Invincible Dad-Chapter 712 Where are the flowers?_1
"..."
Xu Lai’s gaze sharpened.
A Snowflower that had survived for a hundred eras had borne ten Spiritual Fruits, and four of them were Snowballs...
If word of this got out, the cultivators of the Immortal Domain would probably laugh their heads off. Even a three-year-old child wouldn’t believe it, and Xu Lai was even less convinced.
His face was expressionless as he formed a sword sign with his fingers and slashed.
SLASH—
The Snowflower’s gargantuan body, which spanned heaven and earth, was sliced in half at its trunk.
However, there was no spray of blood, nor any mournful wail. With Xu Lai’s slash, the massive Snowflower dissolved into a wisp of smoke, leaving only collapsed ice crystal pillars in its wake.
Xu Lai sent out his Divine Sense Perception.
Soon, his gaze fell upon a particular spot in the ice. There, an inconspicuous little hole, about half a meter tall and wide, led straight from the ice layer into the Boundless Sea.
"Fake Spiritual Fruits, a fake body, and fake roots. A classic case of the golden cicada shedding its shell, it’s escaped..."
Xu Lai closed his eyes.
The Supreme Emperor felt like he was being played for a fool.
His attention had been so focused on the Spiritual Fruits that he’d completely failed to notice the Snowflower’s true body slipping away through the tunnel...
By the time he realized it, it was already too late to give chase.
Xu Lai had assumed that the master of the forbidden grounds—the Snowflower that had survived a hundred eras and could slaughter Quasi-Emperors like chickens—would not have moved from its spot. But he never could have guessed that his opponent was such a coward, fleeing at breakneck speed!
"Wake up," Xu Lai said, looking at Shen Qing.
The Pearl of the Shen Family, who had fainted from fright, slowly opened her eyes in a daze. She looked around blankly before suddenly crying out, "Where is the Snowflower!?"
"It ran away."
"...Ran away?"
Shen Qing was speechless.
An existence capable of killing a Quasi-Emperor Realm expert would flee from a Human Race Immortal Venerable? You wouldn’t need a brain to know that was impossible.
Shen Qing’s expression was a mixture of shock and disbelief when goosebumps suddenly erupted all over her skin. "You... you aren’t Emperor Qingfeng, are you?"
No way, it can’t be. The powerful expert of the Human Race who appeared out of nowhere in the forbidden grounds to save me... he can’t really be Emperor Qingfeng, can he?
"We juniors should show respect to The Supreme Emperor."
Xu Lai glanced at her sideways. "What you’re doing is a great disrespect to Emperor Qingfeng."
"..."
The smile on the face of the Pearl of the Shen Family gradually stiffened, and her eyes went dull.
Xu Lai’s denial. To Shen Qing, his words sounded so grating—weren’t they the very same words she had said to him earlier?
Oh, heavens. Just kill me now. To think I was just gossiping about Emperor Qingfeng right to his face...
"You’re definitely not The Supreme Emperor," Shen Qing’s eyes darted around as she deliberately provoked him. "If you were The Supreme Emperor, why would you compromise with the other Holy Masters and push me out as a sacrifice?"
"The real Supreme Emperor cares for every citizen of the Immortal Domain and would never allow such a tragedy to happen."
"Are you finished?"
"I’m finished..."
"Good."
Xu Lai nodded.
Then, Shen Qing discovered that she was once again unable to speak.
She shot him an indignant glare, but upon remembering his identity, she quickly averted her eyes. The entire sequence of movements was as smooth as flowing water, making it look as though she was having a seizure while rolling her eyes.
Xu Lai stood up.
Although the Snowflower had escaped, he still had three other objectives.
One was to find the missing Heavenly Soldiers from the Heavenly Court. Another was to find that person from Qingqiu. And the last was to find the door hidden within the third character of the Cloud Water Rust!
As for the Snowflower and its ten nearly-ripe Spiritual Fruits, they were not his primary objectives.
"I’ll send you out of here," Xu Lai said, looking at Shen Qing.
She nodded vigorously, like a chicken pecking at grain, her eyes welling up with tears of joy.
But a moment later, she began to shake her head frantically.
