Wreath of Lilies, Cauldron of Poison

Chapter 168

The Middle Way

Connie’s words shocked Akula. So much that she could not form coherent words. She stood frozen for a few seconds before she finally spoke.

“Wh-wh…what do you mean by death? Y-you are joking with me, right?” Illumca said sternly. “Because if you are, it’s not funny.”

“I don’t joke about something so serious,” Connie replied, eyes still staring straight at the liquid silver that reflected her face. “I’m going to rebuild this body from scratch, similar to the way that I built your body. Albeit, with some…modifications.”

“Then, it’s not going to kill you,” Illumca said, trying to make sense of their discussion. “Because I lived through it, right? So, you too, should -!”

“This is different. I will have to die.”

“Then find another way!”

“There’s no other way!” Connie cut in.

“What are you guys talking abou - ?” Akula, who had lost the thread of conversation stopped mid-sentence when she saw Illumca warning her with a silent pointing of her finger.

Lihua, who was sitting next to the Centaur tapped her shoulder and shook her head meaningfully.

“Look, it’s different. When you underwent the process, we had a body ready to be used. What I’m doing is…” Connie tried to find a way to explain what her plan was, and found that everything she said will just make it worse. “…you just have to know that in the best case, I will be reborn anew.”

“And in the worst case?” she demanded.

“…” Connie took a deep breath. “…death. True death.”

“Death…” Illumca repeated the word with a derisive chuckle, finger trembling next to her face. “Death. You say it so easily. Like it’s something…normal.”

“I know you might not think of me the way I think about you…” she said with arms trembling and tears brimming in her eye. “But at least I thought you had an idea of how much I love you! How much I care!!”

Connie was agape. She did not expect that Illumca would have such a strong reaction to this. The other two were more easily accepting of her news.

“Death…!” She repeated the word once more, shaking her head angrily. “You say that to become stronger, you need to die. And you -!” she jabbed a finger at Connie. “…you expect me to just accept it and say, ‘Alright’? You are so –,” Illumca shook her head angrily. “So…selfish!!”

Slap!

Illumca saw the red mark on Connie’s cheek and the pain in her hand. She could not believe what she just did and clasped her hands over her mouth. “No, I don’t mean…!” she panted. Her heart was drowning in a mix of anger, love, and worry, that she exploded. “I…I…”

Without finishing her sentence, Illumca turned around and vanished into the trees.

The three women staying behind, were left flabbergasted. It was only after a few seconds digesting what happened, that Akula broke the silence.

“I know it’s not for me to say anything, seeing that a glorious death is a Tonsulde’s greatest wish,” Akula said with a shrug. “But I still think that you’ve really done it this time, Connie.”

“You really should re-learn how to handle women, Mistress,” Lihua said with a disappointed look.

“Urgh…” Connie said pathetically. The slap did not hurt much, but the sting in her heart did.

That night, Illumca did not return to eat dinner.

This continued until the next day when Connie was about to enter the Dungeon. Still there was no sign of her.

“Is she still not back?” the blonde girl asked worriedly.

“She came to my place last night. She said that she…doesn’t want to see you,” Akula said with a sigh. “This is the first time I see her acting like this.”

“Me too. I mean, we’ve gone through many life and death situations before this. Why is it different this time?” Connie said with a bewildered look.

“…” Lihua bopped respectfully as she said. “If you don’t mind this one saying. If you don’t understand what you did wrong, Mistress…then you really are hopeless.”

“What? Why?!”

“There is a big difference between saying, ‘I might die’ and saying, ‘I will die’. Seems like being single for too long had dulled your courtship abilities. We will have to have a discussion about this soon.”

As Connie was being lectured by Lihua, Arryn approached them with a quick bow.

We have fixed the Gate Rune, so you can go directly down to the Fifth Floor. Fortunately, a Gate Rune only needs the right Rune and Mana tools to be fixed. Some of the more prepared members of the Clan had stored a few spares in hidden places.

She pointed at the shimmering circle that was guarded by Leyn.

“Alright. Time is of the essence. Don’t forget what I told you, Akula,” Connie said. She’d rather talk about anything else and just wanted to get this over with.

Akula did a quick salute before saying. “Are you…really sure about leaving things like this, Connie?”

“I’ll…handle the matter with Illumca after I succeeded. If not, then…” she stopped and chewed her lips. “Let’s just hope I have the chance to be harangued later.”

Lihua and Connie descended to the Fifth Floor using the Gate Rune.

The place was still mostly as they left it. The dried blood of fallen victims of the fight; both green and red, had seeped into the stones. Connie had been wanting to visit the Research Chamber when she was told of its existence, but did not have the chance until now.

It was a vile place. She could imagine the many atrocious things that were done in that place by just seeing the stains and smelling the putrid stench that had become one with the place. However, she could not deny that the materials and results that had been gathered in that place were of great value.

With the help of Lihua, Connie gathered those materials that could be used for her plan and put them into her Item Ring, including a few large cauldrons of decent quality she found there. She then descended to the to the chamber where they fought Bet-Zebek the first time.

The place had not been touched since then, and the remnants of their fierce battle could still be seen on its walls.

“This looks to be a good place to start.”

“There is only one entrance to this chamber,” Lihua commented as she looked up to the ceiling where they dropped down from. “This place is strangely isolated from the rest of the Dungeon.”

