Gifting such a thing to any other type of being would certainly be considered an insult. Even if there weren’t any flies circling the pile of soil and organic matter, it didn’t make him any less aware of what it was. On the plus side, the fertilizer was somewhat processed and not just fresh from a ‘producer’. It had a powerfully earthy smell and not the sort that might evacuate a queasy stomach. Modifying worms to produce spectacular fertilizer was something that the Lang Clan Research Teams had become experts at long ago. It was one of the things done to revolutionize agricultural production in the Inner World, both to raise the standard of living of its inhabitants as well as to increase the yield of natural treasures.
A root swung out from beneath the giant flower and wrapped around the soil. The tip of the root sunk into the fertilizer, which Sage assumed was it sampling the goods, and then the root coiled around the whole pile and swept it back towards the giant flower’s base. Large leaves swung forward to hide what it was doing. Sage didn’t mind. He let the flower do as it wished. When it finally stopped moving he gave the flower a nod and then lifted his hand and swept it in a wide circle to indicate the solarium around them.
“This is not a bad place for you to live. It’s quite the unique location in this world, but I think it’s not right for you. From the look of your vines outside, you don’t do so well outside of this place. What I think is that it's only barely good enough for you here.”
The flower did not move or react to his words in any way, so he still had no idea if the Demonic Plant could understand him. On the plus side, the lack of aggression could also be construed as having its attention. Even if it didn’t understand his words, as long as it could understand the message he wanted to convey then things would work out.
“I can take you away from here, to a place I guarantee will support you. Not only will you be able to live, but you’ll be able to thrive. That fertilizer I gave you is barely a little taste of what you can have.”
At this point, the flower’s large central stalk swayed from side to side and Sage had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but at least it wasn’t a denial. Of course, he was mostly just fooling around to see how intelligent this Demonic Plant was. The real key to his success and the reason he didn’t just refine another Heart’s Tongue suddenly appeared next to him.
Two figures were brought out from the Inner World and they took a quick look around them before bowing towards the giant flower. They were a slightly short, rotund man and a tall full bodied woman with a thick frame and an even thicker chest. The middle-aged man was at a height that put his face at the same height as the woman’s chest and he had to visibly turn away from the woman at his side to salute the white flower. Meanwhile, the woman gave the flower a somewhat fierce glance and a careful inspection. Then she raised her nose up and leaned her chest up against the man’s shoulder, grabbing his arm and holding it possessively.
You think the flower vine is going to steal your crab husband?
Sage resisted the urge to roll his eyes and then looked at the woman and cleared his throat, “Ahem. This is Pang Xie and Pang Jiangbei. I’ve brought them here to show you my offer is genuine.”
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The two of them had already been briefed on the Inner World and Sage gave Jiangbei, specifically, a look. She was also a Demonic Plant, the only other one that Sage had ever run into and he was counting on her translating and communicating with this flower vine to bring it over to his side. Eventually, it seemed that his glare finally convinced Jiangbei that the white flower wasn’t trying to steal her husband, since she stepped forward and a root extended from the skirts of her hanfu and sunk into the ground.
Plants communicate through their roots, right?
After a few moments, Jiangbei turned around to face Sage and gave him a smile, “She agrees. She also wants to know if you can give her a Human Seal first?”
Well, that was easy.
Sage nodded and closed his eyes. Then he opened them a moment later and they were filled with stars. Gazing into his pupils would be like gazing into the universe and he viewed the past and the future of the white flower at the same time. A few minutes later he formed a deep enough crux and stepped forward. His hands moved quickly and formed an ephemeral shape, one that twisted and turned in the sky. An ever changing and glowing character that he carried upon the tip of his finger. When he closed the distance he reached into the center of the flower blossom and moved the palm sized symbol floating over his finger into position. It sunk into the center of the snowy white petals and then started to glow even brighter.
With just a flash, the giant vine with a brilliant white flower blossom disappeared. In its place, there was a young girl that looked to not yet be a teenager. Sage wrapped a robe around her shoulders and then handed a Memory Sphere to Jiangbei, “Okay, tell her not to resist and then supervise her learning on the Inner World.”
Then, the small girl along with the pair of husband and wife disappeared again, drawn into the Inner World. Sage’s eyes suddenly widened as he soon heard some interesting news from the girl a few days later once she’d gotten a little used to her new form. On the outside that time passed in a flash and he ran forward, sending the clone vines he passed on the way into the Inner World. They weren’t able to resist him in the slightest now that the mother vine had disappeared. He ran to a small rock formation and then pulled back some of the largest rocks to reveal a watermelon sized crystal. It was a bright amber color and there was a darker spot at the center of it. He moved a few more rocks out of the way and then the large crystal disappeared. Not wasting any more time he ran around the yard, collecting every one of the vines clones and did the same thing in the corridors and on the outside of the solarium before bringing out the Red Comet and flying off.
On the Inner World, Sage was stunned by the giant crystal. The white flower, Hong Xiaxue or Red Summer Snow, was excited to see her most precious treasure. She was very familiar with it after possessing it for so long, but she was also a bit taken aback.
“It was always so comfortable to be near my stone in the past, but now…”
As she trailed off, the large woman, Jiangbei, helped her finish, “Being here is already many times more comfortable than on the outside, right?”
The little girl nodded and Sage was somewhat enlightened himself. He knew that the Seed of Life was the fabled perfect companion for Demonic Plants, but he didn’t really understand the details of why. It had been his assumption that it was because he could tailor an environment specifically to match a plant's most perfect habitat, but it seemed that he was underestimating the Seed of Life. His current state of surprise was also a good example of the Seed of Life’s power because once he’d brought this crystal into the Inner World it was no longer able to hide from him.