Vermilion Ibis Descends from the Clouds into the Mortal World

The steward arrived with a face like thunder, and left with the same face, carrying a huge basket of Jade Cloud Fruit.

Judging by his attitude,

it was as though the people of Rising Mist Dao Academy had become thoroughly dissatisfied with Liu Dongqing.

Yet Liu Dongqing's state of mind was not affected in the slightest.

He understood that, from this moment on, the crux of the matter was no longer himself, but the true quality of that basket of Jade Cloud Fruit he had presented.

Liu Dongqing raised his head and looked toward the black-and-white trace where Departure Peak's forest met the sea of clouds.

How long would it take to refine a batch of pills?

After Zhang Qiwei tested the treasured pills and realized the wondrousness of their medicinal effects, how long would that take?

And what would she do?

Perhaps all these reactions would unfold within just a few short hours.

With that thought,

Liu Dongqing walked into the earthen field without hesitation.

When he leaned closer to inspect it,

although only several hundred breaths had passed since Liu Dongqing picked the Jade Cloud Fruit and the steward took them away, the plants in the field, once lush and jade-green, had already begun to resemble the earlier Medicine Vine Fruit Trees.

Ashen white, cracked, and withered.

Clearly, the vitality of these interplanted Jade Cloud Fruit plants was far, far inferior to that of the Medicine Vine Fruit Trees from before.

A single cycle of withering and flourishing had exhausted every shred of their life force.

Very soon,

Liu Dongqing formed a hand seal.

The Divine Vine Pill Sigil shone upon them from afar, not allowing their remaining scraps of life force to continue dissipating into heaven and earth in meaningless waste.

Specks of dim spiritual light began to gather from the tips of the branches and leaves, flowing back toward the main stalks and roots.

Then, amid the cracks and desiccation, the plants themselves gradually withered to death. In the wind, they turned into fine powder and wood splinters, falling into the still-somewhat-moist earth and becoming part of the fertilizer.

After that,

Liu Dongqing carefully dug open the soil.

The roots had likewise rotted into sludge, but where the original woody nodules had been, miniature wooden beads appeared before Liu Dongqing's eyes.

Two hundred and six Jade Cloud Fruit plants meant two hundred and six such wooden beads had condensed.

Liu Dongqing collected them one after another, then returned to his bedroom and poured the liquid stored within into a jade vat.

At once, the essence of life force condensed through a cycle of flourishing and withering surged madly into the mother plant of the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine.

Visible growth and transformation began to take place upon it.

The surface of its formerly jet-black, glossy vines gained even more texture, becoming something between wood and jade, its surface lustrous and moist like black jade.

Not only that.

The vine branches themselves began growing thicker, while the two original woody nodules swelled along with them.

By the time the liquid from more than a hundred wooden beads had been poured inside,

the continuously swelling woody nodules suddenly underwent another transformation. Their protrusions were no longer round, but split apart, as though two woody nodules had been squeezed together.

This meant that each woody nodule could now nurture two Elixir Fruits at the same time.

At the same time,

as the liquid from the final hundred wooden beads was poured in,

a branch extended from the vine between the two nodules on the main stalk. At its somewhat slender tip, a woody nodule emerged.

Like the second woody nodule, this nodule on the branch possessed two modes as well: one could condense ordinary Elixir Fruits, while the other could nurture this new version of Jade Cloud Fruit.

The main stalk produces all pills; the branches nurture myriad medicines.

With the Bloodthirsty Medicinal Vine's various manifestations set, all that remained was the slow process of nurturing it bit by bit in the days to come.

Having completed the last task of "destroying the evidence," Liu Dongqing carefully hid the jade vat away in the secret chamber beneath his bed.

Thus,

only after the tension in his mind abruptly eased did Liu Dongqing slowly leave the bedroom. Carrying the hoe from the corner, he truly began turning over the earthen field, evenly mixing the soil that had buried demon beast corpses with the soil freshly blended with powdered debris.

Time trickled away.

By the time Liu Dongqing had finished tilling all the fields, and had dug out new pits for burying plants as well as a row of deep trenches beside them for deeply burying demon beast corpses,

nearly three hours had passed.

At this moment,

Liu Dongqing plunged his hoe into the soft earth. Just as he lazily stretched his waist and loosened the blood and qi throughout his body,

his languid expression and movements suddenly froze.

The next instant,

when Liu Dongqing raised his head toward Departure Peak, he saw a sight as though heavenly fire had descended into the world.

At first, it was only an imperceptible speck. Then, that spark of fire expanded wildly in Liu Dongqing's field of vision.

Finally, by the time the sound of it tearing through the air arrived fashionably late, that point of spiritual light had already swelled into a crimson fireball as tall as a person in Liu Dongqing's eyes.

The fireball dragged a long flaming tail as it descended from the middle of Departure Peak.

Moreover, Liu Dongqing saw clearly that the fireball was crashing toward his courtyard. Even as he stared at that crimson fireball, he suddenly felt as if he had been locked onto.

Liu Dongqing was instantly startled.

He felt as though some savage beast had fixed its gaze upon him.

The instant he stared into that firelight, a nameless dread erupted from the depths of his mind, madly stirring up every one of his thoughts.

In an instant, the chaotic storm of Seven Emotions became a tsunami, a tempest within his Mud Pill Purple Mansion.

Then, as the Seven Emotions surged up, that dread pierced through them, and in an instant, all Seven Emotions evolved toward a single terror.

It was as though what he faced was no longer some ferocious beast, but true heavenly might.

One had to know—

there was great terror between heaven and earth!

At this moment, the fear brought by that great terror seemed about to become tangible, to become branded within Liu Dongqing's mind!

It was about to carve itself deeply into the very source of Liu Dongqing's mind!

For every day and night to come, he would remember the terror of facing heavenly fire crashing down upon him at this moment!

And as that fear spread like a virus through every thought in his mind, Liu Dongqing instinctively wanted to lift his foot and retreat.

As though taking just one step back would keep that heavenly fire from crashing onto him, from locking onto him again.

Yet in that same flash of lightning,

a crow's cry brimming with fury resounded through Liu Dongqing's body and soul. The explosive roar of the firelight carried the Angry thought he had once severed, striking back into his Mud Pill Purple Mansion.

In an instant,

within the brief reprieve won by that crow's cry, Liu Dongqing once more held fast to righteous thoughts.

The fear that had been solidifying was now slowly melting away like ice and snow.

The storm in his mental world was closing over, and every stray thought was returning to Liu Dongqing's control.

He also resisted his own "instinct." His body did not sway in the slightest, but remained firmly rooted where he stood.

Even Liu Dongqing's gaze upon that crimson fireball did not waver or evade in the slightest.

Sure enough, my earlier guess was right. When Seven Emotions Enter the Flame, a single Sky Light should be purified into one kind of thought!

Zhang Qiwei has fused the fear of the Seven Emotions into crimson Sky Light.

Clearly, she has mastered some more profound method of Heavenly Light Bewildering Spirit.

Had I retreated just now, the fear she stirred would have become a brand carved deep into my mind.

And that proves precisely...

The medicinal power of the Jade Cloud Fruit has moved her heart!

Boom—

Crimson fire fell from the heavens, smashing into the ground before Liu Dongqing.

Crimson radiance steamed up across the courtyard.

Amid its flickering brilliance, Zhang Qiwei's lovely figure appeared, clad in a Great Crimson Daoist Robe.

She stared fixedly at Liu Dongqing, as though meeting him for the first time.

More than ten breaths later.

"Junior Brother, come with me!"