"Master, what should we do?" He Haochang asked in a deep voice, his eyes filled with determination.

The elder nodded and said, "Good, it’s commendable that you have such determination. However, the time is not yet right. The Immortal Transformation Pond has bound countless souls, severing their path to freedom. There are many more than just us who wish to destroy it. You must gather information and when the time is ripe, we will make our move."

"Yes, Master!"

He Haochang nodded calmly, knowing well that his master’s words were nothing but the truth. No one understood the power of the Heavenly Court better than him.

Rescuing the soul of his senior brother was no easy feat.

"Senior brother, I will definitely save you," He Haochang solemnly swore to himself.

It wasn’t just the master’s obsession to save their senior brother, but also a shared obsession among the disciples. Even with their memories sealed, their cultivation had stalled for many years due to an incomplete state of mind.

Now, with a decision in his heart, he felt his mood lighten and the seemingly insurmountable cultivation challenges appeared to loosen somewhat.

However, this was just the tip of the iceberg. As the Heavenly Court became increasingly embroiled in a tug-of-war with the Demon Clan, more and more individuals began to harbor other intentions.

The Jade Emperor saw through all of this but still chose to wait, biding his time for the situation to change.

At this time, stillness was better than rash action. As long as he could grasp the right moment, he could leverage it to purge those with malicious intentions.

In terms of controlling the situation, the Jade Emperor believed he was second to none. Such was his confidence as the Lord of the Three Realms.

While undercurrents flowed within the Heavenly Court, a butterfly fluttering gracefully made its way into the Peach Garden, avoiding the Earth Gods and guards, without triggering any arrays.

This butterfly seemed to exist beyond the mundane world, dancing aloft, aloof and detached.

It lightly landed on a peach and soon after, that peach vanished into thin air.

Such scenes kept occurring until all the remaining peaches in the Peach Garden had disappeared.

Meanwhile, in the Demon Realm, there was suddenly an abundance of peaches.

White Dragon chuckled and said, "I’ve heard that the Heavenly Court hosts a grand event called the Peach Banquet, a feast only Heavenly Immortals from the Heavenly Court are eligible to participate in. Now that we have so many peaches, can we not also host one? I’ve heard that these peaches can extend one’s life. Even mortals can add a hundred years to their life span with just one bite."

"Wow!" Several Little Monsters immediately showed envious expressions. These were, after all, legendary Peaches, divine fruits that only the high-ranking officials of the Heavenly Court could enjoy.

"One, two, three..." Bashan Tiger quietly counted the peaches, only to find that there were too many to count quickly with his wits.

"This shouldn’t be!" he muttered to himself, unable to believe that he couldn’t count a few peaches with his level of arithmetic.

This was a source of great sadness for Bashan Tiger, who prided himself on being the strongest Little Monster in the Three Realms. He felt he should easily be able to handle such a task.

"I hate counting," grumbled Bashan Tiger in an almost inaudible voice.

"What are you saying?" Yi Hailong curiously asked.

However, Bashan Tiger acted as if it were nothing and waved him off with a dismissive "It’s nothing," keen to avoid embarrassment.

He certainly wasn’t about to reveal this to Yi Hailong, a notorious gossip who would laugh him to scorn.

Seeing Bashan Tiger’s guilty look, Yi Hailong grew even more curious, wanting to probe further, but Bashan Tiger gave him no chance and skipped away with a jump.

Lin Fang looked at the ground full of peaches and revealed a hint of a smile, "Haha, just so happens, we can also hold our own Peach Banquet."

Upon hearing this, the crowd erupted in cheers, as if by some unspoken agreement.

The White Dragon also laughed and said, "It’s also our good luck that these peaches are just ripening. It’s just a pity that a few of the older trees were destroyed by the Great Sage Equalling Heaven and have never grown back since."

While everyone in the Demon Realm was joyfully eating peaches, Lin Fang was setting his thoughts on the outside. He merged with the Illusory Butterfly to become one, and once again began strolling through the Peach Garden.

Facing the Peaches, famed in the Three Realms as Heaven and Earth Spirit Roots, how could Lin Fang possibly give up? He had to think of a way to dig up a couple and take them back to plant.

After all, these Peaches were the only spirit roots in the Three Realms that could propagate.

Lin Fang carefully approached the base of a Peach tree, ready to study the peach’s planting methods in detail.

He cautiously lifted the turf, preparing to examine the requirements for the growth of the peaches.

However, when he peeled back the turf, a bright red caught his eye, and what followed was an unpleasant stench of blood.

"This..." Lin Fang was momentarily at a loss for words.

The Peach is a Heaven and Earth Spirit Root, a symbol of longevity; all immortals regard eating them as a sign of their status.

Moreover, Peaches had become the sustenance for the immortals of the Heavenly Court to prolong their lives. Without needing to reach too high a realm, just one Peach was enough to enhance one’s lifespan. With such a treasure, who would need the hardship of practice of cultivation? Longevity was readily within reach.

Logically, such spirit roots should grow in places abundant with spiritual energy, inhaling and exhaling the essence of Heaven and Earth, absorbing the quintessence of the sun and the moon, to have such defy-the-heavens effects.

But beneath this Peach tree, there was a foul stench. How could Lin Fang not be shocked?

He dug a bit more into the soil and exposed the ghastly white bones underneath. Lin Fang inspected closely and found that there were all kinds of corpses, both the Human Clan’s and monsters, though mostly the latter.

"This is a man-eating tree!" Lin Fang suddenly realized.

His mind flashed back to his past experiences at Wuzhuang Temple. So this was what a Heaven and Earth Spirit Root was; this was the darker side of longevity.

Those fruits, symbols of lifespan, were actually rooted in corpses to bear their fruit.

Lin Fang had never understood why the Heavenly Court would, after not too long a time, send the Heavenly Court Navy to sweep through Luzhou in the North, capturing and killing countless monsters.

It is said that Heaven has the virtue of cherishing life, and cultivators should embrace compassion. Yet the Heavenly Court did the opposite, massacring on a grand scale in Luzhou in the North and creating untold mortal tragedies.

It was precisely because of this that the Demon Clan of Luzhou in the North and the Heavenly Court were irreconcilably at odds, with hatred etched deep in their bones, a deep-seated enmity passed down from one generation to the next.

Even in the face of the Heavenly Court’s formidable army, there was not a single monster in Luzhou in the North who spoke of surrender, because of the relentless slaughter over so many years.

Lin Fang had been curious before. If the Heavenly Court wished for long-term peace, they should have used a gentle approach, and within a few years, the Demon Clan would have been under their control.

But the Heavenly Court chose the cruelest method of conquest and slaughter.

"So it was all to feed you man-eating fruit trees," Lin Fang muttered to himself as he looked up at the lush and leafy Peach trees.

In this moment, these fruit trees, which had once appeared so miraculous, suddenly took on a sinister and frightening aspect.