Ten Meridian Fruit

"Kid, stop looking. I'm in the ring on your hand," the aged voice said.

"A ring?" Chu Yang was startled and hurriedly looked at the ring on his hand. A faint blue glow was now emanating from the ancient-looking ring.

His mother had left this ring behind before she died. She had only told him it was a family heirloom, never explaining what it did.

Thus, Chu Yang had always kept the ring close to him, as a remembrance of his parents.

Chu Yang stared at the ring in astonishment and asked, "Who are you?"

He was not panicked. He knew he was merely an ordinary person, with nothing worth anyone coveting.

"You may call me Old Mo," the voice from the ring sounded again. With a sigh, he said, "True Martial Sacred Sect... the sect founded by that fellow Zhenwu back then. It truly is quite remarkable."

"Old Mo," Chu Yang pondered for a moment before asking, "Why are you hiding inside this ring, Senior?"

"That is not something you should know right now," Old Mo said. "Do you wish to become a person above all others?

Do you want to stay with your childhood sweetheart forever?

I can help you!"

"How can you help me?" Chu Yang asked nervously.

The old man smiled without answering. A pale blue book flew out from the ring.

The book looked somewhat worn and ancient. Its corners were slightly curled, and several large characters were written on its yellowed cover.

Step War Immortal Art!

"What... what is this?" Chu Yang felt an overwhelming Battle Intent erupt from those characters. Before his eyes, a scene seemed to appear.

A man stood atop the Top of the Firmament, battling heaven and earth, slaughtering gods and demons. Behind him lay boundless yellow sand and heaps of white bones.

"The Step War Immortal Art, the cultivation art practiced by Emperor Buzhan, the thirty-seventh Great Emperor of the Era of Emperors," Old Mo replied, each word solemn and resolute, carrying an unstoppable momentum.

The youth stared at the book before him. His pupils suddenly widened, his mind went blank, and he felt an aura that looked down upon the ages rise within his heart.

On Yan Nan Peak, Xu Zimo received word from a servant that his mother, Wenren Yun, had returned to the True Martial Sacred Sect and wanted him to go to Qingshan Peak.

The Wenren Family, his mother's clan, was not on the Eastern Continent, but on the Northern Continent, tens of thousands of miles away.

The Wenren Family was also an immensely powerful lineage. Its standing on the Northern Continent was extraordinary, only half a step inferior to the True Martial Sacred Sect.

This time, his mother had returned to her natal family to ask for a Ten Meridian Fruit on his behalf. It could not have been easy.

The Ten Meridian Fruit was a Cosmic Tier spirit fruit. It flowered once every thousand years, bore fruit after another thousand years, and took yet another thousand years to ripen.

It took a full three thousand years before it could be eaten, and a single fruit tree could bear no more than ten fruits.

Xu Zimo returned to Qingshan Peak. Besides his father, Xu Qingshan, there was now an additional woman on the mountain.

The woman wore a vivid crimson robe that trailed across the ground, slowly spreading out like a fan.

Her silky black hair was coiled behind her head and adorned with delicate, exquisite ornaments.

Although his mother was already several hundred years old, not a trace of time could be seen upon her.

Her face was fairer than snow. Yet when she saw Xu Zimo arrive, it softened with even greater affection.

"Mo'er, come quickly to Mother," Wenren Yun said. She hugged Xu Zimo, lightly kissed his cheek, and asked with a smile, "Did you miss Mother while I was away these past few days?"

"Mother, I'm already fifteen. Can you stop kissing me all the time?" Xu Zimo replied helplessly.

"What? Are you embarrassed?" Wenren Yun's eyes were filled with amusement. "Let me tell you, no matter how old you get, you will always be my son."

Xu Zimo was utterly speechless at his mother's all-purpose answer.

"This is the Ten Meridian Fruit Mother went through great trouble to obtain for you. It will be a tremendous help to your cultivation," Wenren Yun said as she handed him a fruit.

The fruit was the size of a fist and looked crystal clear. A peculiar power circulated within it.

The Ten Meridian Fruit would not directly increase one's strength, but its effects made countless people drool with desire, yearning for it yet unable to obtain it.

As everyone knew, twelve Meridian Gates lay hidden within the human body.

Once all twelve Meridian Gates were opened, one could complete the sublimation of the body, transcend the shackles of one's species, and possess unimaginable lifespan and power.

So-called cultivation was simply the path of transcendence, forged by continuously opening the Meridian Gates.

Opening Meridian Gates was difficult, especially in the later stages, when they became even harder to break through.

The purpose of the Ten Meridian Fruit was to help living beings open their Meridian Gates more easily.

After consuming a Ten Meridian Fruit, the power contained within it would divide into ten portions and hide around the first ten Meridian Gates in a person's body.

When one needed to open a Meridian Gate, that hidden power would erupt in an instant, clearing the surrounding meridians with the force of decaying wood and crumbling weeds, allowing one to wield greater power to break through the Meridian Gate.

Naturally, the Ten Meridian Fruit's power could only affect the first ten Meridian Gates. The final two were too profound for it to reach.

The human body was a creation of endless mysteries.

These twelve Meridian Gates were hidden throughout the human body. Their names were: "Lunquan, Mysterious Bone, Chaoyingfeng.

Kunhai, Huanxue, Muhuansong.

Linque, Chengan, Shenpuxu.

Biyuan, Qiming, Xinduankong."

Xu Zimo accepted the Ten Meridian Fruit and nodded heavily.

He recalled his Previous Life. After he had been thrown into Youlong Ravine, his mother, like his father, had ultimately fallen into the demonic path in order to avenge him. Her ending had been deeply regrettable.

"Father, there is something I need to tell you," Xu Zimo said after falling silent for a moment, pulling himself from his thoughts.

"What is it?" Xu Qingshan asked, slightly raising his head.

"I heard that there is a lineage in Tianjian City called the Chang Family. This family has stood in Tianjian City for five hundred years.

It can be said to have deep roots and a firm foundation, yet its people are arrogant and tyrannical. They squeeze the people dry and commit every evil imaginable.

The authority of the city lord sent by the imperial dynasty has been completely hollowed out. Even the branch of our True Martial Sacred Sect established there is beneath their notice."

"You have never even left the sect. Where did you hear such news?" Xu Qingshan asked suspiciously. "Did the Chang Family offend you?"

"Offend me?" Xu Zimo shook his head. In this life, he had never even met anyone from that family. How could there be any talk of offense?

But what about his Previous Life?

Besides, even setting aside the grievances between him and that family, there was something within that family that he absolutely had to obtain.

"Our True Martial Sacred Sect rules the mountains and rivers spanning ten thousand miles across this Far West Land. In other words, everyone within these mountains and rivers is our subject.

Now that so many of our subjects are being oppressed by this family, I think it is necessary to punish them," Xu Zimo said after some thought.