The Wicked Seed

When the fifth woman appeared at Du Chen's doorstep, Du Chen was still blissfully unaware of the immense trouble he was about to face. On the contrary, he was grinning from ear to ear.

“What in the world is going on!?”

Du Chen scratched his head with one hand, while with the other, he fiddled with a... fire poker? A rolling pin? A teaching rod? Or perhaps... well, it was a stick-shaped object of some kind.

After a recent examination, he discovered that the first lotus on the Lih Trigram had fully bloomed, and 'Old Eight' had detached from his body. When infused with inner strength, it transformed into a dark-red, thumb-thick, two-foot-long small rod! While each of the Lotus Sacred Artifacts was more peculiar than the last, and previous ones still retained some semblance of a lotus, 'Old Eight' was just a bare stick. No matter how he looked at it, it bore no resemblance to a lotus.

After much fruitless research, Du Chen, unable to find any answers, had no choice but to call for help: “Fifth Brother, come out!”

Fifth Brother utterly ignored Du Chen. It was quite clear, just who was 'Old Five' anyway!?

Du Chen rolled his eyes, plucked Old Five from his person, and with a 'splat,' slammed it onto the Lotus Pedestal. Instantly, the soft, squishy Old Five was flattened into a pancake. Gripping Old Eight—the dark-red rod—Du Chen fiercely poked Old Five, his voice laced with impatience: “You dare throw a tantrum with me now!? Quickly, explain what Old Eight is for!? And what good deed did I even perform to make a lotus bloom!?”

Old Five endured Du Chen's pokes and curses without a sound. Instead, it curled up, stuck itself to Old Eight, and then, with several turns, completely enveloped Old Eight. It then remained motionless, as if paralyzed.

Du Chen truly had no patience left for Old Five. He surrendered, saying, “I get it, I was wrong, Fifth Brother!! Happy now?”

“Mhm, that’s more like it. When you need something, calling me Fifth Brother is the way to go!” Old Five finally spoke, its languid voice drawling, “First, about the blooming. From what I, Fifth Brother, can tell, this battle qi advancement of yours is similar to when you eliminated Kuban. Both instances involved punishing a great villain. No, not just a great villain, but a truly blood-soaked, heinous, monstrous fiend who has likely flayed tens of thousands alive! Far more wicked, a hundred, a thousand times over, than that Fiendkind Marshal Kuban!”

Du Chen scoffed, “Marshal Kuban was already a Fiendkind Marshal from the Era of Fallen Gods, his hands stained with endless blood. If someone is a thousand times more wicked than him, could it be the King of the Fiendkind!?”

Old Five scoffed in return, “Go on now. In my opinion, while Kuban was a bastard, most of the people he killed were soldiers on the battlefield; casualties are inevitable when two nations clash! But this great fiend you just dispatched... likely slaughtered countless common folk!”

“Did my Merit this time truly come from punishing evil?” Du Chen meticulously recalled the entire sequence of events, but found no clue. Strictly speaking, he had saved the life of the Tyran Beast Roxane this time, which indirectly meant saving the other small Tyran Beast in her belly. Other than that, there was nothing else, was there? Could it be...

A faint idea sparked within him, and Du Chen asked, “You've been by my side all this time; you should know who I punished, right?”

“Of course, I know! Who am I? Fifth Brother, the one you can always count on! Heh, it was that white light!” Old Five climbed down from Old Eight, coiling into a small, snake-like rod, and nodded its tip.

Du Chen had already considered it, yet he was still taken aback. “What in the world was that white light, to be so much more wicked than even Marshal Kuban!?”

He took out Old Four and unfurled it. By now, the undead white light had been completely purified, but upon unfurling Old Four, he found a thumb-sized... object that resembled a tree seed! Du Chen wasn't knowledgeable about plants and couldn't identify what kind of seed it was!

“This is it. And let me tell you, this fellow isn't entirely dead yet!” Old Five's tone turned sinister. “Who knows, one day it might suddenly erupt. Even if it can't kill you with your Holy Light protection, eliminating Deboning, Belmonde, Harry, and the like would be no challenge for it! Its latent, deep-seated power already exceeds the limits of my current sensory perception. If your Holy Light hadn't coincidentally been its bane, perhaps all of us would have been wiped out today!”

Du Chen was gravely startled and immediately conceived the idea of destroying the seed. He even channeled a lotus and slammed it onto the tree seed.

However, the tree seed remained perfectly unharmed!

“Useless!” Fifth Brother scoffed. “This fellow... how should I put it? Your Holy Light can destroy its physical form, but it's currently insufficient to destroy its soul. Not even you, its natural bane, can do it. Its deep potential is simply too immense. It can be imprisoned by you, but not completely annihilated! At least, not at this stage!”

Pausing, Old Five said to Du Chen, who was stroking his nose, “So, as long as you diligently perform good deeds, one day you'll definitely be able to completely destroy it!”

Du Chen was silent for a moment. “What should I do now?”

“Throw it into Old One. I still haven't fully figured out the three Old Ones on the Qian Trigram, but I can vaguely sense that those three are anything but ordinary! Let Old One slowly transform it. Who knows, maybe one day it can even turn it into a good person! That would be truly interesting!”

