Chapter 57: The Elephant Blood Fruit

Chen Yi’s primary purpose in coming to Elephant Valley was to obtain the Elephant Blood Fruit. In order to facilitate the transition to a new cultivation technique, he could no longer break through in his current stage of Qi Refinement. Though his cultivation in Qi Refinement could not progress, to enhance his strength, Chen Yi had no choice but to pursue a breakthrough in his physical body.

For his physical body to break through, he needed the Elephant Blood Fruit. The body cultivation technique he practiced was the Dragon-Elephant Art, a supreme ancient body-forging method created by observing the Heavenly Dragon and the Earthly Elephant. Mastery of this art would grant him the combined might of a dragon and an elephant, a power comparable to that of an immortal.

Although the Dragon-Elephant Art was immensely powerful, its cultivation was exceedingly difficult. Since acquiring it, Chen Yi had practiced with diligence, never missing a day. Yet, despite his tireless efforts, he had only managed to complete the first layer. He had not even touched upon the threshold of the second, and this was with the aid of countless fortunate encounters. Without them, he might not have completed the first layer at all.

There was, in fact, a shortcut to cultivating the Dragon-Elephant Art. Since it was modeled after the physical forms of the Heavenly Dragon and the Earthly Elephant, close contact with these beings would allow Chen Yi to rapidly advance in his cultivation. Yet, this shortcut was as out of reach as the stars. The Heavenly Dragon and Earthly Elephant were entities on par with immortals; not only was close contact impossible, even approaching them was unthinkable. The idea of seeking them out and observing them closely was nothing but wishful thinking.

Fortunately, Chen Yi’s resourcefulness prevailed. He conceived another shortcut: if he could not find a Heavenly Dragon or Earthly Elephant, he could instead seek out beasts that possessed their bloodlines. By extracting their essence and refining it within himself, he could transform his body to resemble theirs.

Such a transformation would naturally accelerate his progress in cultivating the Dragon-Elephant Art. Though this was a feasible shortcut, finding beasts with such bloodlines was an arduous task. Even if one was found, defeating it would be another challenge entirely, for the power of such creatures could be overwhelming. Even a trace of the Heavenly Dragon or Earthly Elephant’s blood would make them vastly stronger than ordinary beasts.

Luckily, during his last venture into the Sky Mountain Range, Chen Yi had a tremendous stroke of fortune. He consumed the Dragon Fruit, nurtured by the essence of a Heavenly Dragon, and thus developed the power of the dragon’s bloodline within him. This meant he no longer needed to search for beasts with the dragon’s blood; he only needed to find those with the earthly elephant’s blood.

As fate would have it, Chen Yi discovered in the Herbal Compendium that the Elephant Blood Fruit contained the essence of the Earthly Elephant bloodline. If he could find and consume this fruit, his Dragon-Elephant Art would naturally advance to the second layer, his physical strength reaching the level of the Foundation Establishment stage.

Quickly, Chen Yi gathered the elephant tusks scattered about the space and stored them in his spatial ring. Counting them, he found about two thousand in total—around a thousand from Foundation Establishment-level elephants, several hundred from the Golden Core stage, a few dozen from Nascent Soul, and just four from the Soul Splitter stage.

This expedition to the Elephant Tomb had brought him tremendous rewards. These tusks alone could be exchanged for at least several hundred thousand contribution points at the Mission Hall. Though their value excited him, what Chen Yi desired most was still the Elephant Blood Fruit. After all, only it could help him break through physically—contribution points were merely external things, incapable of aiding his body’s transformation.

The space within the Elephant Tomb was vast. Chen Yi searched the outer regions but could not find the fruit, which left him somewhat disappointed. However, as the tomb was so expansive, he decided to search the very center. If he could not find the fruit there, he would abandon the quest.

The Elephant Blood Fruit was formed by the nourishment of elephant blood. If it could not be found in the tomb at the heart of Elephant Valley, it was unlikely to exist elsewhere.

As Chen Yi moved toward the center, he caught a faint scent of blood in the air, which filled him with elation—for it meant the fruit might be near. Sure enough, when he reached the tomb’s heart, he discovered the Elephant Blood Fruit. At the very center was a pool of blood, and in its midst stood a small tree with a blood-red hue, bearing five or six fruits. As his gaze settled upon them, he saw, faintly, the forms of demonic elephants roaring within their depths.

This miraculous sight confirmed for Chen Yi that these were indeed Elephant Blood Fruits, for only they exhibited such wondrous phenomena—just as the Dragon Fruit he had previously consumed carried the image of a dragon roaring.

One thing puzzled him: the fruits appeared to have been deliberately cultivated. His guess was correct—the fruits had indeed been purposefully grown, not by anyone else, but by the demonic elephants of Elephant Valley. The fruits purified the essence of the Earthly Elephant bloodline within their bodies, gradually transforming them and greatly enhancing their strength.

In fact, the very existence of the Elephant Tomb was for the cultivation of these fruits. The demonic elephants would never kill their own kin simply to produce the fruit; instead, to strengthen their race, they devised a compromise—founding the tomb. It served two purposes: to lay their dead to rest, and to nurture the Elephant Blood Fruit. To grow the five or six fruits before him, the elephant tribe had spent centuries. Yet, they had never imagined their painstaking efforts would so easily fall into Chen Yi’s hands.

Stepping lightly over the pool, Chen Yi reached the lone patch of open ground at its heart. Producing a white jade box from his spatial ring, he picked three fruits from the tree and placed them inside.

His gaze then fixed intently upon the remaining two fruits, as if deliberating a momentous decision. Suddenly, a look of resolve flashed across his face. He plucked the final two fruits and swallowed them whole, then leaped into the pool of blood.

Upon entering the pool, Chen Yi immediately activated the Dragon-Elephant Art, absorbing the spiritual energy of the fruits in his belly and the power of the pool itself. Both the fruits and the pool contained the essence of the Earthly Elephant bloodline, so as he circulated his technique, the energy flowed swiftly and smoothly through him.