Joyful Love Fruit

From atop a large tree, Lin Ming watched the sky gradually brighten before jumping down. In the Monster Mountain Range, it was not always possible to find a cave before nightfall. In fact, caves suitable for shelter were rarely found, so Lin Ming spent most nights as he did now, sleeping in a tree. Trees large enough to shelter in were everywhere throughout the Monster Mountain Range, so it was not much trouble.

He had been away from home for two months and had entered this mountain range a month and a half ago. During that month and a half, Lin Ming had spent nearly every day fighting. As he ventured deeper, the Magical Beasts he encountered grew stronger and stronger. During This Period, he had encountered Tier Two Magical Beasts several times. After fighting Magical Beasts comparable to Dou Master Experts, he had killed two whose strength was equivalent to that of Low-Rank Dou Masters. As for the stronger Magical Beasts, Lin Ming did not continue entangling with them after exchanging blows, instead using his movement technique to leave. This was the Monster Mountain Range, after all, and he was alone. He would not fight Magical Beasts so powerful that he had to exhaust all his Dou Qi to defeat them. If anything unexpected happened afterward, he might lose his life here. His safety had to come first in all things.

However, after fighting Magical Beasts During This Period, Lin Ming had gained a relatively clear understanding of his own strength. If he went all out without holding anything back, he should be able to kill a mid-rank Dou Master. But afterward, he would likely be left completely drained. Meanwhile, his cultivation had advanced to Peak Nine-Star Dou Practitioner through these battles. Next, he had to consider breaking through the Dou Zhe realm and becoming a Dou Master.

Set off! After casually packing up the things on the ground, Lin Ming began today's journey. By now, he was nearly at the edge of the area he had mapped out. Going any deeper would mean encountering Tier 3 Magical Beasts, so he did not plan to venture further in. Moving sideways through the area would be enough.

After walking for half a day, Lin Ming arrived near a small stream. He jumped into a tree and looked around for signs of Magical Beasts. Streams like this were the most likely places to encounter them. After all, every Magical Beast needed water, so Magical Beasts often appeared wherever there was water. Once he confirmed there were no Magical Beasts nearby, Lin Ming went to the stream to replenish his water supply. Since he had come across it, he took out the dozens of water pouches from his Storage Ring and filled them all. About the time it took to drink a cup of tea later, Looking at the filled water pouches, Lin Ming put them back into his Storage Ring, washed his face, and prepared to set off again.

After washing his face, he stood up. Just as Lin Ming was about to leave, he noticed something at a bend upstream. Behind a rock, where two leaves were sticking out, there seemed to be something. Lin Ming walked upstream, only to find a pool blocking his path. He picked up several rocks nearby and threw them into the pool. If there really was something behind that rock, it would surely be guarded by a Magical Beast. Yet he had Just Now checked the surrounding area and found no Magical Beasts. If there was one, it was likely hiding in the pool. Some Magical Beasts, such as snakes and turtles, liked staying in water.

Lin Ming threw several more rocks into the water, but no Magical Beast appeared. Judging from the splashes, the pool was not deep either. If there had been a Magical Beast, being pelted like that would have driven it out long ago. It seemed there was none. Lin Ming slowly approached the rock.

Nothing unexpected happened. When Lin Ming reached the rock, he saw a small tree about a foot tall with a pink fruit hanging from it, slightly smaller than a fist.

"Joyful Love Fruit." Lin Ming cried out. He had learned about this fruit from a book while studying medicinal knowledge, which had included an introduction to the Joyful Love Fruit. The Joyful Love Fruit was an aphrodisiac of the Magical Beast World. After a Magical Beast ate it, it could experience extreme pleasure, and its offspring would have a great chance of undergoing beneficial improvements. Some people who ate the Joyful Love Fruit found not only that it tasted excellent, but also that its aphrodisiac effects were incredibly potent. The children they produced also tended to have good talent. However, Joyful Love Fruits were generally swallowed by Magical Beasts as soon as they ripened, making mature fruits extremely difficult to pick in the wild. As a result, the price of a single Joyful Love Fruit had been driven up to thirty thousand Gold Coin, and even then, they were practically unavailable.

Looking at this pink Joyful Love Fruit, Lin Ming saw that it was almost ripe. Only fully ripe Joyful Love Fruits turned pink. Although this one was still somewhat pale, it was essentially mature, and its effects would not differ too greatly. Besides, Lin Ming did not have time to wait for it to ripen completely. No one knew what might happen while he waited.

Lin Ming picked the Joyful Love Fruit, placed it in a wooden box, and stored it in his Storage Ring. This was thirty thousand Gold Coin! It was equivalent to one-tenth of his entire fortune, so of course he had to store it properly.

After putting away the Joyful Love Fruit, Lin Ming got up and left. He had not walked far when he heard some noises and saw several white figures slowly approaching.

