Douluo Continent: This Tang San is different

Chapter 97 Cactus Hairpin Sun and Moon Pearl

"What did Huo Wu just say to you?"

When Xiao Wu saw Huo Wu come out of Tang San's stone house, she hurriedly ran inside and asked anxiously, "You're not going to be her boyfriend, are you?"

"What are you thinking?" Tang San was speechless. "I'm only eight years old. I may have the desire, but I don't have the strength."

Xiao Wu put her hands on her hips, pouted, and said, "Hmph! Men!"

"Please call me boy, or male. I haven't lost my innocence, so I can't be considered a man." Tang San understood that Xiao Wu's jealousy had subsided, but he still put on a serious face, as if this was something very serious.

"Come on, I found a cactus patch on the north side of this oasis with delicious fruit. Let's go pick some!" Xiao Wu ignored Tang San's antics, grabbed his hand, and ran out of the stone house. She and Guang Ling then ran towards the north side of Hope Oasis.

Seeing that, Huo Wu scoffed, "They didn't even take me with them? By the way, where are they going?"

"Fire Dance, come inside. Grandma will check your body and see how much stronger you've become." Fire Phoenix came out of the cleaned stone house and waved to Fire Dance.

"Okay, Grandma."

Huo Wu entered the stone house, allowing Grandma Huo Feng to examine (and grope) her body without any embarrassment. After all, this had happened countless times before and was nothing to worry about...

···

Tang San arrived at the outer edge of the cactus field. Looking at the densely packed cacti, some of which were even spirit beasts, he gave a suspicious look and asked, "You're not afraid of getting pricked by the thorns, so you're having me pick the cactus fruit, are you?"

The fruit of the cactus also has thorns on the outside. The ripe fruit is yellow or red, and the naan inside is purplish-red.

In terms of taste, Tang San thought it was inferior to dragon fruit.

Xiao Wu blushed and said, "I'm not talking about the cactus fruit, but another kind of fruit. It's not here. Come with me."

After saying that, Xiao Wu led the way, with Tang San and Guang Ling following behind. It took them nearly five minutes to cross the bushes and arrive at a cactus that was thirty meters tall.

This cactus is cylindrical in shape, with the same width from top to bottom, and two branches growing from the middle, making it look like a person with outstretched arms.

The fruit that Xiaowu mentioned grows at the top of this cactus, about ten meters up. It's a dense, white patch that looks like peeled grapes, but it's crystal clear.

At the bottom of the fruit, there is a round black spot, which looks like... a human eyeball.

"This cactus is a plant-type soul beast. Although it grows tall, it only has thirty years of cultivation and cannot move at all. If it reaches a hundred years, it can use its thorns as weapons." Tang San stroked his smooth chin. "And those fruits on it should not have grown from this cactus. They are from a parasitic plant called Fairy Hairpin."

The Fairy Hairpin is not mentioned in the Martial Soul Encyclopedia because it is not a soul beast, but an ordinary plant with the ability to parasitize.

Tang San was able to recognize him because he had seen him on CCTV-1 in his previous life.

This plant grows by having its seeds left on cacti by bird droppings. Red roots then sprout from the cactus, burrow into it, and absorb nutrients to grow. Once the seeds mature and bear fruit, they attract birds to eat them, but the birds' digestive systems cannot digest the seeds.

This cycle repeats endlessly, creating a continuous cycle of life.

Unexpectedly, this plant also exists in the Douluo Continent, and it even parasitizes a cactus soul beast, absorbing its nutrients.

I wonder if this fairy hairpin will mutate into a plant spirit beast because it absorbs nutrients from the cactus spirit beast?

It's highly unlikely.

After all, the growth cycle of parasitic plants like the 'Fairy Hairpin' is extremely short; their purpose is to flower and bear fruit, which is how they continue their lives.

Xiao Wu tilted her head: "Fairy Hairpin? Why is it called that? Never mind, I think that fruit looks delicious, can you help me pick some?"

Tang San nodded, released the Blue Silver Grass, which meandered up the cactus and pulled off the fairy hairpin fruits at the top.

The three of them picked them up from the ground and found that most of them had been eaten by insects such as birds and bees, with only a few intact. After counting them, there were only thirty-nine.

