While Guan Shanhai and Meng Junzi were locked in fierce combat, a battle among half-immortals broke out in a corner of the Imperial City as the three women—Ao Ling, Jiang Lianyi, and Jin Caiwei—fought tooth and nail against the imprinted second Imperial Preceptor.
After leaving the main battlefield, the second Imperial Preceptor had been hunted down directly by the trio.
Jin Caiwei had been stabbed in a sneak attack by the second Imperial Preceptor, and she was hellbent on avenging that strike.
Worried that something might happen to Jin Caiwei, Ao Ling and Jiang Lianyi joined the fray as well. Erasing his own karmic ties, the second Imperial Preceptor was ghostly and elusive, making him exceptionally difficult to deal with.
The Immortal Fairy noticed the commotion over there. Although she could clearly see the second Imperial Preceptor's position, she chose not to tell the trio.
It was the perfect opportunity for them to gain experience fighting someone with a rudimentary Karma Dao fruit; besides, with her watching over them, nothing could go wrong.
General Yu thought it over and decided to lend the second Imperial Preceptor a hand.
On one side was an immortal battle, and on the other was a battle between five half-immortals. Neither was a clash of peerless masters one could afford to miss. Even in ancient times when half-immortals walked everywhere, battles of this scale were few and far between. The cultivators in the Imperial City practically wished they had eight eyes so they could watch both fights at once.
Never again in their lifetimes would they have another chance to witness a clash of such magnitude.
However, both battles were rather difficult to observe. In the clash of immortals, Guan Shanhai and Meng Junzi moved at an absurd speed, far beyond what onlookers could track.
As for the battle among the five half-immortals, the second Imperial Preceptor flickered in and out of sight, and whenever he vanished, the memories concerning him vanished as well, making spectating tremendously difficult for the cultivators down below.
General Yu was already beginning to regret stepping in to help the second Imperial Preceptor. Whenever the second Imperial Preceptor vanished, all the attacks from Ao Ling and her companions were directed straight at his head—something he could hardly withstand.
...
Guan Shanhai had originally thought he could resolve the battle using just the rudimentary Longevity Dao fruit, but now it seemed he had underestimated Meng Junzi.
Both immortals fought at extreme speed, massive divine abilities clashing and illuminating the sky above the Imperial City in splotches of azure and crimson, like an overturned dyeing cart.
Suddenly, through a brief lapse in attention, Guan Shanhai reacted a fraction of a beat too slow. With a ferocious thrust straight to the heart—a classic Black Tiger Steals Heart—Meng Junzi struck Guan Shanhai square in the chest, gouging a massive tear through his golden body.
Meng Junzi had cultivated another body tempering technique whose might was in no way inferior to Guan Shanhai's Nine-Turn Imperishable Golden Body.
Guan Shanhai's face flushed crimson, and with a violent retch, he spewed a huge mouthful of immortal blood. The blood splattered against the array shielding the Imperial City, causing it to shudder, straining beneath the sheer power contained within immortal blood.
Seeing this, Meng Poci knew that if this happened a few more times, the shockwaves would likely tear holes in the barrier. He hastily dispatched men to request that every Tribulation Transcendence cultivator in the Imperial City step up to reinforce the array.
Yet Guan Shanhai quickly regained his composure, and the wound on his chest rapidly healed, as though he had never been injured at all.
Meng Junzi raised an eyebrow. "The 'undying' trait of the rudimentary Longevity Dao fruit? No, the rudimentary Longevity Dao fruit alone wouldn't allow you to recover this quickly. Let me guess—among the four individuals you created, there was only one I didn't recognize. His Dao fruit had to do with recovery, didn't it?"
Naturally, Guan Shanhai was not going to answer an enemy's questions.
Lu Yang knew Meng Junzi was referring to Master Muyin. Master Muyin was a cultivator from the mid-Great Yu era and a good friend of Daoist Lord Wanfa. Historical records classified Master Muyin as being in the Tribulation Transcendence stage, but according to Daoist Lord Wanfa's confession, Master Muyin had actually been a half-immortal.
Master Muyin had died in his sleep; Lu Yang suspected that Master Muyin had learned some details about the Xinhuo Dynasty and was silenced by Hui Doudou.
