Nine Marvelous Immortal Herb (Fragment), Opening the Sea of Bitterness, Transformation

"Once a Vermilion Fruit enters my belly, my fate is mine, not Heaven's."

Xiao Yan swallowed the crimson fruit in his hand in great gulps, circulating the Flame Mantra to temporarily contain its medicinal power within his dantian.

There were thirteen in total. They each took four and divided them all up. Ye Fan and Pang Bo firmly refused the last one, so it ended up in Xiao Yan's hands.

Xiao Yan was in no hurry to eat it, instead putting it away first.

Looking at the Divine Spring beside them, he hesitated before taking out a Jade Purification Bottle and collecting some—about one cubic meter's worth. He filled a small bottle for each of the other two as well.

In the end, he could only take one thing with him. They could carry these for now, and if they could not take them away, he would leave them for Ye Fan and Pang Bo.

The most important task of this journey was complete. Just as Xiao Yan was about to have Ye Fan lead the way out of the forbidden zone, he suddenly remembered something.

If he remembered correctly, there were nine sacred mountains...

The Nine Marvelous Immortal Herb had been divided into nine parts. Each had miraculous effects, but when united, they became the Immortal Elixir.

After hesitating for a moment, Xiao Yan decided to take a gamble.

"How about we check out the other mountaintops? We can take a look first..."

A short while later, atop another mountain, there was a spring eye roughly two meters wide ahead of them. Clear spring water gurgled forth, sparkling with points of divine radiance and exuding incomparable wonder.

Beside the spring grew eleven plants resembling dwarf pines. They were entirely emerald green, like jade trees carved from emeralds, yet atop each grew a golden fruit the size of a longan.

"I don't recommend that we eat any more of these. Four or five each in such a short time is already our limit."

After biting into one, Xiao Yan saw that Ye Fan and Pang Bo wanted to bite into more. His mouth twitched, and he hurriedly stopped them. He had only eaten one himself, though he picked another and placed it together with the crimson fruit from before.

They still had the rejuvenation stage ahead of them. It would be ridiculous if three grown men all turned into babies.

No matter how good the foundation-building effect was, this was too much.

"Let's leave it at that. Open the Divine Spring water you collected earlier and take a look. I only filled one-ninth of a bottle. We don't know whether each Divine Spring differs, so we can collect a little from all of them." Xiao Yan gestured toward the Divine Spring and took out his Jade Purification Bottle to collect some more.

Then they continued toward the next sacred mountain. Xiao Yan was not greedy; one of each fruit was enough.

Just as the trio was making a move on the Nine Marvelous Immortal Herb, a pair of eyes slowly opened beneath the Ancient Desolate Sacred Ground.

The Great Accomplished Saint Body, covered in red fur and afflicted by the ominous curse of old age, clicked his tongue in wonder.

"The Ancient Desolate Saint Body has appeared in the world once more."

"That other little fellow is interesting too..."

Below him, Ruthless remained silent.

The arrival of the Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin had briefly awakened her.

Her unfocused gaze settled on Ye Fan.

"Similar."

She coolly uttered those two words, then lightly closed her eyes and shifted her gaze toward Xiao Yan once more.

Xiao Yan could clearly be seen sneezing.

"Interesting."

Having already taken a step toward becoming a Red Dust Immortal, Ruthless could naturally see many things.

There were too many miscellaneous things on Xiao Yan's body, yet they had been integrated by something extraordinarily profound.

That fire-devouring method was somewhat similar to her Heaven-Swallowing Demon Art, except it specialized in the path of fire.

But that was all.

Not caring about the trio already advancing toward another sacred mountain, Ruthless closed her eyes again.

Yet everything happening outside remained within her clear perception.

She was clearly supposed to be meditating on the mysteries of the Dao, yet her thoughts stirred after so long.

Nearly the time it took for one incense stick to burn passed before Ruthless's brow suddenly twitched.

The Dao of Heaven diminishes...

This brat...!?

As they headed toward the edge of the forbidden land, nine distinct fruits slowly revolved in Xiao Yan's hand.

Around the Divine Spring at the center, which glimmered with flecks of light, the mysterious power within the nine fruits was extracted bit by bit by Xiao Yan.

As the cost, a full nine cubic meters of Divine Spring water rapidly dwindled.

