At the very bottom of the continent, there were plenty of cultivators capable of reaching such depths, yet very few ever did—the thought simply never crossed their minds.
Lu Yang was no exception. It had never occurred to him either to continuously use Shrinking the Earth to travel all the way to the continent's very bottom and see what lay on the other side.
Only after Third Senior Sister mentioned it did he take action.
The bottom of the continent was pitch-black, devoid of light. Lu Yang attempted to probe it with his divine sense, but the Immortal Fairy stopped him.
"Don't look with your divine sense. This isn't something you can comprehend—a single glance would overwhelm your mind."
Lu Yang obediently stood down. Matters concerning celestials were best left to celestials; he wouldn't meddle.
"Step back a bit further. I'm afraid an accident might catch you in the crossfire in a moment."
This was the Immortal Fairy's first time seeing such a thing. According to little Gan Tian's description, its defining feature was being impenetrable, but who knew if it had other effects, like reflecting damage or deflecting attacks?
Lu Yang backed away again.
"What are you running so far away in such a hurry for?"
The Immortal Fairy called him back. Lu Yang returned obediently. She lightly tapped his forehead twice, connecting the two of them with her immortal sense.
This way, no matter how far Lu Yang ran, as long as he stayed within range of her immortal sense, the two could converse.
However, to prevent Lu Yang from suffering a mental shock, she didn't share her visual perspective as she had last time.
"All right, you can go now."
Once Lu Yang reached a safe distance, the Immortal Fairy unfurled her immortal sense, analyzing the structure inch by inch. Under her formidable immortal sense, the underlying makeup of the continent revealed itself before her eyes, and the more she observed, the tighter her brow furrowed.
"Two barriers in total were laid down here, corresponding respectively to the Tribulation Transcendence stage and celestials. The first layer cannot be broken through by the Tribulation Transcendence stage, while the second cannot be broken through by celestials."
"Is there no place corresponding to half-immortals?"
"The greatest distinction between a half-immortal and the Tribulation Transcendence stage lies in grasping a rudimentary Dao fruit. You can view a half-immortal as a transitional phase between the Tribulation Transcendence stage and a celestial. If you master a rudimentary Dao fruit at the early Tribulation Transcendence stage, you are a half-immortal; if you master a rudimentary Dao fruit at the peak of the Tribulation Transcendence stage, you are still a half-immortal.
"The difference between these two kinds of half-immortals lies in their foundational power.
"Only when a half-immortal fully condenses their Dao fruit and becomes a celestial will their overall strength undergo a qualitative leap."
"So that's how it is."
Although Lu Yang was merely at the eighth layer of the Golden Core, he had already acquired an immense wealth of knowledge that even those in the Tribulation Transcendence stage might not possess.
"What a complicated structure. Who laid this down?"
The Immortal Fairy gave the first barrier a light tap. The barrier was pierced through, and countless runes flashed, converging into a beam of white light. As the white light gleamed, the barrier restored itself to its original state, seamless and tight, as if it had never suffered any damage.
The entire process took less than half a breath.
When the Immortal Fairy tapped the barrier again in the exact same manner, the barrier showed not the slightest change—not a single breach or flaw appeared.
"This is..." The Immortal Fairy hesitated.
"Fairy, is something wrong?"
"There are two Dao fruits at work on this barrier."
"Two?"
"Immortal Suiyue's Suiyue Dao fruit and Immortal Kirin's Survival of the Fittest Dao fruit.
"The Suiyue Dao fruit turns back time, restoring the breached barrier to its original state, while the Survival of the Fittest Dao fruit ensures that the same attack cannot break the barrier a second time.
"Wait, no, the barrier's strength also involves Immortal Jiuchong's Yin-Yang Dao fruit. The Yin-Yang Dao fruit bestowed the concept of 'the hardest' upon the barrier. The first layer is so hard that those in the Tribulation Transcendence stage cannot pierce it, and the second layer is so hard that even the power of a celestial cannot pierce it."
The essence of a Dao fruit is to add a rule to the world. If the Immortal Fairy wished, she could impose an 'immortal rule' upon the entire world, granting eternal life to everyone.
