Chapter 154: Chapter 152: Stealing the Spirit Fruit (Subscribe for more)

“Tier Three Top Grade Spirit Fruit [Jade Moon Fruit], consuming one can match the efforts of a Late-Stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator’s ten years of hard cultivation. Each cultivator can only consume one in their lifetime, and its tree often grows beside the Cold Pool and Mysterious Spring, bearing fruit once every hundred years!”

In the deep and tranquil forest, Zhouyang stands atop a towering ancient tree, eyes fixed intently on a water pool a thousand meters away, which emits wisps of cold air. More precisely, next to the pool is a three-meter tall green fruit tree resembling a tomato tree, his gaze unwavering.

While passing through this Spirit Mountain, he followed the flow of Spiritual Qi to the Eye of the Spiritual Vein, and there he saw the small Cold Pool less than a thousand square meters and the Jade Moon Fruit tree growing by its side.

Just as he muttered to himself earlier, the Jade Moon Fruit is a rare Spirit Fruit that can be consumed directly without Alchemy refinement to increase a cultivator’s cultivation.

This rare Spirit Fruit seldom appears in the Cultivation Realm, with Sect Clans possessing such fruit trees typically keeping all produce within their ranks, never allowing it to disperse outside.

Additionally, this rare Spirit Fruit is difficult to transplant and survive, and only sect clans with a long heritage would plant such fruits to benefit future generations.

The Jade Moon Fruit tree within Zhouyang’s sight still bears two fruit that look carved from exquisite jade, which is why he stands rooted to the spot.

The chance is rare!

One Jade Moon Fruit can provide a Late-Stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator with ten years of hard cultivation. If he consumes it, as long as his body can withstand the medicinal power, he can virtually advance one cultivation layer without difficulty.

Moreover, if he picks the remaining Jade Moon Fruit and takes it away, whether selling it in the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm or returning it to give old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan for consumption, it would be an excellent deed.

However, this isn’t easy to achieve.

Zhouyang’s powerful Divine Sense allows him to perceive there is a strong demon beast hidden in the small Cold Pool. The strength of that beast must not be inferior to the Water Demon once slain by Chen Ping’an.

Zhouyang is unaware of why this powerful demon beast wasn’t summoned away by the Beast King Horn, but he knows that if he attempts to pick the Jade Moon Fruit, it will inevitably provoke the beast’s furious attack.

Opportunity and risk coexist, and how to choose rests solely with him.

After pondering and hesitating for a long time, he still decided to take a gamble.

With his strength and means, escaping with his life should not be difficult even if he fails.

Having made up his mind, he immediately turned his hand and first took out half of the Hidden Spirit Incense gifted by Cao Wenjin before he left and ignited it at his waist.

Then he fetched the Mist Dust Pearl Magical Artifact refined by old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan using materials from the Water Demon, activating it to emit a layer of pale blue Spiritual Light that enveloped him.

Doubling down like this, the Magical Power fluctuations on him were concealed by the Hidden Spirit Incense, and even his body was hidden on the Divine Sense level.

Stealthily, with all preparations made, Zhouyang slowly approached the Cold Pool.

Two thousand meters!

One thousand meters!

Five hundred meters!

Upon entering the five-hundred-meter range, Zhouyang deliberately paused for a moment; based on the experiment performed on old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan earlier, this distance should suffice to alert a wary Late-Stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator to an anomaly.

Yet, as he glanced around, the surface of the Cold Pool remained tranquil, showing no signs of irregularity.

This eased his heart, prompting him to proceed slowly.

Eventually, when he was thirty meters away from the Jade Moon Fruit tree, Zhouyang paused again.

At such a distance, he still hadn’t sensed any disturbance from the Cold Pool’s aura, yet he was no longer inclined to advance further.

For from this distance, he could act to pick the Spirit Fruit.

Swish!

With a flicker of Sword Light, the two Spirit Fruits hanging on the Jade Moon Fruit tree dropped with a sound and were collected remotely by Zhouyang into his Storage Bag.

At the same time, he abandoned the Tier Two High-grade Flying Sword used to cut the Spirit Fruit and instead released the Red Profound Golden Light Sword from his sleeve, soaring into the sky beyond the mountain’s edge.

Gua!

Suddently, the previously calm surface of the Cold Pool began to churn violently like boiling water, and from it emerged a giant blue frog the size of a calf. As soon as this blue frog surfaced, it opened a mouth wide enough to swallow a human child and let out a roar full of enraged intent.

Amidst the frog’s croak, a water-blue icy beam shot from the giant frog’s mouth like a blue lightning, quickly chasing after Zhouyang who had already flown several hundred meters.

However, what puzzled and enraged the blue giant frog was that the “fruit thief” had clearly been hit by its magical techniques, yet did not end up frozen and dead like those flying demon beasts who previously tried to steal the fruit.

Instead, the sword light paused slightly, then resumed its flight, quickly disappearing from its sight, making it impossible to pursue.

