"Right, this is the dirt I found—the Soil of Breathing Earth." The Kirin Immortal Herb snapped out of its awe at the immortal battle, recalling its purpose for coming here.
"Soil of Breathing Earth? The legendary immortal soil said to block a whole river with just a small piece?!" Lu Yang had only ever read about such rare soil in books. Because its effects were so wondrous, the world bestowed upon it the title of "immortal soil."
Immortal Fairy circled the Soil of Breathing Earth several times and recognized its origin. "Ah, this. This is good stuff Immortal Jiuchong made. It expands when it touches water, created to control river flooding."
"Back in our day, the river channels were a total mess, and rivers flooded all the time. But tribes were always settled right beside the rivers—the banks were the most densely populated places. As a result, every time a river flooded, it caused massive casualties, and rebuilding after the disaster was very difficult."
"Large tribes were fine. They had mighty cultivators who could control the river's flow with the Water Control Art, so their tribes wouldn't face danger. But the small and medium tribes had it rough—their cultivators lacked the cultivation to control such massive bodies of water."
"Although Immortal Jiuchong hailed from the Lianshan Clan, the largest tribe of the human race, he treated everyone equally and was very good to those small tribes as well."
"After he achieved immortality, he set about solving the flood problem and refined a type of soil that expands upon contact with water. That's the Soil of Breathing Earth in your hand."
"Oh, right, Lu Yang—you can't eat the Soil of Breathing Earth," Immortal Fairy cautioned.
"Is there something wrong with it?"
Immortal Fairy gave Lu Yang a look of pity. "The Soil of Breathing Earth expands when it touches water, and saliva is no exception. If you eat a mouthful of it, it will expand until it completely encases you."
"Forget it then." Lu Yang quickly backed away from the Soil of Breathing Earth.
The Three-Leaf Star Herb and Flower of Time's Demise brought over two other types of rare soil. Lu Yang ate them one after another, but neither produced any effect.
"It's not working at all."
It was impossible that the effect of all three types of soil was merely improving constitution.
"Try eating a couple more bites?" Immortal Fairy was stubborn.
Lu Yang devoured every scrap of the brought soil, yet not the slightest change occurred.
Thinking he might simply not have eaten enough, Lu Yang continued having the Little Medicine Kings fetch dirt for him to eat. He kept eating until the sky grew dim with the approach of dawn, and still Lu Yang sensed no change whatsoever.
"Fairy, is this Heaven-Swallowing Earth-Devouring of yours reliable or not?" Lu Yang suspected he had been made a fool of by Immortal Fairy.
"How could it not be reliable? This is a great Taotie divine ability taught to me by Immortal Kirin himself!"
Lu Yang immediately had a bad premonition. "Wait a second. Immortal Kirin taught it to you?"
"That's right."
"When did he teach it to you? Was it after his wedding?"
Immortal Fairy was quite astonished. "How did you know?"
"Not long after the wedding ended, Immortal Kirin came looking for me and asked if I wanted to learn an ancient great divine ability of the Taotie Clan. I said there was no harm in learning it."
"Heaven-Swallowing Earth-Devouring wasn't hard to learn, so I mastered it very quickly. After I learned it, Immortal Kirin asked if I wanted to eat some dirt and try it out. I told him I was already an immortal, so what use would eating dirt be to me? When he heard that, he walked away looking very disappointed."
Lu Yang fell silent for a good while before asking tentatively, "Fairy, you mentioned earlier that you also read stories about the Taotie Clan in books. Did the books say eating dirt can improve one's cultivation talent?"
"No, Immortal Kirin told me that."
Lu Yang: "..."
Lu Yang roughly understood what was going on. Heaven-Swallowing Earth-Devouring really was for eating dirt, and the Taotie Clan really had built their rise on eating dirt, but there was no such thing as eating dirt improving cultivation talent at all!
Immortal Kirin had wanted to get back at Immortal Fairy, deliberately teaching her this divine ability and dangling the claim of "improving cultivation talent" to pique her curiosity, hoping she would eat dirt.
That way, Immortal Kirin could spread the word that she ate dirt and mock her for it.
Who would have thought that Immortal Fairy was a genius in her foolishness and hadn't fallen for it in the slightest!
