Chapter 182 (Part 1): I’ll Wait for You

Hua Jian felt her body being filled at an alarming rate. Countless surges of power poured into her, stuffing every corner of her being.

Soon, she reached her limit, yet a massive surplus of energy remained.

This leftover power diffused around her body, coalescing into a thick, viscous mass. Hua Jian floated within this substance, too weak to even open her eyes.

‘What does this mean?’

She couldn’t understand.

But her instincts made her grasp the current situation. She seemed to have become a seed, and the thing enveloping her was the fruit borne by that enormous plant.

After devouring an entire secret realm, the plant used all its energy to bear fruit. And Hua Jian was the seed wrapped in the pulp.

‘Wait, there’s a fight going on outside, and you just suicide to bear fruit?’

Hua Jian was stunned. Earlier, the situation outside had been two against two.

Then her plant, after eating its fill, just gave up resistance and started producing fruit. How absurd was that?

‘Can’t it even distinguish the overall situation?’

But now, she was completely unable to interfere with the plant’s actions. Trapped within this ever-thickening fruit pulp, even moving a finger became a luxury.

“This is… such a trap!”

……

“Is that bearing fruit?”

As time passed, the venerables finally realized what the plant was doing.

After swallowing an entire secret realm, it didn’t use that power for battle. Instead, it decisively channeled all its energy into condensing a fruit.

The base of the flower bud that had been supporting the young girl’s phantom began to swell, and a massive fruit gradually took shape.

Within the short span of a dozen exchanges between the saint clones, the plant had withered by more than half. The fruit, condensed from all its power, was beginning to take form.

What rank would a fruit born from a plant with a saint-level clone expending all its strength be?

That question flashed through everyone’s minds.

The next moment, the venerables’ breathing became a little quicker.

Without a doubt, this was definitely a saint-rank spiritual fruit—a true treasure rarely seen in ten thousand years!

In any saint sect, it would count as a sect-guarding treasure!

“A saint-rank spiritual fruit? So this was Wanhua Valley’s plan all along!”

The Tiandao Sect Leader paused mid-motion, then suddenly threw a fierce punch, forcing the Bailong blocking him back half a step.

“You wanted to protect that Hua Jian, but you never expected Wanhua Valley’s goal was to refine her into a saint-rank spiritual fruit, did you!”

Bailong couldn’t be bothered to respond to the Tiandao Sect Leader’s words.

She had been called out by her daughter to protect Hua Jian and stop the Tiandao Sect Leader.

She didn’t care what Wanhua Valley intended to do with Hua Jian.

As long as Hua Jian didn’t fall into the Tiandao Sect’s hands, that was enough.

Unfortunately, this clone of hers wasn’t very powerful. It was evenly matched against the opposing clone, with no way to decide the outcome in a short time.

Just then, the Wanling Sect Leader, who had been idling on the sidelines, finally made his move.

He bypassed the two clones still locked in combat and charged straight at the half-formed fruit. His goal was clear: he wanted that fruit.

Regardless of what was inside the fruit, he had ample reason to seize it.

If Hua Jian inside the fruit was still alive, he could cut the fruit open and rescue her, fulfilling the Lingcaifeng Master’s wish.

If Hua Jian had already become part of the fruit, then the Wanling Sect could use this saint-rank fruit for many purposes.

The simplest method was to use the fruit as a raw material to refine a sacred pill, allowing the Wanling Sect to gain a new saint.

Seizing the fruit = gaining a new saint for the Wanling Sect. That equation was enough to make the Wanling Sect Leader go all out.

But the fruit wasn’t about to surrender.

Sensing the Wanling Sect Leader’s clone approaching, wisps of colorful aura drifted out from the fruit, forming a phantom of a flower around its outer layer.

A phantom vine, with little finesse, smashed toward the Wanling Sect Leader.

He neither dodged nor avoided; instead, he swung a palm strike to meet the oncoming vine head-on.

The two collided without a sound, yet the entire spatial rift seemed to tremble.

Battles between saints were not flashy affairs—just raw, primal clashes of power. For saint clones, even more so.

Clones had limited energy; most spirit techniques were inferior to simply relying on physical prowess to crush the opponent.

The fruit showed no fear. It held its own against the Wanling Sect Leader’s fierce attacks. Moreover, as it fought back, silver, gleaming patterns began to appear on its skin.

“It’s trying to escape! Don’t let it get away!” the Tiandao Sect Leader’s clone shouted.

The Wanling Sect Leader understood this as well. But facing a clone of equal strength fighting desperately to block him, he too was unable to interfere with the fruit’s escape.

“Damn it! We can’t let the demonic path get this fruit!” The Tiandao Sect Leader gritted his teeth so hard they might shatter.

In the blink of an eye, he thought of a feasible plan. Though it meant he wouldn’t gain much, it was better than ending up empty-handed.

His reluctance to let the demonic path obtain the saint-rank fruit wasn’t entirely selfish.

As a saint of the righteous path, the Tiandao Sect Leader was still somewhat decent.

The situation now required someone to sacrifice. And since the Tiandao Sect had been the one to initiate the assault, he knew that if this operation went badly, the blame would fall on them.

At this point, he had to pay some price to lighten the burden on his shoulders.

That price could be the burnout of one clone.

“I’ll use self-destruction to seal the space! You take it down quickly!”

The Tiandao Sect Leader caught Bailong’s swinging claw and held it tight in his grasp.

Then, his clone began radiating an extremely terrifying energy fluctuation.

This decisive move caught Bailong off guard. By the time she tried to stop it, it was too late.

