When the Pine Nuts Ripen

Center of Vast Forest Market.

In a dim room, seven or eight infants were crawling about wildly.

The infants were an unnatural bluish black. Black Qi seeped from their bodies from time to time. Their limbs were tiny, their teeth sharp, their pupils bulging, giving them a ferocious look.

They possessed a nimbleness and speed utterly at odds with their builds. Whenever they bumped into one another, they would viciously tear and bite at each other. When they bit a painful spot, they would let out venomous cries from time to time, making anyone who heard them dizzy and swollen-headed.

In the corner of the room, two beautiful young girls sat quietly, not saying a word. A faint smile rested on their faces, and their expressions revealed a maternal radiance.

Both their bellies bulged high, like large leather balls. One of their stomachs had already split open with a huge crack, and a protruding gray-white eyeball stared fixedly at the outside world through the fissure, as if it might crawl out from her belly at any moment.

"Who? Who killed one of my beloved Evil Infants?"

On a large bed made of ice, a cultivator sat upright. Dense resentment coiled around him, and from time to time, a blurry face flew out of the resentment, silently wailing in pain.

The seven or eight infants that had been fighting and biting in the room instantly fell silent, quiet as winter cicadas, as if they feared this man greatly.

The two young girls in the corner still kept their smiles, motionless, while the gray-white eyeball at the fissure in the abdomen slowly retreated into the depths.

"With this, my certainty in condensing the Evil Infant Elixir has dropped by another fraction. Damn it."

The resentment on the cultivator's body surged continuously, like the fury in his heart.

He had entered Qi Refining Completion a very long time ago. He had attempted to break through to Foundation Establishment twice, and both attempts had ended in failure.

By chance, he had obtained an evil method for refining the Evil Infant Elixir from a Secret Realm. After taking the refined elixir, his chances when breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm would increase by ten or twenty percent.

Following the records of the evil method, he collected over a hundred Grievance Souls, condensed them into Evil Infant Fetuses, then found over a dozen young girls, controlled them with a secret technique, and drove the Evil Infant Fetuses into their bodies.

After that, he sold them off by various means. Once the target cultivators purchased them, during their pleasure together, the Evil Infant Fetus would silently merge into the other party's body.

Because the Evil Infant Fetus itself was a kind of sinister treasure, during the process of fusion, it would strengthen the spiritual energy within the cultivator's body, causing the illusion of a sudden surge in cultivation. Naturally, they would become even more keen on dual cultivation.

Once the Evil Infant Fetus had completely merged with the cultivator, at the right moment, it would seize all the Spiritual Power, flesh-and-blood essence, and the like within the cultivator's body, transforming into an Evil Infant.

After the Evil Infant sucked the cultivator into a dried corpse, it would break out of the body and return to the young girl's body, using her flesh to conceal the aura of an Evil Spirit and secretly return to his dwelling.

The entire process was extremely hidden. When the Evil Infant Fetus merged into the cultivator's body, ordinary Exorcism Talismans, Magic Tools, and the like would find it very difficult to detect anything abnormal about the cultivator. Only during that brief span when it broke out of the body would a little aura leak out.

But as long as one was not paying attention at all times, that brief abnormality usually would not be noticed.

Yet even with such caution, one Evil Infant had still been killed, lowering his confidence in condensing the Evil Infant Elixir by another fraction. Naturally, breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm would become even harder.

To him, this was no different from a Blood Sea feud.

"Looks like I'll have to find a few more young Qi Refining Female Cultivators, parasitize the Evil Infant Fetuses inside their bodies, and release them into the Black Market to wait for cultivators to purchase them."

"It's just that now that one Evil Infant has been discovered, things very likely won't go as smoothly as the first time."

Thinking of this, he could not help but burn with pickled rage. The resentment around him almost turned solid, frightening the seven or eight Evil Infants beside him so much they did not dare move.

In the courtyard.

Without the threat of the Evil Spirit on Wang Shan, Lu Xuan's body and mind relaxed considerably, and he devoted himself wholeheartedly to cultivating the many Spirit Plants in the Spirit Field.

After the mysterious Evil Spirit appeared, the Law Enforcement Hall monitored the area where he lived extremely strictly, conducting inspections from time to time, and was also extremely careful about cultivators entering and leaving the area.

