Violet Nether Spirit Fruit

Blocked by Chu Zeming, Yue Lian struck first and cried villain, "Senior Brother doesn't want to follow you. He said Xuan Mo begged him to. I don't think someone like that deserves to stay by your side, so we can drive him away."

Ling Tian was terribly thin-skinned, and his ears turned even redder. This time, though, it was for no other reason than being angered by Yue Lian.

"Who told you I didn't want to... to stay by his side?! Don't spout nonsense!"

Yue Lian gave an oh, poking half his head out from behind Chu Zeming and staring fixedly at Ling Tian. "But you just said Xuan Mo begged you. I even recorded it with a Phantom Spirit Stone."

As he spoke, a small, crystalline stone appeared in Yue Lian's hand. He fiddled with it for a moment, and the Phantom Spirit Stone emitted Ling Tian's voice, endlessly repeating the same sentence—"Xuan Mo begged me to come... Xuan Mo begged me to come..."

Ling Tian was instantly furious.

That bastard had even recorded it with a Phantom Spirit Stone. Was he deliberately targeting him?!

Waving his great hammer, Ling Tian's gaze turned terrifying. "Eldest Senior Brother, move aside. As the eldest brother, I'm like a father—I need to teach Little Junior Brother a lesson."

Yue Lian tossed away the Phantom Spirit Stone, wrapped both arms around Chu Zeming, and hid behind him while tremblingly crying, "So scary! I'm so scared!"

Chu Zeming shot Ling Tian a sideways look and rebuked, "Put away your hammer."

Ling Tian immediately felt a little wronged.

Yet the next second, Ling Tian became happy again.

Because Chu Zeming continued, "I'll do it. I have experience, and my cultivation is higher than yours, so it hurts more when I hit people."

After saying that, Chu Zeming glanced at the hand tightly clasped around his waist, let out a faint breath of stale air, then turned his head and looked at Yue Lian with a sinister expression.

Yue Lian abruptly withdrew his hand, laughed loudly while looking up at the sky, and called out with great seriousness, "The weather's wonderful! Speaking of which, shouldn't we head to the next treasure-hunting spot?"

With that, he turned to leave.

He had barely taken half a step when someone reached out from behind and grabbed him.

After being thoroughly beaten up, Yue Lian shuffled over to Chu Zeming with one eye swollen shut and asked, "How much favorability is left now?"

Chu Zeming raised a brow and smiled. "Zero."

Yue Lian wailed miserably and wilted.

For no apparent reason, Chu Zeming felt like laughing. He coughed into his fist to hide the slight upward curve of his lips before saying blandly, "Let's go. We'll see if there's anything else elsewhere."

Within the Northern Wasteland Secret Realm.

The group of four finally reunited and continued their treasure-hunting journey.

Meanwhile, within the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect, Chang Wei had finally emerged from seclusion.

He put on his sun-protective clothing, opened his little bamboo hut, and walked out in high spirits. He knocked on Chu Zeming's door. "Brother Chu, are you there?"

With a creak, the door opened from within, revealing an unfamiliar disciple dressed in the sect's servant attire.

The disciple stared oddly at Chang Wei. "What Brother Chu? This is my room. And who are you, dressed so strangely?"

Chang Wei froze, a faint sense of dread rising in his heart. He hurriedly asked, "Chu Zeming—your eldest senior brother. Where has he moved to now?"

The servant was stunned for a moment, then stammered, "Eldest Senior Brother... he left... He's been gone for a long time. After Eldest Senior Brother left, many of the sect's senior and junior brothers left as well."

The Nine-Clear Haoran Sect had made a name for itself during the Joint Grand Tournament. Four people had appeared on the rankings in the last scroll, so many sects were willing to take in disciples who had left the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect—after all, they were diligent, ambitious, and mostly extremely adaptable. But there was also something that gave the various sects headaches: they seemed rather unwilling to obey discipline.

Chang Wei stood there in shock. After spacing out for a while, he hurriedly rushed toward Yue Lian's residence.

Without question, it was empty...

Unwilling to give up, Chang Wei sought out several familiar friends—Ling Tian, Xuan Mo, and Wu Qi—only to find that they had all left too!

Chang Wei suddenly felt like crying.

—Brother Chu and the others... had left Chang Wei behind.

After returning to his little bamboo hut, Chang Wei sorted through his belongings and the beauty ointments he had concocted during seclusion. Since everyone had left, there was no reason for him to remain here.

Upon hearing that Chang Wei was leaving, Ling Yunzi hurried over.

Looking at the emptied bamboo hut and Chang Wei, wrapped from head to toe, Ling Yunzi asked in a hoarse voice, "Could you... stay?"

In barely more than a month, Ling Yunzi seemed to have aged decades in an instant, and his once-black hair had turned streaked with white.

Gone was the aloof and lofty appearance of the cold master he had once been. Looking at this outstanding genius disciple, the only one remaining in the sect, he humbly said, "Chang Wei, I was wrong before. I regret it. Could I beg you to stay?"

Chang Wei glanced at Ling Yunzi without speaking. He passed him and flew into the distance, answering with his actions.

Chang Wei had never felt much attachment to the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect, so he left without hesitation.

Watching Chang Wei's figure vanish into the horizon, Ling Yunzi's body swayed. He barely managed to hold himself against the doorframe as he recalled Chu Zeming's words to him long ago—the sect would one day be destroyed by his own hands.

Yes.

A prophecy had become reality.

The sect...

Really had been ruined by him.

Not far away, Qin Elder sighed. Gazing at a spot in the empty air, he murmured, "Sect Master, Young Master Ling has done wrong. This old man can no longer safeguard this sect... I fear I cannot fulfill the promise I made to you." With that, Qin Elder closed his eyes, then ruthlessly turned and left.