After a brief hesitation, Xiao Yan even took out the Bodhi Wood and tree core he had gathered, refining them together as supplementary materials.

After an unknown amount of time, their journey had remained unimpeded, and the boundary of the forbidden zone was already in sight. The nine fruits had completely vanished from Xiao Yan's hand, and even the Divine Spring water had all been absorbed. In their place was a succulent plant... with nine different leaves?

Xiao Yan was a little dumbfounded.

He had used a divine technique comprehended from the Heaven-Repairing Method to fuse the nine fruits into one. In the end, it seemed he had created a tiny Immortal Elixir?

According to the original description, the true form of the Nine Marvelous Immortal Herb should have been a one-meter-tall plant, half tree and half grass, divided into nine branches with different leaves. Its bark resembled a divine dragon, and its branches resembled soaring phoenixes.

But this succulent plant before him... was truly bizarre.

The nine leaves were rather fleshy, as though countless divine liquids were hidden within them. The stem was even stranger. Though it was only as thick as a finger, it looked remarkably similar to the Ancient Bodhi Tree at the Great Thunderclap Temple.

It was clearly just a tiny plant, yet it weighed a thousand jin.

Xiao Yan would bet that neither of the other two could lift it.

Was it because it had absorbed so much Divine Spring water?

Xiao Yan did not dare delay any longer. He temporarily suppressed his thoughts, and with a shift of will, a wisp of gray mist slowly flowed into the succulent Nine Marvelous Immortal Herb.

He hoped the Ruthless Emperor would spare him for Ye Fan's sake and not slap him to death!

Once he confirmed that the thing was being continuously transferred between reality and illusion and stored within the Gray Mist Space, Xiao Yan checked the progress bar and let out a breath.

He looked at the slope before him and took the lead. Ahead was the exit of the Ancient Desolate Forbidden Land, and the place where they would undergo rejuvenation.

The instant he took a step forward, Xiao Yan felt as though his entire body had caught fire.

Ye Fan and Pang Bo were the same.

Had they not eaten the sacred fruits, their youthful heads would have turned white in an instant.

But they had all eaten them.

And they had each eaten more than one.

"Hiss—It hurts!" Ye Fan's eyes turned bloodshot as he felt pain like his tendons were being torn and his bones pulled apart. Yet after the pain came a sensation as though he had been reborn.

"I told you, once a sacred fruit enters my belly, my fate is mine, not Heaven's." Xiao Yan found time to add that before sinking back into deep meditation.

He could endure this level of pain. He had blown himself up countless times in the Gray Mist Space, so temporarily blocking out the pain was easy.

At this moment, all his focus was on the transformation within his body.

Compared to Ye Fan and Pang Bo, his change was even more like a complete rebirth.

The medicinal power in his body circulated wildly as the sea of fire within his dantian rapidly expanded. Vast power surged through his meridians and flesh like great rivers.

A tremendous amount of life force was swiftly converted, strengthening Xiao Yan's origin. Since the three treasures of essence, qi, and spirit were united, the increase of one drove the other two as well.

Almost instantly, Xiao Yan's hair shot out by two chi. His entire body felt like an inflated ball, sweat pouring from him while his skin turned crimson.

As the Flame Mantra circulated, immense suction came from his lower abdomen, and life essence continuously poured into his dantian.

It sounded like raging tides rolling and a sea of flames roaring. The divine radiance in his lower abdomen grew larger and larger—like fireflies, like candlelight, like a sea of stars, like the bright moon.

In the end, it became a blazing sun before completely drawing inward, transforming into pure white flames that quietly burned above the boundless sea of fire.

The sea of fire gradually lost its color and turned pitch-black. Only at the center of the Sea of Bitterness did a vortex of flame slowly revolve.

With only a cursory examination, he found that his battle qi seemed to be transforming toward a peculiar form similar to flame. Yet at this moment, it coexisted perfectly with the Wheel Sea Secret Realm.

After a long while, Xiao Yan opened his eyes again and discovered that he had become a child in his early teens. Just as he was about to look for Ye Fan and Pang Bo, he found that a shadow seemed to have appeared before him.

Before he could investigate, his spiritual platform erupted with endless warning. He nearly jumped up.

A red exclamation mark instantly appeared above his head.

Danger!