Chapter 836: Borrowing Without Returning

The Immortal Fairy commanded, and the Invincible Infant dared not but obey.

The Invincible Infant summoned a hundred-zhang blade of sword-qi, sweeping across the gathered heroes and raising a sharp gale that set the leaves into a frantic, endless rustle, striking dread into the hearts of all who heard it.

"Can a Nascent Soul truly unleash such terrifying sword-qi?" Shocked by Lu Yang’s profound attainment in the way of the sword upon witnessing this gale, the crowd hurriedly sought to control their own Nascent Souls.

By unspoken consensus, they all chose to have their own Nascent Souls evade the oncoming strike.

Unlike the Invincible Infant, ordinary Nascent Souls could not fight autonomously; they required a portion of the cultivator's own focus to guide them.

This gave the Immortal Fairy the perfect loophole to exploit.

Seizing the moment when the crowd was preoccupied with guiding their Nascent Souls, the Immortal Fairy struck with ruthless abandon—if she were a ravenous wolf, these heirs and children of officialdom were but a flock of helpless lambs, and as the wolf entered the fold, she thrashed anyone in sight.

"Take this punch!"

The Fairy's fist technique appeared soft and yielding, yet it possessed infinite variations and immense, devastating power.

"So the Invincible Infant really is used like this; my original guess back then was indeed correct," the Immortal Fairy muttered under her breath.

"What did you say, Fairy?" Lu Yang could not quite catch her whispered words.

"Oh, it's nothing. I was just saying you need to hurry up with your cultivation and defeat your Invincible Infant as soon as possible."

"…Doesn’t this count as me defeating it?" Lu Yang recalled the Immortal Fairy once mentioning that she was his second Nascent Soul.

Since the second Nascent Soul had defeated the first, did that not mean he had effectively defeated it himself?

"It doesn't count that way." In a rare moment of clear logic, the Immortal Fairy explained the reasoning to Lu Yang.

"Look, I helped you defeat the Invincible Infant, so the Invincible Infant follows my orders, not yours."

"And yet you have to follow my orders, which means you and the Invincible Infant are on parallel terms—neither of you has command over the other."

Lu Yang understood; if he wanted to control the Invincible Infant, he had two choices: either make the Immortal Fairy obey him, or defeat the Invincible Infant himself.

By comparison, the second method seemed to have a slightly higher probability of success.

Out in reality, the crowd was utterly overwhelmed; the Invincible Infant’s offensive maneuvers were too fierce, and if they wanted their own Nascent Souls to remain unscathed, they had to concentrate fully on controlling them.

Yet the moment they focused entirely on dealing with the Invincible Infant, the Immortal Fairy was left completely unchecked.

"Half of you deal with Lu Yang's Nascent Soul, and the other half deal with Lu Yang himself!" one of them shouted, knowing that to break this deadlock, they had to unite and follow a singular command.

His name was Lin Zhongren, the son of the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review; though he did not quite match the likes of Zhong Yi, he was still considered exceptionally outstanding among his peers in the Imperial City.

With Zhong Yi, Luo Wushuang, and Sun Chuanxian now defeated one after another, and An Nan'er sitting beside Meng Jingyu with no intention of joining the fray, someone had to step forward to take charge of the situation.

When Lin Zhongren stepped up to command the crowd, they reluctantly accepted his leadership.

"Wait, where did Lu Yang's Nascent Soul go?!"

The crowd discovered to their horror that the Invincible Infant had vanished in broad daylight, right before their eyes.

Suddenly, Lin Zhongren felt as though he had been struck by a massive force, flying backward through the air until he was left hanging from an ancient tree.

"It's Lu Yang's Nascent Soul! Lu Yang's Nascent Soul has turned invisible!" Someone with quick wits deduced what the infant had done.

The Invincible Infant was capable of utilizing the vast majority of Lu Yang’s techniques; back during his Foundation Establishment stage, Lu Yang had attempted to learn a spell called the Invisibility Curse, which only concealed the body but not one's clothes—a trait so useless that Lu Yang rarely ever employed it.

But the Invincible Infant was different; it wore no clothes to begin with, allowing it to use the spell without any such inhibitions.

