Chapter 889: The Origin of Ashy Bean
"Are you Lu Yang?" Yingtian Immortal asked calmly.
"Yingtian Immortal senior, you know of me too?" Lu Yang was pleasantly surprised; he hadn't even introduced himself yet.
"I've been watching from the heavens when you tried to deceive the Thunder Tribulation by changing your name just now."
"..."
"To think that you've learned to defy fate at the Nascent Soul Stage, truly a talent to be reckoned with."
Lu Yang wasn't sure how to respond to that: whether to carry on with what Yingtian Immortal had said, or to correct him by saying that what he learned was not to defy fate, but to change his name.
Fortunately, Fairy Eternity stepped in to change the subject.
Fairy Eternity asked, "After the fall of this immortal, what happened then?"
As the thoughts of Yingtian Immortal persisted from ancient times to the present, he must know more than Ao Ling and Lianyi.
"After the four of us learned about your future demise, we took various measures to prevent it, such as Suiyue often using the Time Dao Fruit to foresee the future, and my true form splitting a part of itself to hide me within the Thunder Tribulation to observe your movements, while Jiuchong and Kirin sought the 'sixth Immortal'."
"Just the day before your incident, Time Immortal still foresaw your future, but he saw a future where nothing happened."
"On the day of the incident, about half an hour after I saw you enter the abode, your aura suddenly fluctuated intensely, and then completely disappeared—your physical body, soul, Dao Fruit, everything was gone, and all beings forgot about your existence."
Fairy Eternity frowned; she couldn't remember this part, which suggested that something was indeed amiss with her at the time.
"My true form and the other three noticed your abnormality and rushed to the North Star, sealing off the place."
"And soon, in a corner of the North Star, we found an unknown Immortal."
"No one knows how that Immortal was able to act within your abode to kill you silently without leaving any traces of battle, nor do we know how that Immortal escaped from right under my watch."
"A staggering celestial battle began shortly thereafter; the prowess of that Immortal exceeded our expectations, capable of holding their own against the four of us without falling behind."
"No, one could say that only with such strength, would it be possible to kill you."
"That Immortal did not fight us to the death; they kept fleeing throughout the battle, and indeed, they managed to escape."
"To prevent that Immortal from escaping, the four of us refined the stars into a continent and set up the Four Immortals' seal beneath it; only with your resurrection, Fairy Eternity, and the addition of our combined powers, could we break that seal."
It was all to force that Immortal to resurrect Fairy Eternity.
Clearly, that Immortal didn't fall for it, preferring to remain trapped within the boxed world rather than resurrect Fairy Eternity.
"The Immortal's unwillingness to resurrect you was anticipated, so we opted for the original method—the Power of Faith."
"Do you remember the Buddhism we fabricated? That was an experiment centered around the Power of Faith."
"Although you didn't pay much attention to Buddhism, Qinghe took it very seriously, as it is all about your story."
"Qinghe conducted thorough research on the Power of Faith, even surpassing the four of us."
"According to Qinghe's view, the Power of Faith could condense into a physical body, which is to say, your body, Fairy Eternity."
"To gather the Power of Faith, my true form and the other three established the Fire Dynasty."
"Ten thousand years after the establishment of the Fire Dynasty, the Imperial Shi Clan gave birth to a prodigy who, based on the insight into the Dao Fruit, attained Immortality and was given the Dao name 'Imperial Historian,' referred to by the people as 'Imperial Historian Immortal'."
"With the ability to perceive past, present, and future through the Dao Fruit, my true form requested him to observe the murder process, yet he saw nothing."
"Xiao Ling told me about it."
"Lu Yang, you've met Ao Ling? Then that saves trouble. She must have told you about 'Heavenly Court' and 'Underworld,' right?"
"It is about shaping my flesh with the faith of Heavenly Court and summoning the Eternity Dao Fruit with the belief system of the Underworld, or using the Underworld belief system to condense the Reincarnation Dao Fruit. With the power of the Reincarnation Dao Fruit, reversing life and death, resurrecting you."
"Hold on, are you saying the Underworld system can condense a Reincarnation Dao Fruit?" Fairy Eternity interrupted the Yingtian Immortal, Ao Ling had never mentioned this to her before.
"Ao Ling didn't tell you? Oh right, she fell into a deep sleep when the Fire Dynasty was established, about twenty thousand years ago. At that time, the Underworld was not yet fully developed, and the concept of Reincarnation Dao Fruit had not emerged, so it's normal for her not to know."
"Only in the end, the Underworld didn't manage to condense a Reincarnation Dao Fruit, they condensed an Initial Form of Reincarnation Dao Fruit instead."
Yingtian Immortal shook his head and sighed, regretting the decision to establish the Underworld on behalf of his true self, "It's this Initial Form of Reincarnation Dao Fruit that caused a big problem."
"Unable to resurrect the deceased?" Fairy Eternity asked curiously.
Yingtian Immortal continued to shake his head with a regretful expression, "The Initial Form of Reincarnation Dao Fruit indeed can resurrect the dead, and it did indeed resurrect you."
"But what was resurrected was not you in the Immortal stage, but you in the Semi-Immortal stage."
Lu Yang's pupils gradually narrowed, as he seemed to realize how Grey Bean came to be.
Fairy Eternity had two Semi-Immortal stages; one was during the Initial Form of Annihilation Dao Fruit, the other was during the Initial Form of Immortal Dao Fruit.
"You resurrected Ashy Bean?!"
Yingtian Immortal looked at Lu Yang with confusion, "Who is Ashy Bean?"
Yingtian Immortal was not yet aware of Fairy Eternity's full name.
"Never mind, please continue, Senior Yingtian Immortal."
"Didn't you once achieve Semi-Immortality through the Initial Form of Annihilation Dao Fruit? Later on, Time Immortal persuaded you, saying that achieving immortality that way was not the strongest; it would be better to return to nature and attain immortality through the natural Dao."
"You cut yourself, stripped away the part of yourself that possessed the Initial Form of Annihilation Dao Fruit and killed it; then you returned to the Transcendence Tribulation Stage and re-condensed the Dao Fruit Outline."
"What the Underworld resurrected was, in fact, you who once killed yourself, the one who had the Initial Form of Annihilation Dao Fruit!"
Lu Yang began to understand how Grey Bean came about, but there were still some things he didn't quite grasp, and he cautiously raised his hand, "May I interrupt with a question?"
"Ask away."
Yingtian Immortal was quite friendly towards Lu Yang, the Junior Cultivator who resurrected the immortal.
"That Fairy who possessed the Initial Form of the Annihilation Dao Fruit, she's the same as the Heavenly Court Master of the Fire Dynasty, right?" Lu Yang wanted to confirm that these two were the same person first.
"Right."
"We've met her in the East Sea, and how should I put it... her personality is somewhat different from the current Fairy, very cold and aloof. Did something go wrong when you resurrected her?"
From the brief encounter in the East Sea, that Grey Bean acted decisively, was calm and collected, and coldly detached, completely different from the current Fairy Eternity.
Yingtian Immortal did not quite understand what Lu Yang meant.
"Isn't being cold and aloof quite normal?"
"That was her personality before."
"Ah?"