Mystique Soul: A Cultivator's Flame
Chapter 127: Death’s Bloom

Chapter 127: Death’s Bloom

The streets were still waking when Feng Jiao Xue stepped out of the inn, Mo Tianze falling into step beside her.

The morning light was thin, the air cold enough to sink into her bones. It scattered in long shadows across cracked stone and battered rooftops, giving everything a worn, tired look, as if even the city itself had barely survived the night.

She should’ve gone alone.

Every instinct told her that. Investigate the strange plant before anyone else stumbled across it. Strike while the trail was still warm. But she hadn’t. She couldn’t.

She’d stayed by his side instead, day after day, night after night, watching over him while his qi raged and burned and tried to tear him apart from the inside.

And now, even though Mo Tianze stood beside her, steady on his feet, his golden eyes clear again, she still didn’t want to leave him behind.

Maybe she was being foolish. Maybe she didn’t care.

"You sure you’re up for this?" she asked, keeping her voice low.

Mo Tianze gave her a lopsided smile, the faintest flash of teeth. "You’ve been hovering so much I was starting to think you liked me helpless." Despite his words, his tail shyly and coquetishly swayed behind him, happy.

She shot him a look, unimpressed. "Don’t flatter yourself. You were more pleasant when you were unconscious."

His laughter was soft, rumbling under his breath. Warm.

And yet, under the easy words, something heavier pulsed between them. Something neither of them was quite ready to touch.

Feng Jiao Xue slowed her pace without thinking, just enough to match the slight weakness still lingering in his steps. She said nothing about it. He didn’t either. But she saw the way his hand twitched slightly at his side, like he was thinking about reaching out, about closing the small distance between them.

Of course, Feng Jiao Xue noticed his small movements, so without much thought, she intertwined her fingers in his causing his tail to "poof" turning fluffy and bushy. Startled by the sudden warmth in his hand. He blushed furiously but tried to act like it wasn’t affecting him.

Feng Jiao Xue smiled inwardly and led him to the alley again.

The city was unnervingly quiet as they moved. Too quiet.

Every once in a while, a cart would rattle down a side street or a merchant would mutter to himself, but there was no real life in the air. The whole place felt hollowed out, like a corpse still pretending to breathe.

The bloodbath at the manor had spread fast. No one knew exactly what had happened, but fear soaked the stones now. No one wanted to cross paths with strangers who walked too confidently, who moved like ghosts.

By the time they reached the hidden entrance to the underground caverns, the sun had barely climbed above the rooftops.

Feng Jiao Xue crouched beside the narrow gap between two crumbling walls, brushing aside debris with careful fingers. She glanced back over her shoulder.

"You don’t have to come," she said, almost casually.

Mo Tianze just arched a brow. "And miss the thing you’re so interested in? Not a chance."

She snorted softly and dropped down first, landing lightly on the stone below. A heartbeat later, he followed.

The underground hit them immediately, a rush of damp, stale air, thick with the scent of earth and something sweeter. Rotten.

Their footsteps echoed strangely down the tunnels, muffled and sharp at once. Roots crawled across the walls like veins, thick and gnarled, pulsing faintly when Feng Jiao Xue brushed too close.

"Whatever’s down here..." Mo Tianze muttered, his voice low enough to blend with the stone, "Sister, be careful" he warned making Feng Jiao Xue nod.

"I know" she agreed. "Be careful as well."

They moved deeper. Neither spoke again. The deeper they went, the worse the feeling became, like something ancient and starving was breathing just out of sight.

When they finally stepped into a wide cavern, both of them froze.

At the center of the chamber, rising like a nightmare from the cracked earth, was a plant, but not anything that belonged to the world they knew. Its thick stalk twisted upward like the spine of a corpse, thorned vines sprawling across the floor, embedding into stone. Blossoms opened and closed like mouths, petals sharp and glistening wet under the dim light.

It was... beautifully nightmarish.

It pulsed. A slow, steady beat that thudded against their ribs.

Mo Tianze swore under his breath. "What... is that?"

Feng Jiao Xue didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, she stepped forward, her eyes wide, not with fear, but with something else.

Wonder.

"Huang Jin De might know. Will asked him once his out of his secluded cultivation inside the ring" She mused.

The soil around the base of the plant steamed faintly, black and rich with decay.

She knelt carefully, reaching out with her magic instead of her hand. She brushed the outer aura of the plant, feeling it thrum with a strange, corrupted vitality.

It was poison and life stitched together.

"So much energy," she murmured, almost to herself. "Twisted, but strong."

Mo Tianze frowned, keeping a wary distance. "You don’t want to destroy it?"

Feng Jiao Xue tilted her head, a gleam sparking behind her lashes.

"Destroy it?" she repeated, almost laughing. "No. Not yet."

She could already see it. the potions she could brew, the poisons she could make, with something this grotesque, surely she could make.... beautiful little weapons

There was power here. Untapped, raw, waiting to be shaped.

