As an immortal, for the Immortal Fairy to have survived that cruel and barbaric ancient era, successfully become an immortal, and rank among the Five Immortals, exceptional luck was only part of the story—it was also inseparable from her vast repertoire of bottom-of-the-chest tricks.
A cold glint flashed in the Immortal Fairy's eyes. Her opponent's cultivation was far too high; ordinary methods definitely wouldn't cut it. In that case, he couldn't blame her for showing no mercy!
She went straight for a taboo technique that touched upon time—the Art of Playing Dead!
With a thud, all life drained from the Immortal Fairy. She collapsed to the ground and lay motionless, without a heartbeat, a pulse, or any discernible trace of a soul.
This gave Senior Brother Wu quite a fright. He hadn't even struck yet, so how was the kid already gone?
"Should we just bury him?" someone in the crowd below suggested.
"He deserves a lavish funeral." Senior Brother Wu nodded. During the days Sect Master Lu Yang had served in his post, everyone had witnessed his contributions with their own eyes.
The Immortal Fairy was so frightened that she hurriedly scrambled to her feet. Senior Brother Wu went on high alert, deeply nervous. He pulled out a yellow talisman and slapped it onto Lu Yang's forehead.
"To think Junior Brother Lu's corpse would reanimate... Do you have an unfulfilled wish?"
Senior Brother Wu silently chanted the Rebirth Mantra: "Dust to dust, earth to earth, everything is in the past. Junior Brother Lu, speak your wish. This senior brother will fulfill it for you."
The Immortal Fairy said faintly, "My wish is to defeat Yun Zhi."
Senior Brother Wu's expression shifted slightly. He slapped another yellow talisman across Lu Yang's mouth. "Junior Brother Lu, do you have any other unfulfilled wishes?"
The Immortal Fairy couldn't make a sound.
Senior Brother Wu let out a breath of relief. "Looks like you have none."
Amid a chorus of mournful wails, the crowd lifted Lu Yang's still-warm body, carried him to the small grove on Tianmen Peak, and buried him with only his head sticking out.
Then they left Tianmen Peak and rushed off to the Mission Hall, eager to complete missions, accumulate contribution points, exchange them for an Acting Sect Master experience voucher, and get a taste of being Acting Sect Master themselves.
During her three days as Acting Sect Master, the Immortal Fairy had been exceedingly active, stoking everyone's craving to try the role.
"Being Sect Master actually looks pretty fun."
"I've got a few ideas that happen to require being Sect Master to pull off."
Everyone threw their full energy into picking up missions at the Mission Hall. The sheer spectacle took even Dai Bufan by surprise.
He had never seen everyone's enthusiasm run this high—it was as if the things they wanted to buy had suddenly gone on sale.
In the end, the mission board was completely bare; every single mission had been claimed, making Dai Bufan's eyelid twitch repeatedly.
Once Dai Bufan asked and got to the bottom of it, he breathed a sigh of relief. If that was the cause, then he didn't need to worry that his junior brothers and sisters were just swept up in a passing craze.
If they wanted to exchange for an Acting Sect Master experience voucher, doing just one or two missions wouldn't cut it.
Unless someone else pulled off what the Immortal Fairy did and slew a Body Integration stage demonic cultivator.
"Just as well. There's been a trend of more missions coming in over the past few days, which will satisfy their demand."
Starting yesterday, requests for help from mortals in the Great Xia Dynasty to the Dao Seeking Sect had begun to increase.
Dai Bufan noticed the shift and kept a watchful eye, discovering that those coming to the Dao Seeking Sect for help all hailed from the same place.
Upon making further discreet inquiries, he found that these people had heard wandering storytellers recount the *Legend of the Dao Seeking Sect*, learning of a place like the Dao Seeking Sect that punished evil and promoted good.
Dai Bufan pondered this and realized the root cause: "It seems Eldest Senior Sister having the Sect Master wander around telling stories to publicize the Dao Seeking Sect is beginning to bear fruit."
However, Dai Bufan had also heard some bizarre things. For instance, some mortals coming to the Dao Seeking Sect for help said they wanted to meet the legendary Daoist Buyu from the *Legend of the Dao Seeking Sect*—the one who turned the tide, reversed the Dao Seeking Sect's decline, and propelled it to the top of the Five Great Immortal Sects in a single bound.
