Red Sun Fruit

Yun Yanchen swept his gaze over the stone chamber and comforted her, “Perhaps there was never anything here to begin with. The opportunity you sensed might just be those spiritual plants outside. You saw it when we came in—the path was full of thousand-year-old spiritual herbs.”

“Perhaps,” Shen Chaoyue lowered her eyes and said nothing more.

But she knew in her heart that it shouldn't be like this.

The opportunity she had sensed was clearly in this direction, right in this spot—it was absolutely incomparable to those spiritual plants outside.

Someone had beaten her to it and taken away what was most important to her.

She clenched her sleeves tightly, took one last look at the stone chamber, turned to squeeze out of the passage, and walked out without looking back.

Meanwhile, Xue Mingzhao was dragging Su Ye along as they ran wildly. The female lead definitely wouldn't stay long after seeing the empty stone chamber, and she would most likely head back to collect those natural treasures.

She had to get her hands on that nearly ten-thousand-year-old red sun fruit before the female lead turned back!

The two quickly returned to their original spot, where the red sun fruit was still resting safely.

It was fiery red all over, its nearly ten-thousand-year-old depth condensed on the surface of its skin. Fine golden-red light slowly flowed across the fruit, emitting a fiercely intense spiritual energy.

Xue Mingzhao let out a sigh of relief and reached out to pluck it—

“Hot, hot, hot, hot—!”

She abruptly withdrew her hand and blew frantically on her fingers. Before she had even touched it, her fingertips had been scalded bright red.

The Chaos Spiritual Root snorted gloatingly in her dantian, “You actually dare to pluck a ten-thousand-year-old red sun fruit with your bare hands? Do you think it's a tomato grown in your backyard?”

Su Ye tried to wrap his hand in spiritual energy to pluck it, but the moment his fingertips touched the skin, he hissed and pulled back, his fingertips turning red as well.

The Chaos Spiritual Root sneered in Xue Mingzhao's dantian, “Two fools.”

Xue Mingzhao raised an eyebrow. “It seems you know how to pluck it, then.”

“Of course I know, but I'm not telling you.”

Xue Mingzhao pulled an ancient book from her storage ring, flipped to a page, and said in a tone as casual as reading a menu, “A while ago, I stumbled upon a secret technique in the Library Pavilion. Guess what it is?”

The Chaos Spiritual Root asked, “What?”

“After consuming it, the spiritual energy throughout one's body disperses, and all spiritual roots within the dantian perish simultaneously. Then, a new spiritual root grows anew within the depleted dantian.”

The Chaos Spiritual Root scoffed, “Stop trying to fool me. What Nirvana Pill? I've never even heard of it.”

Xue Mingzhao shoved the page toward her dantian. The words “Nirvana Pill” were clearly printed on the paper. Before the Chaos Spiritual Root could read the small note next to it, she slammed the book shut with a snap and put it back into her storage ring.

A touch of well-timed disappointment colored her voice. “I thought we were friends, which is why I never brought it out. Since you're unwilling to cooperate, I won't force you.

“I'll just ask Martial Uncle Xu to refine one for me later. Although the new spiritual root won't be as powerful as you, at least it'll be obedient. From now on, you take your single-plank bridge, and I'll cross my broad road.”

The Chaos Spiritual Root said, “Didn't you say earlier that you would die if you consumed me...?”

“Oh? I must have misspoken—I meant that after consuming it, you can leave me and pursue your freedom,” Xue Mingzhao corrected with a smile.

The Chaos Spiritual Root: “...”

It felt that this girl was most likely talking nonsense. What Nirvana Pill? It had never even heard of it.

But it had indeed seen those three words on the page just now; there was no faking that.

Besides, to tell the truth, it had lived for who knew how many tens of thousands of years. In the past, it had done nothing but sleep, without even anyone to talk to.

Now, trapped in this girl's dantian, although it was bickered with and threatened every day, at least it wasn't so boring anymore.

And she had said just now that they were friends.

The Chaos Spiritual Root snorted.