A reckless part of her thrilled at the thought.

"This could be... invaluable," she said, her voice low, almost reverent. "Imagine it, the elixirs we could make. The magical compounds. Even an antidote, if I can understand how it corrupts the qi."

Mo Tianze shook his head, but there was no true judgment in his eyes, only a quiet acceptance.

"Whatever sister wishes" He smiled accepting lyrics. If sister likes this things, he can find her lots of this kind of things. That would make sister happy. He thought not minding that normal people would not even want to see this type of things. Whatever sister wants.

"Only you," he said, amused, "would look at something like this and start dreaming of ways to turn it into a weapon."

Feng Jiao Xue gave a small smile, sharp and fleeting.

"You should know by now," she said, rising to her feet, "I don’t waste opportunities."

Her gaze drifted back to the monstrous plant.

No. She wouldn’t destroy it.

Not yet.

Not until she had peeled apart every secret it held.

Not until she could turn this nightmare into something she could wield.

Feng Jiao Xue knelt before it, the soft folds of her robes pooling around her like still water. Her fingers hovered just inches above the soil, glowing faintly with a warding spell meant to shield her from any latent toxins.

Behind her, Mo Tianze stood guard, his golden eyes flicking between her, the plant, and the shadows around them. He had one hand loosely on his sword hilt, the other at his side, but his whole stance screamed ready.

"This might take a while," she murmured, not looking back.

"I’ve got time," he replied, voice low. "And your back."

A brief pause. Then, her lips tilted, not a smile, but close.

She reached forward with measured precision, her magic thrumming beneath her skin like a second pulse. The spell she’d shaped wrapped around the base of the plant, gentle as breath but firm with purpose. She could feel the way the roots resisted, clinging to the ground like a beast refusing to die.

"It’s... conscious, in some way," she murmured. "Not sentient, but reactive. It doesn’t want to let go."

Mo Tianze stepped closer, careful not to tread on the network of thin root tendrils that curled across the stone like veins.

"What do you need me to do?"

She glanced back at him then, eyes sharp but trusting.

"Stabilize the ring," she said. "Once I loosen it, we’ll have a few seconds to get it stored. If it tries to lash out, sever anything that moves. But don’t- don’t burn it."

"I won’t."

He knelt beside her, his larger frame angled like a shield between her and the open cavern. She reached into her sleeve, pulling out a small crystalline stone, the anchor for her spatial ring, and placed it delicately beside the plant.

Then, with a breath held in her chest, she began.

Thin strands of light twined from her fingers and slithered into the soil, wrapping delicately around each primary root. She worked slowly, carefully, not to harm, not to alarm. Her magic coaxed the roots to release, whispered to them like a mother to a restless child.

The plant shivered.

One of the blossoms jerked open with a wet snap, petals spreading wide in a sudden burst of motion. Mo Tianze moved immediately, his arm coming up to block in front of her, body taut.

"Not yet," she whispered. "Almost... almost... there...."

The roots gave a sudden twitch beneath her touch. The earth cracked, shallow but sharp, and the central stalk lifted from the soil with a sickening, squelching pull. A hiss rose in the air, something like steam, or breath, or a scream, and for a heartbeat, the entire plant writhed.

Now.

"Now!" she said sharply, and Mo Tianze moved.

With practiced speed, he gripped the anchor crystal and fed his qi into it, syncing it to her ring. She channeled her magic forward and the opening of the ring shimmered into view, a small tear in space hovering in the air like liquid glass.

The plant bucked once, a final spasm of defiance.

A root shot toward her.

Before she could even flinch, Mo Tianze was there, blade drawn, silver slicing through violet.

The severed tendril hit the ground with a hiss, leaking greenish-black sap.

Feng Jiao Xue exhaled tightly and pushed the plant forward with her magic. The spatial ring’s portal surged, swallowing the uprooted specimen in one clean pull.

And then it was gone.

Silence rushed back in.

The roots that had sprawled across the floor went still. The flowers collapsed, lifeless, without their heart.

For a long moment, neither of them moved.

Then Feng Jiao Xue sat back on her heels, exhausted but exhilarated, her breath catching with quiet disbelief.

"It worked" she said softly. "It’s intact."

Mo Tianze didn’t reply right away. He sheathed his blade and looked at her, really looked, at the glow in her eyes, the magic still flickering at her fingertips.

"You’re kind of scary when you’re in your element," he said.

She gave him a look. "And yet you followed me knowing how dangerous it could be"

"Guess I’m just loyal like that." He added in his mind. ’Because it’s you I am following’

The silence that followed wasn’t awkward. It was warm. Safe. Full of unspoken words they weren’t ready to say.

Feng Jiao Xue reached for the crystal, carefully storing it back into her robes. Her hands were trembling slightly now that the danger had passed.

Mo Tianze noticed. Without a word, he gently took her wrist, steadying her.

"You okay?"

She stared at his hand for a moment. Then looked at him.

And nodded.

"Yeah," she said. "I am now."

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