Chapter 161 - 155: The Fruit Is Ripe, Shattering the Void

Chapter 161: Chapter 155: The Fruit Is Ripe, Shattering the Void

A giant pillar was an island.

So the Mysterious Island had a seventh one!

’If the black fruits on the other five islands are also fake, then the real ones must be on the Seventh Island.’

Jiang Zuo didn’t bother going to the other five islands, heading straight for the Seventh Island in the center.

He floated up along the pillar. Just as he was about to break the surface, Jiang Zuo suddenly found his path blocked by a dense mass of tree roots above him.

Jiang Zuo considered forcing his way through, but on second thought, decided not to alert the enemy. He circled around, found a gap, and slipped out.

Once out of the water, Jiang Zuo continued to fly upward.

And then, a brand-new island appeared before his eyes.

This was an island completely unlike any Jiang Zuo had seen in the memories of the many Seated Mountain Eagles.

The entire island was covered in a vast expanse of colorful flowers. Only at the very center grew a small, unassuming tree.

The small tree had blue leaves and a blood-red trunk, and on it grew seven black fruits.

It looked exceptionally strange.

These black fruits were identical to the ones Jiang Zuo had seen on the giant tree outside.

Apparently, the black fruits there were projections from this small tree.

’This is it!’

After glancing around and seeing no guards, Jiang Zuo flew toward the small, blood-red tree and its black fruits.

But at that moment, an incredibly strong feeling, an urge to stay away, appeared in his mind.

Jiang Zuo tried to ignore it, but the closer he got to the blood-red tree, the stronger the feeling became.

When he was still three or four hundred meters from the blood-red tree, he found himself completely unable to get any closer.

He had opened his Divine Sense, yet he still couldn’t resist this strange feeling.

’So powerful? Hmph! I’ll change back to my human form and see how you drive me away then!’

Jiang Zuo snorted coldly and deactivated his Ten Thousand Beasts Armor.

Jiang Zuo immediately felt his whole body relax, the strange force no longer blocking his approach.

But the moment he reverted to his human form, from beneath the endless sea of flowers, humanoid skeletons rose to their feet one by one.

Each skeleton was seven or eight meters tall.

Meanwhile, the small blood-red tree was less than two meters tall.

It would be impossible for Jiang Zuo to bypass these skeletons to pick the black fruits.

’Puppets?’

Jiang Zuo’s expression darkened as he looked at the skeletons.

There were a total of twenty-eight of them.

The feeling they gave Jiang Zuo was one of considerable strength, likely even greater than that of a Dao Foundation Cultivator.

Even for someone like Jiang Zuo, fighting so many powerful skeleton puppets would be immensely stressful.

What’s more, this was a world of Cultivation; there was no telling what kind of tricks these puppets might have.

After a moment of thought, Jiang Zuo took out the Innate Spiritual Soil.

The last time, in the Cyan Wood Secret Realm, the wooden puppets had all been destroyed by the Innate Spiritual Soil.

This time, however, the Innate Spiritual Soil had no reaction.

’They’re not driven by Spiritual Power.’

’That makes sense. Otherwise, it would mean there’s a loophole in the Heaven and Earth Sealing Spirit Array.’

Jiang Zuo put away the Innate Spiritual Soil and observed them carefully.

He soon determined that the skeletons were being controlled by vines.

The skeletons weren’t completely hollow. Their insides were filled with soil, and growing in that soil was a grayish-white vine.

These vines were controlling the skeletons’ movements.

It was something you wouldn’t notice without careful observation.

’In other words, attacking the skeletons is useless. I have to get rid of the vines inside them.’

Jiang Zuo had found the skeletons’ weakness in an instant.

The bones of these skeletons were exceptionally strong. Even without Spiritual Qi, they were stronger than the attacks of a Dao Foundation Cultivator.

If Jiang Zuo were to fight them head-on, he would be at a disadvantage, and no matter how much effort he put in, he wouldn’t be able to kill them.

