242 RI
Inside the sovereign immortal aperture.
Mini Western Desert.
All the surroundings were covered in a snow-white color. Fang Yuan's time path clone traveled here as he grabbed a handful of sand, looking at it.
The sand particles were all clear as crystal or ice, having a feeling of coldness in them.
Right now, the skies were bright and sunny, Mini Western Desert was quite a warm place, but this desert was very cool and refreshing.
Fang Yuan's clone put a bit of snow-white sand into his mouth, after his saliva came into contact, it melted and gave off a salty taste.
This was salt sand.
In human history, salt sand had a very long story.
A million years ago, during the Olden Antiquity Era, even though humans created Heavenly Court, the other four regions were still filled with strong variant human forces, they enslaved and suppressed humanity.
In Western Desert, there was a human city, it was ostracized and suppressed by the variant humans.
The variant humans joined up and pretended to be bandits, robbing all of the caravans that tried to head to the human city. As time passed, the human city lacked essential resources and was slowly unable to survive.
The human city lord feared for the safety of his people, he had to seek help from a variant human group, marrying his beloved daughter to them in exchange for peace.
The city lord's daughter knew what was more important, for the sake of the humans in the city, she sacrificed herself.
The group soon set off from the city, escorted by the human city lord himself.
While traveling in the desert, they met an old man who had fainted.
The old man was heavily injured and was on the verge of death, his entire body was covered in abscesses, the smell was repulsive. The city lord saw that he was a human, he quickly saved him and gave the old man some clean water.
The old man woke up slowly, he said to the city lord: "Oh city lord, since you saved me, why don't you provide me some more help, give me your robe and steed so that I can leave on my own."
The city lord's subordinates started to laugh, the clothes were so precious, how could they give them to such a lowly beggar?
But the city lord waved his hand: "The value of a robe cannot match a person's life. I have other clothes with me, you can have this. But my steed can only be ridden by a strong Gu Master, if I give it to you, I will be causing you harm."
Saying so, the city lord gave his robe as well as a large amount of water and food to the old man.
Next, the city lord ordered his men to bring over a mild tempered camel to the old man.
The old man sighed deeply: "City lord, I have long heard of your kind reputation, it is truly not a lie. Since you want to do a good deed, why don't you help me fully. The abscesses on my back have been troubling me for years, only a virgin girl who is born in the yin year, yin month and yin day1 can heal me by using her mouth to burst them."
Just as the old man said that, the city lord's subordinates started to rebuke in anger, they wanted to kill this old man.
The city lord was a little angry, because everyone knew that his daughter was a virgin girl born in the yin year, yin month and yin day.
The city lord said: "Old man, stop making fun of me. Even though I am a city lord, I am also a pitiful father. I love my daughter, but I have no choice but to send her to the vicious feathermen, and let her become their slave concubine."
"Father, if my sacrifice can save the entire city, I will accept that fate." At this time, the city lord's daughter arrived. The clamor had drawn her attention, she understood the situation from the description of others.
She walked towards the old man as she nodded: "Old sir, let me see your abscesses."
"You are willing to heal my injury?" The old man asked.
"Yes. Even though I am the city lord's daughter and everyone says I am of noble blood, how noble can I truly be?" The city lord's daughter smiled bitterly: "Only when the entire human race is noble can our statuses truly rise, I have no hope left, I am going to be a slave concubine of the variant humans. In that case, why shouldn't I save you? We humans are too weak now, the recovery of one person is better than nothing."
The city lord and the others heard her words and felt very moved, they did not stop her.
The abscesses on the old man's back were ugly and disgusting, they were filled with pus and had an overbearing smell, people would want to puke upon seeing them.
The city lord's daughter was slightly dazed, but she held in her disgust and used her teeth to burst the abscesses on the old man's back.
Once they burst, a white-silver liquid flowed out.
The liquid landed on the desert and emitted a thick fragrant smell, making the caravan group feel refreshed mentally.
The old man's body vanished, only his voice was left, he said: "Oh city lord, you are a person worthy of my help. Humans cannot just rely on Gu Immortals, you Gu Masters are the hope of the future. I will entrust this desert to you, make good use of it."
The city lord and the rest realized at this moment, the old man was a human Gu Immortal, they quickly knelt on the ground.
And this desert was changed by the white-silver liquid, becoming the snow-white salt sand. After obtaining this huge desert, the city lord sold the salt sand as edible salt, he did not lack revenue and managed to revive his city, becoming stronger in time.
Currently, salt sand was no longer a unique product of Western Desert, it was available in all five regions.
Fang Yuan's sovereign immortal aperture had salt sand too, he had obtained it from annexing a Southern Border Gu Immortal's immortal aperture.
After inspecting it, Fang Yuan's clone gained a deeper understanding of the desert, he returned in satisfaction.
"Right now in treasure yellow heaven, Heavenly Court has started to sell silver dragonfish. They must have gotten the method to produce it from Spectral Soul, in time, golden dragonfish will also appear in the market."
Fang Yuan's dragonfish business was feeling a huge impact.
In the short term, because he had obtained immense market share, his dragonfish still provided huge profits. But he definitely would gradually lose his profits to Heavenly Court.
But it was not a problem, after annexing the Southern Border immortals, the sovereign immortal aperture had gained over ten blessed lands, and even a grotto-heaven.
Forget about salt sand, it was an ordinary Gu material. But he gained a lot of immortal material resources, there were at least five to six resource points that could match the dragonfish business, Xia Cha grotto-heaven's year essence pool was one of them.
Thus, Fang Yuan was still earning a lot of profits, his immortal essence stones were accumulating at a faster pace than before.
Due to his development in the past, he did not lack any food production for the feeding of his Immortal Gu. Even though he obtained some Immortal Gu as loot from battle, he also obtained the respective Gu Immortals' immortal apertures, he completely moved their resource points over to himself.
"The feeding of Immortal Gu still has some flaws, but that is not an issue." The time path clone looked at the salt sand desert one last time before using Fixed Immortal Travel.
1
This salt sand desert was the second last resource point that he visited.
At the next moment, Fang Yuan's clone went to City Well.
Inside City Well, there was already a sizable group of hairy men.
These hairy men were obtained from the immortal apertures of the Southern Border Gu Immortals, almost all of them had a certain number of hairy men raised to refine mortal Gu.
Hairy man slaves were the most popular ones in treasure yellow heaven.
Fang Yuan gathered the hairy men in all these immortal apertures and placed them into City Well to live.
Currently, raising hairy men was most helpful to Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan gave some dream path Gu recipes as well as cultivation methods to these hairy men. Their task was to enter their own dream realms and gather dream path materials to refine dream path mortal Gu for Fang Yuan's use.
Fang Yuan's unravel dream killer move expended a lot of dream path mortal Gu.
Earlier, Fang Yuan was exploring dream realms and used up all of his accumulated dream path mortal Gu. If not for these hairy men refining dream path mortal Gu to replenish his supply, Fang Yuan might not have been able to explore all of his dream realms.
Fang Yuan's clone came to City Well as the sky turned dark, even though there was no sun or moon, it seemed to be evening currently.
After Fang Yuan became rank eight, the blessed land became a grotto-heaven, it had astronomical changes now. Because the sovereign immortal aperture had a lot of time path resources, the changes was very precise, almost like the five regions.
Fang Yuan's clone was about to find out the situation of the hairy men when his body froze, a bright light flashed across his eyes: "The main body has already found the location of the Five Xiang's seal!"
Fang Yuan rested in his eerie fire cave for a while before leaving and going to white heaven.
His immortal aperture was well operated, the logistics were clear and orderly, he did not need to waste time in recuperating, his immortal essence storage rose continuously.
He did not want to waste time, he headed to white heaven immediately. Right now, the Five Xiang's seal was opening, the ancient bet was undergoing again!
-x-X-x-
Immemorial white heaven.
A tall gatehouse suddenly emerged in the sky that was originally empty.
The gatehouse had a tall roof and two statues at the side of the gate. There was a huge plaque above the gate, writing the words 'Five Xiang's Bet Entrance'.
The entire gatehouse seemed to be made of bronze, it radiated a majestic aura. Initially, it was only a phantom image, but as time passed, it became solid and clearer.
Qi clan had six Gu Immortals in total, they were all standing outside the gatehouse now, waiting for it to materialize entirely.