Tang San picked up a seed, put it in his mouth, and tasted it carefully. He found it to be sweet. He spat out the seed, swallowed the pulp, and felt a surge of energy flowing into his mind, making him feel a little clearer.

"It can actually enhance mental strength! But only by a little bit." Tang San handed the remaining thirty-eight fruits to Xiao Wu and Guang Ling. "The taste is alright, not bad as a snack."

Xiao Wu ate one and found it to be quite delicious, with a refreshing texture. She then put fifteen of them into her white jade belt, leaving the rest for Guang Ling to keep and enjoy slowly.

"Thank you, Third Brother, Sister Xiaowu." Guangling expressed her gratitude, knowing that she needed to improve her mental strength in order to hone her eyesight.

Afterwards, the three of them strolled around the area and came to the edge of a lake. Behind a rock nearby, there grew a green plant that was seven meters tall and had seven leaves that were as translucent as jade. In the center of the plant was a peculiar round bead that looked like glass and shimmered with the light of gold and silver.

"Third Brother, could that be the Sun and Moon Grass?" Xiao Wu asked, pointing to the peculiar large grass.

"That's right, it's the Sun and Moon Grass."

Tang San was surprised to find the Sun and Moon Grass here and became excited. "The Sun and Moon Grass grows a leaf every thousand years. This one has seven leaves, which proves that it has seven thousand years of cultivation. The fruit on top is the Sun and Moon Pearl, which is the fruit of this plant spirit beast that absorbs the power of the sun and moon. It is speculated that it can enhance spiritual power after consumption."

"Unfortunately, it is only effective when taken while the Sun and Moon Grass is alive. Once the Sun and Moon Grass dies, or the bead is picked prematurely, the radiance of the sun and moon within it will dissipate in an instant."

Therefore, no one has ever consumed this Sun and Moon Pearl.

Xiao Wu was puzzled: "Since no one has ever taken it, how do you know it can enhance mental power?"

Tang San said, "Because plant-based soul masters who have absorbed the Sun and Moon Grass soul ring in the past have all experienced a certain increase in their spiritual power, and this bead is the fruit of the Sun and Moon Grass, the fruit can be eaten after the sun and moon radiance within it dissipates. Therefore, many soul masters speculate that if someone can consume the Sun and Moon Grass before it dies, they can increase their spiritual power."

"But no one has ever done it. After all, plant spirit beasts are different from animal spirit beasts. They have strong vitality. If they are less than 10,000 years old, it is impossible to accurately judge how much life force they have left after being attacked. Therefore, it is impossible to bring them to the spirit master who wants to absorb the spirit ring when they are on the verge of death like animal spirit beasts."

"Therefore, when a Soul Master hunts a plant-type Soul Beast, it's usually because other Soul Masters think the plant looks like it's about to die, so the person who wants to absorb the Soul Ring can bombard it with Soul Skills or chop it down with a machete. Otherwise, the Soul Ring might be wasted, since a Soul Master can't absorb the Soul Ring unless the Soul Master kills the Soul Beast himself."

Regarding mental strength—

Every normal Soul Master has this.

Based solely on the situation during the first Douluo Continent era, a Soul Master had to reach at least the Soul King level to even begin to sense and resist soul shock when absorbing the fifth Soul Ring. Only at the Soul Douluo level did Soul Masters begin to pay attention to this, but they still couldn't apply it flexibly. In other words, regarding the application of mental power, Soul Masters during the first Douluo Continent era, unless they had a Soul Skill that specifically applied mental power, basically only used it to enhance their own mental will, or to coordinate with the use of Soul Skills—to release Soul Skills more perfectly and control them more precisely, something like that.

At least in the original Douluo Continent novel, apart from the protagonist Tang San, no other Soul Douluo has demonstrated the application of a single aspect of spiritual power. (Note: Bibi Dong has spiritual skills, but those are soul skills, not a method that can be cultivated like the Purple Demon Eye. It is more likely a mode of converting soul power into spiritual power.)

In addition, some possessors of mental martial souls, such as Shi Nian's Remnant Dream and Huo Yuhao's Spirit Eye, are able to come into contact with the specific applications of mental power relatively early.

On a side note: [The comments section is a complete mess, I don't even dare to look at it anymore. I'm starting to lose my temper. Should I grant myself more commenting privileges?]

(End of this chapter)