The Dark Spirit Fruit transformed into an incredibly beautiful girl, looking pitiable and invoking sympathy. In such a situation, many would hesitate to harm her.
"Kind sir, please, could you spare me?" the girl pleaded with a desperate look. "I can assist you and make you stronger quickly. Please don't eat me..."
"Scram!" Yi Tianyun's gaze turned cold, and he intensified the power in his hand. With a squeeze, the girl screamed in agony, her illusion quickly dissipating back into a fruit indistinguishable from before.
This was undoubtedly the Dark Spirit Fruit's ability to bewitch, attempting to persuade Yi Tianyun not to consume it. However, these charms were pointless against him, easily broken, returning it to its original fruit form.
This trick, a tactic of high-grade spirit fruits, could have been fatal if he had succumbed; an unexpected attack might have drained him completely.
Such high-grade spirit fruits, including other spiritual medicines, possessed a rudimentary form of intelligence. How could they willingly allow themselves to be consumed? They would undoubtedly employ methods to protect themselves.
However, illusions are just that—illusions, not physical entities, and easily seen through. These charms held no significance for him; they fueled his anger even more.
Daring to bewitch him only made him less merciful.
"You do have some intelligence. You might have fooled other cultivators," Yi Tianyun said coldly, staring at the Dark Spirit Fruit. A slight oversight could have been lethal.
Compassion exists, but it depends on the object of such feelings. The Dark Spirit Fruit is inherently evil, devouring anything other than itself, making any sympathy for it pointless, only to hasten its nourishment.
He then threw the Dark Spirit Fruit into a shop to sell, receiving only hundreds of thousands of madness points—not compressed madness points, which are a different concept altogether.
Looking at the shop's pricing, the Dark Spirit Fruit was expensive, valued at eighty million madness points, equivalent to eight compressed madness points!
Selling it yielded only a fraction of a compressed madness point, but repurchasing it required eight. The shop was an utter rip-off.
Yi Tianyun was no fool; his reason for selling to the shop was simply to allow him to purchase the Dark Spirit Fruit whenever he wished. Its rarity justified a value of eight compressed madness points, making it freely purchasable for enhancing his evil spirit puppets or exchanging for other treasures without issue.
Given its rarity, should he take it to the Divine Realm, it would surely provoke a frantic scramble. Selling it would undoubtedly cause a significant uproar.
For him, needing only madness points to purchase indefinitely, regardless of frequency, was manageable. Initially, it might hurt to spend so much, but at least he could keep buying.
After all, the Dark Spirit Fruit required growth on a dark core and took tens of thousands of years to mature—a wait he could not afford.
The simplest and most brutal method was to throw it into the shop and repeatedly purchase it. Straightforward and practical. Without madness points, for now, he would soon have them.
"Eight compressed madness points, huh..." Yi Tianyun shook his head; the price was indeed steep. If it weren't for the surroundings being populated by Star Monarchs and higher, accumulating enough madness points could take ages.
He then turned his attention to the dark core, stepped forward, placed his hand on it, and with a focused look, he commanded:
"Collect!"
With a "whoosh," the vast dark core vanished from sight. Previously, the dark core had filled the space; now, it was empty, as if a large piece had been carved out.
The dark core hadn't disappeared but was instead stored in his inventory. He had thought to try this earlier, but those cores couldn't be haphazardly taken, or it would have caused significant disruptions.
Here, it was different; taking the core at will was no issue. With this trial, he easily stored it in his inventory, effortlessly outclassing any storage space or internal world.
"It got sucked in. Now, I can easily steal cores," Yi Tianyun thought with glee, having previously pondered whether it was possible. If he could take it, he could successfully steal all the cores here—perfect.
After securing the core, he didn't linger and promptly left. When he ascended back to the upper level, the room remained empty, with no one entering.
Upon opening the door, he saw Shu Ge, the steward, waiting outside, not daring to leave.
"Esteemed guest, you have emerged. May I inquire about the condition of President Mi Suo?" he asked, puzzled by the absence of Mi Suo's presence.
"Your president is still in the secret chamber; he said not to disturb him. I've exchanged some fine treasures with your president; he's likely going into seclusion," Yi Tianyun lied without blinking an
Eye.
Shu Ge nodded in understanding, not suspecting Yi Tianyun of lying. Given the vast disparity in their cultivations, how could Yi Tianyun harm their president?
With that, Yi Tianyun walked out boldly. Having just emerged, he immediately caught the attention of Earth Monarch Fa Yu and others, who exchanged glances, indicating they would proceed as planned.
Yi Tianyun then took to the skies, intending to leave Evil Moon City. After flying out of the city, he headed directly towards a remote area of the outer world, choosing a spot devoid of any Evil Spirit clans to see how many would pursue him.
As he continued his flight for a while and reached a relatively secluded area, suddenly, several figures appeared in front of him.
"Friend, where are you hurrying off to?" asked Earth Monarch Fa Yu, who appeared before Yi Tianyun with Earth Monarch Fan Na and other unknown Earth Monarchs.
In an instant, six Earth Monarchs blocked his path, and before Yi Tianyun could respond, more figures emerged.
"Earth Monarch Fa Yu, you were bound to intercept," said a group of Earth Monarchs who appeared nearby, unsurprised to see them.
"Earth Monarch Yu Ge, you've come too!" Fa Yu and his companions turned cold; dividing the spoils would be challenging with so many joining.
The newly appeared group of Earth Monarchs was not small either, adding up to eleven Earth Monarchs encircling him—a considerable force.
However, that was not all; more figures emerged behind him, effectively trapping Yi Tianyun. Batch after batch of Earth Monarchs appeared, crowding the area densely!