Chapter 560

The battle in the valley erupted swiftly and ended just as fast.

A lightning-like figure darted through the valley at blinding speed.

Wherever it passed, a spirit beast or a fiend beast was inevitably sliced into pieces, falling dead on the spot.

Before long, all the spirit beasts and fiend beasts drawn by the medicinal fragrance of the Dragonblood Vermilion Fruit had been slaughtered by Xiaoli.

She didn’t even need Wuxing’s assistance.

The entire valley was littered with severed limbs and pools of blood. Corpses of spirit beasts and fiend beasts lay everywhere.

At that moment, Lu Qing had arrived at the Dragonblood Vermilion Fruit tree.

He used his magic power to pluck the fully ripened fruit, placed it in a jade box, and stored it inside his Heaven and Earth One Qi Bag.

Lu Qing wasn’t surprised by Xiaoli’s one-sided massacre.

Though there were many spirit and fiend beasts lured by the Dragonblood Vermilion Fruit’s scent—seven or eight of them even at the Golden Core stage—the most powerful among them had only reached the middle-tier Golden Core Third Transformation.

But Xiaoli had already broken through to the Golden Core Second Transformation.

What she had condensed was a flawless Superior Golden Core.

On top of that, she possessed multiple innate Bloodline Abilities and years of life-and-death combat experience alongside him.

With such a fearsome foundation, how could these beasts—who had never left the wild and at best condensed a mid-tier demon core—stand a chance?

He had Wuxing on alert merely as a precaution, just in case Xiaoli needed backup.

But he never truly believed she would lose.

Indeed, when Xiaoli erupted into action, not even the seven or eight Golden Core beasts could withstand a single exchange.

They had no way to resist her blistering speed and those razor-sharp, unyielding claws.

“Ah Qing, come take a look!”

Just as Lu Qing stowed away the Dragonblood Vermilion Fruit, he heard Xiaoli call out.

“What is it?” Lu Qing landed at the bottom of the valley.

“Look, this valley is absorbing their blood!” Xiaoli pointed at the ground.

Lu Qing looked down, and his eyes instantly sharpened.

The blood of the spirit and fiend beasts Xiaoli had just slain was not pooling as expected.

Instead, it was slowly seeping into the earth and vanishing.

Even the blood that had splashed onto the rocks was disappearing bit by bit.

This clearly abnormal scene immediately caught Lu Qing’s attention.

He extended his Spiritual Sense to carefully investigate.

Before long, a trace of surprise appeared on his face.

“This blood… is being absorbed by the Dragonblood Vermilion Fruit tree?”

After sensing it fully, Lu Qing discovered that although the tree appeared unremarkable above ground, its roots had long spread beneath the entire valley.

The blood soaking into the earth was swiftly absorbed by its vast root system and funneled into the trunk.

Staring up at the Dragonblood Vermilion Fruit tree clinging to the cliffside, Lu Qing noticed it looked more vibrant than before. A flicker of insight flashed in his mind.

“So that’s it. That medicinal fragrance earlier… must have been deliberately released by the Dragonblood Vermilion Fruit tree.

Its purpose was to lure nearby spirit and fiend beasts, forcing them to fight one another.

And then it would seize the chance to absorb their bloodline essence and promote its own growth.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s something in that scent that disturbs the minds of weaker-willed beasts.”

He recalled how those beasts had charged Xiaoli without fear—even though she clearly outclassed them—and found it deeply suspicious.

Now, with the tree’s blood-absorbing roots exposed, the truth was clear.

“Indeed, there are no such things as free gifts in this world.

These beasts thought they’d found a great opportunity when they smelled the Dragonblood Vermilion Fruit’s aroma.

In truth, they were nothing more than prey in a trap laid by the tree.

The fruit was the bait.

The real goal was to devour their flesh and blood to nourish itself.”

Having pieced everything together, Lu Qing couldn’t help but marvel.

The world was vast and full of strange wonders.

The Dragonblood Vermilion Fruit tree hadn’t even developed sentience, yet it could, by instinct alone, manipulate so many powerful beasts into killing each other.

Even Xiaoli, who had just slaughtered so fiercely, was likely affected by the fruit’s scent.

Fortunately, his Dao Heart was firm, and his cultivation deep—strong enough that the scent couldn’t shake his will.

Otherwise, who knew whether even he might have lost his reason.

“If it had been an ordinary Golden Core cultivator who came across this fruit, they might’ve been thoroughly bewitched.

