Alex and Zhou Linfan arrived on the old island a day later when most of the soldiers had gone far away. They quickly made their way to the location where Zhou Linfan had found the Spirit Cleansing Lily.
When Alex did arrive, he couldn't help but show a small glimpse of shock on his face. The place where the Spirit Cleansing Lily grew was a massive flower field with dozens of Spirit Cleansing Lilies at the least.
Counting the flowers alone, there were thousands that were clumped together at about 20 to 40 flowers in a single clump.
Alex slowly landed next to the flower field and looked up close at one of the clumps in front of him.
"You don't have a spiritual sense, so I'll help you," the old man said. "I don't really know how one picks the right lily though, so you will have to help me. I'm expecting you know ho—"
Alex reached for one of the flowers and picked it. The red lily was easily torn away from the batch of lilies it was in, the flower and stalk lying simply on Alex's hand.
The batch of flowers below him did not wilt immediately. They would in a few days of time, but the lack of it right now proved that Alex had picked the right one.
Alex couldn't help but smile.
"You picked the correct one?" the old man asked from behind with a look of confusion. "Was I wrong? Do you not need a spiritual sense for this?"
"You do… normally," Alex said, failing to hide his grin.
"What was abnormal about this one?" the old man asked.
Alex shook his head. "I'm making use of a body cultivation technique that changed part of my physique," he said. The Demon Eyes were still working perfectly fine.
He could see the slight difference in the energy that was in the flowers and knew which one to pick. He didn't even need to get help from the Intent hidden in his mind.
He stood up and looked at the other with his glowing purple eyes. It was annoying that there was a layer of haze in front of him that was formed from the simple energies that were ever present in the air.
If he could somehow train himself to ignore them, then his Demon Eyes' usefulness would skyrocket immediately.
As it was right now, he had to walk over to the individual clumps of flowers and crouch down to see them clearly enough to see which one it was that he needed to pick.
He picked the correct one and moved on.
Along the way, he also taught the old man the way to pick Spirit Cleansing Lily. All one really needed was a strong spiritual sense and a bit of practice.
The old man had to look into the group of flowers and find the flower from amongst it that was different enough that only it could be the real one of the bunch.
Once he figured out which one it was, the job was all but done.
In just a matter of a few minutes, they managed to gather all the Spirit Cleansing lilies in the area and left back to the main island.
There were warning formations that were still broken on the other side, so they had to be careful each time they left.
Returning to the island, the old man gave all of the flowers to Alex and sat down beside him to watch. "I'm curious how it is going to work," he said. "How can eating a plant like this help when it is definitely supposed to be used in an entirely different way."
There was no way there weren't people before Alex who had tried to eat the plant. If it did anything wonderful, people would've known already. The fact that it was unheard of meant that it was most likely not very useful.
"As I said, I've never tried eating these before," Alex said. "So it will be my first time too. I'm not expecting it to improve my spiritual strength past what it was at my peak. I just hope it will help me get back there quickly. I most definitely need that."
The old man nodded. "Go on then, eat it. I can't imagine anything bad happening from this flower," he said.
Alex didn't either. Still, he was nervous. He took a deep breath and gobbled up the first flower. He chewed the flower maybe 3 times before immediately swallowing it, not wanting it to lose any of its precious energy.
His body, almost feeling the incoming plant, worked to consume it. And consume it did.
Alex immediately felt a wave of energy pass through his mind like cool spring water. He felt as though he was jolted awake and the energy kept on flowing through the flower.
That continued for about 3 minutes before it finally stopped and it left Alex breathing ragged breath as he had forgotten to take in a breath for most of that duration.
"This… this is incredible," he thought to himself. He looked around, his eyes focusing on multiple objects at once, something he couldn't do before. His mental strength had definitely improved a lot because of this.
Alex quickly stepped up and walked up to the Spirit measuring formation and urged the old man to start it.
Zhou Linfan hadn't expected Alex to be this much in a hurry and did as he was asked. He activated the formation, ready to close it within a few seconds, at most 10.
However, when the spiritual energy assaulted Alex, Alex remained upright, the bowl of water he was made to hold not even rippling the slightest amount.
In fact, Alex smiled at the mental assault. This was a pitiful amount of damage. The damage continued to build up of course. In 9 seconds. It reached the True Lord realm, where he had last failed.
And then it crossed through to 10 seconds and continued.
And Alex barely showed any signs of frustration at all. He could go on for much longer now.
The old man wondered just how good the flower was. Should he try and eat one as well?
The strength of the formation reached the True King realm, and then to the True Emperor realm. Around this time, Alex finally started showing some struggle. He was starting to feel the burden but could continue for a bit longer.
Second by second, the burden increased until it finally reached the Saint Condensation realm. It was then that Alex truly felt the pain and dropped the water.
Zhou Linfan took no time to shut down the formation and grabbed Alex just in case he fell down.
"I'm fine," Alex said as he held his head. "What did I reach?"
"Saint Condensation realm," the old man said. "Maybe the 2nd or 3rd realm. It's not very accurate."
Alex slowly nodded as he understood something. "I see," he said. "So a Spirit Cleansing Lily has enough energy in it to send a person's spiritual strength directly to a Saint level."
A few things started to make sense and a few more questions emerged in Alex's mind.
It was likely that a cultivator could unlock their spiritual sea with this because of the amount of energy it held within it. As for why they didn't reach that level of strength when opening it, or after their second and third consumption, it may have something to do with their cultivation base being low.
'They don't open their dantian until they are in the Saint realm,' Alex thought. 'Maybe that is what is blocking their improvement through the flower. But at the same time, when you do end up opening the dantian, you're already strong enough to open a Spiritual sea on your own.'
That did bring up the question of why only 3 were allowed. Was there some sort of limit to how many a body could handle before it rejected the lily?
'Or maybe the Heavens just don't want it to happen,' Alex thought. A lot of things could be attributed to the Heavens. 'And this one is descended from the plant that the Moon Goddess blessed.'
Alex wondered what the original plant was and could do.
"I'll eat another one," he told the old man and proceeded to do so. The feeling he got from this one was not as liberating as the last one, but it was still fun.
The old man reached down and grabbed one of the lilies and ate it as well. There was no flavor to the flower, so he chewed down on it with a dull expression and swallowed it.
And then… nothing happened.
"Should I be feeling something?" the old man asked.
"I… have a somewhat special body," Alex told the man. "Maybe only I can do it."
"Huh? You should've told me before," the old man said with a grunt as he spit out the bits of flower petals in his mouth.
Alex ignored the man and waited until he didn't get the feeling of his mental strength improving. Once it stopped, he waited for a few minutes just in case and ate another one.
One after another, Alex ate a total of 42 Spirit Cleansing Lily and by the end of it, he felt almost as good as he did when he was a cultivator.
He made Zhou Linfan run the formation again and tested his strength. He had reached the late Saint Core realm in terms of strength.
That was still quite far from where his spiritual strength had been, but this would have to do.
"This will be enough," Alex said with a look of expectation on his face. "It's time I got my cultivation back."