"Wait a second. If Master Muyin's rudimentary Dao fruit was related to recovery, wouldn't that conflict with Daoist Lord Wanfa's rudimentary Longevity Dao fruit? How did the two of them become friends?" Lu Yang was puzzled.
The Immortal Fairy explained smugly, "What's so hard to understand about that? Master Muyin's rudimentary Dao fruit probably belongs to the eternity category—maintaining his state unchanged and constant. In the end, its superior Dao fruit is still my Immortal Dao fruit!"
"You think condensing an Immortal Dao fruit or Eternal Dao fruit is easy? It's absurdly difficult! Even if I weren't around, he wouldn't have been able to become an immortal."
"That rudimentary Longevity Dao fruit is the same. The difficulty is so staggering that without me and Suiyue, no one could achieve immortality with it anyway."
"Since neither of them could become immortals, of course they could become friends!"
Just then, Guan Shanhai tossed out countless dharma treasures. Instead of hurling them at Meng Junzi, he scattered them across the skies above the Imperial City.
Meng Junzi struck at Guan Shanhai at blistering speed, but Guan Shanhai vanished into thin air, replaced by a dharma treasure from who knew where.
The moment Meng Junzi touched the treasure, it shattered into countless fragments.
Without any warning, Guan Shanhai appeared behind Meng Junzi, attacking once more with heaven-toppling force. Meng Junzi failed to detect it in time and was struck by Guan Shanhai, coughing up blood as well.
Meng Junzi whipped around to face Guan Shanhai, only to discover that behind him was merely another dharma treasure Guan Shanhai had thrown earlier. Guan Shanhai had somehow relocated to a distant spot.
Wiping the immortal blood from the corner of his mouth, Meng Junzi revealed a knowing smile. "I see. You swapped places with your dharma treasures."
One of the functions of the rudimentary Displacement Dao fruit was the ability to switch positions with anything belonging to oneself.
Even if Meng Junzi smashed the dharma treasures, it was useless—even shattered into pieces, they still belonged to Guan Shanhai, and he could still swap places with them.
Unperturbed, Meng Junzi continued his assault. Guan Shanhai swapped places with a treasure once more, shifting far away, yet Meng Junzi unexpectedly crossed space itself and caught up to him.
This time, Lu Yang could tell even without the Immortal Fairy's explanation: Meng Junzi was borrowing the rudimentary Space Dao fruit of his sect's patriarch, Daoist Lord Hanhai.
"Right, Fairy, since Senior Meng Junzi has the Loan Dao fruit, does that mean he's just like you—exempt from the immortal oblivion trait?"
When an immortal exerted Dao fruit methods, it would cause the world to forget. This held true for Immortal Ying Tian and the other three immortals, as well as Jiang Ping'an's Dao fruit; only the Immortal Fairy lacked this trait.
Lu Yang figured that the Loan Dao fruit probably did not possess the immortal oblivion trait either.
Otherwise, whenever Meng Junzi borrowed something, he could simply never return it, since everyone would forget.
The Immortal Fairy hadn't considered this question before. Prompted by Lu Yang, she began to ponder it seriously. "Now that you mention it, that seems to be the case."
Lu Yang continued, "Suppose Emperor Xia's lifespan was borrowed by Meng Junzi. That would be a Dao fruit method, so the world ought to have forgotten about it. But in reality, they didn't—everyone knew Emperor Xia's lifespan had run into trouble."
Suddenly, a familiar voice came from behind Lu Yang: "Oh? To think you even figured that out, Little Junior Brother. Fairy Senior really has told you quite a few things someone at your cultivation level shouldn't know."
Yun Zhi stood quietly beneath an ancient tree in a plain white gown. Time seemed frozen around her; she looked as though she had just arrived, yet also as though she had been standing there all along.
Sunlight filtered through the sparse canopy, casting dappled, kaleidoscopic patterns of light and shadow, lending her figure an exceptionally cool detachment.
"Eldest Senior Sister!" Lu Yang called out in delight.
The moment he learned that Emperor Xia's death was all a ruse, Lu Yang had realized that Eldest Senior Sister had arrived at the Imperial City long ago.
This was a battle between immortals; there was no way she would have sent him to oversee it alone.
Even so, seeing Eldest Senior Sister here brought him immense joy.
Chapter 953