Through the curtain of rain, Meng Junzi watched in bewilderment as the female cook stepped out from the small shop. Just like him, she stood in the rain without a single drop touching her.

Even if she had caught him off guard, that was still not something an ordinary cultivator could accomplish.

An immortal!

This cook is actually an immortal!

“Old Ancestor!”

The Transcendent Tribulation cultivators from the Meng Family vaguely sensed that something was wrong and wanted to rush to his aid.

“Stay back!” Meng Junzi shouted sternly. At such moments, Transcendent Tribulation cultivators would be utterly useless.

“You...”

Just as Meng Junzi was about to probe the female cook’s identity, she vanished from the spot and reappeared before him with unimaginable speed.

The female cook drove a punch into Meng Junzi’s stomach, sending him curling up like a shrimp as he shot straight into the sky, disappearing beyond the dark clouds.

Meng Junzi’s mind raced, trying to match the female cook’s identity with known immortals. Among the Four Ancient Immortals, there was no female immortal. The Midheaven Emperor-Lord and the Fate Arbiter are not women. She’s neither the Yu Emperor Wu Yao nor Guan Shanhai. Who exactly is she? Why doesn’t she match any of the immortals?

Wait, there seems to be one immortal whose identity is unknown.

Meng Junzi suddenly recalled the battle at the East Sea, where Yun Zhi had fought an immortal shrouded in gray mist.

After the incident, he and Jiang Ping’an had asked Yun Zhi about the details of that battle, inquiring about the gray-mist immortal’s identity. Yun Zhi had said that the immortal’s identity could not be spoken aloud.

Gray mist...gray dress... Could she be the gray-mist immortal from that battle at the East Sea?

“Who are you?!” Meng Junzi demanded, his heart pounding with alarm. Both her speed and strength surpass mine. It’s like I’m facing Yun Zhi. Which immortal is she?

Hui Doudou’s eyes were like an ancient well, their calmness utterly chilling.

“The founder of the Qi Training system, the first immortal of ancient times,” Hui Doudou casually fabricated an identity.

“What?!” Meng Junzi was taken aback. The founder of the Qi Training system? How ancient an existence is she?

Before he could speak further, a terrifying black vortex appeared in Hui Doudou’s palm. The spirit energy in the heavens above and the dark clouds beneath his feet were both devoured. Even space itself began to destabilize, seemingly torn apart by the black vortex!

“Go.”

Hui Doudou hurled the black vortex. It did not move fast. Meng Junzi initially wanted to dodge, but suddenly realized that with the vortex’s appearance, time had slowed to a crawl.

“Lion-Tiger Double Seals!” Meng Junzi raised his hand and unleashed two seals. From his left and right sprang forth a black lion and a white tiger, respectively. They exuded imposing auras, their roars alone capable of shattering space.

The black lion and white tiger trampled space as they circled the black vortex. They represented the power of yin and yang, pulling against the vortex in an attempt to tear it apart.

However, the black vortex was far more terrifying than Meng Junzi had imagined. As the lion and tiger drew near, they became like ordinary wild beasts trapped in a maelstrom with no hope of survival, their only fate to be mercilessly devoured by the sea.

“Borrow: Speed Incipient Dao Fruit.”

Seeing his Lion-Tiger Double Seals devoured by the vortex, Meng Junzi borrowed the Speed Incipient Dao Fruit to accelerate his own speed, fleeing far away from the black vortex.

“A devouring-type Dao Fruit?”

The ease with which his Lion-Tiger Double Seals had been neutralized suggested that this black vortex was a method derived from Hui Doudou’s Dao Fruit.

“Do you honestly think you’re unbeatable?” Meng Junzi’s temper flared.

I’m an immortal who had fought my way out of the mountains of corpses and sea of blood at the end of the Great Yu era. I had even defeated the Great Yu Imperial Preceptor, Guan Shanhai. In terms of combat power, I fear no one.

