Chapter 2400 Red Lotus Reemerges

"Hmm, Painting Path is too underdeveloped," Fang Yuan lamented: "Genesis Lotus you've really outdone yourself."

Painting Path being exclusive to Genesis Lotus had its pros and cons.

Due to its secrecy, it was almost impossible to counter.

Like with Spectral Soul's Killing Path, even Fang Yuan would not have dared to take on the Yin-Yang Phantasmal Array if he hadn't known of the plans and strength of the blow.

Truthfully, Fang Yuan could have made some attempts to counter it and did indeed have backup plans to block the attack completely.

But those would have cost him time and energy to set up and would have yielded fewer results.

Another benefit of an uncirculated path was that it made it harder for others to steal away the Dao Lord status.

One only needs to look at Giant Sun's Luck Path to see the efficacy of that. But this has its own downside, a lack of creativity.

As the only contributor the Path can only go as far as you go, there will be no way to bounce of another's work and allow the Path to travel further.

Looking at Luck Path and Dream Path, they are extraordinarily powerful in both reality and potential.

But how many people cultivate either?

Their potentials are shackled by their inaccessibility.

Dream Path could revolutionize Gu Cultivation by allowing the people of the world to endlessly learn from their predecessors, allowing for all paths to advance!

"Hmph! Heaven's Will your plan is truly magnificent what a pity," Fang Yuan said, as he shook his head.

That's right Dream Path was part of Heaven's Will plans!

The Dao contains all things and this world's Heavenly Dao was the link between the 2.

Heaven's Will is a manifestation of Heaven, and thus seeks balance in running the world.

You can think of it like what Limitless was doing in the Crazed Demon Cave.

The Dao is like Chaos it contains all things, the Derivation Formation is the Heavenly Dao, trying to make sense of it all and, Heaven's Will is like Limitless, the person running the whole thing.

But running the entire world is extremely taxing even for a being like Heaven, and thus, most of the time it runs on instincts.

In fact, the reason Fate existed was to put control on the speed of expansion that Humanity was growing at.

Fate limited the number of choices that people could make, it was still their choice but Fate ensure that it would never exceed its own expectations by much.

Of course, some degree of Chaos was needed to derive new results, and so Fate allowed, in controlled amounts, the creation of new Paths and in turn Venerables to exist.

To Heaven, Venerables were both a good and bad thing.

They were proof of his success and yet also the instrument to his demise.

One need only see the end result of Fate Gu to attest to that.

"I cannot let this go on,"

High above the entire 5 Regions in Spectral Heaven.

A glowing entity presided over the body of Spectral Soul Demon Venerable.

"Hmph, idiot."

It was Heaven's Will!

Usually, Heaven's Will was on autopilot as it derived and controlled the world through Fate, but now that Fate was gone Heaven's Will awakened.

As he could no longer control the entire world, he had the energy to reawaken his consciousness and was quickly brought up to speed.

"Oh Earth, I knew things would end up like this one day you truly were a fool,"

The glowing figure of Heaven's Will shook his head as he descended into the body of Spectral Soul Demon Venerable.

Light shone from Spectral Soul's body as all the Killing Path wounds were instantly healed.

'Spectral Soul' opened his eyes, and deep gold color was reflected in them, unlike the cold blue eyes he usually had.

"I'll fix everything."

The curtains dawn on the now contest of 5 Venerables.

"Hmm, with the way things have progressed does that mean that the other 6 Venerables will return?" Giant Sun pondered.

His Northern Plains was considered the 'weakest' of the 4 factions.

After all, Spectral Heaven had so many Soul Path Dao marks at its disposal that any Venerable that dared enter alone would be easily suppressed, if not killed.

Heavenly Court had 2 of its 3 Immortal Kings, and Genesis Lotus's Painting Path remained as mysterious and unknown as ever.

And Fang Yuan…Fang Yuan was the scariest.

He had at least two Rank 9 Gu known, Reputation Gu and Strong Gu.

His Chaotic Tribulation had been skipped.

And Refinement Path had a new branch that was opened, that so far only he could progress.

"It seems that compared to the other Venerables I am truly lagging behind…" Giant Sun shook his head.

Never in his life would he have thought that he be labeled the weakest Venerable.

Of course, that was on the surface, if every faction pulled out their trump cards it would be hard to say.

For now, Giant Sun was trying to figure who was the next Venerable that would likely revive.

Unbeknownst to him Star Constellation and even Fang Yuan were busy deducing as well.

