Censored

Sensing someone peering at them across time, the atmosphere in the immortal realm suddenly turned tense. "Could it be that Immortal Suiyue used his Suiyue Dao fruit because he wanted to see just how long we'd drag out this game?" Immortal Kirin asked with an odd expression, though even he felt taking several months per move in gomoku was pushing it a bit. The three immortals fell silent for a moment, all feeling that this was genuinely plausible. "Fairy, can they see us?" Lu Yang was thoroughly spooked. He was separated from the three immortals by three hundred thousand years, and what he was looking at was merely a historical reflection. Detecting his presence under such circumstances was a bit too terrifying, wasn't it? The Immortal Fairy gave Lu Yang a sidelong glance. "Don't flatter yourself. They sensed this Immortal's presence." If Lu Yang's cultivation were enough to be noticed by the three immortals, they would have caught on right from the start of the historical reflection. Not to mention Mister Tiankui, whose cultivation was far higher than Lu Yang's, yet the three immortals had shown no reaction to him either. "When it comes to 'seeing,' only Immortal Suiyue could gaze from the past to look at us in the future. Ying Tian and the other two merely have a vague sense of something; they can't even tell who's watching them." Even so, Lu Yang felt immortals were terrifying enough. So not all immortals were like the Immortal Fairy. The Immortal Fairy suspected Lu Yang was harboring deeply irreverent thoughts about her, but she had no proof. Immortal Jiuchong pondered for a moment, thinking of another possibility. "It might not necessarily be Suiyue. It could be an immortal of future generations viewing us across endless ages. After all, at the rate you two play, the three of us will have to stay here for a hundred years, which is more than enough to leave behind a historical reflection." "You mean an immortal is watching our historical reflection?" "Indeed, that's entirely possible. Right now there are only four immortals among us, while there's a whole mob of half-immortals—disappointing slackers, the lot of them, not one managing to become an immortal. Over the vast ages of future generations, it's only natural that a few more immortals would emerge." The three laughed heartily. If more immortals truly arose in later ages, perhaps they could share the burden of suffering inflicted by the Immortal Fairy. "Hey! Jiuchong, Ying Tian, Kirin, can you hear me?" the Immortal Fairy called out, projecting her aura in an attempt to transmit it across time. When she first started watching the historical reflection, Immortal Ying Tian hadn't noticed her either; it was only when she declared her intention to punish the mastermind behind the scenes that her aura inadvertently leaked out, allowing him to sense her presence. "This aura..." Immortal Ying Tian and the others instantly turned vigilant. The aura was faint and elusive, like an incense stick about to burn out, almost nonexistent, yet from this trace of presence they could still feel the other party's existence. "This aura belongs to ███!" All three realized it simultaneously. The Immortal Fairy had beaten them up from childhood to adulthood; after attaining immortality, they were blown up by her day in and day out; and the very reason they were hiding here right now was because of her. They couldn't possibly be more familiar with this aura! Huang Doudou! It was definitely Huang Doudou! Cold sweat immediately broke out on their backs. *We didn't badmouth Huang Doudou just now, did we?* *Phew. Probably not.* "Can the three of you hear me talking?" The Immortal Fairy tried a few more times. Seeing that Immortal Jiuchong and the other two showed no response at all, she shook her head and gave up with regret. It seemed they couldn't hear her speak. Lu Yang frowned. After Immortal Jiuchong and the others noticed the Immortal Fairy from the future, they should have spoken her name. Yet Lu Yang only saw Immortal Jiuchong mouth the words with no sound at all, and the mouth movements didn't even match "Immortal Fairy." *Talk about aggressive censorship.* In a context like this, replacing the Immortal Fairy with Immortal Suiyue would have been a glaring plot hole that even a fool could spot, so crude, outright censorship was much simpler. "Don't you find it strange? ███ keeps releasing her aura—does she have something she wants to convey to us?" Immortal Ying Tian furrowed his brow, toying with the stone in his hand. He had assumed the Immortal Fairy had stumbled upon their historical reflection and released her aura on a playful whim. If that were the case, doing it once would have been enough. Why release it repeatedly? Had she become addicted to teasing them, or did she have a message to convey that couldn't get through across such a vast expanse of time? If it was the latter, why was the Immortal Fairy delivering the message? Wouldn't Immortal Suiyue have been much more effective? Wait. Could an accident have occurred in future generations, leaving Immortal Suiyue unable to convey messages? "Jiuchong, go fetch Suiyue and have him see what's going on. I suspect ███ has something to discuss with us!" "And don't let ███ know about this," Immortal Kirin added. No one knew what would happen if the past and present Immortal Fairies were to meet—whether it would open a temporal tunnel or cause mutual annihilation on the spot in a massive explosion. "Understood." Immortal Jiuchong could deduce all this without Immortal Ying Tian and Immortal Kirin needing to explain. Immortal Jiuchong turned into a beam of light, tearing through space. Each step spanned tens of thousands of light-years as he traversed countless galaxies, arriving at the North Star governed by the Immortal Fairy. Upon the North Star, immortal qi curled and drifted. A single breath was enough for a mortal to prolong their life and cure all ailments. He saw countless cultivators kneeling by the riverside, performing three kowtows and nine prostrations toward the statue of the Immortal Fairy erected on the bank before respectfully ladling out a bowl of river water. These were the North Star's specialties: the Child-and-Mother River and the Twin River. When he reached the Immortal Fairy's immortal manor, he saw her in the kitchen exchanging culinary insights with Immortal Kirin's two wives. Immortal Suiyue was fidgeting restlessly, likely searching for an excuse to flee. "Huh? Jiuchong, you're back? Done chopping the parasol wood?" The Immortal Fairy poked her head out of the kitchen with flecks of flour on her face, grinning cheekily. She gave Immortal Jiuchong such a scare that he froze on the spot. He had done his best to conceal his aura, yet the Immortal Fairy had still detected him. "Done chopping. Took quite a bit of effort, though." Having weathered great storms in his time, he quickly recovered and set down the parasol wood slung over his shoulder. "Thank you for your hard work, Big Brother Jiuchong." The peerless talent of the Phoenix Clan smiled sweetly as she carried the parasol wood into the kitchen, from which continuous dragon cries and phoenix calls soon echoed. Who knew what they were cooking? Immortal Jiuchong announced loudly, "Those two lousy players, Ying Tian and Kirin, are playing chess, and one of them is cheating, insisting he didn't make a certain move. Suiyue, come over and help settle it." Immortal Suiyue looked at Immortal Jiuchong with gratitude. *What a good brother! It really was worth yielding the honor of becoming the first immortal to you.* "All right, I'll go right now." Immediately afterward, Immortal Suiyue noticed something was amiss. Immortal Jiuchong's expression was grave; he didn't look like he was merely helping him escape, but rather that he needed his help with something else. What kind of matter required his assistance, yet went out of its way to bypass the Immortal Fairy? Immortal Suiyue vaguely realized that something big had happened. The first two immortals crossed infinite galaxies, retracing the route at a speed even faster than Immortal Jiuchong traveling alone. On the way, having listened to Immortal Jiuchong's explanation, Immortal Suiyue wore a solemn expression, not uttering a single word.