66. Blood flowers

After talking for a while Mei Lin tried to be as kind to them as she could. She looked like a blood demon, but she didn't want to scare them not to tell her anything. After talking for a while Mei Lin finally managed to ask the most important question.

"Did you probably see red flowers along the way here?"

"Yes, said Xia and showed her red flower. She unlike the rest of her friends liked the flowers and was not able to let them die there for nothing, so picked one of them up. She wanted to take more because they looked beautiful, but others did not let her pick them all, so she picked only the most beautiful.

"We saw these flowers yesterday when we arrived here. They were at the edge of the crater."

"Good, come with me and show me where they are. I need to find it as soon as possible."

"I don't think it a good idea. These flowers are not good. I have bad feelings about them. They look beautiful, but I don't feel good picking them up. We should not go there."

"What is this girl saying? I need to get blood flowers now or they will die," thought Mei Lin about the nonsense that Xia was talking about, but after hearing that, she got an idea.

'How could Xia know, that Bloodflowers are demonic flowers and are banned by the cultivators? Could it be that she could tell that Bloodflowers are born after bloodshed? If yes, she could help me find more of the flood flowers.'

Mei Lin didn't want to lose the opportunity to find blood flowers, but if Xia was not willing to see her where they were, she would need to look by herself.

Xia saw, that Mei Lin were these flowers important, so she agreed to go with her. "Come with me I will show you where they are, and then you can pick them yourself."

"All right, please lead the way."

"Sister should I go with you?" asked her brother, because he didn't want to be with others alone, despite their journey for a long time.

"No, I will be right back. Stay here and prepare me something good to eat. I will be back after a while."

Wong Luo didn't want to stay here, but he still listened to her sister and stayed there. Mei Lin and Lan Xia went to the place where she picked the flower.

"How long are you wandering like this?" Asked Mei Lin curiously.

"More than four months from the time, bandits restored our village. They promised us, that we could keep everything that we found. Our village is poor and we had no way to resist such an offer."

From then on they didn't talk anymore and as they were moving forward the edge of the crater. Once they were at the edge, Xia was looking all around, but there was nothing.

"These red flowers aren't here. I am sure that it was here," said Xia and both Mei Lin and Xia started looking around.

"Here, I found something,' said Xia.

Mei Lin went to Xia and looked at the ground. There were footprints all around. "Thank you, you can go back, I will look around for a bot and then go back."

"All right," said Xia and left as fast as possible.

Xia didn't know, why this flower was so important to Mei Lin, but before leaving she gave her the picked flower.

After Xia left, Mei Lin pulled out a pot with blood from the storage ring which contained the rest of the blood from the bandit in the tent, and started spraying the blood on the place, where Xia pointed. After emptying the pot, her heart bled.

She gave up nearly a liter of second-stage blood just to help blood flowers grow again. Blood flowers didn't show up so she plucked a flower into the ground and continued to spray it with blood from the bandits at the House. After pouring another half liter, Mei Lin stopped.

She felt was extremely despaired, because collecting this blood was life-threatening and it had no effect. She put away the bottle with blood and pulled out the crystal knife. After cutting her hand, Mei Lin started to spay her blood on the ground and the flower. After spilling more than half a liter, she was starting to feel dizzy. After just a little more, Mei Lin stopped and stared to watch Flower if something had happened.

The flower was slowly absorbing the blood so Mei Lin let her blood pour on the flower again. Mei Lin sat in the lotus position next to the flower and entered the cultivation state. She tried to slow down the blood that was leaving her body and to create more new blood as fast as possible. She didn't rest till the evening and thought the night.

*****

Early next morning.

Xia woke up thanks to the others and saw, that Mei Lin was not there. "Did Mei Lin come back here?"

No one knew where she was, so Xia quickly went to look where Mei Lin was and went to the place, where she first left her.

Xia saw that Mei Lin was watering the flower with her blood. "Hello, are you all right?... Do you need some help?"

Mei Lin didn't answer Xia, so she went in front of Mei Lin and saw her scarred hand and her fresh wound dripping blood onto the red flower. Xia looked at Mei Lin's injured hand and then started observing the flower.

Xia saw that the blood Mei Lin poured on it disappeared upon contact. As she looked closer, she discovered that the flower seemed to become more lively than before, as if it were still growing in the ground. After watching for more than half an hour, Xia felt that something was wrong. 'How is it possible, that a picked flower can regrow its roots like this? How is it possible that after bleeding all this time, Mei Lin hasn't stopped bleeding? What if she bleeds out?' Xia started worrying about Mei Lin's wound and felt that she might have caused Mei Lin harm, despite trying to help her.