A life of leisure is worse than a life of flowers and splendour

When she woke up again, Du Shuangshuang felt like she had endless energy, her face was rosy, and she was in high spirits. Sitting in the formation, Du Shuangshuang began to carefully observe her surroundings. In the lush forest, the branches were full of fruits. Du Shuangshuang's eyes lit up and she was instantly excited. She knew she was in a forest before, but she had never had time to observe carefully. Now she realized that she was in a fruit forest. Such luck, it was simply God's will. Looking at the various spiritual fruits on the trees, Du Shuangshuang felt that this time she was going to get rich!

It was the red fruit that looked very precious even to the direct disciples. There were so many of them here, including the fourth-level spiritual fruit, the Jade Fragrance Fruit, which looked like a mango, the Thousand Gold Fruit that could cure all poisons, the Vajra Fruit that had the effect of strengthening the body, and many second- and third-level spiritual fruits. There were so many varieties that Du Shuangshuang couldn't count them all. It seemed that all the mountains and forests in this area were full of various spiritual fruits, but there were no guardian beasts or other monsters seen in this forest, not even a single cultivator.

Moreover, some ripe fruits fell to the ground and rotted before they were picked. It was such a waste of natural resources. Du Shuangshuang felt very distressed.

It would be better if there were no people or monsters. If I came across something guarded by a high-level monster, I wouldn't dare to take it by force. It would be fatal. If the teleportation talisman hadn't teleported me in time last time, I would have been dead if that blow had landed on me. I never wanted to have that kind of hair-raising, close brush with death experience again.

Besides, my top-grade magical robes were destroyed. While the inner one survived, the spiritual energy stored within them was automatically activated to protect me, and it's still not fully recharged. Now I've put on another outer one that can also absorb spiritual energy on its own, leaving me with only one of these robes. This one can at least protect me from one attack. If the opponent is low-level, like a Nascent Soul or a fourth-level demon beast, I might be able to use it a few more times. With the limited spiritual energy I have, I'm afraid the other robes won't be able to fully activate, let alone use. I only have one set of disciple uniforms issued by the sect left, and I don't dare to use them all up.

Du Shuangshuang shuttled between the branches and leaves, picking up the ripe spiritual fruits and placing them directly into the ring. While picking the fruits, she would occasionally release her spiritual sense to observe the surroundings, worried that she would be attacked by people or monsters while concentrating on picking fruits.

As the fruit piled up inside the ring, Du Shuangshuang realized that the highest-grade spiritual fruit here was only level four. It seemed that the further one went, the fewer lower-grade spiritual fruits there were. Du Shuangshuang wasn't picky, and she'd pick any ripe spiritual fruit she saw. Sometimes, if she came across a spiritual fruit she particularly liked, she'd select two and transplant them to the bracelet's herb garden. Seeing that the garden had already doubled in size, but with little space left, Du Shuangshuang restrained herself from transplanting more fruit trees.

Du Shuangshuang spent over a month in the orchard, filling a third of her ring with various spiritual fruits. During this time, she discovered the orchard's owners: a group of wine-brewing monkeys. The entire orchard was hidden by a natural maze, making it impossible to find it once outside. No wonder there were neither humans nor monsters in the orchard. The wine-brewing monkeys, whose activity was to pick the fruit and make the wine, were primarily first- and second-level monkeys. Du Shuangshuang carefully avoided the wine-brewing monkeys, freely moving through the orchard, picking the spiritual fruits.

Near a waterfall, all the fruit was of the fifth or sixth tier, and there was even an eighth-tier Dao fruit. It was said to contain a hint of Daoist spirit, capable of helping cultivators transcend tribulations and attain immortality. Only one fruit would bear fruit every thousand years. However, this was also the base camp for the winemaking monkeys, and the Dao fruit was guarded by a fourth-tier monkey. Winemaking monkeys were constantly washing the fruit they had gathered and bringing it back to the cave. Du Shuangshuang suspected that the wine they brewed must be stored in the cave.

Du Shuangshuang couldn't bear to think about the Daoguo fruit. The Tribulation Grass had nearly cost her her life before, and she didn't dare to provoke a fourth-level monkey. She was naturally greedy for the monkey wine inside, but she couldn't enter the cave by herself. If only she could become invisible. Unfortunately, although the formation allowed invisibility, it couldn't be moved at will.

Fighting them was a sure win, and stealth wasn't going to work either. Finally, Du Shuangshuang decided to try bartering. Didn't primitive people always barter? This should work, right? The monkeys were quite clever, and there were even fourth-level monkeys here, so Du Shuangshuang figured they could try to communicate. Even if the monkeys didn't want to trade, there wasn't a need to fight them outright. At worst, he could just use the teleportation talisman and leave.

For safety reasons, Du Shuangshuang first set up the formation, using only high-grade spirit stones. Then, she called out to the monkeys, "Hey, hello. Can I trade something with you?"

Facing these monkeys, Du Shuangshuang was also very nervous, especially when there was a fourth-level spirit monkey opposite. Du Shuangshuang's heart was in her throat. She held the teleportation talisman in her hand and had already accumulated spiritual power, just waiting for the slightest trouble to start at any time.

The monkeys, who had been chattering, suddenly fell silent upon hearing Du Shuangshuang's voice. Du Shuangshuang disabled the formation's concealment function, allowing them to see her. To show her sincerity, she took out a spirit rice cake, a spirit noodle bun, and a piece of wood essence on a plate and placed it two meters outside the formation.

