"Did the prisoner confess?" Lu Yang asked reflexively.
The Immortal Fairy was utterly baffled by Lu Yang's question. "How should I know if the prisoner confessed or not? Immortal Jiuchong must have gotten tired from interrogating prisoners and needed a meal to refresh himself."
"Let's see what's left of the stored ingredients." Humming a cheerful tune, the Immortal Fairy wandered around the kitchen before finally stopping in front of a pool.
"Taiyi Holy Water?" Yun Zhi softly murmured the origin of the water in the pool. It was no ordinary commodity, but Taiyi Holy Water—so rare that it had never even appeared at auctions.
Legend had it that Taiyi Holy Water possessed the power to purify all things and cleanse the soul; a single drop could pull a cultivator back from Qi deviation.
If Yun Zhi remembered correctly, only a few drops of Taiyi Holy Water remained in the world today, scattered among major factions as heritage reserves that were never lightly used.
The Dao Seeking Sect had once obtained three drops, all of which had been used on elders who had succumbed to Qi deviation during cultivation. Present-day Dao Seeking Sect did not possess a single drop.
Yet here, there was an entire pool of it.
The unruffled surface mirrored the Immortal Fairy's delicate face.
"Why is there a pool here?" Lu Yang did not know what Taiyi Holy Water was; he only wondered why a pool would be sitting in a kitchen.
"It's a sink for washing vegetables! Don't you wash yours when you cook?" The Immortal Fairy wore an expression that plainly said, *Lu Yang, you really have terrible hygiene*, making Lu Yang's eye twitch.
Taiyi Holy Water could purify all things, so using it to wash vegetables did make sense... sort of.
Eldest Senior Sister hesitated slightly, thinking that an ancient celestial truly lived up to the name—quick-witted and adept at blazing unusual trails.
The Immortal Fairy extended her index finger and lightly tapped the water's surface, sending ripples spreading across the calm pool.
As if answering a command from some supreme presence, the water parted down the middle, revealing a space beneath.
There was not a single drop of water or trace of moisture in the submerged space. A bizarre power separated the pool from the space below; if one viewed the pool and the space beneath as a jar, then the pool was its lid.
The contents of this space gave Lu Yang a jolt: unidentifiable beast meat radiating vibrant vitality, immortal fruits that had long vanished in the river of history, eerily perfect spherical stones, flowers breathing multicolored celestial light... Every item attested to an extraordinary origin.
None of that was the key issue. The most critical issue was—
"Three hundred thousand years have passed, and these things are still preserved so well?!" Lu Yang was astonished. Even if Tribulation Transcendence cultivators took turns living in a relay race, several generations would have died over three hundred thousand years.
Yun Zhi raised an eyebrow. In her perception, time inside this underwater space was completely frozen.
The Immortal Fairy first made sure her treasures were unharmed and breathed a quiet sigh of relief before boasting, "Immortal Suiyue forged this space for me!"
"Using the power of his Suiyue Dao fruit, he completely locked down time in this space! Whatever condition things are in when you put them inside, that's exactly how they come out!"
Lu Yang took a sharp breath. Freezing local time—could the Suiyue Dao fruit actually accomplish such a feat?!
"When Immortal Suiyue first attained immortality and condensed the Suiyue Dao fruit, he couldn't do this yet. It was only with my help later on that he mastered this technique. To thank me for stepping in, he built this time-halted space for me to use."
"Fairy, you are proficient in the power of time as well?" Lu Yang recalled the time-related divine abilities the Immortal Fairy possessed.
One was the Art of Playing Dead, which could manipulate her own time to accelerate a corpse's rate of decay.
The other was Weather Forecast, which could accurately predict future weather.
No matter how he looked at it, the Immortal Fairy didn't seem capable of instructing Immortal Suiyue.
"Immortal Suiyue said that only when facing a threat can the power of a Dao fruit be drawn out, but to an immortal, almost nothing can be called a 'threat.'
