As Yang Hong battled thirty-four Golden Core level demonic beasts, all demonic beasts within the entire Hong Dong Secret Realm, regardless of their level or species, had their eyes turn blood-red. Then, whatever they were doing, they all began to rush towards Spirit Monkey Mountain.
Yang Hong approached the sixth-grade spiritual plant and examined the single fruit on the tree once more. The spiritual fruit was greenish-blue, a full circle larger than an adult's fist, resembling an unripe pomelo. However, upon closer inspection, Yang Hong discovered that the patterns on this "pomelo" actually resembled a human face. This fruit was like a head. It was quite bizarre.
"What kind of spiritual fruit is this? It's so strange. I can't tell what kind of spiritual plant it is at all."
"However, I don't seem to recognize many spiritual plants either."
"It seems this pomelo hasn't ripened yet. How about I give it a boost?"
As he spoke, Yang Hong placed his hand on the spiritual fruit tree and began to infuse it with his true qi.
"Ding~ You infused the Mutated Enlightenment Tree with 720 days of true qi, gaining a tenfold cultivation return, which returned 7.2 million days of true qi cultivation."
"Holy crap!"
Yang Hong was stunned outside the Treasure Lotus Pond. This was the second time he had received a tenfold return. He knew that since entering the Hong Dong Secret Realm, Yang Hong had infused many plants, but the returns he had received were generally below a hundredfold.
"Ding..."
"Ding..."
Yang Hong looked at the subsequent three notifications. There were no surprises; they were the usual notifications of cultivation reaching its cap and spells reaching max level.
What he didn't know was that just moments ago, the demon monkeys that had already advanced into the basin to surround him had stopped moving. They even began to slowly retreat. The further away demonic beasts also halted their steps, standing frozen in place.
"Enlightenment Fruit Tree? I think I've seen this somewhere before."
Yang Hong muttered to himself, beginning to search through his storage ring and storage pouch. After a while, he took out a jade slip and pressed it against his forehead, starting to read its contents.
The Enlightenment Fruit could enlighten the wisdom of living beings and improve a cultivator's comprehension. Demonic beasts, upon consuming an Enlightenment Fruit, could directly gain wisdom. Even wild beasts that had no intelligence would possess intelligence equivalent to a sixteen-year-old human after eating an Enlightenment Fruit. It was the most treasured heaven and earth spiritual fruit for all demonic beasts.
If Enlightenment Fruit was refined into pills by human alchemists with auxiliary ingredients, not only could it be used to create Enlightenment Pills to open the wisdom of demonic beasts, but it could also be used to refine Enlightenment Pills to increase the comprehension of human cultivators. Therefore, the Enlightenment Fruit was also a treasure that all human cultivators desired.
However, due to its special growth requirements, the Enlightenment Fruit could not be cultivated artificially, nor could it even be transplanted or farmed. It could only grow naturally in the wild. This, in turn, made the Enlightenment Fruit even rarer. Once an Enlightenment Fruit appeared, it would cause quite a stir in the cultivation world.
"Is this Enlightenment Tree like this because it mutated?"
After reading the information about the Enlightenment Fruit, Yang Hong circled the Enlightenment Tree, carefully studying it. Enlightenment Fruit trees generally had nine branches, bearing nine fruits. But the Enlightenment Tree before him was a bit strange. The fruit was larger, but there was only one. And that human face made this Enlightenment Fruit look quite bizarre.
"Who cares if it's bizarre or not? I just need to ripen it and take it. I'll rest here for a few days."
Yang Hong decided to stay at Spirit Monkey Mountain for a few days. He believed that after killing thirty-four Golden Core level demonic beasts, no idiotic demonic beast would dare to disturb him. Furthermore, according to the "Spiritual Plant Compendium" that Yang Hong had just read, the greenish-blue Enlightenment Fruit was close to ripening. It could be used as medicine once it turned green. Therefore, it wouldn't hurt to ripen it here for a few days. After all, this was a sixth-grade spiritual plant, a treasure that was difficult to find.
