Chapter 535 - 532: Beyond Cure

Chapter 535: Chapter 532: Beyond Cure

At Healer Xi’s desperate plea, the Elder Council granted him a period of time.

If he failed to change the nature of the Red Spirit Flowers within that time, he would have to eliminate all of them.

"What you’re trying to do is like asking a virus not to infect cells, a parasite not to be parasitic, or bacteria not to divide... Xi, you are doomed to fail. Wake up and face reality."

The Elders left him with those words and departed, leaving his companion behind to monitor him. Once the time was up, all the Red Spirit Flowers had to be eliminated.

After the Elders left, Xi immediately returned to the Red Spirit Flower Valley.

"Stop releasing pollen!" he commanded all the Red Spirit Flowers.

"Father, what is pollen?" the Red Spirit Flowers asked, confused.

"It’s this... this fine, red dust," Xi said, pointing to the tiny grains of pollen on their petals.

"We don’t release it. It just grows on us. When the wind blows, it flies everywhere," the Red Spirit Flowers explained plaintively. They couldn’t control the spread of their pollen either.

"Can’t you just stop producing it?"

"We can’t, Father. We can’t do it..."

Left with no other options, Xi could only place his hopes once more in his abilities as a Healer.

’What if I define the act of ’producing pollen’ as a disease?’

Time was running out, so he acted on the thought immediately. Xi began to treat a portion of the flowers in the Red Spirit Flower Valley.

Just as he expected, the treated Red Spirit Flowers no longer produced pollen.

However, their spirits became incredibly listless.

Being unable to produce pollen was equivalent to being completely castrated, which inevitably affected their spirits.

"Father, I feel so drained. I want to sleep."

"So sleepy, so sleepy. My petals are about to fall off."

"Going to sleep now. Good night, Father..."

After saying their goodbyes to Xi, these Red Spirit Flowers immediately fell into a deep slumber. Then, their petals began to drop as they gradually wilted. Their stems shriveled rapidly until, in the blink of an eye, the once-vibrant Red Spirit Flowers were nothing more than blackened, withered stalks.

His companion, unable to bear watching any longer, spoke up to the frantic Xi. "Flowers are born to spread pollen. By ’curing’ their ability to do so, you’ve negated their very reason for being. Of course they’d wither so quickly. Xi, don’t be so rash..."

Hearing his companion’s reminder, Xi finally realized what a terrible mistake he had made.

He had been too hasty, which made him overlook the fundamental nature of plants in his foolish attempt to reshape everything with his healing ability.

A flower is a plant’s reproductive organ. By eliminating its ability to produce pollen, hadn’t he rendered its very existence meaningless?

But this failure didn’t calm Xi down; it only made him more anxious. His thoughts became a tangled mess. The Elder Council hadn’t given him much time, and if he couldn’t find a solution, his only choice was to eliminate the Red Spirit Flowers.

’What other way is there?’

Xi paced anxiously through the valley, his companion following worriedly behind.

Fortunately, it wasn’t long before he thought of another method:

’What if I reduce the Red Spirit Flowers’ life force and make them just like ordinary flowers? Then they won’t spread uncontrollably, and they won’t become a plague!’

And so, he frantically began another experiment.

He immediately treated another portion of the flowers in the Red Spirit Flower Valley, defining their "excessively vigorous life force" as a disease to be cured. Soon enough, this group of Red Spirit Flowers was also "cured."

This time, however, it wasn’t just their spirits that grew listless.

Xi could no longer hear the voices of these Red Spirit Flowers.

They now existed just like ordinary flowers. The offspring these Red Spirit Flowers produced no longer possessed the same vigorous life force; they had become utterly mundane.

These descendants didn’t grow rapidly. Instead, like other flowers, they sprouted slowly from the soil. They didn’t grow very tall and were so fragile that a gust of wind could snap their stems.

These weak red flowers couldn’t even compete with the weeds in Hundred Flowers Valley.

’Are these even Red Spirit Flowers anymore? Without their sentience, without their life force... reduced to something so mundane...’

Looking at this fragile "new breed," Xi began to doubt himself.

Was it truly impossible for him to "cure" the Red Spirit Flowers?

His companion had witnessed both of Xi’s failed experiments, watching him go from excitement to dejection, and now to despair. An irrepressible guilt welled up inside him.

"Xi, do you remember why you created these Red Spirit Flowers in the first place?"

"Because I wanted to help you defeat those parasitic plants," Xi replied blankly. That had indeed been his original purpose.

"And now? The parasitic plants have been eliminated. Why are you so insistent on protecting them? To a Healer, they are just a tool—a tool to fight disease. No matter how deep your affection for them, they are still nothing more than tools."

"No... they’re not tools," Xi said in anguish. "They cure my loneliness."

Hearing this, his companion suddenly realized something.

"When you performed the healing, did you infuse it with your personal emotions?" he demanded.

This was a great taboo for Healers. Infusing personal emotions while using one’s healing ability would lead to dire consequences; it was strictly forbidden by the Elder Council.

"That’s why they call you Father! That’s why they developed such powerful sentience!" his companion shouted, utterly convinced.

"I... I don’t remember." Xi took a few fearful steps back.

Xi’s reaction only confirmed his companion’s suspicions.

His companion continued to press him relentlessly, backing Xi up until he stumbled to the ground. Seeing their father’s distress, the surrounding Red Spirit Flowers rushed over, weaving their thorny stems into a protective wall around him.

"A bad thing is trying to attack Father!"

"Defend! Defend!"

"Let’s show him how tough we are!"

The Red Spirit Flowers raised their sharp thorns, forming a barrier in front of Xi.

His companion was helpless. Through the wall of thorns, he pleaded, "Xi, you still have a chance! Just get rid of all these Red Spirit Flowers, and this will all be over. Treat it like you had an illness. Once the illness is cured, it’s all over."

Xi curled up behind the protective thorns, his body trembling. He couldn’t quite remember... did he really infuse his personal emotions when he created the Red Spirit Flowers? Was his current mental state truly an illness?

His companion’s pleas and the voices of the Red Spirit Flowers echoed endlessly in his mind, plunging him deeper into confusion:

’Are these Red Spirit Flowers controlling me?’

’Why do they all insist that I’m sick?’

’Have I been infested by a parasite? Are my thoughts being warped?’

’Are the voices of the Red Spirit Flowers I hear just auditory hallucinations?’

As he kept questioning himself, a thought suddenly took root in Xi’s mind:

’This is all an illusion, created by the parasitic Red Spirit Flowers.’

The moment he’d brought the Red Spirit Flowers into being through his healing, he had been taken over by this parasitic life form. They called him "Father" only to use him. The dependence he felt was nothing but a delusion.

The Red Spirit Flowers were using him to spread their pollen, to expand across Hundred Flowers Island. He was their puppet, and he hadn’t even realized it.

The Elder Council and his companion knew he was sick. To protect him, they could only try to persuade him, hoping he would slowly realize the truth. But he had been obstinate, stubbornly protecting the real culprits: the Red Spirit Flowers.

’So that’s how it is... So that’s how it is...’

Everything made sense now.

’So... I was the one who was sick all along!’