Dual Cultivation God Returns Chapter 1039: That’s fair

Wu Long waved his hand dismissively as he casually remarked, “You’ll have to wait,” with chains bursting from the Hearts of Iron that encircled the distracted Jian Hao, binding him tight alongside shimmering chains from talismans, all while disregarding Steward Lee’s yells from nearby.

“Watch this,” Wu Long continued, drawing Xue Bing’s focus to the descending glowing seed, “It might not be the most powerful type of enlightenment, but certainly one of the more entertaining ones to witness. It is also an opportunity in itself, as you can receive a little bit of insight just from watching it from up close. The sight is quite grand, but it is also very eye-catching so I asked Baihu to isolate this entire canyon. The seed is not the enlightenment itself, it is the chance for that enlightenment, and thus can be wrestled away. But once the seed goes into one’s Soul Sea...”

While he talked, the radiant seed gently lowered into Jian Yu’s Niwan Palace, easing between his eyebrows.

In that instant, time appeared to decelerate, followed by robust roots of warm yellow radiance sprouting from the youth, originating at his brow before enveloping his entire form, and from there a luminous colossal tree of light surged toward the heavens, swiftly evolving from tender sprout to an immense ancient giant with its branches blanketing the firmament.

On those limbs, fruits started to sprout—thousands, then tens of thousands, escalating to millions, until counting them by sight grew impossible since each was apple-sized on a colossal tree dominating the whole sky.

The nearby combatants gradually slowed their clashes, coming to a full halt, utterly captivated by the spectacle and realizing their battle’s purpose had vanished.

“Out of all those, only one would descend onto him...”, Wu Long whispered intimately to Xue Bing, yet his words cut off sharply as the faint smile beneath his mask stiffened, eyes flaring wide while mirroring a recognizable silhouette.

Time froze across the surroundings, leaving only Wu Long, Xue Bing, Fen Baihu who had materialized beside them, and that silhouette moving at regular speed amid the stalled world.

That silhouette was Yuanfen.

Her gaze devoured the tree’s fruits with ravenous, famished intensity, a droplet of drool forming at her lip’s edge.

Seizing the intangible sturdy root of the closest tree branch—one beyond even Wu Long’s grasp—she applied a gentle tug with an adorable expression, causing the entire tree to quake fiercely before his astonished widening eyes.

Endless thunderclaps boomed overhead, accompanied by illusory visions of clouds and bolts—mere ghostly apparitions—that streaked across all visible heavens.

Yuanfen stuck out her tongue defiantly at the enraged Heavens, then rattled the tree once more.

On this shake, the tree trembled with greater ferocity, and at last, every fruit tumbled down.

She lifted her palm, transforming the fruits into streams of light that raced to a point slightly above it, coalescing into a tiny luminous speck that expanded into a radiant sphere.

Yuanfen observed the sphere’s brilliance with unadulterated delight and innocent thrill sparkling in her eyes, her tongue tracing her lips eagerly as her stomach’s rumble echoed to the stunned ears of Wu Long, Xue Bing, and Fen Baihu.

Once the final fruit joined her ‘collection,’ she nearly devoured it in haste but halted with mouth agape, her eyes shifting first to the time-frozen Jian Yu, then to Wu Long.

“Eh? What is she...”, a peculiar foreboding struck Wu Long as Yuanfen’s gaze flickered between the orb and him with apparent indecision.

With a decisive nod, she pinched and extracted a minuscule fragment of the light, flinging it aside where it reformed into a fruit hovering over Jian Yu.

Then, displaying just a hint of unwillingness, she reached into the orb and withdrew a huge portion that shrank into a lesser sphere.

“Wait, Yuanfen. You’re...”, Wu Long attempted to intervene, intuiting her intent, for he plainly recognized how much she craved—or maybe required—it, such rare chances being scarce for her too.

The remaining orb dwarfed the portion she extracted, which was almost a tenth its size, yet he refused to deprive her of anything, especially so substantial a share.

She paid no heed despite his earnest plea to rethink her choice.

Turning to him with a smile, she either failed to grasp his words or simply pursued her own desires obstinately.

Her gaze fixed on Xue Bing and Fen Baihu, yet she appeared deeply hesitant while glancing back at the orbs clutched in her hands, causing both stunning women to desperately wave off any offerings. In contrast to her interaction with Wu Long, however, she easily accepted their rejection, her face showing a touch of relief.

