The Immortal Fairy sighed deeply, lamenting the sorrow of this era. "Why is everyone in your era making up rumors? You even dare to fabricate rumors about Celestials!"
As a member of this era, Lu Yang listened to the fairy's lecture, expressing that he would engage in profound self-reflection.
"What a fine person Immortal Ying Tian was. Even though before achieving immortality he was repeatedly challenged and defeated across cultivation realms by me—which was already unlucky enough—he was still an epoch-defining genius of boundless glory. Who would have thought that after achieving immortality and reaching the pinnacle of success, he would end up slandered by rumors from later generations?"
Lu Yang took the opportunity to ask, "Did Immortal Ying Tian have a wife and children?"
"Probably not, but he was exceptionally popular with women."
"How so?"
"By ordinary standards, Immortal Ying Tian was extraordinarily handsome. I never thought so, though of course, that might be because I beat him black and blue every single time."
"Before he attained immortality, powerful female cultivators who fancied him would often abduct him to force themselves on him. It wasn't just once or twice. I ran into it over five times alone, and I heard about it from others even more."
"...I'm so jealous—ah no, I mean, how tragic."
Lu Yang continued flipping through Ancient Secrets, noticing that while the book mentioned the Four Ancient Celestials, only Immortal Ying Tian was referred to by a proper title. The other three celestials were all denoted by generic terms, such as "Demon Celestial" or "a certain celestial."
"It's probably because among the Four Ancient Celestials, Immortal Ying Tian is the most famous. Or perhaps a book you can buy for three thousand spirit stones won't tell you everything."
Considering that Immortal Ying Tian had created the lightning tribulations, Lu Yang had good reason to suspect that Immortal Ying Tian's name was widely known—or rather, widely reviled—among high-level cultivators.
"Look at this! It even mentions the ancient battle between the Dragon and Phoenix ancestors, and the Phoenix Clan ancestor using rebirth through fire!" Meng Jingzhou pointed to one of the pages and said, looking rather excited to see a story he recognized.
He had heard about it from a pureblood phoenix in Luofeng Commandery. That account was slightly more detailed than the one in the book, but the general sequence of events was roughly the same.
Lu Yang rubbed between his eyebrows in agony, feeling that archaeologists really had it tough. After spending ages researching and verifying things, their conclusions turned out to be completely opposite to the actual facts.
"This is a secret record about the Chaos Clan, one of the Four Perils. Members of the Chaos Clan are born without faces and with undefined genders. Upon reaching adulthood, they can alter their gender and appearance at will according to their desires. In ancient times, the Chaos Clan established a rule: in the cultivation world, the strong are revered, the weak submit to the strong, the strong are male, and the weak are female."
"Was there really such a thing?" Lu Yang asked the Immortal Fairy to verify.
The Immortal Fairy confirmed, "That part is actually true."
"The Chaos Clan is just as you've heard. At birth, their bodies are a form of chaos where nothing is determined. They are a rare species where acquired nature determines innate nature; some people even called it proof of reversing cause and effect."
"The Chaos Clan did have that kind of rule: the strong decide the gender of the weak."
"There wasn't anything wrong with the rule itself, but as coincidence would have it, an extraordinary genius appeared in the Chaos Clan back then. While he couldn't match the prodigies of the Dragon and Phoenix Clans, he was still among the top three fighters in the history of the Chaos Clan."
"This guy loved building harems and chasing thrills, so he defeated all the other Chaos members and turned every single one of them from 'he' into 'she.'"
"And since members of the Chaos Clan could freely determine their appearance, they were all stunning beauties."
"The result was that in the vast Chaos Clan, he was the only male, and everyone else was female. They came close to going extinct!"
"In the end, Immortal Kirin had to step in to mediate, advising him to restrain his desires and suggesting that the Chaos Clan revise their rules."
"Afterward, the Chaos Clan changed the rule so that individuals could determine their own gender. I don't know if the rule has been changed again since."
Lu Yang: "..."
Lu Yang: "..."
