Sacred Fruit
Chu Li heard her junior brother calling her from afar.
She rushed over somewhat hastily. Since Nan Yi had gone to wash in the stream, she hadn't followed him and instead chose to wait where she was.
As Chu Li approached, she noticed that Nan Yi was tilting his head slightly, gazing at a small sapling.
"Senior sister, come and see what this is?"
Nan Yi clearly felt that what was in front of him was attracting him, but when he got closer, he found that the flower bud was really too ordinary.
But it was precisely this ordinariness that made him feel even stranger.
How could such an ordinary flower grow in the middle of the Lunar Eclipse Forest?
Because the dense forest is full of spiritual energy, it is actually harder to find ordinary flowers and plants here.
Chu Li followed Nan Yi's gaze and saw that the flower bud was a pale yellow. At first glance, it was indeed very ordinary, like a flower that could be seen anywhere by the roadside.
She tried to sense it, but couldn't feel any spiritual energy attached to it.
She observed for a while but couldn't find anything special. However, since her junior brother said something was strange—sometimes, spirit beasts' sixth sense is more accurate than humans'.
She wouldn't underestimate her junior brother's feelings.
She thought for a while, then flicked her finger, and the surroundings instantly darkened, but the flower bud emitted a faint glow in an instant.
Chu Li could finally confirm that this flower bud was definitely not an ordinary flower.
It glows in the dark, yet behaves quite ordinary in the daytime. She murmured to herself about this strange characteristic—she felt as if she had seen it somewhere before.
"Could this be a sacred fruit?" Nan Yi asked hesitantly, but after he finished speaking, he felt it was impossible. How could a sacred fruit appear in such a small, dense forest?
Sacred Fruit is a general term for a type of spiritual fruit, but its power is far greater than that of ordinary spiritual fruits. Therefore, cultivators in the cultivation world refer to fruits with particularly strong effects as Sacred Fruits.
However, over the past few thousand years, there have been very few records about the sacred fruit. It can be said that the sacred fruit is extremely rare because it has very strict requirements for growth and it does not grow in just any place.
"The sacred fruit?"
A thought flashed through Chu Li's mind, and her eyes lit up immediately—she understood!
"This is the fruit of enlightenment!"
"The Fruit of Enlightenment?"
"Yes, I saw it on a stone tablet before—it camouflages itself well during the day and glows faintly at night. Unfortunately, it didn't mention what the fruit tree and flowers looked like, so I didn't recognize it just now."
The Enlightenment Fruit is considered a sacred fruit, and its ability is to allow people to achieve enlightenment in an instant. For some cultivators who are stuck at a bottleneck, it is simply a lifesaver.
However, many cultivators still prefer to save such heaven-defying fruits for when they reach the Tribulation stage. After all, enlightenment during the Foundation Establishment stage may only lead to understanding how to better use spiritual power, but enlightenment during the Tribulation stage has a certain probability of leading to enlightenment of the power of laws.
Anyone can tell which is more important and which is less important.
"Is it about to bloom?" Chu Li touched the flower bud, which was trembling slightly. It didn't look like the flower of the Enlightenment Fruit at all, and it had no elegance whatsoever.
"It looks like it should be in the next day or two. Will it bear fruit immediately after it blooms?"
Chu Li nodded, suddenly recalling the somewhat inexplicable behavior of the Netherworld Night Owl—when everything was put together, everything became completely clear.
The owl knew that the Enlightenment Fruit was about to appear here, so even though it was seriously injured, it insisted on waiting here. If it hadn't happened to pass by, it probably would have succeeded.
No, that's not right. If it could succeed like that, why did it organize the beast tide to attack humans in the first place?
That would be completely unnecessary.
The reasoning seems to be missing a link, making it impossible to connect all the facts.
"It's blooming!"
Nan Yi let out a soft cry.
What followed was an intense fragrance, so strong it was almost pungent, and Nan Yi instinctively held his breath.
Chu Li was startled, almost overwhelmed by the smell. Just as the fragrance wafted out, strange noises arose from all directions, as if many creatures were approaching in this direction.
She finally figured out which link was missing!
"Junior brother, try not to let the fragrance waft out!" Chu Li quickly searched for something in her space, while reminding Nan Yi.
Nan Yi frantically conjured up several spiritual energy shields on the side, but they were almost useless, and the fragrance continued to drift further and further away.
Some magical beasts have already been drawn out, their green eyes fixed on this side.
Fortunately, Chu Li had already found what she wanted. With a "click," a somewhat special cover quickly closed, enveloping the flower inside.
The fragrance was completely trapped inside the enclosure, and the aroma outside gradually faded away. The magical beasts that had been intoxicated by the fragrance seemed to have only just realized that a Nascent Soul cultivator was standing there, and they all slowly retreated.
Once the fragrance of the flower has completely disappeared, the Enlightenment Fruit will appear.
The missing element for her was the fragrance of flowers!
She looked down at the magical artifact she had taken out, a dark, round ball, but as soon as she touched it, she could feel that it was engraved with extremely intricate patterns.
This was made by combining the hide of a demonic beast at the Tribulation Transcending stage with a human magic array. It can effectively isolate almost all auras, including smells.