No, no, no! This is Emperor Qingfeng! So many people would consider it an impossible dream to even meet him, let alone follow by his side and receive his guidance. Wouldn’t leaving now be giving up a massive opportunity? Even serving as a lowly maid by The Supreme Emperor’s side is something the Saintesses and Goddesses of the Immortal Domain can only dream of.
She couldn’t help but look at him with anticipation, making muffled sounds. "Mmm, mmm, mmm."
"Hmm, alright. I’ll send you to Thunder Sovereign City 7."
"???"
Shen Qing was sent away.
Xu Lai began searching within the Snowflower Forbidden Grounds. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎
「About two hours passed.」
The nine Holy Masters who had fled earlier returned from a distance, their gazes vacant.
Where is the Snowflower? Where is the flower? Why is there nothing but a pile of ice crystals here?
The nine of them stood in stunned silence for a full half hour before one of them finally spoke, his voice hoarse. "Did... did we come to the wrong place?"
The Holy Master of the Immortal Terrace from the Fifth Domain, his left arm missing and his face pale, gritted his teeth. "It was that expert from the Human Race!"
"Huh?" The others looked over, confused.
"That expert from the Human Race deliberately provoked the Snowflower. After we were forced to flee, he harvested the ten Spiritual Fruits for himself!"
"That’s why the Snowflower withered."
"This..."
The other eight Holy Masters exchanged glances.
None of them had ever encountered a situation like this before. Something felt off, but the Holy Master of the Immortal Terrace’s explanation seemed plausible.
In the Immortal Domain, million-year-old Spirit Plants were exceedingly rare and precious, considered true Holy Medicine. Spirit Plants of this age rarely bore fruit. When they did, one had to wait for the fruit to fully mature before picking it. If the fruit was picked prematurely, the Spirit Plant would die.
As far as the Holy Masters were concerned, the Snowflower had likely vanished because the expert from the Human Race had picked its fruit before it was fully ripe.
"The Human Race is despicable and treacherous! Their wicked hearts deserve death!"
Lei Fengyun trembled with cold fury.
There were only three Snowflowers in the entire Southern Immortal Domain, and one of them was in his Third Domain. Thanks to that Snowflower, the status of the Divine Thunder Pavilion had skyrocketed. From the Ice Crystal Stone Vein to its various other enterprises, the Divine Thunder Pavilion had reaped enormous profits.
But now... their cash cow was gone. The Spiritual Fruits they had so painstakingly waited for were also gone.
Lei Fengyun wanted to kill someone!
"He probably hasn’t left yet," the Holy Master of the Corpse Sect said grimly. "Let’s spread out and search. Whoever finds him must stop him at all costs."
"When you see the signal, everyone else must rush over immediately."
With the Snowflower gone, the hundred-thousand-li forbidden grounds no longer obstructed one’s Divine Sense. Their Divine Sense, at the peak of the Immortal Venerable Realm, was powerful enough for them to instantly detect each other’s locations.
CRACK!
The demon lord of the White Rhino Tribe, Bai Tang, twisted his neck. "I’ll turn his head into a wine jug," he said cruelly. "How dare he steal my Spiritual Fruit."
The nine Immortal Venerables transformed into nine streaks of light, flying off in different directions. They had to find Xu Lai, and they had to find him now.
If they let him leave this area, they would have little hope of ever finding him again in this vast world.
The Demonic Wind had ceased.
As a result, the glaciers of the hundred-thousand-li forbidden land and the Million Miles of Absolute Territory began to melt. The world of ice and snow, no longer eternally shrouded in white, finally saw the light of day once more.
"What’s happening?"
"The snow mountains are melting! The ice under our feet is melting too! The Boundless Sea... We’re going to fall into the Sea of the Boundless!"
"..."
At the supply point forty thousand li away, there was an uproar as cultivators scrambled out as if their lives depended on it.
A Golden Core Cultivator with a full beard stood atop the walls, a wine jar in his hands.
He gazed deep into the forbidden grounds, then looked down at the jar in his hands.
As he recalled the young man who had so calmly walked into the Demonic Wind, the bearded man felt a sense of bewilderment. His shattered Dao foundation was slowly beginning to recover.
