Chapter 1034: Ages Immortal

Lu Yang was taken aback when he saw the Immortal Seeker Token of Time. What was going on? Was the Immortal of Time nearby?

As Lu Yang landed, the Immortal Seeker Token of Time grew hotter and hotter. He looked around. After repeated self-detonations, Xitian Temple was in ruins; only the Grand Hall, though teetering, had not collapsed. Was the Grand Hall peculiar?

Lu Yang walked straight towards the Grand Hall, the steadily rising temperature of the Immortal Seeker Token confirming his suspicion. Master Mingyu inwardly thought, "This is not good," and anxiously followed Lu Yang, saying, "Immortal Venerable, Immortal Venerable, you cannot go there."

Lu Yang paid no heed. Ignoring Master Mingyu's pleas, he walked to the entrance of the Grand Hall, where a voice came from inside. "Mingyu," the voice said, "this person is an old acquaintance of mine. I'll catch up with him. Please handle the aftermath."

"Yes," Master Mingyu replied. His attitude instantly shifted 180 degrees upon hearing the voice. He no longer tried to stop Lu Yang and turned to leave. Having just experienced a major battle, people were in a state of panic; he was indeed needed to stabilize their morale.

Hearing the voice from within the Grand Hall, Lu Yang's heart quickened slightly. This was the voice of the Immortal of Time. The Immortal of Time was here. But if the Immortal of Time was in the Grand Hall, why hadn't the Immortal Fairy of Immortality detected him before?

Lu Yang put the Azure Edge Sword back into his identity jade token and walked into the Grand Hall. Stepping inside, a fragrant scent wafted towards him, a mixture of sandalwood and lotus. The hall was spacious. In the very center stood a colossal golden Buddha statue, tens of meters tall. Its face was benevolent, its eyes slightly closed, as if contemplating the truths of the world. The statue was surrounded by exquisite murals depicting various stories from the Venerable One's life. Each painting was lifelike and captivating.

The golden Buddha statue opened its eyes and stepped down from the lotus pedestal. At the same time, its body shrank to the height of an ordinary person. Though its expression remained benevolent, its face had changed, now appearing to be only in its early twenties. The golden Buddha statue carefully examined Lu Yang, its gaze fixed on the wooden token on his chest. "You just used a rudimentary Immortal Dao Fruit," it said. "Where did you get it?"

"Time, you're still alive?!" The Immortal Fairy of Immortality's voice echoed from Lu Yang's body, and she excitedly emerged from him.

The Immortal of Time, seeing the Immortal Fairy of Immortality, was equally excited. "Immortality, you really have revived?" he asked.

"Yes, it was Little Yangzi... Lu Yang who revived me!"

"Little Yangzi?" The Immortal of Time paused. "What a strange way to address someone."

Then, the Immortal of Time looked at Lu Yang. With a solemn expression, he uttered two words gravely: "Thank you."

"It's... nothing, just a coincidence." Although Jiang Lianyi, Ao Ling, and Immortal Ying Tian had all gravely thanked him upon learning he had revived the Immortal Fairy of Immortality when they first met, Lu Yang still felt a bit uncomfortable with such treatment.

"Coincidence is enough," the Immortal of Time said. They had tried for a hundred thousand years and failed, yet Lu Yang succeeded. Whether it was coincidence or not, this was an immense kindness.

Seeing the wooden token hanging on Lu Yang's chest, the Immortal of Time sighed inwardly, recalling past events. When he had previously seen a part of himself on Lu Yang through a time passage, he had guessed that his future self might have met with misfortune. He had been extremely cautious, yet his suspicion was confirmed; he had indeed met with misfortune.

"Oh right, Time, how are you still alive?"

The Immortal of Time's expression was odd. Was this something one should ask right after meeting? However, considering Immortality's personality, it was understandable that she would ask such a direct question.

"How much do you know about the Spark Dynasty?"

"The Spark Dynasty?" the Immortal Fairy asked. "We've met Lianyi, Little Ling, and Ying Tian. We know pretty much everything about the Spark Dynasty."