Aside from sharing the same name, Dai Bufan couldn't find a single thing linking the Sect Master to this legendary Daoist Buyu.
When it came to strength among the Five Great Immortal Sects, it was hard to declare a clear winner. After all, who knew how many old monsters each sect had tucked away in hiding? Ranking them by visible combat power was utterly meaningless.
The Dao Seeking Sect had indeed experienced a period of decline, but that was several generations ago, completely unrelated to either the previous generation or the current one. By the time Daoist Buyu took over the sect, it had long since moved past that slump.
However, the emergence of Yun Zhi had completely upended the five-way stalemate.
None of the old monsters hidden away by any sect could fight as well as Yun Zhi.
Even the ancestral founder of the Xia family, sequestered in the forbidden grounds of the Great Xia imperial palace, knew that in a one-on-one fight he was no match for Yun Zhi—to say nothing of the old monsters in the Five Great Immortal Sects.
In the eras when they were active, those old monsters were all illustrious mighty figures who dictated the course of the times and stirred the winds of heaven and earth. Nowadays, they lived in seclusion, their names fading from common memory.
Having been bested by a young girl, they naturally found it humiliating to speak of. As such, they never explained Yun Zhi's strength in detail, only instructing the current decision-makers to exercise some common sense and discernment.
Though people of this generation did not know Yun Zhi's exact strength, they strictly adhered to the old monsters' teachings: don't provoke Yun Zhi.
Among them, the one who handled this best was none other than Emperor Xia.
"Speaking of which, Junior Brother Lu tricked the high-ranking members of the demonic cult into coming here this time and caught them all in one fell swoop. Just how many contribution points should we give him?"
"Even though the most critical step was completed by Eldest Senior Sister, the contributions of Lu Yang and the other two are by no means small," Dai Bufan thought with some vexation.
"Whatever, no use overthinking it. Let Eldest Senior Sister decide." Dai Bufan cast the matter to the back of his mind.
...
In the grove on Tianmen Peak, Lu Yang stuck his head out and swiveled it around. Control of the body had returned to Lu Yang once more.
"Shrinking the Earth."
With a whoosh, Lu Yang burrowed right out.
His senior brothers and sisters hadn't been genuinely ruthless. Knowing Lu Yang was versed in the Earth Escape Art, they had deliberately let him off easy. Otherwise, one use of "Pointing at Earth to Form Steel" would have given Lu Yang a whole lot of misery to swallow.
"Congratulations, congratulations! You've successfully passed this Fairy's trial!" The Immortal Fairy clapped enthusiastically.
She analyzed in all seriousness, "You've gained a great deal this time! Not only did you gain combat experience, and your various spells have visibly improved, but even your cultivation is close to late Foundation Establishment. I can guarantee that for your age, you are the strongest!"
Lu Yang remained silent, staring at her like a vengeful ghost.
"Ahem, don't look at this Fairy like that," the Immortal Fairy coughed dryly twice.
"This Immortal said that as long as you passed this trial, this Immortal would grant you a portion of my heritage. You should be secretly thrilled! Back in the ancient era, unless you became this Immortal's disciple, how could you ever learn this Immortal's immortal arts?"
Lu Yang looked at the Immortal Fairy suspiciously. "Did you have any disciples in the ancient era?"
"No."
"..." *Thank goodness you didn't. Otherwise, wouldn't you have ruined their lives?*
Oblivious to what Lu Yang was thinking, the Immortal Fairy continued, "The technique this Immortal is imparting to you this time has quite the illustrious background! It's a technique that Immortal Suiyue begged this Immortal to learn after attaining the Dao. It involves time and the future!"
"Although this Immortal isn't as gifted in time-related techniques as Immortal Suiyue and only grasped the general gist, teaching you is more than enough!"
"What technique?"
"Foreseeing the future!"
Lu Yang drew in a sharp breath of cold air. He had never expected to have the chance to learn such a renowned art. It could no longer be considered a mere technique—calling it an immortal art would hardly be an exaggeration.
*Has the Fairy finally begun to serve her purpose as a golden finger?*
*This beating was definitely worth it.*
Chapter 180