Chapter 294 - 117: Age Dao Fruit, Are You Willing to Marry the Current Emperor Xia? What’s This Small Loss?

News finally broke in the Imperial Capital regarding the whereabouts of the Exotic Stone from the auction—the one suspected to be an Immortal Embryo.

It turned out to have been bought by the mysterious woman from a Yijian Palace Disciple named Zhang Yuan.

This news shocked many, who wondered how the mysterious woman had managed to persuade Zhang Yuan to sell her the Exotic Stone.

Many had also heard that even some Clan Relatives from the Royal Family were keeping an eye on the Exotic Stone, hoping to uncover its secrets.

Unfortunately, the mysterious woman vanished without a trace afterward. No one knew where she had gone.

The whereabouts of the Exotic Stone were unknown, as if it had been a stone dropped into the ocean.

Many people believed she had left the Imperial Capital early out of fear that Jiang Lan would retaliate and try to seize the stone.

After all, at the auction, Jiang Lan had personally threatened her in front of everyone.

The many eyes that had been secretly watching Zhang Yuan were now withdrawn, filled with quiet regret.

However, quite a few people were curious about the origin of his Life-extending Divine Object and had been trying to pay him a visit over the past few days.

But the Imperial Capital was the Imperial Capital, with its strict rules. Although some of the old-timers coveted the life-extending item, they didn’t dare act rashly. Zhang Yuan refused all visitors, seeing no one, and no one dared to disturb him and risk breaking the laws of Great Xia.

Within just a few days, his name had spread through every alley and teahouse in the Imperial Capital, drawing a great deal of attention.

Many of the younger generation quietly committed his name to memory.

Jiang Lan’s days were dull and monotonous—cultivating by day and frequenting the pleasure quarters for music by night. But it was during these few days that he received an unexpected surprise.

His second Destiny Dao Fruit, which had already been nearing maturity, had finally ripened.

He sensed that Chu Chan had made significant gains, and as a result, he had received a massive feedback of destiny.

Jiang Lan’s consciousness sank into his Mud Ball Palace.

A lush, emerald-green vine, looking as if it were carved from flawless jade, was rooted there, shrouded in a mystical aura.

The vine was not thick. Its leaves were a crystalline, translucent green, shimmering like jade and wreathed by wisps of a mist-like substance.

Each leaf was unique; some were shaped like swords, others resembled Blood Jade, and still others took the form of a White Tiger, a Vermilion Bird, and more, all radiating a wondrous light.

Nestled among several leaves, a fruit-like object hung from a branch.

It was now the size of a fist, suffused with an ineffably profound and unpredictable aura.

On the other side of this Destiny Dao Fruit was the Destiny Dao Fruit that Jiang Lan had already fused with. However, even with the rich feedback of destiny, it would still take a good deal of time and destiny to reach the third stage.

’What kind of talent will fusing with the second Destiny Dao Fruit bring?’

Jiang Lan was rather expectant. He immersed his Heart Thought, beginning to fuse with the Destiny Dao Fruit. A wondrous and mysterious aura started to emanate from him.

Fortunately, it was daytime, and he had dismissed everyone. No one in the palace could notice the abnormality about him.

Suddenly, Jiang Lan felt his consciousness adrift in a boundless, endlessly vast and mysterious river.

The river shimmered, at times calm, at times deep. The occasional waves that stirred within it seemed to carry fragmented imprints, ancient and enduring, reflecting the past, present, and future.

The river had countless tributaries, flowing through an unknown number of universes and spacetimes. It seemed both eternally unchanging and constantly shifting with every breath.

’The River of Ages?’

Jiang Lan instantly understood the nature of this river. His consciousness, like a faint glimmer of light, wandered through the long river of ages, experiencing its scouring and baptism, gazing upon the past, present, and future.

This process lasted for an unknown duration—it felt like both an instant and an eternity.

When Jiang Lan awoke, the sky outside had already grown dark. The moon hung high, cold and bright.

He glanced at the Dao Fruit, which was now shrouded in mist and seemed to be wreathed in an aura of time itself. After a moment of contemplation, he named it the Age Dao Fruit.

In addition to his Destiny Dao Fruit, he now possessed an Age Dao Fruit. This new fruit had clearly touched upon the domain of time.

Though he couldn’t control time itself, he could now slightly manipulate the flow of time in a small area within the range of his consciousness.

Just as he had once manipulated life.

Jiang Lan pushed open the palace doors and walked into the courtyard. His gaze swept around and landed on a tender green blade of grass growing in a crack of the rockery beside the jade-green pond.

With a move of his Heart Thought, the Void in that spot seemed to blur as an inexplicable, great power descended.

The blade of green grass began to grow at a speed visible to the naked eye, soon towering over the other blades around it.

The process was irreversible, and it had no effect on the time outside that specific area.

It was as if that area had been separated from the rest of the world.

Jiang Lan continued his experiment. He levitated a Spirit Fish out of the pond and used the same technique. The Spirit Fish’s body grew rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, it was several times larger than the other Spirit Fish.

As Jiang Lan deepened his intent and accelerated the flow of time around it, an aura of decay began to emanate from the Spirit Fish. Its life was coming to an end.