Chapter 8: The Cliff Bottom Encounter (2)

  Xiao Tian cautiously parted the grass, looking ahead to see a cave entrance about two people high below the cliff in front of him, emitting a faint light. The entrance was mostly blocked by hanging vines and branches, and the area in front of it was overgrown with weeds, clearly not appearing to be inhabited. What kind of cave is this? How can there be light without anyone inside? Xiao Tian's curiosity, unique to his youth, overcame his fear, and he decided to investigate further.

  Xiao Tian flipped over the grass, slowly approaching the entrance of the cave, using a fish spear to pull aside the vines and branches blocking the entrance. He found that inside the cave was winding and seemed very deep, with light shining from within. Xiao Tian held his fish spear high and steeled himself to walk inside. As he went further in, the cave became wider and brighter. Inside the cave was quiet, without a single sound, and Xiao Tian could only hear his own footsteps and heartbeat. Following the light for dozens of meters, a massive stone chamber appeared before him, about five meters long, wide, and high. The top of the chamber was embedded with over ten large night pearls, emitting a soft glow that illuminated the entire chamber, which was the source of the light that had attracted Xiao Tian.

  The stone room was large but very empty, with only a stone table and two stone stools scattered around. Against the wall, there was also a stone bed, which had nothing on it. In the center of the stone room, there was a stone pool about three feet square. Only after walking over did one notice that half of the pool was filled with milky white water, with a layer of white mist floating on top. The white mist only floated within the pool and didn't spill out at all. In the center of the pool grew a strange plant, which even Small Sky, who had read extensively, couldn't identify. This plant had no branches or leaves, just a bare, purple stem that ended in a single, lonely red fruit about the size of an apricot. The fruit was bright red and seemed to be jumping with flames, looking like it was ripe. It emitted a refreshing fragrance into the air.

  Looking at the bright red fruit, Xiao Tian couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva. This fruit was too tempting, and it must be especially delicious. After all, he still had a young heart, so thinking this way, Xiao Tian walked forward, plucked the fruit from the tree, and put it in his mouth. Before he could even take a bite, the red fruit suddenly melted as soon as it entered his mouth, turning into a hot stream that flowed directly down his throat and into his stomach. "Boom!" As soon as the hot stream entered Xiao Tian's belly, it was like an explosion had occurred, immediately radiating throughout his entire body. His stomach felt like a raging fire had ignited inside, and the heat rushed up to his head, causing his face to flush bright red.

  "What's going on?" Little Tian really couldn't understand how this fruit had turned into a fire-like thing.

  "This thing really can't be eaten casually!" Little Tian thought with some regret.

  "Thirsty! Thirsty! Where is the water?" Before long, Little Swallow's mouth was parched and cracked open like a burning fire. But in this cave, except for the red fruit trees with white flowers, there wasn't even a drop of water. It seemed that going out to find water would be impossible without being burned to death before even reaching the entrance.

  "Whatever, let's eat first and put out the fire in our stomachs." Xiaotian also couldn't care about anything else, so he simply dove headfirst into the white ***, "Gulping" away.

  "Brrr!" Xiaotian's head had just poked into the pool when a wave of cold air hit him in the face. He hadn't even taken a few sips before he felt his head turn into a big ice block, and his limbs became stiff from the cold. He wanted to leave the pool but couldn't move, the cold water had entered his stomach and frozen his internal organs solid. The white stuff seemed to have found an outlet, pouring into Xiaotian's ears and nose, and in no time at all, not a drop was left in the stone pool, it had all poured into Xiaotian's body. He immediately fell to the ground with a "thud", looking like an ice pop.

  The white invasion was actually suppressing the red fruit's heat flow, but as the cold current surged in, the heat flow seemed to be enraged and started counterattacking. Xiao Tian's body became a battleground for the cold and hot currents. From the outside, his skin would turn bright red with sweat beads one moment, then pale blue with ice crystals the next. Unable to move, only his brain remained clear, and Xiao Tian truly experienced the taste of "Ice Fire Two Heavens".