Without sufficient strength, even fortune can turn to disaster.”

A sense of realization rose in Lu Qing’s heart.

He immediately shared his findings with Xiaoli and Wuxing, leaving them both shocked.

Wuxing, as his soul-enslaved spirit beast, was naturally immune to such mere medicinal influence.

But Xiaoli was a little indignant—she had actually been tricked by a mere spirit herb?

“Ah Qing, this fruit tree is so sneaky. Why don’t we just destroy it?” Xiaoli huffed angrily.

The Dragonblood Vermilion Fruit tree, clinging to the cliff, seemed to shudder faintly as if it understood her.

“There’s no need for that,” Lu Qing said with a chuckle. “It was only acting on instinct.

Besides, we’ve already benefited by taking the fruit.

This spirit fruit will be of great use to both you and Wuxing.

Now that we’ve profited, there’s no need to burn bridges.”

Xiaoli pondered his words and nodded in agreement.

“Alright, we’ll let it off this time.”

After all, she hadn’t really suffered a loss—and they’d even gotten a high-grade fruit. If anything, they’d come out ahead.

“But even if I spare the tree, these beast corpses are my spoils of war. I’m not giving them to it!”

With that, Xiaoli turned into a streak of light and began zipping through the valley.

Soon, all the corpses of the spirit and fiend beasts—aside from the low-grade ones she didn’t care for—had been swept into the storage ring Lu Qing had given her.

“Hmph! That smelly snake likes refining blood food anyway. I’d rather feed them to him than let that tree have them!” Xiaoli said indignantly.

“You really…” Lu Qing shook his head with a wry smile.

But he didn’t object.

After all, those corpses were indeed Xiaoli’s trophies. She had every right to deal with them as she pleased.

And the bodies of Golden Core beasts weren’t without value.

“Alright, we’ve got the spirit fruit. Let’s go.”

Lu Qing retrieved the jade talismans he’d set up in the valley and left with Xiaoli and Wuxing.

“Ah Qing, if this mountain range can produce spirit fruits of such high grade, why don’t we explore a bit more? Maybe we’ll find other treasures!” Xiaoli suggested, her eyes gleaming.

Lu Qing thought for a moment and then nodded. “Why not? We’re not in a hurry.”

“If we can find a few more top-grade spirit fruits, we’ll strike it rich!

Hey, smelly snake, stay away from me! You want blood food? That depends on whether you’ve been good lately…”

As their voices faded into the distance, the valley returned to silence.

Only scattered beast corpses remained, and the Dragonblood Vermilion Fruit tree swayed gently in the mountain breeze.

…

Boom!

A thunderous crash echoed from deep within a dark cavern, followed by several panic-stricken figures scrambling out from its depths.

Hot on their heels, a blast of black sword qi shot out from the cave.

It barely missed them, crashing into the rock wall ahead and collapsing it in an avalanche of stone.

Massive boulders rained down, completely sealing off the tunnel behind them.

“I’ll handle this!”

One of the fleeing group, a young man in purple robes, gritted his teeth and retrieved a talisman from his Storage Pouch, hurling it forward.

In the next instant, a thick bolt of lightning shot out, blasting apart the rubble blocking their path.

“Run!”

He then pulled out another handful of talismans—high-grade and low-grade alike—and tossed them blindly behind him.

With that, he led the others in a desperate sprint forward.

They had barely gotten a few dozen meters ahead when a series of deafening explosions erupted behind them.

The talismans he had thrown had all detonated at once, triggered by his Spiritual Sense.

The immense force of the blasts caused the entire tunnel to collapse.

Even the section ahead of them began to tremble.

“Move it!”

Seeing this, everyone pushed their movement techniques to the limit, narrowly escaping the cave just before it came crashing down behind them.

No sooner had they emerged into daylight than another rumble echoed from within—the entire cave had caved in.

The young man in purple robes narrowed his eyes at the sight.

He quickly pulled out several more talismans from his pouch.

Infusing them with magic power, he cast them toward the surrounding rock, embedding them into the cliffside to reinforce the cave entrance and seal it completely.

“Senior Brother Mu, is that demon trapped inside?” asked a young girl, her face still pale from the ordeal.

“Hard to say. That fiend's cultivation is formidable. Even with my array sealing the path, I doubt the cave will hold him for long,” the purple-robed youth replied, shaking his head.