Jiang Zuo flew toward the nearest skeleton.

The skeleton raised the bone club in its hand and brought it down viciously on Jiang Zuo.

If a Dao Foundation Cultivator were hit by this club, they would be instantly turned into a meat paste.

Jiang Zuo’s physical body was powerful, but he didn’t dare take the hit directly.

Fortunately, the skeletons weren’t very fast, so Jiang Zuo could easily dodge the club’s attack.

The controlling vines were inside the skeletons. For someone who wasn’t a Cultivator using Magic, killing these grayish-white vines would be extremely difficult.

However, Jiang Zuo’s Cultivation of Inner Breath had already reached the pinnacle of perfection.

His Gold Qi, in particular, could cause immense destruction.

Dodging the club’s attack, Jiang Zuo closed the distance and slapped his palm against the skeleton’s body.

A large amount of sharp Gold Qi instantly broke through its body, aiming to sever the grayish-white vine inside.

’These vines... they’re this tough?’

But a shocking scene unfolded before Jiang Zuo.

The Gold Qi sliced across the grayish-white vine, but it only left a shallow scratch.

To sever one of these grayish-white vines, Jiang Zuo would have to strike the same spot at least twenty or thirty times.

’To think there’s a vine plant this tough in the world!’

Jiang Zuo’s eyes were truly opened.

’This can’t be some Immortal Vine; it must be a mortal thing, just like me.’

But in terms of toughness, even a Dao Foundation Cultivator would be far inferior.

Looking at the skeletons charging at him from all directions, Jiang Zuo sensed trouble.

He was certain that if any other Martial Artist had discovered this place, they would have absolutely no chance of picking the black fruits from the small tree while under siege by these twenty-eight skeletons.

’Power of Destruction!’

Unwilling to get entangled with these skeletons, Jiang Zuo decisively chose to expend his lifespan to destroy them.

No matter how tough these grayish-white vines were, as long as they were mortal things, the Power of Destruction would be highly effective.

Sure enough, when Jiang Zuo struck with a palm imbued with the Power of Destruction, the vine inside the skeleton instantly lost its life.

Without the grayish-white vine’s control, the giant skeleton instantly crumbled into a pile of bones on the ground.

Jiang Zuo faced the charging skeletons, striking them one after another with the Power of Destruction.

One by one, the skeletons collapsed.

But after he had killed more than half of the skeletons and was not far from the black fruits, with only about ten skeletons left in front of him, Jiang Zuo’s eyes narrowed.

He saw red-eyed birds swarming from all around the island, madly diving at him.

The Mysterious Island was summoning the birds from the other islands to attack Jiang Zuo.

The number of birds was countless.

But unfortunately for them, no matter how many there were, they could barely harm Jiang Zuo.

Jiang Zuo could completely ignore their attacks; he only needed to destroy the remaining skeletons and their vines.

In a short while, Jiang Zuo had destroyed the rest of the skeletons.

But all around Jiang Zuo, innumerable birds now covered the entire island, frantically attacking him.

And as time passed, their frenzy deepened. A few of the Innate Flying Birds among them were now able to inflict minor harm on Jiang Zuo. ℯ

Some birds even flew right up to Jiang Zuo and self-destructed.

Jiang Zuo no longer held back. He operated his Cultivation Technique at full power, blasting the birds attacking him.

With each punch he threw, a rain of blood and corpses fell from the sky.

Before long, the vibrant flowers covering the Seventh Island were drowned in a sea of blood.

If these were normal birds, seeing Jiang Zuo looking like a Demon God would have sent them scattering in terror long ago.

But now, with their eyes glowing red, they were like moths to a flame, throwing themselves at Jiang Zuo only to die.

Jiang Zuo was in a killing frenzy, but the number of birds around him seemed endless, not decreasing in the slightest.

Jiang Zuo knew why there were so many.

The birds weren’t from just one island, but from all six.

