"Ate... ate it?"
Wu Guang stared blankly at Yang Zhen, who was still taking bites out of the Heavenly Fragrance Fruit. He swallowed with difficulty and muttered, "Three hours!"
What did three hours mean? Even an ox would be worked to death, and all while out of his mind. It could be said that any man who ate the Heavenly Fragrance Fruit would be little different from a beast. No, not even a beast would be that crazed.
The other men all stared at Yang Zhen as though he were a celestial being, while the women in the group cried out in unison, their faces pale.
"Young Master Yang!" Lu Xueqing called out in alarm. "You mustn't eat it!"
"It's delicious. Why can't I eat it?" Yang Zhen asked indistinctly, looking at the others. He offered one to Wu Guang, who was closest to him. "Want a taste?"
With a flurry of movement, Lu Xueqing and all the women in the group backed away from Yang Zhen. They watched his eyes with utmost vigilance, terrified that he would lose his mind and pounce on them.
Most terrifying of all, legend had it that a Blood Spirit Clan man who ate the Heavenly Fragrance Fruit would give off an exotic fragrance that could arouse women and make them unable to control themselves...
Wu Guang was secretly relieved. Fortunately, the fragrance had little effect on men.
"Be careful, senior brother. When a man who has eaten the Heavenly Fragrance Fruit loses his mind, he doesn't distinguish between men and women," Lu Xueqing warned Wu Guang, an odd look on her face.
Wu Guang's face went deathly pale. He leaped three feet into the air and sprang away from Yang Zhen. "Brother Yang, you... how could you be so reckless? How could you eat a Heavenly Fragrance Fruit without a second thought? Do you feel anything now?"
Yang Zhen let out a burp and grinned. "It's crisp and sweet!"
"Who asked you that?" Lu Xueqing shot Yang Zhen an annoyed glare. Just as she was about to ask another question, her expression changed abruptly. "This fragrance-oh no!"
Several soft moans rang out. The women beside Lu Xueqing all flushed red, their eyes gradually losing focus. Lu Xueqing turned pale and grabbed them, turning to leave.
If they stayed, once the Heavenly Fragrance Fruit took effect, the consequences would be too dreadful to imagine.
Wu Guang and the others were badly frightened as well. They had thought Yang Zhen posed no threat to them after eating the Heavenly Fragrance Fruit, but its effects were so terrifying that he would make no distinction between men and women. The thought of that dreadful consequence sent a chill down their spines.
Just as everyone stood there in terror, at a loss for what to do, a terrifying surge of primordial Qi suddenly erupted from Yang Zhen with a boom. A violent wave of Qi swept across the entire altar in the blink of an eye, blowing the corpses kneeling beside the stone platform every which way.
Wu Guang and the others stared at Yang Zhen in horror, too shocked to speak.
"It worked!"
Yang Zhen rejoiced inwardly. The Heavenly Fragrance Fruit truly was a primordial catalyst, just as the Heavenly Book: Profound Principles Chapter said.
Everyone turned pale at the mere mention of the Heavenly Fragrance Fruit, but few knew that, to a powerful formation master, it was also an exceptionally rare and precious primordial catalyst.
In the hands of a grandmaster of formations, almost every Heavenly Fragrance Fruit was worth a fortune, something they would not exchange for any amount of treasure.
Not all grandmasters of formations knew how to use the Heavenly Fragrance Fruit, however. If used improperly, it could, as Lu Xueqing had said, cause a tragedy in the mortal world.
After eating the Heavenly Fragrance Fruit, Yang Zhen used his own meridians as a formation plate, sending the terrifying power contained in the fruit racing madly through his body. Only after circulating it for nine times nine cycles did he purify its power into the purest primordial catalyst.
The violent power burst forth. With Yang Zhen's body as the formation plate, a terrifying vortex of primordial Qi formed above his head. The primordial Qi within the altar immediately began to boil, converging madly on Yang Zhen.
"Impossible!" Lu Xueqing cried. She stared at the sight before her in disbelief, eyes wide and both hands pressed tightly over her mouth.
Yang Zhen's cultivation rose rapidly. In the blink of an eye, he advanced from the Foundation Establishment Realm Seventh Layer to the Eighth Layer, and he was still climbing.
