The next day, Wu Tian once again took everyone around the Abyss to see what was edible. He had two reasons. First, he wanted to know exactly what kind of fruit the plump girl had eaten. Second, the little one still needed to eat, and so did Liu Tianji and the others. Although cultivators who had achieved Fasting no longer needed to eat, the cultivation relics completed by later generations always had some differences. Yuan Beizheng didn’t need to eat, but Liu Tianji and his companions did.

In the forest, they found some fruit-bearing trees of extinct species, with fruits that were naturally unseen before. The knowledgeable Liu Tianji could only say, "These are Cycad Fruits and Naked Fern Fruits. And these are Scalewood Fruits. We humans didn’t even know they bore fruit. As for the others, I don’t recognize them."

"Take them," Wu Tian ordered with a single glance, having already determined which were edible and which were not.

"Yes." Liu Tianji and the others became even more respectful. The previous night, while they were cultivating, Wu Tian had casually offered a single sentence of guidance that instantly transformed their Cultivation Techniques, elevating them to a new level. Just one sentence had caused a qualitative change in their entire Cultivation Technique. Such a thing was something Liu Tianji and the others would have never dared to even imagine before.

While picking fruits, they naturally encountered some children from the Daoist temple who were also out gathering. Believing themselves to be celestial scions, they were discussing Lv Mingyue.

"That little girl was accepted as a disciple by the three old men?" From their conversation, Wu Tian learned the news. He couldn’t help but smile. "It seems those three old men are rather immature," he remarked.

The little one, nestled in Qin Yuhan’s arms, seemed to understand. He nodded his big head and snorted, "Those three old men might look old, but mentally, they’re just little brats!"

Liu Tianji and the other Immortal Seekers also nodded. They were seeking true immortals, not cultivators like that. Although Lv Mingyue had some talent and immortal fate, how could she possibly compare to Wu Tian or the little one? So why did those three old men take her as their disciple? It was pure spite directed at Wu Tian’s group.

They plan to cultivate Lv Mingyue to make us regret our decision. *See? Now you know what regret is, don’t you? She may not be as good as you, but under our tutelage, she has surpassed you by an unknown measure and become a mighty immortal! Such honor could have been yours, but you missed your chance. Are you regretting it now? Aren’t you?*

That was the old men’s line of thinking. To Wu Tian and his group, it was childish—unbelievably so. These three elders were known as Lord with the World, Lord with the Heavens, and Lord with the Earth. In Wu Tian’s eyes, it was a joke. These three old men were planning to formally accept Lv Mingyue as their disciple with a ceremony that evening. Holding a ceremony just to accept a disciple... it was just... Wu Tian and his group couldn’t be bothered to think about it anymore.

When Lan Qingfeng was leading his own group to pick fruit, he ran into Wu Tian as well. "It’s truly a pity," Lan Qingfeng sighed. The strength of Wu Tian’s and the little one’s immortal fate was simply incredible. With such potential, if they cultivated properly, Lan Qingfeng believed they could easily reach the level of his three masters. But if they continued to squander it, he feared their talent would be wasted, a classic tale of a fallen prodigy.

Wu Tian just smiled and said nothing.

Lan Qingfeng thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps you still don’t understand the gap between immortals and Immortal Seekers. Come, I’ll take you to see the Ginseng Fruit Tree. After you’ve seen it, you’ll understand the difference."

Ginsengfruit? Hearing this, Liu Tianji and the others were shocked. Even Wu Tian’s eyes flickered with surprise.

Ginsengfruit?

Many had learned from *Journey to the West* about the Ginsengfruit on Longevity Mountain at Zhen Yuanzi’s Five Villas Abbey. This fruit, also known as the Grass Returning Pill, bloomed once every three thousand years, bore fruit after another three thousand, and took a further three thousand to ripen. All in all, one would have to wait nearly ten thousand years to eat one. In that entire time, it would only yield thirty fruits. The fruit itself resembled an infant less than three days old, complete with four limbs and facial features. The Ginseng Fruit Tree was a spiritual root of the earth, and its fruit was a rare treasure. It was said that if a person were fortunate enough to merely smell the fruit, they could live for 360 years. Eating one granted a lifespan of 47,000 years. Such a miraculous object was rare even in the Immortal Emperor Realm. Could this world truly have one?

"Please follow me," Lan Qingfeng said.

After they see the miraculous Ginsengfruit, surely Wu Tian and his group will realize what an opportunity they’ve missed, right?

And so, he led them deep into the Abyss, toward the Daoist temple’s backyard. Along the way, the plump girl muttered to herself, "Yes, yes, yes, it’s here. This is the place." Wu Tian knew what she meant; she must have eaten a fruit here before, which was how she acquired her immortal power.

Finally, they saw it. At a glance, the tree was clearly extraordinary. Its trunk was at least a hundred meters in diameter. If the Abyss weren’t so deep, the tree would have towered far above the surface. The fruits hanging from its branches were shaped like small children, emanating a strange fragrance that was enough to refresh one’s mind and spirit. Wu Tian’s group recalled the descriptions from *Journey to the West* and other such texts: the fruit would fall when it met metal, wither when it touched wood, melt in water, scorch in fire, and burrow into earth.

"Respected Ginseng Fruit Tree, we’re bothering you again. We hope you don’t mind. The people we’ve brought this time are extremely important to the three masters," Lan Qingfeng said, bowing deeply and respectfully to the tree.

Wu Tian and his group frowned slightly. The little one called out, "Hey, can this tree talk?"

"This..." Lan Qingfeng paused, realizing they had misunderstood. He quickly explained, "How could a tree possibly talk? It’s just that this tree, and the temple, existed long before my three masters. They said that back when they were still ordinary people in the Underground World, without even a Spirit Root, they fell into the Abyss during an expedition. That’s when they saw the temple and this tree. At first, they thought it was a prank—that the Five Villas Abbey and the Ginseng Fruit Tree were fakes. They couldn’t get out and were starving and thirsty, so they picked the fruits to survive. They never expected that doing so would lead to their ascension! They became Saints."

The first part of Lan Qingfeng’s story was plausible, but when he got to, "...they never expected that doing so would lead to their ascension! They became Saints," Wu Tian almost laughed.

*That’s* what passes for a Saint?

"Oh! So it can’t understand us, and it can’t talk either," the little one concluded.

"Yes," Lan Qingfeng nodded. "But its fruit has been a great blessing to us immortals, so we all regard it as an elder. Trees are inanimate. How could one possibly understand speech, let alone talk?"

But his words had barely left his lips when, suddenly—

RUSTLE!

The leaves of the Ginseng Fruit Tree began to thrash about, and even its trunk swayed visibly. The next moment, an angry voice boomed from the tree. "The hell you say! You’re the one who’s inanimate! Your grandpa here is still alive and kicking! We may be acquainted, but I’ll still sue you for slander if you keep spouting nonsense like that!"