Just as the three of them were chatting, a great gate opened in the spiritual space. A woman in a white dress appeared, a bell tied to her wrist with golden thread, her expression aloof.
"Eldest Senior Sister, why are you here?" Lu Yang was overjoyed to see Eldest Senior Sister.
"From the outside, it looked like you were still trapped in your inner demon tribulation, so I came over to check on the situation.
"Seeing you now, it seems you ran into something else again?"
Eldest Senior Sister's gaze fell upon the only stranger present.
"Who are you?"
Immortal Ying Tian felt as if facing a formidable foe. This was the first time he had encountered an expert whose aura was even more formidable than his own.
Immortal Ying Tian's disposition instantly shifted, turning unfathomable and imbued with a profound aura of antiquity, as if he had arrived across the river of time and the billowing mortal realm.
He shook out his arms, his wide sleeves wrapping around his forearms, clasped his hands behind his back, and looked straight into Yun Zhi's eyes.
"My name is Immortal Ying Tian. I have seen you before in the heavenly tribulation, Fellow Daoist Yun Zhi."
"So it is a thought left behind by Senior Ying Tian, one of the Five Ancient Celestials, hidden within the heavenly tribulation. Your methods are indeed admirable."
Immortal Ying Tian was startled. An expert indeed—right off the bat, she exposed his origins, hinting that he was merely a thought and unqualified to sit as equals with her, implying that his true body ought to be summoned instead.
"Fellow Daoist flatters me. Still, I never imagined that later generations could produce an outstanding talent like you. Truly, the youth are formidable."
Immortal Ying Tian sneered inwardly. He had deliberately pointed out that Yun Zhi was from a later generation, seizing the upper hand in terms of seniority. Let's see how you counter that!
"Merely natural talent. It is nothing remarkable," Yun Zhi replied in an indifferent tone, as though discussing a matter of no consequence.
Immortal Ying Tian: "..."
How am I supposed to respond to that?
However, he soon had no need to ponder that question.
Under the watchful eyes of Lu Yang and the other two, Immortal Ying Tian's form gradually faded, growing so faint that the things behind him became visible.
"Ying Tian, is this thought of yours about to be exhausted?"
Since he was about to disappear anyway, there was no longer any need to put on airs.
Immortal Ying Tian pressed two fingers together against his temple, flicked them outward, and gave a hearty laugh. "Then I'll be taking my leave first. Though I don't know where my true body is, I still hope you can find him."
Afterward, Immortal Ying Tian vanished, as if he had never been there at all.
Eldest Senior Sister conjured three imperial chairs out of thin air and gestured for Lu Yang and the Immortal Fairy to take a seat, her movements so practiced that it was as though she were in her own spiritual space.
"So what did the two of you do to summon a thought of Immortal Ying Tian over here?"
Lu Yang and the Immortal Fairy honestly recounted the process of the tribulation transcendence—from meeting Immortal Ying Tian after overcoming the inner demon tribulation, to what Immortal Ying Tian had said before leaving about the rudimentary Reincarnation Dao fruit.
Hearing of the Immortal Fairy's past experiences, a trace of pity surfaced in Yun Zhi's eyes, though it was well concealed.
"So what the two of you are saying is that Junior Brother Li is the reincarnation of Immortal Suiyue?"
Eldest Senior Sister nodded and said no more about it.
"Then how do you view Gray Fairy's transformation? Why is her personality different from the fairy's original one, and why did she wipe out the Xinhuo Dynasty?"
Lu Yang analyzed, "From Senior Ying Tian's description, the more people Gray Doudou killed, the stronger she became—so strong that none of the Four Ancient Celestials could defeat her one-on-one."
"So you also think, Little Junior Brother, that the more people Gray Fairy killed, the stronger she became, and that this was a characteristic of the Extinction Dao fruit?"
Lu Yang shook his head. "Whether it was a characteristic of the Extinction Dao fruit, I don't know, but she definitely didn't just grow stronger the more people she killed.
"If that were the case, she would have moved to destroy the world long ago during the three hundred thousand years after the fall of the Xinhuo Dynasty.
