Akata didn’t speak anymore and sat back down. He grabbed his bowl and began to eat again, this time a wide smile on his face. Sometimes between eating he would let out a little chuckle here and there.

Peizhi Xiuying felt helpless and shook her head. She stood up and decided to clean up camp. While she was cleaning sighs could sometimes be heard coming from her direction.

‘This is my chance to pay her back! Once she’s at the 3rd Grade she will definitely have the strength to get her own cabin. Then that’ll make us even.’ Akata was still smiling away as he thought this.

After he finished his bowl he helped clean up with Peizhi Xiuying and then they went along their path again. This time Akata stood side by side with her instead of ahead scouting.

“Now I have a couple of ways to train you to get to the 3rd Grade. However most of them I don’t feel comfortable with yet so I’ll have to see what level of strength you’re at now.” He finished speaking and then pointed over in a particular direction. “There’s a Blood Rabbit over there at the 1st Grade of the Docile Rank. You should be able to handle it by yourself so let me see you do it.” About twenty meters away a small Blood Rabbit could be seen eating on a frog.

Peizhi Xiuying was surprised by Akata’s acute sense of his surroundings. She nodded her head and then took a deep breath. She flashed an incantation gesture and then pointed at the Blood Rabbit. The Blood Rabbit stopped chewing on the frog and looked around as if it could sense something. All of a sudden it dashed away.

But before it could move more than a meter away a vine sprung up from the ground and wrapped around it. The Blood Rabbit struggled and struggled but to no avail. Peizhi Xiuying waved her finger and the vine moved towards her along with the Blood Rabbit.

Once the Blood Rabbit was in front of her she flashed another incantation gesture. “Drain.” The vine holding the Blood Rabbit started to appear with flowers. A total of ten flowers appeared on the vine in an instant. The flowers were white and the scent that emanated out of them made everything calm.

She then closed her hand into a fist where the vine grew tighter and the Blood Rabbit started to turn pale. All of the Blood Rabbit was turning pale and soon one of its paws was completely white in color. When that happened one of the flowers on the vine turned red. Soon more flowers turned red until all ten of them were a crimson color. By that time the Blood Rabbit was completely white in color. All the blood that was in the Blood Rabbit was utterly drained from it. Peizhi Xiuying’s face was calm the whole time.

Akata was taken aback by what he saw just then. ‘Her Grand Life Vine technique has made major improvements since I last saw it. The distance it is able to reach has increased by a lot and it is even capable of draining the blood of its opponents now.’ Akata was in shock by what he saw. He finally managed to clear his throat and nod.

Peizhi Xiuying’s face was pale by now but she gritted her teeth and flashed another incantation gesture. The red flowers on her vine then bloomed. It was a beautiful scene watching the flowers slowly bloom to life. As they did it was possible to tell that they were actually lotus flowers.

She whispered to Akata. “While white is a sign of calm and peace, red can mean anything you choose it mean. Love, compassion, war, demons, etc. The white lotus is a peace symbol. But when my lotus blooms I want it to be red so that people can make their own symbol out of it.” Her voice was soft and timid and made Akata feel as if he had gained a new understanding of something.

She finished her incantation gesture and the vine moved towards her. She reached her hand out and plucked a single lotus from it. She put the lotus to her nose and sniffed it. As she sniffed it a pollen like substance rose up from it to enter her nose. When it entered her nose Akata could sense her aura was rising and becoming faintly more powerful.

‘She’s able to absorb blood in that way? Even though it is much weaker than absorbing blood directly, that vine is able to refine blood in order for it to be absorbed. What clan does she come from that trains in that ability?’ Akata was shocked in his mind but it didn’t appear on his face.

After Peizhi Xiuying finished sniffing the red lotus it turned white. Then it withered away into dust and flew away with the wind. She didn’t go to pick another lotus but instead spoke out. “My Grand Life Vine technique wasn’t always like this. It used to just restrict the movement of who I pleased, but after training it to a higher level I found out it could do this.”

She turned to Akata with tears in her eyes and then spoke, “Tell me… what does the red in my lotus mean?” Akata was shocked once more and went to hold her. Peizhi Xiuying cried out, “I thought this technique from my clan was beautiful but instead it is used to hurt others. I… I don’t want to use it to get stronger if I have to kill in order to do it.”

Akata held on for a while and then spoke out. “If this is the meaning of your red then so be it. But… to others that same red will have a completely different meaning. You may look at it like a curse but in reality you don’t see it that way. You saw the beauty in this technique even after using it. You asked me what is the meaning of that red, well then I say that red makes that lotus a beautiful flower.

Using this technique doesn’t hurt anybody. In fact it does the opposite. It is a technique used to spread the beauty that you want to see. So…” Akata reached out and grabbed a red lotus off the vine. He kicked in the ground some making a hole and put the flower in it then covered it back up. “... plant that beauty each time you use this technique. That is the meaning of that red, it is to spread your beauty around for all to see.”

Peizhi Xiuying stood in shock at Akata’s words and actions. How could she, someone who had utilized this technique, not realize the beauty in it. She wiped the tears off her face then clasped hands and bowed towards Akata. She was truly grateful for what Akata did just then.

