Jianmu

"Jianmu?" Lu Yang's eyes went wide, staring at the wooden talisman plaque in utter disbelief. "Isn't that Immortal Suiyue's true form?" Mundane mortals could not recognize immortal items, often slapping the title "immortal" onto many rare curiosities. For example, people frequently referred to Little Medicine Kings as "immortal herbs," peerless treasure swords as "immortal swords," and unfathomable Dao methods as "immortal arts." Yet in reality, whether it was a Little Medicine King or a peerless treasure sword, neither came anywhere near the level of an "immortal." Jianmu was different. It indisputably qualified as an immortal treasure. "This immortal said it looked familiar! It's definitely a piece of Immortal Suiyue. It's just a bit small, otherwise I would have recognized it right away!" In this era, when it came to familiarity with Immortal Suiyue, none could surpass the Immortal Fairy. Lu Yang wore an odd expression and asked, "Then where did this tiny sliver of Jianmu come from? Did Immortal Suiyue peel it off like dead skin from his foot?" An immortal's body was indestructible. Who could possibly slice a piece of wood off Immortal Suiyue? The Immortal Fairy shot Lu Yang a look of disgust. "How could that be? An immortal possesses a leakless body—how could he have something like foot dander like a mortal?" "Then this tiny piece of Jianmu..." "Maybe it was blown off by this immortal's self-detonation." Lu Yang: "..." "Or maybe Ying Tian and the others beat it off him. After all, before Immortal Suiyue attained immortality, he kept going around claiming he would definitely become an immortal while none of the rest of them would, which stirred up public outrage. After attaining immortality, Ying Tian and the rest ambushed him plenty of times." "Though this piece of wood is too small, so even I can't tell who struck it off." "If I remember correctly, didn't Immortal Suiyue only say those words to you alone, Fairy? And it was you who went and told Ying Tian and the others." The Immortal Fairy gave a grand wave of her hand and instructed Lu Yang, "The end result was pretty much the same. Don't sweat the small stuff! You ought to learn more from this immortal in that regard." "Also, ask this little girl if she has any more Jianmu." Giving Lu Yang a piece of Jianmu implied that Shangguan Yu possessed even more of it. "Sister Shangguan, may I ask what this is? Why have I never seen it before?" Lu Yang politely inquired. "Never seen it, right? This is only a tiny piece. An even larger portion lies beneath the Wood Vein—a scorched giant log. The Wood Vein's flourishing vitality is all thanks to that giant log. When our sect's founder discovered that giant log while surveying beneath the Wood Vein, it really gave him quite a fright." "The giant log's vibrant vitality has maintained the Wood Vein for a hundred thousand years without waning. That alone shows just how powerful this giant log is." "The founder noticed this as well. The vitality contained within the giant log was potent to an unimaginable degree, already surpassing anything the cultivation world could comprehend. None of the spiritual trees recorded in ancient records matched it." "So the founder made a bold guess: this thing was nothing other than a part of the Wood Celestial's body!" The modern cultivation world did not know the title Immortal Suiyue; knowing only that he had transformed from a tree, people habitually called him the Wood Celestial. "The Wood Celestial?!" Everyone gasped, Bai Ming being no exception. Even he had never heard of this matter, let alone known that the vitality of the Wood Vein actually stemmed from a giant log. "Sister Shangguan." "Sister Shangguan!" The moment they heard that what Lu Yang held was a part of the legendary Wood Celestial, everyone began chiming in with cries of "Sister Shangguan" one after another, and even Bai Ming joined in. "Calling me that only now? Too late." Shangguan Yu turned her head away to keep them from seeing her grin. Then she turned back and said sternly, "You have to call me that a few more times!" The rising chorus of "Sister Shangguan" had Shangguan Yu beaming from ear to ear. "Come, come, one for each of you. It'll keep you safe and blessed. Little Bai Ming, you get one too." Shangguan Yu fished out five small wooden plaques and distributed them to everyone. "Keep us safe and blessed?" Lu Yang remembered when Meng Jingzhou