Within Divine Emperor City Starlight was shining brightly

"To begin with I should narrow out those that cannot return, Paradise Earth and Limitless are out for obvious reasons and Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable is most likely out as well since he is no longer in the Gu World."

It was of course Star Constellation's deductions!

Even without Wisdom Gu, the sheer number of Wisdom Path Dao Marks in Heavenly Court allowed for her to make better deductions than someone with Wisdom Gu.

In the Eastern Sea,

"After eliminating the obvious it leaves us with 3 possible candidates, Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable, Reckless Savage Demon Venerable, Red Lotus Demon Venerable!"

Meanwhile in Longevity Heaven,

"Hmm, a great amount of Luck seems to brew at…"

"The Stars point to…"

"It can't be…"

Up in Spectral Heaven,

'Spectral Soul' looked down, his gaze penetrating through the clouds, earth and into a tributary of the River of Time.

"Red Lotus Demon Venerable."

Indeed!

All the signs pointed to Red Lotus Demon Venerable's revival!

Within the River Of Time.

The rapids were already out of control due to the loss of Fate Gu.

But at that very moment whirlpools and tidal waves began to surge throughout the entire river.

Across the Gu World,

"Hmph, you're dead this time Mo Li!"

A Rank 6 Gu Immortal was standing before the now severely injured Mo Li.

"*Huff* *Huff*"

Mo Li was in a critical state as his Electric Red Armor Gu [1] was in pieces.

"Am I going to die like this?"

Both Mo Li and Peng Da thought to themselves.

But before the Gu Immortal could launch the final strike, a whole in spacetime opened up and swallowed up Mo Li before immediately closing.

"…what!? MO LI!!!"

Similar instances happened throughout the Gu world.

But the one thing they all had in common,

They were all peak Rank 5s!

"Star Constellation! Something weird has happened," Genesis Lotus rushed to find Star Constellation.

"Let me guess, a hole in spacetime appeared and took some of our Rank 5 Immortal Seeds?"

"Yes how did you,"

"And the ones that were taken were the 10 children of Human Path?"

"Yes!"

"*Sigh* There's nothing we can do except play our cards right."

Genesis Lotus was puzzled, 'nothing they could do?', they were mighty Venerables!

Even if the other 3 Venerables came barging in they would still be able to repel them. But this mysterious force was untouchable?

Before Genesis Lotus could say anything, Star Constellation began to explain: "This is related to Red Lotus Demon Venerable. He has 1 final method hidden in the River of Time. It seems to be a stone island unlike any before it! Just its reemergence alone is causing tumultuous waves in the already unstable River of Time!"

"The entire River of Time itself is already a Secluded Domain of Heaven and Earth that is infinitely close to being Rank 10, much closer than Reckless's Ascension and Descension Path! The River of Time and Space Cave are both primordial Secluded Domains of Heaven and Earth, they existed before Life existed!"

"Red Lotus has some degree of control over it and even if the five of us join forces, we would only suffer immense losses."

"There is no way to stop his return! The only question is whose side is he on?"

Genesis Lotus was impressed that Star Constellation had deduced so far but: "Mhm, I agree with your analysis but there's one more thing you have to know, Feng Jiu Huang=g was taken as well."

Star Constellation's eyes popped open!

"Shit! We need to get her back!"

Genesis Lotus had never seen Star Constellation so panicked before.

"I'll explain later, let's go!"

"But didn't you say that we will suffer immense loss?"

"Yea and Feng Jiu Huang is even worse! If my instincts are right then Red Lotus will be the most troublesome thorn in the contest of 5 Venerables!"

"But you said if the 5 of us go we don't stand a chance so how would we win with just 2?"

Genesis Lotus was very taken aback by Star Constellations' sudden shift.

"If we go the other 3 will move as well, if Spectral Soul is even still alive, we don't need them to fight but just hinder Red Lotus."

"And besides…who said it's just us 2?"

Star Constellation then brought them out of Central Continent.

Her and Genesis Lotus's movements caught the attention of Giant Sun, Fang Yuan, and Heaven's Will.

Giant Sun stood up from his throne: "Where are those two-headed for?"

"Hmm? Why are Star Constellation and Genesis Lotus headed to the Southern Border?" Fang Yuan began deducing.

"Hmph, smart, as expected of Star Constellation they headed to the one person who could navigate safely through the turbulent River of Time,"

High on top of an unimportant mountain.

A man stood motionlessly, his silhouette contrasted by the setting sun, a calming tune played on the flute could be heard as one came close to the peak.

It was none other than Feng Jiu Ge!