  Pain! Xiao Tian's body now feels nothing but pain, the alternating extreme cold and heat is making Xiao Tian feel utterly miserable! Xiao Tian can no longer bear the intense pain transmitted from his body and finally passes out. Before losing consciousness, Xiao Tian's only thought was: "This water shouldn't be drunk recklessly!"

  The red fruit that Little Heaven ate was called Zhu Guo, a rare treasure that was hard to find in the Cultivation Realm and even the Immortal Realm. It liked to grow in extremely yin places. This plant bloomed once every 5,000 years, bore fruit once every 5,000 years, and took 10,000 years to mature one fruit. If it wasn't picked within an hour, it would wither and fall off, making it extremely precious and rare. Little Heaven happened to arrive just as the Zhu Guo was ripe.

  In the records of Taoist scriptures, Zhu Guo is said to have the effects of cutting off hair and washing the marrow, shedding the fetus and changing bones. It is extremely yang in nature, and its effect is particularly pronounced for those who practice fire-attribute techniques. However, this Zhu Guo cannot be taken directly, otherwise the violently stirring extreme yang medicinal energy inside will burn a person to ashes. Unless one is an immortal with a celestial body, ordinary Taoist practitioners must undergo rigorous training to refine it into a dan medicine before consumption. A single Zhu Guo refined into a dan medicine can be equivalent to a thousand years of bitter cultivation for a Taoist practitioner, which is why many Taoists flock to it like birds. Three thousand years ago, the appearance of a single Zhu Guo caused a great bloodbath in the Taoist community at that time, with several Taoist sects being destroyed as a result.

  The milky white substance in the stone pool is also an extraordinary object, it is a thousand-year-old cold jade marrow, which is a rare treasure in the cultivation world. The preciousness of this thing is not inferior to that of the red fruit. According to legend, one drop can make you immortal. In the records of the cultivation classics: "Clear as jade marrow pure, spread like golden essence fresh; color half with milk, fragrance and gold harmonious lead." This refers to the extremely precious thousand-year-old cold jade marrow. The color of the thousand-year-old cold jade marrow is divided into many kinds, yellow, green, purple, blue, red, white, among which the milky white is the top grade. Its nature is extremely yin, taking it can lighten the body and nourish the energy, nourish the primordial spirit, and has a particularly significant effect on those who practice water attribute exercises.

  The creation is wonderful, and things will inevitably reverse when they reach the extreme. It's precisely because of the extremely yin nature of the thousand-year-old icy jade that it can give birth to something as extremely yang as the red fruit.

  This reckless little Tian simultaneously incorporated both into his body, even the immortal didn't know what would happen next. All that could be seen was Little Tian's body color changing faster and faster as he lay unconscious on the ground, his shape growing bigger and bigger, it seemed like gluttonous Little Tian was about to explode and die.

  In a critical moment, a faint light flashed in Xiao Tian's lower abdomen. The light continued to flash and the white glow grew stronger, spreading throughout his body. Whether it was the fiery hot flow or the pale cold flow, they were all engulfed by the expanding white light with an unstoppable force. The white light slowly and steadily spread throughout Xiao Tian's body, causing his body to slowly float up, stopping only when he was over three meters high, suspended in mid-air like a large lantern hanging from the cave ceiling.

  After a short while, the white light on Xiao Tian's body finally consumed all the hot and cold flows. The dazzling white light slowly retracted, and Xiao Tian's swollen body returned to normal as the light receded. A little later, his skin became transparent, emitting a faint glow, and his internal organs could be seen clearly through his skin.

  "Whoosh!" A figure suddenly shot out from outside the cave.

  "Huh? A fairy body?" The newcomer exclaimed in surprise.

  What happened to Xiao Tian's body? Who will come next? Please pay attention to the next chapter "Start Cultivating".