Chen Chang'an stepped through the stone wall and discovered that the space beyond was far larger than the stone chamber—at least ten times its size, if not more.
Unlike the darkness of the chamber, this area was bathed in a soft, azure glow. At the very center of the blue-lit space stood a translucent tree, crystalline and radiant, its branches shimmering with the same ethereal light.
"This is…"
Chen Chang'an was stunned at the sight.
No wonder this place periodically experienced surges of spiritual energy—this was a fully materialized Spirit Immortal Tree!
He had no idea how many eons it took for such a thing to form, but he had heard of its existence from Mu Yunyao in the past.
The Spirit Immortal Tree was the result of pure, concentrated spiritual energy condensing over countless millennia. In the Tai Xuan Realm, only a handful had ever encountered one in person; most only knew of it through ancient records.
Chen Chang'an never expected that within the small Cloud Snow Ridge's Heavenly Pool in Langya, such a treasure—one that would drive the entire Tai Xuan Realm into a frenzy—lay hidden.
Cultivating near the Spirit Immortal Tree could multiply one’s progress by several, even dozens of times.
But the tree’s true terror lay in its fruit—the Spirit Immortal Fruits.
These were the real prizes that would drive men to madness.
"Fifteen… There are fifteen Spirit Immortal Fruits here!"
Each fruit was a crystallization of the tree’s essence, unimaginably precious, and took three thousand years to mature.
Fifteen fruits meant this tree had been accumulating power for at least forty-five thousand years—likely far longer.
"That so-called 'Snow God' from back then must have discovered this tree and stayed because of it," Chen Chang'an mused. "He probably consumed quite a few of these fruits himself."
Fifteen Spirit Immortal Fruits were an astronomical fortune, but storing them was no simple task.
The moment a fruit was plucked from the tree, it had to be placed in a container made of Ten-Thousand-Year Warm Jade, or it would gradually dissipate over time.
Moreover, prolonged physical contact with bare hands was ill-advised.
"Such treasures—it’d be a shame not to take them."
"Fifteen shouldn’t be a problem."
Over the years, Chen Chang'an had amassed quite a collection of rare items, not to mention the ones he’d "borrowed" from his master, Mu Yunyao.
While Ten-Thousand-Year Warm Jade wasn’t particularly useful for cultivation, its value as a storage vessel made it highly sought after.
Mu Yunyao had gathered plenty in her time, so Chen Chang'an happened to have some on hand.
He retrieved a jade container and carefully tapped each fruit loose with another piece of jade, storing them one by one.
All fifteen—he didn’t leave a single one behind.
"Pity I can’t take the tree itself," Chen Chang'an sighed. "Otherwise…"
Not that he was greedy—he just wanted to uproot the whole thing.
After securing the fruits, he scoured the area again. After all, a thief never leaves empty-handed.
"Seems like there’s nothing else here but the tree. No other treasures."
He was slightly disappointed. Legends spoke of companion spirit beasts or companion spirit herbs appearing alongside a Spirit Immortal Tree.
"Maybe that ‘Snow God’ took them first?"
That seemed the most likely explanation. Whoever had arrived before him wouldn’t have left such treasures untouched.
The only reason the tree and its fruits remained was because the tree itself couldn’t be moved.
"You’re back already?"
"That fast?"
"What’s inside?"
"Speak already!"
As Chen Chang'an emerged from the stone wall, Lie Zhankuang bombarded him with eager questions.
Ignoring him, Chen Chang'an walked over and casually took a seat on the stone chair.
"Honestly, you’re a terrible host."
"Not even offering a guest a proper welcome." Chen Chang'an scoffed.
"Eh?"
Welcome?
Lie Zhankuang stared blankly. His place had nothing to offer—what kind of hospitality was he supposed to provide?
"Don’t start with me. Look around—what do I even have here?"
"You want me to piss in a cup and serve it to you?" Lie Zhankuang snapped.
"Guess you don’t want to know the secrets of the Heavenly Pool, then." Chen Chang'an said coolly.
"Wait, no—brother, I was wrong! Tell me, please!"
"What’s it like inside? Any treasures?" Lie Zhankuang grinned, his tone instantly shifting.
"There was. And… it was a supreme treasure."
"Supreme treasure?"
If Chen Chang'an called it that, it had to be extraordinary.
"Where is it? Show me!"
"Don’t worry, I, Lie Zhankuang, have principles—I won’t steal it."
"I just want to see what it is." His excitement was palpable.
"Can’t show it."
"Can’t show it?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"The Divine Spirit Tree—can you actually produce it?"
The Divine Spirit Tree?
Hearing these three words, Lie Zhankuang was completely stunned!
Could it really be something that only existed in legends?
"Are you saying that beneath this Heavenly Pool, right next to my stone chamber, there’s a Divine Spirit Tree?"
"I’ve been sitting beside the Divine Spirit Tree for thousands of years and never even knew it existed?"
"No wonder… no wonder the spiritual energy here is so dense, and why there are surges of spiritual energy eruptions."
"The Divine Spirit Tree… it’s actually the Divine Spirit Tree!"
Lie Zhankuang acted as if he’d gone mad, pacing in circles, his excitement impossible to contain.
"Chen Chang’an, you’re about to hit the jackpot!"
"Then why did you come out? You should’ve stayed there and cultivated beside the Divine Spirit Tree!"
"Wait, what’s your current cultivation level anyway? Why do you only seem to be at the first level of the True Qi Realm?"
"Are you just pretending to be low-key?"
"If you haven’t broken through to the Great Emperor Realm yet, you might as well stay here in seclusion. I think you have a chance to reach the Great Emperor Realm." Lie Zhankuang said excitedly.
In Lie Zhankuang’s mind, Chen Chang’an had always been more impressive than him. Even if he hadn’t reached the Great Emperor Realm, he was probably at least at the peak of the Immortal Realm.
"Don’t you want to?"
"Of course I do, but I can’t get in. This opportunity was never meant for me."
Lie Zhankuang let out a bitter laugh. He’d been here for thousands of years without discovering anything, yet Chen Chang’an found the Divine Spirit Tree the moment he arrived.
Clearly, this heaven-sent fortune wasn’t his to claim.
"Since we’re friends…"
"Let me give you a gift."
With that, Chen Chang’an casually took out a Divine Spirit Fruit and tossed it to Lie Zhankuang.
"Eat it now."
Lie Zhankuang was taken aback at first, but without hesitation, he devoured the fruit as instructed.
"Holy shit!"
"What is this thing? The spiritual energy is so pure and dense!"
"This…"
Lie Zhankuang never expected that what Chen Chang’an had given him would be so incredibly precious.
"Divine Spirit Fruit. Since you know about the Divine Spirit Tree, you should know what this is."
"Though, no one’s ever consumed it before, so its effects are unknown."
"You can be my test subject." Chen Chang’an said with a faint smile.
"Fine by me. The more of this kind of thing, the better."
"Let me start meditating!"
transmigrates into the role of a villainous rich second-generation kid in an urban fantasy novel, and gets bound to a god-tier choice system. Right at the start, he catches the female lead stealing exam papers! This triggers the villain's choice options! [Choice 1: Pretend you didn't see anything] [Choice 2: Loudly call her out, drawing everyone's attention] [Choice 3: ...] And thus, a twisted villain is born. To avoid getting killed by the protagonist, he has no choice but to take down all the protagonists first. Jiang Che: Nobody understands being twisted better than me!
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
