IS Chapter 67
by VolareAlthough the Sect Leader had said that this thing seemed non-toxic, it was only “seemed” that way. It wouldn’t be surprising if a fruit grown in this kind of place caused someone to bleed from all seven orifices and die instantly upon consumption.
So everyone’s eyes were eager, as if waiting for this person to be poisoned, so they could provide assistance at any time.
The disciple who ate the fruit smacked his lips, seemingly wanting more, and looked again at the fruit on the branches.
This reaction even made Shen Xin Ge cautiously retreat a few steps, saying, “My master said, you can’t just eat things from outside.”
Lin Zhu said, “Chan Tui, how do you feel?”
“Reporting to the Sect Leader, this disciple feels a warm current passing through my lungs, as if I have benefited.”
“You can even benefit?” Lin Zhu frowned. “Come here, let me check your meridians.”
The disciple named Chan Tui obediently handed his hand to the Sect Leader. Lin Zhu examined it for a long time.
“Strange,” Sect Leader Lin murmured to himself.
Observing his pulse, there was indeed nothing unusual.
In such a strange and dangerous place, a purely beneficial spiritual plant could actually grow?
“Sect Leader, why don’t you let this disciple try again,” the disciple named Chan Tui said, indeed wanting more.
Sect Leader Lin pondered for a moment: “Alright. But I will constantly check your meridians, and if anything happens, I will immediately provide assistance. San Qi, take your junior brothers and sisters to observe his condition, and don’t miss a single change.”
Ye Zhuo watched the Dan Ding Sect operate in an orderly manner.
A junior sister picked several white fruits for him and placed them in front of him.
Sect Leader Lin kept his hand on his pulse, grasping the changes in his body.
Other disciples spread out evenly, some near and some far, all observing Chan Tui’s complexion, pupils, and even taking out paper and pens, ready to start recording.
Some used Qi-watching techniques to observe his aura and spiritual rhyme.
Still others laid out strange magical treasures on the ground, and it seemed they were also trying to grasp his condition.
Elders with high cultivation levels guarded nearby to prevent external disturbances.
All the movements were so smooth and familiar, it could be seen that they usually carried out this kind of drug-testing behavior.
Chan Tui, who was testing the medicine with his own body, ate the second fruit, experiencing the changes in his body.
“Indeed, there is a benefit. But it’s so mysterious, I can’t say what the effect is, let’s have another!”
Lin Zhu, who was checking his pulse, did not stop him, which meant that Chan Tui’s body had not shown any abnormal changes.
The third, fourth, and fifth fruits were taken in succession. When it came to the sixth, Chan Tui’s eyes suddenly lit up: “Sect Leader, I know!”
“—I feel that after eating it, my lifespan has increased!”
Lifespan? As soon as these words came out, even the elders looked over with bright eyes.
Prolonging life has always been a top priority in immortal cultivation.
In today’s human world, spiritual energy is thin, and there is no tribulation thunder to assist in breaking through realms, so the lifespan of cultivators is not as long as it was thousands of years ago.
But even so, a great power in the Integration Stage can have a lifespan of two hundred years. If they break through to the Tribulation Transcending Stage, they will have three to four hundred years. If they ascend to the Immortal Realm, their lifespan will extend for thousands or even thousands of years, which is just around the corner.
But the road to immortality is long, and how easy is it to improve one’s realm? Those who enter the path of immortality exhaust their lives for a century, fighting against fate, and few can successfully form a Core. After forming a Core, there is hardly one or two out of ten who can form a Nascent Soul before their lives end.
Even if one steadily progresses all the way to the Integration Stage, they are already over a hundred years old. With only a few decades left in their lives, how difficult is it to climb to the Tribulation Transcending Stage again?
Therefore, if one wants to reach the Tribulation Transcending Stage, they must be a celestial genius of the Immortal Sect, a gifted talent who achieves Integration before the age of one hundred, and only then is there hope.
Like that Second Palace Master Ye, a Tribulation Transcending Sword Cultivator in his twenties, I really don’t know how he cultivated to that level.
Oh, their Palace Master Wei Sheng Xian is also Tribulation Transcending at a young age.
