After being reborn, I took my childhood sweetheart to cultivate immortality.

The group was startled by Lei Zhensheng's shout and instinctively drew their weapons to protect themselves.

Seeing everyone's reaction, Lei Zhensheng said speechlessly, "Uh, why do you all look so nervous? I only shouted excitedly because I saw a large patch of fire lotuses."

Fire lotus? Everyone looked in the direction he was pointing, and indeed there was a vast expanse of fire lotuses stretching as far as the eye could see.

They were all seeing such a scene for the first time, hence their surprised and delighted stares at the other side. Not to mention others, even Xu Qingman and Yu Jinchen, who possessed spatial treasures, were seeing this for the first time.

"I'm rich!" That's what everyone's thinking right now.

The Fire Lotus is actually not much different in appearance from an ordinary lotus. The only difference is that after the Fire Lotus matures, it is surrounded by a ring of spiritual mist that looks like flames, hence the name Fire Lotus.

Each fire lotus produces five to ten lotus seeds, each with different effects, yet each one is a rare and valuable ingredient for alchemy.

Some time ago, someone accidentally picked a fire lotus, which was then exchanged by the Pill Sect for five hundred high-grade spirit stones. Now that they've found such a large patch, isn't that like striking it rich?

A cultivator in the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm shouted, "I've checked, most of them are already ripe, let's hurry over and pick them!"

Someone immediately responded, "Yes, yes, let's collect them first. Besides, with such a large area, we don't need to follow the previous allocation method anymore. How much we collect depends entirely on our own abilities."

Since no one had any objections, everyone flew swiftly towards the direction of the Fire Lotus.

what…

The cultivator who had flown to the front let out a scream. He had been bounced back by a transparent barrier and crashed to the ground, seriously injured.

There's a barrier! How are we supposed to get through now?

Less than ten meters away from the lotus pond, a transparent barrier blocked everyone's path.

Everyone was unwilling to accept this, and each used their own methods to try to find a way back to the past.

Finally, Xu Qingman found the reason. It turned out that this place had been separated by an array.

Based on her research into formations over the past few days, Xu Qingman finally found a weak point. She also figured out why the place they came from was gloomy and dark, with no sunlight, while the opposite side was bathed in bright sunshine.

All of this was due to the formation. She discovered that when the sunlight shone on that spot, a small passage appeared. Moreover, a continuous stream of spiritual energy was emanating from that passage.

This explains the resurgence of monsters and spiritual energy in the black hole during this period.

People speculated that a powerful being had sealed off all the passages connecting the Earth to the outside world, causing the spiritual energy to become thinner and thinner, and eventually depleted.

The current vulnerability is likely due to the formation being in place for too long and no one fixing it in time.

Who on earth could do something like this? To set up such a massive formation, this person's cultivation level must be beyond everyone's imagination. Given this, if we were discovered coming up here, wouldn't we also be in great danger?

Finally, Yu Jinchen suggested that after everyone had left, Xu Qingman, who was particularly skilled in array formations, should set up a high-level illusion array at the loophole in the array, so that only she herself could find and open the passage.

In this way, a large number of demonic beasts were prevented from causing trouble again, and the cultivators of this world were prevented from discovering that spiritual energy had leaked to Earth.

There are still too few high-level cultivators on our side. We should focus on improving our cultivation level before making any further plans.

After everyone had passed through the various passages, Xu Qingman took out array-setting materials from her spatial ring and set up an illusion array. Now, even she herself, if she hadn't left a trace of her aura on it, wouldn't have been able to find her way back.

Although everyone had arrived, they all waited until Xu Qingman finished setting up the array before starting to harvest the fire lotus. This shows that all thirty-odd cultivators were of good character and trustworthy.

There are also restrictions on picking the Fire Lotus. It cannot be touched directly with your hands or any tools. In order to preserve its medicinal properties, you must wrap your hands with spiritual power before picking it.

So everyone wished they could have eight hands. They all worked with utmost seriousness. Each person was like a herb-gathering machine, mechanically and tirelessly picking herbs.

They had been picking for over an hour. Although repeating the same action was quite tedious, no one was willing to leave. They had truly experienced what it meant to feel both pain and pleasure.

Taking advantage of a moment when no one was looking, Yu Jinchen dug up a few sections of lotus root and put them into his space to plant seeds. Then, he pulled Xu Qingman away from the lotus pond to check inside.

"Manman, look at these fruit trees. Are those the fruits growing on them the Vermilion Fruit?" Yu Jinchen asked, pointing to the fruit trees in front of him.

"My God, yes, this is a Vermilion Fruit Tree. Not only is there a Vermilion Fruit Tree here, but also Longevity Fruit and Seven-Colored Fruit. If I'm not mistaken, there's also a Heavenly Origin Fruit behind it."

Xu Qingman excitedly circled the orchard, though compared to the fruit of the Tree of Life that could extend lifespan by five hundred years, the twenty-year lifespan of the Longevity Fruit and the hundred-year lifespan of the Heavenly Origin Fruit were insignificant.

But who would dare to give the Tree of Life, something from the celestial realm, to others?

After the initial excitement subsided, Xu Qingman whispered, "Hurry up and pick them."

The two of them climbed up the Tianyuan Fruit Tree and picked the eighteen ripe fruits.

According to records, the Tianyuan Fruit takes a hundred years to flower, a hundred years to bear fruit, and another hundred years to mature. Moreover, the Tianyuan Fruit tree is naturally grown, and it withers quickly after each harvest, so obtaining it is purely a matter of luck.

After the Tianyuan Fruit Tree completely disappeared, the two picked some more spiritual fruits from the surrounding area before sending a telepathic message to the others, telling them that they had discovered a patch of spiritual fruits.

The other cultivators, who were already tired of picking fire lotuses, all rushed over when they heard there were spiritual fruits here.

Lei Zhensheng looked at the spirit fruit tree in front of him and laughed heartily, "Fellow Daoist Yu and Fellow Daoist Xu are truly noble people, willing to share such precious spirit fruits with us."

Ji Jingyu, a rogue cultivator from the previous team, chimed in, "Indeed, indeed. If you two need my help in the future, just let me know, and I will not refuse."

The other cultivators also expressed their gratitude to the two of them one by one, and they all thought to themselves, if they had discovered such treasures as the Vermilion Fruit and the Longevity Fruit, would they have been willing to share them with others?

Because of this incident, the group of cultivators who already admired Xu Qingman and her companion held them in even higher esteem. They even preferred to consult them first when faced with any problems later on.

After picking all the fruit, the group ventured deeper into the forest.

They traveled through the forest for about two hours, but apart from some common spiritual herbs, they found nothing of value.

However, although they are ordinary spiritual herbs, they are quite old, most of them being over a thousand years old. In my world, spiritual herbs that are over a hundred years old would be considered treasures.

So no one complained, and everyone diligently dug them out.

As everyone was searching with their heads down, Yu Jinchen suddenly stood up, carefully sensing something. After a short while, he nervously stopped several cultivators who were about to move forward and told everyone to retreat silently.