Akata instantly pulled her up from her bow, “Whoa whoa no need for that I’m happy to help you. I just had no idea that you were going through this. If anything like this ever happens to you then tell me. I will do my best to help.” He gave a warm smile.

Peizhi Xiuying smiled back at Akata. “Mn. Okay.” She said. She then plucked another flower and buried it right next to the one Akata planted. After that she sat cross legged and used the rest of the flowers to increase her cultivation.

After about an hour she stood back up and looked refreshed. “Alright! Sorry about that shall we get going? We still have a bunch of flowers to see in here and also you have to get me to the 3rd Grade as well.” She gave a chuckle and proceeded along.

Akata nodded his head and followed after her. In his mind though he was thinking of one thing however. ‘It’s interesting how I’ve met three people from two different clans who have techniques to absorb the blood of beasts in order to increase their cultivation.’ His thoughts didn’t surface on his face though and he caught up to Peizhi Xiuying.

Throughout their walk they would sometimes encounter Blood Rabbits and other times find Fanged Monkeys. None of them however had a cultivation base higher than Grade 2. Each time they found an animal they would instantly kill it and then take its blood. Peizhi Xiuying would take the Blood Rabbits while Akata would take the Fanged Monkeys. This was because the Fanged Monkeys were too fast for Peizhi Xiuying so she couldn’t catch them with her vine. She also refused to take something Akata went through the trouble of getting.

In this fashion they proceeded along taking in the blood of the beasts. Akata’s soul region contained a blood ball the size of a fist but it felt like a pool of blood. Peizhi Xiuying’s lotuses were a deep crimson red to the point that the lotuses looked as if they were made of blood completely.

“We’ll absorb all this accumulated blood once set up camp again. That way it’ll be safer.” As Akata was speaking his voice trailed off. He had his nature sense spread out and therefore could see a detailed image of his surroundings at all times. At this point in time he saw a small plant in the area. His face filled with excitement as he lead the way over to it.

Peizhi Xiuying was a little confused but she followed nonetheless. Once they were about three meters away from the plant her eyes went wide with astonishment. “It’s… It’s… It’s the Illusory Phoenix Lily!” It was indeed one of the flowers they were looking for.

The lily was a bright orange that made it look like a small sun. The fragrance coming off of it filled the area with boundless life. Almost as if even if it died it would be reborn anew. Which was exactly what this flower could do. It was precisely a flower that could bring itself back to life even if it withered and died.

The Illusory Phoenix Lily stood out amongst the other plant life that surrounded it. There were three of these flowers each emitting a strong life force. Peizhi Xiuying was thrilled at the sight of this.

“This is perfect! Now I can take one with me!” She flashed an incantation gesture and pointed toward the Illusory Phoenix Lily. “Grand Life Vine!” A vine sprung up from the ground and circled around the flower like a snake. It didn’t touch it however and only circled it. Peizhi Xiuying just paused there not doing anything else.

After a long moment and her full concentration the flower emitted a droning sound and the tips of the petals changed red in color. A boundless life force sprang up from the flower immediately. At this time Peizhi Xiuying’s eyes went wide and she flashed another incantation gesture. “ It’s out of it’s illusory phase! Absorb!” The vine that had been circling around the flower instantly sprang into action. Soon the vine had coiled around the flower and starting emitting a droning sound itself.

The Illusory Phoenix Lily started to lose it’s vibrant orange color. On the other hand the Grand Life Vine started to burst forth with a new life energy. After a while the Illusory Phoenix Lily was completely white and held no life within it.

“Not done yet!” Peizhi Xiuying flashed another incantation gesture and pointed to the flower again. “Seize!” The flower trembled along with the Grand Life Vine. All of a sudden an orange mote of light flew out of the Illusory Phoenix Lily and into the Grand Life Vine. This time the flower wilted completely and the vine thrived with life.

Akata looked on shocked with this scene. “What did you just do? I thought we were just out here to look at flowers?” He became intrigued at what was happening. He didn’t know anything about flowers like Peizhi Xiuying, he was only given a description of the flower to watch out for, and therefore was surprised to see how much life force was within this flower.

And when he saw Peizhi Xiuying ‘battling’ the flower he was even moreso shocked. It was a really amazing experience and opened up his mind to new possibilities.

“This flower, the Illusory Phoenix Lily, basically has a limitless life. Well I guess it would be more accurate to say that it won’t stay dead.” As she was talking she continued to flash multiple incantations in the air. “That is because of the phoenix spark it has within it which let’s it revive. I wanted this flower in order to incorporate that spark into my vine. I didn’t want to totally take it just in case I destroyed it so I was happy to see that there were others.”

She finished her incantation gesture and pointed to her vine which was still trembling. “Integrate!” All of a sudden the vine stopped trembling and a life force as boundless as the Illusory Phoenix Lily emanated out of it. She let out a long deep breath and smiled. “Done.”

After resting for a while she flashed another incantation and pointed to the vine. “Bloom.” The vine then sprouted ten flowers. They were all completely white but each flower had boundless life energy. Five of those flowers were lotuses while the other five were lilies. “Perfect. It worked out perfectly. Now my vine is one step closer to the Flora Rank.”

Akata looked on confused. “The Flora Rank?”