Chapter 166: Fire Spirit Fruit

In the darkness, a pair of green eyes gleamed with a faint light. Kaya hid by the side of the stone house, staring at Xu Feng on the bed. He unconsciously revealed a trace of killing intent, his teeth grinding slightly as he wanted to bite through Xu Feng’s neck in one go.

“Today he only won because of his sharp weapon. Without that weapon, I could smash his head with one punch!” Kaya thought to himself, slowly moving closer to the stone bed.

Xu Feng seemed to still be in a deep sleep, his body motionless except for the slight rise and fall of his chest. In a place Kaya could not see, a small three-inch sword gleaming with silver light slid out from under the stone bed.

“Die!” Kaya’s movements suddenly quickened as he lunged toward Xu Feng. His fangs aimed directly at Xu Feng’s neck. Looking at the pale skin on Xu Feng’s neck, Kaya seemed to already feel the warmth and sweetness of blood flowing in his mouth.

Just as Kaya lunged forward, Xu Feng suddenly opened his eyes. Kaya was startled—the other had not been asleep after all. At that moment, Kaya suddenly felt a sharp pain in his back.

His legs went weak, and Kaya collapsed in front of the stone bed, his fierce lunge instantly deflated. Struggling, Kaya felt something flowing down from his back. He reached out to touch it and smelled the sticky, bloody scent.

“This is… my blood!” Kaya felt as though his strength was fading away with the loss of blood. The figure before him became blurry.

“How is this possible…” Kaya felt his whole body grow stiff. In his final moments before lying down, Suoman’s words surfaced in his mind again.

“Kaya, that human is powerful…”

“So, Suoman’s words were true. This human’s strength really is…” Kaya’s vision went black, and his body slumped down limply.

Xu Feng sat up, raising his right hand. The three-inch Flying Sword traced an arc, dancing up and down around his palm as if expressing a joyful, eager emotion.

“He didn’t even have Three-Star Peak strength, yet he dared to assassinate me. Truly, the ignorant are fearless!” Xu Feng sneered.

He cast the Gathering Art on Kaya’s corpse.

A white light enveloped Kaya’s body. Soon, the corpse disappeared, and several items glowing with white light appeared in its place.

“One complete leopard pelt, a few leopard bones, and one Three-Star Beast Crystal. Hah, a poor guy—not even a weapon…” Xu Feng curled his lip, weighed the Three-Star Beast Crystal in his hand a couple of times, and stored it in his ring.

The night passed without incident. Early the next morning, Xu Feng left the Ancient City alone, wanting to explore the surrounding mountains to see if he could find a few more mutant herbs to boost his strength.

As he left the Main Peak, Xu Feng felt many eyes watching him. Among the Beastkin, humans were seen as outsiders.

Even after leaving the Main Peak and stepping onto the adjacent mountain range, Xu Feng could still sense someone monitoring him. However, that person was powerful and seemed to intentionally reveal a trace of their presence, letting Xu Feng detect it without exposing their position, as if toying with him. This made it hard for Xu Feng to concentrate even while hunting monsters.

Xu Feng smiled slightly. Such child’s play was something he had experienced many times in his previous life. Even without anyone monitoring him, he never focused all his attention on the monsters while hunting. He always kept part of his awareness on the surroundings to guard against ambushes.

“Huh, what’s this?”

Xu Feng looked up and saw a fluffy, snow-white cluster floating toward him. He reached out and caught it, looking down.

It was a ball of snow-white willow catkin, light and airy but unusually tough. He tried to tear it apart with his hands but couldn’t; it remained a fluffy mass.

Xu Feng lifted his head and gazed into the distance.

Beyond the low hill ahead, a tree hundreds of meters tall stood in the distance like a giant.

Xu Feng crossed the low hill and approached the giant tree.

It was a willow tree, with countless drooping branches and snow-white catkins drifting in the wind, scattering lightly as if in a fairyland.

“Such a huge willow tree must have existed for hundreds or even thousands of years. But no wonder—perhaps it mutated after the apocalypse and grew so robust.” Xu Feng touched the willow tree’s bark and seemed to feel a dense spiritual entity within it.

“Maybe in some time, this willow tree will develop intelligence…” Xu Feng smiled slightly, thinking to himself.

After searching around without finding any herbs that could increase his attributes, Xu Feng glanced back at the willow tree and headed toward another peak. The willow tree swayed, its branches rustling…

Xu Feng continued forward until a fiery-red Ancient Tree came into view. The tree wasn’t tall, only about ten meters, but its trunk was extremely thick, so wide that dozens of people couldn’t encircle it.

Next to the Ancient Tree was an abandoned mine, where silver light flickered and clusters of silvery-white mist occasionally spurted out.

From within the abandoned mine, a faint beast’s roar could be heard, but upon listening carefully, it disappeared.

Xu Feng’s gaze fell on the stout Ancient Tree. The fiery-red tree seemed to be burning—its trunk, branches, and leaves were all crimson. The surrounding air appeared to ignite, with constant shimmering heat waves rising.

As Xu Feng approached the Ancient Tree, he smelled a faint fragrance. Looking closely, he saw two pale yellow fruits, each the size of a fist, nestled among the branches.

Xu Feng felt a surge of joy and prepared to climb the tree to pick the fruits. But the moment his hand touched the tree, a searing pain shot through his palm, as if burned.

Letting go and looking down, he saw his palm was red and already scalded.

“The temperature of this Ancient Tree must be over a thousand degrees; otherwise, it wouldn’t have scalded my hand.” Xu Feng looked up at the two pale yellow fruits in the branches. Picking them would require some effort.

“Flying Sword, out!” Xu Feng pointed with his right hand, and the Flying Sword shot out, slicing through the dense branches and cutting down the two fruits. Xu Feng caught them below and laughed heartily.

“Item Name: Fire Spirit Fruit. Curio. Attribute: After use, increases Constitution Attribute by 12 points and slightly enhances fire resistance.”

It was actually a fruit that increased Constitution, and it even boosted fire resistance slightly. Such a Curio—Xu Feng had never even heard of it in his previous life.

He eagerly swallowed the two fruits. Sure enough, his Constitution Attribute increased by twenty-four points. With just thirty-one more points, his Constitution Attribute would reach Four Stars, becoming the second attribute he raised to Four Stars.

After consuming the Fire Spirit Fruit, Xu Feng touched the Ancient Tree again. Though it still felt hot, it no longer scalded him upon contact like before.

After checking the Ancient Tree again and finding no other fruits, Xu Feng turned his attention to the abandoned mine nearby. The clusters of silver mist continuously shifted shapes in the air—sometimes like an ape, sometimes like a leopard, clawing and snarling—but they vanished quickly.

“This mine cave seems to hold curios as well. Although my Flying Sword has been successfully Forged, it can continuously absorb ores to evolve. The ores I found before were too ordinary. Maybe this mine cave has the ores I need.” Xu Feng thought to himself.