The cavern, after the brief but intense skirmish with the Chaos Leeches, plunged into a silence heavy with expectation. The air vibrated with the residual energy of the battle and the primordial power of the Chaos-Fed Night Flowers, which pulsed in the darkness like the hearts of dying stars. Lin Feng, leaning against one of the cold black crystal walls, tried to regulate his breathing, feeling the refined energy Glob had transferred to him settling in his meridians—a sense of relief and a minuscule, but perceptible, recovery.
Xiao Lan, for her part, wasted no time. With the cold efficiency of a consummate huntress, she extracted the small dark cores left by the Leeches she had defeated. They were of a low grade, but any chaotic beast material was rare and potentially valuable to those who knew how to use it or whom to sell it to. Glob, which had devoured the core of the leech it neutralized with Lin Feng, seemed more vibrant, its gelatinous body now with faint silver veins swirling within. It watched the Night Flowers with an intensity Lin Feng recognized as pure hunger.
"These flowers…" Xiao Lan began, her voice breaking the silence as she approached the crystal tree, her jade eyes studying the dark, luminescent petals. "The energy they emanate is incredibly pure in its chaotic nature. Any attempt to absorb it directly, even for a cultivator of the Spiritual Foundation Realm like myself, would be inviting Qi deviation or the corruption of my Dao. They are more a poison than a tonic if not treated properly."
Lin Feng nodded, remembering the overwhelming pressure of the energy in the first cavern. Glob, however, emitted a soft gurgle and extended a pseudopod inquisitively toward the nearest flower, only for Xiao Lan to stop it with an icy glare.
"Don't even think about it, creature," she warned. "Although you seem to have an affinity for this energy, the concentration in these flowers could be too much even for you."
Determined to secure at least one, Xiao Lan prepared herself. "Disciple Lin Feng, stay alert. These flowers often have secondary defenses, or the tree's own energy might react."
She channeled her Purifying Fire, a bright, controlled orange flame enveloping her hand as she cautiously approached one of the most accessible flowers. Lin Feng held his breath, Glob beside him, tense. The moment Xiao Lan's fingers brushed the flower's crystalline stem, it seemed to shudder. The black crystal tree emitted a low, deep hum, and a wave of dark pollen, laden with chaotic energy, detached from all the flowers simultaneously, creating a suffocating cloud.
"Cover your face!" Xiao Lan shouted, taking a step back, her Purifying Fire burning more intensely to repel the pollen.
Lin Feng was already coughing, the pollen irritating his eyes and throat, feeling a cold, disturbing energy trying to invade his senses. He tried to channel his own chaotic energy, not to attack, but defensively, to create a kind of barrier or repulsion. Glob, beside him, seemed to expand slightly, its surface becoming more opaque, absorbing some of the pollen heading towards Lin Feng.
Lin Feng's attempt was clumsy. Instead of a barrier, an erratic pulse of his dark energy shot out, not towards the pollen, but veering slightly and impacting near Xiao Lan's protective flame. There was an instant of interference, her flames flickered, and a small section of the pollen cloud slipped through her defense.
"Outer disciple, try to aim away from my flames if you intend to 'help'!" Xiao Lan snapped, her voice tense as she dodged a concentration of pollen threatening to reach her. She had to redouble her Qi output to stabilize her fire barrier.
Lin Feng felt completely useless. His lack of control was more a hindrance than a help. Glob, however, seemed to sense his frustration and Xiao Lan's. With a visible effort, the slime stretched out, and a part of its gelatinous body interposed itself between Lin Feng and a new wave of pollen, absorbing it with a hissing sound. Then, it vibrated intensely, and Lin Feng felt a connection, an urgency from Glob, as if it wanted him to… direct his own chaotic energy through Glob?
It was a wild idea, but in that moment of pressure, with Xiao Lan struggling to keep most of the pollen at bay and the crystal tree vibrating menacingly, Lin Feng didn't have many options.
Just then, the situation worsened. One of the tree's thick crystalline branches, like a black whip, broke off and lunged at Lin Feng with incredible speed. He was so focused on the pollen and Glob's strange, silent request that he didn't see the attack coming until it was too late. Glob tried to interpose itself, but the branch was too large, too fast.
Time seemed to slow down. He saw the sharp tip of the branch approaching his chest, the icy certainty of death.
Suddenly, a dark blue figure interposed itself. Xiao Lan, with a speed Lin Feng could barely follow, darted in front of him. Her sword was sheathed; there was no time. Instead, she extended one arm to deflect the branch, and with the other hand, instinctively grabbed Lin Feng's wrist to pull him back, to get him out of the path of secondary impact.
"Idiot!" was all she managed to say.
In the instant her hand, warm and surprisingly strong, closed around Lin Feng's wrist, and as he, in pure panic and with a last desperate attempt to defend himself, tried to release a wave of his chaotic energy, something extraordinary happened.
The energy didn't surge outward. Instead, with physical contact as a conduit, a wave of Lin Feng's raw, primordial chaotic essence flowed directly into Xiao Lan's meridian system.
For Xiao Lan, the sensation was electric, shocking. She had expected the impact of the branch, the pain. Instead, she felt a torrent of wild, unimaginable energy invading her. Her Purifying Fire, her own spiritual Qi, instinctively rose to combat this invasion, to purge it. But then, surprise. The chaos didn't tear her apart. It didn't corrupt her. Instead, her Purifying Fire seemed to… embrace it, to dance with it. The chaotic energy, vast and formless, was suddenly tamed, catalyzed by her Dao, and a strength she had never dreamed of possessing flooded every fiber of her being.
