A few hours later, Yu Xian became the daily champion.
And the daily champion's prize turned out to be a rank-9 Forbidden Fruit.
After receiving his prize, Yu Xian stared with great curiosity at the sealed fruit in his hand.
This was his first time actually laying eyes on a Forbidden Fruit. The feeling was rather magical, like a dream stepping into reality.
After all, he had grown up listening to legends of Forbidden Fruits. When he later learned that Zhang Shou had eaten one, his very first reaction had been wondering if Zhang Shou had poisoned himself with wild mushrooms.
In the past, he would have swallowed the Forbidden Fruit in a single gulp without a second thought.
Now, however, he felt little desire for it. More than anything, he was curious about what kind of thing it actually was.
He gave the Forbidden Fruit a sniff. Well, no particular smell.
Because it was currently sealed, it lacked that madness-inducing allure from the legends, looking just like an ordinary red fruit.
Seeing Yu Xian turning the Forbidden Fruit over and over in his hands, Feng Mingge said with an indifferent expression, "It's nothing more than an agglomeration of chaotic rules. Have you never seen one before?"
"Really haven't," Yu Xian replied.
The closest he had ever come to a Forbidden Fruit had been in the Ancient Cosmos Dragon's world.
Unfortunately, the Ancient Cosmos Dragon had beaten him to that one, and he had heard nothing more about Forbidden Fruits afterward.
Come to think of it, it was quite miraculous. Quite a few people on Earth seemed to have eaten Forbidden Fruits, yet Yu Xian had never run into a single one. If not for participating in this tournament, who knew when he would have finally laid eyes on a real one.
"Yours is an agglomeration of rules affected by the Abyss, with certain defects. These are what normal rule crystals look like. Generally, Mighty Ones use rule crystals like this as currency to trade for various items." Seeing that Yu Xian truly had never seen one, Feng Mingge retrieved several crystals of different colors, each giving off a faint glow, from his storage ring.
These crystals were irregular in shape, looking roughly like bits of broken silver.
Yu Xian glanced at the crystals in Feng Mingge's hand and found that their power was indeed remarkably similar to what was contained inside the Forbidden Fruit. Curious, he asked, "How many of these do you have?"
"Here, you can have them." Reading Yu Xian's thoughts, Feng Mingge handed the rule crystals straight to him.
Without standing on ceremony, Yu Xian took them and asked, "How do you make these things?"
"Rule crystals can only be condensed by practitioners who cultivate rule-based abilities or who have attained some comprehension of certain rules. However, even if someone doesn't cultivate a relevant system, once their strength reaches the level of a Mighty One, they can basically condense rule crystals. Alternatively, one can destroy worlds and extract the rules of those worlds to forge crystals," Feng Mingge answered.
Feng Laixian was essentially destroying worlds to condense rule crystals; it was just that he had already died, so everything was carried out passively, and the Forbidden Fruits had furthermore been contaminated by the Abyss, rendering them impure.
"Wait, with these rule crystals of yours... you didn't go destroying a bunch of worlds, did you?" Yu Xian glanced at the 'broken silver' in his hand, then looked at Feng Mingge with suspicion.
Feng Mingge gave Yu Xian a look of utter disdain and said coolly, "My clan has members who specialize in cultivating the power of rules. We have as many of these rule crystals as we could ever want. Destroying worlds to condense rule crystals is the work of the demonic path. My clan would never sink so low."
"Then how do you use this stuff? Just swallow it?" Yu Xian nodded, continuing his questions without the slightest hint of embarrassment.
Feng Mingge had grown accustomed to Yu Xian's thick skin and utter lack of shame. He answered, "Rule crystals are nearly all-purpose. You can consume them directly to comprehend the power of a specific rule. You can use them in array formations to serve as the core of a particular node. You can use them in artifact forging to imbue a weapon with a certain rule's power. You can use them to amplify spells... Wherever you can think of applying them, rule crystals can be integrated to make it even more powerful."
"I see."
Yu Xian nodded, then pinched one of the red rule crystals.
This crystal truly resembled a bit of broken silver. Its shape was completely irregular, but its color was exceedingly pure, without the slightest impurity. Looking at the crimson crystal with the naked eye, one could almost feel a scorching heat radiating from it.
Yet Yu Xian was certain that this feeling was an illusion. The crystal itself contained no energy; if it had, it would likely have burst into flames.
He swallowed the crystal in one gulp, and immediately felt a cluster of fire ignite within his body.
At the same time, an abundance of insights regarding fire surfaced out of thin air in his consciousness. If his previous ways of utilizing fire had been on par with an ordinary person's, he now felt as if he had played with fire for thousands of years, already able to faintly sense the 'will of fire.'
However, this sensation came quickly and left just as fast. In the blink of an eye, all the insights rapidly receded.
Yu Xian let out a burp, a few sparks puffing from his mouth. Satisfied, he said, "Quite a kick! I think this stuff could be used in cooking!"
"Cooking?"
Feng Mingge froze. He had assumed that after tasting one, Yu Xian would understand just how precious rule crystals were.
Yet the conclusion Yu Xian drew after eating one was cooking? What kind of thought process was that?
In truth, the rule crystals he had given Yu Xian were of one-hundred-percent purity. Put simply, one was already equivalent to a rank-1 Forbidden Fruit—and a pure one devoid of any side effects, at that.
If brought to Earth and given to an ordinary person, it could create an off-the-charts powerful fire-attribute expert in minutes.
Using this to lay a foundation was practically a god-tier starting hand.
It was only because Feng Mingge was currently a Mighty One; otherwise, an ordinary Transcendent hoping to obtain a rule crystal of such purity would have to rely on eight hundred lifetimes' worth of accumulated good karma and sheer luck.
He hadn't actually told Yu Xian that while the Fengxian clan did have people dedicated to producing rule crystals, those usually weren't nearly as pure. The rule crystals he had given Yu Xian were all crafted by his own hand, every single one extraordinarily precious.
"Got any more? Hand over a few more," Yu Xian said, pocketing the remaining rule crystals and looking at Feng Mingge.
With a stiff face, Feng Mingge rejected him flatly: "None left."
"Stingy," Yu Xian muttered under his breath.
Generally speaking, Feng Mingge had a very good temper.
Yet at this moment, his composure shattered.
The veins on his forehead bulged. His heart screamed to roar aloud, but the upbringing instilled in him since childhood made him choose to swallow his indignation and stew in silence.
"Courtesy demands reciprocity. I'll give you something good too." Yu Xian rummaged around in his storage ring for a moment, then pulled out a seal stamp.
Looking at Feng Mingge, he smiled and asked, "Where do you want it stamped?"
"Tell me what it does first." Feng Mingge didn't trust Yu Xian in the slightest.
Yu Xian explained, "This is the Qualified Stamp. Once it stamps you, all of your current abilities will be recorded. In the future, even if an enemy wants to weaken your abilities, they can only reduce you to your current level at most—they won't be able to weaken you any further."
"Then why don't you stamp yourself?" Feng Mingge asked after hearing this, eyeing Yu Xian.
Yu Xian replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "Because I still have plenty of room to grow stronger! Naturally, I should wait until I'm even stronger before using it."
"Forget it, I don't need it!"
Feng Mingge had a distinct feeling that Yu Xian harbored ill intentions, and decisively refused.
"All right then."
Yu Xian wore a face full of disappointment.
And seeing Yu Xian's disappointed expression, Feng Mingge became even more convinced that there was a catch to that stamp.
Chapter 430