Chi Xiao!

Xu Le's thoughts drifted, but he quickly reined them in.

After running through all these matters in his head, Xu Le steadied himself.

"Your first fruit is a lower-tier elemental fruit-iron. It's also the worst, or second worst, of these five fruits."

The woman in red's single eye suddenly widened. Of course she understood what Xu Le meant.

Xu Le could see the attributes of these five fruits!

But this was the Gundo Mother Tree Realm. Here, every kind of power except guyinduo fate power would be rejected.

How could he possibly see them?

Despite her shock and disbelief, she still displayed remarkable composure.

She merely narrowed her eye slightly.

"Is what you said true?"

Xu Le finally met her gaze.

"Yes, it's true."

The woman in red closed her eye, seemingly deep in thought.

Only after a while did she slowly open it and point at the second fruit.

"Go on."

Good. Xu Le smiled faintly and continued.

"The second one is a Longevity Fruit. I don't know how much it's worth, but lifespan is important to a lot of people, isn't it? I imagine the elders of great families and the heads of major powers would all want something like this."

The woman in red narrowed her single eye again. The shock in her heart was no less than Xu Le's.

Iron and longevity!

Seeing how certain Xu Le looked, she couldn't help wondering.

Could he really see them?

Here, such an ability wasn't merely incredible-it defied all reason.

How could anyone use another power right beside the Gundo Mother Tree Realm?

Or had the Mother Tree Realm acknowledged this power?

Was it the same kind of energy as guyinduo fate power?

"The third one."

Hearing her question, Xu Le finally felt a weight lift from his heart.

Her repeated questions meant she had begun to believe him, at least in part.

Xu Le was confident that once she started believing him, complete trust wouldn't be far away.

"The third fruit is a mysterious fruit-corrosion."

This time, the woman in red simply nodded, so Xu Le continued.

"I'll discuss the fourth and fifth together, because these two fruits are extraordinary. Although I don't know much about Guyinduo Fruits, these two are clearly worth more than the others."

Her eye flickered slightly, but she restrained her curiosity.

"What are they?"

"Both are upper-tier fruits."

The woman in red remained silent. Seeing that she had no intention of asking further questions, Xu Le stopped keeping her in suspense and continued.

"The fourth is an upper-tier biological fruit-Azure Dragon. The fifth is an upper-tier elemental fruit-metal."

Her fingers abruptly tightened, crushing the mirror in her hand into something like powder.

She glanced at the few fragments of the mirror remaining in her hand and frowned slightly.

Then she crouched down, gathered the fragments and powder, and wrapped them in paper.

After that, she gave the Gundo Mother Tree a slight nod.

"Sorry."

"You're apologizing to the tree?"

"She can sense what's in people's hearts."

No sooner had the woman in red finished speaking than the Gundo Mother Tree extended her branches, offering her the fourth and fifth fruits.

Xu Le blinked. It was just as the woman in red had said.

This tree seemed capable of sensing what was in a person's heart.

After the woman in red heard Xu Le describe the fruits, the Gundo Mother Tree sensed her feelings and offered her the last two fruits of her own accord.

The woman in red would presumably choose one of these two fruits.

"What you said was actually true."

Without much hesitation, she took the fifth fruit.

Upper-tier elemental-metal.

It was a pale gold, square fruit. Its distinctive square shape and angular patterns made it look nothing like something that had grown naturally.

Upper-tier elemental! Just the sound of it was impressive. I'm so jealous!

Looking at the fruit, Xu Le suddenly realized that the woman in red had just confirmed his words.

"Huh?"

Xu Le didn't know how she had determined that he was telling the truth.

Was it the Gundo Mother Tree's act of offering the fruits? Or did she possess some special ability he knew nothing about?

The woman in red kept staring at him, making Xu Le feel thoroughly uncomfortable.

He looked at the two fruits and spoke with a slightly bashful air of modesty.

"Actually, I only know the names of these two fruits. I don't know what they do. Uh, it's not just these two, either. I don't really know anything about Guyinduo Fruits."

The woman in red looked at the fruits.

"Do you want to know?"

Xu Le froze. Was she asking him?

"Yes."

Rather than explain immediately, she looked toward the Gundo Mother Tree.

"This newcomer you chose is quite interesting."

Earlier, the woman in red had been reverent. Now, however, she no longer seemed quite so respectful. Her tone was like that of someone speaking to a friend.