Wu Guang and the others were just as dumbfounded as they watched Yang Zhen. He was like a pool, madly absorbing the surrounding currents of primordial Qi.
"Could it be that it wasn't a Heavenly Fragrance Fruit?" Wu Guang's eyes suddenly lit up, and he started forward, only for Lu Xueqing to grab his clothes.
"Don't go over there. That was a Heavenly Fragrance Fruit."
Lu Xueqing's face was pale, and beads of sweat dotted her temples. She was clearly not in good shape.
Wu Guang started to speak but stopped. Suddenly, he heard a ripping sound. A female disciple beside him was inexplicably tearing at her own clothes.
"Oh no, get out of here, quickly!"
Lu Xueqing gave Yang Zhen an odd look, then hurriedly pulled the female disciple toward the altar's exit.
Though Wu Guang was reluctant, the female disciples were already in this state. How could he stay? Yang Zhen's cultivation had already risen to the Foundation Establishment Realm Eighth Layer. If he stopped distinguishing between men and women, wouldn't Wu Guang have no chance to resist?
At that thought, Wu Guang shuddered all over and said through gritted teeth, "Quick, quick, let's go! We'll leave here first."
Rumble!
A muffled boom rang out, followed by the earth shaking and the mountains swaying. The entire altar seemed ready to collapse under Yang Zhen's terrifying fluctuations of primordial Qi.
"Yang Zhen, get out of there!" Lu Xueqing called anxiously over her shoulder, but there was no response.
Countless enormous rocks fell from above, nearly burying them.
They finally managed to rush out of the altar, but before they could look back, they felt as though heaven and earth had turned upside down. With a muffled rumble, the enormous altar collapsed completely and sank underground.
"Yang Zhen!" Lu Xueqing cried, starting to rush over, but Wu Guang grabbed her.
"Forget it, junior sister. No one could survive a collapse like that. Yang Zhen may... already be dead."
Lu Xueqing trembled, her expression growing somewhat gloomy. "I wonder if he thought of his cousin before he died."
"Are you really not Yang Zhen's cousin?"
Lu Xueqing smiled but did not answer the question. "Let's return to the sect and report back. We still have to go to Raging Fire City later."
With that, Lu Xueqing glanced once more at the collapsed altar, sighed, and turned to leave.
Long after Wu Guang and the others had left, the earth covering the collapsed altar suddenly burst open with a boom. Covered in dirt, Yang Zhen crawled out clutching a pile of Heavenly Fragrance Fruits.
"This lousy altar was way too flimsy. Good thing I accidentally broke through to the Foundation Establishment Realm Ninth Layer, or it really wouldn't have been easy to get out."
Wu Guang and the others had left, saving Yang Zhen quite a bit of trouble. After wrapping up the Heavenly Fragrance Fruits and securing them on his back, Yang Zhen took something resembling a seed from his robes, an odd expression on his face.
The seed was about the size of a thumbnail and looked like green jade all over, with wisps of green light seemingly flowing within it. When the altar collapsed, fire essence had blasted it out of the ground, and Yang Zhen had caught it in one hand.
Yang Zhen had never seen a seed like it, so he had brought it out with him.
After cleaning the dirt off himself, Yang Zhen's expression grew even stranger. He was giving off a faint, delicate orchid fragrance. A full day and night had passed since he ate the Heavenly Fragrance Fruit, was buried in the altar, and finally managed to crawl out, yet the fragrance still had not completely faded.
Though it could only be smelled up close, it left Yang Zhen somewhat bewildered. From now on, whenever he approached a woman, would she be unable to help falling in love with him after smelling it?
At the thought of that consequence, Yang Zhen's face turned green.
It took Yang Zhen another two full days to reach Raging Fire City. As soon as he entered the city, he was nearly hit by a carriage and hurriedly dodged it.
The carriage sped past, sending chickens and dogs flying along its route, while the many cultivators dared to feel anger but dared not speak.
Yang Zhen stopped a young man nearby and asked, "Fellow Daoist, who is that? So arrogant-does his family own a mine?"
The young cultivator's expression changed, and he hurriedly said, "Don't talk nonsense. Be careful, trouble can come out of your mouth."