Stranger Danger-Chapter 1788: All For Nothing

Maybe it understood Ye Qing’s words, or maybe it felt that it would die if it pushed any further. In any case, the peach tree abruptly withdrew all of its energies and lowered its branches and leaves in submission. For a moment, it was the model example of obedience.

Am I... abandoned?

The immortal peach hanging on the branch was visibly astonished. Judging from its widened eyes, it obviously wasn’t expecting the peach tree to abandon it.

The next second, the immortal peach started wobbling left and right. Its expression was full of fury, and spittle flew everywhere like the rain as its mouth opened and closed repeatedly. Although Ye Qing couldn’t hear what it was saying, the immortal seemed to be screaming at the peach tree like a grudge-filled wife who had just been abandoned by her heartless husband.

Seemingly knowing that it was in the wrong, the peach tree did not move a wood and just let the immortal peach yell at it to its heart’s content.

“Heh...”

Ye Qing shook his head and put the family drama out of his mind. He raised his finger and tapped the branch a third time.

The next moment, the immortal peach fell out of the branch. At the same time, its facial features vanished as if it suddenly lost all sapience.

However, right before the immortal peach would land on Ye Qing’s palm, it abruptly grew a pair of wings, circled away from Ye Qing, and slipped into the underground, disappearing.

“Do you really think you can escape?”

Ye Qing chuckled as if he predicted this would happen. He didn’t move.

It was at this moment clouds suddenly rose out of the ground like smoke.

A few moments later, the misty air gathered, and an immortal peach was forcefully ejected from the underground. It landed snugly in Feng Qingyou’s hand.

“As expected of the mythical immortal peach. It truly is extraordinary,” Feng Qingyou remarked with a smile as the immortal peach struggled to break free from the Supreme Primal Origin Celebratory Cloud to no avail.

The immortal peach could command the Five Phases. Specifically, it disappeared when it made contact with metal, became hidden when it made contact with wood, sank when it made contact with water, melted when it made contact with fire, and slipped away when it made contact with earth. To put it simply, it knew the Five Phases Escape Arts.

This was why no power belonging to the Five Phases could entrap it.

Alas, Feng Qingyou’s Supreme Primal Origin Celebratory Cloud represented the first beginning and the ultimate end. It too did not belong among the Five Phases. That was why it could easily restrain the immortal peach.

“I know right? I almost fell for its tricks earlier.”

Ye Qing was referring to the deadly threats he faced earlier, not the fact that the immortal peach tried to run away. No, he knew from the beginning that the immortal peach might try to pull something like this and told Feng Qingyou to prepare accordingly. Naturally, there was never any hope for the immortal peach to escape.

“I gotta say though, is it just me, or does this immortal peach... feel off to you?” Ye Qing examined the immortal peach with a doubtful look.

Feng Qingyou nodded. “It is rather evil so to speak.”

“Well, let’s ask Elder Furnace about it.”

Ye Qing waved his hand and summoned Elder Furnace. “Tell me your thoughts, Elder Furnace.”

Before he made his way to the peach tree, he had stuffed Elder Furnace back into the Earthly Sovereign Bell just in case the old fart decided to try something. Of course, the remnant spirit could still see what was happening.

Elder Furnace examined the immortal peach closely after he appeared. His beard twitched from time to time, and his brow was deeply furrowed as he mumbled to himself, “It’s definitely the immortal peach, but... wrong... wrong... not quite...”

“Wrong? Not quite?” Ye Qing prodded.

Elder Furnace took a moment to compose his words. “This is definitely the immortal peach, but an immortal peach is born from the essence of the world and created from the air of spirituality of the Great Way. It is supposed to possess extraordinary spirituality, great energies, profound Dao, and clear qi indefinitely. It is also supposed to lose all sentience after it detaches from the peach tree, leaving behind only pure air of spirituality of the Great Way.”

“While this immortal peach definitely contains the essence of the world and the air of spirituality of the Great Way—in fact, it’s greater than any immortal peach I’ve seen in the past—but its air of spirituality of the Great Way is rather impure. It seems to be mixed with... the qi of true demon, the power of absolute evil, the power of final death and other powers of utmost taint and corruption.”

