True Immortal Zhuizhen believed her life had been fulfilling. She had witnessed the warring states period at the end of the Great Yu Dynasty, seen its collapse and the subsequent struggle for supremacy. She had experienced an era of chaos, frequently marked by tribulation transcendence battles and half-immortal conflicts. She had fought against Meng Junzi, helped Jiang Ping'an establish the Great Xia Dynasty, and, with several fellow Daoists, founded the Five Great Immortal Sects.
These events were passed down and dramatized by later generations, becoming the popular storytelling performance, "Legends of Great Xia Heroes."
However, compared to Lu Yang's experiences, her life seemed rather uneventful.
Lu Yang thought to himself, "This is just the beginning. What I've told you is only an abridged version. I haven't even mentioned resurrecting the Immortal Fairy, the inside stories of various half-immortal and immortal battles, meeting Gray Bean, or overthrowing Great Xia to establish the Great Bean Dynasty."
"Don't stray so far," the Immortal Fairy interjected. "Just tell me honestly why you drugged the Osmanthus tree." She was quite displeased with True Immortal Zhuizhen's choice of words to describe Lu Yang's experiences over the past few years.
"How can you call it absurd? It was clearly a fulfilling life." She admired Lu Yang's life journey, which was full of surprises and challenges.
True Immortal Zhuizhen had already intended to explain everything upon her appearance.
"To explain this," she began, "I must start from the day Xiao Ye gained sentience."
"Xiao Ye's true form is known to the world as the Ancestral Osmanthus Tree. It is an ancient osmanthus tree that has survived since antiquity, at least 300,000 years old. After enduring the trials of time, it developed consciousness, then sentience, becoming a true living being."
The Immortal Fairy nodded. For spiritual plants to gain sentience, it was always this process; there was no trick, only a long wait. If it truly was an ancient osmanthus tree that had survived, it might indeed be a heavenly immortal seed.
"My name is Bairi, and Xiao Ye adopted my surname, Bai. She favored the power of the Lunar Yin and preferred nighttime activities, so she named herself Bai Ye."
"Xiao Ye didn't much care for using the Ancestral Tree's body, finding it too boring to stand still all day. So I found a method for spiritual plant avatars in ancient texts and helped her manifest a separate body from the Ancestral Tree, which is how she looks now."
"Hundreds of years later, I encountered a cultivation mishap. My physical body was incinerated, and my soul was severely damaged. The soul injury was so grave that no spiritual elixirs or miraculous medicines had any effect; the situation was extremely critical."
"Fortunately, osmanthus trees are inherently yin-aligned and possess the ability to nourish souls. Their soul-nourishing capabilities surpassed even those of locust trees. And as the Ancestral Osmanthus Tree, Xiao Ye's soul-nourishing power was unparalleled in the world."
"When she realized something was wrong with my cultivation, she quickly transferred my soul into this avatar. At the time, I was disoriented and didn't know what Xiao Ye had done. I only felt a warmth around me, nourishing my soul, and I instinctively embraced this power."
"Normally, nourishing a soul is a slow process. However, the Ancestral Osmanthus Tree's soul-nourishing power was too strong, and my will to survive was also exceptionally strong. The combination of these factors caused the soul-nourishing process to accelerate rapidly. Ultimately, my soul became too deeply intertwined with this avatar and could no longer be separated."
"Although my soul was restored to its original state, I could no longer leave this avatar."
"Nevertheless, having survived such a life-and-death crisis, living in this avatar wasn't so bad. I could guard the Osmanthus Immortal Palace, secretly observe my disciples' growth, read books in the scripture repository every day, and so on. Besides, I truly liked osmanthus trees."
If she hadn't genuinely liked osmanthus trees, True Immortal Zhuizhen would not have chosen to establish her Daoist sanctuary on the harsh Great Snow Mountain.
"Xiao Ye, having grown accustomed to this avatar, started sharing it with me. Only her instinctual responses remained with the Ancestral Tree's true form."