“Thousand-Tempered Liuli-Glazed Body!”

A layer of crystalline luster appeared on Meng Junzi, glittering brilliantly under the sunlight. This was the unique body-tempering method he had developed through tempering his body a thousand times and undergoing ten thousand lightning tribulations. Even Jiang Ping’an wouldn’t dare to engage him bare-handed in this state.

Faced with the enraged Meng Junzi, Hui Doudou remained unmoved. Pointing one finger to heaven and another to earth, she uttered true words. “Above heaven and below heaven, I alone am honored!

“Immortal Dao Killing Fist!”

Hui Doudou looked down upon all things with an unbeatable momentum. No matter how many trials and hardships a peerless prodigy endured to rise and become an immortal, none can compare to me!

Her fist struck with unparalleled force, causing heaven and earth to change color. The boundless power of the Silent Annihilation Dao Fruit poured entirely into that single blow.

She believed she was unbeatable; to rely on any immortal artifact in battle would be an affront to her strength.

Boom!

Countless thunderous roars echoed above the clouds, as if a thousand true dragons were bellowing.

“Ugh—”

The Thousand-Tempered Liuli-Glazed Body shattered, and Meng Junzi’s chest caved in. He hadn’t expected Hui Doudou’s fist to be so devastating. The Liuli-Glazed Body he was proud of was completely defenseless against it!

“Borrow Injuries!” Activating the Borrowing-Lending Dao Fruit, Meng Junzi forcibly transferred his injuries to Hui Doudou.

Hui Doudou’s chest seemed to have been struck by her own fist; she, too, was badly injured.

Meng Junzi had used this move against Guan Shanhai during the battle at the imperial city. The latter had to constantly heal his wounds and was forced into a passive position.

However, Hui Doudou showed no intention of healing. She fought on despite the injuries, her combat power undiminished.

Meng Junzi’s heart thumped with alarm. Did she see through the flaws in this technique?

With the Borrowing-Lending Dao Fruit, what was borrowed must eventually be returned. After a certain period, the injuries would automatically return, and with interest at that, making the wounds even more severe.

Guan Shanhai hadn’t discerned this and blindly treated his wounds, preventing the injuries from returning to Meng Junzi.

How did she see through it?

Hui Doudou hadn’t seen through anything. She simply felt that healing was not the right course of action. This was a judgment born of combat intuition.

The two rose from the clouds into the heavens, their battle extending into outer space. The countless illusory stars continuously shook in the wake of the immortals’ clash.

“Borrow power from the past and future!”

Two figures traversed the ages, arriving from the past and the future to fight alongside Meng Junzi. Together, these two figures amounted to another Meng Junzi, doubling his combat power.

But before Hui Doudou, even if all Four Ancient Immortals came, she wouldn’t fear them, let alone one Meng Junzi or two. The difference was negligible.

“Destroy the concept of ‘time.’”

In an instant, the entire world fell into chaos. The concept of time disappeared. The Meng Junzi figures from the past and future dissolved. Then the concept of time was restored.

Meng Junzi felt as though he was facing Yun Zhi, utterly powerless to retaliate. Hui Doudou delivered punch after punch, leaving him battered and bruised.

“Dissolution!” Meng Junzi didn’t dare to prolong the fight. Employing an escape technique, he left behind a self-detonating clone and fled with his true form.

Boom!

The entire region was blasted into a vacuum; even the phantom stars vanished.

Hui Doudou brushed aside the dust from the self-detonation and watched Meng Junzi’s retreating figure. She sensed for a moment and found that no karmic connection had formed between them.

“It seems he believes that I am the founder of the Qi Training system.

“That works. I can spare his life.”

She no longer concerned herself with Meng Junzi and returned to the small shop.

By now, the Heartless Creed elder had long fled the shop. So what if Transcendent Tribulation cultivators were chasing him outside? There were two immortals here!

Hui Doudou called toward the back kitchen, “Little He, let’s go.”