Chapter 248: The Body of a Hundred Flowers

Long Chapter

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The Seven-Tailed Vixen moved with the fluid grace of a willow swaying in a spring breeze. Every step carried a natural rhythm, each movement flowing effortlessly into the next. It was not merely walking but something closer to a dance, a display of effortless, instinctive allure. Her scarlet silks fluttered softly around her body, light and loose enough that they barely concealed anything at all.

The thin fabric rose and fell with the gentle motion of her chest. Through the translucent silk, the faint rosy tips of her breasts were visible for fleeting moments whenever the cloth shifted in the wind.

The sight struck Marcus like a hammer to the chest.

’Good god…’

His heart thudded heavily against his ribs.

Marcus quickly shook himself, forcing his breathing to steady as he clung to the cover of the ancient tree. Losing focus now would be the fastest way to get himself killed.

Just as his attention lingered too long on the tantalizing sight, the vixen turned away, beginning to walk toward the woman in white.

The captivating view of her chest disappeared from his line of sight. In its place appeared the elegant silhouette of her back.

Marcus blinked once, then let out a quiet breath.

’Just when I thought the view had ended, another spring opens up,’ he mused to himself.

His brief disappointment faded almost instantly.

The new sight was no less mesmerizing.

The vixen’s back was almost completely bare. Only a single, thin scarlet thread ran across her shoulders, barely holding the silk garment in place. Her skin was pale as ivory, smooth and luminous even in the chaos of the battlefield. The curve of her spine flowed downward in a graceful line, narrowing into a waist so slender that Marcus was certain he could wrap both hands around it without difficulty.

Yet what truly stole his breath was the sight below her waist.

Her seven massive tails swayed behind her as she walked, but they did nothing to hide the gentle rhythm of her hips. Each step made them sway from side to side in a hypnotic motion.

Her hips were full and firm, rounded like perfectly ripened fruit beneath the thin silk. The delicate fabric clung just enough to reveal their shape, leaving little to the imagination.

With every step, the curve of her backside rose and fell before his eyes. The deep, enticing hollow between them appeared and disappeared beneath the shifting cloth, teasing his gaze again and again.

Combined with the long, elegant line of her legs, the sight was enough to send Marcus’s imagination spiraling in dangerous directions.

’She really is a masterpiece,’ he admitted silently. ’A demon of pure temptation… shameless and beautiful all at once.’

The silk did not conceal her form so much as frame it. Every fold of cloth only emphasized the curves beneath it, stirring the heat in Marcus’s blood until he could feel it spreading through his body.

Strangely enough, the sight did not disgust him in the slightest.

If anything, it felt completely natural.

A Seven-Tailed Vixen was supposed to be like this. Seductive, provocative, overflowing with raw sensual energy. That was the essence of such a creature, the very reason they were feared and desired in equal measure.

’She’s like a restless, high-class temptress,’ Marcus thought with a crooked smile. And honestly… I can’t say I mind.

The sight stirred something darker inside him, something primal.

For a fleeting moment, he imagined tearing away those fragile silks, claiming her for himself, feeling that supple body arch beneath his hands as she cried out in a mixture of resistance and pleasure.

Yet another part of him felt the opposite urge.

Her graceful movements made him imagine pulling her into a quiet embrace, holding her close, feeling the warmth of her skin against his chest as she looked up at him with a soft smile.

Marcus exhaled slowly.

’Too bad she’s a Divine-tier boss,’ he reminded himself with a quiet sigh. ’In my current state, even a hundred of me wouldn’t stand a chance.’

If he had the strength, he would have rushed out already. He would have fought her head-on, subdued her, and claimed such a creature as his own companion.

But in this world, strength was everything.

A man needs power, Marcus thought grimly. Real power. Only then can you stand above others and live exactly as you wish.

Meanwhile, the Seven-Tailed Vixen continued her slow approach toward the woman in white. She giggled softly as she walked, her voice light and honeyed.

“Don’t struggle, little girl,” she said with a teasing smile. “You’re the only one in all of Dreamland who possesses the Body of a Hundred Flowers. Just come quietly with us to the Phantom Peach Grove. Our Queen will find your body extremely useful. Once she consumes your essence, she will finally evolve into the legendary Nine-Tailed Jade Fox. When that happens, our clan will once again rule the Half-Beasts.”