“Exactly why I chose this place,” Connie commented. “I want you to seal the entrance to the chamber above me.”

“Are you sure, Mistress? How are you going to get out of here?”

“You know like I do the first ability that all who had broken through to Treading Earth Stage have,” She explained. “…I don’t want anyone to disturb me while I’m working. Also…it’s to avoid unwanted circumstance.”

“…as you command, Mistress,” Lihua bowed before her and spoke a heartfelt word of encouragement. “May the He –“ she was about to finish the sentence, but remembered that what Connie was about to do might as well be a blasphemy towards the Heavens. She quickly corrected herself. “Good luck to you, Mistress.”

Connie watched as the Queen of the Frozen Caves rose into the air.

The black-haired Lihua then closed the heavy stone door that led into the chamber below and used her power to seal the door with thick ice.

She bowed to the direction pf the door with clasped hands one more time before returning to the surface.

Left in the dark chamber, Connie built a fire using wood that she had gathered beforehand. She first inspected the room with Chen and Yao-Er trailing behind. Her steps making crunching sounds as they pressed against the floor.

She touched the surface of one of the fallen pillars and spoke. “Let’s clean this place up a bit. Okay, Chen?”

The slime made an affirmative jiggle. Connie channeled Energy into both hands and gripped hard the stone pillar. Starting from her fingers, a crack began to appear on the its surface, which quickly crawled across the whole thing. When Connie withdrew her hand, the stone pillar crumbled.

The two proceeded to clean up the place until they had a reasonably clean place to start. Yao-er could only watch as they did it.

With that small distraction done with, Connie began her preparation and placed large swathes of cloths on the floor. After that, she took out all the Items she needed from the Item Ring.

Thousands of poisonous plants and mushrooms; a mound of venomous creatures and insects; buckets and buckets of Pills, of many varying sizes and effects, were poured onto the cloths.

Chen and Yao-er approached the mound of Pills with the curiosity of a child looking at a shiny new coin.

She also took out the large cauldrons she took from the Research Chamber, along with the massive, bone materials gathered from the Bet-Zebek’s body.

Finally, she took out the most crucial thing she needed for her rebirth.

A few buckets of the Holy Water that she got from the Miracle the Maiden of Water performed many days ago. She had used a good deal of it to create Pills, and it was then that she found out that the Pills she created using the water contained Divinity within it.

“Are you wondering what I’m going to do with these, you two?” Connie said to the two curious Contracted Beasts. She had little trust that the two would even understand her explanation, but she did it regardless, as the matter with Illumca weighed on her more heavily than she suspected. She needed to refocus herself.

“You see, this body…is weak and imbalanced. No matter how much I temper it and train it, it’s already reached its peak. The damage to me when using the Art of Impermanence is also due to this body’s fragility.”

“Yin Gu Body Tempering can strengthen the body, but it is limited by the raw materials. Just like you cannot make a good sword from pig iron, no matter how good the Blacksmith is. Yes, that is the level of talent this body had. Lower than average.”

“Therefore, it needed to be broken down and rebuild from scratch.”

Connie did a roundhouse kick filled with Energy, which blew off the dust and small rocks leftover from the cleaning they did; leaving a clean surface that she could work with.

She then put on the Crimson Serpentbane and used its sharp tip to carve verses of the Soul Reversing Sutra on the stone floor. They burned white as soon as each letter were written.

“Unlike the first time with Illumca, there’s no one to guide me. And no one that can help me if this fails.”

“There’s even a chance that my soul will be reborn in another world even if I succeed,” She gritted her teeth. “Just like what happened to me upon my death in my old world. Or worse yet, I might lose my soul in the Sunyata.”

Connie noticed the look of worry from both her Contracted Beasts. Despite one having no face and the other having face that not even a mother could love, she could still sense their worry.

“That’s why, I need something that will tie me to this body. An anchor,” Connie explained.

“I do this, because of love. I do this, because of hate. I do, this because of attachment,” Connie spoke as she wrote the verses, reminding herself of her goal, sweat dripping from her brows. “The Three Poisons of Moha, Raga, and Advesa shall be that anchor. But I must not be controlled by it. I must balance myself so I do not go to either extreme. I must take the Middle Way.”

“But rebirth alone will not be able to make the perfect foundation,” she said as she stood before the finished circle that was glowing white.

She then began dismantling the bones of Bet-Zebek, choosing only the finest and undamaged bones before throwing them into a cauldron. “I need a strong foundation. Stronger bones. And the bones of Bet-Zebek happened to be able to defend against the power of the Art of Impermanence. But we could not use it as is, we need to purify it.” She then poured the buckets of water into the cauldron and let it soak. The malice contained within the bones made a hiss as they came into contact with the water. Connie made a fire below the cauldron to start boiling it from cold.

“I will first refine the bones using the Divine Marrow Washing cleansed by Holy Water created by a Miracle to produce Divine Bones. Then integrate the bones into my body.”

“While waiting for the result, I must make the concoctions that will help me in achieving the next stage,” she raised her arms and the mounds of poisonous materials went into different cauldrons in front of her.

“And last but not least,” Connie pointed at Chen, who was looking at his Mistress with awe. “The seeds of disease that you have gathered inside you, Chen. Together, we shall create a miracle of Alchemy!”