Who is spreading rumors that my filial piety towards them has changed?

As for the eighth and ninth ranks of the Wuque level, having only heard about them from others, Zhu Tong felt only awe and a sense of unattainable superiority.

"Why didn't you mention the missing ninth rank just now?" Zuo Donglu noticed the blind spot.

This time, it was the "flower girl" Tuberose who spoke. Her delicate eyebrows were slightly furrowed, as if she was puzzled after listening to their discussion of common sense for most of the day.

"Because everyone says that a flawed ninth rank does not exist. If a cultivator's physical body is not perfect, but he forcibly breaks through to the ninth rank, he will explode and die. After reaching this realm, the spirit and the body are inseparable. If the body cannot keep up with the spirit, it will only become a shackle on the breakthrough."

However, it is said that some cultivators, from the very beginning, have transcended the limitations of the physical body and focused solely on cultivating their spirit; yet, these individuals are often much weaker.

Chu Mingkong and the others noticed something: their discussions all seemed to assume that the physical body could not reach the ninth level first, and their topics of cultivation were based on the premise of "weak physical body, strong spirit".

But Grandma Basheng said that she knew there was a gap between herself and the Heavenly Realm, so she prepared everything she could, maxing out her physical body, but her divine soul was slightly inferior.

It seems that there really is a "specialization" situation in the Heavenly Realm, except that the weakness here is in the physical body, but it is not that they are unable to cultivate.

Unlike in the lower realms, the cultivation of the Divine Soul Realm has basically become a legend.

The group talked for a long time and made a preliminary deduction that the strongest enemy in Jianmu was the Holy Venerable.

Moreover, they also sensed that the perfect state that Zhu Tong and the others mentioned was not only about cultivating the spiritual and physical realms to the peak of the current realm, but also about a process of fusion and unification, which could only be achieved through cultivation techniques.

Having gained a general understanding of the situation in this celestial realm, they didn't delve any deeper. They simply asked a few questions to have a general idea of ​​the situation. No matter how strong the other side was, they still needed to enter Jianmu to investigate and support the Queen Mother of the West and the others.

After a long silence, Yun Nongyu turned her attention to the tuberose:

"When I inquired about Empress Yueying earlier, even Miss Zhu Tong knew about her situation. Why did you say you 'didn't know'?"

The tuberose was bewitched by Chu Mingkong, and its strongest form of resistance was to remain silent. Unable to lie to him, she said "I don't know," which was the truth.

The "flower girl" was truly unwilling to speak to these intruders; her delicate lips, partially hidden by flowers, were vaguely visible as she seemed to be biting them, yet she still had to speak up and explain:

"I am a flower in the Palace of Illusion. Only one or two of these flowers can be born in the entire Heavenly Realm over thousands of years. I was born with intelligence later."

Oh, I see!

When Empress Yueqi stirred up the heavens, this tuberose had not yet developed its own sentience; it was simply a rare flower left in this forbidden land.

This also explains why the tuberose, as an existence within the forbidden area of ​​the Heavenly Realm, is so "weak".

She wasn't one of the original members of the Jinghuan Spirit Palace at all!

"So you're not an ancient being here after all? You scared me half to death!" Zuo Qiuchi sat down next to Wan Xiangyu and said, "How about we get some wine and fruit to try? Let's see how the food is here."

Chu Mingkong now intends to return to the forbidden area to see how the demons in the temple react, in order to decide where to settle the white fox mother and daughter.

They definitely couldn't stay in this demon tribe, but they also couldn't be allowed to go to Jianmu with them.

He had assumed that Wanxiangyu wouldn't greet Zuo Qiuchi, but to his surprise, Wanxiangyu actually presented Zuo Qiuchi with a plate of fruits and wine, and even took the initiative to give him a juicy fruit.

What's going on? Could it be poisonous?

Chu Mingkong looked at the red jade fruit in front of him with surprise, not quite understanding Wanxiangyu's plan, but he still accepted it. He didn't believe that Wanxiangyu had such good intentions, but he believed in the power of the Hehuan True Scripture.

She couldn't possibly have any intention of harming him.

Seeing Chu Mingkong take a bite, Tuberose asked casually, "Is it good?"

Chu Mingkong didn't quite understand these evaluations, but the taste was still good. Juicy and not bitter fruit is generally hard to find with a bad taste.

"good."

"This is your child."

