It could be said that she would have lost her life long ago if it were not for Long Chen's encouragement.
It was only through clenching her teeth time and time again that she managed to survive until now. Many times, she would feel very tired and just want to sleep, but she did not want to die when she saw the Lightning Heart and the Everguard Heart. She felt like she had not lived long enough.
Long Chen's persistence became her persistence.
At a time like this, no words were enough to express her feelings. On one side was death, and on the other was a young man who charged forward desperately. Li Xuanji suddenly felt like she was so important when she saw the densely-packed wounds from the lightning.
"The patriarch's old man handed the clan to me because I'm very important."
"He's risking his life for me because I'm very important. So I really do exist …"
In a corner that Long Chen could not see, tears silently moistened her eyes. Even though the sky was dark, she felt like she could close her eyes at any time. She was like a candle that swayed in the wind.
Long Chen's efforts had become a lampshade that protected her.
Roar!
With a roar, golden lightning wrapped around Long Chen. The violet lightning retreated, and those that were too slow were directly devoured by the golden lightning.
After releasing the power of a hundred thousand divine crystals, the Golden Lightning Dragon fell into a short slumber. Now that it had awakened, it seemed like a king. It chased away all the violet lightning that had ravaged Long Chen's body.
"I never thought that the Golden Lightning Dragon could actually devour the lightning."
This gave Long Chen a huge surprise. The Golden Thunder Dragon coiled around his body, and the other purple thunderbolts didn't dare to approach him. Below, Su Zhe and Qin Shi had already caught up and were about to enter the lightning shackles. With the Golden Thunder Dragon's protection, Long Chen rushed out of the purple lightning shackles' range with a single step.
"The Saints' Fruit."
He had finally succeeded.
Long Chen cried tears of joy. The Saints' Fruit was just too important to him. After all this time, he had finally fulfilled his promise. His blood surged as the Golden Lightning Dragon took him into the clouds. The white Saints' Fruit was right before him, giving off a fragrance that almost made Long Chen faint.
Although there were many poisonous beasts here, none of them could sense Long Chen's existence.
Below, everyone became stunned when they saw that Long Chen had already arrived before the Saints' Fruit. Afterwards, they all gave up.
Under their numb gazes, Long Chen directly grabbed the Saints' Fruit without saying anything at all. The thing connected to the fruit was a black vine, so Long Chen actually failed to break it under his tug.
That made sense. Only such a tough vine could protect the Saints' Fruit.
Without saying a word, Long Chen turned the Scarlet Blood Heaven Desolation into a sword and cut the vines apart. Only the Scarlet Blood Heaven Desolation had such sharpness.
And again, the Saints' Fruit.
"I'll refine it."
At this moment, Long Chen closed his eyes. The surroundings shook as he stood at the peak, yet he was so calm.
That holy white fruit appeared in the Great Void Realm, right in front of Li Xuanji.
The white light illuminated everything around Li Xuanji. Her eyes had already become blurry from tears. She had never cried before, so she could no longer feel sad this time.
The man had paid such a heavy price to obtain this tiny fruit for her.
Just like what he had said, he had made a promise. He would obtain it no matter what.
She had already become so withered that she seemed like an old woman.
At this moment, the Saints' Fruit turned into a milky-white liquid and directly entered her mouth. Immediately, the withered tree was revived, and the beauty shone with a new luster.
The milky-white light turned into a cocoon, enveloping her. Long Chen believed that she would return to her original appearance when she woke up.
Long Chen was already extremely satisfied with what he had done.
However, the true challenge would come next. In reality, obtaining the Saints' Fruit was nothing. What was important was protecting it.
Li Xuanji understood this as well.
When the white cocoon wrapped around her, she knew that she was safe and that she was about to be reborn. But at this time, Long Chen was about to fall into an unprecedented crisis. He wanted to be the only victor among the two seventh level Divine Martial Realm martial artists and the six sixth level Divine Martial Realm martial artists.
She could not do anything. Even with the Saints' Fruit, she would not be able to recover in a short amount of time to save Long Chen. All she could do was pray silently, praying that he would survive, or she would not even have the chance to repay him.
"You have to survive. I believe in you …"
"From the moment I saw you in the Xuanyin Demonic Realm, I knew that you were a miracle …"
Who would have thought that someone else was hiding on Long Chen?
Everyone believed that he did not have the time to digest the Saints' Fruit right now.
Actually, even the disciples of the nine clans did not know that the Saints' Fruit would appear after it was plucked, as even the seniors could not leak it to them.
As a result, when Long Chen took away the Saints' Fruit, a new change occurred in the surroundings. This was something that no one had expected.
