Chapter 126: Golden-Armored Fruit

Once all the tiger-headed eagles had departed, Yi Tian, Yi Li, and the others, deep within the cave, felt a collective sense of relief. The battle just moments ago had been fraught with peril; had it not been for this cavern to serve as a refuge, they likely would have succumbed to the siege of those hundreds of tiger-headed eagles.

Yi Tian immediately began to survey their surroundings. The cave stood four zhang high and stretched into an unfathomable depth. The surrounding rock walls bore traces of friction from savage beasts, and a faint, pungent odor drifted from the depths of the tunnel.

"Something is not right," Yi Tian remarked to Yi Feng and the others.

Upon hearing this, the members of the Samsara Squad also noticed the clues. It was clear that a savage beast might be lurking deeper within, and they had inadvertently trespassed into its lair.

"But now is not the time to investigate. You all must recover your True Yuan first, and I will stand guard," Yi Tian instructed.

Having expended relatively little energy in the previous skirmish, Yi Tian chose to let the others replenish their strength to ensure their combat readiness within the Folong Mountain Range. Yi Feng, Yi Kuang, and the others immediately sat cross-legged on the ground, producing high-grade Yuan stones to begin their recovery.

During that final engagement, they had unleashed the Sun-Shooting Heavenly Technique, nearly depleting the True Yuan stored within their twenty-seven thousand spirit orifices and leaving their dantian fields hollow. With the aid of high-grade Yuan stones, they recovered rapidly, reaching their peak in just two hours. Throughout this time, the cave remained undisturbed.

Once the others had recovered, it was Yi Tian’s turn to restore his own strength. Just as he reached his peak, he suddenly heard a faint, rustling vibration emanating from the depths of the cave. Yi Tian opened his eyes and stood up. Yi Shan, Yi Li, Yi Kuang, and Yi Feng, who had been on alert, also caught the sound, their expressions turning grave.

The rustling grew louder and more intense. After the span of an incense stick, a stream of gold-colored snakes emerged from the end of the cave. They were densely packed, a sight to behold that sent shivers down one's spine.

"Golden-Armored Snakes?" Yi Tian felt a jolt of shock, which was quickly replaced by a mix of surprise and delight. He had not expected this cave to be the nest of Golden-Armored Snakes; this was an unexpected windfall.

"Captain, what of it if they are Golden-Armored Snakes?" Yi Shan asked, noticing the shift in Yi Tian's expression. As a squad, they addressed Yi Tian as "Captain" to avoid the informality of using his given name. Within the Samsara Squad, rank was not determined by age or strength, but by title; everyone else was addressed by their own names.

Yi Feng, Yi Li, Yi Kuang, and Yi Hong were equally curious. These Golden-Armored Snakes were merely low-level savage beasts, among the weakest of their kind. They could not manipulate the powers of heaven and earth, but they possessed impenetrable golden scales, comparable to top-tier spirit artifacts. Even a ninth-rank martial artist with a spirit weapon would struggle to pierce their defenses. However, no matter how strong their armor, these snakes were as fragile as paper against the squad's True Yuan. Their numbers, while startling, did not pose a significant threat.

Yi Tian explained, "You clearly haven't been studying your texts diligently. Our tribe’s records state that wherever large numbers of Golden-Armored Snakes appear, Golden-Armored Fruit is sure to be found. A Golden-Armored Fruit is a low-grade spirit fruit; consuming one renders the flesh as hard as golden armor. The more one consumes, the stronger the body becomes, eventually reaching a level capable of resisting even top-tier, low-grade dharma treasures."

"Hiss!" the others gasped in unison. They were stunned to learn that the fruit could harden the human body to such an extent. If that were true, an ordinary dharma treasure would be useless against a cultivator who had consumed many such fruits, effectively creating an invincible warrior—a powerhouse just shy of a terrestrial-level titan, and a threat even to those at the Yuan Dan realm.

Seeing their excitement, Yi Tian poured cold water on their enthusiasm: "While the fruit is beneficial, it directly reinforces and 'solidifies' the human body. Further improvement becomes nearly impossible unless one consumes medium- or high-grade spirit fruits to break through the residual medicinal power and reshape the body."

This cooled their fervor. While powerful, the fruit had flaws—it lacked the holistic, unhindered growth provided by fruits like the Blood Bodhi, which did not limit future potential.

"However," Yi Tian continued, "while it may be flawed for us, it is a precious spirit fruit for most cultivators and carries a high value. In the tasks issued by Huangqin City, one hundred Golden-Armored Fruits are worth ten contribution points."

He laid out the facts. If the supply were scarce, the price would remain low, but in such quantities, the value would skyrocket. Once a human-tier expert refined a hundred fruits, their body would rival a basic low-grade dharma treasure, and with more, it could reach the strength of an extraordinary or even top-tier low-grade dharma treasure.

"The snakes are upon us! Move!" Yi Tian and the others launched their assault.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Waves of powerful True Yuan sent the swarming Golden-Armored Snakes flying. Many were crushed or severed, their blood staining the earth. The squad pressed forward into the depths of the cave. Along the way, they slaughtered countless snakes, piling their carcasses until they formed mounds, turning the cavern into a scene of carnage. They maintained their Yuan shields, resisting the biting and striking of hundreds of snakes; the constant clanging against their defenses was deafening.

Yi Tian and his team fought without mercy. The endless tide of snakes was enough to make one’s scalp tingle; an ordinary Yuan-shield expert would not have lasted long here. However, because they practiced two major heavenly techniques, their True Yuan was exceptionally condensed—comparable to that of experts in the Yuan-Law realm—and far more abundant than that of average fighters.

They pressed forward for nearly ten miles before the number of snakes began to dwindle. Along the way, they had slaughtered tens of thousands of them—a truly staggering figure. Finally, they reached the end of the tunnel and emerged into a vast underground space.

The young members of the Samsara Squad were struck dumb. The space was at least a hundred miles in diameter, and everywhere they looked, mountains of Golden-Armored Snakes lay coiled. The tens of thousands they had fought were merely a fraction of the total.

"There must be over a million of them!" Yi Hong exclaimed in disbelief.

Yi Feng, Yi Kuang, and the others were equally stunned. They had never imagined that such an ordinary-looking cave would harbor a serpent den containing over a million creatures. A moment later, excitement washed over them. In this vast space grew rows of magical little trees, each bearing shimmering, golden fruit—the Golden-Armored Fruit.

The quantity was immense—at least a hundred thousand, scattered throughout the chamber, casting a golden glow. While many were not yet fully ripe, remaining a greenish-gold, there were still at least ten thousand fully matured fruits. This was a fortune vast enough to tempt even top-tier human-level experts at the Yuan Dan stage. With these, one could forge a body as durable as golden armor, capable of standing against top-tier dharma treasures and becoming a fearsome force, capable of guarding an entire kingdom.