Exotic Fruit

All night long, Bone had been keeping an eye on Yuan Tianzong's cultivation.

He could clearly feel Yuan Tianzong's vitality growing stronger and stronger. The breathing technique helped him far more than it helped Bone, and his progress was astonishingly fast.

Yuan Tianzong's passive skill, "Heartstrike," couldn't help but leave the Skeleton Monster feeling a little dejected.

It was as if his wife were unhappy with him, yet let loose with someone else, discovering all sorts of positions he hadn't even known about.

The great sun drove away the darkness.

At dawn, Yuan Tianzong finally opened his eyes after several days of secluded cultivation.

Sitting on a boulder, he stretched. His bones crackled like thunder as he opened his mouth and exhaled a breath of stale air. His whole body felt wonderfully refreshed. His physique had improved considerably, his internal organs were stronger than before, and his vital essence seemed on the verge of forming a river.

A smile curled across Yuan Tianzong's lips. He was in a wonderful mood.

After searching high and low, he'd found it without even trying!

The breathing technique Bone had brought him was precisely the extraordinary art he'd been searching for. It could strengthen the body and was crucial to cultivating inner energy and achieving Life Transcendence.

"You're finally awake! Things have gone crazy out there!"

Bone hurried over at once, chattering away, then quickly wrote a line.

Yuan Tianzong raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How crazy?"

After Bone explained, Yuan Tianzong understood the recent changes brought by the world's flourishing. He showed no sign of panic over the extraordinary fruits being snatched up, instead laughing heartily. "Excellent! The world is flourishing, and heaven and earth are transforming. I like it!"

"Come on, let's go get a few extraordinary fruits and see how they taste."

Bone couldn't have been happier.

Seeing this, Yuan Tianzong stopped and looked him up and down. "Come to think of it, can you even eat with a body like that?"

Bone waved his arms frantically, afraid Yuan Tianzong would snatch the fruits and leave him none. "Of course! Extraordinary fruits aren't ordinary things. I can eat them—of course I can!"

The wind howled across the mountains, and rain and mist hung like a curtain over the long, towering ridges. Who knew how much primordial energy they held within? Countless mutated creatures had gathered there.

Yuan Tianzong tucked the seed away and left the wooden house.

First, he was worried someone might steal it while he was gone.

Second, after observing it for some time, he'd found that planting it in the ground brought about no change. It remained withered and lifeless.

Perhaps the seed was already completely dead.

Or perhaps he simply didn't know how to plant it properly.

Either way, planting it or not made no difference. Keeping it with him was safer.

As soon as Yuan Tianzong entered the forest, he sensed the changes all around him.

In just a few days, the mountains and rivers before him seemed to have changed as much as they would over decades. Towering trees stretched without end, the mountain ranges had grown ever more imposing, and the primordial energy throughout the region had multiplied several times over.

"Just as I thought. There's been a qualitative change. The transformation of heaven and earth is intensifying."

A terrifying roar echoed through the mountain mist, shaking the forest.

Just from the sound, he could tell that it was a powerful Molting Beast.

Before the roar had even faded, another challenge rang out, matching it in ferocity.

There had to be a reason for two Molting Beasts to clash.

Yuan Tianzong immediately guessed that an extraordinary fruit might have appeared there.

"Let's go!"

"Clack, clack, clack!"

Yuan Tianzong instantly accelerated and vanished in the blink of an eye.

Behind him, Bone chased with all his might, but he couldn't keep up.

Rumble!

Roars shook the heavens, and the air reeked of blood.

In a mist-shrouded valley, hundreds of beasts ran wild, their ferocity forcing the humans present to retreat again and again rather than face them head-on.

Among those people were Transcendents who had consumed extraordinary fruits and undergone strange physical changes.

There were also pure Martial Dao cultivators, hoping to seize an extraordinary fruit and improve their cultivation and combat strength.

Most of the rest were ordinary people who believed that fortune favored the bold.

At that moment, most of them had stopped at the valley's outskirts. They stared at the beasts rampaging within, fear plain on their faces, and didn't dare approach.

But when they looked past the beasts toward the spring at the center of the valley, where black qi churned, greed stirred within them. They were itching to make a move.

"The extraordinary fruit in that spring is almost ripe! Charge!"

"Together!"

Someone couldn't hold back any longer, but didn't dare go alone, so he cleverly called for everyone to charge together.

"A bunch of cowards!"

A Transcendent who had consumed an extraordinary fruit and undergone a transformation charged forward. He knew better than anyone how powerful such fruits were. The fruit in that spring was so unusual that its effects were likely beyond those of ordinary extraordinary fruits.

The ground trembled. In an instant, the Transcendent's body swelled, and he strode like an elephant. He sent the Molting Beast blocking his way flying and charged onward.

"So strong!"

"That's White Elephant!"

White Elephant was a man who had transformed after consuming an unknown extraordinary fruit. He had the strength of an elephant and thick, tough skin. When he exerted himself to the fullest, his arms turned white as jade, like a pair of tusks, giving him incredible charging power.

All eyes were on him. White Elephant charged faster and faster, breaking through the beasts in the blink of an eye. The spring was only ten steps away.

"He's going to make it!"

"That's insane! White Elephant isn't even close to the likes of the Dragon King and the other Transcendents, yet he's already this powerful. I can't imagine how strong those top Transcendents are!"

"The extraordinary fruit is mine!" White Elephant exclaimed with delight, reaching for the dark fruit hanging from a black branch in the middle of the spring.

A roar split the air. White Elephant's vision blurred and he staggered. Before he could recover, a gaping maw seized him and swallowed him whole.

Everyone's hearts clenched. They felt as if they themselves had been swallowed, sharing his fate.

Their panicked gazes fell on the Unicorn Giant Tiger, and they silently congratulated themselves for not acting recklessly.

Roar—!

The Unicorn Giant Tiger lifted its head and roared. Visible shock waves rippled outward for dozens of meters, declaring its dominion.

Many Molting Beasts were so frightened by the roar that their legs gave way and they dropped to the ground. Its might was astonishing.

The humans hesitated even more. No one dared casually challenge the beast king.

The intelligent unicorn tiger glared coldly, sweeping its gaze over every living creature present. A distinctly humanlike arrogance and contempt appeared on its face.

"That thing's so full of itself!"

"It's looking down on us. Sigh."

"If the authorities weren't so strict about weapons, I'd blow it to hell with a cannon!"

In the blink of an eye, a thunderous crack startled everyone. Many people's pupils shrank as they watched the defiant Unicorn Giant Tiger collapse stiffly to the ground, half its enormous head blown apart in a grisly mess. It wouldn't even know who to seek revenge on in its next life.

There was another expert here!

"Over there!"

Everyone hurriedly searched, and at last spotted a figure shooting straight toward the spring from a tree.

The figure hit the ground with a thunderous crash. Every Molting Beast within several yards was crushed to death, leaving the onlookers horrified.

"Now that's a real tiger!"

"Who is he?"

The figure moved at lightning speed, snatched the black branch from the spring, then leaped away. In the blink of an eye, he was gone. The whole thing happened so quickly that the onlookers couldn't even make out his face. It was breathtaking.

A mysterious expert had appeared once more at Wangwu Mountain!

After the beasts scattered, people rushed forward to seize the Unicorn Tiger King's body.

Only then did they realize that the thing that had blown the tiger king's head apart was a pebble!

"That was so powerful! I thought it was an Italian cannon!"

"I thought it was a shell at first too. I figured it must've been some rich guy enhanced by technology. Never in a million years would I have guessed it was just a pebble. That was terrifying."