A seemingly angry Ji Tianqing signaled Qianye secretly. Qianye quickly changed his stance, bowing as he said, “How should I address you, elder? How long have you been here?”
This was a probe. The old man didn’t seem very concerned, however. He continued tr.i.m.m.i.n.g his plants and said, “My surname is Lu, I’ve been here for fifty years.”
Qianye suppressed his shock to continue sounding out the man. “This is the Heavenschild Pasture, is it not?”
The old man nodded. “Of course. Apart from the things in this garden, you can take your pick of anything else you see. Some of them require special harvesting methods, so come to me for things you don’t understand.”
Qianye and the others couldn’t believe that things would go so smoothly because this old man was actually quite unfathomable. After just a glance, Qianye felt as though he were facing Luo Bingfeng. He had long since abandoned any notion of robbing the man by force.
Ji Tianqing’s appearance fluctuation slowed down for a moment.
The old man shot her a glance. “Just how old is that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Ji Wentian? Look at how young you are, yet you’re actually pretending to be his granddaughter?”
Those words sounded casual, but Ji Tianqing had to reply solemnly, “I don’t have a father.”
“What?” The old man was surprised.
“I won’t recognize him, he’s not worthy!” Ji Tianqing clenched her teeth.
The old man broke into a laugh. He said while shaking his head, “Fine, the young have fiery characters. This old man can’t be bothered. But looking at the inheritances you have, he’s even taught you his most well-kept Excavator. Looks like he really does like you.”
JI Tianqing was skeptical. “Is Excavator so awesome? I think it’s just so-so.”
“What do you understand, child? That old b.a.s.t.a.r.d has a whole bunch of secret arts for show, but none of them can match this Excavator in complexity. Just imagine the grandeur of splitting mountains with every move. Perhaps only the Founding Emperor and Martial Ancestor’s peerless arts would be superior. The old man had obtained Excavator back when he was wallowing in romance-related despair, and that allowed him to walk out of his slump and achieve all that he did later on.”
Ji Tianqing’s eyes lit up. “What kind of person could make grandpa fall into despair. Is she beautiful?”
The old man said helplessly, “Child, focus on bettering yourself instead of these useless things.”
Ji Tianqing couldn’t get the answer after a good while of entanglement. “You probably don’t know, either, do you?”
The old man looked embarra.s.sed. “This is a sad story from back then. I was not his match, so how can I ask about something he’s not willing to talk about.”
At this moment, Qianye recalled how he had received the Pointer Monarch’s inheritance back in the Earth Dragon’s lair. Although he didn’t know who this lady was, he was able to sense the ocean-deep pain as though it was his own. He pulled Ji Tianqing back, saying, “Don’t ask anymore, it’s not a happy story.”
Ji Tianqing poked her tongue out, but she ultimately listened to Qianye’s advice.
The old man glanced at Qianye. “Good skills.”
This glance sought to see through him from inside out, but Qianye’s dark golden blood energy and Venus Dawn activated at the same time. They formed a double-barrier, with the Venus Dawn outside and blood energy inside, blocking the old man’s vision.
Qianye had no idea whether the old man’s praise was directed at his cultivation or how he had grabbed Ji Tianqing’s wrist. He was fairly confident about the former, but the latter was something he had never done before.
The old man plucked a red fruit from a medicinal tree and pa.s.sed it to Ji Tianqing. “I’ll give you this out of consideration for that old fellow. Think of it as returning a favor. You can eat it yourself or give it to someone else, you decide.”
Ji Tianqing knew this was a rare treasure, so she received it cautiously and sniffed lightly. “White fruit?”
With a flip of her hand, she produced a white fruit and placed it alongside the red one.
The old man was shocked. “How did you get a holy fruit? This thing isn’t easy to obtain, it only grows in the high-gravity regions… you’ve all been there?”
Ji Tianqing replied honestly, “We just came back.”
The old man’s brows flew upward. “How many times the gravity? Five? Six?”
“Ten.”
The old man frowned. “Childish boasts! How can people like you withstand ten times the gravity? That frigid night isn’t something you can live through, either.”
“We were lucky enough to find some holy fruits as soon as we arrived, and we used them to get through the nights. Afterward, we ran back at top speed.”
The old man asked in greater detail. Then, he said while stroking his beard, “Turns out you came in from the neutral lands. No wonder! The empire did a good job of gaining the initiative. But I think this kid has dragged you two into harm"s way, otherwise, you wouldn’t have fallen that far inside.”
The old man pointed at Qianye.
“Oh?” Ji Tianqing and Li Kuanglan were puzzled.
