Chapter 229: Leaving on a Whim

For the next few days, Yu Xian slacked off. Although he was somewhat annoyed that the peeping tom had used his private life and experiences to make money, he had never actually considered killing them. At most, he would give the culprit a thorough beating, then confiscate every last bit of ill-gotten wealth they had earned from the film.

Of course, even slacking off required some skill. He couldn't neglect the things that actually needed to be done.

Yu Xian created a large tree clone near the sun specifically to absorb sunlight. He needed to store roughly ten days' worth of energy to awaken one of Little Nora's bloodline abilities. The tree clone could accumulate in ten days the amount of energy Yu Xian would normally take an entire year to gather.

Now, Yu Xian could slack off with a clear conscience. Once he had accumulated enough energy, he could use it to awaken one of Little Nora's abilities. Little Nora becoming stronger was basically the same as Yu Xian himself becoming stronger.

***

The Island Pocket Dimension basked beneath brilliant sunshine, with a clear blue sky and drifting white clouds overhead. Yu Xian lay on a beach chair, smiling as he watched Nora, Little Nora, Gong Qian, Bluebird, Little Huang Quan, and the others playing in the water in the distance.

On the beach chair beside him, Zhang Shou wore sunglasses as he browsed the Star Ring screen Yu Xian had shared with him. It displayed some news about Crescent Bay.

Zhang Shou closed the page. "Salted Fish, do you think Crescent Bay has any way to make me stronger?"

Yu Xian understood that his friend was clearly tempted by the idea and replied with some uncertainty, "Crescent Bay is enormous, and it gathers supernatural resources from countless worlds. Maybe there really is something that could help you. But precisely because it's so huge, even if such a thing exists, finding it would probably be like searching for a needle in a haystack."

Little Nora came running back, panting, and asked curiously, "Big Bro, what are you talking about?"

Yu Xian glanced at Zhang Shou, then explained Zhang Shou's situation to Little Nora. He and Little Nora were essentially one, so there was no need to hide any secrets from him. Besides, plenty of people within Qilin knew about Zhang Shou's condition, and there was no telling how many medical examinations he had undergone over the years.

When Little Nora heard about Zhang Shou, he gazed at him with an expression of amazement. Then he walked up to Zhang Shou, looked him over from every angle, and poked and squeezed him here and there.

As Little Nora squeezed one of his ticklish spots, Zhang Shou couldn't help twisting away. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, he said, "What are you doing? Don't think I won't hit you just because you're cute."

Yu Xian also spoke up, though in a puzzled tone. "Little Nora?"

By then, the others had also had enough fun and returned one after another. Seeing Little Nora staring at Zhang Shou in amazement, they grew curious and waited for him to give them a reasonable explanation.

Little Nora reluctantly let go of Zhang Shou's cheek and turned to Yu Xian. "Big Bro, I'm looking at a miracle."

Yu Xian sat up and glanced at Zhang Shou. "A miracle? Is there something unusual about the Forbidden Fruit Old Zhang ate?"

Zhang Shou immediately began flattering himself. "Don't tell me the Forbidden Fruit I ate was especially poisonous, and an ordinary person would've died from it, but I was blessed with great fortune and somehow survived?"

"That's not it at all," Little Nora replied. He looked at Yu Xian and explained, "Big Bro, I don't know whether the information in my inherited knowledge is outdated, but according to it, Forbidden Fruits are actually divided into different grades."

Everyone was surprised.

"Forbidden Fruits have grades?"

By now, quite a few Forbidden Fruits had appeared on the Blue Planet, but no one had ever classified them into grades. There was simply no way to classify them. Any living creature that encountered a Forbidden Fruit would eat it, so among ordinary people, Forbidden Fruits were little more than vague legends. Most people only heard secondhand stories about someone getting ridiculously lucky and stumbling across a Forbidden Fruit.

Seeing that no one knew about this, Little Nora puffed out his chest, closed his eyes like a little know-it-all eager to teach everyone something, and nodded smugly. "Mm-hmm. According to my inherited knowledge, Forbidden Fruits are divided into nine grades."