"Take a look, what do you like? Can I trade you some spiritual fruit and monkey wine?"

A large group of monkeys ran over and stopped three or four meters away from the formation, which was where Du Shuangshuang was. The monkeys looked at Du Shuangshuang as if they were watching something new. Du Shuangshuang felt like she was watching a monkey show, but she was the monkey and the monkeys were the audience.

After watching Du Shuangshuang for a bit, the monkeys looked at the items on the plate on the ground. A third-level monkey, seemingly their leader, reached for the Wood Essence first. Upon touching it, it screamed with excitement. At this point, the fourth-level monkey was also drawn over. The third-level monkey handed the Wood Essence to the fourth-level monkey, who then took it with a gleam of excitement.

Du Shuangshuang knew that they were interested in her wood essence, so she took out a Qiankun bottle weighing one thousand kilograms and said, "How about I exchange one of these for a bottle of monkey wine weighing one thousand kilograms?" Du Shuangshuang pointed at the wood essence in its hand and said,

Seeing the other party nod, Du Shuangshuang used her spiritual power to drag the Qiankun Bottle and sent it out.

The fourth-rank monkey looked at the Qiankun Bottle curiously, as if wondering how such a small bottle could hold so much wine. Then, Du Shuangshuang personally led a few monkeys into the cave. Upon returning, Du Shuangshuang saw the surprise and joy in its eyes and handed it the Qiankun Bottle, gesturing with her hands. Du Shuangshuang probably understood that it also wanted a bottle like this. She had a lot of bottles, and if it liked it, she could exchange some for it.

Du Shuangshuang took out some more bottles, and the monkey was delighted. With these bottles, he could brew more monkey wine.

Du Shuangshuang pointed at three of them. "These three are for you. Can you give me some of those fifth- and sixth-tier spiritual fruits over there? I want every kind!" Spiritual fruits were both important and not so important to the spirit monkeys. Du Shuangshuang guessed that the cave was almost full of the monkey wine they brewed, otherwise the fourth-tier spirit monkey wouldn't have been so excited by the Qiankun Bottle. The extra fruit would rot if they had to eat it, so they'd be happy to exchange it for something else. However, fifth- and sixth-tier spiritual fruits were probably also very precious to them.

Sure enough, the monkey hesitated for a moment before ordering a few other monkeys to pick spiritual fruits. Seeing this, Du Shuangshuang handed the three Qiankun bottles to the monkey. She then took out a few more Wood Essences and said, "This is the same as before. One for a Qiankun bottle of Monkey Wine. How about that?"

Seeing the monkey nod, Du Shuangshuang handed the remaining five Qiankun bottles to the monkey. The monkey handed the items to the other monkeys and told them to fill them with wine. This deal was a good deal for Du Shuangshuang. Du Shuangshuang had seen that the monkey wine they filled for her was of very good quality. Although she couldn't drink, just opening the bottle and smelling it would make her drunk. The fragrance was really tempting. And these monkeys were also very honest, filling the bottles to the brim.

It's okay. The clever monkey squatted down again to study the clever flour buns and clever rice cakes on the plate.

"This is food. It's not of high quality, but it tastes good." Du Shuangshuang said.

After hearing Du Shuangshuang's words, the spirit monkey broke off a small piece and put it in his mouth. After taking a bite, he lost interest and let the other monkeys share it. However, a few monkeys were quite interested and took out their spirit fruits to exchange with Du Shuangshuang. Du Shuangshuang accepted all the gifts, giving more to the higher-level ones and fewer to the lower-level ones.

Just as they finished their work, the monkeys who had been picking spiritual fruits returned. Du Shuangshuang took a look and smiled. These monkeys were really honest. They had collected more than ten or twenty of almost every fifth- and sixth-grade spiritual fruit. This business was making a lot of money. Du Shuangshuang felt a little embarrassed and took out a few more Qiankun Jade Bottles for them.

Du Shuangshuang had thought the transaction was over, but the monkey suddenly asked her to wait a moment. It picked up the Qiankun Jade Bottle and walked back into the cave. A moment later, it emerged with a full bottle of wine. This time, the wine was clearly of a higher quality than before.

Du Shuangshuang uncorked the bottle, and before she even got close, the aroma of wine, even richer and more mellow than before, hit her nose. She was pleasantly surprised to find the monkeys so generous and kind, offering her such a generous reward. She couldn't help but sigh, "If these monkeys lived in the outside world, she could often come to them to exchange items for them."

Since the monkey had a special liking for the wood spirit, Du Shuangshuang offered it three more pieces without hesitation. The monkey was overjoyed, dancing with joy. Then, it asked the other monkeys to pick more spiritual fruit for Du Shuangshuang as a gift. Du Shuangshuang found these monkeys adorable, and after several interactions, she realized they were incredibly intelligent. Despite their inability to speak, communication was virtually seamless.

Through the simple transaction, Du Shuangshuang felt that these monkeys were very innocent and cute. Finally, he left a black water blood lotus in a jade box with a prohibition talisman on it to the monkey before teleporting away.

Why choose to teleport instead of walking out? No matter how cute the monkey is, Du Shuangshuang is still timid in front of the fourth-level spirit monkey. I don’t know if it’s because he was scared by the giant python before, but he dare not take any risks. He is just a small foundation-building monkey. If it weren’t for the formation, he would be like a little chicken in front of the fourth-level monkey, which is equivalent to the Nascent Soul. The monkey can pinch him to death with just his fingers.