Tea fragrance permeated the pavilion as the three sat around the table, brewing tea and discussing the Dao, their conversation warm and convivial.
Li Jiao and Mi Qi's subtle flattery and praise left Ji Ying feeling thoroughly pleased, waving his hands dismissively while laughing heartily again and again.
None of them knew how much time had passed when suddenly an odd sound drifted from somewhere within the medicine garden. Though faint, all three were Emperor Realm cultivators — how could they possibly miss it?
Ji Ying shot to his feet, his gaze snapping toward a particular direction within the garden, his face alight with excitement. "The spirit flower is about to bloom!"
Mi Qi and Li Jiao exchanged a glance, both seeing the same surge of excitement reflected in the other's eyes.
Li Jiao spoke up. "Grandmaster Ji's eyes truly pierce through all. If not for Grandmaster Ji this time, I'm afraid even I wouldn't have known this spirit flower would open so soon."
Mi Qi chuckled. "Grandmaster Ji is not only an Emperor-grade Alchemist but also a disciple of the Great Emperor Miao Dan himself — he knows every rare flower and exotic herb under heaven. How could a rough fellow like you possibly compare? If we'd left it to you to watch over this spirit flower, you'd have missed the perfect moment of its blooming and wasted a heavenly treasure for nothing."
"Yes, yes, yes." Li Jiao nodded repeatedly. "Brother Mi Qi speaks truly. If not for Grandmaster Ji's reminder, such a precious spirit herb really would have gone to waste. Since the flower is about to bloom, why don't we go take a look?"
"Good, good, good!" Ji Ying nodded excitedly and was the first to stride off in the flower's direction.
Mi Qi and Li Jiao caught each other's eye, their gazes meeting in a silent exchange that said everything without words.
Before long, the three arrived at a particular spot in the medicine garden where a single spirit herb grew alone. It stood roughly a foot tall, its roots tangled and intricate in a most striking fashion. What was truly remarkable was the peculiar aura emanating from the plant — had Zhu Qing or Yang Kai been present, they would have recognized it at a glance as dragon qi.
That said, the dragon qi was rather thin, nothing as pure as the dragon qi either of them could produce when channeling their Dragon Clan origins.
Even so, this was an extraordinary thing — for it to come from nothing more than a spirit herb.
Stranger still, apart from the faint dragon qi it emitted, the herb's very appearance seemed to resemble a miniature dragon coiled in place, shrunk countless times its true size. Tiny dragon scales covered the stem in lifelike detail; dragon claws and a dragon tail were all present. Atop the dragon's head, a flower bud of deep blood-red hue was gently unfurling, on the verge of full bloom — like a spirited butterfly about to spread its wings and take flight.
Ji Ying stood a full three zhang from the spirit herb, holding his breath in rapt concentration, watching with an almost feverish intensity.
His posture suggested he was not waiting for a spirit flower to bloom, but rather for the birth of a child…
Li Jiao gazed at the soon-to-open flower with an expression of undisguised pride, covertly shooting Mi Qi a meaningful look.
Mi Qi spoke up at once. "Grandmaster Ji, is this Dragon Blood Flower really so precious?"
"What do you know about it?" Ji Ying's eyes remained locked on the flower ahead, and the question drew a reflexive rebuke. But he quickly caught himself — the person he'd just spoken to wasn't one of his usual disciples, but the Sect Master of a great Sect.
His tone softened somewhat as he explained. "You are not alchemists, so naturally you wouldn't understand the rarity of the Dragon Blood Flower. Still, Palace Master Li has been nurturing it with his essence blood all this time — he ought to have some understanding of it."
Li Jiao hurriedly said, "I'm mostly in the dark myself, I'm afraid. My understanding is rather shallow — I'll need Grandmaster Ji to enlighten us."
Having tended to the flower with painstaking care for several hundred years, how could he possibly be uninformed? But the occasion naturally called for a show of ignorance, if only to satisfy the old man's vanity.
Ji Ying nodded. "The Dragon Blood Flower is a specialty of Dragon Island — the only place in all the world where it grows. Would you say that makes it precious or not?"
Mi Qi feigned shock. "There's really such a thing?" He turned to Li Jiao. "Then where did you come by this particular Dragon Blood Flower, Brother Li Jiao?"
Li Jiao smiled. "I found it years ago during a trip outside. I sensed it was something out of the ordinary, so I brought it back. After transplanting it, though, I noticed it gradually started to wither, so I tried feeding it with my essence blood — and it actually came back to life. That's why I've been cultivating it with essence blood ever since."
"That was a fortunate accident, then." Mi Qi gave a small nod.
Ji Ying continued. "Palace Master Li did exactly the right thing. The Dragon Blood Flower is a Dragon Island specialty precisely because its growth requires dragon blood as nourishment! In all the world, where else but Dragon Island would you find the Dragon Clan? Even if a Dragon Blood Flower appeared elsewhere, it simply couldn't survive. Palace Master Li carries a trace of dragon blood within him — feeding it with essence blood is precisely the correct remedy."
Li Jiao was not purely human but rather a half-human, half-monster hybrid — said to be the product of a union between a human and a flood dragon. While few in the Northern Territory knew this secret, both Ji Ying and Mi Qi were well aware.
The Dragon Blood Flower required dragon blood to grow. Though the dragon bloodline within Li Jiao was thin, it was nonetheless present. After years of meticulous care, the Dragon Blood Flower had truly advanced to the point of flowering.
"I surmise," Ji Ying said gravely, "that when Palace Master Li originally found this Dragon Blood Flower, a member of the Dragon Clan must have perished nearby. Otherwise, a Dragon Blood Flower could never have come into being."
Li Jiao replied with admiration, "Grandmaster Ji's insight is unmatched. When I found this Dragon Blood Flower all those years ago, I did in fact discover a Dragon Clan skeleton at the same spot — though I couldn't tell how long it had been dead. It had long since decayed and crumbled."
"Dragon Clan bones are imperishable and indestructible — how could they easily decay and crumble? It must be that the Dragon Blood Flower absorbed the nutrients from that skeleton."