Wreath of Lilies, Cauldron of Poison

Chapter 18

Soul Binding Cocoon and the Soul Reversing Sutra

Connie ran over her plans two more times in her head while she placed everything that she needed to her side.

A pile of Energizing Pills she concocted while waiting for the assassins. A bowl made of bronze for the extracted poison. And a piece of chalk to draw the formation array.

The formation array had eight points with verses taken from the Soul Reversing Sutra written in Sanskrit within the circle encompassing the six points. They burned white as they were written and began to revolve the moment she was finished.

She then took a paintbrush, dipped it in ink, then began to write on a scroll.

“The Soul Reversing Sutra. The most esoteric knowledge dealing with fate, karma and Samsara. It encompasses the Punarmtryu and Punaravrtti, a concept of death, birth and redeath,” the blonde girl began to speak to herself as she wrote on a scroll using the words of the Dharmic Monks. “Within lies the concept of Dukkha, Samudhaya, Nirodha, Marga. Spiritual and metaphysical sickness that plague all living being. And the forbidden knowledge with which one reaches Nirvana through esoteric means.”

“It was then that I noticed that some of the teachings were similar to that of the Dao. Life is fleeting, but the Dao is eternal. If the soul has perfected the Dao, should it not reach a state similar to Nirvana? Or would it mean that one would create a circle of Samsara separate from that of the universe? Today. I will find out which one is the truth!”

She flourished the paintbrush as she finished the last sentence and threw it away.

The formation array had been revolving for quite a while and now they were starting to float in thin air.

Connie spread her arms and let a potent mix of venom she had created inside her body to flow into her hands. She had ingested enough types of materials and ingredients necessary to create one of her signature poisons.

“#28: Blasted Gray.”

It was poison created to liquefy materials while keeping the nature intact. Combined with the Soul Reversing Sutra, she would use it to start the treatment.

“Behold, the hubris of one who desires freedom from the Samsara!!”

She put both hands onto the cocoon containing Illumca’s body and injected the poison into it. Pure Yin Energy Soared from her body and slammed into the cocoon and changed the silk’s color into greenish yellow. The bubbling sensation she felt through the aura notified her that the change had begun.

She kept injecting and moving around the cocoon to spread the poison and the resulting liquid evenly. As her hands move, so did her dark purple aura.

Two hours had passed and she did not stop moving. And then, as she were worried that something might had gone wrong, she could see the bottom of the cocoon had turned dark and emitted a fishy smell. The color began to contract and a drop of amber liquid dripped into the bronze bowl she placed underneath. It continued to drip for three more times before the color returned to normal.

At that point, Connie could feel the liquid inside had begun to settle and in the middle was something bright golden that she knew was Illumca’s essence.

“Good work, Illumca. Now we start the next part.”

She took the bronze bowl with the amber liquid and sniffed it. It had a very complex fishy smell resembling soy sauce and wine with a hint of myrrh.

“Well. Bottoms up!”

She downed the poison in one gulp and felt it burn through her throat. The instant it arrived in her stomach, it began to react and attacked her innards.

Connie closed her eyes and formed the Vayu and Rudra Mudra with her left and right hands respectively, focusing on the vile poison and began dissecting it. The poison fought back as if it was a living thing, attacking her liver, stomach, lung. From the outside it looked like dark veins were forming from every part of her body that was being attacked.

“Ooh, you cheeky bastard,” Connie grumbled. “You think something like you could defeat me?!”

She changed her hands to form a hand seal unique to the Thousand Poison Claw and pushed the poison into her Poison Core. Once there it was tamed by the various materials of cold and hot properties that directly fights against each part of the poison.

Feeling that it had been sufficiently tamed, she began absorbing it. This time she did not bloat as she had gained better understanding of the materials and effect of the poison. Her dark aura flared out. Expanding and contracting like the beating of the heart a few times until finally it burst out with vengeance.

“HAAAAA!!!!”

She let out a terrifying shout that blasted everything around her into dust except for the silk cocoons.

Yao-er quickly hid inside a nest of silk she made in fear of being quashed by the power.

The pressure of her dark aura was so powerful that the air seemed to distort around her. Her blonde hair was flying about and she was floating in the air, a sign that she had reached the next step of her cultivation. Her serpentine eyes had also gained a quality that made it seem like they were made of precious jewel. Her tongue had grown thicker and stronger that she could use it to gouge a man’s heart.

Red scales had appeared on parts of her body and a tail as long as her leg had sprouted from her tailbone. It was crimson in color with scales that glistened dark like onyx.

“Aah, Late Stage of Shedding Mortality. Shame I do not have the time to revel in the sensation,” She lamented as she knew that she must start the next process now.

Next, she did the same with the next cocoon, but this time it was much faster and much stronger. The effect was more than three times as potent. Once she felt that she had sufficiently done this, she recited the second verse of the Sutra. The one that deals with the Samsara and touched the sides of both cocoons gently.

The touch made the wound silk from the cocoons to unravel and searched for each other like lover’s hands. They moved in conjunction, winding against each other until they formed a connection, one resembling a tube.

Connie’s lips did not stop reciting the Sutra as she guided Illumca’s essence into the assassin’s cocoon. The process did not take long. The transfer of the rest of the primordial soup took longer.

This process took a long time and a lot of energy. She munched on the pills while regulating her power inside the cocoon, trying to stop the rejection between the body and the new soul introduced. She could feel two souls inside the silk pod fighting, causing the vessel to struggle.

She did not know how much time had passed, only that when she reached out for another pill, she found that she had ran out. Now, it is a matter of endurance.

Sweat began to form on her forehead and her tongue began to loll. It was far more tiring than she had suspected.

The anxiety of doing something entirely new was weighing down on her.

Then, something happened. The fight had come to its climax and the body began to fight back. The formation array underneath spun so fast that the brightness caused Connie to squint her eyes.

“Not on my watch!”

Connie put up both arms and focused her energy, condensing it into the form of a firesnake which coiled around the cocoon, suppressing its inside. After a while, the battle came to a finish and the formation array calmed down gradually before coming to a stop.

“One of the souls has achieved dominance. Now the vessel will be reconstructed.”

Connie collapsed onto the ground, all her energy had been spent. Now all she could do was stabilize herself while waiting for the result.

She sat cross legged on the floor and started to take control of her breathing.

How would she look like? Which soul would be dominant?

If worst comes to worst…

Connie gazed at the cocoon now bursting with life.

Let’s hope it will not come to that.