Seeing that their attempt to become disciples had failed, everyone present felt somewhat disappointed.
But Chen Yu's willingness to accept them as students offered some consolation.
A moment later, they immersed themselves in cultivation and began studying the scripture in earnest.
Only when a crisp sound came from outside a short while later did they stop.
"It's light!"
"Have we returned to Earth?"
They rushed out impatiently, but what greeted their eyes was a desolate, ancient landscape.
Their surroundings resembled a primeval forest, with enormous ancient trees everywhere. There was little sound anywhere, only stillness, and the sight was beautiful yet suffocating.
"Teacher Chen, look!"
Someone had discovered a stone stele.
It was a badly damaged stone stele, with only three large characters remaining on it.
"Desolate Ancient Forbidden?"
Ye Fan read out those three large characters, his heart pounding as an ominous suspicion formed.
"This is the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land, a Life Forbidden Zone on the Big Dipper."
Chen Yu's voice came from beside them. "Don't worry. Nothing will happen to us for the time being."
To cultivators, what set the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land apart was readily apparent.
Just by arriving here, Chen Yu could feel an invisible suppression emerging, as though all of heaven and earth around him had become his enemy, exerting an inexplicable pressure.
But Ye Fan and the others before him sensed none of this.
After all, they were all mortals who had not even activated the Sea of Bitterness within their bodies, so naturally, they could not sense anything more.
Ruthless has probably noticed us here by now, hasn't she?
The thought flashed through Chen Yu's mind.
As everyone knew, the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land was Ruthless's cultivation ground.
Because of issues with her own cultivation, this Great Emperor was not fully conscious most of the time, merely immersed in cultivation.
But now that the Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin had descended upon the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land, such a major event would certainly awaken her.
Barring anything unexpected, she was already watching them silently.
Chen Yu kept his mind calm, doing his best not to think about anything related to this Great Emperor, lest she sense it.
He merely followed Ye Fan and Pang Bo away in silence, climbing a nearby mountain peak.
Atop the peak stood a dozen or so fruit trees, along with a spring just over a meter wide, its waters bubbling forth, exceptionally clear and lovely.
"Look, fruit trees!"
Upon spotting the dozen or so fruit trees, Pang Bo and Ye Fan immediately went forward.
Red fruits hung upon the trees, looking vivid and alluring.
"Teacher Chen, there's fruit here!"
After seeing the fruit, they did not immediately pick it, but thought of Chen Yu first.
Of course, this was for no other reason than that they did not recognize the fruit.
Out in the wilds, who knew whether such pretty, bright red fruit was poisonous?
If it was poisonous, they might be finished on the spot.
Fortunately, Chen Yu was right behind them, so they called him over, hoping he could identify it.
And so, Chen Yu made his way up the mountain with perfectly good reason.
"This isn't ordinary fruit. It's a kind of divine fruit."
After arriving atop the peak, Chen Yu concealed nothing. "If I'm not mistaken, this fruit should be very precious."
Ye Fan and Pang Bo were startled, then came to their senses and hurriedly said, "Since this fruit is precious, you should be the one to pick it, Teacher Chen."
"This really is good stuff."
Chen Yu smiled. "Don't you want any?"
"We're not just being polite."
"That's right."
Ye Fan nodded as well. "Back on Mars, if you hadn't intervened, Daoist Master, we probably would have all died at that demon's hands. You saved our lives. How could we not repay that debt?"
"Besides, since this divine fruit is precious, using it on two mortals like us would be a waste. It would be better for you to take it, Teacher Chen."
The two of them took a broad-minded view of it.
Divine fruit and the like did not mean much to two mortals who were not even cultivators.
Rather than keeping the divine fruit, they might as well give it straight to Chen Yu and earn a favor in return.
"All right, that's one grand speech after another."
Chen Yu was somewhat speechless. "We all came from the same place. There's no need to be so formal."
"There are thirteen fruits here in total, enough for the three of us to share."
"We'll just split them evenly."
He picked the thirteen bright red fruits and divided them into three portions.
Ye Fan and Pang Bo took four each, while Chen Yu took the remaining five.
"Actually, one each would be enough for us..."
Ye Fan and Pang Bo still wanted to decline this distribution, but Chen Yu stopped them with a look.
"Taking too many of these repeatedly won't help anyway. This is just right."
Chen Yu shook his head. "Eat them now, to avoid trouble later."
As soon as he finished speaking, he began eating the fruit on the spot.
This was something he could not skip.
The Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land could cut away a person's lifespan. If he did not eat this divine fruit, he would probably be an old man by the time he left.
Ye Fan and Pang Bo did not decline again.
After realizing how precious the divine fruit was, even their inclination to share it faded. They exchanged a glance, then each ate all four fruits before them.
Chen Yu did not eat all the fruit before him in one go.
Judging by the original course of events for Ye Fan and the others, eating two divine fruits would counteract the aging power of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land.
In the original course of events, Ye Fan and Pang Bo had eaten five each, turning straight from men in their twenties into children barely over ten.
But Chen Yu was only sixteen at present.
If he ate all five fruits, he would probably turn into a little boy of a few years old on the spot, and then he would be done for.
Thus, he ate only two fruits, reckoning that this would more or less counteract the strange power of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land, and stopped.
As for the remaining three fruits, he carefully preserved them, then placed them in his Bitter Sea.
After doing this, he did not stop.
Right in front of Ye Fan and Pang Bo, he took out a glazed glass bottle and began filling it from the Divine Spring before him.
The fruit on the trees was divine fruit, and the spring before him was likewise a Divine Spring. Its water was incomparably precious, making it one of the finest Divine Springs on the Big Dipper.
Chen Yu began collecting Divine Spring Water with the glazed glass bottle. Only when the bottle's space was exhausted, and the level of the Divine Spring before him had fallen slightly, did he stop, shaking his head with some regret.
"A pity. I can only come here once in the near future."
"Who knows when the next time will be?"
The dangers of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land went without saying, and this was the most suitable opportunity.
For the sake of this opportunity, he had deliberately traded for that glazed glass bottle on Earth, precisely so he could collect as much Divine Spring Water as possible.
But when the time actually came to use it, he still found it insufficient.