Before Lin Fan could even draw up a detailed syllabus for his "Moral and Ideological Reform Plan," the very thing he feared most, the thing he wished against ten thousand times a day, came crashing down in the most direct and brutal way possible.
It was a beautiful, sunny day with clear skies for thousands of miles—a typical, perfect day for staying at home and cultivating one's character.
On Lesser Peak, everything seemed tranquil and harmonious.
Lin Fan was half-reclined on a rocking chair in front of his cottage, leisurely basking in the sun. He held a cup of ordinary tea, brewed with ordinary mountain spring water. The fragrant steam curled upwards, immersing him in a state of "stealing half a day of idle leisure." To him, this was the true meaning of cultivation—not fighting and killing, but enjoying every peaceful moment of life. To ensure this peace was not disturbed, he had specifically set up over a hundred layers of arrays within a hundred-yard radius around him, designed to block spiritual sense probes and sound transmission.
Not far away in the courtyard, Yue Qingqian was cultivating diligently.
Her figure was like a weightless willow catkin, flitting about unpredictably within a small space. At one moment, she would turn into a wisp of green smoke; the next, she would condense into a fleeting afterimage, her execution of the "Willow Catkin Movement Technique" becoming increasingly masterful. At the same time, she was multitasking; with the "Turtle Breath Art" circulating within her, her aura was perfectly restrained. She seemed to have merged with her surroundings, and one could hardly notice her presence without looking carefully with the naked eye.
She had become a firm believer in the two "ultimate arts" her senior brother had taught her. Over the past month, she had discovered that not only were these techniques practical, but practicing them also allowed her to gain finer, more nuanced control over her "Innate Sword Heart." She felt that her senior brother was like an endless treasure trove that she could never fully excavate.
The years were quiet and the world was stable.
Lin Fan was so comfortable he was about to fall asleep. A thought even crossed his mind: "If life could always be like this, it wouldn't seem so bad even if my cultivation never advances."
However, the Heavenly Dao always seemed to enjoy playing jokes on honest people.
Just as Lin Fan's sense of security reached its peak, a high-pitched, sharp, and furious bird cry, like a sharp sword, pierced the tranquility of the skies above the Sky Profound Sect.
Immediately after, a dazzling stream of azure light, like a startled comet, shot out from the direction of Sky Profound Peak—the core main peak of the sect, which had the densest spiritual energy and the most formidable defenses—at an incredible speed.
In pursuit of the azure light was a giant bird with a wingspan of over a hundred yards, its entire body ablaze with golden flames. It was one of the Sky Profound Sect's guardian beasts, the noble-blooded "Blazing Sun Golden Peng," whose strength was comparable to a late-stage Golden Core cultivator!
This scene of pursuit and escape immediately alerted countless disciples and elders within the sect.
"Heavens! What is that? How dare it steal treasures from Sky Profound Peak!"
"Even the Blazing Sun Golden Peng has been mobilized. Could it be that the 'Sacred Heart Fruit,' which ripens only once every thousand years in the main peak's herb garden, has been stolen?"
"Look! That thief is about to escape the sect's protective array!"
Amidst the crowd's exclamations, the azure light displayed astonishing agility. It carved a bizarre arc through the air, narrowly dodging several intercepting spells shot from various peaks. Instead of fleeing outside the sect, it made a sharp turn and headed straight for the most remote, inconspicuous, and almost forgotten corner of the sect's territory—the direction of Lesser Peak.
Inside Lin Fan's cottage, his comfortably half-closed eyes snapped wide open!
In that instant, there was no longer any trace of laziness in his eyes, replaced by a bone-deep shock and horror. An extremely ominous premonition, like ten-thousand-year-old ice, instantly froze his heart.
"Not good! The old man Heavenly Dao is up to his tricks again!"
His figure flashed, not even having time to put away the rocking chair, and he appeared in the courtyard like a ghost, abruptly looking up at the sky.
He saw that as the azure light neared the airspace above Lesser Peak, its speed suddenly dropped, perhaps due to depleted spiritual energy or panic. The pursuing Blazing Sun Golden Peng seized this fleeting opportunity, let out a furious cry, and a giant claw engulfed in golden flames slammed down, blotting out the sky!
"Chirp!"
The azure light seemed to emit a strange, aggrieved cry. Struck by the force of the giant claw, it lost its balance, changed direction, and like a fallen meteor trailing a long tail of azure light, it aimed unerringly and precisely for the herb garden on Lesser Peak that Lin Fan had just meticulously tilled.
Boom!
A earth-shattering muffled sound echoed.
Lin Fan's carefully tended herb garden, filled with all sorts of common herbs, was instantly smashed, creating a giant crater over three yards in diameter. Countless precious (in Lin Fan's view) clumps of dirt were sent flying.
The Blazing Sun Golden Peng circled in the air, its golden eyes filled with apprehension. It could sense that although the spiritual energy on the inconspicuous small peak below was thin, it was covered layer upon layer with terrifying arrays that made even it feel a sense of dread. After some hesitation, it seemed to receive some kind of command. It let out one last unwilling cry towards the crater and flew back towards the main peak.
All of this happened in the blink of an eye.
Yue Qingqian hadn't even had time to fully exit her cultivation state. She stood there dumbfounded, looking at the half-destroyed, smoking herb garden, and at the source of the intoxicating fragrance and dazzling azure light emanating from the deep crater. Her small mouth was slightly agape, and she was speechless for a long time.
"S-Senior Brother, wh-what is that thing?" she stammered.
Lin Fan's face had already turned as dark as the sky before a thunderstorm.
He didn't answer. Instead, with a nearly hysterical speed, his hands moving so fast they were a blur, he frantically formed hand seals. One after another, new, more complex array disks were thrown out as if they were free.
On top of the more than three hundred existing basic arrays on Lesser Peak, a hundred layers of the "Heaven-Locking Array" specifically for isolating aura, and another hundred layers of the "Mind-Bewildering Array" for defending against spiritual sense probes were instantly added. In a flash, the entire peak's presence was completely locked down, as if it had been forcefully erased from the world.
After doing all this, he dashed to the edge of the crater, his teeth clenched, and finally saw the true form of the "culprit."
It was a strange fruit, about the size of a fist. Its entire body was a perfect,green color, crystal clear, as if it were not a thing of the mortal world but a work of art meticulously carved from a single piece of immortal jade. On the surface of the fruit, nine exquisite orifices had formed naturally. At this moment, they were opening and closing like a living thing, continuously inhaling and exhaling a massive amount of pure worldly spiritual energy, transforming it into that strange fragrance that could make one's soul intoxicated and ecstatic just by smelling it.
Yue Qingqian also cautiously approached. When she saw the fruit and smelled the fragrance that made the spiritual energy in her own body start to cheer, she covered her mouth in excitement, her beautiful eyes filled with shock and ecstatic disbelief.
Although she was new to the sect, she had seen records of such a celestial treasure in the ancient texts in the library pavilion.
"Heavens!" she let out a dream-like gasp. "Jade green body, nine natural orifices, breathing spiritual energy, an extraordinary fragrance that lingers... C-could this be the legendary Heaven-rank Spiritual Root Treasure recorded in the ancient texts, the one that takes three thousand years to bloom, three thousand years to bear fruit, and another three thousand years to mature... the legendary 'Nine-Orifice Exquisite Fruit'?!"