Great Witch Kuafu

"I say, Brother Shi Mo, you're not trying to fob me off with ordinary peaches from your Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain, are you?" Hongyun asked, looking at Shi Mo suspiciously.

Even Zhen Yuanzi, who had been smiling beside them, glanced at Shi Mo. He was also quite curious how one peach tree could bear three different kinds of peaches.

"If you're not going to eat it, then give it back," Shi Mo said, holding out his hand to Hongyun.

"Who said I wasn't eating it? Even ordinary peaches are far more delicious than many spirit fruits," Hongyun said, drawing back his hand and taking a bite of the peach.

"Hm?" Yet the moment Hongyun took a bite, his movements stiffened and his expression froze.

Seeing this, Zhen Yuanzi could not help frowning. "What is it, Hongyun? Could this peach be that awful?"

Hongyun quickly seemed to come back to his senses, his expression becoming wonderfully animated. After chewing and swallowing the mouthful of peach flesh, he exclaimed in delight, "It's delicious! This definitely isn't an ordinary peach. It tastes even better than ginseng fruit!"

"Uh?" Zhen Yuanzi was startled again. Delicious was delicious, but saying it tasted better than ginseng fruit was a little exaggerated, wasn't it?

"Is it really that good?" Still somewhat doubtful, Zhen Yuanzi took another peach Shi Mo handed him and bit into it. His expression shifted as well, and then he said, "It is sweeter than my ginseng fruit!"

"Brother Shi Mo, how many fruits did your peach tree bear at once?" Zhen Yuanzi immediately asked Shi Mo curiously.

"Thirty of each kind," Shi Mo said with a faint smile, only to regret it a little as soon as the words left his mouth.

Sure enough, Hongyun had already finished a small peach in two or three bites and was gnawing on a huge, crimson peach the size of a soccer ball. The moment he heard Shi Mo's words, his eyes widened.

"Thirty of each kind? Brother Shi Mo, it bore that many, yet you only brought ten of each? No, when we go back, I'm heading to your Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain and eating all the rest."

"Fine, there'll be plenty," Shi Mo said with a helpless smile.

"Thirty of each kind?" Zhen Yuanzi mused. "Brother Shi Mo, your peach tree is no worse than my Ginseng Fruit Tree. Among those several thousand peach trees, it must be the very best one, right?"

"Well..." Shi Mo hesitated slightly before saying, "I suspect those several thousand peach trees all originated from the one I planted atop Eight Treasures Peak. That tree ought to be called the Flat Peach Mother Tree."

"Flat Peach Mother Tree? No wonder it can bear three kinds of fruit at once, and they taste so good!" Hongyun said in sudden realization. "No wonder, out of several thousand peach trees, you only moved that one to the top of Eight Treasures Peak."

"Brother Zhen Yuan, I'd say this Flat Peach Mother Tree is of even better quality than your Ginseng Fruit Tree. It can actually propagate several thousand innate spirit roots, while the ginseng fruits your tree bears do not even have pits. You can't plant more even if you wanted to," Hongyun said, leaving Zhen Yuanzi thoroughly speechless.

"Without pits or seeds, I wonder if cuttings would work? What about grafting?" At that thought, Shi Mo looked at the lush Ginseng Fruit Tree beside him, his spirits suddenly lifting.

"That's right! I can graft them. If I graft the Ginseng Fruit Tree onto peach trees, or onto other fruit trees, wouldn't I be able to cultivate more varieties and flavors of spirit fruit?"

"Hey, Brother Shi Mo, what good thing are you daydreaming about?" Hongyun suddenly gave Shi Mo a shove and asked with a teasing smile.

"Nothing, I..." Shi Mo came back to himself and shook his head with a smile, but then his expression changed as if he had sensed something.

"No, Brother Shi Mo, what's with you jumping at every little thing? Did the Monster Clan attack Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain? Di Jun and the others still dare to provoke you?" Seeing Shi Mo's reaction, Hongyun asked in quick succession.

Shi Mo shook his head. "No! Brothers, there's a problem with the fields I cleared to grow millet. I'll take my leave first."

With that, Shi Mo directly used the earth veins to travel and swiftly departed Longevity Mountain.

"Come, let's go take a look too. If Brother Shi Mo really has run into trouble, we can lend him a hand," Zhen Yuanzi said seriously.

"Sure, hey, don't be in such a hurry!" Before Hongyun finished speaking, Zhen Yuanzi had already used an escape technique to leave with him. Hongyun swiftly snatched up two more large peaches, and only then was his figure swallowed by the suddenly surging yellow light.

Amid angry dragon roars, the wilderness fields where Shi Mo had planted vast amounts of millet were already enveloped by a curtain of yellow energy.

Within the barrier, the golden Earth-Core Fire Dragons led by Golden Flame had returned to their true forms, glaring angrily beyond the barrier.

Outside the barrier in the wilderness stood several burly giants clad in animal hides, looking much like savages. Their leader was a man over ten feet tall with bronze skin and a dark-red wooden staff in hand, frowning at the barrier before him.

He had not expected that after his tribesmen reported discovering a vast field of wild millet here, they would trigger an array restriction when they prepared to harvest it.

And with these Earth-Core Fire Dragons appearing, it was obvious that the millet had an owner, who had specifically arranged for the dragons to guard it.

Just as the bronze-skinned man was feeling caught between a rock and a hard place, his expression suddenly changed. Earth vein spiritual energy surged from the ground ahead, and Shi Mo's figure appeared.

"The Wu Clan?" Seeing those burly men and sensing the vigorous power of their blood and qi, as well as the baleful aura around them—especially the bronze-skinned man at their head, whose aura was not much weaker than his own—Shi Mo frowned. "A Great Witch?"

"Which Great Witch of the Wu Clan might you be? Why have you come to attack the formation I set up to protect my experimental millet fields?" Shi Mo demanded directly.

"Great Witch Kuafu of the Houtu Tribe," the bronze-skinned man said. Having experienced the power of the Earth Vein Formation and discovered that Shi Mo's cultivation was not weak, he did not dare slight him. "May I ask who you are, Fellow Daoist?"

"My name is Shi Mo!" The moment Shi Mo announced his name, Kuafu's expression changed.

In truth, Shi Mo was also somewhat surprised to learn that this Great Witch was Kuafu, and he could not help looking at him a few more times.

"So it is Fellow Daoist Shi Mo of Nine Tripod Iron Fork Mountain," Kuafu said. Once he learned Shi Mo's identity, he became even more cautious and explained, "Fellow Daoist Shi Mo, my tribesmen only happened to discover this vast field of millet and did not know that it belonged to someone. We have offended you. I hope you will not take offense."

Seeing Kuafu speak so politely, Shi Mo was somewhat surprised. Wasn't the Wu Clan supposed to have terrible tempers? Why was this one so easy to talk to?

Since he's easy to talk to, I can consider doing business with the Wu Clan, Shi Mo thought. He had planted so much millet that he could not possibly eat it all himself. He would definitely have to sell it, or what was the point of planting it?

Thus, after his thoughts raced for a moment, Shi Mo smiled politely. "So that's how it is! As the saying goes, those who do not know cannot be blamed. Since it was a misunderstanding, it is fine now that we have cleared it up. As for this millet—"

"Since the millet belongs to you, Fellow Daoist, the Wu Clan naturally will not seize it by force," Kuafu quickly said before Shi Mo could finish.

Seeing Kuafu prepare to take his leave after saying that, Shi Mo was about to speak when a surging, powerful earth-element aura rapidly approached. The immense force of blood and qi made Shi Mo's expression change. This aura is so powerful! An Ancestral Witch?