Giant Eagle

The matter with Wu San and the other man was just a minor interlude for Ye Yun. He quickly put it out of his mind. Finding the Vermillion Fruit Tree was the real priority; everything else could wait.

As Ye Yun followed the map towards the Vermillion Fruit Tree's location, Wu San and his companion stumbled back into the border town, supporting each other. The first thing they did upon returning was look for padded clothes, because the frost on their bodies wouldn't melt even in the sun. They could only wear more layers to stay warm.

To their horror, even after wrapping themselves up like cotton balls, they were still shivering uncontrollably. In the end, they had no choice but to ask a higher-level cultivator for help, spending two spiritual medicines to relieve the bone-deep chill.

"Old Zhang Six, we need to settle this score properly," Wu San said through gritted teeth, feeling the pleasant warmth of the sun on his skin.

Half an hour later, Wu San and his companion cornered Old Zhang Six at his residence. A few minutes later, Wu San and his companion left Old Zhang Six's dwelling covered in blood. From then on, the border town had one less information broker.

Ye Yun was unaware of Wu San's actions, but he had anticipated them. The moment he let the two men go, Old Zhang Six's fate was sealed. Unless his strength surpassed both of them combined, or someone else intervened, Old Zhang Six was doomed to die. However, Ye Yun didn't dwell on it. He had already arrived at the area where the Vermillion Fruit Tree was located, according to the map.

Standing on his flying sword, Ye Yun glanced at the map, then at the rolling, overgrown mountains before him. He really wanted to shove the map back into the head of the person who drew it. The sprawling mountains, stretching for dozens of miles, were depicted as a tiny, mountain-shaped peak no bigger than his finger on his map. How was he supposed to find anything? The earlier parts of the map had been quite reliable; why had it changed so drastically here? He truly couldn't understand.

"Forget it, I'll start by looking around. The map said the Vermillion Fruit Tree grows on cliffs, right? I'll look for cliffs first. Besides, where there's a Vermillion Fruit Tree, the spiritual energy should be more concentrated than elsewhere. There should also be demonic beasts or spiritual beasts guarding it. As long as I search based on these conditions, I'm bound to find it."

Although the Great Wilderness was called "Great Wilderness," it wasn't truly desolate. While it lacked the dense forests and ancient trees found elsewhere, it was abundant with wild grass and low shrubs. The Great Wilderness also had no shortage of spiritual medicines and animals. It was precisely because of this that Ye Yun's search was not going smoothly.

Although he hadn't found the Vermillion Fruit Tree, before nightfall, he did find two spiritual medicines: one Sun-facing Flower and one Nine-leaf Grass. The Sun-facing Flower was named for always facing the sun, and the Nine-leaf Grass's name was similar. However, the Nine-leaf Grass grew an extra leaf every ten years, completing a cycle every ninety years. After nine cycles, it would transform into a Rejuvenation Grass, possessing the power to restore youth. The plant Ye Yun found already had six leaves, meaning it had been growing for sixty years.

While the quality of these two spiritual medicines was only average, they were still quite good. The Sun-facing Flower was an important ingredient for refining Qi Restoration Pills (to restore magic power), and the Nine-leaf Grass was the main ingredient for refining Nine Revolutions Pills (for healing). The harvest was decent.

Before nightfall, Ye Yun hurried back to the border town. During this period, unless absolutely necessary, few people would spend the night outside the Great Wilderness due to the extreme danger. As far as Ye Yun knew, just three years ago, during the same time period, a Demonic Cultivator at the Qingyun Ninth Layer, relying on his formidable strength, chose to spend the night in the wild instead of returning to the border town. That night, those inside the border town heard tremendous commotion from the Great Wilderness, which only ceased in the early hours of the morning.

The next morning, after the city gates opened, cultivators quickly discovered traces of a massive battle outside the city. Many cultivators followed these traces deep into the Great Wilderness and found that the Demonic Cultivator had been reduced to a skeleton. They could only vaguely identify him by his clothes. Judging by the battle signs, his opponents that night included not only a large number of ordinary beasts but also at least ten demonic beasts, with at least one of them reaching the Jade Purity Ninth Layer. Since then, no one has dared to spend the night outside the city during this period; even if they run out of time, they would desperately rush back.

Although Ye Yun was confident in his own strength, he wasn't foolish. This was clearly the demonic beasts outside the city clearing the area. No matter how strong he was, he couldn't withstand a swarm of demonic beasts, let alone the countless ordinary beasts. They could wear him down to death.

During this period, fighting was forbidden within the border town at night. This was an unspoken rule of the border town. Anyone who violated it would be hunted by everyone in the town, to the death. Therefore, the nights in the border town were the safest during this time; everyone could sleep soundly. Ye Yun did the same.

He slept soundly through the night. After waking up and having breakfast, Ye Yun finally began his great undertaking of searching for the Vermillion Fruit Tree. Unfortunately, Lady Luck did not favor him today. By noon, he had found nothing. Looking at the scorching sun overhead, Ye Yun had no choice but to stop and find a place to rest and have a simple lunch.

If there was one thing plentiful in the Great Wilderness, it was wild rabbits, which roamed the mountains. He caught a wild rabbit from the grass, cleaned it, and seasoned it with spices made by Zhang Xiaofan. Finding some dry firewood, he burned some into charcoal and placed it on a makeshift grill to roast the rabbit. The campfire beside it continued to burn charcoal, and wisps of cooking smoke rose along the cliff, carrying the aroma of roasted rabbit.

A few minutes later, the rabbit's skin turned golden brown under the intense heat of the charcoal. Seeing this, Ye Yun took out his small knife and made several slashes on the golden-brown rabbit, allowing the heat to penetrate deeper into the meat. The aroma of the roasted rabbit became even more intense.

Ye Yun took a deep sniff of the roasted rabbit's fragrance and picked up the seasoning bottle, preparing to sprinkle a little more seasoning to let the meat inside fully absorb the flavor. Just then, he suddenly heard a high-pitched eagle cry from above. Sensing something was wrong, Ye Yun grabbed the long sword beside him, stomped his foot, and rapidly retreated backward. After only seven or eight meters, a golden figure instantly swooped past the roasting rack, and the golden roasted rabbit, which was already eight-tenths cooked, vanished.

After steadying himself, Ye Yun looked up and saw a golden male eagle with a wingspan of about a palm's width streaking away. Clutched in the golden male eagle's gleaming, metallic talons was a dripping, golden roasted rabbit.

Perhaps sensing Ye Yun's gaze, the eagle turned its head, looked at Ye Yun with disdain, and let out a challenging cry. It pecked at the roasted rabbit in its talons before flying away. Such a provocative act instantly enraged Ye Yun. He formed a sword seal with his right hand, and his black long sword instantly unsheathed, whistling towards the golden male eagle with a faint blue glow.

The golden male eagle hadn't expected Ye Yun to be capable of object manipulation. A flicker of panic flashed in its eyes as it watched the whistling flying sword, but it was quickly replaced by indignation. It was the master of the sky; even if that human could manipulate objects, so what? It was the overlord that ruled the sky.