Snatching Food from an Immortal's Mouth
I searched for her a thousand times, and suddenly I turned around... the elixir of heaven is about to be harvested?
It would be impossible for the three of them not to be nervous. A secret path was right in front of them, and even the most composed person couldn't be indifferent.
Old Chen poured cold water on the idea, saying, "It was originally going to leave the mortal world and enter the depths of the clouds. Could this situation be a final burst of energy before it dies?"
Wang Xuan said, "Old Qing, fly the spaceship a little further away to show that we don't care, we don't force things, and we let nature take its course."
They then moved their positions as they pleased, whether they moved away or closer, the Heavenly Medicine and the Golden Soil remained unchanged.
"That soil looks like a medicinal herb field." Wang Xuan frowned. There are too many mysteries in nature. How could there be such a medicinal herb field amidst the clouds and lightning?
Old Chen carefully sensed the wounds and said, "If this continues, the injuries on my forehead, arms, and scalp will heal overnight."
Wang Xuan's injury was more serious, but his fingers were numb and tingly, and he estimated that his fingernails would grow back completely in a day and a night.
"Fairy, are you there? Here is a celestial herb. Will it be of any use to you?" Wang Xuan unleashed his last trump card, hoping the Female Sword Immortal would appear.
Unfortunately, he was disappointed; the bone remained unmoved.
He had already learned during his last visit to the Inner Scenery Realm that the Female Sword Immortal would be in a three-year slumber, and it now seemed that it had begun. He should send the Sword Immortal back to that collapsed little Taoist Temple.
Suddenly, Old Chen started yawning repeatedly, feeling sleepy.
Then, Wang Xuan and Qing Mu also felt their eyelids grow heavy.
In a hazy vision, they saw the Ghost Monk emerge. Instead of summoning the Female Sword Immortal, the old monk himself appeared. He gazed longingly at the golden celestial herb, then rushed out of the spaceship to pick it.
Boom!
A peculiar bolt of lightning struck, many ball lightning bolts linked together, crimson like blood, covering the area.
The void itself seemed to explode, the ball lightning bursting forth with a light that shook the heavens and the earth. In the old monk's eyes, even the dark clouds turned blood-red, engulfed by the lightning!
The people of Ancheng were completely unaware. Even when some looked up, the sky remained pitch black, with only the occasional flash of lightning.
The old monk, his face ashen, vanished from his spot and returned immediately. He looked at the celestial herb with immense regret and profound horror.
He vaguely saw that behind the Heavenly Medicine there seemed to be several layers of curtains, and a faint red figure stood in the world behind the curtains.
The old monk looked down at his hands, which were also shielded from the outside world by a light barrier. He sighed and disappeared.
Wang Xuan and Qing Mu lifted their eyelids, their drowsiness vanishing. Both of them felt something was off and instantly realized what was happening.
Old Chen woke up with a start. "The Ghost Monk appeared in my dream just now. He ran out to pick the heavenly medicine, but he was struck by lightning and had to come back."
Wang Xuan nodded solemnly and said, "I saw a sky full of crimson light that startled him and made him retreat."
How could they harvest the celestial medicine? The three of them pondered this question, knowing they would regret it for the rest of their lives if they missed it.
Suddenly, Wang Xuan had an idea and said, "Since the Heavenly Medicine cannot be touched, could it be like the Inner Scenery Realm, not existing in the present world?"
"What are your thoughts?" Qing Mu asked.
"If I open my Inner Scenery Realm here and then suddenly leap towards that celestial herb, do you think I could capture it directly and plant it in my Inner Scenery Realm?"
Old Chen was moved. The idea was unconventional, but it made some sense!
Qing Mu was taken aback and said, "The key is that you can't open the Inner Scenery Realm on your own. If you could enter smoothly, you wouldn't need to risk coming here."
Wang Xuan was very serious and said, "I've never forced myself to trigger the Super-Sense state before; it always happened under external pressure. Today I'm going to try it. I'm going to hypnotize myself and jump out of the spaceship to see if I can trigger it when I'm on the verge of death. By the way, Old Qing, you have to be reliable. Activate the energy shield and protect me properly, don't let me get struck by lightning. If we can harvest the Heavenly Herb this time, we'll be laughing for the rest of our lives. Think about it, even the Ghost Monk coveted it, and he risked his life to harvest it just now, which proves that it far exceeds our imagination!"
Qing Mu nodded, patting his chest to assure him that safety was absolutely no problem; there was no lightning inside the energy shield, and it could withstand the dense lightning.
