Yi Yang swam over to the Black-Scale Fruits and crouched down.
The fifteen fruits in this underwater cavern grew close together on a cluster of dark roots. They varied in size, the smallest about as big as a chicken egg, the largest round and solid as a fist.
He reached out and squeezed them one by one.
Most had soft skins and appeared weak in medicinal potency. At most, they were three to five years old, nowhere near ready for use.
But three were different.
Their skins were firm, the scale patterns on their surfaces deep and dense. Holding them, he could feel medicinal power pulsing inside, rising and falling like a heartbeat.
They were all Treasure Medicines at least fifteen years old.
These were ripe.
Yi Yang deftly picked the three fruits, wrapped them in oilcloth, and tucked them into his waterproof bag.
Taken together with the Gold-Patterned Black Serpent's heart blood, they could help someone enter the true astral realm. In the outside world, they were priceless treasures that money could not buy.
They were of little use to him.
He was already in the true astral realm.
But that did not stop him from taking them. He could keep them to trade for money or give as gifts later.
Next, Yi Yang's gaze moved beside the Black-Scale Fruits.
Three Treasure Medicines grew there.
The first was dark red from top to bottom, with three pairs of opposite leaves growing along its stalk. Golden liquid seemed to flow faintly through the veins.
He recognized it as "crimson vein ginseng," an aged specimen at least fifteen years old. It could greatly replenish a martial artist's true astral power and worked wonders for consolidating their realm.
The second was short and stout, its root nearly as thick as a wrist,