As if hearing Yang Hong's words, the dense population of monkeys on Spirit Monkey Mountain retreated from the basin, and the demonic beasts outside Spirit Monkey Mountain dispersed and returned to their nests. During his stay, Yang Hong did not rest idle. He used his other seven infusion opportunities. Although his cultivation was once again stuck, he could still cultivate martial arts and spell levels.
In his free time, he organized the spoils from his previous robberies. Spirit stones were placed in one storage bag, pills and magical artifacts in another storage ring. The collected spiritual plant seeds were placed in the storage embroidered patch he had obtained at the very beginning, as seeds lost their vitality the slowest in that patch. As for the spirit herbs, spiritual fruits, and demonic beast materials, they could simply be put into any larger storage bag.
At other times, Yang Hong was busy reading the jade slips he had looted. With his cultivation reaching the Fusion realm and his spiritual sense extending to five hundred and sixty zhang, Yang Hong's speed of reading jade slips had increased significantly. He could essentially finish reading a cultivation technique in the time it takes to brew a cup of tea. If it were a simple spell, he could finish reading three. However, everyone's spiritual sense and spirit were limited. Yang Hong could only read six hundred cultivation techniques and spells per day before he dared not continue. Any more would make him dizzy, nauseous, and vomit. This was a self-protection mechanism of the human brain. For safety's sake, Yang Hong only read five hundred jade slips per day before stopping. After all, this was a dangerous secret realm where battles could occur at any time, and he needed to maintain sufficient spirit and alertness.
Yang Hong spent sixteen days to finish all over seven thousand jade slips. Through the correction of the infusion and return system, Yang Hong obtained seven hundred and eighty-six cultivation techniques and three thousand nine hundred and sixty-seven spells. The number of cultivation techniques he actually obtained was far less than Yang Hong had anticipated. However, these cultivation techniques and spells were enough for Yang Hong to cultivate for a long time.
Additionally, there was another surprise: infusing the mutated Enlightenment Tree always resulted in a tenfold return. Yang Hong planned to stay here until the eve of the secret realm's closure before leaving. It would be a waste not to cultivate techniques in such a treasure land.
Having obtained seven hundred and eighty-six cultivation techniques this time, Yang Hong, through comparison, had a rough understanding of the relationship between the quality of cultivation techniques and the system's martial arts count. The system identified martial arts counts below nine points as low-grade Yellow tier, ten to eighteen points as mid-grade Yellow tier, and eighteen to twenty-seven as high-grade Yellow tier. Martial arts counts from twenty-eight to thirty points were peak-grade Yellow tier. This peak-grade cultivation technique had a relatively special martial arts value, with only a three-point difference. Thirty-one martial arts values would be Black tier cultivation techniques, with a growth pattern similar to Yellow tier. Beyond sixty-one points should be Earth tier cultivation techniques, but unfortunately, Yang Hong had not obtained any Earth tier cultivation techniques so far.
Furthermore, after "cultivating" for these past few days, Yang Hong had also discovered the relationship between martial arts count and cultivation time. Each point of martial arts value actually represented 365 years. This meant that if Yang Hong were to cultivate a cultivation technique with a martial arts value of only one, he would only need to infuse enough cultivation to reach 365 years to cultivate it to perfection at the ninety-ninth layer. Similarly, for a cultivation technique with a martial arts value of nine, he would need 3,285 years. The higher the value, the more cultivation was required. Therefore, it was very necessary to focus on cultivating techniques in this treasure land.
After infusing the mutated Enlightenment Tree for another eight days, seeing that the mutated Enlightenment Fruit had already turned green, Yang Hong unhesitatingly picked it. "Heh~ it's quite sturdy, but it looks really healthy being green." As soon as the mutated Enlightenment Fruit was picked, Yang Hong stored it in the storage embroidered patch. He was already thinking about opening it back home to get seeds and continue planting.
However, before Yang Hong could rejoice, monkeys from all over the mountain rushed towards him. "Jiji~ Jiji~" The angry roars of the monkeys seemed to pierce the heavens. And all the other demonic beasts in the secret realm, once again abandoning everything, frantically rushed towards this location. This time, they did not turn back midway.