Legend of the Heavenly Fruit
Eps. 231 — Xi Family Destruction
Xi Jinxue felt his body warm, when he opened his eyes he found a bonfire not far from him.
It was already night when Xi Jinxue looked at the sky, he was currently lying on the ground with his head held up by a padded bundle of cloth.
"You've noticed Miss Xi?"
Xi Jinxue turned to the source of the voice, finding that someone was sitting near the bonfire, and, he could not see his face too clearly because his gaze was still a bit vague but surely the man was burning the venison placed on the fireplace.
Xi Jinxue got up slowly although his body still felt limp, his gaze looking around for a moment before falling onto that person back.
"Am I still alive?" Ask Xi Jinxue.
"Of course, Miss Xi just fainted from being too exhausted. You'd better rest first to recover your strength."
Xi Jinxue's hazy gaze slowly improved before he could finally clearly see the person's face. Xi Jinxue's heart beat faster when he realized the person was someone he knew.
"You-you! Aren't you?!" Xi Jinxue's expression immediately turned into shock. "How can you still be alive?"
Zhou Yuan raised an eyebrow, "Miss Xi what do you mean, of course I'm still alive."
"No way, it should have been that Brother Yuan had already died in the Academy Mountain three years ago! Does this mean I'm now dead and meeting your spirit?"
Zhou Yuan scratched his non-itchy nose while smiling awkwardly. "Miss Xi, you better calm yourself first, you still need a break..."
Xi Jinxue adjusted her breathing for a moment while digesting the situation that was going on, when the girl had calmed down she then asked Zhou Yuan again.
"Are you really Brother Yuan of the Zhou Family?" Ask the girl doubtfully.
Zhou Yuan smiled gently. "Of course, we've met before on the way to the capital and also while in the competition looking for moon orchids."
Xi Jinxue paused for a moment before nodding, now he believed the person in front of him was the Zhou Yuan he knew.
"Brother Yuan, didn't you already die in the attack of the academy last time? Why are you still alive and around here?"
Zhou Yuan scratched his cheek, "The explanation is quite long and maybe you won't believe it, rather than that how did Miss Xi guess that I was dead?"
Zhou Yuan was sure that when he fought Xie Bui on the mountain cliff, there was no one there except his three girls and the army of the beast race.
Xi Jinxue then explained that he heard that Zhou Yuan, Xiao Rou, Yifei, and Linxia, had disappeared after attacking the human beast race.
They had been sought by the academy for 4 months at least to find his body but the search was always fruitless, a year later, the academy declared Zhou Yuan and three of his girls dead even though they did not find their bodies.
"Before you are said to have died, many tournament participants or academy students who testified have been helped by you. You have played a big role because it attracts hundreds of human animals so they do not attack other students and participants, people assume that you are a great hero in the attack..."
That reason led the academy to conclude that Zhou Yuan had indeed died because it was absurdly impossible for Zhou Yuan to face hundreds of opponents at once.
'Delivering three years of course one would think the same thing let alone in battle...' Zhou Yuan shook his head while sighing quite long.
Zhou Yuan then looked at Xi Jinxue back, he was more interested in the others. "Miss Xi, what made you go after by the group of people earlier, it seems like they have no good intentions of you?"
"Ah, that..." Xi Jinxue bit his lips. "They're a criminal group that's after me."
Xi Jinxue then briefly related the problem, the group that chased him earlier was a criminal organization called the Red Scorpion. The organization was quite famous and quite famous moreover they had also joined the organization of the Sky Cloud Temple.
The Red Scorpion Organization wanted an object carried by Xi Jinxue, it was an object that his father had commissioned him to take him somewhere.
"They're after this, Brother Yuan, a tracking jade." Xi Jinxue showed Zhou Yuan the golden jade.
Zhou Yuan frowned, the jade was like the thing Jian Chen had brought before only its color alone distinguished it.
Without being asked, Xi Jinxue then explained about coughing up the jade on Zhou Yuan which was a jade slip that could detect the existence of a Heavenly Fruit.
"Brother Yuan might have seen the red moon phenomenon a few weeks ago, it signified that the Heavenly Fruit would appear in the martial world and that this jade could look for where it would grow..."
Celestial Fruits would indeed grow in the Moon Empire but their growing locations would appear in random places.
The jade that was in Xi Jinxue's hands was a relic from the Xi Family, his father told him to take it to a safer place.
Zhou Yuan was a little surprised to learn there was such an object in the martial world.
"Isn't it safer for the jade to be in the Xi Family, why should it be taken away?" Zhou Yuan asked a little confused.
"Brother Yuan, our family can't do it anymore..." Suddenly Xi Jinxue's voice shook. "The Xi family no longer exists now, our family has been destroyed..."
Zhou Yuan was surprised, he wanted to listen to the explanation further but Xi Jinxue could no longer hold back the grief so he started crying.
Zhou Yuan felt sorry for the girl but he did not do much, he waited until Xi Jinxue calmed his feelings back.
***
The Xi family which was the second strongest noble family in the Moon Empire and had now been destroyed by the alliance formed the Sky Cloud Temple, the reason they attacked the Nobles Family was related to the jade currently held by Xi Jinxue.
The Sky Cloud Temple organization wanted the jade to search for the existence of the heavenly fruit that would soon appear, they needed it to strengthen their alliance.
Actually the Xi Family had tried to hide the secret of the tracking jade from anyone but it seemed that among their families there was a traitor who leaked the secret.
The information was heard by the Sky Cloud Temple Organization, within three days they immediately made a huge army to destroy the Xi Royal Family.
Xi Jinxue unhesitatingly told Zhou Yuan all that, leaving the man speechless a thousand languages as well as the emotions within him turbulent.