Chapter 272: The Capable Shall Have It
Song Jiulai recognized the fruit.
It was a Spirit Fruit.
The main ingredient for refining a Solid Heart Pill.
However, the Solid Heart Pill was a rare pill among medicinal pills, and small sects generally wouldn’t have it.
The refining recipe was also not in the hands of small sects; it wasn’t a common thing.
Lu Rufeng and Yi Tianhe didn’t move either; the two didn’t even get too close to the Spirit Fruit.
To avoid Lu Rufeng’s detection, Song Jiulai only released her Spiritual Sense from a distance, while Lai Cai rapidly moved forward.
Silently, without attracting anyone’s attention.
Until it got close behind Lu Rufeng, it quietly lay down in the soil, almost blending into it.
Lu Rufeng and Yi Tianhe didn’t notice her at all.
Song Jiulai’s eyes and ears suddenly heard clearly.
“That beast must be guarding below this Cold Pond. If it doesn’t come out, it’s hard to get this Spirit Fruit.”
That was Lu Rufeng’s voice.
Song Jiulai raised an eyebrow, now truly experiencing how useful Lai Cai was.
It had no Spiritual Energy, yet it could approach cultivators silently and allow Song Jiulai to hear their conversation. What a heaven-defying ability!
It was just unclear which tier of cultivator it was effective against.
Now it seemed at least the Foundation Establishment Stage could be achieved.
Thinking about it, those five hundred energy points were well spent!
Yi Tianhe said in a low voice, “Senior Brother, it’s actually raised by the Master of Tan Valley. In this Tan Valley, let’s be careful about what we say, shall we?”
“Hmph.” Lu Rufeng didn’t listen to the advice and instead said, “This strange Master of Tan Valley, we clearly made a transaction with Him. This Spirit Fruit is originally something we wanted to take, yet we still have to go through this damn trial. When I kill this beast—”
Before his voice even fell, he stepped towards the edge of the pond.
Cold air billowed from beneath his feet, and his legs and feet instantly lost all sensation.
Lu Rufeng immediately circulated his Cultivation Method to warm his entire body, to resist the cold attack of the Cold Pond.
When his feet were submerged in the pond water.
“Roar—”
A muffled roar came from the bottom of the pond.
The next second, a snow-white Spirit Beast appeared on the surface of the lake with agile movements.
This Spirit Beast resembled a leopard, about two meters tall and three meters long, entirely white, even its eyeballs were white.
On its head, three enormous ice crystals stood erect.
The moment it emerged from the water, the Spirit Beast unleashed a breath of ice towards Lu Rufeng.
Lu Rufeng used his Cultivation Technique, and his figure instantly vanished from his original position. The breath of ice directly turned the spot where he had stood, and the area more than ten meters behind it, into a pure white path of ice.
And it was extremely fast.
The pure white Spirit Beast stepped on the water as if it were solid ground, its eyes fixed on Lu Rufeng and Yi Tianhe with a hostile gaze.
Upon seeing the Spirit Beast, Lu Rufeng seemed somewhat surprised, “It’s actually a Tier 4 Snow Spirit Leopard.”
As he said this, a hint of greed unconsciously crept into his tone, “This Master of Tan Valley actually managed to find a rare Snow Spirit Leopard in Yunzhou.”
Thanks to his words, Song Jiulai also learned what a Snow Spirit Leopard was.
Snow Spirit Leopards were recorded in the Spirit Beast information, but only with general descriptions, no pictures.
Snow Spirit Leopards were a relatively rare species among Spirit Beasts. Legend had it they were children of ice and snow. If they stayed in one place for a long time, they could turn the surrounding area into a land of extreme ice and had a bonus effect on ice-type Spirit Materials, greatly increasing the appearance rate of high-level ice-type Spirit Materials.
Although the highest tier for Snow Spirit Leopards was only Tier 7, due to this ability, the Snow Spirit Leopards on the Yunzhou Continent had basically been captured clean, monopolized by major Beast Taming Sects.
Monopoly wasn’t a concept here.
Furthermore, because Snow Spirit Leopards were extremely difficult to breed, the Snow Spirit Leopards of the major Beast Taming Sects were not sold.
To see a Snow Spirit Leopard elsewhere was harder than ascending to heaven.
If this Master of Tan Valley wasn’t from the Beast Taming Sect, having such a Snow Spirit Leopard showed extraordinary strength.
Even someone like Lu Rufeng was tempted.
Although the Snow Spirit Leopard before him was only Tier 4, if he could take it back…
Unfortunately, this thought flashed by.
If it was a Snow Spirit Leopard, their strength would match.
It was one thing before it was injured, but now that he was heavily injured, Lu Rufeng wasn’t sure if he could capture it alive.
This Master of Tan Valley not only allowed people to pick Spirit Herbs but also allowed them to take Spirit Beasts if they had the strength and the beasts submitted.
But with such a powerful master, how could they easily submit to someone else?
A hint of ruthlessness flashed in Lu Rufeng’s eyes.
If they couldn’t obtain it, then they would simply destroy it!
After the Snow Spirit Leopard glanced at him, without any hesitation, its figure instantly disappeared from its spot, leaving only a faint, blurry white afterimage.
It charged towards Lu Rufeng.
Where the Snow Spirit Leopard passed, frost condensed.
Lu Rufeng and Yi Tianhe immediately separated.
Yi Tianhe summoned the Jade Flute that Song Jiulai had seen last time and played it. This time, the range of the sound waves that appeared was significantly larger, and the sound was brighter.
Clearly, this was the true power of her Magic Treasure.
Last time in the Secret Realm, both of them were forced to suppress their strength.
Song Jiulai was about to listen closely.
Suddenly: “Gurgle gurgle gurgle—”
It sounded like someone choking on water.
She looked closely; it was Lai Cai. Seeing the Snow Spirit Leopard fighting with Lu Rufeng, the frost waves had reached its location.
It seemed to panic and, instead of running towards Song Jiulai, it directly plunged into the bottom of the pond!
“Lai Cai!!”
Song Jiulai shouted internally with all her might, “Why are you rushing to your death!! Lai Cai, the family can’t be without you, if you die, this home—”
Before she could finish, the System scoffed, “Does it look like it’s in trouble?”
Indeed, besides the gurgling sound, after entering the bottom of the pond, Lai Cai, without any prior teaching, knew how to swim!
It was completely unaffected by the icy cold of the pond water. It swung its scorpion tail underwater, like a propeller, heading towards the Spirit Fruit.
Song Jiulai was astonished.
The two people and one beast fighting over there completely failed to notice this little scorpion trying to fish in troubled waters.
Cultivators relied too much on their intuition, and coupled with the scorpion’s strangeness, they didn’t notice this little scorpion’s tail whipping like a blur beneath the calm water surface.
When Lai Cai approached the Spirit Fruit, Song Jiulai was pleasantly surprised, thinking she had found a new use for Lai Cai.
Then she discovered Lai Cai was circling the plant roots underwater around the Spirit Fruit, unable to find a way to take away the Spirit Fruit, which was three times its size.
And if it shook the Spirit Fruit, the people over there would notice something was wrong, no matter how slow they were.
Song Jiulai quickly called out to it, “Don’t move for now, just wait.”
Since Lai Cai was unaffected by the cold water, Song Jiulai had to find a way to act when the opportunity arose.
Last time Lu Rufeng and Yi Tianhe snatched her Black Gold Glazed Grass, and now she was snatching the Spirit Fruit—no, this thing grew outside, not within the Tai Xuan Sect.
Talking about snatching or not.
To use more elegant wording, it was “the capable shall take it”!
