"Young master, I did find a place recently that's become... strange." Tiger Warren scratched his chin thoughtfully. "But it's an eerie spot. I didn't dare explore too deeply."
James understood immediately. That strange place was exactly what he was looking for.
He pulled another silver ingot from his robes, watching Tiger's eyes widen with naked greed.
*What a rich fool,* the hunter was surely thinking. The silver James tossed around so casually was enough for an ordinary family to live comfortably for a month. Combined with his youth and apparent naivety, James must have looked like the perfect mark—a wealthy landlord's idiot son, ripe for the taking.
Tiger accepted the silver with a beaming smile.
"I'll lead the young master there right away."
---
James followed Tiger through increasingly complex terrain. As they ventured deeper into the mountains, he felt the concentration of spiritual energy rise noticeably. The air itself seemed thicker, richer. Unfortunately, no celestial phenomena had manifested yet—the fruit wasn't quite ripe.
By evening, after a full day of travel, they arrived at their destination.
*Strange* was the right word for it.
The weeds here had grown taller than James's body, leaving only his head visible above the grass. The trees were noticeably sturdier than those in the surrounding forest, their trunks thick and gnarled. James was certain now—what he sought was nearby.
Tiger Warren spoke up from beside him, his tone deceptively casual. "I wonder what abilities this fruit the young master seeks might possess?"
James ignored him. He walked in a slow circle, scanning the area, when his foot came down on something that cracked beneath his weight.
It felt like bone.
He looked down. What he'd stepped on was a human skeleton, long stripped of flesh, half-hidden in the tall grass.
In that same instant, a sharp glint flashed in Tiger's eyes. The hunter raised his rugged cleaver and lunged.
James, still looking down, allowed himself a small smile.
As Tiger's weapon descended, James's right hand moved. A blade materialized from seemingly nowhere—the Everett family's ancestral Rippling Wave Saber, its craftsmanship so intricate that the weapon could collapse into a palm-sized piece for concealment. The azure-blue steel caught the fading light as James swung in a single, fluid motion.
The cleaver snapped like rotten wood.
Tiger's expression shifted from murderous confidence to horror in the span of a heartbeat, but it was already too late. The saber carved through his body without resistance, bisecting him at the waist.
The two halves fell in opposite directions.
James flicked the blood from his blade and looked down at the corpse without emotion.
"So that's why no news of the spirit fruit ever spread. You killed everyone who found this place and stole their belongings."
He crouched beside the body and began searching it methodically.
"And you were a cultivator yourself—at least sixth layer of Body Tempering. You hid it well."
His hands found a book tucked inside Tiger's coat. When James saw the title, his eyes widened.
*Mistpeak Scripture: Outer Sect Chapter*
The powers of the Wei Empire were organized in a clear hierarchy. At the top stood one Dynasty, two Sacred Temples, three Great Abbeys, the Five Supreme Blades, and nine Noble Houses—all overseen by Grand Masters. Below them were one hundred and eight powers at the Master level.
The Mistpeak Sect was one of those hundred and eight.
Tiger Warren had murdered an outer disciple of the Mistpeak Sect and stolen their cultivation manual. The audacity of it was staggering. With a Master overseeing their sect, even the most desperate criminals typically avoided provoking Mistpeak disciples.
*Then again,* James thought, *the martial world is treacherous.* An outer sect disciple, ambushed by a mere hunter. It happened more often than people liked to admit. James himself had played a similar game—packaging himself as a naive rich boy to lower Tiger's guard. From the very beginning, he had never trusted the man.
Tiger had been deceived by appearances.
And now Tiger was dead.
James tucked the Mistpeak Scripture into his robes, already aware that it was a dangerous prize. If anyone discovered he possessed a stolen sect manual, the consequences would be severe. But he couldn't afford hesitation now. The smell of blood would attract predators, and James wasn't confident he could handle whatever lurked in these spiritually-rich mountains.
He retrieved his three silver ingots from the corpse and left the area without looking back.
---
James searched for the spirit fruit until the sun had completely set, but found nothing. As darkness fell and cold wind swept through the tall grass, the night came alive with sounds—not the calls of ordinary animals, but something deeper. Hungrier.
*Twisted Beasts.*
The family records spoke of them. Creatures that had undergone mutations similar to human cultivators, gaining immense strength and ferocity. Only Mortal Realm experts could reliably face them.
Having lived his entire life within the safety of the Everett compound, James had never encountered anything like this. The darkness pressed against him from all sides, and he felt something he hadn't experienced since arriving in this world: genuine fear.
Fear of the unknown. Fear of dying in the dark, alone, his body never found.
But stronger than that fear was another feeling entirely.
*I refuse to end up like my future self. I refuse to be mediocre. I want more.*
James gritted his teeth and employed the Breath Concealment Method he'd learned from the family archives. It wasn't an advanced technique, but as long as he revealed no flaws, it should be enough to survive the night.
He pressed himself against a tree trunk and went still.
Then—a light.
A wisp of radiance bloomed in the darkness, spreading outward like colored needles, illuminating the night in soft, ethereal hues.
The spirit fruit.
A treasure of heaven and earth, capable of changing one's very fate.
It was real. It was right there.
*So that's how it works.* James's mind raced even as his body remained frozen. *The fruit only reveals itself at night. During the day, it looks like any ordinary fruit on any ordinary tree. And because the nights here are so dangerous, Tiger never dared to explore after dark. That's why no one discovered it.*
In the original timeline—the one his future self had lived—Tiger would have spent months investigating this area, killing anyone who stumbled upon his territory, slowly piecing together the truth. Eventually, he would have discovered the fruit's secret and claimed it for himself.
But Tiger was dead now. His bones would feed the Twisted Beasts, if anything remained at all.
James forced himself to stay still. Every instinct screamed at him to rush forward, to seize the fruit while he could see it. But that would be suicide. The glow was surely attracting every predator in the area. Exposing himself now would make him nothing more than a sweet snack.
He endured.
His muscles cramped. His joints ached. Fear gnawed at the edges of his composure as the hours crawled past and the night sounds grew closer, then farther, then closer again.
Finally, as the first gray light of dawn touched the sky, the spirit fruit's radiance began to fade. The glowing fruit vanished from sight, becoming invisible once more among the ordinary foliage.
As if sensing the disappearance of its aura, the Twisted Beasts dispersed.
James collapsed against the tree trunk, gasping for breath, his whole body trembling.
He had survived.
And he remembered exactly where the fruit was hidden.
---
**End of Chapter 4**