Qiuqiu’s cultivation and true form were both locked away upon being sealed in the silver bracelet. In order to break through this barrier, both its own cultivation and its mistress’ cultivation had to advance.

When she first entered Kongming Academy, Yun Ruoyan had obtained a sage-grade spiritual herb, the amaranthine sun. With the herb, Qiuqiu had amassed sufficient spiritual energy to break through, but it would require Yun Ruoyan to break through before it could do so as well.

As a result, this breakthrough would be critical to both Yun Ruoyan and Qiuqiu.

Li Mo took the heavenly spirit fruit from Yun Ruoyan’s hands, then palmed her spiritsteel dagger from her thigh. He cut the heavenly spirit fruit in two, revealing a multicolored core and causing a clean, cool fragrance to permeate the air—the same scent that the heavenly spirit tree had released upon the maturity of the two spirit fruits.

“Here, Yan’er, consume this.” Li Mo handed Yun Ruoyan the core.

The core melted on her tongue, transforming into a warm current that spread throughout her entire body through her mouth, leaving behind a sweet fragrance. Yun Ruoyan’s body relaxed fully, as though all her weariness had welled up and was now lulling her to sleep.

“Yan’er, close your eyes and cultivate,” Li Mo immediately reminded, seeing Yun Ruoyan’s soporific gaze.

Li Mo’s words immediately cleared her mind, and she did as instructed. A large quantity of fire-attuned spiritual energy was generated from her body, a windfall from the heavenly spirit fruit. Without wasting even a single drop, she gathered it all and sectioned it off in her spiritual vortex. She repeated the process, over and over, but no matter how much energy she gathered, there was always more waiting for her.

After two days, Yun Ruoyan discovered that her spiritual vortex was no longer able to store any more fire-attuned spiritual energy; if she continued what she was doing, it was likely that she would distend her spiritual vortex.

Just as she was about to stop cultivating, Li Mo’s voice rang out from her mind. “Don’t worry, Yan’er. I’ll impart you a cultivation technique that will allow you to condense your spiritual energy and greatly enhance how much you can store in your spiritual vortex.”

He imparted the technique, and Yun Ruoyan began applying it immediately. Two days later, Yun Ruoyan had managed to condense her spiritual energy twofold, freeing up half the space in her spiritual vortex. By then, her body had become engorged with the fire-attuned energy that the heavenly spirit fruit ceaselessly provided, and Yun Ruoyan returned to her regular cultivation once more.

For ten whole days, Yun Ruoyan cultivated ceaselessly, until the stored energy in the heavenly spirit fruit seemed finally to be exhausted, propelling her all the way from a peak seventh-rank blademaster to an eighth-rank one. [1]

“Mistress, you’ve finally broken through!” Qiuqiu shouted exuberantly.

“Li Mo…” Yun Ruoyan opened her eyes and glanced at Li Mo with unbridled joy and excitement. “I’ve broken through!”

“In that case, shall I start preparing for our wedding?” Li Mo smiled at her.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the gigantic forest, relatively far from Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo’s abode, Zhuo Yifeng had lost his way…

Zhuo Yifeng had been heading back to meet up with Guan Ruliu after claiming his spoils by the heavenly spirit tree. Just before dawn, however, a pervasive fog began spreading through the forest, and Zhuo Yifeng found himself progressing further and further away from the treehouse.

After realizing that he had gotten lost, Zhuo Yifeng immediately took out his teleportation scroll, hoping to return directly to the treehouse. However, the moment he did so, a wild monkey jumped out of nowhere and snatched the scroll away.

“You beast! Return that scroll to me!” Zhuo Yifeng hurriedly chased after it. However, the wild monkey adroitly lost Zhuo Yifeng amidst the fog. During the chase, Zhuo Yifeng had only gotten more and more lost. After an interminable period of time, when the fog finally lifted, it was dark once more.

Zhuo Yifeng had only foraged a few wild berries and fruits to eat during the day, and his stomach was growling. He had encountered a few wild beasts on the way back, but he didn’t want to be burdened with a beast’s heavy carcass given the spoils that he was already carrying with him. While there were a few smaller, more agile beasts, they moved so quickly and were so skilled at concealing themselves that even Zhuo Yifeng’s archery was no help against them.