And that young man of unknown origin, who looks so noble, is actually also in the Tribulation Transcending Stage. When he saw that person at the time, he asked a well-informed friend from another sect for information through divine sense and received a reply saying that the Dao Sect had long spent a lot of money to buy information from Jack-of-all-trades: this is a Jiao dragon who has transformed from a cold pool. How ridiculous! Even Jiao dragons are changing their appearance and looking so well-dressed. If Green Mountains really had such luck, he would pack his bags and go join them.
These are really demonic things. If you think about them carefully and compare your own talent with them, it will hinder your Dao heart.
To take a step back, this Little Daoist Priest Shen Xin Ge, although it is said that there is something wrong with his mind and will never grow up, if you look closely at his age, he is only about one or two decades old, but he is already a Dao cultivator in the Integration Stage.
And that Su Yizhen, the first disciple of the Upper Purity Sword Sect, didn’t he reach the Integration Stage in his early twenties?
What’s going on with this world, with all these demonic stars running rampant?
But these things are too far-fetched to think about. In short, on the road of immortal cultivation, lifespan is an especially important thing. If you are really about to die and only one step away from breaking through, having a year more of lifespan is really like a new dawn and a way out of a desperate situation.
The person who ate the fruit looked healthy and not in danger of dying. If this thing really is a spiritual medicine that can prolong life, it is a treasure that can be revered as a “sacred medicine” and that the entire Immortal Dao would flock to.
Lin Zhu: “But there is no real evidence of lifespan increase.”
Chan Tui said: “I feel it in the dark, like when I break through a realm.”
This was said with reason and evidence.
“Sect Leader, why don’t you try it too? Your realm is high, you will definitely feel it more accurately than I do.”
It sounded truly beneficial and harmless, but Lin Zhu still had doubts in his heart. For some reason, he looked up and glanced at Second Palace Master Ye, who was watching coldly from the sidelines.
Strange, they are both Tribulation Transcending cultivators, and his own experience is not shallow, so why did he subconsciously want this person to make a decision?
Ye Zhuo received Lin Zhu’s inquiring gaze.
“Let him continue,” Ye Zhuo said, “until your sect’s disciples record the changes.”
Second Palace Master Ye spoke, and no one else had any objections.
Chan Tui received the order and was eager to try it himself, and ate a few more. As expected, the more he ate, the more he could feel his lifespan increasing, and his body had no abnormalities, neither poisoned nor about to explode and die.
As he said this, the elders’ eyes became more and more lively: “Is this really the case?”
Ye Zhuo didn’t speak, quietly watching Chan Tui.
There will certainly be heaven-sent opportunities in the world, and he himself has taken several.
But he has never seen an opportunity that falls from the sky for free like this.
Before long, Chan Tui had eaten three more.
A sword Qi suddenly struck, knocking down all the fruits in front of him.
The elder looked at Ye Zhuo: “Second Palace Master Ye, is there something wrong?”
Ye Zhuo: “Test his bone age.”
Lin Zhu did as he was told and turned to touch his bone age.
After probing, his expression suddenly became cold.
“Chan Tui, how many years do you feel you have increased your lifespan?”
Chan Tui: “After eating nine, it seems to have increased my lifespan by three years.”
Lin Zhu let go of his hand and sighed softly: “But your bone age has increased by six years.”
There was an uproar.
Looking at Chan Tui’s face again, it seemed indeed a bit more mature and angular than before, but it was subtle. Because they had been paying attention to watching him, they didn’t feel it.
That also explained why everyone couldn’t see any problems with his body.
He was just getting older, not sick, so who could tell? Moreover, for a young man in his twenties, how much difference could it make even if he grew six years older?
“My lifespan has increased by three years, but I have grown six years older, doesn’t that mean I have lost three years?”
Chan Tui was dumbfounded. When he understood the key, he felt a pang of pain.
“Second Palace Master Ye saw it in time, so it is your good fortune that you only lost three years. After returning to the mountain, go to the sect’s treasury to pick something,” Lin Zhu said.
Chan Tui was immediately overjoyed: “I respectfully obey the Sect Leader’s order!”
Their Dan Ding Sect liked to test medicines, which was also a sect tradition. Those who often walk by the river are bound to get their shoes wet. If they get poisoned by medicine, they can naturally go to the sect’s great treasury to choose elixirs and medicines to compensate themselves, which is very cost-effective.
