Lara turned to the disciples and instructed firmly, making sure every word was understood clearly. "You will remain here and harvest the Outer Zone plants cautiously. One person harvests while three others defend. Stockpile resources for the sect, but do not overdo it. If your willforce is depleted, stop immediately and wait until you have fully recovered before doing anything else."

  "In this place, we have no reliable way to communicate. If you trigger something unnecessary, we may not even know until it is too late to come and help you. Remember that and act with caution."

  The disciples nodded solemnly. Kaya's jaw tightened, but she made no further protest. The others exchanged glances, their earlier eagerness tempered by the weight of Lara's warning.

  Leaving them behind, Adrian, Lara, Torvain, Maelis, and Marivelle moved forward together and entered the inner zones of the Azure Garden.

  As they flew deeper, the environment began to change once again. The wild, overlapping growth gradually gave way to plants arranged in neat, deliberate rows again. Each plant occupied its own space, no longer competing aggressively for resources.

  Despite this order, the plants themselves were still the same types they had already identified earlier. Moon-Silver Root grew in silvery clusters along one row, whilst Celestial Violet lined another in perfect columns. Nothing new appeared at first.

  They continued flying forward, their focus fixed on finding the Core-Reforging Lotus. Still, all of them cast curious glances around as they moved. As cultivators from an alchemy sect, they knew how gardens were typically structured. Inner zones were always reserved for higher-value plants. Seeing only familiar plants initially felt strange.

  The answer revealed itself gradually.

  The farther they went, the denser the mana became. As they advanced, they began noticing plants whose internal mana reserves exceeded two hundred thousand mana units.

  Even Lara felt a flicker of temptation when she sensed them. She slowed fractionally, her gaze lingering on a cluster of flowers whose luminescence pulsed with concentrated power.

  As an elder, she herself possessed only around fifty thousand mana units. A mana pill refined from just one of these plants could potentially increase her capacity by nearly twenty thousand units. That was close to half her current total.

  Of course, refinement always came with losses, but even accounting for wastages, a plant containing two hundred thousand mana units would still yield an extraordinarily valuable pill.

  Torvain's expression remained neutral, but his fingers twitched toward his spatial ring before he forced his hand still.

  Maelis exhaled slowly, her breath misting faintly in the mana-saturated air.

  Lara, Torvain, and Maelis exchanged brief glances as they flew. If this relic expedition succeeded, the future prospects of their sect would be beyond imagination.

  They nodded at one another in silent agreement. Before indulging in dreams, they needed to face reality. Greed would only lead to disaster.

  They understood priorities. The Core-Reforging Lotus mattered more than any individual gain, and survival mattered more than treasure.

  At that moment, Marivelle abruptly halted mid-flight. Her gaze fixed on something below.

  Torvain began to speak, "Why did you halt—"

  His words cut off as his eyes followed her line of sight. "This… how is this here? Is this what I think it is?"

  His voice trailed off as he stared at the crimson lotus.

  The flower hovered slightly above the soil, its roots suspended within a faint, slow-spinning ring of mana rather than buried in the ground. Its petals were deep crimson, nearly black along the edges, layered tightly around a glowing core that pulsed rhythmically like a living heart. Each pulse released a subtle fluctuation that brushed against their perception, not as pressure, but as clarity.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Lara halted beside Marivelle and looked down.

  Her breath caught.

  "…That's a Crimson Will Lotus," she said quietly.

  The name alone caused Torvain's pupils to contract.

  Maelis frowned, halting beside them, "A willforce-related plant?"

  "Yes," Lara replied. "And an extremely rare one."

  "The Void-Calming Bloom stabilizes consciousness by calming the mind," Lara continued, "It suppresses intrusive thoughts, smooths mental fluctuations, and reduces strain. That is why it is used during authority training. It lowers the risk of willforce collapse and allows a cultivator to focus more effectively."

  Maelis nodded slowly, her gaze never leaving the lotus.

  "But the Crimson Will Lotus does something entirely different."

  Torvain swallowed. "It accelerates willforce recovery."

  Lara nodded. "Exactly."

