Chapter 31 - Ascension Fruit

Chapter 31 - Ascension Fruit

The Desolate Mountains were big, and the largest faction in the area was Baiyang Town. There were only two Ninth Draconic Stage cultivators in Baiyang Town: the Bai patriarch and Yang patriarch, which was why Long Chen was surprised to find another Ninth Draconic Stage cultivator appear.

“Xiao Xi, what about the unripe spiritual herb? What is it?”

“All spiritual herbs require a certain amount of time to grow. They can only be harvested when they are ripe. This is especially the case with higher-grade spiritual herbs. We are still too far away. If we get closer, I might be able to determine what kind of spiritual herb it is.”

It was still too early to kill Bai Shiji. Besides, Long Chen was greedy and would never miss out on a treasure.

Still, he knew how strong a Ninth Draconic Stage cultivator was, especially ones that were expert fighters. He proceeded with utmost caution.

Long Chen snuck around the shrubbery, and after climbing a few hills, he quickly arrived at a densely forested canyon. The canyon was filled with fog and the air was extremely humid. Long Chen felt suffocated the moment he arrived.

“Stop.”

He obeyed her and hid behind a large, ancient tree whose species he didn’t know. Just then, Ling Xi carefully spread her senses into the depths of the canyon. There was a large cave at the end of the canyon that was very remote. No one else was inside save for the Ninth Draconic Stage cultivator and the spiritual herb.

“I have no idea what it is, but I’m certain that it’s a Black-tier spiritual herb ...” Embark on a quest to the commencement at n0v#lbin★

“Black tier?”

“It’s one rank above the Yellow tier. A Black-tier spiritual herb is extremely expensive for a place like Baiyang Town. You won’t be able to get one even if you sold off all of Baiyang Town’s assets.”

Ling Xi spoke in a relaxed manner but Long Chen’s heart was in turmoil.

He knew that there was another realm above the Draconic Realm in terms of cultivation. Lord Wolf was in the realm above him. Naturally, there were stronger beasts above the Yellow tier such as the Moon Devouring Wolf.

There were stronger realms even for artifacts, spiritual herbs, and martial techniques.

Usually, cultivators trained in a technique appropriate for their realm and fought an appropriate level of demonic beasts. But the same could not be said for spiritual herbs. The higher their realm, the better. A Black-tier spiritual herb would provide an immense benefit to a Draconic Realm cultivator!

The spiritual herb would decide the fate of the two largest families in Baiyang Town. The family that obtained the spiritual herb would leave the other in the dust.

He followed Ling Xi’s instruction and slowly got closer. When they were almost at the cave, Long Chen felt the powerful presence sitting just a stone’s throw away from him. Long Chen held his breath and didn’t dare to move.

Ling Xi sounded surprised as she whispered as softly as a mosquito’s buzz.

“To think that there’s a rare Ascension Fruit Tree here, and it even has three fruits ...

“The skin of the fruit still looks unripe. Still, it matures relatively quickly. Based on what I can see, the three Ascension Fruits will be completely ripe in eight to nine days ...”

Long Chen knew there was no need to wait around since Ling Xi had already identified the spiritual herb and given him an estimated date of its ripening.

He gingerly took a deep breath and was about to leave when the mysterious person guarding the Ascension Fruits suddenly stood. He slowly walked out of the cave.

Cold sweat covered Long Chen.

“There’s still eight to nine days to go before the Ascension Fruit matures. However, we are still participating in the Demon Hunting Tournament so our priority should still be killing Bai Shiji. We can decide later if we want to tell the Yang Patriarch about the Ascension Fruit.”

Ling Xi nodded and explained further. “The Ascension Fruit will produce a sign a few hours before it matures. However, only cultivators at the Eight Draconic Stage and Ninth Draconic Stage in Baiyang Town could detect it. It will probably lead to a bloodbath. Even if you don’t inform him, the Yang patriarch will still detect the fruit’s ripening. The only difference is we would be able to make preparations before the fruit matures.”

To think that the fruit would produce a sign when it ripened. Long Chen took note before turning his gaze towards the forest. His eyes grew colder.

“I’ve wasted too much time. Bai Shiji and the rest should already be fighting a demonic beast. This is the perfect time to kill him!”

Long Chen dashed into the forest.

He had just traveled a short distance when he raised his head. He saw Lord Wolf sitting on a tree branch just above him.

“The youths from the Bai family are going to kill the three from the Yang family. You should hurry and help them.”

Long Chen's eyes grew wide with shock. He thought he had misheard.

Bai Shichen and his siblings want to kill Yang Wu and the others. What’s going on? They were still on very good terms when they entered the forest, so why are they killing each other now?

He knew that Lord Wolf would never joke with him. He would only tell the truth.

Although he didn’t care much for Yang Wu and Yang Lingyue, Long Chen was extremely worried about Yang Lingqing.

If anything happens to Yang Lingqing, I will bury you mongrels from the Bai family with her!

Lord Wolf pointed in a direction. “They are over there. Go quickly.”

Long Chen looked at him with gratitude. He left after saying his thanks, running at full speed in the direction Lord Wolf pointed.

Lord Wolf frowned as he stared at Long Chen’s back. “That’s strange, why does he have the presence of a Beast Warrior? The scent is similar to that of an Underground Blood Lizard ... No, it should be an Underground Blood Lizard King ...” Lord Wolf mumbled.

Trees and objects flew past as Long Chen ran, his heart growing more nervous with each passing second.

He didn’t know why the Bai family was being so murderous. The relationship between the Bai and Yang family had always been friendly. The bickering wasn’t a big deal, but their relationship would be ruined the moment one of them killed another.

“... Is it because both families want the right to rule Baiyang Town for the next twenty years? But the wedding is taking place right now ...”

Despite his cleverness, he still couldn’t figure it out.

Just then, he heard the faint sounds of fighting. Long Chen's eyes were cold as he leapt across the forest like a jaguar.

He exited the forest and entered an open field, where two people were fighting in the center: Yang Lingyue and Bai Shiji. They had been flirting with each other just moments ago!

Long Chen scanned the surroundings. He saw Yang Wu was already lying on the ground, his face pale as blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. Despite his injuries, he was glaring at Bai Shiji intensely. Both Bai Zhixing and Bai Shidong were suppressing the injured Yang Wu.

Bai Shiji was toying with Yang Lingyue. He could’ve easily injured Yang Lingyue numerous times but he didn’t. Instead, whenever he had a chance, he would tear off a piece of her clothing.

Yang Lingyue’s clothes were already torn to ribbons. She was almost naked at this point, and she cried pitifully, her eyes filled with despair and helplessness.

“Bai Shiji, you fucking bastard!”

She cursed with intense hatred when she saw Bai Shiji’s hands trying to tear away the cloth over her chest.