“To think Li Motian, who always put on the airs of a righteous cultivator, turned out to be a Demonic Cultivator in league with the Demon Race! We were blind to have called him brother for so long!”

Another young man cursed furiously.

“That’s right! He’s the one who suggested we explore that ancient ruin in the first place. It was a setup from the start—once the seal was broken, he planned to kill us all. If not for Senior Sister Ye holding him off with her life, we’d never have made it out.”

“I wonder how Senior Sister Ye is doing…”

At those words, everyone fell silent.

When she had stayed behind to buy them time, Senior Sister Ye had already activated a secret technique, burning her own Golden Core.

Yet even so, that fiend had caught up with them in moments.

The outcome was obvious—her chances of survival were slim to none.

“Whatever the case, we need to return to the sect immediately and report this.

Li Motian is an Inner Sect true disciple of the Qiankun Sect, yet he’s been consorting with the Demon Race in secret.

This matter is too serious—it likely runs deep. The sect must be alerted at once!” the purple-robed youth said solemnly.

Just then, a chilling voice rang out from behind them.

“Trying to run? You really think you can get away? You think that wretch could stop me?”

The voice was close—too close. It came from right behind the sealed cave entrance.

To their horror, they saw the rocks that had completely blocked the entrance begin to melt, revealing a gaping hole.

A figure wrapped in black flames floated out from within.

In his hand, he held a woman with disheveled hair.

“Senior Sister Ye!”

The young girl and others screamed at once when they recognized the woman in his grasp.

But her limbs hung limply, twisted at unnatural angles, her life or death uncertain—unable to respond.

Even the purple-robed youth looked utterly shocked. “Impossible! How did you escape so quickly?!”

He had thrown dozens of talismans into that cave—some imbued with sealing properties—and layered a formation over the entrance.

Even a late-stage Golden Core cultivator shouldn’t have been able to break through so soon.

Li Motian had only been at the Golden Core Third Transformation—not late-stage.

Even if he had been concealing his strength, it shouldn’t have been enough to escape this quickly.

Unless…

His face darkened. “You got something from inside the ruin?”

“Indeed.” The figure cloaked in black fire replied with deliberate calm.

“In fact, I should thank you. Without your help, I never would’ve been able to break that seal so easily and retrieve the treasure within.”

“Li Motian! You’re an Inner Sect true disciple of the Qiankun Sect, nurtured by our sect—and yet you betray us and join the Demon Race! Have you no shame? You disgrace your ancestors!”

The purple-robed youth roared in fury.

“Nurtured by the sect?” Li Motian sneered as if he’d heard the world’s biggest joke and burst into wild laughter.

The unhinged sound made everyone go pale.

“What’s so funny?!”

“What’s funny?” Li Motian abruptly stopped laughing, his eyes cold. “Zixiao, do you know how I joined the Qiankun Sect?”

“Elder Wang brought you into the sect.”

“Correct. Elder Wang did bring me in. But do you know who I was before that, where I came from?”

Zixiao was at a loss. He had no answer.

The others’ expressions shifted as well.

Only now did they realize—despite knowing Li Motian for years—they knew nothing of his past before joining the sect.

He had never spoken of it.

“You don’t know, do you? Then let me tell you. My family... was wiped out in one of your so-called righteous sects' internal wars.

Because of their petty feud, my entire village was annihilated.

Everyone died—including my parents.

I only survived because I happened to sneak out to play that day.

If not, I’d have died along with them.

And the two bastards who destroyed my home?

They went unpunished. Still alive. Still free.

Meanwhile, I became an orphan—begging for food, nearly starving to death in the wilderness more times than I can count.”

Seeing the hatred in Li Motian’s eyes, Zixiao and the others were speechless.

They had never known that this seemingly cheerful fellow disciple, always smiling and upbeat…

Had such a wretched past.

But Zixiao quickly composed himself.

“Even so, that past doesn’t justify your betrayal!

It was the sect’s guidance that gave you the cultivation and status you enjoy today!”

“The sect’s guidance?” Li Motian sneered again. “Do you know who those two people were—the ones who killed my family and razed my village?”

“Who?” A bad feeling gripped Zixiao’s heart.

Then he saw Li Motian’s face twist with boundless hatred.

“It was your beloved Senior Brother—top of all true disciples, admired by the entire sect, and the Sect Master's own son: Qian Lingxiao!”

“Impossible!” Zixiao cried out in disbelief.