Although it was an amphibious demon beast, with water being its main domain, only in this cold pool could it resist the summons from that peculiar sound by using the chill from the pool.

So it looked at the “Jade Moon Fruit” tree by the cold pool, with only two branches severed, and let out a reluctant low growl, eventually submerging back into the cold pool to continue its slumber.

After all, although the “Jade Moon Fruit” was precious, whether it was a cultivator or demon beast, only the first fruit consumed in their lifetime had an effect.

The blue giant frog had guarded the fruit tree for decades, having already consumed more than one fruit initially, knowing further consumption wouldn’t have an effect, it left the two fruits on the tree as bait to attract other demon beasts for consumption.

Now that the fruit used as bait was stolen, although it was angry, it wasn’t concerned enough to insist on recovering it.

On the other side, Zhouyang ventured to perform sword flight for about twenty to thirty miles, saw no pursuit from the blue giant frog, and swiftly landed the sword light on the ground.

The sword flight for escaping moments ago was a desperate measure; now that he confirmed survival, he naturally would not engage in such dangerous activities again.

“Phew, that was close! Luckily I have the Qianyang Treasure Body, and my cultivation technique is the extremely firm and yang ‘Qianyang Immortal Scripture,’ otherwise I would have been doomed by that ice light!”

On the ground, Zhouyang waved his sleeve to wipe the water droplets from his forehead, his face full of relieved but lingering fear.

The earlier blue ice light spewed by the blue giant frog was indeed fast and vicious, and when he was initially hit by it, he almost fell off the flying sword due to being frozen.

Fortunately, upon realizing the peril, he immediately exerted all his power to activate the cultivation technique, resisting the extreme cold power’s erosion, finally dispelling it and narrowly avoiding disaster.

Once he landed safely, he immediately retrieved from his storage bag the two “Jade Moon Fruits” still hanging on the branches, carefully storing them in a jade box, and placed them back into his precious items storage bag.

The “Jade Moon Fruit,” capable of significantly enhancing a cultivator’s magical cultivation, must be consumed in a safe, quiet place, spending at least several months slowly refining the spiritual power contained within the fruit, and the current location obviously doesn’t meet those conditions.

Having stored away the spiritual fruits, Zhouyang reoriented his path and continued towards the direction where Liuyun Continent’s cultivation realm was located.

In the following period, despite Zhouyang’s utmost caution, he was inevitably discovered by some gathering demon beasts as he got closer to the Liuyun Continent cultivation realm.

He immediately killed some of the low-tier demon beasts that spotted him, yet their dying roars still attracted other nearby demon beasts’ investigation, ultimately forcing him to ascend with sword flight swiftly fleeing from the place.

However, though ascending with sword flight allowed him to evade most demon beasts’ pursuit, it also exposed his presence further, attracting more demon beasts chasing him.

Ultimately, surrounded by several Tier Three flying demon beasts pursuing him, Zhouyang was forced to use the “Blood Escape Technique” to flee the encirclement.

To this day, with Zhouyang’s fourth-layer Foundation Establishment cultivation, deploying the “Blood Escape Technique” no longer drains his essence blood as much, impacting future cultivation as it did in the first layer Foundation Establishment.

Though his complexion turned stark white as if he lost excessive blood upon using the “Blood Escape Technique” once, he barely maintained sufficient strength to continue his journey.

Additionally, before setting off, he made sure to purchase the Tier Three Spirit Pill “Jade Essence Pill” from the Chen Family Ancestor to replenish his essence blood.

With such Spirit Pill assisting in restoring the essence blood for Foundation Establishment cultivators, he could afford to use the “Blood Escape Technique” once.

On this day, while traversing the rugged mountains, Zhouyang suddenly halted outside a thousand-foot peak.

Since entering this beast tide outbreak area, peaks like the one before him had become scarce; during his month-long journey, he saw fewer than three such thousand-foot peaks, each being Tier Four Spirit Mountain.

Tier Four Spirit Mountains were occupied by Tier Four demon beasts, unaffected by the “Beast King Horn,” thus when he saw those towering peaks from afar, he would detour to avoid them.

However, this time the Tier Four Spirit Mountain before him was unavoidable.

If he detoured again, he would waste another day, and remaining in the area one more day would greatly increase the risk of encountering a beast tide assault.

For now, he survived in this region because ninety-nine percent of the demon beasts congregated elsewhere; once they dispersed as predicted by Cao Wenjin under high-tier demon beasts’ leadership, the deep parts of Broken Cloud Mountain Range’s demon beasts would refill this region’s void.

At that time, if he lingered in the area, it would be danger ahead and perils behind, making survival nearly impossible.

“I must take a gamble! Perhaps I am lucky, and the Tier Four demon beast on this Spirit Mountain was also summoned away?”

His gaze flickered as he looked at the thousand-foot peak ahead, his eyes gradually becoming resolute.

Going forward bears risks, and detouring bears risks too, thus he could only choose to press on!