"Fuck, Harmonious Apes!" Lin Ming exclaimed. Harmonious Apes were infamous creatures, whether in the Magical Beast World or the human world. They would forcibly mate with any living creature they captured, tormenting it to death. There was nothing on a Harmonious Ape that humans needed, and even Magical Beasts found their meat unpleasant. As a result, few humans or Magical Beasts hunted them. There was simply no value in catching Harmonious Apes, and failure meant suffering that kind of torment. No one wanted to do something so laborious only to be humiliated. Thinking back on it now, Lin Ming understood why he had not found any other Magical Beasts here. This should be the Harmonious Apes' territory. They had probably gone out together to forage Just Now. The other Magical Beasts in this area had likely been terrified away by them. The Joyful Love Fruit Lin Ming had picked should have been discovered by these Harmonious Apes, but since it had not ripened yet, they had not eaten it.

When Lin Ming saw the Harmonious Apes, they seemed to spot him as well. They all howled excitedly and began closing in around him. At this moment, Lin Ming charged at full speed in one direction. He could not let this group of Harmonious Apes surround him. Not to mention the two especially huge ones among them, which were likely Tier Two Harmonious Apes, even the other Harmonious Apes would leave him unable to cope if they surrounded him. Unlike other Magical Beasts that only knew how to pounce head-on, Harmonious Apes would pick up stones and throw them at prey after surrounding it, wearing it down until it died. They were remarkably intelligent. Lin Ming thus broke through at full speed. He absolutely could not be surrounded, or he might become the most miserable transmigrator ever.

Watching the Harmonious Apes close in from all directions, Lin Ming silently cursed his bad luck. At this rate, he would definitely be surrounded. At that moment, he made an unusual move. He took out a pill from his Storage Ring and swallowed it, then turned and charged toward one of the two especially huge Harmonious Apes. The pill Lin Ming had swallowed was a Third-Grade Pill, a Qi Replenishing Pill. It was one of the pills Master Toso had given him before his departure—twenty in total, worth hundreds of thousands of Gold Coin. The reason Lin Ming charged at the Tier Two Harmonious Ape, equivalent to a Dou Master, was that it was alone, and Not Far behind it was a cliff. When Lin Ming had arrived, he had specifically examined it to see whether there was a Cave Mansion below. Naturally, there was none. The cliff was only a little over thirty feet high, and the stream flowed to its edge before falling over it.

Lin Ming's goal was to use his full strength to severely wound this Tier Two Harmonious Ape with one strike, then jump off the cliff. A cliff of this height should not kill him, and once he reached the bottom, he could escape the Harmonious Apes' encirclement.

In the blink of an eye, Lin Ming activated the Star-Stepping Steps. As he neared the Tier Two Harmonious Ape, he used the Startling Swan Saber Technique and brought the Star Dragon Saber down with all his strength. The Tier Two Harmonious Ape raised an arm to block. In an instant, the Star Dragon Saber sliced through its arm and struck its body, leaving a Blood Mark across it.

Amid the Tier Two Harmonious Ape's miserable screams, Lin Ming fled down the only open path and leaped off the cliff. He did not know whether that Tier Two Harmonious Ape would survive, but one of its arms had been cut off, and its body had been struck as well. Even if it did not die, it was definitely severely injured. Whether you die now or not, once I have enough strength, every last one of you filthy things will die! With that thought, Lin Ming disappeared beneath the cliff.

Inside a cave, a Youth was meditating to regulate his breathing. That person was Lin Ming. After jumping off the cliff, he had not suffered any injuries. He then ran without daring to delay for even a moment, because he did not know whether the Harmonious Apes would pursue him. Only after running about twenty kilometers did Lin Ming stop, find a cave, and begin regulating his breathing inside. After all, there was not much Dou Qi left Inside Body at the moment, even after taking the Qi Replenishing Pill. Without it, he would likely have been completely exhausted the moment he jumped off the cliff.

Walking through the Monster Mountain Range without Dou Qi was no different from seeking death. He only had nineteen Qi Replenishing Pills left, and there were still several months ahead of him. No one knew what unexpected situations might arise, so the Qi Replenishing Pills could only be used in the most critical circumstances. Since he had escaped danger now, he would meditate to restore his Dou Qi. If a sudden danger truly arose, he could take one then.

As Lin Ming regulated his breathing and restored his Dou Qi, he thought about how truly dangerous today's events had been. If he had made even one wrong move, he could only have used the Trump Card Mittel Tengshan had given him. It was a Jade Tablet Mittel Tengshan had handed him on the day of his departure. Sealed within it was the full-force strike of Mittel Tengshan, a Dou King Expert. After learning that Lin Ming was going out to train, Mittel Tengshan had spent nearly half a month making it and only finished it the day before Lin Ming departed. It was meant to protect him should he encounter a crisis he could not resolve.

That was the benefit of having a family! But it made sense. Without such measures, how could a family rest assured about letting someone who had never even left home go out alone to train? Especially someone with the most terrifying talent in the family.