Instead, Zhuo Yifeng used the tools he carried everywhere with him to make a little trap filled with fresh fruit. Then, he lay down to rest on a tree bough nearby.

At midnight, Zhuo Yifeng heard a loud noise from the trap, finding a round and chubby little beast trussed up amidst his trap. Zhuo Yifeng leaped to the ground and caught the creature, ready to slit its throat.

Just then, the small creature suddenly opened its mouth and yelled out, “Please, spare me! Don’t kill me!”

Zhuo Yifeng’s hand stilled. “You can speak?”

He was surprised, but not entirely shocked. The Chenyuan continent was rife with stories and tales about creatures who, upon reaching a certain domain of cultivation, were able to take on a human form and speak. However, this was the first time he had ever seen its like.

“I—I’m just a fleeing groundrat, with barely any cultivation at all!”

Zhuo Yifeng peered carefully at the small, rat-like creature in his hands—round and chubby, with sharp incisors and round eyes.

“You’re some type of wild spirit, aren’t you? Surely you can’t be up to any good. Now that you’ve landed in my hands, you’ll simply be a sumptuous meal for me!”

Zhuo Yifeng’s previous run-in with the wild vine spirit had left him with prejudice against spirits in general. As he spoke, he lifted his dagger once more.

“Don’t kill me, don’t!” the fleeing groundrat screamed, recoiling. “I’ll give you a treasure, alright? Won’t you spare my life?”

The dagger stopped short of his neck once more.

“Oh? What treasure?” Zhuo Yifeng paused, his face turning vicious. “If you dare lie to me…”

“No, no, I wouldn’t dare! It’s a heavenly spirit fruit, the best treasure that this forest has to offer!”

“A heavenly spirit fruit?” Zhuo Yifeng had never heard of the name. Rather than shock and excitement, he simply displayed mild confusion.

“You didn’t enter this forest for the heavenly spirit fruit?” The groundrat appeared very surprised, but quickly nodded its head. “No wonder. The heavenly spirit tree bears fruit only once every few centuries.”

The groundrat then told Zhuo Yifeng all about the miraculous properties of the heavenly spirit fruit. “No matter how low or high your current cultivation, consuming the heavenly spirit fruit will surely boost it.”

Zhuo Yifeng was clearly getting tempted. He was a seventh-rank blademaster, and progressing to eighth-rank wouldn’t be an easy task. He had heard that those who didn’t make it to eighth-rank even after the yearlong training would be forced to consume a spiritual pill that would raise one’s cultivation. However, Yun Ruoyan had secretly told him that that spiritual pill had very severe aftereffects, and would likely prevent his cultivation from rising at all in the future.

“Does this heavenly spirit fruit possess any side effects?”

“No, absolutely not!”

It spoke of the fruit’s miraculous properties at length, and even mentioned that Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan had taken the other fruit.

“The heavenly spirit tree only bore two fruits after a few centuries. One of them, I stole; the other, a male and female cultivator took.”

Zhuo Yifeng was initially suspicious of the groundrat’s words, but the male and female cultivator that the groundrat had described sounded so much like Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan that he couldn’t help thinking that he had really stumbled upon a treasure—how lucky he was!

“So, where’s this fruit?” Zhuo Yifeng picked the groundrat up and scrutinized it carefully, but he couldn’t find anything hidden on its body.

“As long as you don’t kill me, I’ll hand it over!”

Although the heavenly spirit fruit was certainly valuable, the groundrat prized its life above all.

“Alright, I won’t kill you. Where’s the fruit?”

The groundrat opened its mouth wide, wider than he could have imagined possible. As its round belly began to rise, its mouth filled with multicolored light, and it spat out the fist-sized fruit from its belly.

“This is the heavenly spirit fruit?” Zhuo Yifeng glanced at the fruit on the ground, glowing softly with lights of all colors. Its exterior was surprisingly firm: even after the groundrat had swallowed it, it showed no signs of being digested. How was he to consume it?

“Do you have a sharp dagger?” the groundrat asked.

1. I thought they were supposed to return to the treehouse after a week…