Tome of Troubled Times

Chapter 588: Extreme East Dao Fruit

Chapter 588: Extreme East Dao Fruit

Night fell, and the warmth of the campfire enveloped them.

After the storm of emotions passed, the three of them—now oddly like a small family—gathered around the fire to spend the evening together.

There was no point in causing a scene now. No matter who might want to leave, they could not actually leave this place. Staying alone just to watch the others share their affection would only make them look like the defeated party, so it was better to just join in and face the tension head-on.

The two women sat on either side of Zhao Changhe, each helping him make arrow shafts. Every so often, they would glare suspiciously at the other as if to say, “I’m watching you. Don’t you dare make any sneaky moves.”

Shelly was not entirely sure how things had escalated to this point. By the time she realized it, the situation had already become such.

And, upon reflection, she realized that maybe it was not all that bad. She had always known about their relationship; there would come a day when she would have to face it. With Xia Chichi’s talent, her becoming the cult leader was just a matter of time, and even Vermillion Bird could not stop her forever. By dealing with it now, she figured that she only lost a bit of her dignity as a venerable, which was better than the chaos of being discovered later, especially when it came to a situation like Vermillion Bird’s.

At least now, she did not have to hide or sneak around. She could express herself freely.

Lady Three’s gaze then shifted to Xia Chichi’s chest, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

The little white tiger is definitely not flat, but compared to mine, hers are clearly modest. I heard that Chichi used to disguise herself as a man, and that alone speaks volumes. Heh, I even caught her envious look earlier; she probably wishes she could cut mine off.

With a chest like that, what’s the point of even having them? A man can’t use them for a pillow, and they’re no help for raising children! If it weren’t for the fact that you met him first, who would even care about those?

With a smug sense of superiority, Shelly lifted her head proudly.

Xia Chichi, meanwhile, gritted her teeth in secret, pulling out a small mirror and checking her face as if inspecting for crow’s feet around her eyes.

Lady Three caught on immediately, and she began grinding her teeth in anger.

This little vixen! Is she telling me I’m old by hinting that I’ve got wrinkles?!

One had to admit, youth certainly had its edges. No matter what anyone said, a young girl—even if she looked like a pig—could still have people falling for her. And Xia Chichi, with her flawless (except for being a bit flat) beauty, was already renowned across the jianghu. She captivated everyone’s hearts, with even figures like Wang Zhaoling, Yang Bugui, and Huangfu Shaozong unable to forget her.

This little vixen, always attracting admirers.

Lady Three snorted, focused on making her arrow shafts, deciding not to speak anymore. As long as I’m here, you won’t get to flaunt that youthful body—what’s there to be smug about?

To think that the previously united Four Idols Cult would descend into internal strife over such an affair, with the saintess and a venerable glaring daggers at each other... It was truly a tragedy.

Zhao Changhe, caught in the swirling vortex of tension between the two women, tried to stay silent and go unnoticed. But even the quietest person would eventually make some noise. As he fitted the string onto the bow, adjusting it carefully, the sound of the bowstring rang out, breaking the silence of the night.

Both women turned to look at him, speaking in unison, “How is it?”

“The string isn’t quite right... I feel like it might snap under too much force. For now, it’ll do, but I’ll need to find a better one eventually.” Zhao Changhe forced himself to stay on topic, trying to break the strange tension between them. “Lady Three, you mentioned forging, but is that possible here? We don’t have the tools for it, do we?”

Lady Three had really just been boasting earlier, and indeed, she realized that they did not have the means to set up a forge. However, after crafting so many arrow shafts, she realized that it might not even be necessary. “This wood is far sturdier than I originally thought. Just sharpening the ends makes for excellent arrowheads—about as strong as iron. We could just keep it simple and use them as they are. Speaking of that, there are no fletchings for these arrows, will your accuracy be fine without them?”

Zhao Changhe hesitated for a moment, then said, “I’ll have to test it out.”

Lady Three, clearly pleased with herself, said, “In the ring my father gave you, there’s a manual on archery. See if it’s of any use to you.”

Xia Chichi turned her head slightly, amused at how her aunt-master was really treating the ring her father had given Zhao Changhe as a dowry now.

Alright, alright, when I become the cult leader, I’ll use the entire Four Idols Cult as my dowry, with Venerable Black Tortoise as part of it. How’s that?

Far away in the capital, Huangfu Qing sneezed yet again.

Meanwhile, Zhao Changhe had already opened the archery manual and was skimming through it. His eyes lit up with excitement. “This is incredible. Truly amazing!”

He picked up one of the bare arrows, with no fletching or arrowhead, and nocked it onto the string, aiming at a distant branch high up. “I’m going to shoot that twisted little branch at the top, shaped like a Z.”

Both women turned their heads, squinting into the distance. The branch he was talking about was hundreds of paces away, hard to even make out in the dim light of the night. Before either of them could properly spot it, the bowstring twanged, and the arrow flew.

The snap of the bowstring and the impact of the arrow hitting its distant target happened nearly simultaneously... no, if anything, the latter seemed to happen even earlier by a split second.

This arrow had unquestionably surpassed the speed of sound, reaching a level not unlike Cui Wenjing’s sword strike when Zhao Changhe first witnessed it.

Looking over at the targeted branch, they saw a strange sight—the point of impact immediately began to wither, and the effect spread down the entire branch until, eventually, the whole tree began to shrivel and decay.

The tree had no soul, yet this arrow still seemed to annihilate its soul.

Lady Three and Xia Chichi exchanged glances, both gasping inwardly.

