Chapter 63: Flower-blooming Method
Mansion backyard clearing.
In the afternoon breeze, Madam Fran explained knowledge to Xilutiya.
“Tiya, do you know the Threefold Law?”
“Scholar Heide taught some of it. It seems to be power（resources）, skills（knowledge）, practice（trial）.”
“That’s right. It’s also called the Threefold Law, representing the truth and balance of the world.” Madam Fran picked up a broken branch from the roadside.
“The Threefold Law can be applied to many levels, whether advancement, study, or rituals and such, but what I want to teach you today is just one secret art from the gardener inheritance.”
“Its name is ‘Flower Blooming Technique’.”
After she spoke, the broken branch in her hand came to life like dead wood meeting spring, sprouting tender buds, unfolding fresh new leaves. Soon, a small flower bud appeared among the leaves, gradually growing larger, and finally fully blooming to reveal white flower petals.
Although Madam Fran’s main nature was ‘Blazing Sun’, what she was displaying at this moment was the ability of ‘Emerald Honey’ nature, which made Xilutiya quite curious.
It seemed that natures were not entirely incompatible. She noted this silently in her heart.
“As the name implies, ‘Flower Blooming Technique’ is the magic to make plants bloom.” Madam Fran pinched the flower branch with her fingers, causing the excess wooden branches below to break off and fall.
“I see.” Xilutiya nodded, not finding anything surprising.
Seeing her so dazed, Madam Fran found it quite amusing. Then she pinched the flower stem, gently shaking it, releasing a faint fragrance that refreshed Xilutiya, making her feel slightly more spirited.
“How do you feel now?”
“I feel a bit more spirited.” The maiden carefully recalled the earlier changes.
“That’s right. This white cotton flower has an extremely weak refreshing effect.”
“Normally, such an effect requires refining a large amount of cotton flowers into essential oil to produce even a little, so no one would bother doing something so thankless.”
“Alright, I’ve finished explaining. How much have you comprehended?”
Sigh, is that it? The maiden was surprised.
Blooming flowers, weak effects… She fell into thought.
“What you mean is, through blooming, a certain weak and subtle effect can be amplified many times over, right?”
“You’re indeed very smart. In fact, many transcendent abilities are like this—they require you to have sufficient imagination, then explore and practice bit by bit, and finally develop them.” Madam Fran nodded approvingly.
“So, now that you know the ability of ‘Flower Blooming Technique’, have you thought about how to utilize this ability?”
“In that case, if a certain flower already has the effect I need, I can use ‘Flower Blooming Technique’ to amplify and expand it, achieving what I want to accomplish.” She couldn’t help but recall how, during her previous advancement, she had considered what advancing with ‘Swan Orchid’ would be like.
That way, she could obtain the effect ability of ‘Swan Orchid’. And now, what if she used ‘Flower Blooming Technique’ to stimulate Swan Orchid?
Xilutiya quickly shared her idea.
“That’s right. This is the most common effect and the greatest value of this ability.”
Madam Fran lightly raised her wrist, and surging heat burst from the flower field, merging into the cold autumn wind, sweeping through the entire mansion backyard, making Xilutiya feel as if she were in the height of summer.
“You see, I didn’t even use much strength, yet this heat is enough to change the environment of the mansion.” She lightly tossed the white cotton flower in her hand into the air.
Soon, invisible heat currents gathered, and the cotton flower ignited instantly in the air, turning into ashes that scattered.
“Even if a ‘Third Order·Castle’ knight intrudes into this flower field, I could melt him, turning him into fertilizer for the flower field. Now do you understand the use of this ability?”
“Yes.” Waves of admiration rose in Xilutiya.
“However, Tiya, don’t get too happy too soon.” Madam Fran seemed to guess what this maiden was thinking.
“If you want to stimulate the effect of an extraordinary plant, you must be one tier higher than that plant…” This effectively declared the ability useless at First Order.
“Unless this plant was personally cultivated by you.” She changed tack, rekindling hope in the maiden.
But currently, the only plants she had cultivated were three Swan Orchids. If she wanted additional abilities, she would have to put in extra hard work to cultivate flowers with combat effects.
As expected, a gardener’s task is to grow flowers.
Thinking of this, Xilutiya couldn’t help asking: “Teacher, if I want some combat self-defense ability, what kind of flowers should I cultivate?”
“Do you still remember the ‘Fire Cloud Orchid’ and ‘White Camellia’ I had you tend to a while ago?”
“Yes.” At this, Xilutiya seemed to understand something.
“That’s right. If ‘Fire Cloud Orchid’ is successfully cultivated, it will emit scorching aura. Normally, such aura wouldn’t harm people, but what if it were amplified and expanded through ‘Flower Blooming Technique’?”