Her meridians, already impressive for her age and level, seemed to expand, vibrating with renewed power. Her spiritual Qi, almost depleted by the previous battles and the fight against the pollen, was not only instantly restored but multiplied several times over. Her jade eyes shone with a golden and purple light, and from her body erupted a wave of Purifying Fire so intense, so overwhelmingly powerful, that the cavern itself seemed to shrink before it. The flames were not just orange; they were now streaked with golden flashes of absolute purity and deep swirls of a chaotic, regal purple.
With a cry that was part surprise and part exultation of power, Xiao Lan struck the approaching black crystal branch. Not with her sword, but with her open palm, wreathed in those newborn, terrifying flames.
The branch, which moments before had threatened to impale them, met Xiao Lan's palm and disintegrated. It didn't explode. It simply turned into fine black dust that floated harmlessly to the ground. The cloud of chaotic pollen still lingering in the air was instantly incinerated by the mere aura of her flames.
The crystal tree seemed to groan, its vibrations ceasing, its dark flowers retracting slightly as if in fear.
The cavern fell into a stunned silence, broken only by Lin Feng's gasps and Xiao Lan's slightly ragged breathing. She looked at her own hands, wreathed in the remnants of those extraordinary flames, with an expression of utter disbelief. Then, her gaze fixed on Lin Feng, whom she still held by the wrist.
He, for his part, was pale as a ghost, terrified. Not because of the danger that had just passed, but because of what he had felt, what he had seen. He had touched an inner disciple, one of the sect's elite, and somehow, his impure, forbidden power had transferred to her. This was a crime that could cost him his life, regardless of whether he had saved her or not.
"Senior Sister Xiao Lan!" His voice trembled, a knot of fear in his throat. He tried to pull his hand away, but her grip was like steel. "I... I apologize! I don't know what happened! Are you alright? I didn't mean to...!"
Xiao Lan's eyes remained fixed on him, but her usual coldness had been replaced by a storm of complex emotions: astonishment, disbelief, and a curiosity so intense it was almost palpable. "Silence, Lin Feng." She used his given name again, and this time, it didn't sound like a mere acknowledgment, but something more. "Don't apologize. Just... describe what you felt. What you did."
She released his wrist, only to grasp his hand more firmly, her fingers examining his as if they were an ancient, unknown artifact. "This energy... it flowed from you to me. It revitalized my Qi in an instant, amplified my Dao to a level I've never reached, not even with the highest quality pills the sect can offer. It's... it's as if your chaos is the perfect fuel for my fire."
Glob, which had shrunk during Xiao Lan's power outburst, cautiously approached and touched their joined hands with a pseudopod, emitting a soft, curious gurgle.
Xiao Lan glanced at it briefly. "Even this creature seems to understand that something extraordinary has happened." She looked back at Lin Feng. "Try it again. Slowly." She placed Lin Feng's hand on her own forearm, his skin cold against hers, which still burned with residual heat. "Channel that energy. Just a little."
Lin Feng was nervous. The sect's hierarchy was seared into his mind. An outer disciple touching an inner disciple in this manner, and moreover, experimenting with forbidden energies… But Xiao Lan's gaze brooked no refusal. It was that of a scholar on the verge of a monumental discovery, that of a warrior who had tasted a new and addictive power.
Hesitantly, Lin Feng closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to draw out only the thinnest strand of his chaotic energy. He felt it flow, less painful this time, through his hand and into Xiao Lan's arm.
She inhaled sharply. "Yes... there it is. It's like a wild river, but my Purifying Fire can... can guide it, refine it. I feel my spiritual core strengthening, my flames craving more." She opened her eyes, and a feverish excitement burned within them. "Incredible. Your chaotic essence, Lin Feng, isn't just a destructive force. It acts as a primordial catalyst, an unprecedented enhancer for established Daos like mine. The purity of my Fire refines it, and its primordial strength amplifies mine beyond any known limit."
"I... I just felt some of the pressure in my dantian ease when I passed the energy to you, Senior Sister," Lin Feng admitted. "And I feel... a little less exhausted than when I release it outward uncontrollably."
"A mutual benefit, then," Xiao Lan murmured, though a predatory smile, the first Lin Feng had ever seen from her, played on her lips. "Although I must admit the greater gain is clearly mine in terms of pure power amplification." She let go of him, but her gaze continued to assess him, as if he were a newly unearthed treasure. "Lin Feng, this ability of yours... it changes many things. Your value on any expedition, if this can be replicated safely and controllably, is... incalculable."
She rubbed her chin, thoughtful. She paced a few steps, her gaze sweeping the cavern, lingering on the dozens of Chaos-Fed Night Flowers still pulsing on the black crystal tree, their volatile energy auras almost beckoning her. Then, she looked back at Lin Feng, at his hand, and then at the flowers.
A bright light, that of a bold and potentially revolutionary idea, ignited in her jade eyes. The tension in her face dissipated, replaced by a barely contained excitement, one that made her seem more alive, more dangerous than ever.
"Lin Feng," she said, and her voice, though still controlled, vibrated with a new intensity, one that sent a shiver down his spine. "I believe I've found a way to use these Night Flowers in a manner no one in the sect could even dream of... and you," her gaze locked onto him, "you, and your little chaotic companion, are the absolute key to it."
She said no more. But the question hung in the charged air of the cavern, as potent as the energy of the flowers: What exactly was Xiao Lan's idea? And what would it mean for the future of a humble outer disciple and his slime pet? Lin Feng felt his destiny had just taken another unpredictable turn, dragging him towards an abyss of unknown possibilities. And for the first time, he wasn't sure if he should feel terror or a wild anticipation.