Divine Lord Zhenyuan Felt His Lot in Life Was Bitter
In the orchards of the Western Kunlun Holy Land, fruit trees are in full bloom.
The taller ones are peach trees, and there are scattered small fruits growing among the low thorn bushes.
As Zhang Xuezhou walked smoothly through the dense forest, he saw the small, human-shaped fruit that Cai Ma had once swallowed.
This also earned Cai Ma the certification of a genius in destiny analysis.
Zhang Xuezhou was overjoyed.
He leaped up and reached for the little man fruit, but the fruit flashed in his hand and then reappeared on the other side, as if he had grasped nothing but air.
Am I drunk too?
Zhang Xuezhou shook his head, feeling that his vision was a little blurry, and he couldn't even pick the fruit properly.
"Buddha, I can't jump very high, could you pick one of these fruits for me?" Zhang Xuezhou pointed to the tree path.
"Look... look at mine!"
The Buddha Son Shigong leaped up and reached out to grab it as well.
But in the instant he grasped it, his fingers seemed to pierce through a phantom.
When he landed, his hands were empty, while the fruit remained on the tree.
"I... I can't do it anymore. I saw things and missed," the Buddha Son Shigong mumbled.
"This fruit is very precious; one is equivalent to ten peaches we eat," Zhang Xuezhou said.
"Then why didn't you bring me here to eat before?"
"This tree's location is unpredictable; how could I know I'd stumble upon it? Now that we've found it, we can't let it slip away!"
"Oh!"
After Zhang Xuezhou explained, the Buddha Son Shigong began to exert his strength, dodging and weaving as he tried to grab the small fruits hidden in the tree.
"It feels... a bit like spatial displacement, like the chip effect of the purple gladiolus?"
In the real world, there are cameras that provide real-time location information, but in this world, we can only rely on our eyes. Zhang Xuezhou really doesn't have a solution for the time being.
But he knew that anything involving spatial displacement would be easier to deal with once its true location was found, since people were alive, while trees couldn't move.
"I... I can't take it anymore, my stomach hurts terribly after I jumped around for a while!"
Zhang Xuezhou jumped around picking fruit for a while, while the Buddha Son Shigong next to him squatted down, clutching his stomach in pain.
This delighted Zhang Xuezhou, who felt that the medicine was finally taking effect and affecting the body of the Buddha Son Shigong.
This effect didn't intoxicate the Buddha Son Shigong as he had imagined, but it was quite good that it caused him stomach pain and required him to lie down.
If it weren't for the need to promote the Longevity Formula, Zhang Xuezhou felt that he had already gotten rid of the troublesome Buddha Son Shigong, and then he could formally pay his respects to the Emperor.
"Buddha, you should lie down and rest. I'll go look for some fruit first," Zhang Xuezhou said.
"That doesn't make sense. Why am I in pain when you're not?" the Buddha Son Shigong said, unable to bear the pain any longer.
"That's easy. I had a stomachache last time too, but it was fine afterward," Zhang Xuezhou replied. "I didn't even feel anything this time. Look at me, I can jump, I can leap, I can even fly, and I'm perfectly fine!"
"Then I'm relieved!"
The Buddha Son Shigong nodded.
Although it was very uncomfortable, and even made the Buddha Son Shigong feel that he needed to find a place to squat down and see if he could expel the painful contents from his abdomen, the Buddha Son Shigong did not panic.
Zhang Xuezhou, whose cultivation level was previously weak, was able to withstand it; there's no way he could die from a stomachache.
For a while, one of them lay down and looked for a place to squat, while the other kept searching for the real location of the Little Man Fruit.
"There are ants in this tree. It's impossible for ants to find the tree's true form, but I can't!"
After searching around without success, Zhang Xuezhou carefully examined the surroundings and looked for relevant clues, which actually led him to some traceable evidence.
The fruit tree appeared to be infested by a special type of red ant; Zhang Xuezhou saw dozens of red ants at the base of the tree.
Since ants could burrow into the roots of this fruit tree, Zhang Xuezhou didn't think he couldn't find the tree's true location.
By randomly grabbing and touching things, Zhang Xuezhou also kept observing the direction and traces of these ants in order to search for them.
"It should be here!"
Nearly fifteen minutes later, Zhang Xuezhou leaped up and grabbed at the leaves of a peach tree. A faint golden light appeared, and a golden fruit shaped like a human figure appeared in his hand.
This delighted Zhang Xuezhou, who felt that his intelligence had finally come in handy.
"Why doesn't it taste like anything? And I don't seem to feel anything?"
After eating a fruit, Zhang Xuezhou felt nothing at all.
He pondered the events surrounding Cai Ma's consumption of the fruit from the fragments of his memory, and ultimately concluded that he was simply too incompetent.
If you lack qualifications, make up for it with resources—this is something Zhang Xuezhou has always done.
He pondered for only a few seconds, then continued searching for his bearings.
When he leaped up again to pluck a peach from a tree, he now held a golden fruit shaped like a human figure.
"It's one thing to be tasteless, but it's another to be ineffective. Yes, that's the troublesome thing about fate-telling. Without Cai Ma's abilities, you can't tell whether your lifespan has been extended or whether you have the aptitude for cultivation. You'll only know when you live to see the day you die!"
Zhang Xuezhou thought about his dull aptitude for cultivating life, feeling that it was a waste of talent and difficult to improve.
He racked his brains, but could only compensate by increasing the quantity.
"Living in a drunken stupor all day, I steal half a day of leisure from this busy life..."
After eating several fruits, Zhang Xuezhou tried to pick the Little Man Fruit several times but failed. Then he heard a sound coming from afar.
"That voice... seems to be Divine Lord Zhenyuan?"
As long as it's someone you know, things will be easier, and Zhang Xuezhou doesn't need to worry about being wrongly convicted and killed.
He couldn't help but wave and call out to them.
"Free time... Oh dear, how did you get in here!"
The distant, leisurely voice sounded extremely relaxed, but it turned anxious when Zhang Xuezhou spoke.
Zhang Xuezhou felt as if he were being swept away by a storm, or perhaps by some kind of spatial disturbance, and suddenly there was another person in front of him.
Divine Lord Zhenyuan was still thin, and his old face was still ruddy, but his face was not kind; instead, it was pale.
When he saw Zhang Xuezhou, his heart pounded wildly.
With just a glance at the fruit trees, Divine Lord Zhenyuan clutched his chest, feeling as if he could hardly breathe.
"I came directly from here," Zhang Xuezhou replied briefly.
"How can you travel through this Peach Garden... Oh, right, you have the Heavenly Robe bestowed by the Emperor, which can break many restrictions, allowing you to move freely within the Sacred Land and also enabling you to catch this fruit!"
At first, Divine Lord Zhenyuan had difficulty understanding, but when he saw the Heavenly Robe on Zhang Xuezhou, he suddenly realized what was going on.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no! You can eat it all you want, but I'll be the one punished. And what will I do when the Empress comes to inspect?"
Divine Lord Zhenyuan looked at Zhang Xuezhou and felt that he had encountered a great trouble.
Zhang Xuezhou, the one who stole the fruit, was only scolded a few times and that was the end of it, but the one who guarded the fruit trees could not escape being held accountable.
He had protected and nurtured the fruit trees for many years, but he hadn't been able to eat a single fruit and was even punished.
Divine Lord Zhenyuan felt his life was miserable.