Chapter 140: Spirit-Awakening Fruit (2)

Wang Ping secretly sighed in his heart; as expected of the Spirit Realm, even fruits that can awaken magic treasures exist—it's simply unbelievable.

Such a fruit is so miraculous he couldn't help but want to snatch two of them!

Just as Wang Ping thought that, he keenly noticed he seemed to have been isolated.

Without needing to think deeply, Wang Ping understood the reason: obviously, after learning the treasure was the Spirit-Awakening Fruit, nobody wanted to share another, so a cultivator who had joined midway like him naturally gained no trust.

Yan Xiu naturally noticed this as well, but he pretended not to see and continued chatting and laughing with the other cultivators.

Wang Ping felt no resentment about this; seeing the situation, he directly asked Yan Xiu to leave, and after Yan Xiu gave a perfunctory attempt to keep him, he no longer stopped him.

Watching the direction Wang Ping left, Wang Ya, who had just asked the question, curled his lips and smiled lightly: "This iron-boned one is quite sensible; otherwise, when we drive people away later, everyone's face would look bad."

Yan Xiu smiled and said: "That's fine too; the Spirit-Awakening Fruit contest isn't better with more people. We eight can just form a small team; by then everyone will follow my command, and I guarantee everyone will receive a Spirit-Awakening Fruit."

"Good! I'll follow Brother Yan's command!"

"Me too!"

Hearing that, Yan Xiu's face broke into a smile, but his heart was filled with endless coldness; the Spirit-Awakening Fruit is so precious that you lot of Zero Three still dare to dream of owning one—it's simply meaningless.

As far as he knew, the Foundation Establishment geniuses from Mysterious Yellow City who came here to participate in the Spirit-Awakening Fruit contest—each of the Thirty-six Great Families had one—and they are the main contenders for this spirit fruit.

His Yan Family naturally had one as well, but Yan Xiu harbored great ambitions and naturally did not want to be a wedding dress for others; thus he risked offending the family geniuses, personally gathered manpower, and intended to join the spirit-fruit contest.

As long as he obtains one, he will immediately withdraw from the battlefield to refine it; as for these people, he won't care whether they live or die.

It's a pity that the Iron Family cultivator just now seemed decent in strength, but because he was isolated, Yan Xiu couldn't possibly act for just him.

Having already entered the deep forest, Wang Ping naturally didn't know Yan Xiu's plan; he kept leaping from towering ancient tree to tree, and when his spiritual sense was released to the utmost, he found no cultivator within a hundred zhang.

Wang Ping landed directly, formed hand seals, executed the Wood Escape Technique, his figure gradually fading, while simultaneously employing the special exploration technique inherent in the Qingdi Changsheng Gong.

Invisible undulations to cultivators continuously emanated from Wang Ping's body. Soon the range of a hundred zhang, two hundred zhang, … five hundred zhang, … one thousand zhang appeared in his sea of consciousness.

His exploration technique, far from being suppressed in the Spirit Realm, strangely enhanced its range.

One thousand zhang was not his limit; he kept expanding, and the undulation only stopped after reaching three thousand zhang.

Three thousand zhang equals a twenty-li radius.

Everything within that space was under Wang Ping's control.

"Big brother! Where is the Spirit-Awakening Fruit? I see many cultivators searching, yet not a single one has found it."

In a hidden corner, ten mid-Foundation Establishment young cultivators gathered, discussing where the Spirit-Awakening Fruit's opening point was.

All of this was presented in Wang Ping's mind; likewise, in another direction, cultivators were also searching for the Spirit-Awakening Fruit's opening spot.

Wang Ping, silently observing all this, felt a sudden realization: it seems that before the Spirit-Awakening Fruit matures, nobody can find it.

This gave Wang Ping an opportunity—just because others can't find it doesn't mean he can't. The exploration technique that comes with the Qingdi Changsheng Gong is especially sensitive to the auras of spirit medicines and spirit woods.

