Chapter 166
Chapter 166: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, the Oriole Lies in Wait
Rong Shu laughed out loud: “Success! Hahaha!”
She lifted the lid of the pill furnace and crowed: “The Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit’s favorite kind of pill!”
The moment the pills left the furnace, Rong Shu caught the dense, intoxicating fragrance of medicine. To keep the aroma from evaporating too quickly, she promptly took out a clean porcelain vial, slipped the pills inside, and pressed the stopper tight.
She murmured to herself: [Next, time to track down the Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit.]
After tidying away the furnace, residue, and every trace of alchemy until not a hint remained, Rong Shu took Little Hamster and departed.
She flipped open a notebook jade slip and thought: [First check the notes… Those two people spotted it near the Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit’s main tree; it probably will not return there for a while. These five marked spots are all places it might hide.]
Five locations felt like a lot. Even so, the thought of obtaining the Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit left Rong Shu bursting with energy.
She decided: [Put the Lin Bu Fan persona on ice for now. If I run into Han Cheng Yun and his lot inside the Herb Garden, I will have no way to explain it.] Besides, there were people from the Void Alchemy Sect inside this secret realm; the fake identity of Lin Bu Fan could be exposed at any time.
Rong Shu rebuilt her disguise, adopting the face of the nameless Foundation Establishment cultivator who had bought a cave residence in Great Celebration City.
She clapped her hands and said: “All right, move out!”
She also removed Little Hamster’s disguise, tucked the little thing into her clothes, and kept a Beast Taming Pouch hidden against her chest so Little Hamster could slip in at any time.
She reminded herself as she adjusted her appearance: a nameless Foundation Establishment cultivator would not have a Little Hamster for a pet.
Little Hamster chirped: “Goo~”
Rong Shu tapped the bundle at her breast and whispered: “From now on, no more goo-gooing, got it?”
One by one, Rong Shu checked the five places where the Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit might go. The five were rather far apart, and two of them lay deep within the Herb Garden.
By her estimate, entering the inner zones required the ability to refine fifth-grade pills or higher. Rong Shu could only pray the Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit was hiding in one of the other three spots.
The first location was closest to her. When she arrived, Rong Shu placed a single pill to let its fragrance waft.
After waiting two hour, nothing came.
At the second place, she waited three hour, and still nothing.
Two full days passed, most of it spent on the road.
Only the third location remained.
Two more days later, Rong Shu reached the third spot and, by habit, set out pills. This time she put out three at once.
She had gotten only five pills from that furnace. If this still failed to draw it over, she would have to refine another batch.
After placing the pills, Rong Shu hid herself in the shadows.
An incense stick’s time passed. Then half a hour. Then one hour. Then two.
Just when Rong Shu was about to give up hope, a spark streaked from the distance.
Her eyes brightened as she breathed: “It’s here!”
The Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit came in flustered and hurried, its steps unsteady; it even stumbled and knocked itself against the ground. As it scrambled up, it suddenly sniffed a thread of pill fragrance.
This was the scent in its memories.
What was this?
The Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit crept toward the three pills, glanced left and right to make sure no one was around, then could not hold back and snatched them up.
The instant it grasped the pills, they turned to steam, and the full essence of the medicine was drawn straight into the Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit.
“Hou hou~”
Just as it finished and was about to leave, a formation net sprang into being and dropped over it.
Seizing the moment before the fruit reacted, Rong Shu flicked her hand; the net, fruit and all, flew into her grasp.
“Hou hou!” The Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit let out a frightened cry. But the medicine it had just absorbed took effect, and it could not spit even a spark.
A heartbeat later, Rong Shu swept the captured Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit into the Han Chuan Cosmos Pearl.
She broke into a grin and whispered: “Got it.”
Then her face changed. Not good.
The outer detection formation she had laid had been triggered.
Someone was coming.
Without a second thought, Rong Shu leaped onto a Flying Skiff, activated its speed-boost formation, and fled the area.
Moments later, two figures arrived.
The young man swept his gaze over the spot where the Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit had eaten pills, his expression stiffening. The fruit’s aura had vanished completely.
This was not the usual aura of escape. It was simply gone.
He threw his head back and roared: “Who?! Who took my Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit?!”
What had seemed a sure-thing hunt had been stolen by some rat skulking in the dark. The proud youth was livid.