Seeing Little Nora deliberately pause, Yu Xian gently knocked him on the head. "Stop keeping us in suspense."

Yu Xian could simply have Little Nora share the knowledge directly with him, but since everyone was already there, he figured it was better they listened together and broadened their horizons.

Little Nora hurriedly continued, "Forbidden Fruits are graded from one to nine. Grade One Forbidden Fruits are the most precious, while Grade Nine are the worst."

Zhang Shou immediately cut in. "I get it! Little Nora, you mean the Forbidden Fruit I ate was a Grade One Forbidden Fruit?"

Little Nora rolled his eyes at him and shook his head. "Of course not. Based on the characteristics Big Bro described, the Forbidden Fruit you ate should have been a Grade Two Forbidden Fruit."

Everyone turned to look at Zhang Shou, having never expected the Forbidden Fruit he had eaten to be so precious. "A Grade Two Forbidden Fruit!"

Zhang Shou hurriedly asked, "Little Nora, if a Grade Two Forbidden Fruit is only slightly inferior to a Grade One, then what exactly does it do? Does it have some hidden effect, like maybe I still have untapped potential?"

Little Nora scratched the back of his head and chuckled somewhat sheepishly. "Well... I'm not really sure either. I only knew the Forbidden Fruit you ate was very high-grade because Big Bro said your body rejects all kinds of external energy."

He explained to everyone that the higher the grade of the Forbidden Fruit someone consumed was, the more strongly their body would reject external energies. In Zhang Shou's case, completely rejecting all other energies while possessing more than three innate traits was a clear characteristic of a Grade Two Forbidden Fruit. The three traits Zhang Shou displayed included healing, the system interface, and death and resurrection.

A Grade One Forbidden Fruit likewise caused the body to reject other energies, but granted only a single trait.

Confused, Zhang Shou asked, "Why does having fewer traits mean the Forbidden Fruit is of a higher grade?"

Little Nora irritably replied, "How would I know? That's just what my inherited knowledge says. I can't guarantee it's actually correct. After all, what I inherited is nothing but outdated knowledge."

When he said the word "outdated," his voice was filled with resentment. Over the past few days, he had also been frequently using the Star Ring Shui Yuetian had given him to browse the internet, secretly checking various sites in Crescent Bay to find out just how much of his inherited knowledge had become outdated.

As it turned out, much of the knowledge he had inherited was already useless. For example, there had once been a race called the Garudae, which could be considered relatives of the Garuda. His inherited memories even contained a training method for a finishing move that required a Garuda and a Garudae to combine their powers in a joint strike.

But after checking Crescent Bay's network, he discovered that the Garudae and the Garuda were now mortal enemies. The Garudae had sided with the Dragon Race, and their relationship with the Garuda had deteriorated to the point of irreconcilable hostility. Whenever members of the two races encountered each other, they would fight until one side was dead.

Fortunately, Little Nora was clever enough to look up the relevant information beforehand. Otherwise, if he ever encountered a Garudae and mistakenly assumed they were allies, he would be in serious trouble.

Yu Xian reassured Zhang Shou. "Since Forbidden Fruits are classified this way, the one Zhang Shou ate must have other advantages we haven't discovered yet. Zhang Shou, don't worry. Crescent Bay is huge, so someone there must know the deeper details. We'll look into it together later."

Zhang Shou laughed. "It's fine. I'm blessed with great fortune anyway. I can wait."

After that, everyone simply gathered and started chatting about Crescent Bay. They were extremely interested in the place, and as the conversation went on, Yu Xian became excited.

As everyone knew, he had always been the type to act on whatever idea suddenly popped into his head. His eyes lit up as he looked at everyone with a grin. "There's no time like the present. How about we go take a look around Crescent Bay right now?"

He snapped his fingers. A set of silver clothing instantly appeared on everyone, along with a mask covering the upper half of their face and a black dragon scale on their wrist.

Without even waiting for anyone's response, he laughed loudly and shouted, "Let's go!"

Everyone was instantly teleported to Crescent Bay.