With Lin Zhongren, who had tried to take charge, sent flying by the Invincible Infant, the crowd fell back into complete chaos; some tried to handle the Immortal Fairy while others searched for the Invincible Infant, and whenever anyone else tried to step forward to command the group, they too were promptly defeated by the infant.

Within the spiritual space, Lu Yang fell into deep thought—to capture the rebels, one must first capture their leader; it seemed that although the Invincible Infant possessed no intellect, it could rely on pure instinct to make the most optimal decisions.

While the Invincible Infant unleashed its techniques as if they cost nothing, it simultaneously used "Heaven-Devouring" to consume the spiritual energy of the Luotian Forest; the others could not possibly match its speed of absorption, and soon the spiritual energy of the Luotian Forest was entirely depleted, leaving the crowd to deplete their own reserves bit by bit without any hope of replenishment.

If anyone dared to pull out spirit stones to absorb energy, the Invincible Infant would immediately snatch them away.

Watching the battle from afar, Meng Jingzhou slapped his thigh in sheer disbelief: "Old Lu's Nascent Soul is practically carved from the exact same mold as him!"

Asking himself honestly, he knew he could never bring himself to do something so utterly wicked.

The Invincible Infant and the Immortal Fairy brought both mental and physical pressure; even if some chose to ignore the infant and focus solely on challenging the Immortal Fairy, it was to no avail, for the Fairy was simply too formidable a fighter.

Moving with the stride of a tiger and the presence of a dragon, looking down upon the world, the Immortal Fairy felled one opponent with every punch: "I told you all long ago, you simply won't do."

"A great tribulation looms over heaven and earth, and I was born in response to it, destined by fate itself; how could you mere mortals possibly be my match?"

"However, considering you possess a modicum of talent, you are barely qualified to become subjects of the Great Soybean Dynasty."

Whether they were sprawled on the ground or about to be, everyone froze in unison upon hearing that final sentence.

What on earth was the Great Soybean Dynasty? They had never heard of such a thing.

"The Great Soybean Dynasty is the empire I intend to establish, the true orthodoxy of the world; you may address me as the Soybean Emperor."

It was the first time any of them had witnessed someone so blatantly declare their intention to found a new dynasty.

This was showing absolute disregard for the Great Xia Empire.

This Lu Yang's audacity was truly boundless; his lawlessness had completely surpassed even that of the Daoist Master Buyu!

Lu Yang stared blankly at the ceiling of his spiritual space, feeling that his personal reputation had been thoroughly assassinated.

"Is no one willing to join my dynasty?" The Immortal Fairy expressed a touch of disappointment; it seemed only the Second-in-Command was willing to join the Great Soybean Dynasty.

What a loyal minister indeed.

The crowd lost all heart to fight on; thoroughly routed and broken by the Immortal Fairy, they fled in disastrous defeat.

The Immortal Fairy recalled the Invincible Infant and stood with hands on her hips, watching the fleeing heirs of the great families with immense smugness, gesturing grandly: "Hmph, you are all still far too green to fight against me!"

Inside the spiritual space, Lu Yang adopted a thoroughly pleasing demeanor as he negotiated with the Immortal Fairy, who sat perched high above.

"Your Majesty, look, now that the fighting is over, your minister's body..."

To his surprise, the Immortal Fairy wore an expression of lingering excitement: "This Imperial City looks quite fun. Little Yang, let’s make a deal—how about you let me play with this body a bit longer?"

"Ah? That... might not be proper." Lu Yang hesitated; if he let the Immortal Fairy keep using his body, just how ruined would his reputation become?

Seeing that Lu Yang was rather reluctant to lend his body, the Immortal Fairy pivoted to another approach: "Little Yun did promise me that I could serve as the Acting Sect Master for a year. I've decided to use that opportunity now; as the Acting Sect Master, I command you to hand over the body."

After returning from the East Sea, Yun Zhi believed the Immortal Fairy had made a tremendous contribution and granted her a year as Acting Sect Master, which the Fairy had chosen to save for later.

Lu Yang: "..."

Fairy, you saved that Acting Sect Master title just so you could command me like this later on, didn't you?

"Your minister obeys the decree."