Every single organization Tang Xiadan had mentioned was at the same level as the Frozen Serenity Sect. Nothing needed to be said of the prestige the Eternal Blossom Sanctuary Sect had, given the influence and impact it still carried to this day. The same could be said of the Four Sacred Wings, though Yang Qing’s impression of that one ran even deeper than the others, given his visit to the Silver Crane Sect. That sect was but a subsidiary of one of the Wings, and yet it had displayed enough foundation to match the more powerful Rank One sects. If the subsidiary was like that, how powerful was the real thing?

The Myriad Beasts Sect was considerably more recent, having held the prestige of a Holy Land alongside the Radiant Sword Sect and Flowing Leaves Valley.

As for the Seven Star Sword Sect, while Yang Qing didn’t know too much about it, what little he did know was enough to show what a monstrous organization it had been. The Radiant Sword Sect was rumored to have found certain treasures and manuals tied to that lineage, which had been largely credited as the driving force behind their rise to Holy Land status.

If that rumor proved to be true, it spoke volumes of the Seven Star Sword Sect. After all, its inheritance had been potent enough to birth another Holy Land. And just as with the Eternal Blossom Sanctuary Sect and the Frozen Serenity Sect, there were rumors of several powerful Rank One organizations whose rise to prominence had been attributed to treasures salvaged from that same sect.

Just finding one of those places, even by rumor alone, would count as someone having heavenly luck. What then of someone who had found all of them, as Tang Xiadan had? That pointed to something strange on that person, or within them.

Yang Qing’s earlier assumption that the feather alone had accounted for it would need to be revised.

As for Tang Xiadan, he was undergoing shocking discoveries of his own as the flame’s effects spread through him, covering every inch of his soul and body. What he had sensed before was nowhere close to experiencing the real thing. The yin and yang energy within that flame was profound and boundless beyond imagination, and the life force brimming within it was just as vast. His body and soul were like a parched riverbed, dry down to the crevices, suddenly met with a downpour that didn’t merely moisten the soil but revived the river whole till it was busting at the banks.

He wasn’t the only one feeling revived and rejuvenated. The Soulfrost Sequoia burrowed in his chest seemed to share the same feeling, its petals slowly shifting from deep blue to a lighter shade, the color bending more and more toward white, and as it did, the bud seemed to grow in girth with every passing moment.

It’s blooming! Tang Xiadan thought, reeling with joy, though a touch of bitterness laced through it. He had spent who knew how many treasures over the years just to get that flower bud to improve by even an inch, and yet it had never budged. All it did was sap him dry, drawing him closer to desiccation, while its form remained stubbornly unchanged. It had been close to seventy years since its last qualitative change before it finally stalled. But now, within seconds of Yang Qing’s flame touching it, the bud was like it had been injected with new life. It looked as though it couldn’t wait to bloom. And Tang Xiadan couldn’t wait either.

Yang Qing smiled meaningfully as he sensed the changes unfolding in both man and bud. Not many would risk using the Soulfrost Sequoia the way Tang Xiadan had, but he could understand why.

When it bloomed, everything the flower had consumed from Tang Xiadan would be returned twelve times over, whether it be his soul or his body. And the benefits didn’t stop there. When the Soulfrost Sequoia bloomed, the transformation and the natural laws and phenomena surrounding that bloom would be fed back to Tang Xiadan, and within that feedback lay various mysteries and secrets tied to the deeper laws and truths of the Grand Dao, which would do wonders for his preparation in breaking through to the Domain Realm.

To say nothing of the evolution his soul stood to undergo.

The Soulfrost Sequoia was a peculiar spiritual plant. It required varied forms of yin qi to grow, supported by the smallest touch of the gentlest yang energies, such as Gentle Yang Qi or Soft Dawn Yang Qi. The ratio was nine to one: nine parts varied yin qi to one part yang qi.

Without these two components, it wilted, and more so when the variety of yin qi stagnated. As such, nurturing one was a resource-consuming process, demanding a constant expenditure of varied treasures of differing yin qi types. Certain individuals and organizations could afford it, but most could not.

And this was where the soul nurturing came in. The soul in itself housed countless forms of yin qi, which made it one of the best ’soils’ for the Soulfrost Sequoia. But as good a soil as it was, it was also the riskiest way to nurture the flower, as it carried the very real danger of being sucked dry unto death, because once the flower embedded itself into the soul, forcibly removing it risked death or severe harm that would at minimum end in the cultivator being crippled.

The only safe way to remove it was when it bloomed.

As such, not many cultivators took that risk unless they were at their most desperate. But the benefits did make that risk worthwhile, crazy as it was, provided you lived long enough to see it bloom.

The flower’s ability to absorb different forms of yin qi was typically transferred to the person it had embedded itself into when it bloomed. Which meant that, taking Tang Xiadan as an example, when the Soulfrost Sequoia on his chest bloomed, he would gain the ability to absorb all manner of yin qi that had previously been beyond him. This was particularly useful when it came to certain varieties of yin qi that carried dangers of their own, such as Nebulous Yin Qi or Deep Abyssal Yin Qi, both of which could freeze a person’s body and soul if they dared interact with them.

Absorbing these types of qi without risk wasn’t the real harvest. The real benefit lay in the qualities behind those qi themselves. Take the Nebulous Yin Qi, for example. As dangerous as it was, it also contained tremendous benefits, among them the Dao laws and truths embedded within it, to say nothing of the improvements it brought to the soul when one refined and absorbed it, provided one could. And the stronger the soul became, the deeper one’s sensitivity to the Grand Dao laws and principles drifting through the world.

There weren’t many treasures that could improve both soul and body the way the Soulfrost Sequoia could. Many would jump at the chance to own one. The only problem was that making it bloom was a headache, unless you happened to be a freak like Yang Qing, whose qi, thanks to his Peerless Yin Yang Nature Jade Physique, could effortlessly field countless natures of yin and yang qi, catering to every need of the Soulfrost Sequoia without effort.

Without that, having access to countless treasures of the yin nature was the next best option. Or, if you were as bold and a little bit crazy as Tang Xiadan, you could stake your life on it and use your body and soul in the hopes that it will be enough to nurture the flower till it blooms.

Within minutes, the bud that had been the size of a pinky had grown to the size of a mango seed and transformed into a pristine white flower that carried a delicate sacredness to it. Not long after, the petals slowly opened into a full bloom, flooding the room with a refreshing coolness that instantly freshened and renewed the mind. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Even without meaning to, from a single idle thought, Yang Qing could feel countless ideas and understandings of the Grand Dao slowly bubbling within him. How he felt now came close to how it had been for him on Sage Mountain, where ideas on his cultivation had flowed continuously through his mind from nothing more than breathing the mountain’s air.

If he felt this way as a passive bystander, how was it for the person the flower had embedded itself into?