A Farmer's Journey To Immortality - Chapter 613: Acquiring Two Golden Rebirth Fruits

Chapter 613: Acquiring Two Golden Rebirth Fruits

The world tilted, and Kaayes stumbled forward, clutching his chest with trembling fingers.

His breath came in short, sharp bursts, his silvery Qi scattering like dust in the wind.

Even in that state, his instincts as a cultivator kicked in. He reached for the chest, snatched the fruit, and staggered backward, desperate to escape. But something felt strange. The weight in his hands wasn’t right.

He looked down.

Instead of the smooth, golden surface of the fruit, his fingers were wrapped around something wet and warm—his own beating heart.

His mouth fell open in disbelief. The real Golden Rebirth Fruit was floating a few meters away, glowing faintly in the dark corner of the cave.

“Wh–o… aaargh…” he coughed out, blood spilling from his lips. “Who are you?”

His voice was weak, shaking between rage and fear.

As he tried to focus his one eye on the floating fruit, he saw something move behind it—a shadow, darker than the night itself. It looked like a person, but their body blended with the darkness, almost as if the cave itself had come alive.

[ Druid’s Blessing: Night Wind is deactivated ]

The shadows around the figure began to peel away, revealing a man beneath. The darkness slipped off him like liquid smoke, fading into the air. His calm hazel brown eyes glowed faintly in the dim light of the cave.

Aksai stepped forward slowly, his feet making no sound on the stone floor. His face was relaxed, almost casual, though a cold smile tugged at his lips.

He looked down at Kaayes, who was now kneeling on the ground, barely able to keep his balance, his hands shaking as he tried to hold his heart in place.

“Elder Kaayes,” Aksai said softly, tilting his head. “Do you remember me?”

Kaayes’s one eye widened in disbelief as he finally recognized the man standing before him. Even through the haze of pain and blood loss, that face was something he could never forget.

“You…” his voice broke as blood bubbled at his lips, “aaargh… how?”

The sight before him was impossible. The man who stood calmly in front of him—Aksai—looked exactly the same as he did decades ago, back when Kaayes had seen him inside the Serenity Peak’s Devil’s Den.

Time hadn’t touched him at all. No wrinkles, no signs of aging, nothing. It was as if he had stepped out of that nightmare from the past, unchanged.

Kaayes wanted to ask how he was alive, how he had escaped, how he could possibly still look the same—but his body wouldn’t let him. His pain receptors were screaming. Every heartbeat sent waves of agony through his chest, or what was left of it.

Just like Jin, Wen, and Lin, Kaayes and the gray-eyed woman were also alive because of Aksai. However, instead of saying a thank you, they had begun to hunt him. As such, Kaayes knew that Aksai wouldn’t show them any mercy if and when they met. However, he could have never imagined that Aksai was ten times more cunning and vicious than he had thought.

The one-eyed elder dropped to one knee, clutching the hole in his chest with shaking hands. The residual golden light from the Rebirth Fruit flickered weakly beside him before fading into nothingness, almost mocking his helplessness.

As the realization of his situation sank in, anger and regret flooded his mind. He was so close—just moments away from eating the fruit and stepping into a new realm. A lifetime of training, hardship, and sacrifice had led him here… and now, in the final step, it was all being snatched away.

Gritting his teeth, Kaayes forced himself to calm down. His eye burned with hate as he looked at Aksai. The pain didn’t matter anymore. If he was going to die, he would at least take this man down with him—or die trying.

’No… I won’t just die like this,’ he thought to himself.

Using his martial arts, he quickly sealed several of his arteries and veins, slowing the blood flow. His heart was gone, but his Qi was still strong. His body trembled, but he managed to push himself up to his feet.

He spread his arms wide, drawing in what little strength he had left. A faint silvery glow spread across his body as his Qi surged. The air around him shivered.

The sword that lay on the ground a few feet away quivered before shooting up into the air, guided by his will. It spun once before floating beside him, ready to strike. With his other hand, Kaayes reached into his robe and pulled out a small, blue crystal. It was a Qi-conductive stone that could transmit a distress signal over short to mid distances.

If he could crush it, the gray-haired elder nearby would come. Together, they might still have a chance.

But before he could act, Aksai chuckled softly. His voice was calm, but there was an edge of mockery in it.

“Are you trying to get that gray-haired woman to come here?” Aksai asked. He tilted his head slightly, a faint smile on his lips. “Don’t. She won’t.”

Kaayes froze.

Aksai reached into his storage ring and pulled something out. At first, Kaayes couldn’t make out what it was. Then the object rolled slightly in Aksai’s palm—a human head.

Before Kaayes could even react, Aksai flicked his foot, kicking the severed head toward him. It rolled across the cave floor, coming to a stop beside Kaayes’s blood-stained feet.

His single eye widened as his blurred vision tried to focus on the face. The familiar gray hair, the lifeless eyes, the faint expression of terror still frozen on her features—it was her. The gray-haired elder.

For a moment, Kaayes’s mind went blank.

The sword that was floating beside him clattered to the ground. His hands trembled violently.

“Y–you…” he tried to speak, but his voice broke into a wet cough. Blood spilled from his mouth and he fell to his knees again.

His body, which had been running purely on willpower, finally began to give up. His Qi flickered and started to fade.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by novlove.com