Who Let Him Cultivate?! (WX)

Yun Zhi’s answer was the one Lu Yang least wanted to hear.

The cave abode fell into a heavy silence. Even the usually vivacious Everlasting Immortal Fairy stayed quiet.

“How long do you have until you unite with the Dao, Big Senior Sister?” Lu Yang forced out the question, bitterness welling up in his heart.

“Probably a little over a thousand years.” Yun Zhi couldn’t calculate the exact time.

“A thousand...” Lu Yang nearly choked.

Isn’t it still early?! Even if I were to cripple my cultivation and start over ten times, it still wouldn’t take me a thousand years.

“Yao Sheng also said that the more times you act, the sooner you’ll achieve Dao Union. How many more times can you act, Big Senior Sister?”

Yun Zhi snapped her fingers, and the mental space transformed into the Box World. The three of them stood at its center, surrounded by resplendent stars.

“My golden core stars are my Dao markers. They represent my existence in this world. Every time I act, one of those stars vanishes. When all of them are gone, I will merge my being with the Dao, with my heart replacing Heaven. At that point, there will be no trace of me left in this world, and everyone will forget I ever existed.”

Lu Yang was consumed by bitterness and remorse. I never expected that Big Senior Sister’s interventions would come with such grave consequences. To think I kept summoning her for help whenever I ran into trouble.

“Then all those times I called upon you to help with the Animal Form Fist, wasn’t I accelerating your Dao Union?”

Yun Zhi waved dismissively. “Those were merely minor skirmishes. They don’t count toward the number of times I can act.”

Lu Yang was tempted to ask, “Big Senior Sister, does your definition of ‘minor skirmishes’ include slapping the Heaven Mandate Immortal into the spatial barrier and slapping the Nine-Layers Immortal so hard he switched personalities?”

Unaware of Lu Yang’s internal commentary, Yun Zhi cast a glance at the Everlasting Immortal Fairy, who had remained uncharacteristically quiet and well-behaved. “Senior Immortal Fairy, if you recover to your peak condition and exchange blows with me, that would certainly count toward the number of times I can make a move.”

The Everlasting Immortal Fairy sensed the undertone in Yun Zhi’s words. Standing somewhere out of Lu Yang’s sight, she huffily made a face at Yun Zhi.

“Big Senior Sister, can Dao Fruits affect you?” Lu Yang asked after a moment of contemplation.

“Yes. A Dao Fruit represents a rule, and rules are a part of Heaven. Even if I become Heaven, I would still be affected by Dao Fruits.”

Hearing that, Lu Yang made up his mind. I will condense a Dao Fruit capable of halting Big Senior Sister’s Dao Union!

“One more thing. Big Senior Sister, do you believe that the mastermind behind the scenes is truly dead?”

A flicker of surprise crossed Yun Zhi’s face, and a hint of intrigued amusement tugged at the corner of her mouth. “What do you think?”

“I believe the mastermind is still alive,” Lu Yang declared with certainty.

“Ah? Why?” The Everlasting Immortal Fairy scratched her head, bewildered as to why Lu Yang had suddenly made such a claim.

“Because of the existence of the Reincarnation Incipient Dao Fruit. If the mastermind truly was Yao Sheng and possessed the ability of Law Follows Words, there would be no need for him to seize the Reincarnation Incipient Dao Fruit. Whatever it could accomplish, the Law Follows Words Dao Fruit could accomplish as well.

“This is why I suspect that the person we fought in Zhongshan Commandery was not actually Yao Sheng!

“The real Yao Sheng died long ago in the ancient era. The one we fought was merely a puppet created by the mastermind behind the scenes!

“Moreover, the mastermind had numerous ways to steal the Reincarnation Incipient Dao Fruit, yet he chose to show himself and openly seize it by force. It’s almost as though he deliberately exposed a flaw, luring us into fighting him and killing him.

“The mastermind wants us to believe he is dead.”

Yun Zhi’s gaze held a glint of approval. Little Junior Brother has truly grown a lot. “Is that why you chose to ask this question in your mental space? Because you suspect the mastermind is still alive?”

“Yes.”

Lu Yang had invited Yun Zhi into his mental space for two reasons—to bolster his courage and to avoid detection by the mastermind.

“When I underwent tribulation to advance to the Divine Transfiguration Stage, Senior Heaven Mandate Immortal’s consciousness told me that the day before the Everlasting Immortal Fairy’s assassination, he had carefully observed the movements of the North Star. Yet until the Everlasting Immortal Fairy met with disaster, he never detected the mastermind’s presence.

“Furthermore, before Yao Sheng revealed himself, neither you nor the Everlasting Immortal Fairy sensed that he was nearby.

“This shows that the mastermind possesses extremely sophisticated concealment methods.

“Hence, to ensure that the mastermind wouldn’t eavesdrop on our conversation, the only safe place is the mental space with both you and the Immortal Fairy present.”

Within the mental space, only pure spiritual entities existed. As far as Lu Yang knew, no concealment method was so refined as to leave no trace in mental spaces.

If such a method did exist, Lu Yang would simply have to accept it. In any case, he couldn’t think of any safer place.

“Xiao Yangzi, are you saying that not only is the mastermind not dead, but he may also be right beside us?”

Lu Yang nodded and explained, “Immortal Fairy, do you recall that incident in the Buddhist Kingdom where the timeline was altered?

“I remember. What about it?”

“Although we were in the dark about exactly what the mastermind had changed, did you notice that the events he altered involved us?”

“I believe it’s because we stumbled upon some clue about the mastermind. That’s why he altered the timeline.”

Lu Yang raised two fingers. “There are two possibilities. One possibility is that the mastermind had set certain forbidden words in advance. The moment any of them were spoken, the timeline would change, and we happened to utter one of those forbidden words.”

His expression turned somber, and he lowered his voice. “The other possibility is that the mastermind was hiding in the shadows, watching us.

“I don’t think it was a coincidence that he was nearby. It’s more likely that he has been lurking in the shadows and observing us all this time!”

This was why there were certain things Lu Yang couldn’t say in the outside world. He could only voice them in his mental space, where both Yun Zhi and the Everlasting Immortal Fairy were present.

The Everlasting Immortal Fairy was startled by Lu Yang’s conjecture. It feels like Xiao Yangzi is even smarter than I am.

Yun Zhi had roughly grasped what Lu Yang was getting at. That left one final question. “Then why did you agree to remove the World Seal and open the world?”

Lu Yang shrugged with a wry smile. “Because I had no reason to object. The only reason I could have given was that the mastermind was still alive, but I was waiting for him to believe his feigned death had succeeded and slip up. If I had opposed the undoing of the World Seal, the mastermind would have only gone deeper into hiding.

“That’s why I said we couldn’t rush the seal removal and that there were many preparations to be done. This was an attempt to buy time.

“Big Senior Sister, what do you think?” Lu Yang looked at Yun Zhi with hopeful eyes. If possible, he wished she could provide others with a reason to stop the opening of the World Box.

Yun Zhi hadn’t anticipated her little junior brother to have thought things through so thoroughly.

“I also believe that the mastermind is feigning death. But I think it’s still best to remove the seal.”