1
The leader was an old Gu Immortal, he had a thin body but strong spirits, his eyes radiated with brilliance, he stood up straight like a spear. He was Qi clan's first supreme elder Qi Fa.
On his left was Qi clan's second supreme elder Qi Cai, he stroked his beard as he said: "I have experienced many openings of the seal, but this time, I feel very impatient, I almost cannot wait!"
Third supreme elder Qi Jin laughed: "This bet has been going on for thousands of years, we are finally going to end it today. As descendants of Qi clan, we can proudly face our ancestors, we are the eventual victors of this bet!"
As they spoke, the gatehouse formed fully, a huge area of clouds gathered to hold up this gatehouse.
The door started to shine in five colors, representing the strength of the Five Xiangs.
First, red light shined down, causing the clouds to turn bright red.
This was Xue Xiang's Xue clan, because they cultivated blood path, they had been wiped out. Thus, after the red light shined around the place, it faded away.
Next was yellow light.
It was Chi Xiang's Chi clan, even though they had descendants, because they lived in the immortal apertures of their ancestors and did not work hard, they were living like livestock, not a single Gu Immortal emerged from among them.
Next, a brown light appeared.
Ni Xiang's Ni clan had Gu Immortals in the past, even though the numbers were small, they were all elites. Especially Ni Er, someone deduced that his refinement path attainment level was at the point of quasi-supreme grandmaster! He was the one who fused Immortal Gu into the bloodline of Ni clan members, he wanted to assist his descendants but right now, Ni clan's villages were controlled by Qi clan, they could not win.
1
After the brown light came white light.
"Our turn." Qi Cai became very alert, he could not wait anymore.
"Let's go." Qi Fa said with a firm tone, he led the four Gu Immortals behind him as they went to the gatehouse, bathing in the white light.
The white light flickered for a moment as it got stronger, sweeping around the five Qi clan Gu Immortals' bodies as it returned to its original intensity, continuing to shine.
1
But Qi clan's Gu Immortals were all here already.
Without any additional descendant of Qi Xiang, the white light faded away.
There was a white light spiraling above the heads of the five Qi clan Gu Immortals, they had passed the test of the Five Xiang's seal, they were qualified to enter for the bet.
"Bai clan is the last one." Qi Jin spoke, unable to conceal his nervousness.
Qi clan's Gu Immortals were all above the clouds, they had not entered the door yet, they were alert and looked around.
They knew of the existence of Bai Ning Bing.
Bai Ning Bing had inherited Bai Xiang grotto-heaven, she even learned the immortal killer move Bai Xiang, displaying great power in a few battles.
Heavenly Court had exposed intel on Fang Yuan, that involved the Shadow Sect members as well. Even though Bai Ning Bing was not part of Shadow Sect, her information was also exposed.
Even though Qi clan was secluded and did not mix with the circles of Gu Immortals, they still had their collection of information regarding the outside world.
Blue light shined for a while but nobody showed up, it was about to weaken and fade away.
Qi Cai let out a breath of air: "Good, Bai Ning Bing did not show up. Our Qi Cai will definitely win.... hmm!"
He had just spoken when two figures approached at a rapid speed, in the blink of an eye, they arrived in front of the gatehouse.
Qi clan's Gu Immortals looked over and saw a boy and a girl.
The girl had silvery hair that flowed down to her waist. Her pale blue dragon eyes emitting a cold aura to the outside world. Her skin was white as snow, her expression was cold, her beauty was simply divine. And the most eye-catching thing was the pair of small coral-like dragon horns on her forehead.
Seeing this female immortal, Qi clan's Gu Immortals all thought of a name — Bai Ning Bing.
"Bai Ning Bing came after all, damn it!"
"Who is that beside her?"
Qi Jin first noticed Bai Ning Bing before turning his gaze towards the other Gu Immortal.
This Gu Immortal was a young man with similarly long hair that was black and smooth, he had a sharp and tall nose, his face was extremely exquisite, his eyes were deep like the abyss, resembling the darkness that existed since the beginning of time, able to devour anything in its way.
Seeing this young looking Gu Immortal, Qi Jin shook like he had been hit by lightning, his heart turned cold, he gulped as he said in a hoarse voice with great difficulty: "Fang, Fang Yuan..."
He was already the most composed one, the Qi clan Gu Immortals around him were shaking, their legs were trembling as they had sweat pouring down their foreheads.
Bai Ning Bing was Fang Yuan's henchman, the five regions' Gu Immortals knew that.
If Bai Ning Bing appeared and participated in the Five Xiang's bet, Fang Yuan was likely to come too.
Qi clan had known this and were mentally prepared for it before coming here.
However!
When Fang Yuan truly appeared in front of them, they found that their mental preparations were all in vain. Fear, panic, chaos, all sorts of emotions filled their hearts, they felt like they had fallen into an icy river.
This was Fang Yuan!
He had been reborn using Spring Autumn Cicada.
Refining an Immortal Gu on Three Kings Mountain as a mortal, snatching Hu Immortal blessed land from the Central Continent ten great ancient sects.
He went to Northern Plains and destroyed Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, nobody knew how great his gains were.
He inherited a true inheritance of Thieving Heaven and cooperated with Lang Ya blessed land and the other variant humans, becoming a traitor of humans.
He disguised as Wu Yi Hai and deceived Wu Yong like a fool.
During the dream realm battle, he toyed with the entire righteous path of Southern Border and became the leader of Shadow Sect.
Southern Border's righteous path chased after him and Heavenly Court hunted him, but he remained free and got stronger and stronger.
At the regional wall, he fought against the rank eight Gu Immortal Thunder Ghost True Monarch as a rank seven and pummeled her, leading to a fall in Heavenly Court's reputation.
When Lang Ya blessed land was invaded by Heavenly Court, he stole Fixed Immortal Travel and left freely!
Several months ago, he ambushed Southern Border's righteous path and kidnapped many Southern Border Gu Immortals, extorting all the super forces.
Not long ago, Heavenly Court had distributed the intel in treasure yellow heaven, the battle in the River of Time had been exposed. The entire world of the five regions was shocked! Fang Yuan had become a rank eight Gu Immortal silently, obtaining killer moves like spring scissors, summer fan, and five finger fist heart sword, most amazingly, he even had the long lost method, time cutting edge.
Seeing that his intel was exposed, Fang Yuan returned the favor and exposed all of Heavenly Court's methods as well.
The Gu Immortal world was in a huge commotion!
Heavenly Court's foundation and methods were shocking.
But the scarier thing was, Fang Yuan managed to escape regardless.
Heavenly Court had set up a super time path formation in the River of Time, there were multiple rank eights and many Immortal Gu Houses, but they could not do anything to Fang Yuan!
Even though Fang Yuan lost, in fact running away like a dog, after this battle was exposed, his reputation soared and left a deep impression in everyone's hearts.
Not only because of his schemes and ferocity, but also due to his opponent being Heavenly Court.
It was created since the Remote Antiquity Era, Heavenly Court which had three million years of history and had withstood the multiple invasions of various Demon Venerables, the number one human force created since the beginning of human history!
After so long, this Heavenly Court could actually do nothing to a demonic path Gu Immortal?!
1
This was a really rarely seen situation.
Even throughout the entire history of Heavenly Court, it was rarely seen.
Countless Gu Immortals and super forces were watching, waiting to see how Heavenly Court would capture Fang Yuan. How long could Fang Yuan really last?
Because of all these emotions, Fang Yuan's reputation was at its peak.
Rank seven Fang Yuan could resist rank eight.
Rank eight Fang Yuan was the king of demonic immortals, shaking the world!
1
He had grown like a shooting star, the speed was simply unthinkable. This meteor was currently like the blazing sun, he was bright and dazzling, countless people could not even look up at him.
Demon King Fang Yuan!
1
Qi clan's Gu Immortals started trembling even more fiercely, Fang Yuan's mere entrance had already intimidated all these people.
His demonic might was unstoppable.
-x-X-x-
"Everyone, don't panic." Qi Fa said in a dry voice. His tall body was like a bamboo in the wind, wavering slightly.
Nobody laughed.
Qi clan had three rank seven and two rank six Gu Immortals, they were not Fang Yuan's match even if they joined up. They were meat on the chopping block, they were completely defenseless.
