Or, given another two years, he could have tried cultivating another fruit like this himself, but the deadline was already upon him.
So he abandoned this sword art that no one had mastered, stopped laying any further schemes, and simply continued filling the Soul-Seizing Pearl. Once he took his final target-Cheng Jianghong-the pearl in his hand would meet the standard for delivery.
Then, that night, he saw the boy, and saw in his hands the sword art he had not seen for half a year.
He did hesitate, admittedly, but ultimately decided to keep him and see how he grew.
Afterward, the boy gave him an unimaginable surprise.
What Bai Yuliang and that escort captain had spent two or three months puzzling over was like a child's primer in the boy's hands. His progress with the sword was measured not in months, nor days, but hours!
In all fairness, he had never seen talent like this.
He had even sought that person's instructions-might a seedling like this have greater uses? Would harvesting him this way be a wanton waste of nature's bounty?
The reply was that there was no need.
The old man knew that person did not care about such things. He only wanted to achieve his objective.
So the old man quietly watched over this fruit as it ripened, waiting to use it to replace the flawed Cicada Section within the pearl. He believed the boy would complete this step in ten days at most.
He even held firm against the pressure from Heavenly Mountain.
Only after confirming that they had failed to intercept the letter, when matters had truly begun slipping out of control, did they start painfully considering giving up this fruit.
And that person's reply was that the other side had suffered a setback, the