The old man explained, “Both the Empire and Evernight have explored the neutral-lands tunnel a hundred years ago, each side sending their top experts in. Although none of them reached the Great Maelstrom, they gained a good understanding of the structure and mechanism of the pa.s.sage. If a number of people were to enter in quick succession, they would land close to the first entrant"s location. If I’m not wrong, this young man was probably the one who entered first, followed by the two of you.”
The ladies thought back and found that it was indeed the case.
The old man glanced at Qianye. “His const.i.tution is a bit special and it’s already quite… different from our human race. He might be able to survive in that region, but you two can’t. You were quite decisive, however, and made the right call to escape as quickly as you could. It’s a rare quality to be able to give up on the things there.”
Ji Tianqing and Li Kuanglan’s expressions turned unsightly as they thought of a single possibility. Song Zining probably knew about the tunnel’s characteristics already but had allowed them to land near Qianye. Despite the earlier struggles, the seventh young master’s plan had still succeeded just as they were about to leave the dangerous region.
If one were to think deeper, perhaps Song Zining was already one of Empress Li’s p.a.w.ns back then. Him summoning Ji Tianqing to the neutral lands wasn’t out of goodwill, either.
Exchanging glances, they buried the hatred deep inside their hearts. No girl was different in terms of vengefulness.
The old man pointed at the fruits in Ji Tianqing’s hand, saying, “Back in the year, I traveled to the area with eight times the gravity, but I couldn’t quite stand the frigid night at that point. So, I robbed some of the native lairs and s.n.a.t.c.hed a branch from their tree. I had nothing better to do all these years, so I’ve been studying how to transplant the holy fruit tree. I did produce some results throughout the years, and this fruit has forty percent the effects of the holy fruit.”
Forty percent of a life-extension fruit was already an outstanding number. This meant that the red fruit would have longevity effects as well.
Seeing the trio’s expressions, the old man said, “You guys still don’t know the real advantage of this fruit. Its greatest boon is the ability to grow without the frigid night’s power. Although the process is rather convoluted, I’ve already managed to grow them in this area. From now on, I can produce two longevity-medicines every couple of years.”
Qianye felt that this benefit wasn’t all that impressive. Ji Tianqing seemed to share the same opinion. “There are so many fruits where the natives live. We just need to rob whenever we want more.”
The old man laughed. “Rob? You guys were just lucky.”
“Are we wrong? The natives might be troublesome, but it’s not hard to deal with them.”
The old man replied with a question, “You must’ve met the four-armed people?”
“We’ve met both four-armed men and women.”
The old man nodded. “What do you think about them?”
Ji Tianqing replied, “Nothing to write home about. The female’s white mist was rather disgusting, but there’s nothing so special about them. With enough time and s.p.a.ce, it won’t be a problem for me to deal with five or six of them.”
“Six, not sixty, it seems you think highly of them.” The old man turned to Qianye. “How about you?”
Qianye replied after some thought, “I should be able to handle one more.”
The old man laughed. “Just one more? Not bad, you know how to be humble at such a young age. It seems there’s a reason the Song clan thinks highly of you.”
These words were quite baffling. Qianye and Song Zining were indeed good friends, but he had never received much from the Song clan itself.”
The old man had no intention of explaining. “It’s already hard enough to deal with a handful of them, what will you do if fifty of them appear at the same time?"
There was no need to reply to this question. They would either have to run or fight to the death. They would have some hope at a battle if the three of them were to work together.
The old man didn’t wait for a reply. “What will you do if you encounter a six-armed general?”
“Six-armed general?” The three were startled. The four-armed people were already so difficult—how strong would a six-armed one be?
The old man continued, “It’s fine if you were there to s.n.a.t.c.h a couple of holy fruits, but the six-armed generals might be alerted if you had robbed them repeatedly or s.n.a.t.c.hed their tree. As for how powerful they are, heh, there’s no need to explain. Just look.”
The old man opened his clothes to reveal a sinister-looking scar on his chest. “This is the price I had to pay for robbing a branch. Back then, I couldn’t even last five minutes against the six-armed general.”
Ji Tianqing couldn’t help but gasp as she looked at the tortuous scar, which stretched from the shoulders to below the chest. If the slash had been any more ruthless, it might’ve slashed half of his body open.
The old man wore his clothes back. “You would’ve probably encountered a six-armed general if you hadn’t escaped when you did.”
The three felt a bit scared after thinking back to the possibility.
…
At this moment, at the high-gravity region. A row of ancient trees had collapsed through the forest, opening a forward path with great speed and momentum.
Anwen was running for dear life with Bai Kongzhao in tow, never looking back once.