Who Could Have Done It?

The shadowy figure knew he was no match for Yun Zhi. The disparity between them was too vast, and the likelihood of successfully escaping was minuscule. Rather than expose himself, it was better to self-detonate as quickly as possible to ensure the safety of his true body. If Yun Zhi tracked down his lair, his true body would lose all hope of competing in the struggle of the Golden Age. *Damn it, why does someone like this exist on the Central Continent?!* *Could the destiny of Heaven and Earth all be concentrated on the Central Continent?! And why did the Immortal Fairy revive?* *Apart from the few of them, who else even knew the Immortal Fairy existed, let alone knew her name?! How on earth did the Immortal Fairy revive?!* *She can only be revived by reciting her honorific title and true name! Who recited it?!* *The Immortal Dao fruit truly is as described—eternally undying. Even after dying completely, she can still be revived.* As the shadow self-detonated, question after question flooded his mind, none finding an answer. His self-detonation was silent and soundless. His body disintegrated into fine powder, and the powder dissolved into spiritual energy, returning to Heaven and Earth. "Did he run?" Lu Yang asked in confusion. The shadow's methods were far too advanced for him to understand. Yun Zhi gave a faint shake of her head, a trace of baleful aura and regret flickering in her eyes. "He didn't run. He took his own life." "Then will his true body know what happened here? Will he know about the Immortal Fairy?" Lu Yang recalled what the shadow had said before self-detonating: *"A pity my true body won't know the situation here."* Was he intentionally misleading them, or was that truly the case? Yun Zhi's words dispelled Lu Yang's worries. "His true body won't know, nor would the avatar dare let the true body know." "If the avatar could transmit its situation to the true body, I would be able to use the connection between avatar and true body to locate the true body." Eldest Senior Sister's methods were likewise completely beyond Lu Yang's comprehension. "It's just..." A faint hint of doubt appeared in Yun Zhi's eyes, as if she were pondering a question. "Just what?" "The feeling of that black shadow was very familiar. I may have fought him before." Both Lu Yang and the Immortal Fairy were surprised. Yun Zhi continued, "It was about a hundred years ago. I happened to notice that a celestial had appeared on the Central Continent. I asked him to identify himself, but he refused, whereupon the two of us engaged in battle." "He probably hadn't anticipated my strength and was at a disadvantage right from the start. Pressing my advantage, I wounded him. Seeing that continuing to fight would yield no good outcome, he feinted with an attack toward a city below. While I moved to protect the city, he fled. By the time I tried to pursue him, he was already gone." "That person hid his identity by wrapping himself in chaotic mist, and the techniques he used were completely generic, offering no clue to his origins. He was very similar to the shadowy figure we encountered today." Yun Zhi felt that today's black shadow was an avatar of that person from a century ago. Lu Yang thought it over. If Eldest Senior Sister's suspicion was correct, then what the shadow had said—*"Sure enough, your strength is far beyond what you display to the outside world"*—was just feigning ignorance of her true strength, a complete lie. The more Lu Yang thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. If he hadn't known Eldest Senior Sister's strength, how could his immediate reaction have been to self-detonate rather than try to flee? That defied common sense. The shadow hadn't said more than a few sentences from start to finish, and most of them were probably lies. *What a sneaky old bastard.* The Immortal Celestial was overcome with lingering dread. Although the two fairy ladies hadn't shown any mercy when beating him—each striking harder than the last—at least they hadn't killed him. Had he fallen into the shadow's hands, not only would his Dao fruit have been stripped away, but he would also have most likely been murdered to silence him. "Fairy, can you guess who he is?" Lu Yang asked. The Immortal Fairy furrowed her brows with some hesitation. "Immortal Jiuchong is the best at playing with avatars, but if the other three wanted to imitate him, they could pull it off too." "Is it possible that besides the five of you, there were other celestials?" Lu Yang asked next. Asked this by Lu Yang, even the Immortal Fairy became uncertain. *Could it be that Immortal Jiuchong really wasn't the first celestial?* "Back then, how did you all determine that Immortal Jiuchong was the first celestial?" The Immortal Fairy recalled, "When Immortal Jiuchong attained celestialhood, celestial light blossomed between Heaven and Earth, celestial music chimed, and nine-colored raindrops fell from the sky, bringing blessings and acclaim, benefiting all living beings. Later, when the four of us attained celestialhood, none of that happened." Lu Yang was astonished. "Was that the special treatment for being the first to become a celestial?" Yun Zhi nodded. She had seen records in ancient texts describing Immortal Jiuchong's ascension to celestialhood, consistent with what the Immortal Fairy said—or rather, as an eyewitness, the Immortal Fairy's description was even more detailed. The first person to attain celestialhood truly was extraordinary. The Immortal Fairy shook her head. "No. Later, when the five of us were having a meal together, Immortal Jiuchong drank too much and finally admitted to us that all those anomalies back then were actually things he secretly orchestrated himself, costing him quite a few heavenly materials and earthly treasures." Lu Yang: "..." Yun Zhi: "..." Why was it that every time they heard the Immortal Fairy talk about the strange events of antiquity, their worldview was completely refreshed? Lu Yang even felt that antiquity in the Immortal Fairy's mouth and the one described by the black shadow were drawn in entirely different art styles. *** In a mysterious place, a dark silhouette sat upon a throne constructed of piled withered bones. He opened his celestial eyes, unleashing boundless celestial light that illuminated the world around him. The boundless celestial light flashed and vanished. Under its brief illumination, the ground covered in corpses and withered bones looked extraordinarily eerie. The dark silhouette slowly rose and stretched his body, his brow slightly furrowing. "Why is this chair so rough on the backside?" "Whose idea was it to pile up withered bones into a chair without even a cushion?" The dark silhouette shook his head, deciding to find another place to sleep. Suddenly, the dark silhouette noticed something amiss and grunted in surprise. "My lord, what is the matter?" an attendant asked cautiously. "The avatar I sent to the Immortal Cult has vanished?" The dark silhouette had always been able to sense his connection with the avatar and determine its location. Just moments ago, the avatar completely severed its connection with him, which meant the avatar had been eradicated. That avatar had consumed countless amounts of his painstaking effort; to lose it just like that, claiming it didn't hurt would be a lie. "What? My lord's avatar has vanished?!" The attendant was greatly alarmed, his expression completely genuine. His lord was a celestial; a celestial's avatar was enough to roam the world unhindered. How could it have vanished on the Central Continent? The dark silhouette pondered, *Who could have done it?* The first one he ruled out was the Immortal Celestial. As a soul created purely from collective thoughts and willpower, he could easily gauge how much ability it possessed; it was impossible for him to silently kill the avatar. On the Central Continent, there were only a handful of people capable of killing his avatar. The reason he hadn't gone in person and had instead dispatched an avatar to check the situation was precisely out of concern that those few individuals on the Central Continent would spot him. He did not want to reveal his identity just yet. He had tampered with the avatar: even if it were captured, it would be utterly impossible for anyone to deduce his identity from it. In fact, they might even be misled by the traces on the avatar into suspecting other celestials. Living a lifetime, caution was paramount. Otherwise, if one lived as carefreely and thoughtlessly as the Immortal Fairy, who knew what day someone might bump them off? *Is it that fellow in the imperial palace? Is it Yun Zhi of the Dao Seeking Sect? Or someone else?* His avatar had been hidden within the Immortal Cult. Those in contact with the Immortal Cult could only be the Great Xia Dynasty, which had always been devoted to suppressing demonic cults, and the Five Great Immortal Sects, who vanquished demons and subdued evils.