Purple Nether Spirit Fruit

Blocked by Chu Zeming, Yue Lian beat him to the punch and complained first. "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 thin-skinned to begin with, and his ears turned even redder. This time, though, it was for no other reason than anger at Yue Lian.

"Who said I didn't want to... want 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 steadily at Ling Tian. "But you just said Xuan Mo begged you. I even recorded it with an Illusion Spirit Stone."

As he spoke, a crystal-clear little stone appeared in Yue Lian's hand. He lowered his head and fiddled with it, and the Illusion Spirit Stone released 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 an Illusion Spirit Stone. Was he deliberately targeting him?!

Waving his great hammer, Ling Tian's gaze turned terrifying. "Eldest Senior Brother, step aside. An elder brother is like a father—I'm going to teach Little Junior Brother a lesson."

Yue Lian tossed away the Illusion Spirit Stone, wrapped both arms around Chu Zeming, and hid behind him as he trembled and cried, "So scary! I'm so scared!"

Chu Zeming shot Ling Tian a sidelong look and snapped, "Put away your hammer."

Ling Tian immediately felt a little wronged.

But the next second, Ling Tian was happy again.

Because Chu Zeming then added, "I'll do it. I have experience, and my realm is higher than yours. 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 pulled back his hand, laughed heartily as he looked up at the sky, and called out with great solemnity, "The weather is so nice! Say, 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 and asked, "How much favorability is left now?"

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

Yue Lian wailed and wilted.

For no apparent reason, Chu Zeming somewhat wanted to laugh. He raised a fist to his mouth and coughed, concealing 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 finally emerged from seclusion.

He put on his sun-protective clothes, opened his little bamboo cottage, and stepped out in high spirits. Knocking on Chu Zeming's door, he called, "Brother Chu, are you there?"

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

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

Chang Wei froze, a vague sense of foreboding rising in his heart. He hurriedly asked, "Chu Zeming—your eldest senior brother. Where did he move to?"

The servant froze for a moment, then said hesitantly, "Eldest Senior Brother... he left... He's been gone for a long time. After Eldest Senior Brother left, lots of senior and junior brothers from the sect left too."

The Nine-Clear Haoran Sect had made a name for itself at the Joint Grand Tournament. Last time, four people had made the rankings on a single scroll, so many sects were willing to take in disciples who had left the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect—after all, they were hardworking and ambitious, and most of them were especially adaptable. But there was also one thing that gave the various sects headaches: they seemed rather unwilling to submit to discipline.

Chang Wei stood there in shock. After staring blankly for a while, he hurried anxiously toward Yue Lian's residence.

Without question, it was empty...

Still unwilling to give up, Chang Wei sought out several more familiar friends—Ling Tian, Xuan Mo, and Wu Qi. Incredibly, every last one of them had left!

Chang Wei suddenly felt like crying.

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

Returning to his little bamboo cottage, Chang Wei began packing his belongings and the beauty creams he had concocted during seclusion. Since everyone had left, there was no need for him to remain here either.

When Ling Yunzi heard that Chang Wei was leaving, he rushed over at once.

Looking at the emptied bamboo cottage and Chang Wei, who had wrapped himself up tightly, Ling Yunzi asked in a dry voice, "Can you... stay?"

In barely more than a month, Ling Yunzi seemed to have suddenly aged several decades. His jet-black hair had turned streaked with white.

Gone was the aloof, lofty appearance of the cold master he had once been. Looking at the outstanding genius disciple who was now the sect's only one left, he pleaded humbly, "Chang Wei, I was wrong before. I regret it. Could I beg you to stay?"

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

Chang Wei had never felt much sense of belonging toward the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect, so he left without hesitation.

Watching Chang Wei's figure vanish into the horizon, Ling Yunzi could not help but sway. He barely managed to steady himself against the doorframe, once again recalling what Chu Zeming had said to him long ago—the sect would one day be destroyed by his own hands.

Yes.

A prophecy had come true.

The sect...

Really had been destroyed by his hands.