"Judging from how she wanted to kill Senior Ao Ling and wanted to kill me, I'm more inclined to believe that she only wants to kill those who know the truth—that is, people who are aware of her existence.
"And everyone in the Xinhuo Dynasty knew of her, which was why she grew stronger the more she killed."
Eldest Senior Sister was very pleased with Lu Yang's line of reasoning, seeing that he had not been misled by superficial information. "Well done. Just as I thought."
"However, as for why she yearned so desperately to become stronger, and why her personality was different even from the fairy's cold and aloof state, I suspect it has something to do with the power of faith," Lu Yang said.
"Care to elaborate?"
"Although I don't know much about the power of faith, some clues can be seen from what happened with the Penglai Island Master of the East Sea.
"The power of faith is a double-edged sword. It can grant power, but it can also manipulate a person's mind.
"Gray Doudou's immortal body was formed from the gathering of the power of faith, which must have also contained the beliefs of the Four Ancient Celestials.
"Perhaps even the Four Ancient Celestials themselves did not realize that their thoughts contained not only the wish to resurrect the Immortal Fairy, but also the hope that once she was revived, they could join hands to slay the killer from back then."
Even if the Immortal Fairy was resurrected, it was still a mortal grudge that had to be avenged!
"Influenced by this underlying thought, Gray Doudou's disposition shifted once more from the fairy's icy persona, turning her into someone who would stop at nothing to grow stronger."
"That is close to what I was thinking. However, there is another possibility that you overlooked, Little Junior Brother."
"What is it?"
"The idea of growing stronger embedded in the power of faith might not have come from the Four Ancient Celestials. It could also have come from that killer."
Lu Yang was startled. That was right—how could he have forgotten this? During those hundred thousand years, would the killer have just stood by and watched the Four Ancient Celestials resurrect the Immortal Fairy without doing anything?
They must have made a move.
"Alright, let us leave the discussion at that. Little Junior Brother, don't forget that you are still in the middle of tribulation transcendence; you still need to finish wrapping things up." Eldest Senior Sister stood up and made the three imperial chairs vanish.
Reminded by Eldest Senior Sister, Lu Yang finally remembered that his tribulation transcendence was not yet over.
The most crucial part of tribulation transcendence—the body tempering and transformation—had not even begun!
***
"Senior Brother Lu Yang's inner demon tribulation hasn't ended yet?" Tao Yaoye looked worriedly at Lu Yang, who was suspended in the air in the distance.
"Hey, look, he moved! Senior Brother Lu Yang moved!" A sharp-eyed senior brother in the Void Refining stage spotted Lu Yang's finger twitch, which meant the inner demon tribulation was finally over.
Sure enough, Lu Yang, floating above the summit of Tianmen Peak, opened his eyes. His entire demeanor had completely changed.
The energy of the Supreme Haotian Golden Gate Divine Lightning still lingered within Lu Yang's body. He had temporarily suppressed it earlier, but now he was going to use this power to temper his body.
Lu Yang released his suppression, letting the divine lightning's energy flow through his body, strengthening every line of muscle and every meridian.
Unlike the agony during the tribulation, the body-tempering process was delightfully tingling and remarkably comfortable. Every pore on his body opened wide as far as possible, absorbing the external spiritual energy and converting it into spiritual power within him.
His spiritual power pool, spiritual strength, spiritual space, meridian resilience... Everything from head to toe was renewed—a thorough, complete transformation.
The divine lightning's body-tempering effect was unexpectedly superb. This was, after all, a lightning tribulation even more powerful than the top-ranked Three Purities Lightning Tribulation; no Soul Formation stage cultivator had ever enjoyed a divine lightning body tempering of this caliber.
Lu Yang looked inward toward his dantian and saw cracks begin to spread across his Nascent Soul. Then, it gradually dissolved, releasing even purer and more potent energy. A new form of energy began to coalesce, ultimately forming a Primordial Soul the same size as Lu Yang himself.
The divine lightning tempered the body; the Nascent Soul transformed into the Primordial Soul.
Lu Yang had successfully advanced to the Soul Formation stage!
Chapter 970