Zhenyuanzi lowered his eyes slightly, his aura tranquil. He merely nodded to Qingfeng and said, "You two, take the Golden Striker to the courtyard and pluck two Ginseng Fruits. I have urgent need of them."
"Yes, Master."
The two children bowed again, lowered their heads, and withdrew, heading straight for the Ginseng Fruit Garden to fetch the tool and pick the fruits.
The Ginseng Fruit was a spiritual root nurtured by innate Wu Earth, one in ten thousand, also known as the "Grass Returning Pill." It took three thousand years to blossom, another three thousand years to bear fruit, and yet another three thousand years to mature. Unless ten thousand years had passed, it could not be eaten.
After such a vast span of time, the entire spiritual root bore only thirty fruits. Each resembled a newborn infant three days old, complete with arms and legs, ears, eyes, mouth, and nose, every minute detail vividly present. If one fated to do so came close and lightly inhaled its fragrance, their lifespan would extend by three hundred and sixty years; if they swallowed one, they would gain forty-seven thousand years of life.
This fruit was exceedingly strange and incompatible with the Five Elements: it fell upon meeting metal, withered upon touching wood, dissolved upon encountering water, scorched near fire, and vanished the instant it entered earth.
Before long, Qingfeng and Mingyue returned carrying the fruits. Sure enough, they resembled infants in swaddling clothes, their limbs outstretched and facial features distinct, naturally perfect and utterly breathtaking. Such Merit of Creation could only be wrought by heaven and earth, beyond the reach of human hands.
Zhenyuanzi reached out to receive them and reverently placed the two Ginseng Fruits before the Heaven and Earth Treasure Mirror.
In an instant, auspicious light burst forth within