Chapter 1438: Qingluo Fruit

Han Li didn't stand on ceremony. He immediately followed a group of Sky-Peng people straight to a shop entrance on the second floor nearby. Retracting his wings and swaying his body, he entered through the door, appearing just like a true Sky-Peng person.

A bustling sound reached his ears. As his gaze swept around, Han Li's eyes flickered several times. This was a small plaza, several hundred zhang in area, with shops of various sizes densely arranged around it. Hundreds of Sky-Peng people were bustling in and out of these establishments.

In the very center of the plaza, a bluestone pillar, over ten zhang tall, stood prominently. Light flickered on its surface, as if something was faintly imprinted there. Beneath the pillar, more than a dozen people were looking up at its surface, discussing something in low voices. Han Li glanced at the pillar and, out of curiosity, walked closer.

He saw that the pillar's surface was divided in two from the middle, covered with dense writing. One half glowed red, while the other emitted a verdant green light. Han Li focused intently on the two sets of characters. He then realized that all of them were item names; some were quite familiar, while others were completely unknown to him.

These words appeared and disappeared intermittently, as if scrolling across the pillar's surface. At the base of the pillar, a middle-aged man, who appeared to be a guard, sat cross-legged with his eyes half-closed.

"This is..." Han Li felt a mix of surprise and doubt after scanning the two sets of characters and the man sitting below. Just then, a man in a black robe suddenly emerged from the crowd, raising his hand to offer several spirit stones to the guard at the pillar's base. The middle-aged guard opened his eyes, nodded, and then produced a short red rod from his wide sleeve, handing it to the man.

The man who had just approached took the red rod and swiftly waved it a few times at a blank spot on the pillar. Although the man's movements were incredibly swift, a blue light flashed in Han Li's eyes, allowing him to see everything clearly. Where the short rod was waved, several dazzling red characters instantly appeared, then flashed and vanished into the pillar. A moment later, these red characters reappeared in the same spot. A trace of surprise appeared on Han Li's face.

After watching for a while longer, another person stepped forward. This individual, however, paid no mind to the middle-aged guard. Instead, he spread his wings, flew several zhang into the air, and extended a finger to tap on some of the green characters on the pillar. Instantly, the characters emitted a verdant glow that swiftly merged into the person's finger, causing his entire body to radiate with spiritual light. The Sky-Peng person who had tapped the characters tilted his head and squinted his eyes, seemingly receiving some information. After a moment, he retracted his finger, turned around, and flew straight toward the main hall's entrance.

Several other individuals below also followed suit, either writing something on the pillar or flying directly to it to touch the red and green characters. Upon seeing this, Han Li stroked his chin, a dawning realization in his mind. To confirm his suspicion, he unceremoniously stepped forward and extended a finger to tap a row of green characters that appeared at the base of the pillar. The characters flashed with a verdant light, and a cool sensation rushed directly into his mind, where a line of information instantly appeared.

"For sale: First-grade Flowing Light Wood, unlimited quantity, 30,000 spirit stones per unit, Fourth Floor, Fifth Hall, Room 31." Han Li's mouth twitched. He shifted his body, turned to the other half of the pillar, and tapped his finger on a row of red characters. The same type of information appeared in his mind.

"Seeking to purchase: one complete Phoenix-tailed Bird skeleton, price negotiable, Ninth Floor, Second Hall, Shop 10!"

Han Li's expression grew a little odd. He hadn't expected the Sky-Peng people to use such a method for buying and selling items. Clearly, items posted on the pillar were either urgently needed or exceptionally rare, which was quite an ingenious system. This way, anyone who saw a message on the pillar could go directly to the listed shop to conduct business, making it much more convenient. The method itself didn't seem complicated and could apparently be fully implemented in human cultivation markets as well. With these thoughts in mind, Han Li stepped back a few paces and began to carefully examine the green characters listing items for sale. He intended to first scan all the information to see if there was anything that piqued his interest.

Although many item names differed between the two races due to their respective naming conventions, for some unknown reason, most rare items had nearly identical names. This was especially true for materials of considerable value to both races, whose names were exactly the same. This fact had surprised Han Li for quite a while when he first became acquainted with the language and characters of the Flying Spirit Race. However, even if this matter was a bit strange, he naturally wouldn't delve deep to uncover its reasons. Now, he simply raised his head, silently noting the pillar's contents without a word.

His gaze sharpened, and Han Li suddenly fixated on a few newly appeared green characters on the pillar, his heart suddenly pounding rapidly.

"Qingluo Fruit! They actually have this for sale here!" A flush appeared on Han Li's face. This fruit was the main ingredient for the legendary sacred medicine, the "Tianluo Pill," and for Han Li, it was undoubtedly one of the spirit fruits he most longed to acquire.

