Esme's screams continued for weeks. Her throat should have long since sheered apart under the strain, but the odd poisonous concoction was constantly restructuring her body, causing whatever injuries that formed to instead speed up her transformation.
She could feel her humanity fading, her thoughts turning simpler and more bland while her hopes and aspirations dwindled.
If one could take a look into her body, the sight would be shocking. Her inners organs began to form scales like the bark of a tree, her meridian nodes shifted, turning into the long, thin capillaries of a Spiritual Herb, and her bones began to darken, becoming a pale grey with the slightest tinge of green along with her skin.
From the outside, her body looked no different from a nude female with a nice figure. Even if one touched her, you would feel the same supple softness only a woman who took good care of herself would have. However, as the intelligence in her eyes grew dull, it was quickly becoming obvious that the Esme the world once knew was fading away.
At the end of it all, the last emotion of hers to fade was regret. She would spend the rest of her life as a corpse puppet. This reality was more devastating than anything to her.
Hecate's methods were ingenious, but they were also cruel. Ryu only made them worse. In order to retain a modicum of intelligence, not only was live refinement necessary, but this live refinement preserved a strand of the corpse puppet's spirit. As a result, unless the corpse puppet was destroyed, Esme's path toward reincarnation was completely blocked off.
At the end of the thirty days, Ryu came back to find an Esme blankly staring into space. At this point, she had yet to become a corpse, but she was truly no different from one. Her current state was equivalent to a human with nothing but a brainstem.
Following this, the next step for Ryu would be to temper her body with Weeping Willow Qi. Like this, her affinity for death qi would skyrocket, allowing her a clear path to the Eighth Order – a tier equivalent to a Path Extinction Realm expert.
Of course, Ryu had plans to evolve her beyond this as well, it was just that he was currently lacking in the materials necessary. It was already a miracle he could accomplish this much with mere Mortal Grade Spiritual Herbs. It was a testament to his comprehension of Herbology.
In order to reach the Ninth Order or beyond, Esme would need a corpse puppet body equivalent to a Mystical Grade or higher plant. Ryu had only just barely managed to refine her Body to the Lower Heaven Grades by combining much of the wealth he accumulated in the Mortal Qi Small Realm.
However, it would be worth it. Esme's strength would grow far faster than his. Her growth rate would be similar to that of a talented beast.
It only too Little Rock two years to go from the Third Order to the Sixth, but he only had an Earth Grade Bloodline. In the six months, he had progressed to the Middle Sixth Order already along with Nemesis, and would break into the Higher Sixth Order in a few more days.
The only downside of this was that Esme would be limited by Ryu's Mental Realm. But there was good news as well. Because of this special refinement method, Esme would have a small amount of intelligence. So, even when her strength surpassed Ryu's Mental Realm, he could still control her to a small extent.
Throwing these matters to the back of his mind, Ryu started with the next step. This would likely take the remainder of the half year he had, but it was well worth it.
There was no Weeping Willow Qi in the surroundings, so Ryu had no choice but to cultivate and refine it himself.
Usually, this process would be incredibly slow. However, Ryu had a special trump card: his Chaotic Qi.
Chaotic Qi was on the same level as Essence. It had the ability to convert into any type of qi as well! In fact, it was especially good at converting into yin type qis like Weeping Willow Qi. This made a process that should have taken decades only take half a year.
Everyday, Ryu would catalyze his Chaotic Qi into Weeping Willow Qi. Following this, he would fill his six Qi Pulses and one Qi Vessel with it before channeling it all into Esme's body.
Over time, she slowly began to change.
Her white hair became the deepest shade of black. Her skin lost that slight green tint and became a deep shade of grey. Oddly, this grey shade didn't make her look repulsive. Instead, she looked like a dark elf. If it wasn't for her lack of pointed ears, she would look no different from a princess of their Clan.
Her eyes changed as well. From their bright silver color, it turned a crimson, bloody red. There was nothing Ryu could do to change this. After all, her body was created with Screaming Blood Root in mind. It was a miracle that her whole body wasn't red.
Due to the slight intelligence she retained, her gaze was no longer dull, but rather appeared as a piercing cold. It was truly difficult to tell that she was a plant corpse on even a second look, let alone a first.
After months of absorbing the purest of death qis, Esme's cultivation skyrocketed. From the Lower Sixth Order, the latent vitality she absorbed from Youkai and the Basteel First Grand Elder combined with Ryu's efforts to propel her all the way to the Peak Sixth Order.
Unfortunately, this was Ryu's limit. At the end of the day, his own qi was restricted to the Mortal Grade, it was impossible for him to evolve her into the Seventh Order without Immortal Grade Death Qi.
It was unlikely that the Core Region would have such a rare Spiritual Herb capable of fulfilling his requirements, but it wouldn't hurt to check. He did have quite a lot of goods to sell, after all.
Alternatively, he could use the corpse of an Immortal Ring expert to catalyze her growth further. But that would mean that Ryu would actually have to kill such an expert. Such a feat might still be a bit too beyond his current self.
On the final day of Esme's refinement, she thoroughly became a Death Spiritual Herb. She day down silently in the nude, allowing Ryu to place down a Death Seal that took three days to refine.
"Stand." Ryu said lightly.
Without hesitation, Esme followed Ryu's commands, standing before him with her arms stiffly by her side as she coldly gazed into his eyes.
'Little Ryu, I don't think you understand how amazing this feat is. If word spread to the Quibus Fairies, they would fight over the right to stay by your side without a doubt.'
"I'm just lucky to take advantage of the research of my predecessors."
Ailsa shook her head. 'I know you're not satisfied, but it's also important for a cultivator to be able to enjoy the moment. Keeping your eyes forward all of the time may cause you trip upon something you didn't take the time to notice on your path.'
Ryu remained silent for a moment before nodding. "If this research really can help me gain the acknowledgement of a Quibus Faerie, it would be greatly helpful to Nemesis."
'What are your plans for the Core Region?' Ailsa suddenly asked.
"The so-called tournament is nothing but a joke to me. According to what Melody said, the Legacy World will open within one hundred to five hundred years and will only allow those who haven't reached their first millennium of life to enter.
"With such restrictions, my opponents won't be more than a few hundred years old. In such a case, even if my enemy were geniuses of the Shrine Plane, very few would be a match for me. There's little meaning to the tournament for me."
'Oh?' Ailsa smiled, knowing all of this already. 'Then why go at all?'
"Revenge. That Commander Fidroha and that Edwin who put me in such a state two years ago… I have yet to collect their debts."
Ailsa giggled. 'They're no normal opponents. You were able to battle two Half-Step Immortal Ring experts, but that was only because their number of Pulses and Vessels opened were too low. For Edwin and Fidroha to be those so-called 'Apostles', they definitely opened all six Qi Pulses and at least five Qi Vessels. Even if they were at the same cultivation realm, they'd be far more powerful than those two. Not to mention the fact Fidroha is already in the Immortal Ring Realm.'
Ryu's eyes flashed with a cold light. "Edwin will definitely die without a doubt. As for Fidroha… I'll settle for snatching one of her selection spots before humiliating her the way she attempted to humiliate me."
'Alright, alright, my cold Little Ryu. First, you should find this poor Esme some clothes. Even if she's a corpse, she can't possibly fight for you like this, right?'