The nirvana fruit was its name. Its taste was supposed to be one of the sweetest in the world but also one of the deadliest. If a person was to ingest this fruit without any preparation they would suffer a fast death. The moment the sweet nectar of the fruit reached their insides they would start to burn up.
To this day there were few people that could suffer through this fruit's condensed Qi. It would instantly cause the person that consumed it to burst up in flames of bright light. There would be nothing left but white ashes that radiated an eerie divine glow.
For this reason, the woman that Zhang Dong met up with was close to collapsing. He had managed to devour the whole fruit without batting an eye.
"H-how could this be…"
"It's a bit too sweet for my tastes but not that bad."
Zhang Dong smacked his lips as he licked up the juices from his mouth. Even when he tried to consume it all, the fruit was a bit too juicy and some of it dribbled down to the grass below. The moment it did a massive white glow of light burst forth while leaving a zone of deathly white ash behind in its wake.
"Hey, are you alright? Would this be a bad time to ask for another one?"
Zhang Dong asked while looking up into the tree. There weren't that many fruits left there as it was clearly something rather rare. While a normal person would probably die rather quickly from ingesting this pure holy energy, he was able to absorb all of it into this golden core.
This was truly a nascent soul treasure of the uppermost level, it was even closely approaching a level above it. It was hard for Zhang Dong to resist the temptation of ingesting a massive amount of holy energy like this. The woman clearly didn't deny him the fruit so he decided to quickly gobble it up before she changed her mind.
"Huh, what? Another one? Stop this instance, put your hand down!"
Zhang Dong was about to reach out for another fruit while he had the chance. It would be somewhat impolite to eat another one when the woman said otherwise. There was also the thing with her tossing herself in front of the tree and pulling out her weapon to defend it.
"How could you desecrate the secret garden, spit out the fruit this instance!"
"Spit it out? But you said that I could have it?"
"I… I didn't think you would eat it! Give it back!"
The woman had long black hair and looked like your everyday jade beauty, the only thing that was characteristic were her deep blue eyes and a strange golden gem in the middle of her forehead.
"I'm sorry but I don't think you'd want the remains of the fruit after I've eaten it… how about you have this instead."
The woman looked at a fruit that Zhang Dong pulled out from the spatial ring. While he had to clear out his spatial ring before arriving here he still came with some necessities that would be fine to smuggle into the inside of this clan.
"T-that's just a regular peach! How can that replace the sacred Nirvana fruit?"
"Is it a regular peach? How about you look again…"
"What are you babbling about? It's clearly a normal … !"
Soon the peach that he pulled out started glowing with a golden sheen. Soon a similar aura to that of the fruit that Zhang Dong had eaten sipped into this regular peach. Something like this didn't go unnoticed as more people started popping their heads from within this garden.
A group of ten beauties in similar dancer-like robes stood around him while he was holding a glowing peach. They were all pointing their spears at him and he was starting to think that he was transported into a certain Amazonian island.
"W-what did you do?"
"Nothing… I just gave the peach similar properties to that nirvana fruit. Regretfully it's not as potent but should be fine for lesser cultivators to eat, the taste should be the same as well."
After consuming the Nirvana peach he was able to analyze it. By infusing a somewhat ordinary spirit fruit that he got from his sect's garden he was able to create a lesser version with his own power. It would not hold a candle to the original but could be mass-produced and would still give people quite the boost of holy energies.
"Catch."
He threw the peach to the lady that was first to meet him. The woman dropped her own spear and almost fumbled in catching this new treasure. She quickly glanced at it and after analyzing it she was left speechless.
"T-this…"
Soon the other women gathered around that peach and started looking at it with much interest. After passing it around between themselves they came to some kind of consensus. They even started talking. One of them even proposed to take this fruit and him to the clan apothecary's for investigation.
"I wouldn't want to interrupt your debate but wasn't I supposed to meet the Azure Emperor?"
"He is right, we must fulfill our mission."