After Qi Fa spoke, he mustered his courage and continued: "We have already obtained the acknowledgement of the gatehouse, we can explore that grotto-heaven, we are also protected by the gatehouse. If Fang Yuan wants to kill us, he will need to pass the gatehouse, but if he destroys it, he will break the rules of the bet and would not reach the other side."
Qi Fa's words calmed everyone down.
Fang Yuan looked at Qi Fa with slight surprise as he smiled, praising: "He is quite smart."
Qi Fa's words were said to Qi clan's Gu Immortals, but was also meant for Fang Yuan. Qi clan was able to become the eventual winner of the Five Xiang's bet, it was not without reason. These last years, Qi clan had developed while suppressing or enslaving the other four clans, they also kept a low profile and hid themselves deeply. Even Southern Border's righteous path did not know or attempt to find the Five Xiang's treasure, this was due to Qi clan's abilities.
But no matter how amazing they were, against Fang Yuan, they were doomed to fail.
Fang Yuan's smile was terrifying in their eyes, his pearly white teeth were like sharp daggers aiming at them.
Fang Yuan took a look at Qi clan's Gu Immortals before looking over at Bai Ning Bing.
Both of them had already negotiated earlier, Bai Ning Bing nodded at Fang Yuan before flying towards the gatehouse.
Qi clan's Gu Immortals were slightly stirred, but they could do nothing but watch.
Once Bai Ning Bing entered the blue light, this icy light shook for a moment before stabilizing.
Fang Yuan nodded to himself, he was afraid earlier that Bai Ning Bing's dragonman status would affect it, after all, dragonmen were variant humans and were not traditional humans. But now, it seemed that the gatehouse only cared about Bai Ning Bing's bloodline, regardless of her status as human or variant human.
After a few breaths of time, Bai Ning Bing gained the acknowledgement of the gatehouse and was sent up into the clouds by a formless and mild force.
Qi clan's Gu Immortals had flickering gazes, they all showed a look of regret.
"It seems that Bai Ning Bing is not under Fang Yuan's enslavement, otherwise, the gatehouse would not acknowledge her."
"It is a pity..."
"Damn it, Bai Ning Bing was allowed to enter the world beyond the gatehouse too!"
Bai Ning Bing was found by Old Man Yan Shi last time, but she was never enslaved, all they did was cooperate.
After joining Fang Yuan, Bai Ning Bing was not targeted by Fang Yuan's enslavement methods either.
This was all due to this gatehouse.
Bai Ning Bing landed on the cloud and inspected the area, before saying to Fang Yuan: "Getting onto the clouds would be the same as getting the gatehouse's acknowledgement, Gu Immortals cannot fight each other here."
"Okay." A bright light flashed in Fang Yuan's eyes, seeing his following actions, Qi clan's Gu Immortals all gasped in shock.
Fang Yuan actually flew towards the blue light.
The blue light flickered for a moment before stabilizing.
Even though Fang Yuan was in his original appearance, he had activated immortal killer move familiar face already. He had modified this move, adding in blood path Immortal Gu to disguise his own bloodline. Initially, he had used this against Wu clan, disguising as Wu Yi Hai and mixing into the righteous path.
But before Fang Yuan got happy, the four other lights appeared on the gatehouse.
These four lights represented the power of the other four Xiangs.
Fang Yuan was slightly surprised, earlier, he had allowed Bai Ning Bing to enter first in order to inspect the blue light. After he flew in, he managed to deceive the blue light, but to think that the other four Xiangs unleashed their power.
Boom!
The gatehouse shook, Fang Yuan was pushed out of the light by a strong force.
"Familiar face cannot deceive it?" Fang Yuan's heart shook slightly.
Heaven Surveying Five Xiangs!
This strong force that had once taken leadership of Southern Border's Gu Immortal world had displayed its immense power.
Qi clan's Gu Immortals all sighed in huge relief, great joy appeared on their faces.
Fang Yuan's actions were simply too shocking, but this result was the best for them.
"So close, Fang Yuan could not get in!"
"We have hope! This way, Fang Yuan is kept outside, we only need to deal with Bai Ning Bing."
"Her Bai Xiang killer move is troublesome, but our Qi Xiang true inheritance is not weak either."
Fang Yuan focused as he looked at the gatehouse.
Indeed, he had underestimated the gatehouse. Or rather, Shadow Sect and Bai Ning Bing's information was not sufficient regarding this gatehouse.
To deceive it, familiar face was not enough.
Fang Yuan did not want Bai Ning Bing to explore it alone.
She was unreliable, and even if she was reliable, she could not deal with Qi clan's Gu Immortals alone.
Even though Fang Yuan had encountered an obstacle earlier, his determination to get in had not wavered.
"Qi Xiang, Bai Xiang, Xue Xiang, Ni Xiang, Chi Xiang, these are the Heaven Surveying Five Xiangs. This gatehouse was created by all five of them, their power was fused into one."
Fang Yuan went into rapid contemplation.
Qi Xiang, Bai Xiang, Xue Xiang, Ni Xiang, and Chi Xiang; they were in qi path, ice path, blood path, earth path, and food path respectively.
1
Fang Yuan had high attainment in blood path and earth path, he was confident.
In terms of food path, even though his attainment level was not high, Fang Yuan had Spectral Soul's true inheritance, it contained the original food path inheritance in this world. With such a foundation, Fang Yuan had an immensely deep amount of information to work with.
His qi path and ice path attainment levels were very low. But ice path was not a problem, he had Bai Ning Bing's Bai Xiang true inheritance that was used to deceive the blue light already.
"So, my only obstacle is Qi Xiang's power." Divine brilliance flashed in Fang Yuan's eyes.
Fang Yuan did not have qi path attainment level or sufficient qi path inheritances, because it was already on the decline for a long time.
"No issue, I have the light of wisdom."
Fang Yuan wanted to use the light of wisdom to force his way through!
Qi clan's Gu Immortals conversed.
"What is he doing?"
"He seems to be deducing... didn't Heavenly Court announce it, this demon has very extraordinary wisdom path methods."
"Hehe, it is useless, how can he deduce the Five Xiang's arrangements in such a short time?"
Qi clan's Gu Immortals were very confident about this.
They had tried to break the power of the Five Xiangs long ago, but they had no success. This was the failure of generations of Gu Immortals that had tried time and time again.
They had failed too many times against the Five Xiang's seal, how could Fang Yuan possibly succeed?
"Or maybe Fang Yuan's wisdom path methods are above us. But he is simply dreaming if he wants to deduce it now. This difficulty is like deducing an unknown immortal killer move that he has just seen for the first time in battle, he needs to deduce and unravel it. He is too naive!" Qi Fa shook his head, as he said that, his courage appeared again, his fear was fading.
Boom!
At the next moment, Fang Yuan attacked the gatehouse.
The gate shook intensely, the expressions of Qi clan's Gu Immortals also changed.
"This, this, this!"
"The demon attacked, he actually attacked the gatehouse. He wants to destroy the teleportation entrance, does he not want to enter?"
"He failed the deduction so he got angry instead?!"
Bam bam bam...
As Fang Yuan attacked fiercely, the entire gatehouse started to shake. Qi clan's Gu Immortals also shook as their footing became unstable, they were like candles in the wind.
Shock and fear was shown on their faces, some even began to tremble.
Once the gatehouse gets destroyed, they would lose their protection, it would be up to Fang Yuan whether he wants to kill or capture them.
"It must hold against him!" Qi clan's Gu Immortals were all praying in their hearts.
Fang Yuan gradually stopped attacking.
Qi clan's Gu Immortals breathed roughly, they were all wet with sweat. The feeling of almost dying was too terrible, they had never been so nervous.
But eventually, the gatehouse still remained standing.
"The demon did not succeed, great!" Qi Jin cheered, while the other Qi clan Gu Immortals had joyful expressions on their faces.
Fang Yuan glanced at them as he showed a mocking smile: "Oh? Why do you think I stopped?"
Saying so, he activated an immortal killer move, there was no flashy light or commotion, his entire body's aura underwent a profound and mystical change.
Next, Fang Yuan landed and bathed in the blue light, easily gaining its acknowledgement and landing beside Bai Ning Bing.
Qi clan's Gu Immortals were all dumbfounded, some opened their mouths and froze like statues.
Shock was expressed on their faces, some beliefs in their minds had been completely shattered by Fang Yuan's success!
