When Mei Hua came to, she was in an old mansion. Still fuzzy, her senses didn't immediately register what was going on around her, until she heard a certain voice. That was when she finally remembered this place. All around her was the mansion where she had been raised when she was a kid. Until ten years ago, she had lived there. But almost a year after the birth of her younger sister, she had met Xiao Xuefeng, in certain circumstances...
And the voice that had woken her up was a voice she had not heard for all this time. This was a voice she used to cherish and then hate. Many emotions flowed through her mind. The main emotion was simple. She was afraid to turn around.
"Hua'er. You've grown so much. Look what a great lady you've become. And a wonderful alchemist."
Still silent, Mei Hua jumped a little when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"This wasn't me. These last moments, this wasn't me."
"But this was!" Overtaken by anger, she violently turned around while screaming. But the moment she saw the man behind her, she froze.
In her hands was a knife sunk deep within an old man's chest. Looking down in terror, she saw her hands covered in blood.
"This was you. All of this was your fault. You've killed me."
"No... No... I... I didn't... I..." Before she could finish her sentence, she stopped. Her mind was becoming clearer. And in an instant of clarity, she circulated her mind cultivation. With her talent, she had already reached three characters and was working on the fourth. Deep in her sea of consciousness, Yi and Zhi started to rotate while Shen was above them, covering them in a warm heat.
"You've killed your own father, Hua'er."
"Yes I did." All of a sudden, she had regained her composure. The worst thing about mental and soul attacks or illusions was the fact that you couldn't tell whether this was real or not. Someone under such an attack was just like in a dream. No matter how absurd it was, everything could make sense in a way.
When he heard the tone of her voice, the old man's expression changed.
"Then, who are you? My father is dead. You're not him."
The old man's face did look a bit like Mei Hua. However, his face was marked by old age. Even his hair was gray. Clearly, he had had Mei Hua when he was already extremely old. In her memories, she remembered this father more like a sweet grandfather. Until this fateful day, he had always been nice to her and she only had good memories. But when she discovered what he intended to do, she had to stop him.
"You were wrong about me. I've never meant to hurt your sister. Haven't I always been a good father to you both?"
"Silence. Tell me who you are. I won't debate my family history with some mindless beast trying to devour my mind."
"You hurt me..."
"Yes, that's what I intend to do."
The scene around Mei Hua changed. All of a sudden, fires erupted from all around. High in the sky, a gigantic bird was trying to claw into a golden cauldron. Contrary to expectations, the cauldron didn't last for even an instant. It exploded into a myriad of filaments of energy. All this energy fell back down and increased the fires all over the mansion.
Right in the middle of the courtyard, trapped by the fires, a 6-year-old Mei Hua was holding a still and silent baby. On the face of the baby, there was no more life. One instant, Mei Hua was witnessing this scene, the next, she was living it. Before she could process what was going on, she was back in her younger body. And right in front of her, the nice father she had always known fell down from the sky. His sweet face was distorted by pain and terror as blood was now covering part of it and staining his clothes.
High in the sky, Xiao Xuefeng was floating while playing her guqin. This scene was otherworldly. On the ground, this was chaos and desolation, fires and screams. But high in the sky, there was only peace. Xiao Xuefeng looked like a goddess untouched by the sufferings of the mortals. Her eyes were not even open. It was as though she was merely playing her music and none of this was of any concern to her.
Mei Hua's father crawled back and saw his daughters.
"Hua'er...? I'm sorry. I never meant for this. You know I've always loved you. You know that, right? I just need your help one last time."
She remembered. All the memories she didn't want to remember, she was remembering them now.
That night, she had discovered the reason why her very old father had wanted a child. Sadly for him, Mei Hua had not the constitution he was looking for. But after several years, he had been able to find the right mother. And he gave birth to Mei Ying. Finally, he had a child with the right constitution.
Thankfully, Xiao Xuefeng had intervened just before Mei Ying's death. If she had not been there, then...
But in the last moment, her father turned toward her with the same smile he had always had with her. He needed her help or he was going to die. But she knew what kind of help he wanted from her and she knew what he had just done to her sister. In the end, she just ran away. And in the distance, she heard the last breath of her father being silenced by Xiao Xuefeng's melody. In a single night, the Muyang family fell. Later on, Muyang Hua became Mei Hua, and she followed behind Xiao Xuefeng.
"You're the reason why all this happened. If you had been the daughter I wanted, your sister wouldn't even have been born. She wouldn't have had to suffer in your stead."
Deep in Mei Hua's eyes, sadness turned into resolution.
"You think you can play with my emotions and my memories?! You think I'm still just a little girl?! If I had been the daughter my father wanted, he would have sucked the life out of me before I could even walk! Do I feel guilty for running from him when he needed me?! Don't take me for a fool! The help he wanted from me was to finish off my sister. And if it hadn't been enough, he would have devoured my life as well."
"Yes..."
Once again, the scenery changed. This time, this was a real scene of horror with people burning and screaming. And the sweet father had turned into a gigantic demon. This sight of him was terrifying. The skin of his face had almost been ripped apart as if something underneath was trying to come out. He had eight arms with talons on his fingers. And his eyes were two orbs of oozing blood.
"You were born to be devoured. Let me accomplish your destiny."
"So that's your actual look. I knew I was right in these tunnels..." Contrary to the creature's expectation, Mei Hua was not afraid at all. "Oh? You thought a show could intimidate me?! I know exactly where we are. All of this is my mind!"
"Ha ha ha! You think you can beat me because this is an illusion? Ha ha ha!"
"Stupid beast! I know I can beat you because I know you're not an illusion! To devour my mind, you need to get inside of it. And now that you're here, you won't get out!"
