Mortal: Starting with the Falling Cloud Sect, I proved my Dao through gacha pulls.

"Miss Yuan, please go ahead. I still have some trivial matters to attend to. We'll meet again at the canyon later."

After the two made their agreement, Su Mu did not immediately travel with Yuan Yao, but instead planned to settle his own identity matters first.

Yuan Yao was not surprised by what she heard. She nodded slightly, her almond-shaped eyes welling up with tears as she looked at Su Mu with a pitiful expression.

"Then Yuan Yao will take her leave first. This young lady's hopes are all pinned on Brother Xiao, so please don't keep me waiting."

As soon as she finished speaking, she parted her lips and spat out a grayish-white bead, which she presented to Su Mu along with the Soul-Crying Beast beside her.

"This is the Soul-Sounding Pearl. I have only recently subdued this beast and have not yet fully refined the pearl. Brother Xiao, you only need to erase the divine imprint I left on the pearl to use it."

"It's just that raising these Soul-Crying Beasts is extremely expensive, and Yuan Yao is already struggling to support them. However, with Brother Xiao's wealth and resources, it shouldn't be difficult for him to provide for them."

She wrinkled her nose slightly, pursed her lips, and smiled gently. Her bright and dazzling smile made the surrounding beautiful scenery pale in comparison.

Seeing this, Su Mu couldn't help but admire her a few more times. He thought to himself that this Miss Yuan was truly fickle in temperament, completely different from her cold and indifferent appearance when they first met.

Yuan Yao noticed his gaze, a blush crept across her cheeks, and the corners of her lips unconsciously turned up. After bowing and bidding farewell, she transformed into a streak of azure light and sped off towards the Ice and Fire Path.

Su Mu stood there, watching the departing figure, and shook his head with a soft laugh.

He casually refined the Soul-Sounding Pearl, erasing the residual divine consciousness of Yuan Yao from it.

The Soul-Crying Beast, having changed masters, showed no resistance whatsoever. It merely sniffed Su Mu a few times before curling up into a ball and falling into a deep sleep.

"I'll get you a bigger house."

Su Mu put the Crying Soul Beast into his world ring. After confirming that no one was around, he took out the Monkey Talisman and gently activated it. A flash of spiritual light appeared around him, and he transformed once again into a pale-faced scholar with an air of wickedness.

"Hehe, Xiao Yan has finished gathering the herbs and left. Now I am the Soul Demon Tang San."

He chuckled softly, urged his escape light, and sped towards the depths of the mountains, intending to take advantage of the remaining time to pick a few more spiritual herbs.

Several hours later, Su Mu was in a mountain forest, using several Netherworld Dust Insects to search for places where spiritual energy gathered.

Suddenly, the ground beneath their feet trembled without warning, and an overwhelming force swept over them from afar.

He focused his mind slightly, and his divine sense spread out instantly. After a brief investigation, he discovered that the source of this fluctuation was actually more than a hundred miles away.

"Could that commotion be coming from that bearded man?"

Su Mu's eyes flickered slightly. Remembering that this person's purpose for coming here was to find the Longevity Fruit, he immediately stopped hesitating and flew straight towards the source of the fluctuations.

He pushed his escape light to its limit, and in a short while, he had already traveled a hundred miles and appeared in front of a basin surrounded by seven strange peaks.

The spiritual energy here is far richer than that of ordinary mountains and forests. The basin is barren all around, with only gray and yellow stone walls, and not a single blade of grass grows. But in the very center of the basin, a tall spiritual tree, exuding a powerful vitality, stands proudly.

This tree is about seven zhang tall, and its trunk requires two people to hug it. Its bark is an ancient bronze color, and its surface is covered with fine jade-like cracks. It is clear at a glance that this is no ordinary tree.

Hanging from the branches are seven fist-sized pale golden fruits, their surfaces shrouded in a light golden mist, exuding a rich and refreshing vitality.