"This, this demon actually succeeded!"
"This must be a dream! How can this be?"
"How could he succeed in such a short period of time?"
Qi clan's Gu Immortals felt incredibly confused, before a strong cold feeling entered their hearts.
Fang Yuan's battle strength was ridiculously high, but his wisdom path attainment was even beyond the understanding of the Qi clan Gu Immortals.
Such a monster made even Heavenly Court without options. How could they deal with him?
"Gatehouse! Oh ancestor! This Fang Yuan is an outsider, he cheated!!" Qi Cai screamed, his face was full of fear and also anger.
But the gatehouse was silent, the Five Xiang's seal started to gather power. Soon, a strong aura emerged from the gatehouse as five lights started to shine brightly.
Qi clan's Gu Immortals saw this as their faces turned to despair.
They knew that the gatehouse had activated not because it exposed Fang Yuan's identity, but because the teleportation was beginning.
-x-X-x-
The glaring light faded gradually.
Fang Yuan looked around, the environment had changed, he was already inside the small world past the gatehouse.
Bai Ning Bing was beside him, their distance was the same as before the teleportation.
Suddenly, Bai Ning Bing's expression changed, mysterious information was transmitted into her mind. She looked at Fang Yuan, seeing that he was completely expressionless, she hesitated for a moment before saying: "This is a public grotto-heaven, the Heaven Surveying Five Xiangs had once donated a portion of their grotto-heavens each to form this place. The entire grotto-heaven has five segments, they are not directly connected to each other, only the most central mountain range is shared among the five. The treasure of this bet is at the center of the grotto-heaven, as long as a Gu Immortal is acknowledged by the gatehouse and is teleported inside here, they can go after the treasure. Along the way, the Heaven Surveying Five Xiangs have also set up some resources, stronger experts can try to take them away, but it is recommended that they do not take everything, so as to allow the resources to grow again in the future."
Bai Ning Bing obtained this information, but Fang Yuan did not.
"It seems that even though I used the light of wisdom to deduce a killer move and disguise my identity, it was too roughly made in a rush."
Fang Yuan had a deep gaze as he looked afar: "This means that we are very far from Qi clan's Gu Immortals, and our areas are not connected. After disguising as a Bai Xiang descendant, I can only move about in this Bai Xiang grotto-heaven region?"
Fang Yuan wanted to try using Fixed Immortal Travel, but he did not know the appearance of Qi Xiang's territory.
He had once killed Qi clan's Qi Zai, but this person only became a Gu Immortal in the last thousand years, he did not enter this place or have any memories of it.
"According to my experience of getting past that gatehouse's inspection, this place has a very strict level of defense, space path methods are likely to be restricted. I am afraid that even if I use Fixed Immortal Travel, there is a low possibility of success."
Fang Yuan looked at the situation now, soon, he made up his mind.
"Let's go to the center!"
The entire public grotto-heaven had five areas, they were all connected to the center which contained the ultimate treasure of this bet. In that case, Fang Yuan would directly target it, he did not need to find Qi clan's Gu Immortals. Not only would he waste time, he might not be able to find them after all.
Once they got to the mountain range, they would meet Qi clan's Gu Immortals anyway.
Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing flew rapidly, crossing mountains and valleys.
Bai Xiang cultivated ice and snow path, this area was contributed by Bai Xiang grotto-heaven, thus even though there were mountains and valleys here, they were covered in thick snow, it was a field of white.
"Look there!" Bai Ning Bing suddenly said.
She was looking at a mountain, it was extremely steep and dangerous, at the peak, there were a hundred ice mirror snow lotuses growing.
This was a rank six immortal material containing ice path and wood path dao marks.
Near the snow lotus, there were many snow monsters and even desolate level snow monsters. If anyone went there and wanted to get the ice mirror snow lotuses, these snow monsters would stop them.
In fact, Fang Yuan had discovered it long ago, he only took a glance before flying away with Bai Ning Bing.
Even though these desolate level snow monsters were not his match, Fang Yuan did not want to waste time here, he headed straight for the center of the public grotto-heaven!
Ice mirror snow lotus, hundred years profound ice, thousand years profound ice, mystical frost water, heaven craft divine jade... along the way, Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing saw many resource points, even though they were small to mid sized resource points, they had plentiful storage.
The deeper they went, the more valuable the resource points in the grotto-heaven. Of course, the beasts or plants defending them were also increasingly stronger. The Five Xiangs had specially created this arrangement to test their descendants.
Even though Fang Yuan's current strength was enough to sweep through everything, he ignored these small benefits in front of him, his mind was completely on the center of the mountain range.
Howl—!
Howling of beasts could be heard continuously as they emerged from the valleys to attack Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing.
They were jade frost antelopes.
The large ones were huge like palaces, the small ones were the size of three houses, their eyes were fully jade green in color without irises. Their horns curled upwards, even without wings, they could float and travel in the air. Each time they jumped, their hooves would emit white frost that would produce a clear chiming sound.
These jade frost antelopes appeared very peculiarly, Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing's expressions quickly changed.
Fang Yuan snorted as he waved his hand, grabbing a fan that appeared out of nowhere.
Immortal killer move — Summer Fan!
Whoosh!
Summer fan whipped up strong winds that turned into tornadoes, they resembled winds but were actually filled with time path's power.
The beasts that approached with a great momentum were engulfed by the winds and rapidly died. Their corpses fell from the sky like dumplings, crashing onto the snow and creating loud noises.
This large group of jade frost antelopes died in an instant, not just that, Fang Yuan's fan also caused the snow mountain below him to crumble, creating a huge crater filled with rocks.
Fang Yuan flew down rapidly, slamming down as the rocks scattered.
He looked at a huge rock wall and inspected the aura on it, his expression turning cold.
There was a Gu formation here that Fang Yuan destroyed, it had the style of qi path.
"It seems that the restriction of five independent regions cannot restrict those Gu Immortals from Qi clan." Fang Yuan said to Bai Ning Bing.
Bai Ning Bing nodded: "Understandable, they have already been coming here so many times, they must have a deep understanding of the place. A lot of the Five Xiangs' restrictions cannot stop them anymore. This also means that our journey is not going to be smooth."
Fang Yuan smiled coldly: "Qi clan's Gu Immortals are trying to obstruct us, they must be trying to delay for time to obtain the treasure first. We will not stay here, we will move rapidly."
The two continued to fly, along the way, as Bai Ning Bing had expected, many beast groups obstructed them.
But these beast groups were all slaughtered easily by Fang Yuan's methods, they could barely delay his advancement.
"Fang Yuan's methods are truly terrifying! Our beast tides are simply thin as paper!"
"No, he is simply killing them like killing ants, this is too scary."
"They are coming, they are near the central mountain range!"
"Don't panic, there is a layer of defense at the mountain range, there is an immemorial desolate beast there."
3
"The defenses were broken through, Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing are arriving!"
Qi clan's Gu Immortals continued to converse, the atmosphere was tense, when Fang Yuan arrived, Qi clan's Gu Immortals were all panicking, their nervousness could be felt from afar.
The area that stored the treasure was very obvious, Fang Yuan could see it the moment he entered the central mountain range.
At the peak of the highest mountain, there was a palace, it was decorated in the same style as the gatehouse.
This was an Immortal Gu House!
Fang Yuan successfully got into the Immortal Gu House, he saw that at the center of the hall, there were five Qi clan Gu Immortals sitting around the ultimate treasure.
Next, his gaze turned towards the treasure of the bet.
This mysterious treasure was a white crane.
This white crane has one leg, it was covered in snow-white feathers that had no dust or dirt on it. Its long beak was red in color, its wings were tucked in as its eyes were shut tight.
Fang Yuan's brows furrowed rapidly, he could tell that this white crane was extraordinary.
It was not a real living being, it was also not an Immortal Gu, yet it emitted a rank nine aura!
"Amazing!" Fang Yuan laughed: "So the ultimate treasure of the bet is a rank nine killer move!"
Fang Yuan's laughter made the Qi clan Gu Immortals shudder.
They were fearful and also furious.
Qi clan had painstakingly protected this ultimate treasure of the Five Xiangs bet, but an outsider was here now trying to take it!
Qi clan has already treated the treasure as their possession. Fang Yuan wanted to take it, it meant that the great animosity between Qi clan and Fang Yuan was unresolvable.