She dared to say that most magical artifacts could not block the fragrance of the Enlightenment Fruit, and that was precisely why the three Tribulation Transcending stage demonic beasts needed to attract the attention of humans at that time to prevent the fruit from being picked.
Most cultivators' first reaction upon seeing a beast tide would be to rush forward to help, rather than searching for the source of a mysterious fragrance.
I wonder how those three magical beasts knew that the flower had a fragrance. Perhaps it was a memory passed down to them?
This inheritance of memory has always been a very strange thing—for humankind.
After about fifteen minutes, the flowers gradually withered, while the fruits hidden behind them gradually grew. The whole scene looked as if one was disappearing while the other was growing.
It's like a fruit absorbing nutrients from a flower, thus truly ripening.
A truly ripe fruit has an ordinary appearance, covered with a pale yellow coat, but it has a great attraction for all creatures that embark on the path of cultivation.
Chu Li took out two small wooden boxes from her spatial storage to hold the Enlightenment Fruits.
This time, a total of three Enlightenment Fruits were produced. Chu Li thought that this might be the reason why the three magical beasts reached a consensus: three Enlightenment Fruits, just enough for one magical beast to receive.
After she took the three Enlightenment Fruits, she placed them in two wooden boxes, which were specially designed to store spiritual fruits and prevent the energy in the fruits from being lost.
As the fruit was picked, the already small sapling withered instantly, its leaves turned yellow and fell, looking no different from a dead tree.
"Junior brother, this is yours."
Nan Yi opened the box and found two intact Enlightenment Fruits inside.
For a moment, he wondered if Chu Li had taken the wrong one.
It was Chu Li who asked him to face more magical beasts, so they came to the dense forest. It was also Chu Li who discovered the Netherworld Owl. If she were willing to take action herself, she would probably defeat the owl faster than him.
As for the flowers of the Enlightenment Fruit, they soon began to emit a fragrance. At that time, they must have not yet left the Eclipse Moon Forest, so they could have discovered it faster than others and cut off the source of the fragrance.
"Whoever sees it gets a share," Chu Li said without batting an eye, though the truth was that it all depended on who the "seeer" actually was.
"You can accept it anyway. You were the one who discovered this Enlightenment Fruit, and eating too much of it won't do you any good."
Fruits with such miraculous effects can only be eaten once per person at most; eating them a second time will have no effect.
Nan Yi carefully put away her gift and softly said, "Thank you, Senior Sister."
Perhaps because he spent his childhood in the wild, many of his habits are different from those of foxes who have lived in their own kind since childhood.
They would happily accept gifts from their elders, and occasionally whine a few words in a spoiled manner.
However, he always believed that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Whether it was top-quality cultivation resources or high-quality magical artifacts, the fox clan had already secretly marked the price when they gave them to him.
Because he was unsure whether he could return everything in the future, he would always do something to offset the value of the treasure each time he received it.
Sometimes they go out to collect rare and precious materials to give back to the fox clan, and sometimes they protect the weak fox cubs.
He didn't want to get too involved with the fox clan.
But this time, although his senior sister gave him more Enlightenment Fruits than he had expected, he inexplicably didn't want to repay them in the same way as before. Perhaps he could use other methods...
For him, this was a very novel idea, contrary to the principles of his life that he had adhered to for hundreds of years.
The trip to the dense forest can be considered a complete success, or even an overachievement. Who would have thought that a sacred fruit was hidden in the dense forest?
It's time to return to the sect.
When Chu Li pushed open the door of the Wuxiang Palace, she immediately sensed that something was amiss.
The Wuxiang Hall used to have a cold and aloof feel, as it was the place where the sect leader conducted affairs, and most disciples dared not make a loud noise here. However, some people completely broke this rule.
The Wuxiang Palace was bustling with activity, but when Chu Li looked closely, she found that there were only two people. She couldn't help but fall silent for a moment. Could two people really make such a commotion?
Standing beside the sect leader, chattering away, was a young man dressed in a bright red robe, extremely festive, with a feather trembling wildly in his hair.
Chu Li managed to glean this person's identity from her somewhat hazy memories: "Seventh Junior Brother?"
The two people in front of her stared at her intently almost the instant she pushed the door open.
When Wen Xiangluan heard her call out her identity, she cheered and ran to Chu Li.
The sect leader rubbed her forehead, but finally breathed a sigh of relief. Her master was finally back—how come she hadn't noticed how clingy her disciple was before?
Because his master had not returned, he insisted on staying in the Wuxiang Hall to wait for her. If it were just a simple wait, that would be fine, but he was also forced to listen to a lot of stories.
She didn't know where Wen Xiangluan, who was so young, got so many stories. She was exhausted from listening to them and wondered where he got so much energy.
"Senior...Senior Sister!" Wen Xiangluan almost misspoke, but quickly corrected herself, "I want to cultivate with you!"
Chu Li subconsciously looked at the sect leader, and Wen Xiangluan followed suit, looking at the sect leader expectantly.
The sect leader's eyelids twitched, and he quickly waved his hand: "If you have time, you can teach me as well."
She didn't want to be bothered all the time anymore; hadn't you noticed how much her work efficiency had decreased lately?
Moreover, she had other plans. She had been worried that it wouldn't be good for Nan Yi to spend too much time with Chu Li, so she decided to put someone who could cause trouble in there—it was killing two birds with one stone!
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