On each island, there were large numbers of birds that were unwilling to leave.

At this moment, they had all been summoned here.

Jiang Zuo had already killed as many as seven Innate Flying Birds alone.

The number of Grandmaster-level birds and below was simply countless.

Jiang Zuo fought from day to night, and then from night to day again.

After fighting for a full day and night, there were finally no more birds charging at him.

Jiang Zuo had slaughtered every last bird on the six islands.

Standing amidst a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood formed from the piled-up birds, Jiang Zuo fell silent.

He had never imagined a day would come when he would kill so many birds.

But he had no choice. Even if he didn’t kill them, the birds would have charged at him and self-destructed.

After eating the fruits, these birds were completely unable to resist the commands issued by the Mysterious Island.

Jiang Zuo wanted to destroy whatever was issuing the commands, but he had no way of finding it.

The small, blood-red tree with the black fruits was now surrounded by layers upon layers of corpse mounds.

With nothing left to stop him, Jiang Zuo walked up to the black fruits, intending to pick them.

But as he drew closer to the small tree, Jiang Zuo could feel that it seemed exceptionally happy.

Jiang Zuo looked closer and saw tentacles extending from the ground, absorbing the blood and bird corpses.

’Will these black fruits ripen after absorbing all these bird corpses?’

Jiang Zuo couldn’t help but wonder.

’It’s very likely!’

’And it probably won’t take more than two years.’

After some thought, Jiang Zuo decided to wait nearby.

’If anything else strange happens, I’ll just grab the fruits and leave.’

’If not, I’ll wait another two years.’

...

Jiang Zuo left a Blood Qi Avatar on the island to wait, while he himself went down beneath the sea.

The Blood Qi Avatar was dressed in clothes and wore a mask.

If any powerful enemies appeared, the Blood Qi Avatar would take the fall, giving Jiang Zuo a chance to decide whether to flee or stay.

Half a month passed, and no one appeared.

Jiang Zuo sighed in relief at this, figuring that no one was likely to show up.

The great figure who established this place either hadn’t received the news or was too busy to come.

In any case, it was good news for Jiang Zuo.

Over the past half-month, the small blood-red tree had been madly absorbing the bird corpses, and the seven black fruits were gradually showing signs of ripening.

In the blink of an eye, half a year passed.

The last batch of Valley Rats was raised, and Jiang Zuo obtained the Valley Rat’s talent.

The Valley Rat’s talents were also Bone Shrinking Technique and a keen sense of smell; both of these talents were enhanced for him.

As for what came after secondary talents, there were no tertiary-level talents.

Soon, another year passed.

Jiang Zuo came before the blood-red fruit tree.

In just a year and a half, the vast expanse of bird corpses had been completely absorbed by the small blood-red tree, leaving not even a few bones on the ground.

The seven fruits were now glistening and succulent, fully ripe.

Without further hesitation, Jiang Zuo reached out and, in a few swift motions, plucked all seven fruits into his hand.

After picking the fruits, Jiang Zuo wasn’t in a hurry to leave.

’This fruit tree is no ordinary thing, either. It’d be a waste to leave it here. I have to dig it up!’

Jiang Zuo was an old hand at digging up trees. He took out a hoe and began to dig furiously.

The small blood-red tree had a dense and extensive network of roots underground.

Jiang Zuo didn’t stand on ceremony. Once he’d dug enough, he simply yanked it out with great force and tossed it into the Pet Beast Spirit Garden.

Dusting off his hands, Jiang Zuo walked to the edge of the island, ready to leave.

But at that moment, he suddenly looked up at the sky.

He saw the sky in front of him suddenly crack open, revealing a deep void.

Then, a giant bone leg stepped out from the void.

’It didn’t come when I invaded and destroyed the guards, but it shows up now? Does it know the fruits are ripe?’

Countless thoughts flashed through Jiang Zuo’s mind in an instant.

But he knew he couldn’t stay here any longer. He had to leave immediately!