Chapter 985: Pillar to the Sky
“The last three?” Li Kuanglan came to only after a long while. It felt as though her heart had been flung into the air, and then dropped into an abyss—yet she couldn’t help but feel a tiny shred of joy that she didn’t want to admit to.
“Yes, the last three,” Ji Tianqing said calmly.
“Are there any places where we can find more?”
Ji Tianqing shook her head. “Just picking a couple of fruits was enough for them to react as though their parents had been robbed. From that alone, we can see that they don’t have a lot of them. They were like mad dogs, so I had to cut down the tree in order to escape.”
“You…” Qianye didn’t know what to say. With the tree chopped down, there was apparently no more white fruit to be had.
“Why were you at their lair again?”
“I went to see if there were other good stuff. I unexpectedly slipped up and alarmed their sentries. If you guys hadn’t arrived, I would’ve become their plaything.” With that, Ji Tianqing produced an origin grenade and tossed it up and down in her hand.
Qianye hadn’t quite figured things out, but Li Kuanglan’s expression shifted drastically upon seeing the dark golden grenade and the golden insignia upon it. “Put it away! You might want to play, but I don’t want to die with you!”
Ji Tianqing laughed out loud as she tossed the grenade high into the air. Only upon seeing Li Kuanglan’s murderous expression did she put the grenade into her spatial storage.
“What’s special about that thing?” Qianye asked humbly.
Li Kuanglan glared at Ji Tianqing before explaining, “This dark red hand grenade is made of a special alloy that can retain a heavenly monarch’s origin power. The insignia on it belongs to the Pointer Monarch, meaning that the power sealed inside originates from him. An explosion brought about by the grenade is equal to a casual strike from the heavenly monarch.”
Qianye instantly figured out why Li Kuanglan was so nervous. No matter how special the material, containing a heavenly monarch’s power was probably something they could barely do. The grenade might even explode with a slight touch, and things would get interesting. Even Qianye might not survive after taking a blow from the Pointer Monarch. Li Kuanglan would die for sure. Only Ji Tianqing, with her numerous secret treasures, might be able to survive.
Laughing mischievously, she said, “Don’t worry, that one’s fake. I have too many of such things.” While saying that, she produced four more dark red hand grenades.
Qianye’s expression changed rapidly as he stared at one of them, not daring to move a muscle. Within it, he could feel an earth-shattering power pulsing ever so gently, and filling him with the urge to escape.
Ji Tianqing pouted. “Your eyesight is too good, this isn’t fun.” She then put all the fake grenades away.
This mixture of true and false grenades might not be useful against ordinary people, but they were highly deterrent against experts. Those who recognized the explosive would run away immediately, but Ji Tianqing would likely catch the openings produced during the escape. Revealing weakness before her meant defeat.
It could be said that this thing in her hand could put all experts at the same level at a severe disadvantage. Even if the power sealed inside of the grenade was merely a finger flick from the Pointer Monarch, no one was willing to be flicked by the strongest expert of the human race.
What Qianye could figure out, Li Kuanglan could. too. Livid, she immediately said through clenched teeth, “You lowlife! Are you planning to use that on me? No wonder you were willing to bet such a big amount!”
Ji Tianqing said with a regretful expression, “Would’ve fought you earlier if I had known the Great Maelstrom passage would open. I told you that you can’t beat me, you just won’t believe me.”
“Do you feel no shame using that kind of thing?”
Ji Tianqing replied as though nothing was wrong, “What’s there to be ashamed about? You can get one too if you have the ability.”
“You…” Li Kuanglan was so angry that she couldn’t speak.
She wouldn’t be in such a miserable state if she could get her hands on such a killer weapon. After a period of frustrating silence, she said, “I’ll deal with you after becoming a heavenly monarch!”
This level of weapon was highly effective against those below the divine champion realm, but it wasn’t that strong against those at or above. At the very least, they wouldn’t feel the need to turn and run upon seeing the dark red grenade. She had no Eye of Truth to tell her which one was real.
The sky had turned dark at this point. The three gradually felt their consciousness slowing down, and they quickly lost the mood to play around. No one would be in the mood without enough vitality.
Qianye felt his body gradually warming up, and it was inexplicably comfortable. His body recovered its energy and even his pulse rate was a bit faster than normal. All of his pores were relaxed and open, almost as though he had eaten his fill and was soaking in warm water. The dark golden blood energy was abnormally active as it shuttled in and out of his blood core.
In this half-asleep state, Li Kuanglan’s powerful body appeared in his eyes once more. Every detail of her figure was clear, vivid, and full of berserk energy. His body began to react all of a sudden, and a pillar rose into the sky.
Qianye was caught unprepared. He tried to restrain his thoughts, but the body wasn’t about to listen to him. The three of them were facing one another as they sat in a circle, cultivating, so it would be quite an embarrassment if he were to be seen. Although he and Li Kuanglan had already been extremely intimate, he just couldn’t get over this hurdle—not to mention the presence of Ji Tianqing.