Her tone carried absolute confidence. She knew her prey had nowhere left to run.

’The Body of a Hundred Flowers?’

Marcus felt his mind fill with questions.

He had never heard of such a thing before, but if it could help a Vixen Queen evolve into a Nine-Tailed being, it had to be something extraordinary.

A mischievous thought suddenly crossed his mind.

’If I were the one to “consume” her… would I evolve too?’

The word consume took on a very different meaning in his imagination.

Marcus quietly chuckled to himself.

His version of “consuming” someone involved slowly removing those simple white garments, revealing her skin bit by bit, and appreciating every moment in the privacy of a quiet bedroom.

While Marcus entertained himself with such thoughts, the woman in white was growing more desperate by the second.

The vixens clearly knew her secret. They had not come for her grandfather’s Spring of Life after all.

They had come for her.

They must have used some kind of tracking artifact to locate her, waiting patiently until her grandfather was away before launching their ambush.

In places where the world’s energy gathered most densely, thousands of flowers could bloom together at once. Over the course of a thousand years, their fragrances would mix and gradually be purified by the surrounding mana.

Eventually, that enormous concentration of energy would condense into a rare spiritual entity known as the Spirit of a Hundred Flowers.

The spirit itself was faint and cloudlike, almost intangible, a being made purely of condensed energy.

If such a spirit entered the womb of a pregnant woman, it would merge with the unborn child, bonding specifically with a female fetus. The girl born from that union would possess the Body of a Hundred Flowers.

If she could eventually absorb the vast energy contained within the spirit, she would gain extraordinary power.

The woman standing before Marcus, Alana, was exactly such a miracle.

However, the energy contained within the spirit was enormous. It could not be fully integrated in a short time.

Until the process was complete, if a monster managed to consume the girl or drink her blood, it could seize that power for itself.

Under normal circumstances, a woman with this body would not even begin absorbing the spirit’s energy until she reached the age of thirty, and the full process would take another fifty years.

But with the help of her grandfather, the famous Saint Doctor, Silas Vance, Alana had begun that process two years earlier.

Thanks to that, she had already gained resistance to most poisons.

Unfortunately, two years was far from enough time to fully develop the power of the Body of a Hundred Flowers. She was still vulnerable to the strange sedative effect hidden within the vixens’ Peach Blossom Haze.

And because she had always disliked violence, she had never learned how to fight.

’If they capture me… the Queen will drain every drop of my blood,’ Alana thought, panic tightening her chest.

She was completely powerless against enemies like this.

All she could do was continue pouring her energy into the Asclepius’ Herbal Staff, praying that her grandfather would return to Rosewood Valley before it was too late.

“Give it up, girl!”

The three-tailed vixens had spent a long time battering the barrier without success. Although they were impressed by the power of the Asclepius’ Herbal Staff, the Seven-Tailed Vixen was clearly losing patience.

She had no intention of dragging this out any longer.

“Peach Blossom Dragon Whip!”

With a light laugh, the vixen began to spin.

The two scarlet ribbons trailing from her sleeves flared outward, glowing with a brilliant neon-pink light as they circled around her body.

As they spun faster and faster, the ribbons merged together, forming the shape of a massive crimson dragon made entirely of energy.

Then, with a sharp cracking sound, the whip shot forward.

CRACK!

The dragon-shaped lash tore through the lingering haze and smashed directly into Alana’s green barrier.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The whip struck again and again, each impact echoing like thunder through the clearing. Sparks exploded into the air as the opposing energies ground violently against each other.

The barrier that had withstood the attacks of eight vixens began to fracture under the relentless assault.

In less than a minute, the defense finally collapsed.

The green light surrounding the Asclepius’ Herbal Staff flickered weakly before fading completely. With its energy drained, the staff dissolved into a stream of light and returned to Alana’s body.

The moment the barrier vanished, the thick Peach Blossom Haze surged forward. Alana was instantly swallowed by the pink mist.

Within seconds, the sedative effect began to take hold.

Her vision blurred, the world spinning around her. Her head tilted forward as consciousness slipped away, dragging her into a deep, unnatural sleep.