"?" Chu Mingkong remained expressionless, simply looking at her with a question mark on his face.

"The fruits that grew after you pollinated me, even if they don't have the chance to develop sentience, are still your children. Are they delicious?" Tuberose asked again after explaining.

"Pfft!" Zuo Qiuchi couldn't help but spit out the juice in his mouth.

"..."

Zuo Donglu, who had originally intended to eat it, silently put the fruit back into the white jade plate.

"Your Highness, even without what just happened, Miss Tuberose would have died on her own as usual," Yun Nongyu said, trying to reassure her after speaking to the other flowers and plants.

Chu Mingkong was speechless. This pretty girl could actually take revenge like this...

Even with Yun Nongyu's explanation, I still felt uneasy.

Chapter 149 Internal Strife within the Demon Tribe

After several explanations, Yun Nongyu explained that the races that have taken human form from spirit plants are different from the human race, and their concept of children is not the same as that of pregnancy and childbirth in the human race.

For races like the tuberose, the fruit they produce can indeed be considered children or offspring in a sense, but in terms of status, it is more like the hair of a human woman.

If the tuberose were to reach the age of childbirth, her fruit would be able to speak human language from the very beginning, just like the little fox Zhu Yan, except that it could not take human form.

Referring to that plate of fruit as children in the human race's view was truly meant to annoy Chu Mingkong.

It took Chu Mingkong quite a while to change his mindset.

Zuo Qiuchi was in a similar situation. After figuring things out, he began to feast on the delicacies and fine wine on the jade plate, while saying to Wanxiangyu:

"That's really not very kind of you. If you want to annoy your rebellious disciple, just say so. I'll teach you, that's all. Why hurt innocent people indiscriminately?"

When you appeared before, whichever old woman's image showed up, that made him uncomfortable!

It can only be said that the enemy is within, and the person who knows Chu Mingkong best is the most hateful when betrayed.

Zuo Qiuchi's method was indeed vicious. Aesthetic sense is subjective, but it cannot be denied that under certain historical conditions, aesthetic sense has objective universality.

Especially in a world where the spiritual energy of heaven and earth can give birth to the soul and spirit of all things, the appearance of races like Zhu Tong and Wan Xiangyu after their transformation is determined by heaven and earth.

However, if the first impression Chu Mingkong had of the tuberose after he had played with the flower was that of an old woman, he would have been upset for a long time. Even if the tuberose later transformed into the beautiful young woman it is now, that first impression could not be changed.

Chu Mingkong subconsciously felt that the old woman was the real person, and the younger persona behind her was just pretending to be young.

This should be the best way to restrain such a shameless person, but Zuo Qiuchi is also worried that if Chu Mingkong makes another breakthrough in the future, and the older generation doesn't care, then it will be a real problem!

When Wanxiangyu heard Zuo Qiuchi's brilliant plan, and Chu Mingkong did indeed show an awkward expression for a moment, she felt a little more favorably towards Zuo Qiuchi.

"It's no use. Your first impression is already formed. Turning into an old woman won't help. I can turn you back with just one word," Chu Mingkong warned sternly. He couldn't help but glance at Wan Xiangyu a few more times; she seemed to have genuinely considered turning into an old woman just now.

That evening, Xiangyu was beautiful and gentle. The tenderness she exuded from her appearance to her temperament was similar to that of her sister-in-law, Keqing. Her face naturally had a rosy glow, as if she had just come out of a sauna. To put it nicely, she was like a peony emerging from the water, pure and unpretentious. To put it more vulgarly, she looked like she had just been washed by the tide (meaning her face was flushed red from being washed by the sea).

Her lips were especially luscious, full and moist, with delicate lip lines.

Just one glance at a tuberose will inevitably draw your gaze to its small mouth. Those cherry-red lips, hidden behind the petals, possess a shy and alluring charm that makes one want to take a bite and taste them.

Such a delicate and beautiful woman, holding a flower in her mouth, uttered such bizarre words as "You ate your child," which truly made Chu Mingkong feel ashamed.

"Is the flower I forcibly pollinated earlier the one you're talking about?"

As soon as Chu Mingkong finished speaking, Wanxiangyu's face changed slightly, showing annoyance. Chu Mingkong then shamelessly gave the order:

"No rebuttal allowed, no uttering a sound!"

Just as Wan Xiangyu was about to speak, she suddenly fell silent, as if her mouth had been rudely blocked. She could only glare at Chu Mingkong with annoyance.

