Chapter 683 - 626: Stepping onto the Peak 35 (4,000 Words)
The downside of this is that the Spirit Fruit Tree can no longer bear fruit afterward, but the upside is that these fruits remain on the branches, continuing to receive Spiritual Energy from the mother tree. The longer they stay, the more delicious they become and the more spiritual energy they contain.
At this moment, the Wine Plum Tree, having benefited from Tan Shuangshuang, foolishly gave all its fruits to Tan Shuangshuang. While hanging on the tree, they didn’t seem that numerous, but once they fell to the ground, it was like a sea of fruits, burying Tan Shuangshuang beneath them.
Tan Shuangshuang had to climb the Wine Plum Tree to avoid being submerged by the fruits. Seeing the countless Wine Plums below, she felt she had taken great advantage of the Wine Plum Tree—one bottle of nutrient solution in exchange for so many Wine Plums!
With the fruits absent, the Wine Plum Tree was left with only its lush green leaves. Perhaps because of the benefit it received from Tan Shuangshuang, it did not use its branches to whip her while she climbed.
Luckily, Tan Shuangshuang had brought enough Storage Bags with her. She used about ten bags to pack away all these Wine Plums. The Wine Plums looked extremely tempting, and after packing them, Tan Shuangshuang couldn’t resist taking out one, peeling its skin, and taking a bite.
Immediately, a burst of fruit aroma and strange rich wine fragrance, accompanied by a lot of dense spiritual energy, flowed into her mouth from the opened skin. It tasted so delicious that she hesitated to swallow, savoring it slowly.
What’s more valuable is the Wine Plum’s spiritual energy is as rich as top-grade spiritual fruit. Although Wine Plum is a low-grade spirit fruit, these fruits have presumably hung on the tree for many years, making them as precious as top-grade spiritual fruits. This one Wine Plum would likely fetch several hundred Spiritual Pearls outside.
Taking small bites, Tan Shuangshuang finished the Wine Plum, feeling even her cultivation had increased slightly—a considerable gain since entering the Secret Realm.
Upon entering the Secret Realm, the family bestows three benefits: first, the ability to cultivate in the Secret Realm; second, nine-tenths of all harvested Spiritual Medicine must be turned over to the family, while one-tenth may be kept; third, although the Secret Realm has been repeatedly searched by family members, almost no wild Spiritual Medicine remains.
Though this is said, it doesn’t entirely eliminate the possibility of finding missed items; any overlooked Spiritual Medicine or fruit that one finds is entirely theirs to keep. Thus, the precious Wine Plums from this tree are all Tan Shuangshuang’s, with no need to hand them over to the family.
Of course, Tan Shuangshuang wouldn’t eat alone; she intended to share her benefits with her own people. She still had her hungry Fei Hu, grandfather, second uncle, and her troublesome younger cousin Tan Feiyu.
Having received such great benefits, Tan Shuangshuang thought for a moment and then dug a big pit beside the Wine Plum Tree. She compacted the pit tightly and lined it densely with bricks carved from stones, covering the base and surrounding edges to prevent water seepage underground.
Once the pit was ready, Tan Shuangshuang filled it with water, poured all her nutrient solutions into the pit, and mixed them well, leaving the entire nutrient-filled stone pit for the Wine Plum Tree.
The Wine Plum Tree knew this was good stuff too. When Tan Shuangshuang finished, it extended a thick root with many offshoots, directly covering the large pool beneath its roots, then lowered several roots into the pool to absorb the nutrient solution at any time.
Having picked all the Wine Plums, Tan Shuangshuang didn’t find anything else of value in the Secret Realm, just two stalks of Spiritual Medicine. Presumably, these are wild medicines that sprouted and grew during the last closure of the Secret Realm.
Though these wild herbs don’t match the ones from the Spirit Medicine Field in quality, the herbs produced in the Secret Realm are always pricey—worth a few hundred Spiritual Pearls.
On her path, she occasionally encountered groups of young family members playing and digging for Spiritual Medicine. Seeing they didn’t seem troublesome, Tan Shuangshuang felt relieved and spent her remaining time meditating and cultivating steadily.
The dense Spiritual Energy in the Secret Realm is perfectly suited for cultivation, and she continued until the realm was about to open. Tan Shuangshuang had already advanced from martial master to Martial Master First Rank, almost breaking through to Martial Master Second Rank, which nearly shortened a year of her cultivation time!
Three days before leaving the Secret Realm, all the playing youngsters gradually gathered together. Over three months, these little monks grew back their eyebrows, their hair sprouted into short layers, finally making them look less like bald eggs.
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