Borrowing

Although Guan Shanhai and Wu Yao were both mentor and friend, and Wu Yao even addressed him as Teacher, that did not mean Wu Yao possessed the absolute trust in Guan Shanhai that the second Imperial Preceptor had. Wu Yao's curiosity surpassed all else. He was curious about everything unknown, and his path of cultivation had begun with curiosity toward a cultivation manual clutched in the bosom of a dead cultivator. His subsequent meteoric rise in cultivation had been driven by curiosity about how higher realms felt. Driven by curiosity, he had founded the Great Yu Dynasty, cultivated to immortalhood, and sacrificed Great Yu just to know what the outside world was like. The Wu Yao that Guan Shanhai had imprinted possessed the exact same temperament as the real Wu Yao. He wanted to know what was happening, why the real him was not here, and why he was expected to fight now. Before Guan Shanhai could answer, he heard the Nightmare Supreme stumble back several paces, looking as though he had seen a ghost, his voice trembling. "Guan Shanhai, w-w-w-when did you become an immortal?!" The Nightmare Supreme's memories were still stuck at the chaotic era near the end of Great Qian when heroes vied for the world. Back then, he had defeated countless formidable foes, including General Yu, and to establish a new dynasty, he still needed to defeat the rising star Wu Yao and Wu Yao's mentor, Guan Shanhai. Yet the problem now was: you, Guan Shanhai, have fucking become an immortal, so how the hell am I supposed to found a new dynasty?! Daoist Lord Wanfa and Master Muyin similarly wore looks of utter disbelief upon seeing the three legendary figures of Guan Shanhai, Wu Yao, and the Nightmare Supreme. Seeing the clamor and varied expressions of the half-immortals he had imprinted, Guan Shanhai felt a wave of exhaustion. The battle had not even started, yet they were already making fools of themselves. Guan Shanhai sighed. In a clash between immortals, every split second counted. With a thought, amid their horrified expressions, he stripped them of their lives and devoured their rudimentary Dao fruits. Though he could not control the thoughts of the imprinted figures, he could control their imprinted rudimentary Dao fruits. However, a person and their rudimentary Dao fruit were inextricably linked; he could not imprint the rudimentary Dao fruit alone. Thus, he obtained four rudimentary Dao fruits: the rudimentary Dream Dao fruit, the rudimentary Displacement Dao fruit, the rudimentary Longevity Dao fruit, and Master Muyin's rudimentary Rejuvenation Dao fruit. Guan Shanhai instantly accelerated his own time, increasing his speed to a point where even Meng Junzi's immortal sense could not react in time. To those below, he appeared to vanish into thin air. "Nine-Turn Imperishable Golden Body." Guan Shanhai channeled a profound Buddhist art, enduring nine tribulations to forge an imperishable golden body, transforming himself into a golden Buddha. He had relied on this golden body art to survive his Immortal Ascension Tribulation; now that he had already attained immortality, channeling it again made his immortal physique unimaginably tough—it was no exaggeration to say it was imperishable throughout eternity. In all of the Imperial City, only Lu Yang and the Immortal Fairy could clearly see what Guan Shanhai had done. Gazing at Guan Shanhai as he continuously accelerated, the Immortal Fairy laughed. "Quite clever. Using kid Wanfa's rudimentary Longevity Dao fruit to accelerate his own time, and then reinforcing his physical body so every motion carries might rivaling that of an immortal artifact." Like a ghost, Guan Shanhai appeared behind Meng Junzi, his fingers snapping together into a golden immortal blade to sever Meng Junzi's head! His hand was additionally imbued with curse power; even if Meng Junzi could reattach his head, his vitality would be severely wounded. Yet to Guan Shanhai's surprise, Meng Junzi tilted his head back slightly, neatly evading the strike! "How is this possible? You can see me?" Guan Shanhai could not help being astonished that his opening strike had missed. "Seal of Great Compassion!" "Heavenfall!" "Boundless Yuanmagnetic Immortal Art!" A Buddhist palm larger than the Imperial City blotted out the sun, breaking through layers of cloud barriers to come crashing down. Guan Shanhai brought forth the might of a toppling heaven, slamming a palm toward Meng Junzi's chest, while positive and negative twisting forces sandwiched Meng Junzi, threatening to wring his physical body apart. Guan Shanhai unleashed three peerless immortal arts in succession. Any one of them was enough to crush a half-immortal. Only someone like Ao Ling might fare slightly better—her immortal dragon physique shattered, barely clinging to life. If an immortal took a hit undefended, they would be left coughing up blood endlessly! The only two flaws in these three immortal arts were that their activation was too slow and their attack speed was insufficient. But under the acceleration of his personal time, those two flaws vanished completely. "Heaven-Earth Dharma Idol. Heaven Mending Art. Infinite Creation." To Guan Shanhai's utter shock, Meng Junzi also unleashed three peerless immortal arts in that mere fraction of an instant. Meng Junzi manifested as a colossal Heaven-Earth Dharma Idol, feet planted upon the earth, piercing through the descending Buddhist palm to restore light to the Imperial City. He blocked the might of Heavenfall with the ancient Heaven Mending Art, and neutralized the positive and negative twisting forces with the magic of creation, effortlessly diffusing the three-pronged assault. "How can this be?! Isn't yours supposed to be the Loan Dao fruit?!" Near the end of Great Yu, Guan Shanhai had kept close watch on Meng Junzi and Jiang Ping'an, constantly observing them with his formidable immortal sense, and had long known both of their rudimentary Dao fruits. What Meng Junzi wielded was the rudimentary Loan Dao fruit. Its most common use was to borrow the enemy's artifacts, spirit stones, and possessions, leaving his foes empty-handed while he stood armed to the teeth—completely impossible to fight. The problem was that the uses of the rudimentary Loan Dao fruit had nothing whatsoever to do with time; otherwise, Guan Shanhai would never have stepped forward to fight with such confidence! "Fairy, what's going on? Can the Loan Dao fruit borrow time too?" Lu Yang asked, unable to make sense of this high-level battle. Unlike Guan Shanhai, who had yet to figure it out, the Immortal Fairy possessed vast experience and discerned a clue: "Quite interesting. Meng Junzi probably didn't borrow time just now; he simply accelerated his speed. "This reminds me of an enemy Immortal Suiyue encountered on the path to immortality. That opponent wielded the rudimentary Speed Dao fruit, claiming to be the fastest in the world. When speed reaches a certain extreme, it becomes tied to time—which was why only one of them could attain immortality between that person and Immortal Suiyue. "Could it be that someone in your era also grasped the rudimentary Speed Dao fruit, and Meng Junzi's Loan Dao fruit allows him to borrow someone else's rudimentary Dao fruit? "Do you remember the Meng Family's divine ability, 'Method Borrowing'? When cultivators at Body Integration and above borrow money from the Meng Family, they must not only leave behind a promissory note, but also lend the Meng Family one of their moves. This Immortal has never seen such a divine ability before; it ought to be the Meng Family's original creation, and perhaps it evolved from the Loan Dao fruit." "It's that powerful?" Lu Yang was startled. "Wait, if he can even borrow a rudimentary Dao fruit, could he also borrow lifespan?" Lu Yang suddenly realized. For Emperor Xia's exhausted lifespan to deceive an immortal like the Imperial Preceptor meant not only that the Imperial Preceptor had never seen it before, but also that it was a divine ability belonging to the "immortal" realm. The Loan Dao fruit fulfilled both conditions completely. "That should be it."