Long Chen squinted his eyes as he observed the changes in the surroundings.
Li Xuanji had already obtained the Saints' Fruit. Even if Long Chen lost, she would still be reborn. Long Chen finally felt relieved.
All he needed to do was fight to the end.
It had been a very long time since he had felt such pressure.
When the Saints' Fruit was plucked, an invisible energy enveloped the surroundings. The black mist retreated from the Saints' Tree as soon as possible, shrinking back into the ground. The Saints' Tree returned to its holy state, shining with a dazzling light.
At the same time, a white, half-transparent ball of light, over five hundred meters in diameter, enveloped the entire Saints' Tree. It was as if it did not want the person who had obtained the fruit to escape. Basically, everyone was enveloped by the ball of light.
"This sudden turn of events caused everyone to be dumbfounded. They looked at their surroundings and were completely numb.
Their seniors had never told them that something like this would happen after the Saints' Fruit was plucked. Some people were in the surroundings of the ball of light. They used battle skills in an attempt to break through the barrier of light, but they discovered that no matter how powerful their attacks were, they were like rocks sinking into the ocean. They did not even produce a sound.
"What's going on?"
"What is this? It's so mysterious. Doesn't that mean we're trapped here?"
"Basically the entire region around the Saints' Fruit is enveloped. Even that kid, Jiang Yunfan, seems to be trapped …"
This person had only mentioned it unintentionally, but it made everyone's eyes light up.
If Long Chen could not leave, did that mean …
At this moment, a loud voice rang out.
"Obtaining the Saints' Fruit doesn't make you the victor. The true victor must defeat everyone and reign supreme. The last person standing in the ball of light will be the possessor of the Saints' Fruit. At that time, we will open the ball of light for you," said Jian Chen.
This sentence rang out in everyone's ears.
Everyone was stunned at first, then they revealed expressions of wild joy, especially Qin Shi and Su Zhe, who were already disappointed. Their defeat was too humiliating. Long Chen had taken a step ahead of them, and they had originally thought that there was no hope. They had never expected that there would be such a rule.
This meant that obtaining the Saints' Fruit depended on battle prowess.
In terms of true battle prowess, Qin Shi and Su Zhe were clearly superior to Long Chen.
"This guy has schemed so much, but he never thought that it would all be for naught in the end," Qin Shi sneered as she looked at Long Chen in the sky.
Su Zhe did not panic either. The experts of the Nine Hells Demon Region did not give him a time limit, so he did not need to panic. He just needed to focus on recovering. As long as he was still standing, no one would be able to obtain the Saints' Fruit in the end.
Su Zhe knew that his only opponent was Qin Shi.
They were not in a hurry. To them, recovering to peak condition was the most important thing. As for Long Chen, he would let those idiots toy with him for now. Once they were tired, he would beat them all up. That would be the time for him and Qin Shi to fight.
As a result, Su Zhe and Qin Shi actually walked to a place and faced each other. They then sat down to recover.
The six cultivators from the nine clans looked at each other. They looked at Long Chen in the sky as envy appeared in their eyes.
"I have a suggestion," a young man said calmly.
"Say it. We nine clans are one. This is a great opportunity, so we should work together against a common enemy," said another person.
"You're right," said the others.
In the Nine Hells Demon Region, the nine clans were the main forces, while the World King was only the apex.
"If the six of us fight alone, we definitely won't be Qin Shi and Su Zhe's opponent. The only way is to work together. We'll take the Saints' Fruit from that kid Jiang Yunfan first and kill him before working together against Qin Shi and Su Zhe. Or we can have them kill each other first. Once we've dealt with the three of them, we'll use a battle of elimination. The final victor will take the Saints' Fruit. That way, the Saints' Fruit will still belong to the nine clans no matter what. What do you all think?"
Everyone hesitated. Working together was indeed the only way.
"No matter what, let's take the Saints' Fruit first. That kid Jiang Yunfan has always been in the limelight. I can't stand him. Before, he actually killed Leng Chan right in front of us. Clearly, he's looking down on the nine clans. We can't let a person like that walk out alive."
"That's right. If the six of us at the sixth layer of the God Martial realm work together and use the ultimate skills of our clans, we won't be afraid of a single Jiang Yunfan in a chaotic battle."
"If everyone uses their full strength, dealing with him will obviously be extremely easy."
"At this crucial moment, we must all work together."
With just a few words, they had banded together.
When they looked up, Long Chen was still standing there, looking down at them from above. There was only one thing in his eyes, and that was battle intent.
"Get your ass up here."