Chu Mingkong stopped struggling with her and quickly changed the subject, saying:

"Alright, let's leave the valley now and check with the demon tribe. Consider it a warm-up. Zhu Tong and little Zhu Yan, you've been our guides all this way, which is a great favor. That demon leader tried to harm you earlier, so I'll help you get justice."

This extra time spent, while helping Tuberose, is also helping myself.

Consider this a warm-up, allowing Zuo Qiuchi and the others to get used to fighting against opponents from the Heavenly Domain. They should focus their defenses on attacks that target the soul and should not bring their old combat habits with them.

Zhu Tong was a little embarrassed to accept Chu Mingkong's help. She said she was going to be a guide, but she didn't get much help. The woman in the flower suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and then the Illusion Palace Ruins appeared inexplicably.

It's really unbearable to expect someone to repay a favor when you haven't done anything wrong.

However, Chu Mingkong insisted that, in addition, Zhu Tong also discovered after waking up that her storage hairpin was missing, most likely taken by those guards while she was unconscious. This hairpin had to be retrieved, otherwise, when she left with Zhu Yan in the future, they would not have any money and everything would be inconvenient.

Zhu Tong accepted it anyway.

Before long, the group returned the way they came, and outside the valley, gusts of demonic miasma were rising.

Amidst the rampant demonic miasma, several more stone Buddhas appeared at the entrance of the valley. Only then did Chu Mingkong and the others realize that these strange stone Buddhas were not originally from the forbidden area, but rather that these stone Buddhas seemed to be encroaching on the forbidden valley from time to time.

Having just arrived in the Heavenly Realm, all sorts of situations were completely unfamiliar to me.

In a daze, Chu Mingkong rediscovered the feeling he had when he first came to this world, filled with curiosity about everything and eager to explore the stories behind all these things.

Unfortunately, time was limited, so we could only address the main issues.

They waited at the mouth of the valley, cleaning the stone Buddha while waiting for the demonic miasma to dissipate.

Waiting for the demonic miasma to dissipate, Zhu Tong temporarily entrusted the little fox to Chu Mingkong.

"You go in first. We'll look after you. I'm afraid our presence might disturb the monks in the temple." Chu Mingkong was somewhat suspicious of the monks here.

"Okay." Zhu Tong walked towards the temple first.

------------

Something was amiss inside the temple.

Originally, the demon tribe was united against a common enemy, working together to find the white fox mother and daughter, but a sudden turn of events plunged the demon tribe into internal strife.

The incident began when a monk from the temple suddenly arrived, brandishing a relic as a weapon, and demanded that the demons offer up their demon cores in advance, and in fact, all at once for fifty years' worth!

They didn't explain why, but their attitude was tough. If the demon tribe refused to pay tribute, these monks would directly kill and rob them.

This means that the demons, having migrated to this sacred temple land not long ago, have increased their cultivation levels considerably, yet they still have to pay these monks, who are essentially "collecting rent," an unknown amount of their own cultivation.

They could have simply killed them to rob them, but instead they acted like they were easy to talk to, making them pay tribute themselves.

How could the demons possibly give it to them? This time they said they would offer fifty years' worth of provisions in advance, and next year they'll say they'd offer hundreds more. What's the point of cultivating then?

However, the demon leader Jian Guotu did not consider so much. He directly asked the members of the demon tribe to share the burden, with each person contributing a little. If there were still four personal guards, the amount of demon cores that needed to be offered would be acceptable. But with just a few members missing, the pressure on the demon tribe members had increased significantly.

In particular, the fact that their leader, Jian Guotu, refused to pay tribute enraged the crowd. Some demanded that the demon tribe relocate, while others demanded that the leader also share the burden...

Complete chaos.

The monks remained calm and collected, observing the infighting and farce within the demon tribe. They didn't care about the demon tribe's decisions, only whether the demon tribe could provide enough. If the demon tribe wanted to leave, then the temple would have to take it by force!

It was at this moment that Zhu Tong appeared in the temple.

Jian Guotu was furious. These demon tribe members who relied on his protection were actually talking to him about a plan!

He was just planning to use a few demons as a warning to others, and Zhu Tong's appearance was a timely help. Thinking of the unexpected deaths of his four personal guards, he said:

"You vixen, you harmed my guards! Hand over their demon cores, and your own, and I'll spare your life!"