Chapter 698: Now Recollecting Again

Xu Bai's words startled Liu San. However, he quickly realized that the "suicide" Xu Bai mentioned referred to this avatar.

"Young Master, why go to such lengths? With Old Fang and me, and the True Medicine King Cauldron, even if we can't win, escaping shouldn't be difficult," Liu San said, looking at Xu Bai with some confusion.

Xu Bai didn't elaborate, simply stating, "It's just a precaution."

Seeing this, Liu San didn't press further. Instead, he instructed, "If you need to commit suicide easily, Young Master, you can wrap the Soul-Melting Body-Dissolving Pill in spiritual energy and swallow it into your dantian. At a critical moment, dissolve the pill, and its effects will spread throughout your body in an instant. During this process, you must also pay attention to..."

After listening to Liu San's detailed instructions, Xu Bai calmly swallowed the highly poisonous pill. Feeling the presence in his dantian that could take his life at any moment, Xu Bai felt much more at ease.

"With the method from the 'Mysterious Spirit Transformation' that allows me to abandon my avatar's life at any time, this double insurance should ensure I won't be unable to die when I wish to," he thought.

After all, the avatar needed to go to the Myriad Immortal Alliance headquarters and meet with Fa Jue; there was no telling what level of powerful figures he might encounter there. And Xu Bai's appearance and demeanor were unique... Taking thorough precautions was only natural.

"Next, it's up to Fellow Daoist Jiao," Xu Bai murmured. Standing in the void of the Beast Seed Realm, Xu Bai's gaze seemed to pierce through layers of temporal and spatial barriers, seeing the scene within Tianling Province.

"Damn it, the last time our Tianling Province was this lively was..."

Inside Tianling City, a guard cultivator dispatched by the City Lord to maintain order cursed under his breath, looking at the dense crowd of cultivators gathered in the city. However, the words suddenly caught in his throat. As if he had forgotten something important, he didn't recover for a long time. "When was the last time we had so many people in Tianling Province?" he wondered, somewhat confused.

"It was during the Great War of Tianling Province," a slender, humorless cultivator beside him said coldly.

The forgotten memory resurfaced in his mind. Recalling what felt like an event from hundreds of years ago, the guard cultivator looked dazed, his expression becoming somewhat distant. "Yes, before the Great War of Tianling Province, there were also so many people in the city. Old Sun, your memory is really good. I had almost forgotten about it..."

Sun Qi ignored his colleague's mumbling and instead checked the Flowery Invitation in his possession, a flicker of eagerness in his eyes. The Flowery Invitation was the invitation to the upcoming Flower Appreciation Grand Assembly. Due to the overwhelming number of cultivators who had come specifically for the event, even the massive space the Tianling City Lord had prepared beforehand was proving insufficient. To prevent chaos, all cultivators wishing to enter and see the true form of the Heavenly Spirit Flower had to enter sequentially, on a first-come, first-served basis.

Since everyone had traveled a long distance, cultivators naturally didn't mind paying the entrance fee of 100 contribution points. The key issue was time. The queues of cultivators had already filled the entire Tianling City. Unprecedentedly, even the teleportation arrays leading to Tianling City from the outside had been temporarily closed. Ordinary cultivators had no idea how long they would have to wait to see the Heavenly Spirit Flower. Furthermore, there was no specific duration announced for this Flower Appreciation Grand Assembly. The Heavenly Spirit Flower was also merely entrusted to the Thousand Miles Hall by its owner, who could retrieve it at any time. It was very likely a "now or never" opportunity. Of course, the earlier one saw the Heavenly Spirit Flower, the better.

The Flowery Invitation was precisely the qualification certificate for early entry, bypassing the queue. It was rumored to have been speculated up to 10,000 contribution points per invitation, and with limited quantities, it wasn't something one could simply buy. Sun Qi had one because his uncle had given it to him. Sun Qi's uncle, Sun Liancheng, was the newly appointed City Lord of Tianling Province. A Dao Integration cultivator, he guarded the Tianling domain.

"This Heavenly Spirit Flower indeed has some secrets. It seems a bit different compared to what I've seen before. You can go and see it; perhaps you might successfully achieve a breakthrough," Sun Liancheng had said. Sun Liancheng's tone was somewhat cold, seemingly not holding much hope. This was simply because Sun Qi had been trapped in the Golden Core realm by the 'Heavenly Calamity' for far too long. He had tried every conceivable method, even risking his life battling fiercely on the Tianling battlefield, attempting to break through the bottleneck by confronting the great terror of life and death, but all had ended in failure. Apart from Sun Qi himself, everyone else in the family had given up hope.

"The Heavenly Spirit Flower..." Sun Qi's mind conjured its image from his memories. As a native cultivator of Tianling Province, he was naturally very familiar with this object. Before the Great War, when he was in the mood, he would occasionally buy a few pots and take them home to admire. However, after the war, the Heavenly Spirit Flowers became tainted with a bloody aura. Every time he saw them, he would recall the hellish scenes of the Great War of Tianling Province. Thus, he had never bought them again since then.

"I never thought original Heavenly Spirit Flowers would still exist in the world," Sun Qi mused, a little lost in thought.

When a colleague came over and the task handover was completed, Sun Qi hurriedly returned home, changed his clothes, and headed straight for the Flowery Grotto-Heaven. The Flowery Grotto-Heaven was the venue prepared by Tianling City for this Flower Appreciation Grand Assembly, jointly established by his uncle Sun Liancheng and a cultivator named Zhao Chong. Zhao Chong was known for his love of flowers. Hearing that the Flower Appreciation Grand Assembly was being held in Tianling Province, he had asked someone to contact Sun Liancheng, offering his services for free to establish the venue, simply for the chance to glimpse the true form of the Heavenly Spirit Flower. Although Zhao Chong was only a Soul Transformation cultivator, he had a wide network of friends and relatives. He had intricate connections with several respected Dao Integration cultivators in the Myriad Immortal Alliance. Sun Liancheng found it difficult to refuse and could only agree.

The entrance to the Grotto-Heaven was on the city's Dharma Transmission Plaza, where a dark-faced Jiao Xiuyuan had set up a table and was blocking the entrance with a wide smile. After showing him the Flowery Invitation, Sun Qi was finally able to enter the Flowery Grotto-Heaven. Before he could clearly see anything, an intoxicating floral scent wafted towards him. On the open ground paved with countless flowers, many cultivators were already seated on chairs woven from green vines. The usually reserved Sun Qi scanned the area but found no one he knew. He simply found the seat corresponding to his invitation and patiently waited.

After an unknown period, the Grotto-Heaven suddenly grew noisy. The first batch of fortunate cultivators had begun to gradually enter the Grotto-Heaven. Once all cultivators had entered, Jiao Xiuyuan suddenly appeared on the high platform at the front, which was built from various beautiful flowers. The red wooden box in his hand immediately drew the attention of all cultivators present.

"Fellow Daoists, the Flower Appreciation Grand Assembly officially begins!" Without further ado, Jiao Xiuyuan announced after a brief opening remark.