Chapter 384: Heavenly Fruit Tree
After exerting so much energy to get here, Lennon never thought the blue treasure box would fly away before his yes.
But it wasn't only the blue box that had suddenly vanished. All the crates, including the two golden treasure boxes and the black treasure box which were at the very top, were seen floating along the luminous beam at the same time.
“What is going on here?” Lennon muttered to himself. Already too exhausted, he had no energy to shout abuse.
But strange things such as this happened also in other places.
In the fourth stage of Cloud Road, which was called Thrilling Icy Plain, Frank killed three devil icy snowmen. By executing them, he was finally able to mount a new stage.
To kill the three snowmen, he not only relied on his excellent skills but also made use of the three talismans, given by his father. These talismans were extremely valuable. Frank had been through several life and death situations, but he never brought out these amulets. This time, without hesitation, he took them out to conquer the three devil icy snowmen.
He had no other choice. The rewards of the fourth stage were generous. He couldn't imagine how incredible the reward would be after he killed the three devil icy snowmen.
When he walked up the steps made of ice blocks, he saw a steaming pool of blood.
“A blood pool...” he whispered. He raised his head and looked at the wall. Frank read the words on the wall - 'flood dragon's blood', and those words appeared as flying dragons and dancing phoenixes.
It was flood dragon's blood! Frank was amazed.
While the flood dragon's blood wasn't a patch of a Genuine Dragon's blood, it would still greatly benefit the warrior if he soaked himself in it for some time.
So Frank felt it was worthwhile for him to use the three talismans!
He strode towards the blood pool in high spirits. However, before he could approach the pool, a strong beam of light shone over the blood pool. Then like the boxes, the blood pool appeared to travel along with the light until it vanished.
“What just happened? How did it fly away like that?” a stupefied Frank asked. He wasn't the type of person to give up easily. Faced with the strange situation, he immediately used his spear to tap the ground then flew toward the pool. However, just as he touched the ray of light, Frank was thrown off instantly and bounced before rolling down the steps made of ice blocks.
“Frank! What happened?” Lois screamed. She looked extremely worried as she rushed toward Frank and bent down to check him. Then she helped him get up.
In Thrilling Icy Plain, only Frank among the five was able to catch up with the three devil icy snowmen, who were all quite strong. It wasn't easy defeating them. To terminate the enemies, Frank needed his best skills and the three talismans, and still, it nearly cost him his life. But when he was about to succeed in getting the reward, the blood pool suddenly disappeared.
“What! What on earth is going on?” Frank bellowed. He shook off Lois' hands and stared with disappointment at the place where the blood pool once was. He was reluctant to accept the fact about its disappearance.
Rocher, Patrick, and Lewis also stared up at the sky with puzzled looks. There wasn't only one ray of light in the sky. There were as many as seven or eight rays of light interlacing in the air. They were all stumped about what was happening on Cloud Road.
Besides Death Road, Sea of Raging Fire and Life Road, strange things similar to this also happened in all the other places. Even near the entrance of the Cloud Road, there were rays of light in its numerous roads.
The Cloud Road was all abuzz because of those rays of light. It was impossible that Fernandez and the sect leaders didn't know about it.
“What on earth is going on? Why do strange things like this happen on Cloud Road?” “I have to report it to our superior!” a shocked Fernandez said.
Looking up at the rays of lights, Kenneth shook his head. He muttered, “Although Cloud Road is a broken world, its destruction will still take hundreds of thousands of years or even millions of years. It should be in the stability phase now, so why are there irregularities? Is it because of the flood dragon?”
The leader of the Auspice Sect spoke up, “It will make no sense to inform the superior. Our leader is practicing in a secluded place now.”
A worried Lady Long looked at the group. She said, “But how about the disciples on Cloud Road? If they were killed by the rays of light, what should we do? Their lives are of great importance!”
Every three years, disciples who passed the Cloud Road's exams could enter Cloud Hall, which meant they automatically became the elite disciples of Cloud Hall. Once they were part of Cloud Hall, they would receive excellent training and education. If all these elite disciples died at this time, it would be a huge loss for Cloud Hall.
“We could only wait and see. I'm hoping that this isn't a bad omen!”
While Fernandez observed the rays of light at random through the Picture Slab, his face turned ghastly pale.
Zen, who stood on the square, then realized why Tia had asked him to stand near the stone terrace.
And he now also understood why there was one light spot after another on the square!
These very light spots were what drew the treasured objects and treasure boxes on the Cloud Road through the light beams.
Suddenly, they heard loud crashing sounds.
Several treasure boxes pounded heavily on the square.
“The boxes!” Zen cried out. His eyes widened in shock at the sight of them. Those red treasure boxes appeared before his eyes were precisely the ones hidden in the secret test! It would cost much to get any one of these boxes. But now, they had been put casually on the square.
