Chapter 311: Splitting Soul Thunder Fruit

He Pingsheng did not harvest the bitter hemp here.

Mainly because bitter hemp has very few applications, and the only elixir it can be used for is the Soul-Nourishing Pill.

Even if collected, it's hardly ever used.

And it's extremely hard to sell.

Beyond this patch of bitter hemp, He Pingsheng continued walking into the valley.

Here, the number of heavenly treasures was even greater.

Along the way, he saw spiritual herbs everywhere.

But unfortunately, most were first-grade herbs.

Of course, there were some second-grade ones too.

He Pingsheng spotted a patch of Purple Ginseng.

Purple Ginseng is a second-grade herb; if it reaches a hundred years of age, it can be used to brew Foundation Establishment Pills.

This patch of ground was densely covered with hundreds of Purple Ginseng plants.

Though he didn't know their exact age, He Pingsheng estimated that even if they hadn't reached a hundred years, they were close.

Harvest them!

"Open…"

He pulled out a flying sword, instantly extending it, and plowed through the ground like a plow.

He collected over sixty Purple Ginseng roots.

More than half of these sixty had over a hundred years of age, and some reached two hundred years.

He Pingsheng waved his hand and stored the Purple Ginseng away.

He did not take them all—he left about ten or so plants right where they grew.

Never exhaust a species; leave some opportunity for those who come after—that's the universal rule in the cultivation world.

He Pingsheng walked deeper along the valley, collecting numerous second-grade spiritual herbs.

Finally, he spotted the pinnacle among second-grade heavenly materials: Crimson Essence Ginseng.

Crimson Essence Ginseng can break through the bottleneck of Qi Refining cultivators.

When He Pingsheng himself broke through the Qi Refining bottleneck, he used one Water Spirit Apricot and one Crimson Essence Ginseng.

Later, he gave the same Crimson Essence Ginseng to Old Man Cheng to break his bottleneck.

This is a precious thing.

He Pingsheng unhesitatingly dug up the Crimson Essence Ginseng.

He even pulled it out with roots, leaves, and soil intact—and crucially, the top of the plant still bore many seeds.

Hmm…

I can plant these seeds later.

He Pingsheng stored the Crimson Essence Ginseng safely, then looked around.

He had finished exploring this valley.

Perfect.

Continue…

Golden light blazed beneath his feet; his speed became unmatched, and he dashed out of this side valley, pressing forward.

He walked another stretch before choosing another valley to enter.

Unfortunately, after just a few steps, he saw signs that someone had already harvested here.

Someone had arrived ahead of him.

If so, there was no need to enter.

He backed out of the side valley and continued along Mu Long Gou.

He Pingsheng walked for another half day before finally finding a slightly wider valley and entering it.

This valley was different.

Beneath it ran a river.

The river nearly filled the entire valley.

He Pingsheng could not fly or use a flying boat, but at this moment, he activated his supreme spiritual artifact—the Eight Treasures Boat—and dropped it directly onto the water.

Though flying boats cannot fly through the air, they can still function as ordinary small boats on water.

With this, his speed entering the valley increased significantly.

Steep cliffs rose on both sides, thick with vegetation, scattered with pines and cypresses.

He Pingsheng's spiritual sense erupted outward, sweeping five thousand zhang.

Any slightly higher-grade plants he encountered were immediately collected.

The river within the valley grew narrower.

Yet the water surface remained as still as a mirror; from above, you could not even perceive any current.

This was strange.

In massive rivers like the Great River of the Free Immortal Sect, the water appears calm due to its sheer size—without spiritual sense, you'd barely sense its flow.

But this was just a small gorge—water here should be turbulent. Why was it so utterly still?

Boom…

He Pingsheng's spiritual sense plunged deep beneath the water.

Yet the water truly did not flow.

Then it was clear.

Either this was a vast lake, or someone had dammed the river downstream, maintaining this unnaturally flat water level.

Forget the water for now.

He Pingsheng retracted his spiritual sense and redirected it toward the surrounding cliffs, leaving no spiritual plant unexamined.

The mirror-like water curved beside a cliff.

The Eight Treasures Boat followed the turn; the gorge ahead narrowed further, the cliffs on both sides grew straight and towering, and the light here dimmed by half.

Clusters of white clouds gathered along the mid-slope.

He Pingsheng stood at the bow, gazing ahead—fog obscured the distance, indistinct and hazy.

"Crack… crack…"

"Crack… crack…"

Occasional thunder echoed in his ears.

Where was this thunder coming from?

He hadn't seen any.

He Pingsheng extended his spiritual sense again, scanning the deep valley in all directions.

Finally, he found it.

On a cliff within a mountain fissure stood a plant entirely golden in color.

Golden trunk, golden leaves, golden roots exposed to the air.

The tree was short—only three chi tall!

At its golden crown hung three silver fruits.

Each fruit shimmered incessantly with crackling lightning.

"Amazing…" He Pingsheng drew a deep breath, overjoyed.

He had never seen this before, but it matched exactly a fourth-grade heavenly treasure described in the Golden Core Compendium.

Splitting Soul Thunder Fruit.

Splitting Soul Thunder Fruit is a fruit imbued with rule-force, one of the main ingredients for brewing the fourth-grade elixir, Break Transformation Pill.

What is the Break Transformation Pill?

One of the essential elixirs for transitioning from Golden Core to Nascent Soul.

Yes—essential!

Unlike the Morning Essence Pill.

Some Foundation Establishment cultivators bypass the Morning Essence Pill entirely, relying solely on willpower to form a pseudo-core and enter the Golden Core realm.

But forming a Nascent Soul is different.

To form a Nascent Soul, you must use the Break Transformation Pill.

"Break Transformation" means breaking the core to form the soul: the Golden Core in the dantian shatters into countless rule-infused spiritual energies, which then coalesce into the Nascent Soul.

This process is called Breaking the Core to Form the Soul.

Fourth-grade heavenly treasures are exceedingly rare in this world.

The main ingredients for brewing the Break Transformation Pill are even rarer.

For example, this Splitting Soul Thunder Fruit tree requires three hundred years to mature a single fruit.

No one had found it before because its rule-force allows it to disguise itself as ordinary vegetation until the fruit ripens.

Without careful inspection, it's virtually impossible to detect.

Only when mature does the Splitting Soul Thunder Fruit reveal its true form.

"Perfect!" He Pingsheng rejoiced: "With this, this journey into the Five Dragon Gou Secret Realm was worth it!"

Whoosh…

The eight-treasure boat beneath his feet shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, heading toward the crack in the mountain.

After all, He Pingsheng had located the Liuyuan Thunder Fruit with his spiritual sense.

He had not seen it with his eyes.

They were still five thousand zhang away!