Within the fruit, the veins of mountains and rivers were clearly visible: lofty peaks rose and fell, rivers flowed, a sea of clouds rolled across thousands of miles, everything vivid and lifelike, like a miniature Immortal Realm.
And the fruit's breathing was slow and deep, drawing in and sorting through the blessings of immortal falls from myriad years, nurturing a mighty power capable of changing the Law of Life Between Heaven and Earth.
Chen Xun gazed quietly, his fingers lightly touching the luminous mist around the fruit. The mist flowed around it, pulsing as though answering his breath.
"There were no surprises. It was this one." Chen Xun murmured. There was no joy in his voice, only cold indifference and resolve. The fruit's formation had not encountered the slightest mishap, nor had it deviated from his original design.
He recalled how he had intercepted the blessings left behind by countless fallen immortals, and how they had slowly gathered into this fruit within the Heavenly Tomb. With every immortal fall, he silently recorded it. He never intervened to stop them, yet he turned the flow of heaven and earth to his own use.
This matter... had begun in the Immortal Soil Beyond the Domains, then later taken root and sprouted in the Heavenly Frontier.
The former prodigies of the Three Thousand Immortal Territories, the elders of every great immortal sect—the glory of their lives was, in his eyes, no more than nourishment for this Dao Fruit. There was no pity, no mercy. The turning of all things had always followed the independent workings of heaven and earth.
"Moo moo?" Big Black Ox asked in a low voice. Was it truly ripe?
Chen Xun stared at the Immortal Transformation Fruit, immortal light flickering in his eyes. "Old Ox, it was almost ready.