Unexpected Gains

"Good. Go deal with that giant snake. Its materials are worth a lot, don't waste them," Ye Yun nodded. He pointed at the massive body of the green-scaled giant snake lying nearby, as large as a small hill.

"Yes! Brother Ye!" Yan Xiao Liu responded with renewed vigor, his spirits soaring despite his injuries. He drew the sharp dagger he carried, suppressed his fear of the giant snake's residual ferocity, and efficiently began to butcher the carcass.

The snake's skin was incredibly tough, an excellent material for armor; its gall bladder, the size of a fist, was clear and emerald green, a potent antidote; its fangs were sharp as daggers, valuable in themselves;

And then there were the snake tendons, imbued with pure demonic energy... Yan Xiao Liu worked swiftly and precisely, clearly experienced in processing Demonic Beast materials. In a short time, he had cut out the most valuable parts, carefully wrapping them in oilcloth he carried.

Ye Yun stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze seemingly casual as he swept over the ravaged battlefield. In reality, his spiritual sense, like invisible tendrils, cautiously probed the surroundings, sensing any potential hidden dangers.

Fallen leaves, broken branches, churned earth, and congealed dark red blood... everything was enveloped in the stillness and grimness of a post-battle scene.

Suddenly, Ye Yun's gaze sharpened slightly. He keenly detected an extremely faint, yet exceptionally pure, unusual aura. It wasn't from the blood or decaying vegetation, but a... sweet fragrance, vibrant and brimming with strange energy?

The scent was incredibly faint, mixed with the heavy smell of blood. If not for his senses far surpassing ordinary people, he would have barely noticed it.

He abruptly looked up, his sharp eyes like a falcon's piercing the dense, almost light-blocking canopy above. The ancient trees' branches and leaves layered upon each other, casting large, deep shadows in the fading sunlight.

However, at the very top, on a natural "platform" formed by the intersection of several thick branches, a fleeting glimpse of an incredibly alluring deep red, like solidified blood, flashed through a gap between large leaves blown aside by the wind!

"Hmm?" Ye Yun's heart stirred. Without a moment's hesitation, he lightly tapped the ground with his toes. His internal energy flowed, and his body, as weightless as a feather, floated upwards.

He didn't shoot straight into the sky. Instead, he employed an exquisite body-lightening technique, his toes tapping the rough tree trunks. Each push-off was light and silent, yet incredibly swift.

His figure darted between the towering trees, ascending nearly a hundred meters in just a few leaps, landing steadily on a massive horizontal branch that would require several people to embrace.

The view here opened up suddenly. Below was the treetop, like a green ocean. In the distance, the setting sun melted like gold, painting the sky a magnificent orange-red.

And next to where Ye Yun landed, at the junction of this ancient tree's main trunk and a giant horizontal branch, another peculiar plant had miraculously grown!

This small tree was only about three feet tall, its entire body a warm, jade-like emerald green. Its branches were gnarled, as if it had endured countless years.

Its roots weren't in the soil but coiled like spirit snakes, deeply embedded in the crevices of the ancient tree's thick branches below, drawing nourishment from the tree and the wandering elemental energy of heaven and earth. On the small tree's few slender branches, three thumb-sized fruits hung!

These three fruits were round and full, their entire bodies crystal clear, as if carved from the purest ruby, a deep red! The skin was as thin as a cicada's wing, and one could faintly see the rich, golden-red juice flowing within.

A strange, incredibly pure, and refreshing sweet fragrance emanated from these three fruits, making one's internal energy subtly active.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves onto the fruits, refracting into a dreamlike, hazy halo, breathtakingly beautiful!

"Vermilion Essence Fruit! And it's... an epiphytic Vermilion Essence Fruit!" Even with Ye Yun's composure, his pupils couldn't help but contract, and a surge of uncontrollable surprise welled up in his heart.

He had seen records of this heavenly treasure in a surviving ancient text.

The Vermilion Essence Fruit was a precious medicine born from the creation of heaven and earth, extremely rare. And this one before him was an anomaly among Vermilion Essence Fruits – an epiphytic Vermilion Essence Fruit!

It could not grow independently in the soil. It had to rely on ancient trees at least a thousand years old, feeding on the tree's essence and the elemental energy of heaven and earth. It required a full sixty-year cycle to mature and bear fruit! Each time it matured, it bore at most five fruits, truly something that could only be encountered by chance!

Its value could no longer be measured in gold and silver! Legend had it that a mature Vermilion Essence Fruit could fetch tens of thousands of gold at top auctions, and often, it was priceless because it was simply unavailable! The reason was none other than its miraculous efficacy!

For ordinary martial artists who couldn't sense elemental energy, a single Vermilion Essence Fruit offered a fifty percent chance of helping them open the Heaven and Earth Bridge, guiding energy into their bodies, and instantly stepping into the coveted realm of ranked martial arts!

And for already ranked martial artists, it was a supreme medicine for tempering the body, solidifying the foundation, and purifying internal energy. It could even help one break through bottlenecks and directly advance a minor realm! The pure elemental energy it contained was gentle yet boundless, with almost no side effects!

Ye Yun's gaze quickly swept over the small tree, a hint of doubt flashing in his mind: "The records said five fruits at maturity... but there are only three here?"

He immediately calmed his mind and vigilantly observed his surroundings. Soon, below the branch where the small tree was rooted, in a hollow obscured by large leaves, he found several large, tough, dark green snake molts! Faint demonic energy still lingered on the edges of the molts, originating from the same source as the green-scaled giant snake below!

Everything became clear! No wonder a second-tier Demonic Beast, the green-scaled giant snake, which shouldn't inhabit this area, appeared on the outskirts of the Sunset Mountains! It had discovered this nearly mature epiphytic Vermilion Essence Fruit tree long ago, settled here, and waited for the fruit to ripen!

It must have consumed two of the fruits when they matured, using that boundless, pure elemental energy to break through its limitations and advance to become a second-tier Demonic Beast! The remaining three fruits became Ye Yun's unexpected gain from this trip!

This was truly a case of "When the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman benefits"!

Ye Yun no longer hesitated. He carefully took out three prepared jade boxes, specifically for storing precious medicinal materials.

His movements were gentle, as if handling a rare treasure. He used a specially made jade knife to cut off the three crimson, glistening Vermilion Essence Fruits along with a short piece of their stems. He placed them separately into the jade boxes, quickly sealed them, and affixed talismans to prevent the elemental energy from dissipating.

After completing all this, he finally let out a long sigh of relief. He tucked the jade boxes close to his body. Standing on the branch a hundred meters high, he looked down at the miniature forest below and at Yan Xiao Liu, who was engrossed in processing the snake's corpse. An indescribable sense of exhilaration surged within him.

The last rays of the setting sun cast upon him, outlining his tall and confident silhouette. He lightly tapped the branch with his toes, and his body, like a great roc spreading its wings, gracefully descended. His robes fluttered in the evening breeze, his posture indescribably elegant and free-spirited as he landed steadily beside Yan Xiao Liu.