suffered karmic backlash, the Immortal Fairy had mentioned that Immortal Suiyue had the ability to dispel evil and could ward off Meng Jingzhou's karmic backlash. If Immortal Suiyue's body truly worked to grant protection and peace, why did Qiu Jin'an still need to go to the Huangzhou provincial governor to borrow the power of national destiny? He entered his spiritual space, just about to ask the Immortal Fairy, when he saw her make up her mind and unfurl her immortal sense. Originally, the Immortal Fairy had wondered if doing so might offend the Five Elements Sect. But after hearing Shangguan Yu's reminder, her thoughts aligned with Lu Yang's, and she no longer cared about causing offense. She immediately spread her immortal sense to scan the Wood Vein, and indeed, she found the giant log Shangguan Yu had spoken of. The giant log was unimaginably massive, running through the entire Wood Vein. Although Lu Yang and his companions had been casually touring the five veins and reached them with just a short stroll, they were walking near the junction where the five veins converged, which significantly shortened the distance. In reality, the Five Elements Sect was only slightly smaller than the Dao Seeking Sect, spanning eighty thousand li. And the five veins formed the main body of the Five Elements Sect. One could only imagine how vast the Wood Vein was, and what colossal length a giant log capable of traversing the Wood Vein must possess. Yet compared to the sky-piercing, earth-grounding Jianmu of the Immortal Fairy's memory, this giant log was still far shorter—bordering on diminutive. The Immortal Fairy condensed the appearance of the giant log she had seen within the spiritual space. The giant log was charred black all over, marred by burns from fire and lightning scorches. Several layers of old bark had sloughed off, and one strike had pierced straight through the tree's heartwood. "What in the world happened?" Lu Yang was startled. Even a layman like him could feel the horrific severity of the assault this giant log had suffered; it could only be described as tragic and brutal. The Immortal Fairy fell silent for a moment before speaking slowly, completely stripped of her usual playful demeanor: "Immortal Suiyue suffered an attack. The assailant used the most common methods of attack to conceal their identity." "At first, I thought that when I blew myself up, Immortal Suiyue had used methods like Withered Tree Encounters Spring or Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell, leaving behind an avatar while his true body escaped. But that's not right. Ying Tian said never to leave avatars behind in the mortal world. To the mortal world, they could be a blessing, but they could also be the root of catastrophe. Therefore, an avatar of Immortal Suiyue shouldn't be appearing here." "Now seeing this section of Jianmu, I'm certain: this is Immortal Suiyue's true form, and a massive portion of it has already been reduced to nothingness!" The Immortal Fairy had no recollection of a battle of such magnitude taking place while she was still alive. This was a battle of the immortal-slaying scale. "After this immortal died, Immortal Suiyue fought a great battle, and his opponent was terrifyingly powerful." Immortal Suiyue wielded the Suiyue Dao fruit, capable of observing the past, foreseeing the future, and even reverting his body to an uninjured state. Under such circumstances, he had still been battered into this state, which was enough to show just how mighty and horrifying his opponent had been. Lu Yang's heart shuddered as he listened. "Immortal Suiyue... passed away?" The Immortal Fairy shook her head slowly. "It's impossible to be sure. An immortal's vitality is far greater than you imagine; even if he lost his true form, he could still survive. But in Immortal Suiyue's state, even if he is still alive, having lost his true form, he can't be in good shape." "Immortal Suiyue is different from this immortal. With the Immortal Dao fruit, this immortal can freely craft a true body to house an immortal soul, but Immortal Suiyue cannot. An immortal body is of paramount importance to an immortal; in this world, it is extraordinarily difficult to find anything that can replace or reconstruct an immortal body." Immortal Suiyue's true body had been battered to such an extent, his life and death unknown—how could it possibly grant protection and blessings?