He clenched his fists and spat: “Damn you! Pray I never find you, or I will hack you to pieces!”
Meanwhile, only after she had run far enough did Rong Shu slow down to catch her breath. Ahead lay another beast-guarded zone; if she crossed into it, she would certainly be stopped and forced to refine pills on the spot.
Refining would not succeed in a moment or two, and if that youth regained his wits and came searching, he might well suspect her.
Though she worried for her little life, the joy of acquiring the Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit drowned out the anxiety.
She chuckled to herself and said: “I suppose I have avenged Brother Su Hua, haven’t I? Heh heh… Brother Su Hua, do not thank me too much.”
She rubbed her hands and mused: “Find a safe, empty place, then time to eat the fruit. I remember there was a little path to the west; let me look for it first.”
Along the way, Rong Shu deliberately avoided beast territories. When she could not, she chose the zone with the lowest refinement difficulty and refined at top speed.
As she traveled, other cultivators crisscrossed the Herb Garden, and she could not avoid overhearing snatches of conversation that drifted by.
One rasping voice pleaded: “Give me one more chance! I will succeed this time!”
Another wailed: “I do not want to be thrown out of the Herb Garden! I really do not!”
A third muttered through gritted teeth: “Impossible. There is no way my pill recipe is wrong.”
Someone else cursed: “Damn it! These not-very-bright beasts can still tell this is not freshly refined pill…”
Those words snapped Rong Shu to attention, and she thought: [Right. If you fail a refinement, the beasts immediately toss you out of the Herb Garden. That is far faster than me fighting through checkpoints and refining along the way.]
The Herb Garden’s spirit herbs were tempting, but she had already offended that young man, and he did not look like someone easy to provoke. Both he and his companion were late-stage Foundation Establishment; at the slightest provocation they could swallow pills and break through to the Golden Core Stage.
If Rong Shu crossed them, it would be an egg striking stone.
She weighed her options and decided: [I remember the beasts to the east are a little more mild-tempered. I will go that way.]
Carrying bright hopes, Rong Shu headed east.
A few cultivators glanced over as she passed. Seeing her stride out full of confidence, with not a trace of worry on her face, they began to speculate: “Is she some alchemy master then, so certain and unafraid?”
A dark shadow skimmed across the sky a moment later.
A great bird swooped by with a person clutched in its talons; that person, naturally, was the confidently striding Rong Shu.
The onlookers clicked their tongues, and one said: “And here I thought she was something special…”
Rong Shu did not know what they thought, but she had achieved her aim. She did not have to hurry anywhere herself, and she took a free ride on a Flying Boat straight out of the Herb Garden.
There were plenty of cultivators gathered outside as well; seeing another person tossed out was nothing new. Even so, a few gazes held a sliver of contempt as they landed on Rong Shu.
Rong Shu stood, cast a cleansing spell on herself, and left the Herb Garden gate with a calm face.
After leaving the garden, she made her way west, notebook jade slip in hand as she studied its rough map.
She muttered while she walked: “Seems this way… No, that way… Damn it, why is this a maze?”
Only after considerable effort did Rong Shu reach the secluded path recorded on the slip.
She walked for a time and indeed did not encounter anyone.
She nodded in satisfaction and said: “This will do. Quiet and empty.”
She surveyed the surroundings, chose a dense patch of forest, set up formations, and released the Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit.
The instant it appeared and saw Rong Shu, the fruit sprite exploded in anger, chattering in a string of “Hou hou” that, though she could not understand, clearly were not compliments.
She coughed lightly and argued with a straight face: “Ahem, it is all a misunderstanding. You were being chased by bad people, and I helped you escape, didn’t I?”
“Hou… hou?” The naive Fruit Sprite blinked.
Put that way… it did sound plausible. Compared with Rong Shu, who had lured it with tasty treats, those two humans who had chased and struck it were worse. At least Rong Shu had fed it something delicious.
A gentle “Wu?” floated up just then as the Wind Sprite drifted from Rong Shu’s body, peering curiously at the Fruit Sprite.
Startled, the Fruit Sprite bristled for a heartbeat. But in the next breath, each felt the other’s aura and sensed something similar to itself.
“Wu?” said one.
“Hou?” answered the other.
