Master Zhuiyue considered her life to have been rich and fulfilling. She had witnessed the warlords carving up territories at the end of the Great Yu era, the fall of Great Yu and the fight for supremacy over the world, and the chaotic age when Tribulation Transcendence battles and half-immortal clashes broke out constantly. She had crossed paths with Meng Junzi, helped Jiang Ping'an establish Great Xia, and founded the Five Great Immortal Sects alongside several fellow Daoists.
These deeds had been passed down and adapted by later generations, becoming the beloved pingshu performance *Heroes of Great Xia*.
Yet compared to Lu Yang's experiences, they truly paled a bit in comparison.
*This is barely scratching the surface,* Lu Yang thought to himself. *What I told you was just the abridged version. I haven't even mentioned reviving the Immortal Fairy, the inside story of various half-immortal and immortal battles, meeting Gray Doudou, or overthrowing Great Xia to establish the Great Bean Dynasty.*
"Don't change the subject so far afield! Confess honestly: why did you drug the moon laurel trees?" The Immortal Fairy was very displeased by the adjectives Master Zhuiyue had used to describe Little Yangzi's experiences over the past few years.
How could she call it absurd? It was clearly living life to the fullest! She thoroughly appreciated Little Yangzi's life experiences, packed with surprises and challenges.
Master Zhuiyue had appeared with the intention of explaining everything clearly in the first place.
"To explain this matter, we must start from the day Xiao Ye gained sentience.
"Xiao Ye's true form is known to the world as the Moon Laurel Tree Ancestor. She is a moon laurel tree that has survived since ancient times, at least three hundred thousand years old. After being baptized by the passage of time, she developed consciousness, and then spiritual awareness, becoming a true living being."
The Immortal Fairy nodded. This was always the process when spiritual plants developed sentience; there were no shortcuts or tricks to it, only the long wait through endless spans of time.
If it truly was a moon laurel tree that had survived from antiquity, then it really might have been planted by Immortal Ying Tian.
"My name is Bai Ri, so Xiao Ye took my surname, Bai. She favored the power of the moon and preferred moving about at night, so she named herself Bai Ye.
"Xiao Ye didn't particularly enjoy inhabiting the Tree Ancestor's body, feeling that standing motionless all day was far too boring. So, I searched through ancient texts for a spiritual plant avatar technique, allowing her to separate a body from the Tree Ancestor—which is how she looks now.
"Then, several centuries later, something went wrong with my cultivation. My physical body was incinerated, and even my soul was severely damaged. The soul was injured so terribly that no miraculous pills or medicinal elixirs helped, and the situation was exceedingly dire.
"Fortunately, moon laurel trees are innately yin-aligned and possess soul-nourishing properties, surpassing even pagoda trees in that regard. As the Moon Laurel Tree Ancestor, Xiao Ye's soul-nourishing ability was unmatched under heaven.
"Discovering that something had gone awry with my cultivation, she rushed to receive my soul into this avatar. At the time, I was delirious and had no idea what Xiao Ye was doing. I only felt a soothing warmth all around me, nurturing my soul, and I instinctively accepted that power.
"Soul-nourishing is normally a slow process, but the Tree Ancestor's soul-nourishing power was overwhelmingly potent, and my survival instinct was equally fierce. The combination drastically accelerated the process, ultimately causing my soul to become too deeply entangled with this avatar to be separated.
"Although my soul fully recovered, I could no longer leave this avatar.
"Still, being able to survive such a mortal crisis, living in this avatar wasn't bad either. Guarding the Moon Laurel Immortal Palace, quietly watching the disciples grow, heading to the Scripture Pavilion every day to read, and so on... Besides, I rather like moon laurel trees."
Had she not genuinely loved moon laurel trees, Master Zhuiyue would never have chosen to establish her sacred grounds on the harsh Great Snow Mountain.
"Xiao Ye was accustomed to using this avatar, so she shared it with me, leaving only instinctive reactions in the Tree Ancestor's true body.
"Later, we discovered that whichever of our souls had greater strength would take control of this body. It is an involuntary rule, beyond either of our control.
"The strength of Xiao Ye's soul is tied to day and night. The power of the sun weakens her soul's strength, so the body is left in my control; she sleeps either in the true body or inside this body. When night falls and the power of the moon flourishes, Xiao Ye's soul strength increases, and she takes over the body.
"This avatar is plenty sturdy, continuously supplied with spiritual power from the Tree Ancestor, and has remarkable regenerative abilities. There are only two problems that cannot be resolved. One is what I mentioned before—the avatar cannot leave the Tree Ancestor's territory. The other is that it doesn't quite match my image."
Master Zhuiyue sighed, reminiscing about the glorious past: "Think of how peerlessly beautiful I was, renowned across the realm for my breathtaking allure! Who wouldn't succumb to my charms?
"In contrast, this avatar of Xiao Ye's is simply too short, completely devoid of charm, making me too embarrassed to show my face in public.
"So I wondered if I could make this avatar grow a bit taller. If that wasn't possible, even growing taller just during the day would do.
"Unfortunately, the form of this avatar is difficult to alter. To change its shape, I had to find another way.
"Since this avatar is fundamentally a moon laurel tree, I thought about whether I could develop a medicinal formula that accelerates the growth of moon laurel trees.
"After that, I took several herbs from the medicinal storehouse, brewed them into medicinal broths with different proportions, and poured them over the roots of the moon laurel trees to see which ratio could speed up their growth.
"I thought that with moon laurel trees all over this Great Snow Mountain, picking a few to experiment on wouldn't hurt anything. Who could have imagined that people would come along gathering petals for laurel flower filling, and even chopping down trees for barbecue?"
Master Zhuiyue was too ashamed to face anyone; naturally, an experiment to make moon laurel trees grow taller was something she kept hidden as best she could.
Yet luck was truly an unpredictable thing.
Lu Yang listened quietly to the whole story and could deeply relate to Master Zhuiyue's thoughts. During these past few days of being shrunken, hadn't he also been constantly wanting to grow big again?
"Done confessing? If you're done, come back with me and plead guilty."
The Immortal Fairy had not been swayed by Master Zhuiyue's sweet talk, keeping firmly in mind that she had come here to catch a culprit.
...
"Strange, where did that kid Lu Yang go?" Luo Hongxia muttered to herself. The last ones to see Lu Yang had been a few Immortal Palace disciples soaking in the hot springs.
According to them, Lu Yang had been riding skis with a basket of spiritual fruit on his back, his face beaming with an excited smile, and after that, no one had seen any trace of him.
And that girl named Bai Ye was nowhere to be found either.
"Palace Master Luo, open the door."
Hearing Lu Yang's voice, Luo Hongxia opened the door and saw Lu Yang grinning as he held Bai Ye's hand tightly, as if afraid she might run away.
"Palace Master Luo, I caught the culprit!" The Immortal Fairy raised the clasped hands and placed Bai Ye into Luo Hongxia's care.
"How on earth did you catch her?" Luo Hongxia was astonished. Even she hadn't been able to catch up to Bai Ye; how had Lu Yang managed it?
"Nothing to it! She even made a clean breast of how she committed the crime." At this moment, the Immortal Fairy felt a profound sense of mission accomplished and triumphant retirement.
"Tell me what happened," Luo Hongxia urged.
"Here's the story..." The Immortal Fairy recounted everything Master Zhuiyue had said, leaving Luo Hongxia staring blankly in disbelief.
"In short, your founder, Master Zhuiyue, stole medicinal herbs just to grow taller. I'm not very familiar with sentencing guidelines, but your Immortal Palace is well-versed in penal codes—how many years should she get?"
Chapter 1028