Chapter 199: Who Could Have Done It?

The dark shadow knew he was no match for Yun Zhi, the chasm between them so vast that his chances of a successful escape were infinitesimally small. Rather than risk exposure, it was far better to detonate himself immediately to safeguard his true self.

Should Yun Zhi unearth his lair, the grand struggle of this era would forever bar his true body from entry. Damn it, why did such a monster exist upon the Central Continent!

Had the very fortune of heaven and earth truly coalesced within the Central Continent?! Moreover, how had the Immortal Fairy been resurrected?

Save for the few of them, who else even knew of the Immortal Fairy’s existence, let alone her name! How on earth had she returned to life!

Resurrection could only be achieved by chanting her honorific and true name—who could have uttered them?!

The Immortal Dao Fruit was indeed as the legends detailed: timeless and unperishing, allowing one to return even from the absolute depths of death. As the dark shadow detonated, question after question flooded his mind, remaining entirely unanswered.

His self-destruction was utterly silent, his form dissolving into fine dust, which then dissolved into spiritual qi to return to heaven and earth. "He escaped?" Lu Yang asked in confusion, the dark shadow’s methods far too profound for him to comprehend.

Yun Zhi shook her head faintly, a glimmer of murderous intent and regret surfacing in her gaze. "He did not escape. He took his own life."

"Then will his true body know what happened here? Will it know about the Immortal Fairy?" Lu Yang recalled the words the dark shadow had uttered before exploding: *'What a pity my true body does not know the situation here.'*

Was it a red herring, or was it truly the case?

Yun Zhi’s words dispelled Lu Yang's speculation. "The true body will not know, nor would the clone dare let it know."

"If the conditions of his clone could reach the true body, then I could use the connection between the two to track down his true form."

The Eldest Senior Sister’s methods were likewise something Lu Yang could not comprehend.

"However..." A trace of doubt flickered within Yun Zhi's eyes, as though she were pondering a certain conundrum. "However what?"

"The dark shadow’s aura felt intensely familiar. I may have clashed with him once before." Both Lu Yang and the Immortal Fairy were visibly taken aback.

Yun Zhi continued her narration, "It was roughly a century ago. I chanced upon the presence of an Immortal appearing in the Central Continent. I demanded he state his identity, but he refused my request, whereupon a battle erupted between us."

"He likely underestimated my strength, falling into a disadvantage the moment we exchanged blows. I pressed my advantage and wounded him. Seeing that further fighting would yield no good outcome, he feinted an attack, striking at the city below. While I protected the city, he fled. By the time I sought to pursue him, he was gone."

"That individual hid his head and cloaked his tail, wrapping himself in chaotic mist and utilizing highly common techniques that obscured his origins. It is strikingly similar to the dark shadow we encountered today."

Yun Zhi suspected that today's dark shadow was a clone of that very person from a century ago.

Lu Yang pondered. If Senior Sister’s hypothesis was correct, then the dark shadow’s exclamation—*'As expected, your strength is far greater than what you show to the world'*—was merely a pretense of ignorance, a flat-out lie.

The more Lu Yang thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. If he hadn't known Senior Sister’s true strength, why would his instinctive reaction be immediate self-destruction rather than flight? It defied all reason.

From beginning to end, the dark shadow had spoken only a few words, and most of them were likely falsehoods. A true, calculating schemer.

The Immortal Cultivator felt a lingering dread. Though the two fairies had shown no mercy when thrashing him, each striking harder than the last, they at least hadn't beaten him to death. Had he fallen into the hands of this dark shadow, not only would his Dao Fruit be usurped, but he would in all likelihood be silenced permanently. "Can the Fairy guess who he is?" Lu Yang inquired.

The Immortal Fairy knit her brows, showing some hesitation. "The Nine-Layered Immortal is the most adept at manipulating clones, but if the other three wished to mimic it, they could manage as well."