“Wu wu!” came the reply.
“Hou hou!” rang the answer.
From wary and puzzled, they somehow arrived at clasped little hands like fast friends. Watching this, Rong Shu was briefly dazed.
Then she realized she had found an opening.
She spoke softly, every word temptation: “How about sticking with me? Want to go out and see the world? Want to eat more of those delicious pills? Besides pills, there are other tasty things and fun things.”
She added with a nudge: “And look, the Wind Sprite already likes you.”
At that, the Fruit Sprite looked toward the Wind Sprite with a wavering expression. In the Wind Sprite’s aura, it felt the breath of a kindred being.
For centuries the Fruit Sprite had had no companion, living as a lone fruit. Long ago, there could have been another, but the other Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit had not yet awakened and was taken away by humans.
Thinking of that, the Fruit Sprite made up its mind.
“Hou hou!”
Hands on hips, it gave Rong Shu a theatrical glare, then gathered up the flames sheathing the Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit. It slipped back inside the fruit and dropped into Rong Shu’s palm.
Seeing this, Rong Shu’s heart leaped.
Before the Fruit Sprite could regret its choice, she immediately began refining the Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit.
Besides swallowing a Spirit Tribulation Fruit whole, there was another method: extracting the fruit’s essence directly. Now that the Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit had become sentient, she could not bring herself to bite into it.
Rong Shu sat cross-legged, circulated fire-aspected qi, and began the refinement.
With the Fruit Sprite’s active cooperation, the process moved quickly. In the midst of refinement, Rong Shu felt a little fellow gradually forming within her Fire Spiritual Root.
When the refinement ended, only dregs remained of the fruit in her hand.
Success.
Rong Shu opened her eyes as a fire-aspected sprite flew from her Fire Spiritual Root. In outline, it was about sixty percent similar to the former Fruit Sprite.
She tried tentatively: “Fruit?”
“Hou hou!” chirped the fire sprite.
Hearing the familiar sound, Rong Shu set her worries aside. The Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit’s essence had been born of the fruit’s own consciousness. By channeling that essence into her Fire Spiritual Root, the Fruit Sprite naturally followed, fused through Spiritual Root Fusion, and became a new fire-element sprite.
Now this fire sprite was both the former Fruit Sprite and the embodiment of her Fire Spiritual Root.
Rong Shu smiled with crescent eyes, reached out, and stroked the little being’s head: “Fire Sprite, my name is Rong Shu. I will be in your care.”
“Hou hou~” The Fire Sprite lifted its chin with great dignity and dipped a tiny nod.
That dignity did not last long; moments later it was already playing with the Wind Sprite.
Rong Shu let the two sprites romp for a while, then called them back into her spiritual roots.
She quietly sensed the surge of fire qi within and thought with delight: “With the Fire Sprite, I should be able to fully refine third-grade pills.”
Her Fire Spiritual Root aptitude had always been middling. In the Qi Refining Stage that hardly showed, but the higher one climbed, the more such shortcomings would magnify without limit. Fortunately, she had erased that hidden danger early and no longer needed to worry about her Fire Spiritual Root’s aptitude.
She considered her next move and asked herself: [Where should I go now?]
The Herb Garden and the Scripture Tower flashed through her mind, then she dismissed both. She did not know whether the youth was still searching the Herb Garden; the Scripture Tower was not far from it either. If he went to the tower and they crossed paths, it would be dangerous.
She analyzed the situation: “He was clearly after the Fire Spirit Tribulation Fruit. To find it in such a vast Herb Garden and track it all the way… he may have a detection method.” She had only just refined the fruit and still carried traces of its aura; it was not wise to wander about.
In this secret realm, the Scripture Tower stood in the center, the Herb Garden in the north, and Li Rong Mountain in the east. Only the west had no relic sites, just dense forest and labyrinthine paths, so few cultivators ventured there.
After thinking it through, Rong Shu decided to continue west.
She still had another option, which was to leave the secret realm altogether. But she was reluctant to waste such a good training ground.
She patted the pouch at her chest and muttered under her breath: [Fortune favors the bold.]
Inside that storage pouch were all sorts of life-preserving treasures. That was her confidence.
She drew a steadying breath and told herself: [So long as I do not run into that youth, there should be no problem.]