Chang Wei had always been a lone wolf, wandering alone and fighting alone, never having any companions. His days had been as calm as still water—neither particularly happy nor particularly unhappy. But... that brief time he had spent with Chu Zeming and the others in the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect truly had been the most relaxed and joyful period of his life.

After killing another demonic beast, Chang Wei dug out its inner core.

Sitting atop the enormous corpse of the demonic beast, Chang Wei looked at the moonlight gleaming faintly over the empty, silent surroundings and let out a long sigh—

"Brother Chu, Lian'er, Xuan Mo, Ling Tian... where are you?"

He took out an exquisite handkerchief and wiped the blood from his hands. Looking at the fair, tender hands he had cared for so well, Chang Wei recalled the time Chu Zeming had taught him skincare and could not help shedding silent tears.

Actually, back in Torch Dragon Valley, when Brother Chu had asked him when he would leave, it was not because he could not bear to part with Lian'er.

He had simply... wanted to stay with his companions.

After absorbing the demonic beast's inner core, Chang Wei wiped away the tears at the corners of his eyes and made a tough man's wish beneath the moonlight: if he could find Brother Chu and the others, Chang Wei would not care even if he remained a bachelor for life.

He sighed once more.

Chang Wei took out his knife and continued cutting the demonic beast meat beneath him.

These were all good things. The meat contained abundant spiritual power and was greatly beneficial to cultivators' bodies after consumption. It could not be wasted.

Chu Zeming had no idea that Chang Wei, far away beneath the sky, was walking alone among jungle beasts and missing them in loneliness. At this moment, he and Xuan Mo stood with the others beneath a huge tree laden with spirit fruits. The tree was unusual: long tassel-like clusters hung from its branches, and pale violet spirit fruits dangled from the lower ends of those tassels.

Violet Nether Spirit Fruit.

A rare sacred fruit in the cultivation world.

Eating a single one could grant a cultivator sixty years of cultivation.

There were at least forty or fifty Violet Nether Spirit Fruits on this tree.

However, Chu Zeming and the others were not the only ones who had set their sights on the Violet Nether Spirit Fruits. Opposite them stood dozens of cultivators in green robes, cloud patterns embroidered on their cuffs.

Chu Zeming could not tell which sect they belonged to, but they were clearly extremely difficult to provoke—among those dozens of disciples, there were actually seven or eight in the Nascent Soul Realm!

Six were at Nascent Soul Early Stage. Chu Zeming could not see through the cultivation of the other three, so they were presumably above Nascent Soul Early Stage. The most frightening one was the leader, a particularly handsome man with two locks of pale golden hair hanging beside his cheeks.

Chu Zeming swept his gaze over him and guessed that this man might have reached the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm.

This was a true formidable enemy.

This was an opponent not to be provoked.

Fu Hongchen and Gu Yingnan and the like... were simply not worth mentioning compared to this man.

The pale-golden-haired man cast Chu Zeming a cold, indifferent glance and spoke first. "Get lost. This place belongs to us."

Holding the Wordless Heavenly Book, Xuan Mo's face hardened. "Why? We discovered this place first."

The man looked at Xuan Mo with the contemptuous gaze one might give an ant and said, "Because you are too weak. You have no right to enjoy the Violet Nether Spirit Fruits."

As he spoke, a powerful pressure spread from his body.

So he really was at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm!

Xuan Mo gritted his teeth and forced himself not to kneel. His eyes darkened as he asked in a low voice, "Senior Brother, should we yield?"

Chu Zeming looked at the extraordinarily arrogant man and smiled coldly. "Why should we?"

"Why should you? Naturally, because you cannot defeat me." The man's tone was unusually calm, as if he were stating some insignificant fact.

Yet it was unexpectedly irritating.

"So annoying. Even I'm not as arrogant as you." Yue Lian's low voice came from behind them.

Sensing the person beside him slowly take a step forward, Chu Zeming immediately reached out and grabbed Yue Lian.

"Don't move."

There was no need for Yue Lian to act.

He, Chu Zeming, was not some useless trash who needed Yue Lian to escort and protect him every step of the way.

Looking at the fair, slender hand gripping his wrist, Yue Lian's rising anger was extinguished in an instant.

Xuan Mo also rebuked him in a low voice, "Are you sick? Do you think you can make an opponent surrender with your face? Be careful not to get crippled. Get back here now."

With that, Xuan Mo directly dragged Yue Lian behind the other three.

Annoying or not, since the four of them would have to support one another from now on, they naturally had to protect the weakest little rookie.

The golden-haired man looked at the three people gripping their magic artifacts and glaring at him with hostility. He sneered and said slowly, "Overestimating yourselves. Since that is the case, then let us fight and see who will become the final owner of this tree of Violet Nether Spirit Fruits."

As he spoke, he slowly raised his hand. A golden sphere of light containing the force to wither and shatter all things gradually condensed in his palm.

Chu Zeming looked at the sphere of light in his hand and suddenly smiled. "Idiot. We can't beat you, so who wants to fight you?"

The man's expression shifted slightly. A bad premonition suddenly rose in his heart. When he turned his head, he saw a tiny white-clad figure descending from the sky while riding a white door. The door was enormous, covering the entire Violet Nether Spirit Fruit tree.

In the blink of an eye, the Violet Nether Spirit Fruits were sucked away by the door.

The man was greatly shocked.

What kind of secret treasure was this?!

How could it even swallow an entire Violet Nether Spirit Fruit tree?!

He whipped his head around and saw the strikingly handsome young man in dark robes flash him a provocative smile. The next second, he took the four of them and vanished from the spot in an instant!