The barrier operated on the same principle. The three celestials—Immortal Suiyue, Immortal Kirin, and Immortal Jiuchong—had extended their Dao fruit rules to the barrier, rendering it indestructible and making it the hardest existence, impenetrable even to celestials.
"Still not right. If only those three Dao fruits were present, I should have been able to tell at a glance, rather than having to experiment repeatedly and deduce the Dao fruits from the phenomena... unless Immortal Ying Tian's Tribulation Responding Dao fruit is also involved.
"Right, the Tribulation Responding Dao fruit must be here too. Immortal Ying Tian used his Dao fruit to cast the 'Immeasurable Tribulation,' completely throwing the Dao fruit rules of Immortal Suiyue and the other two into disarray, shattering and restructuring them."
"What is the Immeasurable Tribulation?"
"It's rather troublesome to explain. You can think of it as the greatest, most chaotic calamity. Once such a tribulation is unleashed, even Immortal Ying Tian himself cannot unravel it.
"Applying the Immeasurable Tribulation to the barrier is like tying a dead knot: unless you cut the rope, no one can untie it."
"Which means this barrier was the handiwork of the Four Ancient Celestials, but even if all four of them were brought here, they wouldn't be able to undo it?"
"That's exactly it."
Lu Yang drew a sharp breath. The Four Ancient Celestials played rough. What were they trying to do?
"In other words, the so-called Ancient Nameless One is actually the Four Ancient Celestials?"
Now that the barrier's composition had been parsed out as the work of the Four Ancient Celestials, did that mean the Ancient Nameless One from legend, who refined myriad stars into the continents, was none other than the Four Ancient Celestials?
Everyone had fallen into a mental trap: the Ancient Nameless One was not a single person, but four people.
"It was the four of them!" The Immortal Fairy nodded affirmatively, a relaxed smile blooming across her face. "I knew my death had nothing to do with those four."
Lu Yang hesitated. He felt the Immortal Fairy was jumping to conclusions too quickly. Did this really rule out the possibility that the Four Ancient Celestials had joined forces to murder her?
"This Immortal naturally has her reasons for drawing such a conclusion." Changing the subject, the Immortal Fairy asked, "Do you know how to break through this barrier?"
A cage laid down jointly by the Four Ancient Celestials could not be opened even by celestials, according to the Immortal Fairy. Did that mean all living beings under heaven would have to spend life after life trapped inside?
"How do you break it?"
"The Immeasurable Tribulation is the biggest trouble. The Immeasurable Tribulation is like a chest secured with ten thousand locks, while you hold ten thousand keys without knowing which key fits which lock. You have to unlock each lock one by one with the right key, and you cannot make a single mistake during the process. Fail just once, and you must start all over again. It's a matter of pure luck.
"The only way to unravel the Immeasurable Tribulation is through relentless attacks at celestial-level combat strength. Yet due to the presence of the Survival of the Fittest Dao fruit, no celestial-level attack can be used twice."
"Then..." Following the Immortal Fairy's train of thought, Lu Yang realized the solution.
"That is why my existence is required. My self-detonations aren't restricted by the Survival of the Fittest Dao fruit—every single self-detonation is done in a different way.
"To undo the barrier of this cage, all Five Ancient Celestials must act at the same time: Immortal Ying Tian and I to unravel the Immeasurable Tribulation, and Immortal Suiyue, Immortal Kirin, and Immortal Jiuchong to lift the restrictions of their rules!"
Lu Yang's mind buzzed. Piecing together the existing evidence, connecting all the dots, he envisioned the scene from three hundred thousand years ago and understood why the Immortal Fairy was so certain the Four Ancient Celestials were not the culprits behind her death:
After the Immortal Fairy died, the Four Ancient Celestials couldn't find the perpetrator. At the same time, for some reason, they couldn't revive her. So, they pooled their earth-shattering might to refine the stars into continents.
This was an unmistakable declaration to the killer: Either revive the Immortal Fairy and unlock the cage, or everyone stays trapped in the cage together—no one gets to leave!
Chapter 574