“Also, as I mentioned before, the immortal peach is supposed to lose all sentience after it detaches from the peach tree, but that is clearly not the case.”

While Elder Furnace was explaining, the immortal peach never stopped trying to rip and tear the Supreme Primal Origin Celebratory Cloud trapping it with its sharp teeth. Its energies were a mix of spirit and demonic, violent and strange.

“Strange. How strange. How very strange!”

The fact that Elder Furnace repeated the word three times showed just how puzzled he was.

Ye Qing nodded in agreement. He was of the same opinion as Elder Furnace.

Feng Qingyou pondered for a moment before guessing, “It’s possible that this immortal peach was born after the ancient Divine Court was destroyed. As a result of that destruction, the air of spirituality and the worldly energies permeating the Hundred Grass Shennong Heaven became impure and mixed with all other unsavory energies. That is why this immortal peach came to be so strange.”

Ye Qing nodded again, though the origin of the immortal peach wasn’t his main focus. It was whether the immortal peach could be eaten or not.

“Say, do you think this immortal peach is edible?”

Feng Qingyou and Elder Furnace fell silent. A few moments later, Elder Furnace finally spoke up, “I don’t know. Now that this thing is filled with all sorts of random air of spirituality and no longer pure, heavens only know what would happen if you eat it. If you ask me, it’s best to be careful and not eat it at all.”

Ye Qing wanted to palm his face. “So, you’re saying that I went through all that for nothing?”

Elder Furnace chose to stay silent. Feng Qingyou said, “That’s not true.Although this immortal peach is impure, it is a fact that the air of spirituality of the Great Way and worldly energies it contains are one-of-a-kind. If employed properly, it should increase your strength considerably.”

“Elder Furnace is right though. For safety purposes, it is best that you don’t eat it until we figured out what to do with it later.”

“Vey well.” Ye Qing nodded. There was no other viable option anyway.

Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou left after they took their leave. They did not try to uproot the peach tree. After all, the tree’s fruit only matured once per nine thousand years. By the time the next immortal peach was ready for consumption, they would probably be long, long, long dead. What was the point of taking it with them then?

Besides, they learned from taking the Five Phases Celestial Vine that uprooting a divine herb from the Hundred Grass Shennong Heaven would cause the world itself to reject them. If they uprooted the peach tree, it was possible that the rejection would become worse. This would definitely impact their chances of harvesting the rest of the divine herbs, and it just wasn’t worth it.

Alas, dreams were beautiful, but reality was cruel. The next few divine herbs they visited bore no fruit whatsoever. The divine herb was either long dead due to depletion of energies, corrupted into Strangers and demonic herbs that were impossible to eat, or stolen by another person.

“The Nine Tribulations Undying Grass is the last one left. Should we check it out?” Elder Furnace asked.

They had gotten nothing since the immortal peach.

“We’ve already spent all this time and effort. We might as well see it through to the end!” Ye Qing declared.

However, the group had just resumed their journey when suddenly, they saw lightning and fire descending from the sky. The lightning and fire transformed into all sorts of gods, demons, celestials and Buddhas after hitting the ground. It was quite terrifying.

“The Lightning Fire Celestial Demon Tribulation? Why is there a heavenly tribulation here?” Ye Qing frowned while staring at the distant phenomenon.

Elder Furnace said in a hurry, “That’s where the Nine Tribulations Undying Grass is! I think someone is trying to harvest it!”

“Let’s go...”

Ye Qing’s silhouette blurred. The next moment, he appeared where the tribulation was occurring in the blink of an eye.

Right now, three people were fighting a great battle where the tribulation was taking place. More accurately, two people were attacking a dragon.

That’s right. Two people were attacking a dragon.

The dragon was none other than the Southern Sea Dragon King.

The other two Sages attacking him were unfamiliar to Ye Qing, but he recognized them as Ascended.

The reason the duo were attacking the Southern Sea Dragon King was because he was clutching a grass with golden yellow branches and silver leaves engraved with spiritual patterns of the Heavenly Way.

There was no doubt about it. It was the legendary Nine Tribulations Undying Grass.