However, there were several fresh breaks on the branches of the fruit tree, indicating that some fruits had already been picked.

Not far from the spirit tree,

The two figures were locked in a stalemate, their strength creating a powerful shockwave.

One of the figures shone with golden light, his body covered with dense golden scales the size of copper coins, gleaming with a chilling light and extremely hard. It was none other than the barbarian with the Heaven-Supporting Demonic Art.

Engaged in battle was a bizarre humanoid monster shrouded in a black, foul aura; judging by its appearance, it was the mountain demon that guarded the Longevity Fruit Tree.

Not far from their feet, the corpse of an ice toad lay on the ground, its inner core forcibly removed, its gruesome state immediately apparent.

"As expected of that bearded fellow, this tree is undoubtedly the Longevity Fruit Tree. It seems he has already obtained a few."

Su Mu immediately grasped the situation before him, his gaze falling on the seven golden Longevity Fruits, and his eyes lit up slightly.

"Where did this brat come from, daring to covet my things!"

He did not deliberately conceal his aura; with the strength of the bearded man's spiritual sense, he had already sensed his arrival.

After discovering that the other party was only a Core Formation cultivator, the barbarian didn't take him seriously at all and continued to focus on dealing with the mountain demon.

Seeing that this Core Formation cultivator actually dared to covet the Longevity Fruit, he immediately let out a cold snort and unleashed a sharp, blade-like divine sense attack, relentlessly crushing towards Su Mu.

With Su Mu's current level of spiritual cultivation, he was naturally unaffected. He merely glanced at the two figures who were still locked in a stalemate, a slight smile playing on his lips, and with a flicker of his body, he flew straight towards the Longevity Fruit Tree.

"roar!"

The mountain demon guarding the spirit tree let out a furious roar, no longer caring about the barbarian with the longevity fruit that had already been picked. In a flash, it stood in front of Su Mu.

When the bearded man saw that Su Mu could easily withstand his spiritual attack, a look of surprise flashed across his face. Then, his eyes darted around and he stopped what he was doing, standing by and watching.

The mountain demon moved with an eerie grace, appearing instantly above Su Mu's head as if using some unknown supernatural power. Its pair of sinister, fierce eyes fixed on Su Mu, revealing a cruel and bloodthirsty glint. Its sharp claws, gleaming with a chilling light, slashed down towards Su Mu's head with a piercing shriek that tore through the air.

Su Mu, however, seemed completely unaware, his gaze fixed on the Longevity Fruit on the branch, reaching out to pluck it.

Just as the bearded man watched coldly, convinced that Su Mu would be torn apart by his claws in the next moment, a holy golden light suddenly shot up from behind Su Mu.

The golden light flashed for a moment, forcefully repelling the charging mandrill. As the light slowly dissipated, a graceful figure with four pairs of snow-white wings appeared out of thin air—it was Angewomon.

"A transformed demonic beast? No... it's not demonic energy from the demon race, but some kind of rare humanoid spirit beast. What a strange aura!"

Upon seeing this, the bearded man was startled. At first, he thought that a transformed demon had infiltrated the Void Heaven Palace, but after carefully sensing it, he could not detect any demonic aura. Instead, it seemed to be a special spiritual beast nurtured by heaven and earth, and he was immediately filled with doubt and uncertainty.

At the same time, he glanced at Su Mu and secretly began to doubt his identity. It was impossible for a Core Formation cultivator to control such a spiritual beast, especially given the man's extraordinary spiritual sense.

"Could it be some Nascent Soul cultivator in disguise? I can't see through it at all."

Su Mu had already collected all seven golden Longevity Fruits. He looked at the Longevity Fruit tree at his feet and wanted to take some roots back with him, but he soon discovered that the roots of this spiritual tree were connected to the world here by a restriction, and could not be moved at all.

"What a pity..."

He smacked his lips, then turned to look at the mandrill not far away. After looking it up and down, he smiled.

"Perfect opportunity to test Angewomon's strength."