This arrow... If Zhao Changhe manages to find an opportunity to attack from a distance, even those among the top on the Ranking of Heaven would be in trouble! It wouldn’t even have to be a direct hit—just a graze could prove fatal. The lack of fletching or arrowhead didn’t even diminish its power in the slightest. If he finds a proper bowstring...

Zhao Changhe caressed the bow and arrow in his hands, smiling. “This wood has soul-extinguishing properties. The leaves could probably be refined into something to nourish the soul as well. And there’s more treasure here, not just this. Many things here are of extraordinary value. You two take a rest. I’ll go explore and see what else I can find.”

The two women spoke in unison, “Why should we rest?”

Zhao Changhe froze for a moment. Of course, I want to escape this tense battlefield... Do you have any idea what it feels like to sit between you two, with the tension swirling like a vortex ready to tear me apart?

But he knew there was no way for him to actually get away, especially since this place was meant to be Xia Chichi’s holy land—a perfect place for her to cultivate. Earlier, they had blindly settled down without knowing what was where. In reality, if they used the information from the Heavenly Tome, there were designated areas for various purposes.

With a resigned sigh, Zhao Changhe decided to be bold. He extended both hands, one to each of the women, and grabbed their wrists. “Follow me.”

With that, he pulled them along as he started running.

True enough, with the urgency of the situation, neither woman threw a tantrum. Instead, they each looked down at their held hand, then glanced at the other. Their expressions were complex, to say the least.

* * *

The island was not particularly large. If one were to walk along the coastal edge of the forest, it would probably take about a day to circle the entire place and return to the point where the sea and sky met. However, the dense central forest, teeming with a chaotic diversity of flora, could easily take one or two months to fully explore and understand the potential uses of every plant, herb, and tree.

Lady Three had previously voiced her concerns, urging them to leave sooner rather than later, knowing that this place was filled with treasures—an abundance that might trap Zhao Changhe and Xia Chichi in a cycle of exploring and cultivating while giving the Sea Emperor the chance to regain strength. She felt it was better to deal with the Sea Emperor first and return later.

But now she realized this supposedly labyrinthine forest was like a mere backyard to Zhao Changhe. He led them around effortlessly, weaving through the undergrowth, identifying each plant’s value with an offhand comment, and harvesting the things he needed with ease.

In just a short time, his ring was filled with an assortment of treasures of heaven and earth, leaving Lady Three in a daze, as if in a dream.

If only I had known your nose was as sharp as a dog’s... Why did I bother trying to make money the hard way before?

In truth, Zhao Changhe’s sense of smell was not that sharp—he still could not differentiate the scents of the perfumes used by the two women. But the Heavenly Tome acted as his cheat sheet. It could tell him what types of plants existed here, what effects they had, and which types of cultivation or injuries they were especially effective for.

What it could not do was tell him where exactly those treasures were located. But Zhao Changhe had another cheat—the ancient Black Tortoise’s Atlas of Mountains and Rivers. The atlas provided descriptions of items and their properties, although not in as much detail as the Heavenly Tome. Its true advantage lay in its value as a map.

Since the ancient Azure Dragon had been here, it made sense that the ancient Black Tortoise would have been familiar with the place as well. They made detailed annotations of the area, allowing Zhao Changhe to easily locate each item within the densely packed forest. All of this left Lady Three and Xia Chichi in utter bewilderment as to how he was managing to find all these things so precisely.

After emerging from the dense forest into a clearing, a shimmering pond appeared before them.

In the middle of the pond stood another statue of Azure Dragon, even larger than the one they had encountered before. The Azure Dragon rose from the water, roaring skyward, hidden beneath the cover of towering trees.

The energy of the wood element here was so intense that Xia Chichi almost felt light-headed, and even Lady Three found it hard to breathe.

The statue from their earlier battle had clearly been an imitation of this one, suggesting that it truly was meant to lead them here. However, due to the distortion of the Heavenly Tome, they had first ended up at the boundary of the sea and sky.

If there was a way out, then it would logically be found here. But the Azure Dragon Seal had been left outside, so how were they to activate this statue?

As Xia Chichi pondered this, Zhao Changhe said, “Don’t bother looking at the statue. It’s not the way out... I already told you, this place is for treasure hunting.”

“What treasure?”

“Have you noticed that while the forest has all kinds of plants and trees, something’s been missing?”

Xia Chichi blurted out, “Fruits.”

“Exactly,” Zhao Changhe pointed to the water. “None of the plants here bear fruit because all the energy meant for bearing fruit is drawn here and converges in that one single fruit.”

Xia Chichi looked closely. Scattered across the pond were five plants, their leaves resembling lotus pads, arranged in an unassuming plum blossom formation—though it was unclear what deeper mystery might be hidden in the design.

At the center of this arrangement lay a fruit resembling a twisted lotus root, except it was not a simple segmented piece but was instead sinuous and serpentine, almost dragon-like.

Zhao Changhe began to explain, “This is called the Extreme East Dao Fruit. It does not heal wounds or increase cultivation—it has two effects. First, it extends lifespan and preserves youth. Second, consuming it helps clarify and simplify the laws of this place, making them easier to grasp. Essentially, it assists in comprehending the essence of the extreme east. Because of it, nothing else here bears fruit. The ancient Azure Dragon and Night Emperor both ate it, and now it’s your turn.”

Lady Three and Xia Chichi were both stunned. “How do you even know such things? Isn’t it a bit too outrageous for you to even know what the Night Emperor ate?”

Zhao Changhe paused, then said, “If I told you I was the Night Emperor’s cook, would you believe me?”