Xu Yuan let out a long breath.
The Leech Lake was the core of the Dome Palace, and aside from the Soul-Luring Corridor within this map, there were only two bosses.
The Leech King and the Enchantress Divine Sakura Tree.
The way to pass the level retained Cang Yuan’s usual multi-route style.
Players could ignore any dialog boxes, force their way through, kill the Leech King, kill the Sakura Tree.
They could also bypass this map, reach the furthest end, kill a crazed demoness, and obtain a dropped token. Equipping this token and then coming back to this map would trigger a dialog box, allowing them to directly control the Leech King with it.
Besides these two methods, one could also try verbal healing.
This mode of passing the level was the most complex, yet the simplest, since one could look up a guide and speedrun through it unorthodoxly.
Like a certain soul series game, many pieces of information in Cang Yuan were fragmented and hidden in each map; after piecing them all together, players could probably guess what to input into the dialog box that popped up.
Three keywords and one item.
Have waited long, sorry, Yuchu,
a bottle of Huadiao wine promising an eternity of companionship.
Placing the fine Huadiao wine in front of a mound of earth, Xu Yuan propped himself up on his knees to stand, and looked back again...
Only to see that the Divine Sakura, which had bloomed for ten thousand years, had withered away unknowingly, leaving only a few petals glowing with a pink light lying quietly beneath the withered tree....
The Enchantress Divine Flower, the sole main ingredient in the nefarious treasure Joyful Powder.
The Saint’s Remnant Soul clicked its tongue:
"Kid, this thing’s a real treasure. With these Enchantress Divine Flowers, you could at least refine three batches of Joyful Powder, tsk tsk..."
One batch equals one bottle, one bottle is about three doses.
Hearing this, Xu Yuan smiled faintly, and asked in a low voice:
"Joyful Powder must be used in conjunction with the Great Yin-Yang Joyful Cultivation Technique."
"Heh heh... Kid, I know where that Joyful Technique is. That girl with the surname Su, she’s an Enchantress Divine Physique, right?"
"Heh heh...." Xu Yuan chuckled and said nothing.
Seeing this, the Saint’s Remnant Soul shook its head and whispered:
"You don’t have to change your cultivation technique with the one you have now, but such a stunning technique shouldn’t be unknown in this world."
"Picked it up at the entrance." Xu Yuan casually made up.
"If you don’t want to say, then let it be. But why aren’t you picking up that Enchantress Divine Flower?"
"No rush, it’s not time yet."
Xu Yuan stared at the lake surface, then whispered again, "By the way, don’t make a move no matter what you see later."
There’s another boss here.
The Saint’s Remnant Soul’s mind tensed, glanced at the withered and shriveled sakura tree, took another look at the calm lake, and then fell silent.
As time passed by, second by second,
A quarter of an hour,
An abnormality soared!
The originally calm lake water abruptly stirred into a surging wave, as a sightless, huge-mouthed behemoth exposed its head above the lake surface. It was a leech as large as the Enchantress Divine Sakura Tree!
The sudden appearance of its massive form,
The suffocating pressure,
Almost forcing Xu Yuan to kneel down on the spot!
But at the same time, a powerful Soul Power surged out from the Soul Ring.
Xu Yuan stared down the pressure, whispering loudly.
The Saint’s Remnant Soul, confused in spirit, but with the intent to strike, the Will-spirit wavered and instinctively stopped.
Xu Yuan exhaled a long breath, softly saying:
"It won’t make a move."
And just as Xu Yuan had said, after showing itself above the surface, the giant leech made no other moves, and the pressure covering Xu Yuan gradually dissipated.
With its ghastly and horrifying mouthparts, the creature stared at Xu Yuan for a long while, ultimately turning its attention towards the small bottle of fine Huadiao wine set in front of the mound.
It stood dazedly for quite some time,
The giant leech then slowly sank back into the depths of the lake....
The Saint’s Remnant Soul spoke with slight amazement:
"There’s such a Strange Beast hidden at the bottom of this lake. The aura just now could match a normal Primordial, it’s just strange why it...."
Xu Yuan lifted his index finger to his lips to interrupt, staring unblinkingly at the spot where the leech had vanished.
The Saint’s Remnant Soul’s eyes twitched, and his gaze towards Xu Yuan became even more solemn.
A quarter of an hour later,
the storm surged again, and the giant leech reemerged from the water surface, although eyeless, it seemed to possess an almost tangible line of sight.
the leech opened its massive mouth, stacked with layers of sharp teeth, and extended a long tongue that at its tip curled around a blue pearl.
"..A Meteoric Ice Pearl?"
The deep voice of Saint’s Soul Body sounded somewhat puzzled.
He didn’t understand why such a beast with low spiritual intelligence would come forward to offer a treasure.
Xu Yuan ignored him, raising his palm, holding it flat with the palm facing upwards.
Seeing this, the giant leech carefully placed the blue pearl onto Xu Yuan’s palm.
the giant leech glanced at the withered giant tree that had already wilted, and a violent fluctuation of Origin Qi emanated from its body!
its immense body fell back powerlessly, crashing onto the lake and creating huge waves!
The Saint’s Remnant Soul slowly floated out, watching as the lake turned red with the bright crimson blood oozing from the giant leech:
"It... took its own life?"
"Yes," Xu Yuan stared at the giant leech.
After a long silence, the Saint’s Remnant Soul murmured to himself:
"With the death of the Enchantress Divine Sakura Tree, its guardian beast also naturally has no reason to live alone. But the question is why it chose to offer you a treasure...."
the Saint stared at Xu Yuan, asking with a heavy tone:
"Xu Yuan, are you Jing He?"
Xu Yuan gazed back at the Saint’s Remnant Soul, his eyes deep and distant:
"......" The Saint’s Remnant Soul stared at Xu Yuan.
During the mutual gaze,
Xu Yuan suddenly raised his hand in a mock salute, a grin spreading across his face:
"Just kidding, don’t take it seriously. Of course, I am not Jing He."
then Xu Yuan pointed at the monster-like giant leech, his voice slightly lowered:
Thousands of years ago, the Qionghua Sect planted the Enchantress Divine Sakura Tree here through a blood ritual.
Beautiful ladies and gentlemen, one transformed into a sakura, one into a leech.
The sakura falls to nourish the leech, and the Leech King protects the sakura.
So close, yet worlds apart.
The sect was destroyed, the people gone, and a myriad of years passed just as in the beginning.
This is one of the hidden plots within Cang Yuan’s complex storyline.
"I fulfilled their wishes, and they offered their gratitude, that’s all."
After storing away the Meteoric Ice Pearl, Xu Yuan picked up a few Enchantress Divine Flowers placed at the foot of the sakura tree, tucked them into a jade box, and threw it into the Sumeru Ring.
Just as he was about to enter the inside of the withered sakura tree through the hollow, the Saint’s Remnant Soul suddenly coughed lightly:
"Ahem, may I ask how you came to know this information?"
Even the archives wouldn’t record such things, so it was impossible for this young man to have learned them from the archives.
Xu Yuan raised an eyebrow, his gaze shifting amusingly towards the Saint’s Soul Body:
"Old Man Luo, you’re calling me young friend?"
The Saint’s Soul Body frowned slightly, hesitating:
"Pfft... old friend?"
Xu Yuan chuckled, shaking his head as he said:
"Old Man Luo, why don’t you just call me Senior Xu?"