Lu Yang listened in shock. Back when he had experienced the rules of Buyi Town, Daoist Buyu had explained the concept of rules to him.
Cultivators at the Body Integration stage gained preliminary control over rules; those at the Tribulation Transcendence stage commanded rules on a broader scale; and immortals, through the power of their Dao fruits, held dominion over the rules of the entire world.
Yet he had never imagined that a Dao fruit could go so far as to create a rule like reincarnation.
If an immortal really had created a rule of reincarnation, could immortals have created other rules as well?
Among all the things that seemed commonplace today, how many had not existed in ancient times, only to be created later?
Why had the Ancient Nameless One refined the stars into continents? What had been the purpose? Was that, too, the manifestation of some rule, or done to create one?
Lu Yang looked up at the dazzling sun in the sky. The sun was the moon—something completely impossible in his previous life.
Perhaps this celestial body, regarded by people as the source of life and power, was also the embodiment of some rule.
Lu Yang dumped all these questions on the Immortal Fairy at once. She clearly could not handle such complicated questions, and her head was left spinning.
"Anyway, from what I've seen and heard since my revival, the present isn't all that different from ancient times. At most, the stars being refined into continents counts, and the sun counts.
"Since you happened to ask about Dao fruits, I might as well tell you a bit about them.
"Though immortal Dao fruits are far too distant for you right now, and knowing too much would be harmful to your future cultivation, so I can only give you a little taste. If it were that little girl Yun Zhi, I could tell her plenty about Dao fruits... Oh, wait, she doesn't seem to need me explaining that sort of thing anyway."
The Immortal Fairy held up two fingers, counting them off as she explained the lore of Dao fruits to Lu Yang: "Classified by the kind of rules they govern, Dao fruits fall into two categories.
"The first type is like Immortal Suiyue's Suiyue Dao fruit, which governs the rule of time. The rule of time is objectively existent and was there all along. What the Suiyue Dao fruit does is grasp an existing rule and modify it at will. As for how far those modifications go, only Immortal Suiyue knows.
"The second type is like my Immortal Dao fruit, which governs the rule of immortality. The rule of immortality is something I created out of nothing; it never existed before. And the rule of immortality only affects me alone... Oh, wait, Bu Yaolian counts too. So the rule of immortality applies to both Bu Yaolian and me, though it has far less effect on him than on me.
"Bu Yaolian's rudimentary Immortal Dao fruit only lets him appear at any of his statues. It's the most superficial rule of immortality, useful only for escaping. If he truly dies, he can't revive.
"I'm completely different." Speaking of herself, the Immortal Fairy grinned, radiating supreme confidence.
"As long as my name is spoken—regardless of time, place, or language—I can revive! The other four, like Immortal Ying Tian, were terribly envious of this ability of mine!
"Pity their skills fell short and they couldn't bear an Immortal Dao fruit." The Immortal Fairy puffed with pride. As the self-proclaimed head of the Five Ancient Celestials, she naturally believed she had good reason.
Lu Yang suspected that the Immortal Fairy had eaten her own cooking, experienced an epiphany at death's door, grasped the true meaning of immortality, and condensed the Immortal Dao fruit—only to automatically purge the unpleasant memories after bearing it.
"Then there's Immortal Ying Tian. His Dao fruit also created a rule out of nothing: the Tribulation Responding rule."
"The Tribulation Responding rule?"
"The most common manifestation is facing heavenly lightning tribulations. Look at how breaking through from Nascent Soul to Soul Formation, or from Soul Formation to Void Refining, requires facing lightning tribulations. That only happens in your current era. In ancient times, cultivators didn't have to undergo lightning tribulations when cultivating.
"Immortal Ying Tian felt that the people of the world cultivated by blindly pursuing raw power and cultivation speed while neglecting their state of mind, losing the true meaning of cultivation. So he condensed the Tribulation Responding Dao fruit to impose a test upon all practitioners.
"As it turned out, Immortal Ying Tian made the right choice. With the advent of lightning tribulations, cultivators began to value their mental state and work hard to overcome tribulations, and instances of qi deviation no longer occurred casually.
"The Tribulation Responding Dao fruit is a classic example of projecting a rule across the entire world, adding a rule that applies to everyone.
"So do you see now? If someone became an immortal after my death and condensed the Reincarnation Dao fruit, that would be just like what Immortal Ying Tian and I did: creating a rule out of nothing.
"The only question is whether this rule of reincarnation applies to specific people, or to everyone."
The Immortal Fairy explained further: "If it applies to specific people, it generally means that the possessor of a rudimentary Reincarnation Dao fruit can repeatedly reincarnate, thereby achieving an alternative form of eternal life.
"If it applies to everyone, that means every single person has a previous life—you, Meng Jingzhou, Man Gu, Tao Yaoye, and so on, without exception. But I don't think that's very likely."
"Why?" Lu Yang pressed.
"Think about it. If everyone is reincarnating, wouldn't that mean the total number of souls in the world is fixed?"
Lu Yang nodded.
"Then have you ever considered how souls came to be in ancient times, back when there was no rule of reincarnation?"
Lu Yang was startled. He really had never thought about that before.
The Immortal Fairy continued, "In ancient times, as a fetus formed in the womb, it would naturally absorb the quintessence of heaven and earth. When the quintessence gathered, it formed a soul. The quintessence of heaven and earth is formless, intangible, imperceptible, and beyond detection.
"Where souls originated had always been a mystery. Only after the five of us became immortals did we join hands to deduce the truth, discovering that the world contained a substance never before identified, called quintessence. Quintessence is the source of the soul.
"The birth of a soul can be viewed as a rule. Let's provisionally call it the rule of the soul.
"If the rule of reincarnation applied to everyone, it would inevitably clash with the rule of the soul. An inescapable conflict between a newly created rule and an existing rule is a grave taboo when condensing a Dao fruit.
"Unless the immortal who controls the Reincarnation Dao fruit was an idiot, that wouldn't have happened."
Hearing the Immortal Fairy's explanation, Lu Yang was reminded of a question: "Fairy, can your rule of immortality cover everyone?"
If the rule of immortality could cover everyone, it would mean every living being would enjoy eternal life without death.
That was an irresistible temptation to anyone.
The Immortal Fairy dismissed Lu Yang's speculation: "When I first condensed my Immortal Dao fruit, I did have that thought. Back then, I figured that everyone was fighting tooth and nail to raise their cultivation and scramble for resources just to become an immortal and live forever, wasn't that right?
"If I give everyone eternal life, wouldn't the world finally know peace?
"When I shared that idea with Immortal Ying Tian and the others, they reacted strongly. They banded together to stop me and told me I couldn't even think of doing such a thing."
Chapter 218