A mere three years of lifespan, he was not a dying old man, so he would not be very heartbroken.
It was only a pity that his appearance lost three points of youthfulness, so he could only ask his senior brothers and sisters for more beauty secrets.
The disciples’ discussion could be heard faintly.
“Increasing lifespan by three years, but growing six years older, how vicious.”
“Doesn’t that mean three fruits can reduce a person’s lifespan by one year? Such a poisonous thing is truly chilling.”
“The key is that it makes people think it is a sacred medicine for increasing lifespan. When they eat too much and feel something is wrong, wouldn’t it already be too late.”
“Second Palace Master Ye is really amazing, he saw the problem in such a short time. Wouldn’t he be able to handle the path of alchemy with ease?”
“I feel that Second Palace Master Ye has reached the realm of all rivers flowing into the sea, understanding one thing and understanding everything.”
“Three hundred fruits are one hundred years of lifespan, six hundred fruits are two hundred years. If you take six hundred fruits and refine a poisonous pill, can you poison a great power in the Integration Stage?”
“There is some truth to this statement…”
“Silence!” Lin Zhu said, “The more you talk, the more you sound like evil cultivators. Is this how I usually teach you?”
He turned to Ye Zhuo and gave a solemn salute: “Brother Ye, thank you this time. After we get out, you can pick the medicinal herbs that our Dan Ding Sect has collected this time first.”
If Ye Zhuo was not present, these disciples, who were used to studying medicinal materials and recognizing dead ends, would not give up until they figured it out. By the time they saw the problem, I don’t know how many more fruits would have been eaten.
Chan Tui also came to thank Ye Zhuo.
Ye Zhuo responded lightly. His gaze continued to look at the withered tree.
The withered tree bore four kinds of fruits. The white one was for lifespan, which had already been explored. There were also three other kinds.
But it seemed that they were not good things either, so there was no need to ask anyone to try them.
He stepped forward, his eyes looking at the dark and mottled trunk.
The Ghost Realm was dark and gloomy, and the tree trunk was gnarled and uneven. At first glance, there was nothing unusual.
Ye Zhuo: “Light.”
Shen Xin Ge silently ignited a fire charm, and the fire illuminated the scene in front of Ye Zhuo.
He always felt that there were some light and dark characters on the tree trunk, but he couldn’t see them clearly.
Ye Zhuo raised his sword, and the tip of the sword drew along the lines that he thought were unusual, stroke by stroke.
A line of text gradually appeared.
Boshan County, Qingtian West Township.
Zheng Shi Mingzheng.
Without wealth or nobility, little fortune.
Died at the age of seventy-one.
Ye Zhuo sheathed his sword.
This format was like the account books in the legends of the underworld, recording people’s merits and demerits in life and death. It was also like an epitaph erected on a grave after a person’s death.
Boshan County was a mortal county under the jurisdiction of the human world’s dynasty.
Then this “Zheng Mingzheng” brother, who was “seventy-one years old,” was indeed a deceased person.
There were very few fruits of other three colors on the withered tree, only the white ones were the most numerous. Coincidentally, this person was neither rich nor noble in his life, nor was he a blessed person, but he lived to the age of seventy-one, which was considered a long life in the mortal world.
The white fruits just happened to be able to increase people’s lifespan.
——Chan Tui, who had eaten nine white fruits, suddenly vomited while supporting his senior brother.
The senior brother then moved away from him a little without leaving a trace.
All the fellow disciples looked at Chan Tui sympathetically.
In the Dan Ding Sect, it was common to eat bad things and get poisoned.
But eating the lifespan of a dead person was not only unfortunate, but also ominous.
Looking further, under the dark sky, the trees that could not be seen at the end grew like withered bones, and fruits of various colors hung quietly on the branches. It was like a bizarre graveyard between life and death.
What exactly was this place? Could it be that all the dead in the human world, as well as the lifespan and blessings they had before death, existed here in this form?
——They couldn’t help but shudder and gathered around Second Palace Master Ye.
Shen Xin Ge even reached out to grab the corner of Ye Zhuo’s clothes.
But that piece of bright red and beautiful clothing fluttered away just as it was about to be grabbed. Daoist Friend Ye had already walked past the crowd and continued to walk deeper.
Shen Xin Ge pouted and followed aggrievedly.