‘If this continues, won't it eventually turn my entire body's microbiome into terrifying biochemical weapons that can be used to attack external enemies?’

Li Cheng颐 felt a mix of amusement and a faint sense of trepidation.

The direction he was heading was an uncharted path. No one knew what lay in the depths of that road, what would happen.

No one knew.

No one told him what impact the Flower of Evil would have when it forcibly elevated him to a much higher level while he was cultivating martial arts and pursuing imprints.

Now, ordinary flower scale armor had little effect on him. The small percentage increase was far less useful than flower language against various enemies with bizarre abilities.

He reached out and gently wiped, igniting strands of death energy in his palm, quickly annihilating the black microbiome in front of him.

Death energy was the most suitable cleaning tool for these living things that were numerous and tenacious.

As the death energy spread, a layer of ice formed on the doors and windows due to the low temperature.

Withdrawing his hand, Li Cheng颐 felt the terrifying transformation of his entire body, as if he had been reborn, and let out a long breath.

‘Next, I should continue with the next step of arrangements. I can't delay going back for too long, otherwise the mysterious dead corner will accumulate too much difficulty… it might bring about some rather troublesome changes.’

He was doing everything he could to improve himself here.

This was his biggest purpose in coming to Midraen.

Immediately, he tidied his clothes and pushed open the door to leave the quiet room. Next, after the evolution was complete, it was time to choose a new tenth main flower.

But before choosing the tenth main flower, he needed to do one thing first.

Inside the botanical garden.

Liu Mingyang, who was in charge of management, bowed his head and reported the current flower situation to Li Cheng颐.

"Now, the crape myrtle, wisteria, gladiolus, butterfly orchid, sunflower and other flower areas have been arranged, but the collection of *jie mao fei lian* (nodding beggarticks) flower clusters is inconvenient. Although it is the flowering season, this flower itself has no ornamental value due to its small size, and it is rarely used for medicinal purposes, so there are very few products for sale. It can only be collected by going to Wanmu Mountain..."

"Five out of ten flowers here come from Wanmu Mountain. Enough nonsense, how much have you gotten now?" Li Cheng颐 interrupted him, somewhat impatiently.

The shadow replacement of the Shadow Dragon bloodline was quite useful, which made him want to upgrade the Shadow Dragon bloodline to its ultimate form as soon as possible.

So, as soon as he became a Yin God, he spent a lot of money to establish a botanical garden, and at the same time acquired land to try to plant *jie mao fei lian*.

Because *jie mao fei lian* has already completed the collection and evolution of three kinds of variant flower qi, it is now extremely difficult to find new variants on Earth and Moon.

But it is different here. Different environments and different soils mean that the *jie mao fei lian* here is different from that on Earth and Moon.

So ordinary plants here are also variants for Li Cheng颐 at this time.

But the problem he faces now is that there are too few plants on the Black Soil Plains. The Red-Eye Disease Wildlings' virus ravages the land, making it almost impossible for flowers and plants to survive here.

Only Wanmu Mountain has a large number of plants growing because of the natural blood essence emitted by the Yaoxiang Yumu sect.

From this point of view, Li Cheng颐 actually wants to cooperate with Yaoxiang Yumu.

But unfortunately, that side is too chaotic, and they are natural enemies of the Shaoyin Kingdom sect, so he can only give up.

In essence, if it weren't for the fact that he arrived at the New Alliance Town first, he would most likely have gone to Wanmu Mountain first.

That is the most suitable place for him.

"So how much goods have you collected now?" Li Cheng颐 asked.

"...This... The merchants who were previously acquired... said they wouldn't sell at the original price... They want to increase the price by 40%," Liu Mingyang said hesitantly.

"Give it to them," Li Cheng颐 said casually.

The price of *jie mao fei lian* here is extremely expensive, and ordinary martial artists are slow to travel, which has led to him only collecting a little bit of flower seeds to plant until now, and the evolution degree has only reached 13%, which is far from 100.

"Yes..." Liu Mingyang hesitated.

"What do you want to say?"

"This subordinate was wondering, why doesn't the Lord go to Wanmu Mountain by himself? If it is just the edge of the mountain, there is not much of a safety problem. With the Lord's body movement speed, he should be able to return quickly."