“As for ‘White Camellia’, it has detoxification ability, effective for treating wounds or facing toxic miasma environments.”
“Your energy is limited now, so just focus on cultivating these two flowers and grass.”
“Yes, Teacher.”
“Also, regarding the ‘Swan Orchid’ you cultivated before, keep one for yourself, and I’ll take the remaining two to give to a friend of mine. He has other uses for them.”
“Alright.” Xilutiya nodded in agreement.
“Aren’t you curious what use they have?” For this exceptionally obedient maiden, Madam Fran held back from teasing her.
“What use do they have?”
“It has to do with a purified environment.”
“When you were still an ordinary person, you were insensitive to the powers of various natures and wouldn’t notice any changes or anomalies.”
“But at higher tiers, you’ll discover that life is filled everywhere with extremely faint nature powers, intertwining and interfering with each other.”
“These extremely faint nature powers won’t cause any changes, but for experiments requiring extremely high precision, such as refining special potions or alchemy crafting, they are fatal.”
“Even the slightest discrepancy can alter the potion’s effect and result.”
“Therefore, special means are needed to purify the environment in advance. Among them, the most enduring and lowest-cost method is to use plants with ‘purification’ effects.”
“‘Swan Orchid’ is just such a plant with that special effect.”
“Originally, he commissioned me to cultivate it, but after I changed to ‘Blazing Sun’, my nature power was no longer as pure as before. Moreover, the temperament of ‘Swan Orchid’ isn’t suited for ‘Blazing Sun’ catalysis and would instead damage this delicate plant’s growth.”
“So, over these years, whenever someone came to me to learn gardener knowledge, I would give them ‘Swan Orchid’ seeds to see who could cultivate them first.”
“The final result was waiting for you, this lovely child.”
“Ah, this… Thank you, Madam.” Xilutiya felt a certain luck. If not for this, she wouldn’t have been valued by this madam.
“Alright, today’s study ends here. Later, I’ll give you the materials and knowledge needed to learn ‘Flower Blooming Technique’, and you can practice to get proficient.”
“Yes.” The maiden agreed, but she didn’t leave immediately. Instead, she asked about the hidden detail she had noticed earlier.
“You just said ‘changed to Blazing Sun’. Does that mean you weren’t a ‘Blazing Sun’ nature gardener before?”
“Of course. Gardeners basically start with ‘Emerald Honey’, but nature isn’t absolutely unchangeable. If you can cultivate a very special rare plant, then advancing dependent on that plant can change you to that plant’s nature.” At this, Madam Fran thought of something.
“Especially for gardeners with limited talent, if they themselves are stuck at a certain tier and unable to break through for a long time, their hope lies in cultivating a plant higher tier than themselves. This is the last remaining advancement path.”
“It’s just that this isn’t easy either.” She shook her head.
“Generally, transcendents won’t easily change their ‘nature’, because it’s the accumulation of years of effort. The knowledge, skills, and other abilities they’ve learned are all related to their main nature. Changing it would weaken or disable many abilities.”
“Do you know Scholar Heide’s past? In his early years, he had grand ambitions, pursuing ‘Secret Word’ as his life’s goal. For this, he traveled everywhere to study, busying himself for nearly a decade, achieving great success and writing travelogue books based on his own experiences and observations.”
“Once that book was completed and published, it would mean condensing the ‘Third Order·Secret Word’ nature.”
“But this process was interrupted. One of his friends, using the pretext of borrowing to study, stole his results, slandered him, claiming himself to be the book’s author while Scholar Heide was the thief.”
“For this, Candle Keep stripped Scholar Heide of his scholar identity and imprisoned him for interrogation.”
“During this time, Scholar Heide suffered great torment. Fortunately, many friends and students advocated for him, finally vindicating him. Only then did Candle Keep restore his identity and compensate him with a badge—such a badge is normally only for Candle Keep’s Third Order formal members to wear and possess.”
“But it was all too late. Years of hard work destroyed, and the torment of imprisonment, left Scholar Heide disheartened. In the end, he abandoned the ‘Secret Word’ path and turned to the previously neglected ‘Castle’ nature, becoming an ordinary scholar.” Madam Fran sighed.
Who would have thought there were so many hidden details. Xilutiya sighed inwardly.
“What about the person who framed Scholar Heide before?”
“That person’s outcome wasn’t good either. Candle Keep abolished his nature phase order and exiled him. He probably died in some unknown corner.” Madam Fran shook her head.
“Some things are recognized taboos, and once done, they receive severe handling from their respective schools.”
“Among us gardeners, there are also recognized taboos, but there’s no need to tell you those too dark matters now.”
Afterward, their study and conversation ended. Xilutiya copied the ‘Flower Blooming Technique’ knowledge given by Madam Fran and began trying to learn it.