  Maelis inhaled sharply, "But how? Willforce is intangible. It normally recovers only through rest. How can a plant enhance its recovery?"

  Adrian listened without speaking, though the same question turned in his mind. Willforce was consciousness itself. It wasn't mana. It couldn't be replenished through external means, or so every knowledge he'd encountered ever till now claimed.

  "That is the common understanding," Lara said. "And for the most part, it is correct. I only learned something like this even existed when I attended a private auction hosted by a major sect."

  "This flower does not restore willforce directly," Lara explained, her gaze fixed on the suspended crimson lotus below. "Instead, it enhances the mind's recovery efficiency. When willforce is depleted, consciousness becomes unstable. Thoughts fragment, intent blurs, and coherence weakens. Normally, rest allows consciousness to slowly reassemble, and only after that does willforce gradually recover."

  "The Crimson Will Lotus accelerates that reassembly process," Lara continued.

  Maelis drifted closer, her expression shifting as understanding dawned. "So it doesn't generate willforce. It shortens the recovery period."

  "Yes," Lara confirmed. "It increases the rate at which the mind regathers itself. It does not give you more willforce, but it allows you to recover what you have already lost far more quickly."

  Torvain crossed his arms, his gaze never leaving the lotus. "This is essentially a supplement for the mind. Willforce is said to be consciousness itself, and consciousness is rooted in the mind. If the mind recovers faster, then consciousness stabilizes faster, and willforce follows."

  Lara nodded once. "Its effectiveness would depend heavily on the refinement quality of the pill. Even I cannot say exactly how much it would accelerate recovery."

  Adrian floated slightly apart, listening in silence. His Source Eyes were already active, tracing the lotus's internal structure. He could see dense, spiraling rule patterns within its core, rules governing feedback convergence, recursive reintegration, and accelerated coherence.

  As he analyzed it, everything clicked.

  Consciousness under strain did not disappear. It fragmented. Thoughts lost cohesion, intent blurred, and mental structure weakened. That fragmentation was what willforce depletion truly was.

  The Void-Calming Bloom worked by preventing those fractures from forming in the first place. It suppressed disturbance, stabilized thought patterns, and kept intent aligned. With it, authority could be exercised with far less risk, but it could not restore what had already been lost.

  The Crimson Will Lotus was different.

  It did not calm the mind. Instead, it guided scattered fragments of consciousness back into alignment, accelerating the natural recovery process that would normally take days or even weeks. It did not generate willforce, nor did it strengthen it directly. It shortened the recovery cycle itself.

  Marivelle spoke for the first time since halting, her voice cutting through the moment. "You're all missing the bigger issue."

  The elders turned toward her.

  "This plant is rare even among major sects, and they only possess limited supplies. How does an ancient minor sect have plants like this in their garden?"

  She gestured toward the lotus, then swept her hand across the garden's expanse. "And why did the Nine-Vault Commerce Sect auction this relic at such a low price? Didn't this show up in their analysis?"

  Silence settled over the group.

  The same question surfaced in Adrian's mind. A single Crimson Will Lotus could fetch an enormous price at auction. Yet the relic itself had been sold at the standard rate applied to minor sect ruins valuation.

  Torvain frowned, "Yeah, this doesn't make sense. Even one of these would justify a price increase."

  Lara considered this before replying, "They likely missed it. This planet is already chaotic, and the analysis probably wasn't thorough."

  "Do you see Crimson Will Lotuses everywhere? Even across several kilometres, I can barely sense more than one additional plant. There may only be dozens across the entire garden. It's entirely possible the inspectors overlooked them."

  Maelis tilted her head. "Overlooked something this valuable?"

  "The Nine-Vault Commerce Sect uncovers relics constantly," Lara said. "They cannot examine every discovery in exhaustive detail. The universe is vast, and new relics are uncovered daily. Oversights like this are inevitable."

  Her explanation made sense.

  Adrian recalled the forum posts he had read. Relic prospecting was a massive field. Teams swept through abandoned sectors, catalogued ruins, and moved on. Thorough inspections took time, and time was expensive.

  Sometimes, buying a relic at a standard price and discovering hidden value was simply… luck.

  And right now, that luck belonged to them.