From the information just heard, everyone agreed the Spirit-Awakening Fruit lies within a hundred-li radius around here, yet thousands of cultivators have searched it countless times without success.

Moreover, there is still half a Spirit Realm day until the Spirit-Awakening Fruit matures—enough time for Wang Ping to thoroughly explore this hundred-li area.

Next, Wang Ping became like a diligent bee, constantly moving within the hundred-li radius centered at Chaos Demon Valley.

East: none; west: none; south: none.

Wang Ping's face grew somewhat solemn; there was still one hour until the Spirit-Awakening Fruit matured—if he still couldn't find it, he might lose the initiative.

Continuing to probe northward, Wang Ping had no time to recover his spiritual power; his body kept moving north, and this time he had only traveled ten-plus li when he suddenly discovered a blank spot appearing in the mental image in his mind.

Found it!

This was Wang Ping's first reaction; he immediately rushed toward that place.

He didn't stop until he was one zhang away from that spot; here stood a dozen or so towering ancient trees, with various flowers and grasses covering the ground.

At a glance nothing seemed abnormal, but according to the feedback from the exploration technique, this area was indeed a blank.

This is the place, Wang Ping was absolutely certain. He walked in slowly, stopping when he was three cun from it, and said there lay a ten-zhang square clearing ahead, the ground covered with purple spirit grass.

Wang Ping slowly extended his arm until it was straight, yet it touched no protective barrier or array-like obstruction.

If it weren't for that large blank in his mind confirming something was wrong here, he would have suspected his nerves were acting up.

Gazing at the empty clearing, Wang Ping secretly wondered: could the Spirit-Awakening Fruit be in another dimension? If so, he truly would have no way.

No, if it were truly in another dimension, everything here would be normal, and his mind wouldn't show a blank.

Wang Ping overturned his guess; perhaps it was a high-level illusion technique or illusion array, that sort of spell or formation.

That must be it, Wang Ping firmly believed his guess, but even if he'd figured it out, how could he touch it?

Wang Ping grew worried; at this point only half an hour remained until the Spirit-Awakening Fruit matured.

He wasn't well versed in arrays, and facing one that could even conceal his spiritual sense, he didn't know what to do.

Left with no choice, Wang Ping hid inside a giant tree, his internal cultivation method circulating as he absorbed the surrounding threads of wood qi, while holding a top-grade spirit stone to replenish his own spiritual energy.

Just then, Wang Ping suddenly noticed a thread of wood qi also coming from the clearing ahead; this discovery surprised him, so he began absorbing wood qi again, and then another thread drifted from that blank spot.

Wang Ping's eyes flashed; he focused his spiritual sense fully on that thread of wood qi, discovering it wasn't flying straight toward him.

Instead, it came winding and twisting all the way—could this be the array's path?

A flash of insight struck Wang Ping, and he understood why that thread of wood qi moved so oddly: it was clearly blocked by the array, only able to drift out after passing through the living path.

Since it fully appeared outside that clearing's position, that must be the array's entrance.

Having confirmed his guess, Wang Ping flashed to the point where that thread of wood qi last left the clearing, recalling its earlier drift trajectory, he firmly stepped forward with his left foot, and the scene before him showed no change.

Then he moved three steps forward-right, and so Wang Ping bounced back and forth, left and right across the ten-zhang clearing; throughout this process his vision remained unchanged.

After the time it takes to finish a cup of tea, Wang Ping firmly stepped back one step; momentarily a mist seemed to appear before his eyes, but it quickly dissipated.

When Wang Ping opened his eyes, there stood a lush, verdant stalk about a zhang high, its coiled-dragon branch, giving an impression of immense strength.

Most eye-catching were the dense golden fruits on the tree.

Wang Ping swept his spiritual sense over them—one hundred and eight fruits, matching the number of Heavenly Stars and Earthly Fiends.