"You've met Ying Tian?" the Immortal of Time inquired. "Where is he now?"

"He lives in the ancient ring's mini-world," the Immortal Fairy replied. "The ancient ring is with a disciple from the Immortal Palace of Sweet Laurel."

"I see," the Immortal of Time said. "When I obtained the Sky-Opening Axe, I thought something had happened to him. It's good that he's alive."

"Since you've met Ying Tian," the Immortal of Time continued, "you know pretty much everything about the Spark Dynasty. I know as much as he does, so there's nothing more to tell."

"Ying Tian told me you were ambushed towards the end of the Spark Dynasty," the Immortal Fairy pressed. "Who did it?"

The Immortal of Time gently shook his head. "I don't know, but it must have been one of the three of them, including Ying Tian. Someone among them was possessed by the mastermind!"

"You can use the Dao Fruit of Time to reverse time," the Immortal Fairy wondered. "Who could ambush you?"

Remembering the scene from three hundred thousand years ago, the Immortal of Time slowly exhaled, his expression grave. "My Dao Fruit was interfered with, preventing me from reversing time," he explained. "I suspect the mastermind's Dao Fruit is also related to time."

The Immortal Fairy of Immortality was puzzled. "Also related to time? How is that possible?" she asked. "You possess a time-type Dao Fruit; how could he have one too?"

"I don't know about that," the Immortal of Time replied. "It's just my intuition. Perhaps other Dao Fruits can also affect time reversal."

"What happened next?"

"After I was ambushed, I was severely injured," the Immortal of Time recounted. "My Jianmu body was beyond salvation, so I had no choice but to abandon it, my soul leaving it. I leaped thousands of years through time to the Daqian era. However, I didn't stay in Daqian, choosing instead to go to the Western Regions." Since the Nian Beast can leap through time, the Immortal of Time naturally can as well.

"With my physical body gone and only my soul remaining," he continued, "if I encountered the Immortal of Annihilation or the mastermind, I would have no power to fight back. To reconstruct my true body, I established a Buddhist nation in the Western Regions. I hid within the Buddha statue in Xitian Temple's Grand Hall. Only the successive abbots of Xitian Temple knew of my existence. This Grand Hall was constructed using the power of incense offerings. It forms a mini-world inside, allowing me to evade the Immortal of Annihilation's perception." It was perfectly normal for the Grand Hall to be bustling with incense offerings, so it wouldn't arouse suspicion.

"In the Buddhist nation, I propagated that Buddhist cultivators should beg for alms to create golden bodies for Buddhas," the Immortal of Time continued. "Through subtle influence, this became one of the cultivation methods for Buddhist practitioners. The act of Buddhist cultivators creating golden bodies for Buddhas generates the power of incense. As a Buddha, I would absorb this portion of incense power. During this time, I accidentally found Immortal Ying Tian's Sky-Opening Axe. I used it as Xitian Temple's treasured artifact to conceal my presence. Whenever Xitian Temple encountered danger, I would divine the future, instructing them to use the Sky-Opening Axe at the most opportune moment to overcome the crisis.

"I observe that Young Friend Lu Yang's immortal body is condensed from the power of incense offerings," the Immortal of Time remarked. "However, it cannot be maintained long-term, nor can it leave the Buddhist nation. Such a body cannot withstand high-intensity combat." At this point, the Immortal of Time paused, looking at Lu Yang with envy. "Of course, that's assuming Young Friend Lu Yang doesn't have a rudimentary Immortal Dao Fruit. To forge a permanent immortal body, I have been accumulating power.

"Accumulating incense power is a long process," he explained. "Waiting is also very tedious, so I randomly perform time leaps. I might jump a few years, a dozen years, or even decades. Each time I jump to a new time point, I have the abbot of Xitian Temple recount the events of those years to me. Just now, during a time leap, I sensed Mingyu calling me," he concluded, "saying Xitian Temple was in grave danger. I also sensed the fluctuations of the rudimentary Dao Fruit of Time and the rudimentary Immortal Dao Fruit from the other end of time. That's when I leaped to the current time point."