Zhang Chengyue was quite puzzled. "Master, what is this Immortal Annihilation? It sounds terribly tongue-twisting."
Ouyang Peng took a sip of tea and let out a long breath. "Immortal Annihilation, as the name implies, means Immortal Path Annihilation."
"Immortal Path Annihilation?" Zhang Chengyue was startled and nearly jumped up. "You mean those immortals from the pastime books idle people read? Aren't they as long-lived as heaven itself, with vast divine powers? How could they be annihilated?"
"And..." Zhang Chengyue asked suspiciously, "do immortals really exist? Why have I never seen them?"
Seeing Zhang Chengyue's expression, Ouyang Peng was not surprised. Back when he had first heard his own master speak of Immortal Path Annihilation, his reaction had been far more intense. This boy's cultivation of temperament was already much stronger than his own had been in those days. Thus, he smiled faintly. "The Immortal Path I speak of is the path of cultivating immortality—the road from mortal to immortal. Besides, where would there be any immortals in this world? Immortals are all in the heavens."
Zhang Chengyue laughed. "Master is teasing me again. When I was little, Grandmother always told me stories about immortals in the heavens, but why have I never seen an immortal come down from the sky?"
Ouyang Peng said, "The 'heavens' I mean are not the sky above our heads, but another world."
"Another world?" Zhang Chengyue was completely dazed.
Ouyang Peng looked at the young man, shaken by this new knowledge, and was quite satisfied. "Although there are no immortals in our world, a very, very long time ago—perhaps ten thousand years ago—there was a group of people who wished to cultivate themselves into immortals. They called themselves cultivators. Their divine abilities were unmatched; they could soar through the sky and burrow through the earth,