Again, the crashing sound jolted Zen.
Before Zen could react, six or seven blue boxes, three silver boxes, two golden boxes, and one black box came into view. He was too stunned over what he saw.
His mouth hung open at the sight of so many treasure boxes. And the young disciple remained this way for quite a while until his face felt stiff and numb.
Thanks to the silver box, Zen successfully obtained the manual of 'Malicious Wheel of Life and Death' left by the Blood Fiend Emperor. With this ability, Zen could become more powerful. Now, he wondered what the golden boxes and the black box contained.
And the temptation to find out was so great!
“Have you ever gotten any of the boxes?” Tia suddenly asked Zen. The question came out of nowhere as Zen continued to stare at the treasure boxes.
Shrugging his shoulders, Zen nodded modestly.
She glanced at the boxes again, and Tia found there were only three silver boxes remaining. But there were once four of them. Tia knitted her brows as she asked, “You did get three treasure boxes, right? Did you take the silver box?”
There was a total of five silver treasure boxes in the valley. With the head of the Cloud Hall taking away one of them, there had still been four of them left. But now she could only see three. It was obvious that someone else took one too, so Tia turned to Zen to ask.
When Zen nodded, Tia was taken aback. She was well aware of how tough it was to get the silver box.
Although she was capable of getting the box, too, Tia only tried doing it once. It was by accident at a later time when she found out the real secret behind the Cloud Road trial. Since then, she decided never to waste her time on the Sea of Raging Fire.
Because no matter how powerful she was, it was still impossible for her to get all the treasure boxes at the same time. It was more advisable for her to take the containers once by taking advantage of the crystal key left by the Blood Fiend Emperor.
Once she took action, Tia had to do her best and get all the boxes in one go.
When Zen, who believed that half of the boxes should be his, was walking closer to the containers and wanted to open one, Tia immediately stopped the disciple and dragged him back.
All of a sudden, something round was falling down in front of them, and it hit the ground with a loud thud, enough to crack the blue bricks.
That was the blood pool.
Although the blood pool crashed heavily on the ground, the flood dragon's blood was viscous that none of it spattered out of the pool. The spurting blood beads would always bounce back in the pool.
“Well... What is it?” Zen asked impatiently.
Although unfamiliar with the blood pool, Zen knew this was extraordinary based on the scent of the blood in the pool.
“The pool is full of flood dragon's blood. You can soak yourself there later. For now, however, just stay here and don't move around because there will be other things dropping down,” Tia told Zen. She felt discontented now. And one of her flaws was being inconsistent. Tia clearly disliked Zen, so it was a wonder that she had saved him just now.
Why didn't she just let the blood pool kill him? This way, it wouldn't be her fault even if he was killed. And it would make no difference to her will of martial arts.
However, it would be a waste to get rid of a talented fighter like Zen, who deserved high-grade training, Tia argued in her head. It would be a great loss for Cloud Hall if the disciple ended up being killed by the blood pool.
This was the excellent excuse that came to Tia's mind.
Suddenly, a big bang shook them.
At this time, there was something else falling down from the sky. It was a fruit tree with ten fruits. The size, color, and luster of each fruit were different from each other.
And Tia couldn't hide her surprise and happiness when she saw this particular fruit tree.
“A Heavenly Fruit Tree!”
Like most people, Tia had never seen a Heavenly Fruit Tree before. They mostly only heard about it through legends. In the Central Region, nobody else would have ever seen this tree.
It was at a secret auction in the Central Region where Tia had seen a heavenly fruit by chance. After being preserved for thousands of years, the fruit still remained plump and full. According to the auctioneer's description, it was the fruit of the Heavenly Fruit Tree.
Legend had it that there were only a total of ten heavenly fruits in the world. Each time one of the ten fruits was eaten, a new one would grow in the Heavenly Fruit Tree. However, there would never be more than ten fruits in the tree.
Besides, each heavenly fruit functioned differently. And with the magical effects from every fruit, they became extremely precious.
“I did not expect that the Heavenly Fruit Tree was planted in Cloud Road. And I didn't know that it once belonged to the Blood Fiend Emperor. It is beyond my expectation. It is really hard to imagine how powerful and strong his sect was!” Tia muttered. “There are ten fruits in the Heavenly Fruit Tree now. This means that the one at the secret auction was eaten by someone. Otherwise, there won't be ten in the tree!”
It made Zen wonder why Tia was so excited and happy. But it was easy for him to assume how extraordinary the tree was. He believed that half of the treasure here was his. And since there were ten fruits in the tree, he felt it was reasonable for him to eat five of them. It was truly an excellent deal.
As Zen wondered how delicious the heavenly fruits would be, another shadow hovered in the sky. Then the shadow dropped straight down and was embedded on the ground.
What fell was a grand sword that was ten feet high.