Better not tell Meng Jingzhou about this, lest he die of envy after hearing it.
"There's also a legend recorded here. In ancient times, a woodcutter went up a mountain to chop firewood and stumbled into an immortal cave dwelling, where he encountered two celestials playing chess. The celestials' chess skills were consummate, containing the vast universe of the Great Dao. When the game concluded, the woodcutter discovered that the world outside the cave had completely transformed, and a hundred years had passed."
"Presumably, the founding cult master of the Immortal Cult based his story on this ancient legend."
Lu Yang said with certainty, "If I'm not mistaken, one of those two ancient celestials must have been Immortal Suiyue. Only he could make a woodcutter watch a single chess match for a hundred years!"
The Immortal Fairy chuckled. "Wrong guess! The ones playing chess were Immortal Ying Tian and Immortal Kirin—those two terrible chess players."
"Back then, I invited all four of them over to my place for a meal. The four of them agreed readily, but Immortal Ying Tian and Immortal Kirin said they were in the middle of a chess match and would come over as soon as they decided a winner. I said fine."
"I waited and waited, but after half a day, there was still no sign of them. I had Immortal Jiuchong go chop firewood, and Immortal Jiuchong volunteered to check on the situation. Once he went, he never came back."
"During that time, Immortal Suiyue went over as well. When Immortal Suiyue came back, he told me they were comprehending the Great Dao through their game and couldn't be disturbed. I said the two of us should just eat, but Immortal Suiyue said that as fellow celestials, they had to share joys and sorrows alike. If they were going to eat, they should all eat together; if not, none of them should eat. How could two people eat while three went hungry?!"
"I thought he made a lot of sense, so I waited a bit longer. And that wait lasted a hundred years."
"A hundred years passed, and the food had gone cold. How could anyone eat it? So nobody ended up eating."
The Immortal Fairy sounded somewhat regretful, feeling that Immortal Ying Tian and Immortal Kirin were truly abysmal at chess, unable to finish a single game even after a hundred years.
Lu Yang: "..."
As expected of celestials with infinite lifespans—a hundred years passed by just like that.
And those three old bros of Immortal Ying Tian were truly ruthless characters: to avoid eating her cooking, they would rather play chess for a hundred years.
Even though this book Ancient Secrets differed somewhat from the actual ancient era, it was nonetheless the result of scholars' historical research; the stories did have real prototypes and weren't made up out of thin air.
As for why rumors claimed Immortal Ying Tian was lecherous, Lu Yang couldn't say. Perhaps the scholars' research methods were flawed, or perhaps their sources of information were wrong.
The two of them walked past a roadside stall. Lu Yang casually took a closer look. Displayed on the stall were a miniature golden pagoda, a pure jade vase, sealed medicinal pills whose efficacy was nonetheless slowly leaking away, a broken flying sword...
"Lu Yang, wait! Do you see that flying sword? What a treasure! That's a flying sword used by Immortal Kirin!" the Immortal Fairy called out excitedly.
The flying sword was damaged and looked vastly different from its original appearance. Had the Immortal Fairy not seen it several times back then, even she wouldn't have been certain it was Immortal Kirin's sword.
"What?" Lu Yang's heart skipped a beat. To think he would encounter a flying sword used by Immortal Kirin in a place like this—this was an immortal sword!
His golden finger, the Immortal Fairy, was finally proving useful!
"Wait, could this be a sword Immortal Kirin used when he was still in the Foundation Establishment stage?" Lu Yang looked warily at the Immortal Fairy.
The Immortal Fairy was displeased, feeling that Lu Yang had too little trust in her. "What are you talking about? Of course not! This is an immortal sword Immortal Kirin wielded after achieving immortality. Immortal Kirin specifically asked Immortal Ying Tian to temper it with the power of lightning!"
Lu Yang was overjoyed. Crafted by Immortal Ying Tian and wielded by Immortal Kirin—the value of this flying sword had just skyrocketed!
What an absolute steal!
Chapter 350