The Journey of Immortal Cultivation-Chapter 724 - 404: The Dragon Elephant Fruit Ripens
The elder laughed disdainfully and said, "With your dim-witted understanding, you probably still don’t know where you slipped up? This is the Hidden Stream Immortal Plant Garden; every inch of soil is under the inspection of Divine Sense by Lin Wei and the Flower Guards. Not to mention you stole a seed, even if it were a grain of dust, they would be able to discover it!"
His gaze flickered briefly, but his cultivation was rather decent, and his heartbeat and breathing did not become erratic. He spoke loudly, "Since you said I stole a seed, then where is this seed? Go on, search for it!"
As soon as these words were uttered, Elder He immediately shook his head, while the elder he was facing looked at him with an expression that had almost turned to pity: "Do you really think your actions went unnoticed? You didn’t personally take the seed of the Five-Colored Tang. Instead, you released the Gu Worm you’ve been raising, which crawled onto the branches and swallowed the seed whole." He spoke word by word as the person’s face turned pale, "That Gu Worm is now burrowed three feet under the soil beneath your feet. Is there any part of what I said that’s incorrect?"
The bound man immediately fell silent. The elder said grimly, "The seed of the Five-Colored Tang is extremely tiny, which is why you dared to do such a thing. It seems Tianya Sea Pavilion had premeditated this. From now on, Hidden Stream will sever all ties with Tianya Sea Pavilion, and the herbs provided annually will no longer be supplied starting today."
The man trembled all over and suddenly exclaimed in alarm, "This was my own idea, it has nothing to do with the sect, please don’t..." He was in the midst of begging for mercy when suddenly, a tiny caterpillar burrowed out of the soil two zhang (around seven meters) away. Normally, the appearance of a few small bugs in a place rich with vegetation was nothing unusual. The caterpillar crawled out of the soil and even shook off the mud on its body before slowly moving forward.
But it had only crawled a few feet when the plant in front of it suddenly bent over, and a green leaf unfurled. From Ning Xiaoxian’s angle, she could clearly see that the leaf was filled with dense, sharp needles, resembling the gaping maw of the Monroe Giant Crocodile. It made the half-human-tall plant look suddenly filled with a ferocious aura. This was probably the Flower Guard the elder had spoken of.
The leaf drooped, wrapping around the small caterpillar.
The bound person suddenly let out a scream, spitting out blood violently and then collapsing to the ground. A demon child tending the plants came over, peeled back the green leaf, and then everyone saw that the insect inside had been pierced through with holes and had evidently died. The caterpillar was the man from Tianya Sea Pavilion’s raised Gu Worm. Once killed, the owner would suffer severe backlash.
The elder huffed lowly and had the demon child extract the seed of the Five-Colored Tang, which was even smaller than a sesame seed, from the dead worm’s body, and then he signaled Lin Wei to escort the man out. After all, with all the foreign guests present, it was not very appropriate to deal with him in front of them. Elder He laughed heartily and started a new conversation to smoothly transition from the incident as the atmosphere between the host and guests quickly returned to harmony.
However, Lin Wei eventually chopped off all four limbs of the unlucky fellow, applied Life-cutting Powder, and then threw him outside the Bashe Forest before finally sending a message to Tianya Sea Pavilion to claim their human stick. To treat a guest like this without any explanation, not giving any face and directly turning them into a stick and throwing them back to their original sect - other than the notoriously domineering Hidden Stream, no other sect would do so.
Life-cutting Powder is a very malicious medicine; upon application, it inhibits the healing of wounds and intensifies the sufferer’s pain. This Miracle is said to be a byproduct of a failed Alchemy attempt, but since cultivators’ bodies heal very quickly, the substance later became widely used in torture.
Seeing the fate of this man, Changtian then asked Ning Xiaoxian, "Are you still thinking about stealing the Blood Parasol tree?"
She pursed her lips and said nothing. The theft of a simple Five-Colored Tang seed resulted in such brutal consequences; her goal was far greater, the unique Blood Parasol tree in this or even the entire western region. Should she fail, the outcome would undoubtedly be too dreadful to contemplate.
Barriers cannot block the heat of the sunlight. In just this short time, noon arrived.
Elder He laughed and said to everyone, "It’s time. The first batch of Dragon Elephant Fruits are about to ripen. Please join me in bearing witness." He activated his Divine Skills, and his deep voice echoed throughout the valley.
The Dragon Elephant Fruit Tree was planted in a greenhouse in another valley hollow. When they arrived, dozens of Pill Masters had already gathered there, ready to witness this rare tree bear fruit for the first time in thousands of years. Elder He introduced to the guests that these Pill Masters all belonged to the Hidden Stream Immortal Plant Garden, and among them, Ning Xiaoxian also spotted the Crane Demon who managed the pharmacy — the same demon who prepared medication for the Immortal Bandits.