"...Indeed… However, it’s just *jie mao fei lian*. If this time's flower seeds have already been sown, and if all goes well, they will bloom and bear fruit in a little over a year. There is no need to take risks in Wanmu Mountain."

This was Li Cheng頤's true thought. If you don't have capital, don't go to dangerous places to mess around. He never takes unnecessary risks. This is his motto.

Although the greater the risk, the greater the benefit, he doesn't need to take special risks given that he already has enough progress speed.

Luck is something that can only be used to gild the lily, not something to rely on.

"Yes, this subordinate was being inconsiderate," Liu Mingyang pleaded guilty.

"It's nothing," Li Cheng颐 replied. If he hadn't used up all the variants of *jie mao fei lian* on Earth and Moon, he would have carried out the next evolution long ago.

The limitation of flower qi made him have the idea of cultivating his own variants. The huge time flow rate between Midraen and Earth and Moon also seemed to give him the possibility of achieving such a goal.

*Fei lian* grass is generally a biennial or perennial plant. Depending on the specific type, the lifespan is also different. *Jie mao fei lian* is a unique branch among them.

If two-year-old flower seeds are cultivated for variation, if the cultivation is successful, a flower qi absorption can be completed within two years.

Seeing that he was thinking about a problem, Liu Mingyang quietly went down to contact the flower merchants.

Li Cheng颐, headed by Da Xiong and Chen Jiahan, massively collected flowers needed for the botanical garden and purchased black soil purified by true qi. This has now spawned a long industrial chain in Qu Ling Prefecture.

Flower merchants are one of the links. They originally did business in medicinal materials, but now, due to the large-scale demand of Li Cheng颐's botanical garden, they quickly obtained a lot of profits by spending a lot of money, and formed a system in the city.

Just over ten minutes after Liu Mingyang went down, soon, teams of farmers carrying bamboo baskets on their backs came to the periphery of the botanical garden. They uniformly placed the baskets on the steps in front of the gate of the botanical garden. Liu Mingyang accompanied the guards of the botanical garden to maintain order.

The baskets were opened one by one, filled with purple-red *jie mao fei lian* that looked like many small thorns gathered together.

Compared to Earth and Moon, the *jie mao fei lian* here is darker in color, tending to black.

Moreover, in order to prevent damage on the road, the flowers here are wrapped in special hard fur, and the outside is covered with hard metal flower pots to resist collisions throughout the whole process.

Liu Mingyang quickly issued silver notes to the flower merchant leader who still had bandages wrapped around his head.

Two hundred and twenty taels of silver per pot of flowers. This is the price of the acquisition. There are a total of hundreds of pots here, which is 22,000 taels of silver. This price includes the cost of hiring guard martial artists.

It includes the hardships and dangers of the two-year round trip.

There are also the shares of the entire team of hundreds of people, and the profit sharing of the intermediate agent contact person, etc.

For ordinary people, for ordinary martial artists, it is quite dangerous to simply take a trip to Wanmu Mountain, let alone go in to find flowers.

So Li Cheng颐 did not object to the flower merchants raising prices. If he wasn't afraid of attracting attention, he would even want to increase the price tenfold.

After paying the money, the flower pots were moved into the hall of the botanical garden one by one, waiting for the gardeners to inspect them.

Whoosh.

A black shadow fell, turning into Li Cheng頤's tall figure in black clothes.

"I'll check it myself," he ordered lightly.

"Yes." The gardeners retreated one after another.

Looking at the pots of flowers in front of him, a trace of anticipation rose in Li Cheng頤's heart.

Finally, finally, he could evolve the Shadow Dragon bloodline again.

He hadn't upgraded the bloodline he held for a long time. So this time, he finally came to Midraen and discovered new *jie mao fei lian*, which might allow the Shadow Dragon bloodline, which had already reached the ordinary level, to be promoted to a higher level.

Slowly approaching, Li Cheng頤 waved his hand to remove all the protective fur, bent down, and reached out to gently touch the purple-red small flowers of the first pot.

The pointed small flowers were like fluffy children's toys, trembling and extremely cute.

There were only a few three small flowers in the entire pot of plants, and the flowers were very small, only the size of a peach pit. It was difficult to absorb much flower qi.