Next, she released the smaller orb, propelling it straight toward Wu Long.

Wu Long possessed no practical means to block it, as he lacked her ability to truly manipulate it, merely twisting his head on sheer reflex in a futile dodge while exclaiming, "No, wait, seriously! Yuanfe-..."

Yet in the instant that followed, his eyes went unfocused and vacant, his head snapping back to stare upward just like Jian Yu’s posture, with the orb now floating directly over him.

"When the world snaps back to normal, hold everyone nearby for a moment", Fen Baihu whispered lowly to Xue Bing, "I can’t manage it right now, but the second things normalize, I’ll rush to fetch the others since Wu Long will become extremely defenseless briefly, and I couldn’t carry him off without interrupting the process"

"You just focus on guarding him and that fellow from my reach. I’ll make sure nobody gets close", Xue Bing agreed with a nod, "I can hold off everyone until our Sisters get here"

Right then, Yuanfen geared up to devour the orb, but from the edge of her vision, she spotted Jian Yu with a lone fruit suspended above his head.

She nibbled her lower lip, a faint guilty expression crossing her face as she wavered between that fruit and the two orbs brimming with countless more—one in her grasp, the other drifting over Wu Long.

With some hesitation and a soft sigh, she extracted two additional fruits from her larger orb to join the one above Jian Yu, totaling three, then gave a gravely serious nod—that came off as irresistibly cute instead—to signal ’that’s fair now’.

Afterward, she parted her lips and eagerly chomped into the orb, which got rapidly drawn into her mouth. In a flash, it vanished completely.

No dramatic changes swept over her appearance or surroundings as the two beauties anticipated; she simply let out an endearing little exhale—not quite a burp, more a contented sigh post-feast—and patted her belly with a joyful grin.

She beamed at them and started to depart, but her eyes caught on the radiant tree itself. A mischievous smile spread across her lips, and she extended her hand, pulling the entire tree into her closing palm; when she reopened it, a bean-shaped seed lay there, which she popped into her mouth like a casual treat, mimicking the way some beauties snacked on almonds or the like, before vanishing as suddenly as she’d arrived.

The very next instant, as the tree’s image abruptly faded from everyone’s sight, a blast of frost erupted outward in every direction, encasing all in ice.

At the heart of that icy explosion stood Xue Bing, her dark blue hair billowing in the breeze and turquoise eyes gleaming through the slits of her ice mask.

Not only did ice blanket the ground and freeze every plant solid—Spiritual Qi halted entirely, inside cultivators or free in the air; winds died to perfect calm; and all cultivators stood immobilized, trapped in a delicate sheath of frost. The canyon’s lofty summit transformed into a glacial realm in the blink of an eye, faster than a breath.

Heavy frozen clouds enveloped Wu Long and Jian Yu, as even the fringes of Fen Baihu’s protective mist iced over.

"Whew~", the Celestial Fox whistled, eyes growing wide, her voice carrying a stunned edge, "I thi~nk... I don’t even need to summon the others..."

Up in the sky, only the two Essence Gathering Realm cultivators—Steward Lee and the cloaked figure he blocked—could still move, though their perceptions dulled sharply with Spiritual Sense locked in ice, Spiritual Qi at a standstill, and faint frost creeping over their Soul Sea’s edges.

Snowflakes began drifting down from the heavens as the air chilled drastically.

"Sadly, I lack the finesse to hit just foes, so any major action from me would complicate things when the others show up", Xue Bing sighed in her typical calm manner, though clear traces of irritation and regret reached even Fen Baihu.

"Haha... ha", the Celestial Fox let out a parched chuckle, figuring this frosty beauty had to be kidding, "Hmm? Looks like we won’t need them after all... Wu Long’s finished already"

The fluffy ice cloud shattered apart, revealing Wu Long emerging from it, shaking his head at the surprising turn, "Haa~... I told her to take it all..."

Yet beyond that, a hint of bewilderment flickered in his gaze, swiftly concealed as he resolved to mull over the insights from his enlightenment afterward, tackling the present circumstances first, "Thank you, Bing’er, Baihu"

"Hehe, it’s all Sister Bing’er", Fen Baihu chuckled, refusing to claim any merit.

"That’s not true, if not for you shielding them...", Xue Bing attempted to counter, but Wu Long drew her into his embrace before she could complete her words. Naturally, Wu Long had no intention of recognizing solely her, as he gestured for Fen Baihu to join his hug too.