Du Chen's heart eased. Thinking of the Grand Matriarchs' past mutations and the changes in Composite Aberrant Beasts Soul Crystal, he couldn't help but crack a faint smile as he tossed the tree seed into the Number One Lotus Pedestal!

Given how wicked this seed was, if the Lotus Pedestal could truly transform it for the better, that would be an immense good deed! Moreover... Du Chen mused with a smug grin, given the seed's power, if it turned good and pledged allegiance to him... Heh!

“What are you thinking? Grinning like an idiot!?”

Du Chen, almost choked by Fifth Brother's remark, pouted. A flash of inspiration struck him, and he hurriedly asked, “Right, isn't it more than just punishing evil? Since this tree seed is so wicked, by preventing it from coming into the world, wouldn't I be stopping a major catastrophe...”

“Alright, alright, are you dreaming? Wake up!” Old Five impatiently cut Du Chen off. “Your logic doesn't count as a good deed! To kill without cause is a sin! Understand!? As for preventing a catastrophe, that's an entirely different matter and can't be confused with this!”

Du Chen smiled wryly, thinking, *He's right. If a blood-soaked villain escaped from somewhere, and he caught and killed him, at most it would be making the villain pay for past crimes. It couldn't be considered preventing a catastrophe—after all, what if the villain had no intention of killing anyone after escaping? Then killing him wouldn't be killing without cause?*

Upon closer thought, Du Chen still felt a bit awkward, but since Fifth Brother had said it, then the Precious Scroll must judge it this way. Du Chen could only accept it; after all, his meager strength was no match for the Precious Scroll's ultimate authority.

“Mhm, what you said makes some sense. Now, let's talk about Old Eight and the combination. Since the second trigram can be combined, can the first trigram also be combined?”

“What do you mean 'makes some sense'? Hmph!” Fifth Brother snorted, then continued, “The three Old Ones can definitely be combined; I know that for a fact. But as for *how* to combine them... Heh, I haven't figured that out yet—they seem too formidable for me to understand in a short while!”

Du Chen rolled his eyes, but Fifth Brother immediately choked him off, “Don't blame me for being incompetent! It's because *you* haven't done enough good deeds! If you did enough good deeds to fully open all Bagua, then I, Fifth Brother, could call all our brothers and sisters, and each of us could crush that tree seed with a single finger! Hmph, it's all your fault for doing too few good deeds, making me now inferior to even that tiny seed!”

Du Chen stood with hands on his hips, staring at Fifth Brother, speechless for a long moment.

“As for Old Eight,” Fifth Brother shook its body and crawled back into Du Chen's sleeve, “I've only figured out that it's definitely related to fire!”

Following this, Old Five muttered to itself, “A contradiction, isn't it? You're a water-attributed Battle-Warrior, so why would your sacred artifact be related to fire? Possessing both water and fire attributes... that's practically the Divine Realm itself...” Gradually, Fifth Brother's voice faded away.

“Hey, wait! You still haven't told me, besides spitting fluid to complete the final step of sacred artifact combination, what other uses do you have!?”

Du Chen didn't get an answer from Fifth Brother. By now, Battle God Isle lay beneath his feet, and the lights of Dormitory Number Eighteen came into view. Simultaneously, several incredibly headache-inducing voices pierced Du Chen's ears.

“Hey! What right do you have to contend with my sister Annie? You're just a Prime Minister's granddaughter, but my sister, she's... never mind, you wouldn't understand even if I told you. But let me tell you, Annie's family background is something you can't compare to...” It was Kristina's voice.

Avril's voice was placid, yet seethed with anger, “Miss Annie, I believe that family background should not obstruct two people from being together. From your demeanor, I can tell you come from a prominent household, but...”

“Sister Kristina, please stop arguing!” Annie's voice was filled with helplessness and resignation.

Helen, however, skillfully played both sides, offending no one, speaking well of everyone.

And the fifth woman was Professor Mina, a Holy Church spy codenamed 'Miss Rose.' This beautiful spy, for reasons unknown and with intentions unclear, stroked her Elf Race's uniquely long ears. Far from breaking up the argument, she stood by, smiling mischievously, fanning the flames and making the already fervent 'discussion' even more heated.

Hidden far away within the Precious Lotus Scripture, watching these five women, Du Chen's head buzzed. He flew to a large tree by the Water River, retracted the Precious Lotus Scripture, and materialized on a tree branch, rolling his eyes.

This... this was truly a colossal headache!

Helen would be the easiest to handle; she surely came to beg him to save her father and Sulan. Professor Mina would be next; she undoubtedly had some Holy Church mission to convey. These two women could be dispatched with ease.

But Annie and Avril... alas. Still, Kristina's attitude offered Du Chen some comfort—she had consistently supported Annie. That 'gang boss's daughter' who once clamored to accompany him for a month should merely see him as a common friend. That, at least, was an exceptionally good sign!

Scratching his head, Du Chen chuckled bitterly. He had ways to deal with troublesome women—scheming, swindling, tricking, stealing; if all else failed, he could even kill them and bury them deep. But when it came to women utterly devoted to him, Du Chen truly had no recourse. He simply couldn't bring himself to use such underhanded or cruel tactics against them!

“Rustle, rustle!” The sound of wind rustling leaves seemed to mock Du Chen. Suddenly, a large, icy hand gripped Du Chen's neck.