Not far away, Qin Elder sighed. Gazing toward some point in the void, he murmured, "Sect Master, Young Master Ling made a mistake. This old man can no longer protect this sect... I fear I cannot fulfill the promise I made to you." With that, Qin Elder closed his eyes, then turned and left with a hardened heart.

Chang Wei had always been a lone wolf, wandering alone and fighting alone, never having any companions. His days had flowed as placidly as water—neither happy nor unhappy. But... that brief time spent together with Chu Zeming and the others in the Nine-Clear Haoran Sect had indeed been the easiest and happiest period of his life.

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

Sitting atop the massive corpse of the demonic beast, Chang Wei looked at the shimmering moonlight and the empty, silent surroundings, then let out a long sigh—

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

Taking out an exquisite handkerchief, he wiped the blood from his hands. Looking at the fair, tender hands he had maintained so carefully, Chang Wei recalled how Chu Zeming had once taught him skincare and could not help shedding tears in secret.

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 the tears from the corners of his eyes and made a burly man's wish beneath the moonlight: if he could find Brother Chu and the others, Chang Wei would not mind being single for the rest of his life.

He sighed once more.

Chang Wei took out his knife and continued carving up the demonic beast beneath him.

These were all good things. The meat contained abundant spiritual power, and consuming it was greatly beneficial to a cultivator's body. It could not be wasted.

Chu Zeming had no idea that Chang Wei, far away beneath the sky, was walking alone among the beasts of the forest and missing them in loneliness. At this moment, he and Xuan Mo stood beneath a massive tree laden with spirit fruits. The tree was very strange: long tassel-like spikes hung down from its branches, and pale purple spirit fruits dangled from the ends of those tassels.

Purple Nether Spirit Fruit.

A rare sacred fruit in the cultivation world.

Each one consumed could grant a cultivator sixty years of cultivation.

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

Yet Chu Zeming and the others were not the only ones eyeing the Purple Nether Spirit Fruits. Opposite them stood dozens of cultivators clad in azure robes, cloud patterns embroidered on their cuffs.

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

Six were at the Nascent Soul Early Stage. Chu Zeming could not discern the realms of the other three, so they had likely surpassed the Nascent Soul Early Stage. The man leading them, with two locks of pale golden hair hanging beside his cheeks and an exceptionally handsome face, was particularly terrifying.

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

This was a true formidable enemy.

This was an opponent who could not be provoked.

Fu Hongchen and Gu Yingnan... compared to this person, they were not even worth mentioning.

The man with the two pale golden locks cast Chu Zeming a cold glance and spoke first. "Get lost. This place belongs to us."

Xuan Mo held the Wordless Heavenly Book, his expression hard and cold. "Why? We discovered this place first."

The man looked at Xuan Mo with the disdain one might show an ant and said, "Because you are too weak. You are not qualified to enjoy the Purple Nether Spirit Fruits."

As he spoke, an overwhelming pressure spread out from his body.

He truly was at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm!

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

Chu Zeming looked at the supremely arrogant man and gave a cold laugh. "Why should we?"

"Why should you? Naturally because you cannot defeat me." The man's tone was abnormally calm, as though he were merely stating an 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 taking 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 protect and escort him every step of the way.

Looking at the fair, slender hand gripping his wrist, the anger rising within Yue Lian was extinguished at once.

Xuan Mo also snapped in a low voice, "Are you sick? Do you think you can make the enemy surrender with your face? Be careful they don't cripple you. Get back here."

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

Annoying as he was, since the four of them would have to support one another in the future, they naturally still had to protect the weakest little weakling.

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

As he spoke, he slowly raised his hand, and a golden sphere of light containing the force to sweep away everything in its path gradually condensed in his palm.

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

The man's expression shifted slightly. A bad feeling suddenly rose in his heart. When he turned to look, he saw a little figure in white descending from the sky while riding a white door. The door was enormous, covering the entire Purple Nether Spirit Fruit tree.

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

The man was greatly shocked.

What kind of secret treasure was this?!

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

Whirling around, he saw the flamboyantly handsome young man in dark robes flash him a provocative smile. The next second, he vanished from the spot with all four of them!