“...”
These words were clearly an echo of the question he had posed to Wen Li earlier.
Yin Fengcong froze, and in the next second, a particular word caught his attention: “left.” Wen Li had left? Could they actually get out?!
Yin Fengcong flew immediately back to the spot where Wen Li and Xie Tinglan had crashed. The two were gone. A rare trace of panic surfaced in his expression as he promptly expanded his divine sense, sweeping across the entire lakebed realm.
Ten seconds, twenty seconds.
No one!
Yin Fengcong’s face darkened. How could she have vanished from within his barrier? Grievously wounded as they were, they stood no chance of dispelling a Nascent Soul cultivator’s barrier.
“Where did they go?!”
Yin Fengcong flew at once to a spot fifty meters from the Soul-Severing White Mi Tree, glaring fixedly at Yao Dai.
Yao Dai had continued crawling forward, with only five meters left before she would reach the Soul-Severing White Mi Tree. Perhaps to infuriate Yin Fengcong, or perhaps to deliberately execute the remainder of the trap Wen Li had laid out, she answered intermittently, even though her breath was faint as a thread.
“They’ve already left the trial realm... Now, aside from those corpses, only you and I remain.”
Seeing Yao Dai drawing ever closer to the Soul-Severing White Mi Tree, Yin Fengcong’s complexion turned exceedingly grim. They had all recognized the rule: the higher the cultivation, the more ferocious the blood vines’ assault.
What if one’s cultivation was low? Could that bypass the danger?
They had only dared to think in terms of lower cultivation; it had never crossed their minds to have no cultivation at all. At most, they would have sent Yao Dai—the lowest in cultivation among them—to test the waters.
Yet Wen Li had been so decisive and astute as to directly rip out Yao Dai’s spiritual root and dissipate her cultivation entirely!
Yet even so, how could Wen Li be certain that Yao Dai, devoid of cultivation, could obtain the Soul-Severing White Mi Fruit and bring it out alive?
And what of Wen Li and Xie Tinglan? Had they truly departed?
Or were they waiting for him to grow anxious over Yao Dai seizing the fruit, baiting him into gouging out his own spiritual root and dispersing his cultivation as well—only to reappear and settle the score once he was crippled?!
A storm of thoughts raged in Yin Fengcong’s eyes. Compelled to exercise utmost caution, he could only watch helplessly as Yao Dai reached the base of the Soul-Severing White Mi Tree.
The trails of blood snaking across the ground bore witness to the agonizing difficulty and sheer resolve behind her advance.
Yao Dai was on the verge of fainting from the pain. Bracing her hands on the ground, she trembled violently as she forced herself upright second by agonizing second, like a scene in slow motion where every movement sent heart-wrenching agony shooting through her.
Even now, she still found the heart to flash a wry, bleak smile. Fortunately, this wasn’t the first time her spiritual root had been crippled. She could bear this pain.
“Hiss...” Tugging at the wound in her abdomen, she drew a sharp breath of cold air and finally straightened her hunched spine.
Yao Dai looked up, gazing at the trunk that rose like a pillar supporting the heavens. Dense clusters of fresh corpses were embedded within it as fertilizer, among which she could faintly discern Ye Mojin, Wang Xianlin, and a few familiar disciples from the Zhaixing Sect.
At the very top in the center hung a fruit resembling ginseng. The crimson color at its base had nearly seeped to the top, leaving only a faint cyan-blue gleam at its tip—it was not yet fully ripe.
This was a Supreme Grade Rank 1 immortal herb.
Enduring the searing pain, Yao Dai began climbing up with bare hands. Devoid of spiritual power, she could not pluck the Soul-Severing White Mi Fruit from afar and had to rely purely on physical effort.
Fortunately, the fresh corpses protruding outward served as convenient stepping stones.
Catching sight of Wang Xianlin’s skull, Yao Dai remembered that this bastard had tried to kill her, and promptly stomped on it twice more.
Watching from afar, Yin Fengcong sneered with contempt. “Even if you reach the Soul-Severing White Mi Fruit, it isn’t ripe. Do you think you’ll survive until it matures? Your master deceived you, leaving you here on purpose!”
Yao Dai paid him no heed whatsoever.
Steadily, she climbed seven or eight meters up the Soul-Severing White Mi Tree. A single slip would send her plunging down, and in her current mortal body, that fall would spell death; she could only crawl upward with painstaking care.
At last, after who knew how long, she reached the branch where the Soul-Severing White Mi Fruit hung.