"Is it possible that besides the five of you, there are other Immortals?" Lu Yang followed up. Pressed by Lu Yang’s question, the Immortal Fairy grew somewhat uncertain herself.

Could it be that the Nine-Layered Immortal truly wasn't the very first Immortal?

"Back then, how did you all determine that the Nine-Layered Immortal was the first?"

The Immortal Fairy reminisced, "When the Nine-Layered Immortal ascended, immortal light bloomed across heaven and earth, immortal music resonated, and a nine-colored rain descended from the heavens, bringing blessings and acclaim to grace all living creatures. Later, when the four of us ascended, none of these phenomena occurred."

Lu Yang was astonished. "Is that the special privilege reserved for the first to ascend to immortality?"

Yun Zhi nodded. She had seen records concerning the Nine-Layered Immortal’s ascension in ancient texts, which aligned perfectly with the Immortal Fairy’s account—or rather, as an eyewitness, the Immortal Fairy’s description was far more meticulous.

The first ascendant was indeed extraordinary.

The Immortal Fairy shook her head. "No. Later, when the five of us were having a meal, the Nine-Layered Immortal drank too much and confessed that those various portents back then were all secretly manufactured by himself, costing him a vast fortune in heavenly materials and earthly treasures."

Lu Yang: "..."

Yun Zhi: "..."

Why was it that every time they listened to the Immortal Fairy recount ancient lore, their worldview was completely upended?

Lu Yang even felt that the ancient era spoken of by the Immortal Fairy belonged to an entirely different genre than the dark shadow.

In a mysterious domain, a black figure sat upon a throne constructed from piled skeletons.

He opened his immortal eyes, radiating an immeasurable immortal light that illuminated a corner of the world.

The immeasurable immortal light flashed and faded, casting an exceptionally eerie glow upon the corpses and skeletons littering the ground. The black figure rose slowly, stretching his body as his brow furrowed slightly. "Why is this chair so uncomfortable against my backside?"

"Whose bright idea was it to pile up skeletons into a chair without even providing a cushion?" The black figure shook his head, deciding to find another place to sleep.

Suddenly, the black figure detected an anomaly, letting out a soft grunt. "My Lord, what is amiss?" an attendant asked carefully.

"The clone I dispatched to the Immortal Sect has vanished."

The black figure had always been able to sense his connection with the clone, determining its location.

Just moments ago, the clone had completely severed its connection with him, signifying that it had been utterly obliterated. That clone had exhausted an immense amount of his painstaking effort; to have it vanish just like that—it would be a lie to say it didn't ache. "What?! Your Lordship’s clone has vanished?!" The attendant was greatly shocked, his expression entirely unfeigned.

His Lordship was an Immortal; a single Immortal clone should be more than enough to traverse the world at will. How could it disappear within the Central Continent? The black figure pondered, *'Who could have done it?'*

The first person he ruled out was the Immortal Cultivator. He could easily gauge how much capability a soul conjured by mere intent possessed; it was impossible for him to silently slay his clone.

There were only a handful of individuals in the Central Continent capable of destroying his clone.

The reason he had not gone in person but had instead sent a clone to investigate was precisely due to his concern about being spotted by those few figures in the Central Continent.

He did not wish to reveal his identity just yet.

He had tampered with the clone so that even if it were captured, the opponent could absolutely never deduce his identity from it, and might even be misled by the information within the clone to suspect other Immortals.

To live a lifetime, caution must reign supreme.

Otherwise, living lightheartedly and brainlessly like the Immortal Fairy, one might just be eliminated by someone on any given day. "Is it that fellow in the imperial palace? Is it Yun Zhi of the Seeking Sect? Or someone else?"

His clone had been hidden within the Immortal Sect; those who had contact with the Immortal Sect could only be the Great Xia Dynasty, which had always been dedicated to striking down demonic cults, and the Five Great Immortal Sects that vanquished demons and suppressed evils.

Some people are dead, but they are not entirely dead...