As the grand Chaos Spiritual Root, the ancestor of all spiritual roots, how could it possibly become friends with a little human girl?

It pondered for a long while before finally finding an excuse to save face.

Xue Mingzhao chatted with it every day. When it was in a good mood, it would respond a bit; when it was in a bad mood, it would simply ignore her.

Wasn't she basically a spiritual pet it was keeping?

Even when keeping a spiritual pet, one had to throw it a bone occasionally. It would reluctantly help her out this once.

“Ahem,” the Chaos Spiritual Root cleared its throat reluctantly. “I am the Chaos Spiritual Root, the origin of all things in the world—”

“Cut the nonsense and get straight to the point. Shen Chaoyue will be here soon,” Xue Mingzhao cut it off directly.

The Chaos Spiritual Root choked, then said through gritted teeth, “The Chaos Spiritual Root can channel spiritual energy of any attribute. Convert your spiritual energy into the ice attribute and wrap it around your hand to pluck it. The red sun fruit is of pure fire attribute, and ice counters fire.”

Xue Mingzhao extended her hand, closed her eyes, and chanted silently in her mind: Ice, ice, ice.

A thin layer of white spiritual energy slowly welled up in her palm, carrying a slight chill.

She opened her eyes, looking at the thin layer of frost in her palm. The corners of her mouth curled up; it actually worked.

She reached out again to pluck the red sun fruit. The moment her fingertips touched the skin, the crimson flame hovering around the fruit's surface suddenly flared up.

The instant the ice spiritual energy came into contact with the flame, a soft sizzling sound rang out, and a wisp of white mist steamed up.

Xue Mingzhao took a jade box out of her storage ring, carefully placed the red sun fruit inside, closed the lid, and stuffed it back into her ring.

She looked up at the patch of thousand-year-old flesh-growing vines ahead, swallowed her saliva, and reluctantly averted her gaze. “Senior Brother, pluck these few in front of us. Forget about that patch further ahead, and move fast!”

Shen Chaoyue was likely coming out of the empty stone chamber right about now. If they didn't leave, they would run right into her.

Su Ye did not hesitate for a second upon hearing this and immediately began harvesting.

From the moment his junior sister yielded the ancient legacy to him, he had decided that if his little junior sister told him to go east, he would never go west, and if she told him to beat someone up, he would never just curse them out!

The two selected a few of the best ones to pluck, then rushed off to harvest other things without stopping.

Essence-condensing fruits, plucked.

Boundary-breaking flowers, plucked.

Thousand-year lingzhi, fleeceflower root—she took them all.

Xue Mingzhao patted her storage ring and stood up in satisfaction.

“Let's go out and hunt demon beasts.”

The Qingyu Mystic Realm's rankings were based on the total points of each sect.

Large sects easily had over a dozen disciples, so their points accumulated incredibly fast.

Meanwhile, their Grand Primordium Sect only had two people in total. Even including the demon beast inner cores they had just scavenged, they were still a bit short.

They had to make the most of their time.

Xue Mingzhao summoned the Cloud-Gazing Finch to scout ahead, and the two rode the Azure Ripple Leaf toward areas with dense populations of demon beasts.

What Xue Mingzhao didn't know was that the moment they emerged from the cave, Zhou Bupo, who was in charge of the mystic realm, almost cried tears of joy on the spot.

At first, when the two entered the cave and the projection suddenly went black, he had assumed it was just a minor issue with the Floating Light Array Disk. He had casually checked it while brushing off Su Mingyuan.

But as soon as the Heavenly Origin Sect's Shen Chaoyue and Yun Yanchen went in, the projection instantly went black as well.

Huang Siqi's face had darkened on the spot. Zhou Bupo wanted to cry but had no tears; he frantically repaired the array disk while praying to every god and Buddha in the heavens.

That male cultivator was a supreme-grade spiritual root genius whom the Heavenly Origin Sect was focusing heavily on nurturing. If anything really happened to him, Huang Siqi would be the first to make an example out of him.

Fortunately, the projection quickly restored itself after those two Grand Primordium Sect disciples came out.