Old Chen hesitated, then said, "I think I just saw a special ball lightning, as beautiful as blood, like a string of Buddha heads, it was quite terrifying."
"Old Chen, are you telling me a ghost story to scare me?" Wang Xuan glared at him.
"I saw it in a dream, I don't know if it's real or not." Old Chen himself wasn't sure.
"Alright, stop scaring yourself. I'll give it a try." The first problem Wang Xuan encountered was self-hypnosis, making himself convinced that he was in a life-or-death situation in order to trigger Super-Sense.
Old Chen shook his head and said, "I guess you can't trigger the Super-Sense state like this. No matter what, people can't fool their own subconscious."
Wang Xuan ignored it; he was a man of action, and began to hypnotize himself. It was remarkably effective; not long afterward, he...fell asleep!
Qing Mu was stunned. Had he... gone too far? He was trying to deceive himself, but he wasn't really asleep!
Old Chen was also lost in thought for a moment, still waiting to see him jump off the spaceship, but he ended up putting himself to sleep.
Wang Xuan did indeed fall asleep and entered the mental field he was about to form. Soon he saw the Ghost Monk.
"Divine Monk, why have you come here again? Do you want to cooperate with me to harvest the Heavenly Herb? Tell me, how will we split the profits?" Wang Xuan asked expectantly.
Without saying a word, the Old Monk rushed over and... started beating him up!
Wang Xuan was stunned. What was going on? This was the first time he had ever been beaten up, and being cornered by the old monk was causing him continuous... excruciating pain!
A moment later, Wang Xuan woke up feeling pain all over his body. He was grimacing and furious. How could he have been beaten for no reason?
He vowed that once he reached New Star, he would definitely go to the Thousand-Year Ancient Temple where the old monk lived and demand an explanation!
Qing Mu looked at him with a puzzled expression. Old Chen, however, gave him a strange look and said, "You got beaten up?"
"You could even see that?" Wang Xuan was surprised, but he understood in an instant. Old Chen was in even worse shape; he had been beaten to a pulp by the old monk in the spiritual realm all night long, and had even gained experience from the beating!
"Old Chen, you'd better send that Ghost Monk away as soon as possible. I really hate him!" Wang Xuan said indignantly.
However, after careful consideration, he realized that the old monk seemed to be giving him a warning? At the last moment, the Ghost Monk used his hands to conjure up boundless crimson clouds and blood-red light, in which stood a blurry and graceful figure.
After Wang Xuan said this, Old Chen was horrified and said, "I knew it! Heavenly medicines are hard to come by. How could one just appear out of nowhere? We're in trouble!"
"Then let's retreat!" Wang Xuan also felt uneasy.
Without saying a word, Qing Mu piloted his spaceship and drove off.
Suddenly, a strong medicinal fragrance wafted over, far surpassing what it had been before, and the celestial herb underwent an astonishing transformation. The golden soil, a square foot in size, lost its luster and transformed into a radiant glow like thunder and fire, which was absorbed by the tree.
Then, the fist-sized golden flower withered, and quickly formed a fruit. It grew rapidly from the size of a fingernail to the size of an egg, its entire body blue and shimmering with iridescent light.
More importantly, a special fruity aroma wafts through the air, rich and fragrant, seeping into one's soul and affecting one's spirit.
Old Chen ripped off the gauze from his forehead, and at a speed visible to the naked eye, the wound there was healing, scabbing over, and finally the scab fell off.
Wang Xuan unwrapped the medical bandages from his hands, revealing that his ten broken fingers were healing rapidly, and his nails were slowly growing back.
In the end, his nails became glossy, and all ten fingers were shiny, completely restored to their original state.
In a short while, all the injuries on Wang Xuan and Old Chen disappeared, leaving no scars.
As for Qing Mu, his pores opened up, and he felt lightheaded, as if he were about to ascend to heaven. His bodily functions were greatly enhanced, and he received great benefits.
"To go or not to go?" Qing Mu's voice trembled. He felt that if he stayed any longer, his strength would definitely improve.
"I'm not going anywhere. Let's go to that celestial herb!" Wang Xuan said through gritted teeth.
"Are you crazy?" Old Chen remained relatively calm.
Wang Xuan said, "She's not crazy. If it really was the Red-clothed Demon Immortal causing trouble, her methods are almost at their limit, and she wouldn't be able to interfere with the mortal world at all. If she could touch me, she would have done it already. Although she's probably fishing, she might have lost her bait and caught nothing."
"Didn't she hear you say that?"
"If she could see through all this, she wouldn't be trying to lure me like this. I reckon she can only tell if we're close to that special place." Wang Xuan gritted his teeth and said, "Old Qing, get closer. Once she takes the bait, be ready to run away at any time."
