As the object of faith of the Immortal Cult and a product of the power of faith, Bu Yaolian could be called meticulous, astute, and calculating, fully capable of strictly controlling his expressions. For instance, upon encountering the joyous occasion of being promoted to Fourth-in-Command, he did not display much joy.
"Greetings, Third-in-Command." Bu Yaolian bowed and scraped before Yun Mengmeng, his attitude thoroughly respectful. The hierarchy within the Immortal Lineage was strict and could not be transgressed in the slightest.
As Yun Zhi's good sister, it was only natural that her status was higher than his own.
Currently, the Immortal Lineage possessed one immortal, one Lu Yang who could defeat Li Haoran, and two half-immortals.
In other words, all four members of the Immortal Lineage possessed combat strength of at least the half-immortal level. One could say they were bristling with might and bursting with talent—rarely could any faction in the world rival them.
"Since it is rare for our Immortal Lineage to gather in full, this Immortal shall teach you how to battle using a rudimentary Immortal Dao fruit."
Earlier, when the Immortal Fairy saw Yun Mengmeng merely enduring beatings by relying on her rudimentary Immortal Dao fruit, it had truly pained her heart. At a glance, it was obvious the girl had only just formed it and barely knew how to use it.
Bu Yaolian: "..."
When Yun Mengmeng was not around, how many times had the three of them gathered together? How come he had never seen First-in-Command teach him how to fight with a rudimentary Immortal Dao fruit?
"Fighting with a rudimentary Immortal Dao fruit makes quite a racket, so we need to find a secluded spot."
"How about going inside my Green Blade Sword?" Lu Yang suggested. Having a small world truly made things much more convenient.
Otherwise, they would have had to rent a top-tier secret realm from the sect, and his contribution points might not even be enough.
"Off we go, then!"
With First-in-Command's approval, Lu Yang took out the Green Blade Sword and invited Third-in-Command and Fourth-in-Command inside.
"What a huge place!" Arriving in the Green Blade Sword's small world, Yun Mengmeng spread her arms and twirled on the grass, overjoyed. It reminded her of her old home—the environment back home was just as beautiful, and every autumn, the scent of peaches would linger at the tip of her nose.
Bu Yaolian was startled by this sight. A sword containing a small world inside—the grade of this Green Blade Sword was by no means low. It had to be at least an immortal treasure, or perhaps even a legendary immortal artifact. As expected of Second-in-Command, his fortune was truly substantial; a lifetime of selling barbecue skewers would never buy a sword like this.
"Ahem, class is in session." The Immortal Fairy gave two ostentatious coughs. Yun Mengmeng and Bu Yaolian immediately squatted on the lawn, looking up eagerly at the Immortal Fairy, their faces practically radiating a thirst for knowledge.
The difference was that Yun Mengmeng had pure and delicate looks, making the gesture a pleasing sight, whereas Bu Yaolian was an old, decrepit fellow, making the same posture look downright bizarre.
Lu Yang felt he probably had no need to attend the lesson. He took two steps away, brought out the Chengying Sword, and attempted to brand his imprint onto it to make it recognize him as master.
Although the sword spirit, Liu Ningxuan, was gone, the Chengying Sword's spirituality remained. Getting it to submit and acknowledge a master was no easy task.
Lu Yang pondered for a moment, stabbed the Chengying Sword into the ground, and pulled out the Seven Stars Sword Set, planting them into the earth to surround the Chengying Sword, hoping the Seven Stars Sword Set would talk some sense into it.
The eight swords buzzed and hummed, seemingly engaged in intense communication. Sharing a mental connection with the Seven Stars Sword Set, Lu Yang could vaguely sense what they were saying.
'Big Brother Chengying, just come along with Lu Yang! He has a Sword Cleansing Pool. Trust your little bro just this once—soak in it just once, and I guarantee it'll feel so good you'll never forget the sensation!'
