Snow Spirit Fruit, Advancement to the Middle Qi Nourishment Realm

Rustle, rustle.

A sound came from the grass.

A blood-red flower swayed in the wind, rooted in black soil.

At the very center of its bud, a snow-white fruit was ripening.

All of a sudden, the fruit matured. Just as it was about to fall, a figure flashed past.

The fruit left the bud and vanished without a trace.

"Hisss! Hisss! Hisss!"

The flower suddenly went berserk, but the figure had long since disappeared from sight.

Lu Qing's heart pounded. After getting some distance away, he sensed the snow-white fruit inside his storage pouch and couldn't help but feel his heartbeat quicken.

"Snow Spirit Fruit. Consuming it can improve one's comprehension, though the effects vary from person to person. Even Five Spirits Liquid, which can improve comprehension, is considered extremely expensive on the market. The Snow Spirit Fruit is even more precious. At least, every description I've seen listed this fruit as exceedingly rare."

This was an unexpected harvest.

Lu Qing had initially chosen a direction and traveled carefully. After surviving the first dangerous situation, he soon discovered that there was actually a Snow Spirit Fruit here.

Even better, perhaps because the Trial Microcosm was so vast, Lu Qing hadn't seen a single fellow disciple so far.

That was good news. The only difficulty was that heavenly treasures like this were usually guarded by accompanying demonic beasts.

Lu Qing observed for a while and found no traces of large demonic beasts nearby.

His gaze settled on the vine of the Snow Spirit Fruit.

That was where his instincts told him something was wrong.

"Who would've thought there'd be a demonic beast so skilled at disguising itself?" But that was also because this demonic beast was weak and needed to hide.

If it had been like the Foundation Establishment demonic beast from the previous Ominous Hexagram, Lu Qing wouldn't have been able to set his sights on the Snow Spirit Fruit at all.

Lu Qing stopped dwelling on it. After observing his surroundings, he decisively chose a concealed spot and swallowed the Snow Spirit Fruit.

A Snow Spirit Fruit ripened once it left its roots and rotted once it touched the ground.

Its medicinal effect only lasted the time it took for an incense stick to burn.

Once that incense-stick's worth of time passed, the effect would fade, and the Snow Spirit Fruit would become a rotten fruit.

Lu Qing quickly chose to consume it.

The fruit melted in his mouth, like swallowing a mouthful of ice and snow. It had neither the sweetness nor the texture of an ordinary fruit—utterly unremarkable.

But as Lu Qing sat cross-legged, a clear, icy sensation swept through his mind.

It was as though, at that moment, every doubt and confusion he had accumulated during cultivation underwent a tremendous change.

Those cultivation problems were no longer problems.

A faint change appeared in Lu Qing's aura.

His invisible increase in comprehension made his mind grow clear and lucid.

This little realm was rich in spiritual energy.

As the Profound Heaven Origin Scripture circulated, the surrounding spiritual energy was drawn into his Dantian.

At first, the Spiritual Power in his meridians and Dantian had only been a small stream. Now, it had truly taken the form of a little river.

"Fourth Layer of the Qi Nourishment Realm."

When water filled to the brim, it overflowed. After cultivating for a month, and only shortly after entering this place, an invisible fluctuation arose. Lu Qing crossed that threshold without the slightest ripple, truly entering the Fourth Layer of the Qi Nourishment Realm—the Middle Qi Nourishment Realm.

In an instant, Lu Qing steadied his aura and once again circulated that shallow technique for concealing his presence. The aura from his recent breakthrough quickly stabilized as well.

He opened his eyes, a trace of joy on his face.

"I've broken through. Now it's time to search for other things."

He wasn't greedy. Lu Qing didn't believe those prodigies who already had spirit beasts at their side would lack backup plans.

Ever since the different rules for the Inner Academy and Outer Academy were introduced this year, this outcome had actually been foreseeable.

Lu Qing cautiously explored this little realm while stuffing everything he could obtain into his storage pouch.

However, the things that appeared later were mostly spirit herbs and medicinal plants of the eighth or ninth grade. Nothing as fortuitous as the Snow Spirit Fruit appeared again.

Since consuming it, Lu Qing had discovered that even his mental state had changed from before. Another improvement was that the cycle at which his body absorbed Spiritual Power had quickened by several degrees.

It seemed his Superior Aptitude had improved further as well.

"They never said it could improve aptitude. I suppose that's an extra effect."

Naturally, this surprise was a good thing.

This little realm truly was a small realm. Not long after, Lu Qing discovered something like the transparent walls from his previous life, blocking his view and preventing anyone from leaving.

It seemed to remind the disciples who had come here that this was already the end.

Even so, the Trial Microcosm could still be considered vast. Only after five days did Lu Qing finally see signs of other people.

They were all disciples who had entered in the same batch.

Lu Qing's cultivation realm was higher than theirs, so naturally, he could conceal it.

Cultivators had sharp ears and bright eyes, with keen hearing.

Even without meeting them face-to-face, he heard their voices from afar.

Moreover, because they were all watching a spirit beast in the middle of a lake, with three sides confronting one another, they failed to notice someone listening from far away.

"Hmph, the capable get more! We're stronger than you! The fruit up there belongs to us!"

"Bullshit! First come, first served! Don't forget there are three teams here. Do you really think you can take on two by yourself?"

There were three groups, and the strongest aura among them was only at the First Layer of the Qi Nourishment Realm. Or rather, the strongest people each group showed openly were all at the First Layer of the Qi Nourishment Realm.

"Senior Brother Chang needs that demonic beast's core. We don't care about anything else."

The third party spoke up.

The moment they mentioned Senior Brother Chang, the expressions of the other two groups abruptly changed.

By then, Lu Qing had already greased the soles of his feet and slipped away.

He didn't continue listening.

He had the same kind of fruit from that tree in his storage pouch. It was mainly used to calculate points.

It wasn't as though he hadn't encountered unbelievably powerful demonic beasts along the way, but he had avoided them beforehand with his Calamity Avoidance Talent.

He fled decisively now.

He just hadn't expected that a sign of great calamity would brew here as well.

After that disciple spoke of Senior Brother Chang with such arrogant pride—

The omen suddenly appeared.

[Greatly Ominous Hexagram: Trial Microcosm. Danger is brewing. Encountering a perilous situation, the Purple Mansion Venom Python turns over—certain death, greatly ominous.]

[Calming Hexagram: Flee far south, return to the place where you first landed. There will be no danger to your life, but a slight karmic entanglement will arise. Calming.]

"Fuck."

Lu Qing couldn't help wanting to curse aloud.

His scalp nearly exploded. That Foundation Establishment demonic beast from before hadn't been enough, and now a Purple Mansion Realm beast had appeared?

What level of combat power was that? Lu Qing didn't know.

It was vague, but without question, this was a dead-end situation!

Almost the instant his eyes swept across the message, he immediately used all the Spiritual Power in his body and fled south.

He melded into the forest beneath the low sky.

"Senior Brother Chang will be here soon. Do you really want to offend Senior Brother Chang?" someone behind him continued to sneer.

Lu Qing couldn't turn into a streak of escaping light yet. That required a Foundation Establishment cultivator to develop Divine Consciousness, allowing their powerful Divine Soul to envelop their body. Nor did he possess any movement technique or escape art.

So he kept running south.

He didn't know what lay where he had first landed, but things were different now. Since there was no danger to his life, he naturally chose it without hesitation.

Far in the distance, while fleeing for his life, he glimpsed countless flashes of spiritual light beneath the clouds.