She was clearly facing the Gundo Mother Tree both times, so why did her attitude make it seem as though she were addressing two entirely different people?

Xu Le ventured a bold guess.

The object of her reverence was the Gundo Mother Tree.

But the being who chose people wasn't the Gundo Mother Tree.

If it wasn't the Gundo Mother Tree, was someone else hiding here?

Well, perhaps not a person.

Xu Le looked around. Apart from endless darkness, there seemed to be nothing here. Fortunately, it didn't look like the sort of place where oddities would spawn.

Meanwhile, the woman in red began explaining the fruits' origins to Xu Le.

"In the ancient First Era, talents were also known as talent sequences. They were abilities humans awakened within themselves.

Later, these abilities gradually disappeared, and humanity entered the Dharma-Ending Age.

However, at the beginning of the Second Era, the guyinduo world tree was born. The rules governing talent sequences were rearranged, their forms changed, and they descended as Seeds of Gundo.

Guyinduo Fruits are Seeds of Gundo that can awaken special powers.

They fall into five major categories.

Elemental, biological, mysterious, life, and heart energy.

Elemental and biological fruits are divided into upper, middle, and lower tiers.

I won't go into the specific classification standards here.

But I can explain these two fruits in detail.

Azure Dragon should belong to the Four Sacred Beasts, the shikigami totems of ancient times. Its true form is a mythological creature.

Its abilities should include water and lightning, along with a powerful body, flight, and so on. It's a fruit with exceptionally strong basic powers.

As an upper-tier element, metal grants comprehensive control over upper-tier metal elements, with tremendous versatility and room for growth.

Although it isn't as powerful as Azure Dragon at first, its potential surpasses it once developed."

With a teacher explaining supernatural knowledge to him, Xu Le naturally listened and watched attentively.

He listened to the knowledge, of course, and watched the woman.

The woman in red had been cold all along, but she looked rather gentle as she patiently explained things.

Noticing something unusual in Xu Le's gaze, she immediately turned cold again.

"What are you looking at?"

"N-nothing. Thank you for telling me so much. I only just became a warlock, and I don't have anyone to teach me. I don't know anything."

Xu Le was very sincere about this. He firmly believed that sincerity was always the key to touching someone's heart.

If he could one day bare himself honestly to a woman, Xu Le believed he would definitely move her!

"You only just became a warlock?"

"Yes, just last night."

Hearing this, the woman in red quickly searched her memory. Were there any warlocks who needed to advance during the Red Moon Calamity?

Surely that was far too dangerous. After all, the Red Moon Calamity was when guyinduo and Red Moon energies alternated most violently.

Becoming a warlock under those conditions would probably increase the risk of mutation dozens, or even hundreds, of times over.

Had some lunatics devised another extreme sacrificial method?

Puzzled, the woman in red looked at Xu Le.

"What kind of warlock are you?"

At her question, Xu Le considered for a moment before revealing his profession.

"I'm a Red Moon Warlock-Medium..."

After a pause, Xu Le waved his hand.

"Ah, no, that's wrong. This should be my profession. Forbidden Warlock-Spirit Medium."

The moment Xu Le said "Spirit Medium," the woman in red's aura changed, and her gaze grew strange.

"What's your name? Where are you from?"

Startled by the sudden change in her aura and her questions, Xu Le hesitated.

The woman in red noticed. As if to dispel his doubts, she volunteered her own information.

"My name is Chi Xiao. I'm from Tianrui Lifeng."

Chi Xiao!

It sounded like the name of an ancient treasured sword.

"My name is Xu Le. Twenty years old, male, an upright and sunny person..."

"I didn't ask your sex or age."

Chi Xiao interrupted Xu Le.

"Oh. I'm from Zion, but I'm currently studying abroad in Lighthouse."

Lighthouse, then.

"Have you encountered any strange people or events lately?"

Xu Le had no idea how to answer Chi Xiao's question.

Was he supposed to say that every person and every incident he had encountered since transmigrating here had been strange?

He could practically write a novel already. He had even thought up the chapter titles.

Infighting, Surviving the Night, Campus Horror Stories, the Blood Moon Calamity, the Woman in Red Inside the World Tree...

Feeling Chi Xiao's suspicious gaze, Xu Le hurriedly reined in his thoughts and asked tentatively.

"What do you mean by strange people and events?"