambush.

But no such thing happened in the next two days, so they concluded that the Veshari they saw might have been alone or at least had fewer numbers than they.

This was good news.

This meant that their assumption that the three of them were among, if not the most lethal group of Bladeborns in this stage, was most likely correct.

They could use this to further advance without worrying too much about the enemy races.

But this didn’t mean they were top dogs here.

No. Far from it.

On their eighth day in the second stage, they noticed that the average size of the trees had increased. Some even had odd yet mystical aquamarine leaves — a stark contrast to the dry, gray trunks and branches.

They would be stupid to still not realize that these weren’t dead trees.

They were alive and were even thriving in this environment of death, somehow finding life in the bleakness.

Aside from this, there was much more flora now, making the area seem like an actual dead forest.

They assumed they would encounter other spawns here. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Adjusting to a more cautious advance — at least Daru and Elara — the trio moved slowly, taking the time to observe their surroundings.

The trees, the shrubbery, the strange gray shoots growing on the ground, the flowers...the flowers...

The flowers were familiar!

These things were on the first branch of Yggdrasil!

Noticing that there were quite a few around them, some even already uprooting themselves, Daru and Elara shuddered.

They should’ve been more careful.

Still, the flowers were slow, so perhaps with enough distance, they could kill the creepy things with ranged attacks.

"Quick, le–"

Before the two could call for a retreat, however, Peter stepped forward.

"Ahh, how convenient," he said, then pointed his jian — one with a regal scarlet blade — towards the spawns.

"Fool, what are you doing? Can’t you sense these things are dangerous?" Elara called with a hint of alarm.

She didn’t want to scuffle with these creepy flowers if possible.

"Of course. How could I not know how dangerous they are? But you don’t have to worry. After all...these things listen to me." Peter answered mysteriously with a chilling smile, glancing at them before shifting his focus back to the Bladepollen Blooms.

Then, with a firm voice reminiscent of an ancient eastern ruler, he ordered: "Kneel."

The next thing Daru and Elara knew, the flower spawns...were lowering themselves.

The Aziyan SSS-ranker then walked slowly towards the blooms and severed their heads one by one.

The others saw what he just did to their kin, yet none moved, willingly offering their lives to their emperor.

And the Crimson Heavens harvested them all without mercy.

After killing all seven, Chi Xiao turned and looked at his comrades with a smile that was half threatening and half innocent.

Elara met his gaze with a cold one.

To Peter’s surprise, Daru was looking at him as though he wanted to "spar" right then and there.

"Yo, relax...relax. Have you forgotten? This fool is a comrade." A shadow of a menacing grin tugged at the corners of Peter’s face before disappearing into his usual, overly enthusiastic smile, his trademark Aziyan eyes narrowing into almost slits.

The two, however, weren’t buying his act this time, locking eyes with him for two more moments before Peter himself decided to break contact, turning to look at the slain Bladepollen Blooms.

"Let’s harvest their heads. I tried drying them the other day, and they make good flower tea!"

Contrary to his words, however, the first thing he did was cut off a specific root — the only one that was of a yellowish color.

He then turned and showed the root to his comrades, completely defusing the tension:

"And this...this will restore a clean ten percent of your total hitpoints in a single bite. The best thing about them? They don’t have cooldowns! You can eat as many as you want while fighting."

It had always been Daru and Elara sharing information with Peter, and since he’s not contributing, the two assumed that he had been prioritizing survival all those times, which was understandable.

After all, unlike them, he was alone.

As it turned out, however, the Aziyan specialized in slaying those creepy flowers.