Purple Sun Vermilion Fruit

"Patriarch, are you still worrying about the disaster in the spirit fields?"

Stepping past the members of the Zhao Family, Shen Mo walked straight up to the Patriarch, Zhao Bing.

"Sigh." Zhao Bing's face was etched with sorrow as he let out a heavy breath.

Though he said nothing, the source of his anxiety was self-evident.

"I am preparing to return to the sect."

Shen Mo hesitated for a moment before speaking, "I cannot resolve this blight on your spirit fields for the time being. However, if the Zhao Family truly cannot find any other cultivators to assist, I shall make another trip here in the future."

"Immortal Master, are you speaking the truth?"

Zhao Bing, who had been furrowing his brow in distress, let out a cry of joy upon hearing this.

"Yes. One month from now, I will return to Yongan Town. By then, I will be fully prepared to rid the Zhao Family of this serpent menace." He nodded and instructed, "However, in the meantime, do not let anyone else enter the spirit fields, and do not seek out other cultivators, lest you provoke that Double-Headed Python."

It was crucial that no other cultivators learned of this matter or entered the spirit fields!

Otherwise, if others were to catch sight of that Purple Sun Vermilion Fruit, their greed would inevitably be stirred.

At that point, they might well beat him to it and pluck the fruit for themselves.

Thus, he delivered these instructions with great solemnity.

"Rest assured, Immortal Master. My Zhao Family will certainly heed your teachings."

Zhao Bing nodded repeatedly, unable to contain his delight.

He had not expected the Immortal Master's stance to take such a turn; he had softened his heart and agreed to continue helping the Zhao Family resolve this calamity.

Truly, Heaven was blessing his Zhao Family.

River-Facing Sect, mountain gate.

Having finished his business, Shen Mo set off and, after an hour of travel, returned to the sect.

He flashed his identity jade pendant, and the disciples guarding the gate allowed him to pass.

Upon returning to the sect, he had intended to head straight to his quarters to rest for a while.

But as soon as he arrived in his courtyard, he saw a figure standing before his door.

It seemed they had been waiting for quite some time.

"Uncle Chen?"

He looked at the figure, somewhat startled. "You have finished your seclusion?"

The person waiting at his door was none other than his parents' old friend, the Outer Sect Deacon who had always looked after him, Chen An.

He remembered Chen Mengze telling him that Uncle Chen had been seeking a breakthrough recently and had been in seclusion, with no time to visit him.

He had not expected Uncle Chen to arrive while he was away.

"I finished my seclusion today. I thought I would come to see you, but I did not expect you to be away from the sect."

Chen An turned around, his gaze falling upon the travel-worn Shen Mo. "Where have you been?"

"Reporting to Uncle Chen, I took Chen Mengze's advice and decided to gain some practical combat experience. I accepted a bounty mission from a vassal family and made a trip to Yongan Town."

"Gaining experience?"

"Did the trip go smoothly? You weren't injured, were you?"

Faced with Uncle Chen's concern, Shen Mo hesitated for a moment before telling the truth. "Although I wasn't injured, my trip did not go smoothly..."

He recounted everything he had seen in Yongan Town, including the Double-Headed Silver-Patterned Python lurking in the spirit fields and the Purple Sun Vermilion Fruit atop the giant tree.

"The mission details made no mention of a powerful beast nearing the second rank, which nearly caused me to capsize in the gutter."

Shen Mo still harbored resentment over the incomplete information.

However, Chen An's focus was not on that, but rather—on that Purple Sun Vermilion Fruit!

"Are you saying you saw a purple fruit growing on a tree?"

Chen An's expression grew solemn, and he asked with extreme gravity, "Are you certain you didn't see it wrong?"

"It was indeed purple, without a doubt."

Shen Mo was slightly taken aback, not expecting Chen An to be so serious upon hearing about the fruit.

He proceeded to describe it in detail.

"The fruit grew upon a massive tree. Perhaps because its quality was too high, it had drained all the nutrients from the tree. The vast tree bore only this single fruit, while the rest were nothing but withered branches and leaves. Oh, and the fruit itself seemed to have intricate patterns on it, looking much like lightning."