'What was so great about that Liu Ningxuan anyway? Just because he occupied your body, does that mean you can never forget him?'
'Liu Ningxuan is dead. Forget him. As swords, we have to look forward!'
'Just give in to Lu Yang already.'
Lu Yang could not sense what the Chengying Sword said in response, but judging by how its vibrations subsided from violent to subtle, the persuasion seemed to be quite effective.
On the other side, acting as a model teacher, the Immortal Fairy began imparting the true teachings of immortality.
"Self-detonation is the most fundamental ability of our Immortal Lineage, an essential subject of study."
"Back in the day, to research how to maximize the power of self-detonation, this Immortal put opponents through who knows how much suffering."
"Fortunately, their sacrifices were not in vain, helping this Immortal continuously refine the theory of self-detonation."
"Third-in-Command, this Immortal observed your battle and saw that you did nothing but take beatings the entire time, possessing scarcely any offensive techniques. You must have yet to learn how to self-detonate."
Yun Mengmeng nodded. Indeed, it had never crossed her mind that self-detonation could serve as an offensive technique; all her methods came from ancestral arts passed down in her family.
"Fourth-in-Command, demonstrate it for her."
Hearing this, Bu Yaolian felt it was time to display his prowess as a senior.
He ran twenty li away, dismantled himself into his three hun and seven po, and with a booming crash, detonated half of his soul.
Yun Mengmeng watched Fourth-in-Command's self-detonation intently. That half of his soul grew exceptionally agitated, swelling like a balloon. In the blink of an eye, the balloon burst, and terrifying soul power surged outward in all directions, catching over a dozen li within the blast radius.
After the blast, Bu Yaolian's soul rapidly reconstituted itself into a complete soul.
"Incredible!" Yun Mengmeng's eyes sparkled, as though a door to a new world had been thrown open. She immediately felt her previous style of fighting had been far too conservative.
What was self-detonation? It was the ultimate attack a cultivator could unleash in desperation by laying down their very life. Yet their Immortal Lineage could use it repeatedly! Its power went without saying.
The Immortal Fairy pointed at Bu Yaolian, who was walking back with a proud, goofy grin, and said, "Look, that was a typical mistake just now—standing foolishly on the spot without moving after detonating, and only then replenishing your soul."
"Can you guarantee your opponent will be blown to death? Can you be sure they won't strike during the gap while you reconstitute your soul?"
"Then what should one do?"
"You must ride the blast wave of the detonation at high speed, replenishing your soul in mid-motion! That way, once the blast wave clears and your soul is restored, you can seamlessly initiate a second detonation, giving your opponent no time to breathe!"
"Another thing: don't stand on the ground when you detonate. Fly into the sky! That is when the blast yields maximum power."
"As for distributed self-detonations and the like, those are techniques beyond your current grasp."
"First master what this Immortal just explained. Go practice in the distance and strive to get a firm handle on the basics of self-detonation as soon as possible."
"Understood!"
Yun Mengmeng happily ran off to a far distance to self-detonate. Then came a deafening boom! The blast wave came howling across the realm. At the furthest periphery of the explosion, Lu Yang gripped the Chengying Sword planted in the ground with all his might, his entire body blown horizontal to the earth.
Once the blast wave dissipated, Lu Yang looked over and saw that where the explosion hit, swaths of forest were reduced to charcoal, mountains pulverized to powder, and a river was pouring into a massive crater, soon filling up a new lake.
Yun Mengmeng had detonated her physical body; the devastation directly affected reality.
"My small world!"
Lu Yang cried out in despair. A verdant small world he had just obtained, visited only twice in total, had turned into ruins in the blink of an eye!
The Immortal Fairy had clearly forgotten the physical impact a self-detonation would wreak on reality. She hastily comforted Lu Yang, scrambling for a remedy: "Uh, small problem! In a bit, this Immortal will teach them the Tree Planting Art."
Chapter 1001