Fang Yuan's gaze was cold, he did not speak, he pointed his finger as a sword light flew out, attacking a Qi clan Gu Immortal.
The five Qi clan Gu Immortals had instilled their wills into the white crane killer move, they did not move and allowed the sword light to approach them.
At the crucial moment, the five lights of the hall shined as the sword light was dispelled soundlessly.
"As expected." Fang Yuan felt no surprise.
This hall could gather the power of the entire public grotto-heaven, it was also the place where the Five Xiang's seal was the strongest. With this power overseeing the area, Fang Yuan and Qi clan's Gu Immortals could not fight each other.
Of course, Fang Yuan could act forcefully, but he had to suppress the Heaven Surveying Five Xiangs' power, he would also cause great damage to the entire public grotto-heaven.
"No wonder Qi clan's Gu Immortals are not moving! But since they have the qualification to refine this ultimate treasure, so can I!" Bai Ning Bing had her own thoughts, she got close to the killer move.
Next, she mimicked the five Gu Immortals from Qi clan as she sent her own will into it.
The five Qi clan Gu Immortals had nervous expressions while Bai Ning Bing's body shook, she shouted to Fang Yuan: "Hurry up!"
Even without her reminder, Fang Yuan had already arrived beside her, he instilled his will into the killer move as he understood the entire situation.
At the same time, some information originating from Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable also entered his mind!
"People of the future, I am Ben Jie Sun, also known as Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable."
"When exploring the immemorial white heaven, I by chance found a mysterious existence, it was like the heavenly spirit of a grotto-heaven. It was incredibly agile, I only managed to capture it after spending a lot of effort. After researching it, I found that it was incredibly profound, it involved the deepest mysteries of this world. It corresponded with the details in the latter half of <
"I temporarily named it the natural heavenly spirit, it could not be brought out of white heaven or placed into one's grotto-heaven. It was filled with heaven's will that was constantly replenished at all times. Even I could not use my human will to refine it forcefully."
"After thinking long and hard, I found a solution, I forcefully condensed it and created an immortal killer move, I called it — Heaven Form!"
-x-X-x-
"Heaven form?!" Fang Yuan was surprised, but soon understood what happened.
Everything was clear now.
Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable was an otherworldly demon, he was skilled in space path and created theft path, he also had great ability in refinement path.
His entire life was dedicated to finding a way to leave the Gu Master world and return to his homeland.
He was the richest venerable, he searched for immortal materials all around the world and refined many Immortal Gu. He had also traveled the most, having explored almost the entire five regions and two heavens.
One day when exploring white heaven, he by chance found a mystical existence, after searching on it, he named it natural heavenly spirit.
Even with his Demon Venerable strength, he could not refine the natural heavenly spirit.
It was not hard to understand this.
According to Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable's words, this natural heavenly spirit could not be brought out of immemorial white heaven, and inside white heaven, it was replenished by heaven's will endlessly. When Gu Immortals refine Immortal Gu, they have to use their own will to get rid of the wild will in the Immortal Gu, eventually refining it into their tool.
Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable wanted to refine the natural heavenly spirit, even though the steps were different, in essence it was the same. The Demon Venerable's will was strong, but against the natural heavenly spirit filled with heaven's will, that was constantly replenished, he could not succeed.
Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable failed but was not dejected, man was the spirit of all living beings, he found a method, that was to combine the heavenly spirit with other Gu worms to form a rank nine immortal killer move.
This made Fang Yuan think of the ghostly concealment killer move that he had, it was also a rank nine killer move. It was paired with divine concealment, even though Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable had used it long ago, these two moves still remained until now.
This seemed to be a specialty of Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable.
The problem was, even if Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable found a way to turn the natural heavenly spirit into a rank nine immortal killer move heaven form, he could not manipulate or use it.
Because he did not manage to refine the natural heavenly spirit.
But this was part of Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable's plan, he knew that he could not refine the natural heavenly spirit in a short period of time, therefore he turned the heavenly spirit into an immortal killer move.
This way, the natural heavenly spirit would be replenished with heaven's will at a far lower rate.
After Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable created heaven form, he did not use it. Before he vanished mysteriously, he left behind many Thieving Heaven true inheritances, he did not forget heaven form either.
"Heaven form killer move has not been truly refined, I cannot complete it alone, it needs a long period of time and generations of wills to cleanse. One day, it will be truly refined by a Gu Immortal, by then, it would be usable."
Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable also said that even though he left this killer move behind, it could not be controlled and was not a Thieving Heaven true inheritance, it needed more work from people in the future, it was only half a Thieving Heaven true inheritance.
Fang Yuan could deduce the future developments himself.
One day, when the Heaven Surveying Five Xiangs explored immemorial white heaven, they happened to find this half Thieving Heaven true inheritance.
Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable had said it clearly already, this rank nine killer move could only be used by one person, because all Five Xiangs wanted it, they argued and did not manage to come to a consensus, due to their internal conflict, their group fell apart.
The Five Xiangs tried but just the five of them could not refine this killer move, eventually, they set up the bet and agreed to use this to decide the owner of the immortal killer move.
Time passed mercilessly, countless events occurred throughout the ages.
Eventually, the Five Xiangs died, generations of Gu Immortal descendants of the Five Xiangs appeared and disappeared. Until today, Qi clan obtained the decisive advantage, and after years of hard work by their predecessors, they were finally about to succeed.
But Fang Yuan interfered!
It was understandable why the Qi clan Gu Immortals were so furious and filled with hatred.
Since the first generation of the Five Xiangs, they had worked so hard throughout the ages, their efforts were finally about to bear fruit, and now, he was here to snatch it away!
How shameless!
Too shameless, too despicable!
These emotions were the fuel that Qi clan was using to face Fang Yuan at the moment.
Fang Yuan was only a rank eight Gu Immortal, they believed that as long as they obtained the rank nine killer move, they would be able to defeat Fang Yuan, or at least, make him wary of their battle strength, they would be able to negotiate.
Fang Yuan came to Bai Ning Bing's side as he instilled his will into the heaven form killer move.
Inside the heaven form killer move, there was a lump of stubborn heaven's will that remained steady as a fortress, having the greatest defense.
Below this heaven's will fortress were countless wills.
A vast sea of wills!
The bet had been undergone time and time again, a large number of Gu Immortals had left their wills behind. There were strong rank eight Gu Immortals like the Five Xiangs, there were also rank seven elites like Ni clan's Gu Immortal Ni Er.
Such an accumulation was not strange.
But what made Fang Yuan surprised was that these wills were not moving, they seemed dead like rocks, staying completely still.
Only these newly entered wills were moving around like dragons, fighting above the sea of wills.
Three of the five Gu Immortal wills of Qi clan went to deal with Bai Ning Bing's will. The remaining two attacked the heaven's will fortress at the top.
"That is the central area of the killer move heaven form, whoever refines it will become the owner of heaven form!"
"Demon Fang Yuan's will also came in!"
"Persevere, we cannot relax now, we are about to succeed."
"This is the hard work of our Qi clan after countless years, for this moment, we have sacrificed too much, we cannot let the outsider Fang Yuan win!!"
The Qi clan Gu Immortals conversed, they spurred each other on, their morale was at its peak.
Actually, they had no other choice, Fang Yuan's ruthless nature was known to all, if they did not manage to refine this rank nine killer move, they would definitely end up in pitiful states.
Without hesitation, Fang Yuan's will charged up.
His will gathered into a lump and moved like a soaring dragon.
The wills of three Qi clan Gu Immortals cooperated, but they could not resist Fang Yuan's fierce assault, they were retreating continuously.
They were just qi path Gu Immortals after all, while Fang Yuan had a huge advantage in this aspect.
"Persevere, regardless of the price we have to pay, we need to stall for time!"
"Quickly attack and take down the central control area!"
"As long as we can obtain this killer move, we might be able to kill this supreme demon king and eradicate him for good. We might be able to obtain a large number of venerable true inheritances..."
"Even if we cannot stop him, we need to expend his will so that he cannot take down the heaven's will fortress at the top."
-x-X-x-
Qi clan's Gu Immortals were all standing together, resisting Fang Yuan desperately and courageously while feeling anxiety, fear and panic.
Fang Yuan frowned, he found that his will could not be instilled endlessly, after reaching a certain amount, he could not send any more.