Suddenly, the scene disappeared and became a clean ocean as far as the eyes could see. The vision of nightmare that was her enemy was still there but it had lost much of its intimidating aura now that it was in such a quiet place. High in the sky, the three Perfect characters from 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks' were rotating. Shen the Fire Spirit was the highest of them and showered Yi the Earth Intent and Zhi the Water Will with a warm heat. However, Po the Metal Corporeal Soul was almost invisible. Even with her great mind, Mei Hua could not cultivate it that fast.
From the ocean below, roots rose, full of thorns. In a matter of a few breaths, they formed a gigantic cage all around Mei Hua and her enemy.
"You came to devour my mind. You'll become a great nourishment for it."
"You ridiculous human! You're just increasing my appetite. Once I eat you whole, I'm sure I'll form my fourth core. And when my sisters devour your friends, we'll all ascend. We'll devour even stronger humans then. Ha ha ha!"
"Stupid beast. You still think you have a chance. Until now, you've only killed lower Mortals. You've never met with someone who had a decent mind cultivation. I'll show you the difference between you and me."
The characters in the sky stopped moving for an instant. And suddenly, birds flew from them. Each one seemed to be in the same material as the character. In total, three cranes soared through the sky, a golden one, one in onyx and the final one in cinnabar, covered in fire. As they flew, vines of thorns slowly formed around their legs, going all the way into the blue ocean. Even though Mei Hua had never used it in an actual fight, she had learned 'Otherworldly White Crane' from Xiao Xuefeng.
This martial art required someone to be at least a Mortal Warrior to use it as they had to infuse their Qi within the music they would play. And as such, Mei Hua had been forced to learn more vulgar martial arts like her 'Ten Thousand Thorns'. In fact, she didn't really care for it. During the entrance examination, she had chosen the one that seemed the best suited for the occasion and just stuck with it. In the end, what she wanted to master was the great art of her master. During the fateful night they had met, the young Muyang Hua got subjugated by its beauty. Since that day, she dreamed of being this woman, tranquil, high in the sky, untouched by violence and suffering, but clearly not afraid to use them to mete out justice.
The cranes flew around the monster. It tried to strike them down but they were faster than it was. Slowly, the thorny vines got entangled around the monster. Of course, this was a part from the mind of one of the female Soul Weaving Cyrtophoras. In order to devour Mei Hua's mind, they had to use their Soul Silver Silk to entrap her into a cocoon. With this cocoon, they had the ability to crawl into someone's mind and torture it until it broke and they could slowly eat it away piece by piece.
With Mei Hua, they had made a terrible mistake!
The monster tried to change its form, but as soon as it moved, the vines got narrower. The sharp thorns sank into the monster's body. Even though it was immaterial, the thorns inflicted pain directly into its mind. A powerful scream shook the surface of the ocean. The monster was now completely entangled within the thorns, screaming and writhing in pain.
"By the way, thank you. If you hadn't invaded my sea of consciousness, I would have had to wait several decades to finally get inside." Deep down, Mei Hua thought that if Cao Yun had been able to discover how to get inside his sea of consciousness through only one experience, she could as well. For an alchemist, this ability was a game changer. And just like Cao Yun who had been sent into his sea of consciousness by an ill intent, so did she.
Maybe being attacked by giant spiders was not such a bad thing after all. But the moment she thought about this, she remembered how the Soul Weaving Cyrtophoras ate their prey. Shivers ran down her spine. Of course, she could easily devour this mind. But then, she was done for. In the real world, she was still trapped in a cocoon. And if one of the females died while trying to eat her, the other females could simply kill her and eat her flesh. Even though they savored the minds of their prey, they were not gluttonous to the point of risking their very lives.
The good news was that as long as the spider's mind was within her sea of consciousness, she couldn't communicate with the others. But the moment Mei Hua destroyed her mind, her body would lose all life. In fact, her body would still be alive technically, but without a mind to control it.
"I have a great idea! You put me into a cocoon to savor me when you see fit, right? Let's see how you like it yourself."
The monster was now completely subdued by the thorny vines. It hadn't even been difficult for Mei Hua. Without 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks', it may have been a challenge. But even then, she was convinced that she wouldn't have had any major difficulties. Her master was Spirit Master Xiao Xuefeng, the woman with the most powerful spiritual senses in the entire Hongchen Kingdom and probably the whole Piaolu planet.
Mei Hua focused her mind and produced several hand gestures. Slowly, the thorny vines emitted some kind of light. At first it looked like a ball around the monster. But then it became clearer and more vivid. This was a cauldron. The three birds who were still circling the abomination to strengthen the trap opened their wings and grabbed the ball with them. Their wings closed around it and fused with its surface. In a matter of seconds, the cauldron was perfectly formed.
This cauldron was Mei Hua's actual cauldron, the Five Winged Principles. As a 3-star Heaven cauldron, it was incredibly powerful. So powerful that Mei Hua couldn't even use it to its fullest yet. However, Xiao Xuefeng was so certain of her future that she did not hesitate to gift it to her. Its surface was made of five golden wings intertwined. Each one of them represented one of the Five Golden Elixir Principles.
Gradually, the cauldron shrank and shrank, all the way to its actual size. All around it, thorny vines were still present. And the cage that had formed around Mei Hua in her sea of consciousness dissipated as well. The part of the beast's mind that had invaded Mei Hua was now confined into a small cauldron.
Although Mei Hua should have been afraid for her life, she was confident in her friends. She knew that it should have been terribly frustrating for them to leave her alone. But she also knew that they tried until the very end. And they would keep trying to get her back. In the end, she just had to be patient. She didn't like not controlling her own fate, but she trusted her friends.