She never even reached the ground.

The vixen’s scarlet ribbons snapped forward again, wrapping tightly around Alana’s body before lifting her into the air.

Alana had been captured.

’That’s terrifying,’ Marcus thought grimly. ’She shattered the defense of a Divine Artifact without breaking a sweat.’

“Let’s go.”

With the mission complete, the Seven-Tailed Vixen glanced briefly at the unconscious Alana with a satisfied smile.

Then she gave a sharp command.

The eight three-tailed vixens quickly gathered around her, and the group shot out of the valley together, heading straight toward the distant Phantom Peach Grove.

The moment they disappeared into the distance, Marcus slowly backed away into the deeper shadows of the forest.

He moved carefully, placing each step with extreme caution.

The vixen was a Divine-tier boss. If she detected even the faintest hint of his presence, his life would end in an instant.

Fortunately, she was too confident in her victory to bother searching the area. She never noticed the lone player hidden among the trees.

’Talk about luck,’ Marcus thought quietly.

But the system clearly had something even more interesting in mind.

Just as the vixen passed near his hiding place, a familiar notification chimed in his ear.

Ding!

“System Notification: Player Stonehaven, you have witnessed the Seven-Tailed Vixen abducting Alana, the granddaughter of Saint Doctor Silas Vance. Do you have the courage to rescue her and restore her freedom?”

“Rescue her.”

Marcus answered immediately. There was no hesitation at all.

A knight rescuing a princess from the clutches of a demon was practically a tradition as old as storytelling itself. It was a matter of honor.

As the top-ranked Knight in Dominion, backing down was not exactly an option.

Besides…

A mischievous grin slowly spread across his face. He had heard the name Silas Vance before.

The old man at the appraisal shop had once mentioned that there were only two remaining drops of the Spring of Life left in all of Dreamland. One had already disappeared, but the other was currently in the possession of the Saint Doctor himself.

And the Spring of Life just happened to be the key required to open the Elven Gate and enter the mysterious Elven Canyon beyond.

Marcus certainly was not about to let that opportunity slip through his fingers.

’If I save his granddaughter,’ he wondered to himself, ’I wonder if he’ll give me the water as a reward.’

As the thought settled in his mind, another system message appeared.

Ding!

“System Notification: Congratulations! You have accepted the Unique Hidden Quest: Rescue Alana. To complete this quest, you must successfully rescue Alana and reunite her with Saint Doctor Silas Vance. The reward is currently TBD.

Warning: If the Vixen Queen consumes Alana’s blood or if the rescue fails, the penalty will be a complete level reset (Level 0) and the loss of all equipped items.”

Marcus felt a wave of dizziness.

’That’s one hell of a penalty…’

This was not a normal quest. It was a gamble where everything was on the line.

Ding!

“System Notification: Stonehaven, do you confirm your acceptance of the quest to rescue Alana? Please confirm.”

The system would not normally ask for confirmation unless the danger was extreme.

Marcus paused for a moment, carefully weighing the risk.

He was not reckless.

But after only a few seconds, his eyes hardened with determination.

“Confirmed. I accept.”

A weaker player might have backed away the moment they saw the penalty.

But Marcus was different. This was exactly why he played.

The thrill of standing on the edge between victory and failure, where one wrong step could destroy everything.

’Life or death,’ he thought calmly.

Rescuing Alana would almost certainly be more dangerous than his expedition to the Mist Veil Palace. It was a mission that left no room for mistakes.

Still, the fact that a Level 30 player like him could trigger the quest meant there had to be a path to success. If he planned carefully and used every resource available to him, victory was possible.

And if the penalty was this severe, then the reward would be extraordinary.

Dominion was controlled by Skynet. The system did not cheat its players. High risk always came with high reward.

’Fortune favors the bold,’ Marcus reminded himself. ’If you want something extraordinary, you have to take extraordinary risks.’

He refused to let fear hold him back. Once before, weakness had cost him Snow. He would never allow that to happen again.

Even if he failed, he would fight until the very end. Living with regret was far worse than dying in pursuit of victory.

’Snow,’ he thought quietly, ’I’m going to bring you back to my side’.

And saving Alana would be the first step in proving that he had changed.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep