Chapter 1002

Fang Yuan has completely converted Graceful Chaotic Duel Stage’s battle will into his own, pushing out every Southern Border Gu Immortal who held a claim to the ownerless House, achieving since his rebirth the goal he set out for. The takeover itself still needs time to finish, and this stretch leaves him at his weakest, unable to defend himself openly if a Southern Border Gu Immortal attacks Yi Tian Mountain first. Southern Border Gu Immortals are furious enough to completely eradicate him if found, since he avoided their gambling contest and simply stole the House they had spent months pursuing. They investigate everyone in reach. Fang Yuan trusts his modified familiar face disguise against rank six and seven Gu Immortals, but is less confident it will fool a rank eight one. His wisdom path grandmaster attainment lets him rapidly decode the House’s Immortal Gu and mortal Gu as he absorbs its structure, and he at last completes the takeover: Graceful Chaotic Duel Stage now answers to his will alone. ^{ch. 1002}

Xiao Shan, Lu Zuan Feng and another rank five Gu Master break into the medical ward with their troops, hunting spies, and Xiao Shan orders three suspicious beds killed, Fang Yuan’s among them. Rank five Gu Master Sun Pang Hu walks toward him with a ruthless expression and kicks his chest, caving it in and crushing his heart, then punches him into a wall, where he sprawls with his eyes open, apparently dead. It is only the familiar face disguise, which produces the appearance of death easily. Xiao Shan moves his group on to the next site, leaving Fang Yuan among three corpses. He still needs this cover, since suppressing the Great Strength True Martial immortal zombie remains unfinished. ^{ch. 1002}

Fang Yuan mobilizes Graceful Chaotic Duel Stage’s remaining immortal essence into a huge force against the Great Strength True Martial immortal zombie. The slumbering rank eight zombie wakes and resists violently, as Fang Yuan expected from its behavior in his previous life. Before he can strike again, tribulation clouds gather early and the earth shakes. He wonders whether his own rebirth caused the early tribulation, and whether Shadow Sect has already arrived. Hesitating over whether to retreat, he weighs giving up this zombie for Hei Lou Lan, herself another possible Great Strength True Martial immortal zombie whom the House would now let him suppress alongside her backers. He judges the loss too great, and their new alliance too fresh to guarantee her as a later target. ^{ch. 1002}

While he hesitates, Old Man Yan Shi appears, leading the Gu Immortals of the ten extreme physiques to encircle the Southern Border Gu Immortals with the ten extreme immortal zombie lifeless formation. Having already passed on everything needed, Yan Shi tells Ying Wu Xie, born only twelve hours earlier and already rank six, to remember it, and Ying Wu Xie blithely tells him to go ahead and die. Yan Shi explains that his Pure Dream Reality Seeker Physique, unlike Ren Zu’s ten extreme physiques, can live only eighteen hours, and that dream path dao marks still erode memory, so Ying Wu Xie must memorize what he can himself. He promises a final deduction before dying. His last words break off at a warning about one of Shadow Sect’s own. He then turns to powder, his soul sacrificed into the formation along with many other Shadow Sect Gu Immortals, which reaches ninety percent completion. The Southern Border Gu Immortals, unable to break the nearly finished formation, grow startled and fearful as the thousand pearl-light tribulation descends, and they abandon their attempt to break out to face it instead. ^{ch. 1002}