Chen An drew a sharp breath. "The fruit you saw must be the legendary Purple Sun Vermilion Fruit!"

Purple Sun Vermilion Fruit?

Shen Mo paused, then asked, "Is this fruit very precious?"

He had indeed guessed that the fruit was of high quality and far from ordinary.

However, Uncle Chen's intense reaction made Shen Mo feel that he had still underestimated the value of the Purple Sun Vermilion Fruit.

"The Purple Sun Vermilion Fruit is naturally incomparably precious; it can only condense after being tempered by heavenly lightning."

Tempered by heavenly lightning?

Hearing this, a doubt in Shen Mo's heart was resolved.

No wonder those from the Zhao Family were unaware of the existence of this Purple Sun Vermilion Fruit.

Most likely, that fruit tree had nothing extraordinary about it before, and it was only after being struck by heavenly lightning one day that it condensed the Purple Sun Vermilion Fruit.

This subsequently drew the covetous gaze of the two-headed python, preventing them from entering the spirit field again and leaving them with no way to know of the fruit's mutation.

"If this Purple Sun Vermilion Fruit were sold, would it be worth seventy Spirit Stones?"

Shen Mo threw out his original estimated price and asked curiously.

"Seventy Spirit Stones?" Chen An raised his eyebrows slightly and shook his head, saying, "Never mind seventy, even seven hundred, or even a thousand Spirit Stones might not be enough to buy it!"

"Such a rare treasure has a price but no market; vermilion fruits are easy to come by, but tempering by heavenly lightning is something one can only encounter by luck, not seek out."

It couldn't be bought even for a thousand Spirit Stones?

Shen Mo drew a sharp breath.

"Even if the quality is excellent, it is still just a low-grade spiritual medicine. How could it be so valuable?"

He was somewhat puzzled.

"If it only possessed the medicinal effect of replenishing spirit and nourishing qi, it naturally wouldn't be valuable to such an extent."

"But the Purple Sun Vermilion Fruit is a supreme spiritual medicine for Body Tempering Realm cultivators to open up their dantian qi vortexes when advancing!"

"Opening up a dantian qi vortex?"

Shen Mo frowned, still confused.

The original owner had not been exposed to much cultivation knowledge beyond the Body Tempering Realm.

To him, these words from Uncle Chen were already beyond his depth.

Seeing this, Chen An directly explained it to him: "When a Body Tempering Realm cultivator advances to the Qi Gathering Realm, their body undergoes a transformation."

"Only by opening up a dantian in the sea of qi can one be considered to have successfully advanced."

The greatest difference between a Body Tempering Realm cultivator and a Qi Gathering Realm cultivator lies in the dantian of the sea of qi.

Cultivators in the Body Tempering Realm have not opened up a sea of qi dantian, so they cannot store large amounts of spiritual power.

They rely solely on the strength of their bones and muscles, which have been tempered a thousand times over.

Ultimately, they still belong to the category of mortals and have not truly stepped through the immortal gate.

In contrast, Qi Gathering Realm cultivators possess a sea of qi dantian and can freely cast various immortal arts; the gap between the two is immense.

"In fact, there are three major dantians in the human sea of qi, which are the upper dantian, the middle dantian, and the lower dantian."

"The vast majority of cultivators can only condense one dantian when breaking through to the Qi Gathering Realm," Chen An said earnestly.

"Does opening up more dantians when advancing to the Qi Gathering Realm mean stronger combat power?"

Shen Mo secretly guessed and asked.

"It is not just combat power," Chen An said seriously, "but also future cultivation potential."

"Cultivators who open up two dantians during their advancement have a much higher probability of reaching the Spirit Sea Realm in the future than ordinary cultivators."

"As for cultivators who open up three dantians, they possess a supreme foundation. As long as they do not fall midway, they will inevitably advance to the Spirit Sea Realm, and it is highly likely they will even reach the Origin Core Realm!"

"To open up all three major dantians requires the cultivator's own accumulation; very few external objects can assist in this."

"And this Purple Sun Vermilion Fruit happens to be one of them."

"If consumed during advancement, it will increase the probability of a cultivator condensing multiple dantians!"