A clone, after all, wasn’t the main body—self-destructing carried no psychological burden.

And preventing a clone, an energy body, from self-destructing was absurdly difficult.

“This is bad…”

A blinding light erupted in the pitch-black space. A terrifying wave of spiritual power surged, disrupting everything nearby—including the laws of space.

The fruit, which had already grown semi-transparent, solidified again under the interference of the self-destruction. And visibly, wrinkles appeared on its once-smooth skin.

It seemed the pulp inside was being consumed slowly.

“I see. So the power to resist came from this?”

The Wanling Sect Leader nodded in understanding.

Taking advantage of the fruit being halted by the Tiandao Sect Leader’s self-destruction, he burned the energy of his own clone without regard for cost and lunged straight at the fruit.

In just a few blinks, the Tiandao Sect Leader had forced a one-for-one trade with Bailong the saint, sealing the space in the process.

The Wanling Sect Leader was going all out to intercept the fruit’s escape.

All of this happened far too quickly, making Huaxinhu, watching from a distance, break out in a cold sweat for that fruit and her own sect’s plan.

“Master Yanghong, can Hua Jian escape?”

“Hmph, no need to worry about her. The moment that fruit was formed, she was already safe.” Yanghong Venerable chuckled lightly, not a trace of concern for the future on her face.

She knew something about Hua Jian’s identity and was well aware that a few saint clones could not prevent Hua Jian from escaping successfully.

Not even saint clones—even if a saint came in person, they wouldn’t be able to stop Hua Jian if she was determined to leave.

Wanhua Valley’s original plan had required taking Hua Jian away under the siege of five saint clones.

Now, due to various reasons, it had become a two-on-two situation, far better than their initial plan.

Rather than worrying about Hua Jian, Yanghong Venerable thought they should be more concerned about themselves.

Before the righteous path realized what was happening, she needed to take Huaxinhu and leave quickly.

As for Hua Jian, by the time they returned to the Wanhua Valley main sect in the North, she would likely be waiting for them there.

“Don’t speak. We need to go.” Yanghong Venerable made a shushing gesture to Huaxinhu.

Then, tucking the still-childlike Huaxinhu under her arm, she quietly slipped into the space.

Subtle as her movements were, they were still noticed by the distant Sword Sect Venerable.

The next moment, a sword light shot from afar.

“Demon witch, don’t flee!”

“Tch, how is that sword cultivator’s dog nose so sharp?”

The Sword Sect Venerable and Yanghong Venerable left the battlefield in a pursuit. Penglai Venerable rubbed his nose, suddenly feeling a bit superfluous.

Now, only the stakeholders remained. Staying here was frankly awkward.

Oh, I know!

“I’ll go help!” With that, he too chased after the sword cultivator.

Now, the only venerables left were Feng Hua Venerable, who was protecting Linglong, the Lingcaifeng Master, and the Tiandao Sect Venerable.

The three of them were all intensely focused on the clash between the Wanling Sect Leader and the fruit.

At this moment, their thoughts surprisingly aligned: the fruit must not be allowed to leave.

Roar!

Bailong’s phantom, covered in soot from the Tiandao Sect Leader’s point-blank self-destruction, flew out from the dazzling fireworks of the saint clone’s explosion.

She glanced at the current situation, then turned her head toward Linglong.

Their eyes met, and she immediately understood Linglong’s intention.

Linglong’s goal was to protect Hua Jian. With the Tiandao Sect Leader out of the picture, her relationship with the Wanling Sect Leader had shifted.

Now, they were allies. The objective was to keep the fruit here and rescue Hua Jian from inside it!

Bailong, her body now much more ethereal, flew rapidly around the fruit.

With her constant disturbance, the space in this area became completely sealed.

The fruit could no longer escape through conventional spatial means.

And with the secret realm no longer providing energy, the fruit’s resistance had its limits.

Even if the Wanling Sect Leader’s clone couldn’t hold out, there were still other saint clones to take over and keep the fruit in place.

The Sword Sect and Penglai venerables had chased after Yanghong Venerable.

Among the three remaining venerables, there was still one who hadn’t summoned their sect’s saint clone.

It didn’t make sense that every other venerable attending the Ascension Gathering had brought a saint clone except Feng Hua Venerable.

In fact, Feng Hua Venerable’s hand had been resting on the token at her waist, waiting for the chance to release the Yaochi Sect Leader’s clone.

Unlike the other venerables, since the Yaochi Sect Leader was currently in Ascension City, Feng Hua Venerable could keep her informed of the current situation.

She hadn’t released the clone yet because her sect leader had told her to wait and see how things developed.

Now, it seemed this fruit was like a grasshopper after autumn—not long left to struggle?

Just as this thought appeared in Feng Hua Venerable’s mind, the situation in the saint battlefield changed abruptly.

The fruit had indeed run out of tricks to deal with the two venerables trying to keep it. So it resorted to its final move.

The fruit began to swell violently, and a destructive aura emanated from within.

This scene had just happened before. Everyone knew what it meant.

“She’s also going to self-destruct?!” Feng Hua Venerable was shocked, instinctively wanting to throw the token in her hand and let her sect leader handle the problem.

But the token seemed dead, not responding to her command.

“Alas…”

A long sigh echoed through the space.

Two figures, completely different from the clones, descended above the battlefield. Together, they laid down a restriction, briefly suspending the fight.

This time, it was the true saints themselves who had arrived.

“This is far enough. We were outplayed this time.” The Yaochi Sect Leader, hands behind her back, drifted in front of Bailong and the Wanling Sect Leader’s clone, signaling them to stop.