Furthermore, when his will was instilled, his main body could only watch as the wills fought. Thus, his vast number of wisdom path methods could not work here.
Heaven form was rank nine, while Fang Yuan's wisdom path methods were just rank eight at best. Even if they could affect the killer move heaven form, Fang Yuan did not want to try them, if he triggered the counterattack of the killer move, that would be a problem. Even if there was no counterattack, destroying heaven form would also make him lose the greatest treasure here.
Qi clan's Gu Immortals needed heaven form to deal with Fang Yuan and protect themselves. Fang Yuan also wanted heaven form greatly, because he needed more strength to deal with the obstacles from Heavenly Court in the River of Time.
Thus, both sides had to compete using the most basic form of attacking through their wills.
In this regard, Fang Yuan was deeply experienced. After suffering at the hands of Mo Yao, he had practiced tirelessly to remove this weakness, it was his advantage now.
Qi clan's Gu Immortals were not Fang Yuan's match, but they had strength in numbers, their cumulative will was much greater than Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing.
As time passed, Fang Yuan's advantage grew, but he could not turn this advantage into victory. The Qi clan Gu Immortals were resisting him stubbornly, they were outperforming themselves.
In fact, Fang Yuan still had one worry left, it was Bai Ning Bing.
Bai Ning Bing had once backstabbed him, she was an unstable element in this situation.
But thankfully, the heaven's will fortress at the top was very strong and did not waver, no matter how Qi clan's Gu Immortals attacked it, there were no traces of it breaking down.
Fang Yuan started to feel troubled, at this rate, even if he got past or destroyed the Qi clan Gu Immortals' wills, he might not have enough will left to deal with the heaven's will at the center.
Time and again, Qi clan's wills retreated while Fang Yuan's will moved like a dragon, coiling around Qi clan's wills, encircling them.
Qi clan's wills were shocked, if Fang Yuan destroyed their encircled wills, they would be in deeper trouble, they would not be able to stop Fang Yuan from leaving.
Thus, the wills that had just dispersed gathered together again as they charged at Fang Yuan.
"Bai Ning Bing, block them." Fang Yuan rapidly ordered.
Bai Ning Bing's will was like an ice wall, it stabbed into the battlefield, but it defended Qi clan's wills as it started to attack Fang Yuan!
Qi clan's wills were greatly shocked, at the crucial moment, Bai Ning Bing had betrayed him.
Fang Yuan's will was caught off guard by Bai Ning Bing, he was very angry.
Qi clan's wills observed for a moment and became very happy, they attacked Fang Yuan from another direction.
Fang Yuan's will continued to reduce in size, he had to give up on taking down Qi clan's wills.
"Bai Ning Bing, you traitor, I will not forgive you!" Fang Yuan's will roared, but the outcome was decided, he had to escape with his remaining will.
"Fang Yuan, with your personality, after getting heaven form, won't you deal with me? I am the descendant of Bai Xiang, heaven form killer move is my fortuitous encounter. Hahaha!" Bai Ning Bing's will laughed maniacally: "This is a great chance, after defeating you here, my entire life will become dazzling and hopeful as a result."
1
Bai Ning Bing did not want to let Fang Yuan's will off, she chased after him.
Fang Yuan's will could only escape.
"What are you all waiting for? Come and help!" Bai Ning Bing's will roared at Qi clan's wills.
Qi clan's wills were also heavily damaged, after thinking for a bit, Qi Fa's will shouted: "Don't move, there might be a trap, let them fight it out."
Fang Yuan's will was attacked by Bai Ning Bing's will and was terribly damaged, it was much smaller than Bai Ning Bing's will now. Eventually, she encircled him and fought until he was completely exterminated.
"To think that the demon Fang Yuan would be the first to fall!"
"No matter how vigilant he was, he could not defend against an internal threat."
"Hahaha, this is the rise of our Qi clan, this is a great opportunity. Let's go, we must exterminate Bai Ning Bing's will too!"
Qi clan's wills attacked again, even though Bai Ning Bing's will resisted stubbornly, two fists could not rival four palms, she was eventually wiped out as well.
"We succeeded!"
"Heaven form is ours!!"
Qi clan's wills were drowning in joy, now that they had no enemies left, they gathered and attacked the heaven's will fortress.
Boom!
At once, an explosion occurred at the heaven's will fortress, a large amount of heaven's will gushed out like uncaged beasts, attacking Qi clan's wills.
All along, this heaven's will had been defensive in nature, Qi clan's wills were deceived and forgot that it could move freely.
Heaven's will's retaliation was a huge surprise to Qi clan's wills, they suffered huge losses.
"How can there be so much heaven's will?"
"Impossible!"
"Heaven's will is crafty, it deceived us of its strength, I am unresigned!"
"Quickly resist it, we cannot afford to lose!"
Qi clan's wills were determined and went all in, from a dangerous situation, they gradually stabilized it and eventually managed to gain the advantage over heaven's will, when there was little heaven's will left, the core was exposed, awaiting its new owner.
"We finally won!" A moment later, Qi clan's wills were about to cry from joy. They only had a bit of will left, but heaven's will was finally gone.
"I'm afraid not." Suddenly, Fang Yuan's will appeared again.
Qi clan's wills were shocked, they started shouting.
"You, you were already eliminated right?"
"Impossible! You already used up your will, normally, you will need a thousand years before you can send your will in again."
"Did you unravel this rank nine killer move? No, no way, this is a rank nine killer move originating from Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable!"
Fang Yuan's will snickered but he did not explain, he attacked.
Qi clan's wills were like tiny rabbits, Fang Yuan attacked them like a fierce tiger, easily getting rid of them without much obstruction.
And next, Fang Yuan's will replaced heaven's will and went into the core area.
He was the final victor!
Opening his eyes, he saw the five Qi clan Gu Immortals escaping in a panic.
Fang Yuan did not stop them, this Immortal Gu House and public blessed land had the Five Xiang's arrangements, they would definitely stop him if he attacked.
Bai Ning Bing stood by Fang Yuan's side motionlessly, she did not have any intentions of escaping.
Everything that happened was part of Fang Yuan's plan.
He purposely orchestrated a show, having Bai Ning Bing betray him. He wanted to deceive not just Qi clan's Gu Immortals, but also heaven's will.
Fang Yuan had much more experience against heaven's will than Qi clan's Gu Immortals. he deduced that heaven's will had a lot of battle strength remaining, even if he defeated Qi clan's wills, he would not be the match of heaven's will.
Thus, he purposely backed off and hid away a portion of his will.
Of course, Bai Ning Bing's will was truly wiped out. The advantage of this was that other than tricking Qi clan's Gu Immortals, he could prevent her from doing anything at the most crucial moment.
The wills of Qi clan's Gu Immortals were already weakened by Fang Yuan earlier, because they were facing huge problems and pressure, they were unable to see through Fang Yuan's plot.
It was difficult indeed.
When wills thought about things, they would be expended. The smaller the will, the less it could think. Qi clan's Gu Immortals also had to ensure that they had enough strength left to deal with heaven's will.
The outcome was as Fang Yuan predicted, he was the final winner.
Heaven form was under Fang Yuan's control, at this moment, he did not inspect, he turned to look at Bai Ning Bing with a deep gaze.
"Oh Bai Ning Bing... are you really not going to run?" Fang Yuan's eyes burst out with killing intent.
Bai Ning Bing's value had been squeezed out, she was not like Shadow Sect's members, she was not under Fang Yuan's control.
Since he obtained heaven form, it was time to settle this problem.
The atmosphere was tense, Fang Yuan's killing intent was rising.
They were about to fight at any moment.
Evidently, Fang Yuan was not someone Bai Ning Bing could defeat at the moment. Even though the killer move Bai Xiang was a powerful move that had once terrorized Southern Border's Gu Immortal world, Bai Ning Bing's cultivation level was too low now, her foundation was far weaker than Fang Yuan.
If they fought, Bai Ning Bing would die for sure!
-x-X-x-
Facing Fang Yuan's immense killing intent, Bai Ning Bing smiled as she looked towards Fang Yuan straight in the eye, asking in return: "Why should I run?"
After pausing for a moment, she said: "Qi clan's Gu Immortals escaped, that is because they don't know you. We are both from Qing Mao Mountain, with my understanding of you, how could they escape? Hehe, since I cannot escape, what's the point of running? Not only will I not escape, on the contrary, I will join Shadow Sect."