A flash of delight lit up Yao Dai’s face, yet she did not reach out to pluck it immediately. Recalling Wen Li’s instructions, she bit open her wrist to coax out some blood, holding it over the Soul-Severing White Mi Fruit.
Fresh blood dripped down upon it.
Yin Fengcong held his breath as he watched. Was this method taught by Wen Li?
What a reckless waste of heaven’s gifts! Could her mortal blood possess more worldly spiritual energy than the spiritual roots of cultivators to ripen the Soul-Severing White Mi Fruit? Absurd!
Yet before the disdain could fade from Yin Fengcong’s eyes, a blinding scarlet glare reflected in his pupils in the very next instant.
Th-This...
It ripened!
In the distance, the blood Yao Dai shed was absorbed completely by the Soul-Severing White Mi Fruit. Three seconds passed in stillness, but on the fourth second, it began to shudder violently—or rather, the entire towering tree began to shake.
Boom—
The speck of cyan-blue at the fruit’s tip was abruptly engulfed by the crimson glow spreading from below, dyed red at an alarming rate like spreading veins of blood.
The dazzling brilliance nearly bathed the entire lakebed realm in red.
Yao Dai’s pupils quivered, her eyes locked onto the Soul-Severing White Mi Fruit, ready to ingest it the moment it detached from the branch.
“You dare?! If you swallow it, I swear by everything I possess that I will strike you dead!”
Yin Fengcong’s roar echoed from the distance, shaking heaven and earth.
He was panicked. He had completely lost his cool.
“Old bastard, if you have the guts, come take it yourself,” Yao Dai sneered with a smirk, deliberately provoking him. “I forgot to mention: this Soul-Severing White Mi Fruit doesn’t just nourish spiritual roots; it can even develop spiritual roots of other elements to Supreme Grade purity! After that, even if one steals someone else’s spiritual root, there won’t be any side effects.”
“You!” How could it have such an effect?!
“No, the Soul-Severing White Mi Fruit grows by feeding on the spiritual roots of cultivators. Wen Li destroyed your spiritual root because she intends to use the fruit as your new root!” Wen Li had kept this hidden from him—this was her true purpose for entering the trial realm!
“Stop! That is mine!”
Yin Fengcong’s eyes bulged with rage, his face flushed scarlet. Every shred of his composure and caution vanished in a heartbeat. Nourishing a spiritual root was already a defiance of the heavens, let alone opening new ones!
Stealing someone else’s spiritual root was an act that drained one’s karmic fortune. Very few cultivators ever succeeded, and even if they did, it left fatal flaws—once they reached a certain realm, their bodies would detonate, killing them. This was precisely why everyone in the cultivation world relied on their own roots and refrained from rampantly plundering others.
Yet with this Soul-Severing White Mi Fruit, one could plunder another’s spiritual root without any repercussions! Such a temptation was utterly irresistible to anyone!
Yin Fengcong raised his hands and erected seven layers of defensive barriers outside the blood vines. Even if he perished inside, Yao Dai could forget about leaving, and Wen Li would never lay a hand on this immortal herb!
“Aaaargh!”
He raised his hand and slammed it ruthlessly against his own abdomen. His hair flew wildly as his face contorted in agony—the pain of destroying one’s own spiritual root was no less agonizing than being hacked into a thousand pieces, perhaps even worse.
“Hahaha! This old man has been stranded at Early-Stage Nascent Soul for centuries! This time, I must take the gamble!”
As his head drooped, his appearance transformed into that of a white-haired old man!
Evidently, his youthful visage had been a disguise all along.
Yao Dai’s eyes widened in shock. No wonder! No wonder Master had said she wasn’t worried about him being untempted, but rather that his greed would drive him completely mad!
Had Master seen through his disguise and known that, with his lifespan nearing its end, he would take such a gamble?!
Yin Fengcong forcibly shattered his own spiritual root. The spiritual energy and cultivation coursing through his body dissipated into thin air in an instant. He dropped to his knees, head hanging low, fresh blood streaming from the orifices of his face.
“Mine... The Soul-Severing White Mi Fruit is mine!”
His face lined with wrinkles and smeared with blood, Yin Fengcong moved sluggishly like a walking corpse. Unable to stand just like Yao Dai, he could only rely on sheer willpower to endure the excruciating pain of his destroyed root, crawling forward on his knees like a dog, step by step.
Fifty-five meters.
Fifty-two meters.
Fifty-one meters.
Rate on N.U.