"Alright, let's go for it!" Qing Mu knew this was playing with fire, but he agreed with some of Wang Xuan's words: if the other party could intervene in the present world, they wouldn't have gone through so much trouble.
The spaceship approached the Heavenly Medicine again. The tree was ablaze with golden light, the soil beneath it was dried up, and a green fruit hung on the tree, constantly radiating a rosy glow that fell into the spaceship. It was this special radiance that caused the three of them to experience an extraordinary surge in metabolism, resulting in an improvement in their physical condition.
The three of them arrived here and immediately began their cultivation without saying a word.
Without hesitation, Wang Xuan seized the rare opportunity and began practicing the Golden Body Art using the mysterious radiance bestowed by the Heavenly Medicine.
As time went by, some of his skin peeled off, and before he knew it, his Golden Body Art had advanced from the initial sixth level to the middle of the sixth level!
The Golden Body Art becomes increasingly difficult to master with each level; to achieve complete mastery of the sixth level requires more than thirty years.
How long has it been?
The extent of Wang Xuan's improvement in his Golden Body Art shocked even himself. The Heavenly Medicine lived up to its name; he hadn't even eaten the fruit, yet such a dramatic change had occurred.
At the same time, he realized that he was about to trigger a state of Super-Sense, and he had a feeling that he would soon be able to open the Inner Scenery Realm.
But instead of being pleasantly surprised, he was horrified. Was this a way to force him to open the Inner Scenery Realm? Did the other party want to use this route to return?
"Old Qing is ready to run away at any time!" Wang Xuan roared. He would never use the Root Method of the Pre-Qin Daoist practitioners, and he would never open Inner Scenery Realm here.
Throughout this process, he continuously activated the Golden Body Art, eventually causing his body to glow and shed its skin, thus elevating the Golden Body Art to the late sixth level!
Wang Xuan was certain that ordinary bullets could no longer penetrate him!
The Heavenly Medicine was too mysterious. He hadn't even taken a single bite, yet in such a short time, it had pushed his Golden Body Art to a peak, almost reaching the seventh level.
"Run!" Wang Xuan suddenly shouted.
Because he had triggered a state of Super-Sense. Although he was not using the Root Method of the Pre-Qin Daoist practitioners and was only practicing the Golden Body Art, he could still vaguely sense the Inner Scenery Realm.
This is truly terrifying. Is the peerless Red-clothed Demon Immortal interfering with the mortal world? It's too astonishing and frightening. Wang Xuan's hair stood on end, and he broke out in a cold sweat.
Although reluctant, Qing Mu still decisively ran away, demonstrating exceptional execution skills.
"Quick!" Old Chen shouted as well, sensing the approaching danger and feeling a chill run down his spine.
Boom!
Dense, continuous bolts of lightning surrounded the celestial medicine. Behind the golden medicinal tree, several layers of curtains appeared, with a blurry red figure standing behind them.
Endless lightning, tinged with blood, struck the spaceship, sending chills down Qing Mu's spine. The lightning was so thick and powerful, reaching to the heavens and the earth, engulfing their area.
Qing Mu's heart sank, and he closed his eyes.
Wang Xuan shouted, "It's alright, it can't interfere with the present world. The crimson lightning dissipated as it approached the spaceship!"
The spaceship sped through the clouds, disappearing into the distance. Behind them, amidst the thunderclouds, the hazy celestial medicine gradually faded and vanished.
Although he escaped unharmed, Wang Xuan truly felt like he had survived a calamity. Now that his Super-Sense state had disappeared, he had no regrets. He was certain that if he had been forced to activate his Inner Scenery Realm at that moment, a tremendous disaster would have befallen him.
He ate the bait but wasn't caught, filled with joy and a sense of accomplishment. He couldn't help but shout into the lightning-streaked clouds, "Red-clothed demon, next time don't just focus on being cold and calculating. When you deliver medicine another day, hold up Oil-paper Umbrella and dance a Demon Immortal Dance for me."
In the clouds, amidst the flashes of lightning, at the point where the Heavenly Medicine collapsed, a faint red phantom appeared, graceful and alluring, holding Oil-paper Umbrella, glancing down.
Wang Xuan: "!!!"
He immediately shut his mouth and said nothing more, a chill emanating from his Spine Bone.
The Red-clothed Demon Immortal is too powerful; she's almost able to intervene in the mortal world? She actually heard his words! Her delicate, exquisite figure vanished from the collapsed point, completely disappearing.