He tried fairly hard, but he still couldn’t suppress the abnormality down there. All he could do was pretend nothing was going on as he observed the two girls, hoping they wouldn’t notice.
Li Kuanglan seemed abnormal—her breathing was coarse, and there was sweat on her nose. Qianye knew her all too well, enough to realize that she was aroused again. She had her eyes closed at first, but sensing Qianye’s attention, she opened her eyes and glared at him.
Ji Tianqing seemed completely motionless, but Qianye saw that the origin power flowing on her body was sparse and chaotic. This origin power was used to maintain her constantly shifting external appearance. Now that it was in a mess, her appearance seemed somewhat blurry and fluctuant. It would seem she wasn’t completely fine, either.
Qianye knew that this was related to the white fruit they had ingested. Apparently, the fruit not only activated their vitality but also served as an aphrodisiac.
At this point, Qianye’s instinctive urges grew stronger and stronger. They assaulted his reasoning like a series of tidal waves, filling him with an urge to pounce toward the two girls. It might be fine with Ji Tianqing, but Li Kuanglan probably wouldn’t resist—this made it even more enticing for Qianye. Additionally, some weird ideas popped up in his head. He felt that things would be even more exciting with Ji Tianqing watching on the side.
Even though Qianye suppressed the urges as much as he could, all kinds of fantasies kept pouring into his head. The thought of Ji Tianqing also elicited numerous unsurpassable thoughts. For instance, what her true appearance and figure was like, if she was as hot as Li Kuanglan, etc.
At this rate, things would eventually become unsalvageable. It just so happened that Li Kuanglan squirmed about at this point, reminding Qianye of the intimate contact they had shared the past few days.
A plume of fire suddenly lit up between the three of them, flickering with a scarlet glow that lit up Qianye’s fluctuating countenance. This was the flame of Venus Dawn—it expelled a bit of the cold and burned away some of the desire between the three of them. It wasn’t a lot of help, but it was better than nothing.
This was Qianye’s final struggle. If this failed, he would have to leave this place temporarily and return only after midnight.
Fortunately, the cold of the night gradually suppressed the medicinal effects of the white fruit, and the three of them stabilized. Their vitality was wilting, but their primal urges were diminishing at a much slower rate. Qianye was like a keg of gunpowder that would explode at the first sign of a spark. It could be said that the white fruit’s primary function was a peerless aphrodisiac, and the vitality activation was just a supplementary effect.
As their instinctive urges slowed down, Qianye finally remembered where he had smelled the fruit before—it was extremely similar to the white mist scattered by the four-armed woman. In terms of effectiveness, the white mist was incomparable to the white fruit. The desire brought about by the mist could be resisted even during the daytime, but Qianye couldn’t quite resist the white fruit’s medicinal effects at night. It would seem the holy fruit of the four-armed people lived up to its name.
Qianye was quite curious about how Ji Tianqing had discovered the effects of this fruit and learned to use it for the cold night?
Despite that, it wasn’t time to study this issue. Midnight was closing in, and the cold had completely suppressed the effects of the fruit. Li Kuanglan and Ji Tianqing channeled their secret arts to endure the chill. Li Kuanglan seemed quite strained, and Ji Tianqing wasn’t having an easy time either. But it would seem the former wasn’t too keen on using their old method to get through the night, not with Ji Tianqing around.
Qianye said, “Sit beside me, relax, and don’t resist.”
Li Kuanglan duly moved to Qianye’s side. Ji Tianqing hesitated for a moment but also moved over in the end. The trio was sitting so close that their knees were almost touching one another.
Qianye’s blood core started to beat, guiding Li Kuanglan and Ji Tianqing along with each pulsation. The assistance lessened their burden quite a bit. They, in turn, activated their secret arts to support Qianye and lessen his struggle.
Midnight passed by after a good while, and the chill gradually started to recede. The three of them made good use of the time to start cultivating. It was currently the best time to train, and they simply couldn’t miss it. Within the dangerous Maelstrom, every little bit of extra cultivation would count toward their survival.
Just as dawn arrived, Qianye exhaled a white misty breath as he concluded his cultivation. The training session was highly beneficial—his Glory Chapter was now working a bit faster than before, and his fifth origin vortex was almost full. At this rate, he would be able to open up his sixth vortex in another ten days.
Qianye came to the conclusion that the Song Clan Ancient Scroll worked best inside the Great Maelstrom because they relied on vortex power to condense origin power. Perhaps the person who wrote the scroll had used the worldly power of the Great Maelstrom to invent the Glory and Mystery chapters. No matter what, it was undeniable that this place was a cultivation heaven for Qianye.
Li Kuanglan and Ji Tianqing also gained much after a night of cultivation.
All three of them were now facing a new problem, yet none of them wanted to mention it. Now that they had run out of white fruits, what would they do?