However, this did not have much effect on Lu Xuan. In any case, he basically stayed in the courtyard, cultivating Spirit Plants and occasionally teasing the Cloud Stepping Lynx and Red-Beard Carp.

He paid a little attention to the Law Enforcement Hall cultivators who came to inspect. Among the dozen or so Qi Refining Middle Stage cultivators who appeared, there was no sign of Tan Xiaodong. Lu Xuan inferred that it was very likely the information he had attached when reporting him last time had taken effect and caused him to be implicated.

Thinking of this, his mood became even more wonderful. When planting in the Spirit Field, he rather felt a sense of ease and contentment.

Early morning. The faint mist had yet to disperse.

The three-foot-tall Grass Puppet walked out of the mist. After patrolling the Spirit Field all night without sleep or rest, even the withered Gray Grass on its body had been dampened somewhat by the mist.

"What a good employee of mine..."

Lu Xuan held a White Jade Thin-Necked Bottle and sighed leisurely. Then he entered the Spirit Field and came to the edge of the spirit spring.

The three plump Red-Beard Carp saw his familiar figure and thought they could eat Strange Insects. With a flick of their tails, they swam over.

Six long, slender red whiskers trailed beside them like six red ribbons, rippling in the Spirit Spring Pool.

Lu Xuan scattered a handful of Spirit Rice and then ignored them, using the White Jade Thin-Necked Bottle to fill half a bottle with spirit spring water.

A Shadowy Figure flashed past.

The Cloud Stepping Lynx Young Beast leaped up. Its cloud-white paws stepped on the surface of the water, and taking advantage of the motion, it grabbed one Red-Beard Carp by its long whiskers and pulled it out of the water.

The Young Beast swept across the water's surface, leaving only the Red-Beard Carp tumbling in midair before it fell back into the Spirit Spring Pool amid wild flailing, stirring up layer after layer of ripples.

The other two Red-Beard Carp, startled, quickly dove to the bottom of the Spirit Spring Pool. Their movements were enormous, making the ripples on the water's surface even more intense and obvious.

At the center of the Spirit Spring Pool, under the impact of the water waves, the Pure Snow Lotus's pure white, delicate lotus leaves swayed gently, looking as if they could not withstand even the lightest breeze.

"You little fellow, you really are too dishonest. Catching fish is one thing, but you even made it so my Pure Snow Lotus can't grow properly. I'm docking you one piece of Puffer Pig Meat jerky at noon."

Seeing this from the side, Lu Xuan reached out, patted the Cloud Stepping Lynx Young Beast's pointed ears, and threatened it.

"Aow~~"

Hearing that its delicacy was being docked, the Young Beast, which had always maintained a lofty and aloof appearance, could not help but let out a low growl.

It would have been fine if it had stayed silent, but the moment it spoke, Lu Xuan heard that affected, pinched little voice of its, and grew even more resolute in his decision to dock its dried meat.

After that, he carried Spirit Spring water over to the three Clear and Wonderful Spirit Tea plants. Under the control of his Spiritual Power, the spring water turned into fine streams and flowed into the Tea Tree Seedlings.

After watering the Clear and Wonderful Spirit Tea seedlings, he patrolled various parts of the Spirit Field.

He separated the twenty heartless ones that were trying to tangle together.

As the Blood Jade Ginseng grew rapidly, their speed and desire to draw close to one another had also increased greatly. This time, if Lu Xuan had not intervened to stop them, perhaps a dozen or so Blood Jade Ginseng would have mingled into one clump.

It had almost brewed into a large-scale group ginseng movement.

After separating the Blood Jade Ginseng, he struck the Sword Grass with two Gold Metal Swordplay techniques as well, letting it freely absorb the sharp sword intent within the Sword Qi.

As for the Dark Marrow Mushroom beneath the wooden shed, he adjusted the position of the decaying Spirit Tree, allowing it to better absorb the decaying Spiritual Power within.

He also caught the Illusory Mist Luo Fruit hidden in the dense white mist. After a few days, the range of mist around it had expanded somewhat again.

Finally, he came before the Red Cloud Pine that was about to mature, and focused his mind on its branches and leaves.

"Huh, a pine nut actually matured?"

The thought flashed through his mind, and Lu Xuan spoke in surprise.