From what he could tell all of these beauties were nascent soul cultivators of various levels. The one that he met first was the strongest while the others kept shadowing the two. It was clear that they were the backup if he decided to be rowdy.
While she looked to be in her early twenties Zhang Dong knew that he was looking at someone that was above the age of Feng Maling. It was unclear to him how the old woman was able to keep her youthful appearance but there were many ways that even he knew about.
One would be using a disguising technique like the one he taught Zhang Jin. Then the only way to measure a person's true age would be their Qi that with age did change slightly. He on the other hand had his system that could pinpoint the ages of people he examined without much hassle.
"If you want more fruits, I could prepare more if you just supply me with peaches…"
The women looked at the strangely glowing fruit that they were handling and then went back to Zhang Dong who just smiled back at them. After absorbing the nirvana fruit his holy energies were already part of his cultivation.
When he used them up they would quickly regenerate after some rest, he could actually fashion far more of these treasures if they just let him eat more of those fruits.
It didn't seem that he had the trust of these beauties as they pointed their spears at him. He just moved his hands up as if he was being aimed by guns and started walking.
Now with another escort, he was unable to wander anywhere to see the sights. Soon they left the forest and arrived at a beautiful gate. This one as all the rest was made from some kind of bluestone that radiated a strange aura.
Dragons and serpents were clearly the motives of this garden of Eden-like island. The place they arrived was a large villa and from within he could hear a gentle zither tune. Someone was playing a slow emotional melody. What was strange about this tune was how it had a limited range and with a little step back, he found himself unable to hear it.
'Interesting, this must be some kind of sound-canceling formation, I wouldn't be surprised if this island isn't some kind of illusion.'
Zhang Dong looked up into the sky and found the sun's glow a bit strange. If he compared it to where it was before he entered this place, there was a difference. From this, he could make the conclusion that this could be inside of some sort of treasure like the Dimensional Regalia through which he would have a harder time to escape.
'The teleportation feature is still there…'
He glanced at his system window to see if he could still teleport out to the Argonaut. If nothing was grayed out it meant that he would be able to click it. The women that were guarding him could be considered the top experts of the empire but they were not his equal.
'Let me see this Azure Emperor.'
Now after stepping through the threshold of this gate he felt an even more protective barrier. It was clear that they were taking their defenses quite seriously and that for the unsuspected cultivators acting out here would be quite deadly.
"Wait here."
The group of amazonian jade beauties came to a full stop right after entering through the entrance to this beach resort villa. By how the gates looked a person would expect a giant castle behind it but instead it was a house made from bamboo. He could even hear some kind of stream flowing behind it and after spreading his senses there was also a hot spring.
'Did I arrive at an old Japanese inn or something?'
They made him wait for a few minutes thanks to which he had some time to examine all of the formations in this place. His eyebrows started twitching as even his own place could not compare to this. Even for him, it would be quite hard to figure out a way to escape on foot.
The women were clearly only able to get in through some kind of trick. Either the formations were attuned to their Qi or they were in possession of something that acted like a key. Even if he managed to get it, he would probably not be able to use it.
"The Emperor will now see you."
Zhang Dong nodded while he received the stink eye from all the women here. It was clear that they didn't trust him but for some reason, this Azure Emperor didn't seem that alarmed.
He expected to be padded down more thoroughly or be placed in some large room and be surrounded by a hundred guards before he got to talk with the big boss man. On the other hand, he found himself on some island resort that his grandparents would probably love to spend the rest of their life in.
"Please take off your shoes."
After coming through the entrance he noticed another beauty sitting there. She had more of a mature look and made this look like an inn out of a Japanese anime. After going through it he wandered inside and the more he walked the more he realized that there was something not right here.
Finally, at the end, the doors were slid open by two beauties that were guarding the door. Inside he finally saw the Azure Emperor, his face was buried in a lap of another beauty that was tending to his years.
'I sure hope this isn't what I think it is…'
He gulped as he checked his system window, he was ready to lay an egg if he discovered that the person before him was another world traveler.