Fang Yuan frowned: "I had thought of that, but your Bai Xiang killer move is too amazing, it can free you from almost any alliance agreement."
The uniqueness of Bai Xiang was that it turned the Gu Immortal into a unique existence, even a tiny fragment could regenerate and be reborn.
The essence of alliance agreements were information path dao marks, Bai Ning Bing could make use of Bai Xiang to self-mutilate and get rid of her information path dao marks, negating her alliance agreements.
Thus, Bai Xiang was also used for healing, to get rid of unwanted dao marks in the body.
"Indeed." Facing Fang Yuan's deep wariness, Bai Ning Bing laughed, not caring about her own safety: "But isn't that more exciting?"
Fang Yuan snorted, saying in displeasure: "I am not you, Bai Ning Bing."
Bai Ning Bing nodded, she stopped smiling as brilliance flashed in her dragon eyes: "Indeed, I have been pursuing excitement all along. This is why I admire you, Fang Yuan, your life is truly exciting, it is so thrilling! Every time you plot, every time you succeed, or even every time you fail, they are filled with excitement. Especially earlier when you were ambushed by Heavenly Court and had to escape like a dog, it was truly the most thrilling experience!"
"The other Shadow Sect members cannot understand my feelings. Some just want to save Spectral Soul Demon Venerable, some feel fear and panic, some feel immense pressure, but what I feel is excitement and thrill. The bigger the problems, the bigger the troubles, the more exciting life is, isn't that right?"
"Others might not know me, but I am sure that you understand me, right?"
Bai Ning Bing stared at Fang Yuan's eyes with a bright gaze.
Fang Yuan was silent.
Back then on Qing Mao Mountain, he had deduced that Bai Ning Bing was a true demon. He was not wrong, that was exactly who she was. To pursue the excitement of life, she could give up anything, even her life. The values and moral concepts of normal people, the complexities of love and hatred, they were all unrelated to her.
She was different from the norm, her world view was vastly different, she only walked on her own path. She followed her own desires, she did not care about life and death.
In fact, Bai Ning Bing and Fang Yuan were very similar, they were the same kind, only that they pursued different goals.
Fang Yuan pursued eternal life, he was willing to sacrifice anything including himself. Even if he failed and died along the way, he would feel happy and content, because he lived pursuing his dreams, he felt a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment towards life.
1
Bai Ning Bing said that Fang Yuan understood her, she was absolutely right, it was the same as how she understood Fang Yuan.
The saying goes, heroes admired each other, it was the same for demons.
Fang Yuan's killing intent gradually faded away.
His killing intent was only a facade, the truth was, he did not really have much killing intent.
Why should he kill Bai Ning Bing?
Fang Yuan's strength far surpassed Bai Ning Bing, her threat was very low to Fang Yuan.
2
Sometimes, when he saw Bai Ning Bing, Fang Yuan could see his own reflection. True demons like them were too rare, meeting one was a form of luck, it was a form of affirmation towards their goals.
Because of their similarity, they recognized each other, they acknowledged each other.
Thus, back then, when Bai Ning Bing gave up her life to save Fang Yuan, she said her final words — asking Fang Yuan to live in her place and witness the excitement of life. Bai Ning Bing had felt that Fang Yuan could take her place to a certain extent.
Sometimes, Fang Yuan thought about it, if he and Bai Ning Bing exchanged identities, would he have made the same choice as her?
"Hahaha." Bai Ning Bing suddenly raised her head and laughed: "I can give all of Bai Xiang grotto-heaven's resources to you. But I want the Gu worms from Bai Xiang's true inheritance, I am willing to join Shadow Sect because facing Heavenly Court is truly exciting! This was your excitement, but it will become mine as well."
"In that case, there are three possible outcomes." Bai Ning Bing squinted, excitement flashing in her eyes, there was a light of insanity.
"The first possibility, you get killed by Heavenly Court. With your strength, even if you get killed, it will be in an incredible manner, your struggle before death will definitely be a climax. By witnessing your death, it will be the greatest experience of my life."
"The second possibility, Heavenly Court gets defeated or even destroyed by you. That is definitely exciting beyond belief, the number one force of human history falling like a crashing meteor, it will create the greatest sparks in this world."
"And the third possibility, the one I anticipate the most, because it is the most thrilling! You and Heavenly Court get into a deadlock, both sides suffer losses. In that case, I will stay by your side, I will have the supreme chance to find an opportunity. I might even emerge as the victor, both you and Heavenly Court will become my stepping stones."
Fang Yuan looked at Bai Ning Bing calmly, he said with a cold and expressionless face: "If I kill you now, all three possibilities will vanish."
"Yes, yes..." Bai Ning Bing frowned, she became a little dejected, her gaze flickered and her tone became heavy: "That is true. If I die now, even though I will resist to the utmost, our strength is too vastly different, there will be little excitement in the battle."
"But if that is your choice, I will accept it." She smiled, shrugging: "I am just too weak, I have to accept that fate. This cruelty of life is also exciting, isn't it? Hehehe."
Death was not scary for Bai Ning Bing.
She was a lunatic, but also logical and calm. Such a person was the scariest.
But someone even scarier than her was standing right in front of her.
1
It was the demonic path overlord Fang Yuan who made both heaven's will and Heavenly Court helpless to deal with.
Fang Yuan smiled as he laughed "Very interesting."
Bai Ning Bing was a very interesting person.
Right now, Bai Ning Bing was weak and was subject to Fang Yuan's mercy, she did not try persuading him to spare her, she said the opposite, even exposing her own threat to Fang Yuan.
This was because she understood Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan was a person who kept a clear mind, he had already analyzed the benefits and costs of keeping her life. Once he made up his mind, it was useless no matter what was said.
Even without Bai Ning Bing's words, Fang Yuan knew that he needed all the strength he could get to face Heavenly Court and obtain Red Lotus' true inheritance. Bai Ning Bing was a precious source of battle strength, even if she was given a chance to betray him, so what?
A blade was naturally able to harm oneself. But if he threw this blade away and fought empty handed, was that not a stupid move?
It was up to Fang Yuan's abilities to make good use of this blade and prevent her betrayal.
"If I am too useless and Bai Ning Bing's betrayal succeeds, I can only blame myself, isn't that right?"
1
Thinking of this, Fang Yuan laughed: "Oh Bai Ning Bing, you are truly someone I admire, I will not kill you now. Follow me, witness my failure or success. If I die at your hands, that will be quite a show. But now, display your worth to me, bring me the heads of Qi clan's Gu Immortals, and also... their Qi Sea grotto-heaven."
-x-X-x-
Inside rank nine killer move heaven form.
Fang Yuan's will moved like a dragon, coiling in the air as he charged down abruptly.
Rumble!
Fang Yuan's will descended like a meteor, crashing into the bottom of the sea of wills, exterminating a large amount of them in an instant.
However, this sea of will was truly huge, Fang Yuan's attack only destroyed a small portion of them.
"Even though I won and occupied the killer move's core area, this place is filled with the wills of the Five Xiangs' descendants. Only after I exterminate them all can I truly activate this rank nine killer move."
This sea of will was colossal. And the bigger problem was, these wills were affected by the rank nine killer move and were as sturdy as rocks. Many of Fang Yuan's methods could not work on them, under the influence of the rank nine killer move, he had a limited number of methods to use.
Fang Yuan suddenly had a thought as he instilled a new tide of will.
Swoosh swoosh swoosh!
The will gathered into swords as countless will swords shot down like rain, stabbing into the sea of wills and creating huge pits.
In a while, a layer of this sea of wills was eradicated.
Compared to the earlier will dragon, this rain of will swords had far more terrifying power.
Fang Yuan saw this and sighed deeply: "As expected of rank eight Immortal Gu Wisdom Sword!"
He had rank eight cultivation level now, he could use this Gu. Even though it was a sword path Immortal Gu, it was closely related to wisdom path.
Fang Yuan used it as the core to deduce a simple move that could summon a large amount of sword will.
Using these sword wills to attack the sea of wills was the most effective method that Fang Yuan had tried.
But if he did that, his investments would be very high. Wisdom sword Immortal Gu was a rank eight Gu, it expended white litchi immortal essence and the immortal killer move with it would cause a lot of immortal essence expenditure.
