Despite pulling out the plum blossom, some tentacle-like strings were still connected at the end of it that led back into Fu Wei's forehead.
It looked like a parasite more than a Divine object.
The orange petal in Xi Shen’s right palm released a light that encapsulated the plum blossom and the tentacles then began to shrivel up before they wilted away leaving it whole in his palm.
Immediately after this happened, Fu Wei’s twisted expression faded and a light that had long disappeared seemed to reappear in his eyes once again.
Fu Wei blinked a few times looking like he just woke up from a long dream.
Looking around, his expression turned to confusion as he wondered where he was. His eyes landed on Xi Shen and his confusion increased.
“Little Shen, is that you?”
Hearing this question, Xi Shen felt a bit bad in his heart.
It’s like he had thought, the plum blossom had changed Fu Wei ever since he had given it to him. Xi Shen didn’t know that was the case since he hadn’t known his brother before, but he was carefully studying how this thing from the God Era affect people who cultivated Spiritual Qi, and based on the observations he made over the past fourteen years, there were times Fu Wei acted kind and thoughtful or times he became unreasonably angry and vengeful.
His desires and emotions had taken a form on their own and his mind was in constant chaos. It was like he had multiple personalities that were all controlling his body at separate times unaware of each other.
Right now, this must be the true Fu Wei. From Xi Shen’s observations, he had only appeared a few times when they were younger.
But the more he comprehended the plum blossom, the more his original self got lost within himself, and the less Xi Shen saw him. This was actually one of the reason’s why the thought of killing him didn’t cross his mind.
“Yes, elder brother it's me.”
Xi Shen answered.
Hearing this, Fu Wei’s eyes lit up, and he was going to ask how he had gotten so big, but then his eyes involuntary landed on the plum blossom in his hand.
Fu Wei’s body shook, and the ground beneath him crack as he hurriedly took several steps back away from Xi Shen.
Clutching his head, Fu Wei said, “That’s right, you gave me that plum blossom when I went to visit you.”
Fu Wei’s head then snapped up to look at Xi Shen, his face was angry as he yelled, “Do you know what I went through because of that?!!”
“Little Shen, you-”
“I wasn’t even conscious of myself most of the time. One minute I was training inside my courtyard, and the next I would come to find myself being scolded by mother for something she claimed I fail to do. I had no recollection of several days at a time, it was like I was in a void. Not hearing, not seeing, not feeling.”
Fu Wei's expression become torn, and he looked at Xi Shen and said.
“Is it because I threaten to kill you back then?”
*Sniffle*
“How vicious of you little Shen, you went completely overboard. Mother had been hard on me that week saying that since you gain the Heaven's Blessings, you were going to surpass me and I was going to become useless. So I took it out on you, I wasn’t really wasn’t really going to kill. I-I would never, at most I would only cripple you, or maybe damage your meridians a bit.”
“But you went ahead and did that to me, I can’t even remember how long it’s been since I was conscious.”
“How-how old am I? My voice sounds so strange, and too tall to be eleven.”
Xi Shen stood there rather awkwardly as he watch Fu Wei tear up like a little kid.
“Uhh, your twenty-fourth birthday had passed earlier this year.”
“I’m twenty-four?!!”
Fu Wei said in shocked.
But then suddenly broke down crying.
“Waahhh!!”
He can't believe over a decade had passed by. What had he been doing during that time?
And he felt this overwhelming power inside of him.
Was that his cultivation?
How strong was he that he can’t even control his strength, it felt as if his slightest movement was going to destroy this entire chamber.
The plum blossom thrived on the emotion of greed, and it was sort of recharging while it was attached to Fu Wei.
Fu Wei was acting like a eleven-year-old kid because that was around the time the plum blossom had started recharging so to say.
His mentality had now reverted back to that time after Xi Shen removed his plum blossom.
He had planned on waiting a couple hundred years before this time came, but Fu Wei’s comprehension talent was higher than he expected and as he fed it his comprehension it sped up the process of the plum blossom blooming.
Though he wasn’t going to say any of that, Fu Wei was already shock because of a mere eleven years.
After crawling around on all fours while watching Fu Wei, Xi Shen had discovered that the plum blossom properties had completely changed.
There were seven carnal sins or desires of mankind.
They were Wrath, Envy, Sloth, Lust, Pride, Gluttony, and Greed.
Xi Shen looked down at the plum blossom in his hand.
This was an item that sealed those core emotions. It had effectively stripped him of any mental faculties of reacting to fear, hunger, pain, or having any sort of emotional response to an outside or internal stimulus.
He didn’t know if it was because of his reincarnation, or whether this was because it came into contact with Spiritual Qi, but it changed nonetheless.
The clones Fu Wei was able to create were a manifestation of six of those emotions, or in other words his carnal sins.
Each color represented these carnal sins, Red was the sin of Wrath, Black was the sin of Gluttony, Gold was sin of Pride, Pink was the sin of Lust, Violet was the sin of Envy, Azure was the sin of Sloth.
But their was an exception in the God Domain.
Xi Shen read this in the God Archives. There was an Empyrean Rule of heaven that states the desire of Greed is never to be manifested.
Xi Shen wasn’t sure what that meant since he had died soon after before he could read about this information further.
Looking up from the plum blossom in his hands to a crying Fu Wei, Xi Shen sighed before he said.
“Your memories and experience are still there, this is just a temporary side effect from removing the plum blossom. Your mind just takes time rebooting is all.”
Fu Wei used his forearm to wipe away his tears.
“Fine, if little Shen says so I-”
Fu Wei didn't get to finish talking and his eyes suddenly rolled to the back of his head before he fainted.
Xi Shen walked over to his unconscious body, and he saw a golden plum blossom slowly forming on his forehead.
Xi Shen wasn’t surprised, his connection to the multicolored plum blossom caused him to sense its existence, but it was being suppressed.
The multicolored plum blossom had increased his talents for sure, including his foundation grade and his soul grade. But it had no effect on his comprehension.
His supreme grade comprehension was a product of his awaken Li Clan’s bloodline.
This golden plum blossom had siphoned away the core talents from those two attributes and focused it on his comprehension.
One piece of information Xi Shen read while he had that parchment of the Divine Star Diagram cultivation method, was that if one activated the Li Clan’s bloodline, foundation grade and soul grade would become slightly irrelevant.
Converting comprehension into raw power to boost physical cultivation. In other words, when combining Law Comprehension with Spiritual Qi cultivation only comprehension is needed.
It was completely different from the original Spiritual Qi cultivation system.
Surely Xi Shen had asked himself innumerable times if other paths of cultivation were there outside of this continent.
Was Spiritual Qi truly the only path of cultivation?
He didn’t know the answer, but he will eventually.
Xi Shen ignored Fu Wei and walked over to the other side of the chamber.
‘Little Snow, watch out for anyone.’
‘Yes Master.’
Xi Shen then sat on the floor cross-legged.
While he dazedly looked at the plum blossom on his palm, Xi Shen said.
“In my past life, you were the sole reason for my hatred. I could not feel anything for the entirety of my life, so in desperation to feel something I study emotions. And I became obsessed with it as a consequence.”