Chapter 1419: Ghost

The sudden emergence of an unknown treasure attracted the attention of cultivators from all directions. As a few points of purple light appeared, cultivators hidden in various places emerged like sharks smelling blood, rushing towards their chosen targets.

In mere moments, the area where the purple lights emanated became as chaotic and lively as salt thrown into a hot pan, boiling with activity. Spiritual energy patterns pulsed chaotically, and multicolored lights intertwined and bloomed, as if dazzling fireworks had been ignited in those areas.

Lu Ye was not in a hurry to consume the Barrier-Breaking Fruit. He didn't know if it was genuine, so he dared not take it rashly.

Although the battle with Big Tiger was brief, the instantaneous clash was extremely dangerous, leaving him injured. He had been confronting Big Tiger until now, so he hadn't had time to examine his wounds.

Taking off his clothes now, he discovered a blur of blood and flesh on his chest, with several extremely deep claw marks across his entire torso. Blood had already stained the clothes below his chest red.

Fortunately, he was no longer an ordinary mortal. Earlier, while confronting Big Tiger, he had intentionally used his spiritual power to seal the wounds, so the bleeding wasn't too severe, though the injuries themselves looked quite gruesome.

He moved his limbs, confirmed there were no broken bones, and breathed a sigh of relief. If they were just flesh wounds, they would be relatively easy to treat.

He still had eight Healing Pills, which were quite effective.

Taking out the bottle of Healing Pills, Lu Ye poured one out and swallowed it. He then took out another, crushed it with his fingers, and evenly applied the powder to the wounds on his chest.

A wave of teeth-gritting pain washed over him.

After finishing these tasks, he put on his clothes, sat down cross-legged, and began to refine the medicinal power of the Healing Pill.

After a night, Lu Ye felt much better. The wounds had already begun to heal and scab, and he probably wouldn't need many more days to recover completely.

During this time, he finished eating the large snake he hadn't consumed earlier, replenishing his physical strength.

At dawn, Lu Ye went to a water source several miles away, easily caught a plump rabbit, and returned to the cave, holding it by its ears.

A moment later, Lu Ye sat cross-legged in the cave, holding the Barrier-Breaking Fruit. He took out his longsword and lightly pared off a piece of flesh from the fruit. Then he pried open the rabbit's mouth, stuffed the piece into its mouth, closed the rabbit's mouth, and shook it vigorously for a while.

After ensuring the rabbit had swallowed the fruit, Lu Ye released it. Perhaps due to the great fright, the rabbit lay motionless on the ground.

Lu Ye ignored the rabbit, standing by the cave entrance to ensure it wouldn't escape. He then began to examine the several storage bags Yi Yi had brought. Yesterday, when Yi Yi and Hu Po left, they hadn't taken these storage bags back, primarily because they were secured with restrictive locks, making them useless to them.

The storage bags were covered in dirt, as if they had been dug out of the ground.

He casually picked up a storage bag and directed his spiritual energy into it. However, he clearly felt that his spiritual power couldn't penetrate the bag, blocked by a peculiar force.

That was a restrictive lock. Every storage bag had its own, and the key to unlocking it was the spiritual energy of its owner.

Lu Ye originally had three storage bags: one belonging to Steward Yang, one to Zhou Cheng, and one given to him by the Sect Master.

Although Steward Yang's bag had a restrictive lock, he had opened it to retrieve his sword before he died. The situation was urgent at the time, and Steward Yang had neither the energy nor the inclination to lock the bag again, so everything inside ended up with Lu Ye.

As for Zhou Cheng's storage bag, the Sect Master had forcibly opened its restrictive lock for him.

These two storage bags remained unlocked.

The storage bag given to him by the Sect Master was brand new. After receiving it, Lu Ye nourished the restrictive lock within the bag with his own spiritual energy, allowing it to permeate the restriction, thereby enabling him to freely open and close the lock.

If his storage bag were accidentally lost, even if someone else obtained it, they wouldn't be able to open it easily unless they possessed some special unlocking technique.

Lu Ye naturally didn't have any special unlocking techniques; he was just trying it out of boredom.

As his spiritual energy slowly permeated the storage bag and sensed the presence of the restrictive lock, Lu Ye continuously surged his spiritual energy, pushing towards it.

Once, twice... By the third time, the restrictive lock suddenly vanished without a trace.

Just as Lu Ye was taken aback, a ball of fire suddenly erupted from the storage bag in his hand, blazing fiercely. He quickly threw the storage bag away, watching it burn into a pile of black ash in an extremely short time.

"It could do that?" Lu Ye frowned.

Only then did he understand that the restrictive lock wasn't just for protecting the storage bag from strangers; it could even destroy the entire storage bag at crucial moments.

This felt like the saying, "better to be shattered jade than intact pottery."

It seemed that without special unlocking techniques, one really shouldn't mess around. Destroying a storage bag was a minor matter, but what if those restrictive locks concealed some dangerous traps? He might end up getting injured.

Lu Ye put away the remaining storage bags and went to check on the rabbit's condition.

There were no problems; it was still lively and bouncing, looking very cute.

Grabbing the rabbit's head, he gave it a fierce twist. With a *crack*, he thought, "Such a cute rabbit must be delicious to eat."

It was confirmed: even if the Barrier-Breaking Fruit didn't have the effect of breaking barriers, it wasn't poisonous.

Lu Ye completely put his mind at ease. He walked to his cultivation spot, took out his meditation mat, sat down cross-legged, then took out the Barrier-Breaking Fruit and took a bite.

Juices overflowed, leaving a pleasant aroma on his lips and teeth. It was unexpectedly sweet. Lu Ye raised an eyebrow and quickly devoured the entire Barrier-Breaking Fruit.

The fruit had no pit, resembling a small tomato.

After a slight aftertaste, Lu Ye closed his eyes, concentrated, and quietly sensed the changes within him.

Initially, there was no change, but soon a warm current surged from his lower abdomen, similar to the sensation he felt when cultivating after taking spiritual pills. The difference was that previously, the medicinal power of spiritual pills would transform into spiritual energy or qi-blood energy. However, the warm current produced by the Barrier-Breaking Fruit was neither spiritual energy nor qi-blood energy; it was a force Lu Ye had never felt before.

The warm current accumulated in his abdomen, and Lu Ye attempted to guide it into his Source Spirit Aperture.

It went very smoothly.

The warm current passed from the Source Spirit Aperture into the Second Spirit Aperture, then immediately flowed into the Third, Fourth, and subsequent Spirit Apertures.

In just a short while, it bypassed the Eighth Spirit Aperture and continued to surge towards the Ninth. The next instant, Lu Ye felt the barrier of his Ninth Spirit Aperture rapidly melting, like snow under a blazing sun!

This discovery startled him. It was important to know that each time he had opened an aperture before, it had taken immense effort, repeatedly guiding his spiritual energy to impact the aperture barrier. Furthermore, the sensation during the process was extremely unpleasant; it felt as if someone was repeatedly tapping the location of the aperture with a small hammer, and after many attempts, a sore and bloated feeling would inevitably arise.

But now, there was no impact, and no discomfort. Wherever the medicinal effect of the Barrier-Breaking Fruit reached, the aperture barrier rapidly melted away.

Comparing the two, the Barrier-Breaking Fruit was simply a blessing for cultivators seeking to open their apertures.

No wonder Yi Yi had looked at him strangely when he previously asked her about the Barrier-Breaking Fruit's purpose. Now, it seemed the Barrier-Breaking Fruit was certainly not an unknown item; most likely, every cultivator knew of its existence.