But Fang Yuan calculated and found that he could accept this expenditure.
After all, he was affluent, his immortal aperture management was a rising gold mine.
During the battle in the River of Time, even though Fang Yuan escaped and ruined Heavenly Court's plan of killing him, his losses were severe. The destruction of the incomplete Immortal Gu House was extremely painful to him, even now.
This incomplete Immortal Gu House was created by Fang Yuan after capturing many Southern Border Gu Immortals and obtaining their Immortal Gu, he went through transactions and negotiations with Southern Border's righteous path, eventually extorting enough Immortal Gu for the assembly.
Fang Yuan had spent a lot of effort to do this, even though he spent so much time on it, it was destroyed.
"I hope this heaven form killer move can be of use to me."
Fang Yuan was deeply anticipating what heaven form could bring to him.
For ordinary killer moves, Fang Yuan could investigate and deduce their abilities. But this killer move was rank nine, it was too profound, Fang Yuan could not comprehend it.
This was Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable's creation, he was specialized in space path and theft path, even if this was not an offensive move, it had an incredible effect for sure.
Even though Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable did not explain anything about this move, Fang Yuan could deduce some things from other aspects.
Like Shadow Sect's attitude.
Shadow Sect's Old Man Yan Shi specially helped Bai Ning Bing for the sake of getting heaven form.
"Old Man Yan Shi was a wisdom path great expert, he might have found out something, this heaven form killer move must be very useful to Shadow Sect."
Fang Yuan was the current leader of Shadow Sect, this heaven form killer move was definitely going to be beneficial to him.
Other than getting rid of the sea of wills, Fang Yuan also broke the Five Xiang's seal and obtained the Immortal Gu House at the peak of the mountain, as well as this public grotto-heaven.
This grotto-heaven only opened once in a thousand years, it had abundant resources. Qi clan's Gu Immortals were too busy fleeing, they could not obtain any of these resources, so they all became Fang Yuan's resources.
Boom—!
The huge explosion tore Bai Ning Bing to pieces.
But at the next moment, her Bai Xiang form gathered again and charged at Qi clan's Gu Immortals.
Qi clan's Gu Immortals had ugly expressions, they saw how terrifying the killer move Bai Xiang was!
Bai Ning Bing had this move active, she was almost undying. Even so, right now, she was not fighting alone, Ying Wu Xie and Hei Lou Lan were also helping her.
Even though Fang Yuan wanted Bai Ning Bing to kill these Qi clan Gu Immortals, he knew her limits. She did not even have the most crucial immortal battlefield killer move.
Fang Yuan had already set up an immortal formation in ambush, ever since he captured the Southern Border righteous path immortals, he started to love this method.
Once Qi clan's Gu Immortals entered, they were stripped of their freedom by the immortal formation, they could not escape, they had to fight Bai Ning Bing.
"Ah—!" With a painful scream, the youngest Qi clan Gu Immortal was fatally injured by Bai Ning Bing and died.
"My turn." Ying Wu Xie was already prepared, he immediately moved and captured the Qi clan Gu Immortal's soul, trapping it in the formation.
The remaining Qi clan Gu Immortals shouted in anger as they retaliated fiercely.
Bai Ning Bing was broken into fragments again, but she revived in a few breaths of time, reforming into Bai Xiang again.
Even though there were many Qi clan Gu Immortals who had high battle strength, they all revealed expressions of despair now.
Because they knew that Bai Ning Bing could not be killed, while they were trapped here, they would eventually lose in this battle of attrition.
3
"What do we do?"
"Bai Ning Bing is too troublesome to deal with, and most importantly, this Fang Yuan is too vicious, he actually set this formation near the entrance of our Qi Sea grotto-heaven!"
Qi clan's Gu Immortals had been very vigilant but when they were near their base, they were captured.
They did not know that Fang Yuan had killed Qi Zai. Even though he did not enter the Five Xiang grotto-heaven, he knew the details of Qi Sea grotto-heaven.
This Qi Sea grotto-heaven was the immortal aperture of Qi Xiang in the past, after being placed in white heaven, it could not move anymore, it had stayed there all along.
Fang Yuan used this intel to set up the immortal formation secretly, managing to trap the Qi clan members.
"At this rate, we are bound to lose!"
"Stall! I don't believe that her Bai Xiang killer move is so strong, does it not have any cost or backlash?"
"Don't forget about Fang Yuan, if he gets here, we are not in the Immortal Gu House, the Five Xiang's seal cannot stop him."
"We cannot break out of the immortal formation, we need to let Qi Ping Su come out and cooperate with us to break this formation."
"No! Qi Ping Su is the only person left in the base, if he comes out, he will need to open the entrance, Shadow Sect would be able to use that chance."
1
"Fang Yuan might be nearby waiting for the grotto-heaven to open already, so that he can charge in!"
Fang Yuan did not come.
But his fearsomeness and craftiness was etched into everyone's hearts, the Qi clan Gu Immortals felt deep pressure and started to be flustered.
At the same time.
In Central Continent, a young man was standing quietly, looking at the Immortal Gu in front of him.
This young man had a mature and experienced expression, it showed that he had gone through many hurdles in his life.
This was none other than Gu Yue Fang Zheng.
Gu Yue Fang Zheng was originally going to be executed by Immortal Crane Sect, but Fang Yuan plotted and faked his death, making him live in Lang Ya blessed land.
Fang Zheng lived in a place where he was ostracized by hairy men, he had experienced a long period of wars and conflicts, being in danger at all times, he was also often in situations where his life was on the line.
After all of these experiences, he was no longer the same as before, he had truly matured.
After that, when Heavenly Court attacked Lang Ya blessed land, because of Gu Yue Fang Zheng's unique identity, he was saved by Feng Jiu Ge.
After that, he returned to Central Continent.
"If I am not wrong, this is a blood path Immortal Gu?" Fang Zheng looked at the Gu Immortal before him as he showed a mocking smile: "You want me to cultivate blood path, become a demonic path Gu Immortal and deal with Gu Yue Fang Yuan? This is the decision of Immortal Crane Sect, a righteous path sect?"
1
Immortal Crane Sect's rank six Gu Immortal Fan Xi Liu frowned slightly as he chuckled: "Regardless of what strength it is, if you use it righteously, it is righteous, if you use it for evil, it is demonic. Don't you understand this? For example, I cultivate poison path but I can still help the people of this world. You can do the same with blood path."
Gu Yue Fang Zheng shook his head: "Me cultivating blood path is only for the sake of dealing with Fang Yuan effectively. After all, we are blood brothers!"
Even though Fang Yuan had the sovereign immortal body, his time path clone was still blood related to Fang Zheng.
Fan Xi Liu nodded: "That is the case indeed. Don't you want to take revenge? After all, he slaughtered all of your clansmen in Gu Yue village."
Gu Yue Fang Zheng sighed deeply, even though he had a young face, his gaze was deep with the vicissitudes of life.
"So many years have passed. To speak the truth, even though I still hate him, I understand him already."
"I have thought about it, I was very childish and ignorant when I was young, Fang Yuan had taken care of me greatly. In contrast, my uncle and aunt had treated me as a pawn and made use of me. Should I take revenge for such people? I do not want to."
2
"Of course, the clan leader and Gu Yue Qing Shu had taken good care of me, they helped to nurture me, I am very willing to take revenge for them."
3
"But I am tired now... sigh, the cycle of killing each other continues endlessly over time... I do not want revenge anymore."
Fan Xi Liu's expression did not change: "It seems that these years, you have truly experienced a lot of things."
Gu Yue Fang Zheng looked at him, his mocking smile became wider: "The irony is that when I wanted to take revenge, the sect did not support me and even wanted to eliminate me. But when I gave up on revenge, you all saved me and supported my revenge."
Speaking of this, Gu Yue Fang Zheng looked at the blood path Immortal Gu, having an eerie gaze: "And I know that I have no choice, I can only accept this."
Fan Xi Liu assessed Fang Zheng once again, a surprise flashed in his eyes as he smiled lightly: "Is it really fine to speak so openly about this?"
"Does it really matter? I know that with your methods, I cannot hide any thoughts from you, isn't that that right?" Saying so, Fang Zheng stretched out his arm, holding that Gu as he asked: "What is this Gu's name?"
"Blood Revenge."