Although this spiritual pill was not as heaven-defying as the Blackflame Pill – which could increase a late-Body Integration cultivator's breakthrough chance by several tens of percent with just three pills – in the eyes of most high-level cultivators, and even old monsters above the Integration stage, its value absolutely far surpassed pills of the Blackflame Pill's caliber. While the Tianluo Pill, taken alone, certainly aided Body Integration cultivators in breaking through bottlenecks, this spiritual pill was actually rarely used in such a manner. Most individuals who acquired it used it in combination with other spiritual medicines. This was because the Tianluo Pill possessed highly unique medicinal properties, allowing it to perfectly blend with most spiritual medicines without any conflicts. Most incredibly, when consumed with other finished spiritual pills, it had a certain chance to increase their potency by 30% to nearly 50%—a truly heaven-defying effect.

In other words, if Han Li consumed a spiritual pill that could instantly grant him ten years of cultivation, but took it in conjunction with a Tianluo Pill, there was a certain probability that his cultivation would increase by twelve to fifteen years instead. Furthermore, this effect was surprisingly valid for all equivalent elixirs, regardless of their type. Consequently, the more valuable and rare the elixirs in a human cultivator's possession, the more they desired to take them in conjunction with a Tianluo Pill. If, by some stroke of luck, the elixir's effect increased by several tens of percent, it would naturally be cause for boundless joy.

As for the probability of the Tianluo Pill's effect taking place, it was truly difficult to ascertain. There were instances where individuals took three or four such spiritual pills consecutively, and each one significantly boosted the efficacy of the spiritual medicines taken alongside them. Conversely, there were also those who, having spent their entire fortunes to acquire seven or eight Tianluo Pills in one go, prepared to stake everything on a single gamble. Yet, to their utter dismay, not a single one proved effective. Despite the Tianluo Pill's unusually capricious auxiliary probability, countless cultivators had been driven to madness for this spiritual pill since its emergence.

Within just over a thousand years, all the Qingluo Fruit in the human territories had been completely harvested. What was frustrating, however, was this: This Qingluo Fruit took a staggering five to six thousand years to mature, and each spiritual tree could only bear a single fruit. Once harvested, the entire fruit-bearing spiritual tree would completely lose its spiritual energy and revert to an ordinary tree. Consequently, even if major sects, powerful factions, or influential forces wished to invest heavily in cultivating this fruit on a large scale, it would simply not be worth the effort. Thus, in subsequent years, only occasionally would someone find a few of these fruits deep within the desolate wilderness. The appearance of every Tianluo Pill prompted high-level cultivators to fiercely contend for it, with most ending up in the hands of old monsters above the Integration stage.

When Han Li first heard about this spiritual fruit in Tianyuan City, he was naturally very interested and dreamt of using the green liquid to cultivate large quantities of it. Unfortunately, the Qingluo Fruit (its seed, specifically) was also a rare spiritual medicine that could not be preserved for very long. Therefore, even in a place like Tianyuan City, which gathered almost all spiritual flowers and fruits from the Three Realms and Seven Lands, it was impossible to find a single seed of this spiritual fruit. Thus, Han Li could only sigh in frustration, gazing upon it with longing.

Now, seeing this spiritual medicine on the stone pillar, how could his heart not pound wildly, almost beyond his control? For a moment, Han Li disregarded looking at anything else. He immediately spread his wings behind him, flew upwards, and in a flash, reached the middle of the pillar, tapping his finger on the characters marking "Qingluo Fruit." As the verdant light flared, a row of information instantly appeared in his mind. But upon clearly seeing the information, he frowned.

"They actually want a face-to-face discussion; that might be a bit troublesome," Han Li murmured, the excitement on his face immediately subsiding by more than half. But since there was hope of obtaining the Qingluo Fruit, no matter how troublesome the matter, he would absolutely not give up. Therefore, after a brief moment of thought in the air, Han Li transformed into a streak of green light and flashed out of the area.

As soon as he exited the hall, he flew directly upwards, reaching the ninth floor in one go, and then continued along the passage. A short while later, Han Li glanced at the number marked above a certain hall entrance and flew in without hesitation. The hall was identical to the previous one, its size and layout seemingly copied exactly. The Sky-Peng people here were noticeably fewer than on the lower levels, numbering only about twenty or thirty individuals.

Han Li squinted his eyes and swept his gaze over the surrounding shop fronts. A sharp glint flashed in his eyes as he recognized and then headed toward a medium-sized shop located in one corner of the main hall. This shop was divided into two floors. Its entrance was obscured by a hazy green light screen, and a pale red jade token hung at the door, displaying words like "Ten Thousand Thunder Workshop." Han Li's gaze swept over the jade token; a trace of surprise flashed through his eyes, but his expression immediately returned to its usual calm. His figure flashed, and he unhesitatingly passed through the light screen at the entrance.

His eyes brightened as an empty room, thirty to forty zhang in size, appeared before him. A glossy, dark wooden table, several pale yellow wooden chairs, and seven or eight somewhat broken wooden shelves piled high with various disorganized goods constituted all the furnishings of the place. Apart from a lean, middle-aged man standing behind the wooden table, who appeared to be the shop owner, there were two other Sky-Peng people in the room. After Han Li subtly swept his divine sense over the three individuals, his expression couldn't help but subtly change.