"Later, we discovered that whoever possessed the stronger soul power would gain control of this body. It was an involuntary process, beyond either of our control."
"Xiao Ye's soul strength was tied to day and night. The power of the sun would weaken her soul, at which point the body would be controlled by me. She would either sleep in her true form or sleep within this body. But once night fell and the Lunar Yin power became abundant, Xiao Ye's soul would strengthen, and she would then use this body."
"This avatar was strong enough, constantly supplied with spiritual energy from the Ancestral Tree, and had sufficient recovery capabilities. However, two problems remained unsolvable: one, as mentioned, the avatar could not leave the Ancestral Tree's territory; and two, it didn't quite suit my image."
True Immortal Zhuizhen sighed, recalling her glorious past. "To think, I was once the most beautiful woman in the human realm, renowned throughout the world. Who didn't fall for my charm?"
"In contrast, Xiao Ye's avatar was simply too short and utterly lacked charm, making me too embarrassed to be seen by others."
"I kept thinking if there was a way to make this avatar grow taller; even if it only grew taller during the day, that would be acceptable."
"Unfortunately, the avatar's form was difficult to alter. To change its appearance, I had to find an alternative method."
"Since this avatar was essentially an osmanthus tree, I wondered if I could research a medicinal formula that would accelerate the growth of osmanthus trees."
"I then took several herbs from the medicine storage, brewed them into concoctions of different proportions, and poured them onto the roots of osmanthus trees to see which mixture would best accelerate their growth."
"I thought, the Great Snow Mountain was full of osmanthus trees, so picking a few for experimentation wouldn't be an issue. Who could have imagined that someone would be picking petals for osmanthus pastries and chopping trees for barbecues?"
True Immortal Zhuizhen was too embarrassed to face anyone. Naturally, she had kept her experiments to make the osmanthus trees grow taller as hidden as possible.
But luck, as they say, is hard to predict.
Lu Yang quietly listened to the story and perfectly understood True Immortal Zhuizhen's intentions. After all, during these past few days of being small, he had also constantly wished to grow larger.
"Are you done explaining? If you are, then come with me to confess your crime."
The Immortal Fairy was not swayed by True Immortal Zhuizhen's persuasive words. She still remembered that she was there to apprehend a criminal.
"That's strange, where did Lu Yang go?" Luo Hongxia muttered to herself. The last people to see Lu Yang were a few Immortal Palace disciples who were bathing in the hot springs.
According to them, Lu Yang was seen on skis, carrying a basket of spiritual fruits, with an excited smile on his face. After that, no one had seen any trace of him.
And the one named Bai Ye had also remained elusive.
"Palace Master Luo, please open the door."
Luo Hongxia heard Lu Yang's voice and opened the door. She saw Lu Yang grinning, holding Bai Ye's hand as if afraid she might escape.
"Palace Master Luo, we've caught the culprit!" The Immortal Fairy, holding Bai Ye's hand, handed her over to Luo Hongxia.
"How did you catch her?" Luo Hongxia asked, surprised. She hadn't been able to catch Bai Ye; how had Lu Yang managed it?
"It was nothing," the Immortal Fairy replied. "She even honestly confessed to the details of her crime." At this moment, the Immortal Fairy felt a sense of accomplishment, as if her mission was complete and it was time to withdraw.
"Tell me, what happened?" Luo Hongxia quickly asked.
"It's like this..." The Immortal Fairy repeated True Immortal Zhuizhen's story, leaving Luo Hongxia utterly dumbfounded.
"In summary, your Ancestral Master, True Immortal Zhuizhen, stole medicinal ingredients to grow taller. I'm not very familiar with sentencing. You, as an Immortal Palace, are well-versed in criminal law. How many years should she be imprisoned for this?"
[7 seconds from now] Chapter 1080: Identifying Ingredients
[11 minutes ago] Chapter 1079: Excellence in Knife Skills
[19 minutes ago] Chapter 1078: Immortal Kitchen Successor Lu Yunyang
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