It seemed that the varieties here were significantly more malnourished than those in Earth and Moon and the Silent Little Shop.

‘Come on... new evolution... new bloodline...’

As the distance got closer, Li Cheng頤's fingers gently touched the purple thorn-like petals.

Hiss.

In an instant, a clear and cold flower qi poured into his fingertips.

‘It works!!’ Although it looks like an ordinary variety of *jie mao fei lian* on the outside, the essence is different. It’s a variant!

Suddenly, Li Cheng颐 felt relieved. What he feared most was that it wasn't a variant, and it would be a time of hope turning into disappointment again.

Confirming that the flower qi could be absorbed and the evolution degree began to increase, he quickly touched with both hands, absorbing the flower qi from one pot after another.

It wasn't until the eighty-ninth pot that he finally absorbed 100% of the flower scale armor.

‘It’s done!’ He stood up and looked at the flower pots with satisfaction.

"There are no problems, take them down for transplanting. Pay attention to collecting flower seeds for variant cultivation. True qi and drug experiments can be used."

"Yes." The gardeners responded quickly. The high salary of thousands of taels a month given to them by the Fifth Yin God was not for them to be idle all day long.

After collecting the flower qi, it was time for evil thoughts again.

Before the main flower qi is complete, evil thoughts cannot be stored and can only be collected into the main flower grid after the flower qi is complete, so it must be collected and used now.

But Li Cheng頤 at this time was already quite experienced. Collecting evil thoughts here was much more convenient than on Earth and Moon.

"Tell Tianju Pavilion that I'm going out of the city to collect some training materials."

He casually gave instructions and asked Liu Mingyang to pass on the message, while he flashed out of the botanical garden in a shadow, tapped his toes on the ground, rose from the ground, and swept towards the outside of the city.

The terrifying body movement of several kilometers per second meant that martial artists of his level would hardly engage in any pomp and extravagance.

If you can cross the distance with one step, asking people to slowly and leisurely carry a sedan chair for ten minutes is purely idle and bored.

Therefore, almost all masters who have reached a certain level enter and exit the city on their own. Anyway, because the speed is too fast, most ordinary people can't react and can't see it.

It's the same reason why ordinary people can't see the bullets being fired.

The highest speed of a bullet when it leaves the gun is only one times the speed of sound, and it will quickly slow down due to air resistance.

Even so, ordinary people simply can't see it clearly, let alone blood essence martial artists who are several times the speed of sound.

More than ten minutes later, Li Cheng頤 stopped abruptly. The surrounding area was already a wilderness.

This was already the border area between the Shaoyin Kingdom and the Tushan Kingdom.

Although they were both Black Soil Plains, there were obviously boundary markers standing on the ground here.

Every few kilometers, there was a black five-meter-high giant stone tablet standing on the ground, with the boundary marker number and the specific location name here, as well as the time and year the monument was erected.

"It is impolite not to reciprocate. Tushan..." Li Cheng頤 looked at the plain behind the boundary marker, with a smile on his face.

Whoosh!

In an instant, he turned into a black shadow and shot into Tushan Kingdom's territory.

The black soil retreated rapidly beneath him, and dry black trees passed by from time to time on both sides.

The gust of wind brushed his face, and the air flow was divided to both sides by the blood essence like flowing water.

As he continued to penetrate into Tushan, soon, a square bunker built of black soil and black rock appeared in front of Li Cheng頤.

There were towers in the four corners of the bunker, serving as watchtowers and arrow towers.

The entire bunker was filled with the unique style of Midraen, which was its size.

The martial artists here were all giants with amazing strength and endurance, and they could easily climb walls and jump three feet high. The military fortresses they built naturally fully embodied the strong manpower.

The bunker in front of Li Cheng頤 was forty meters high and nearly a hundred meters wide. It was a typical temporary stronghold and small fortress.

"It's enough."

Li Cheng颐 tore off his black robe, revealing his strong and burly upper body inside. His body temperature of more than eighty degrees Celsius meant that as soon as he stopped, he was discovered by the martial artists inside the bunker.

The sensing range of true qi martial artists and blood essence martial artists far exceeded that of ordinary people. It was almost three or four hundred meters away from the bunker here, and it was a flat black plain, so they could quickly discover the situation.

(End of this chapter)