"So he asked me to cook for him. He wanted to freeze his own time while eating. After practicing for a few days, he mastered it."
Lu Yang: "..."
"Maybe while eating he remembered getting pinned to the ground and beaten by me back when he was in the Tribulation Transcendence stage, which gave him a sense of 'threat.' Immortal Jiuchong taught me that this is called a conditioned reflex."
"Tribulation Transcendence stage?" Hearing the key term, Yun Zhi recalled a story she had read in an ancient tome. "Fairy, do you know whether the four, including Immortal Ying Tian, went through a massive battle before becoming immortals—that is, while all four were still in the Tribulation Transcendence stage?"
"The final battle before becoming immortals?" Lu Yang perked up upon hearing this. It sounded intensely dramatic, conjuring thrilling, blood-boiling imagery.
Yun Zhi nodded slightly, recalling the contents of the ancient text. "According to legend, before the Four Ancient Celestials attained the Dao, a great decisive battle took place.
"Immortal Ying Tian, Immortal Kirin, and Immortal Jiuchong—these three proud prodigies—joined forces against Immortal Suiyue. According to those who witnessed the battle back then, during the fight, Immortal Ying Tian even bellowed at Immortal Suiyue, 'Who can become an immortal?!' In the face of Immortal Ying Tian's interrogation, Immortal Suiyue didn't dare answer, immediately losing ground in terms of mental state.
"People speculated that among the Four Ancient Celestials, Immortal Suiyue's true form was the Jianmu tree. Having existed for untold eons, his foundation was frighteningly deep, making him the most likely to attain immortality first. The other three joined forces to prevent Immortal Suiyue from becoming the first to ascend."
At first, the Immortal Fairy's brows were knitted tight, having no recollection of any final battle before becoming immortals. But upon hearing the end, realization dawned on her. "Oh, that! Well, you've asked the right person. I know all about it!
"Let me tell you, before Immortal Suiyue became an immortal, he walked around with his nose in the air, looking down on everyone. Back when both of us were in the Tribulation Transcendence stage, he asked me, with so many heroes under heaven, who could become an immortal?
"I asked if Immortal Ying Tian could do it. He said Immortal Ying Tian cared too much about status, which was a burden on the path to immortality.
"I asked if Immortal Kirin could do it. He said Immortal Kirin was a crude martial artist who relied on innate fortune; his cultivation path had been too smooth, so he would struggle to pass the trials of immortality.
"I asked if Immortal Jiuchong could do it. He said Immortal Jiuchong had mediocre talent, and if not for having an Immortal Physique, he would have long been defeated by other prodigies. Such a person could never become an immortal.
"I asked if I could do it. He said I was too sharp and aggressive, and though I walked the path of invincibility, excessive rigidity breaks easily. He even claimed I was too calculating and discordant with the Dao of nature, falling short in my state of mind, so it was impossible for me to become an immortal either.
"I asked him who on earth could become an immortal, then. He sighed that in the vastness of the world, he alone could attain immortality, bearing eternal loneliness.
"I was so furious that I pinned him to the ground and gave him a thrashing. That made him behave, and he admitted I could become an immortal too.
"Afterward, I was still mad. One beating didn't feel like enough, but having already beaten him, giving him another thrashing right away seemed unreasonable. So I told Immortal Ying Tian, Immortal Kirin, and Immortal Jiuchong what he had said.
"And then the three of them teamed up to teach Immortal Suiyue a lesson.
"In a one-on-one fight, Immortal Suiyue feared none of them, but three against one, all he could do was take a beating.
"When Immortal Ying Tian bellowed 'Who can become an immortal?!' Immortal Suiyue knew he had no leg to stand on, so he didn't dare answer."
Yun Zhi: "..."
So this was the truth behind the legendary final battle before the Four Ancient Celestials attained the Dao?
Catching a secret glimpse of Eldest Senior Sister's reaction, Lu Yang thought to himself, *Now you know what kind of ancient stories I have to listen to every day, right?*
Chapter 282