Three hundred thousand years later, the pit Immortal Kirin dug ended up being stepped in by this unlucky bastard, who spent an entire night eating dirt.
*Immortal Kirin, since you couldn't screw over Immortal Fairy, you screwed me over instead, didn't you? I'll remember this!*
...
When everyone arrived at the rendezvous point, Lu Yang had yet to show up.
Just as they were planning to go look for him, they saw Lu Yang walking over with heavy steps, his face ashen.
Meng Jingzhou was startled by Lu Yang's appearance: "What happened to you? Did you fall headfirst into a mud pit while sleeping?"
Lu Yang waved his hand, pretending nothing had happened. "Nothing. Just encountered a small setback while practicing a divine ability. That's very common on the path of cultivation."
Fortunately, Golden Core stage cultivators didn't need to sleep; otherwise, Lu Yang would be so sleepy right now he wouldn't even be able to keep his eyes open.
Fifth Elder was also concerned about Lu Yang: "Are you really all right?"
"I'm really fine."
"That's good, then."
Fifth Elder pulled a flying shuttle from his sleeve and tossed it lightly upward. The flying shuttle grew until it was as large as a chamber of commerce flying boat.
The flying shuttle opened, revealing the seats and various exquisite furnishings within.
This was Fifth Elder's favorite flying treasure. In terms of manufacturing cost, it was vastly more expensive than a flying boat.
"Get in."
One by one, the group hopped onto the flying shuttle, and it sealed shut.
"Are you all seated securely with your safety belts fastened?" Fifth Elder stood at the very front, asking indifferently.
The group didn't understand what he meant by that, but they all sat obediently in their seats and answered in unison that they were secure.
"Good, then."
Fifth Elder nodded, raised his index and middle fingers, and activated the flying shuttle.
The flying shuttle pierced through the air barrier with a sonic boom and launched into motion at rapid speed.
It felt as if something heavy were slamming straight into them, pressing everyone tightly against their chairs and leaving Lu Yang unable to budge.
This force was overwhelmingly immense; even with Lu Yang gritting his teeth, stiffening his neck, and exerting all the strength in his body, he could not break free and could only remain pinned against the chair.
He even tried condensing a spiritual energy barrier around himself for protection, but at such high speed, the spiritual energy shattered the moment it left his body, completely unable to sustain a barrier.
Finally, the pressure vanished. The four leaned forward with the momentum, resting their arms on their legs, heads drooping forward as they stabilized themselves.
All four felt the lingering relief of having survived a disaster.
They hadn't even felt this way when facing the Nine Nether Cult.
Fifth Elder paced back and forth in front of the four, instructing, "I accelerated abruptly just now on purpose to train your responsiveness to sudden emergencies. Remember that sensation. As cultivators, you must remain vigilant at all times to possible dangers around you."
"Back when I was young, I used to drag-race flying boats all the time, constantly facing law enforcement cultivators flying at me from who knows which direction. Not once were those law enforcement cultivators able to catch me."
The four looked at Fifth Elder warily. *The biggest danger right now is you!*
The flying shuttle flew at extreme speed. Originally, Lu Yang had wanted to show everyone the "Heaven-Swallowing" he had just mastered, but before he could say a word, he heard Fifth Elder speak:
"We're here."
Meng Jingzhou poked his head out and looked down, seeing Yanjiang Commandery below.
At this moment, the flying shuttle hovered directly above Yanjiang Commandery, its form completely vanished and undetectable to the naked eye.
"Go on down."
The four looked at each other in dismay, searching all around without finding any descent tools.
Only those at the Golden Core stage could fly. Li Haoran and Qin Yanyan weren't at the Golden Core stage yet, and Lu Yang had a fear of heights.
How were they supposed to get down?
Fifth Elder slapped his forehead. "I'll take you down."
Fifth Elder swung his sleeve. Before Lu Yang could react to what was happening, his vision went black. When he struggled to open his eyes, he found himself lying on the floor of the barbecue shop, with Li Haoran lying to his left and Qin Yanyan to his right.
"What happened? Does Fifth Elder know Universe in the Sleeve too?" Lu Yang was shocked. Wasn't that supposed to be an extremely difficult great divine ability to cultivate?
Immortal Fairy said faintly, "No, he just knocked you all unconscious and carried you here."
Chapter 323