Chapter 1010

A huge ghostly hand stretches from the life and death blessed land, more than half its arm still inside a door already opened to its apparent maximum, the hand seemingly stuck. Its rank nine aura suppresses the battlefield, and Fang Yuan’s side retreats in fear. Hei Lou Lan, who does not know what it is, asks whether the world has rank nine soul beasts, and Fairy Li Shan calls that impossible because only humans reach rank nine. The hand proves solid as matter rather than weak and incorporeal, and it grabs at Yi Tian Mountain’s ruins, turning boulders to powder. This is Spectral Soul Demon Venerable, whose soul path foundation has reached the limits of a material state. ^{ch. 1010}

Fang Yuan already knows the hand’s origin: Ying Wu Xie’s lead soul into dream once let him hear Star Constellation Immortal Venerable’s song name Shadow Sect’s mastermind as Spectral Soul Demon Venerable. He had been extremely shocked to learn this. Forewarned now, he manages to calm himself, even feeling some relief. Everyone dies, and the Legends of Ren Zu explains where their souls go: the road of life, the road of death, and Obsession Death Domain, which holds fairness Immortal Gu. When Verdant Great Sun died, that same door received his soul, and it waits there for every rank nine venerable and every living being in the end. ^{ch. 1010}

The road of death holds three obstacles: Dang Hun Mountain, Luo Po Valley, and Reverse Flow River. Fang Yuan holds the first two, but not Reverse Flow River, and guesses it may no longer sit on the road of death. With none of the three obstacles still blocking the road, a soul could return easily to the living, which makes Spectral Soul Demon Venerable’s return no mystery. Fang Yuan wonders what such a being wants. Shadow Sect protected the ten extreme formation at any cost. ^{ch. 1010}

Inside Heaven Overseeing Tower, its Lord sighs, having already deduced Spectral Soul Demon Venerable’s identity back at Heavenly Court with the Tower’s help, matching him to the killing-intent eyes that watch all things from the darkness. Knowing he meant to defy heaven and resurrect, the Lord had woken Heavenly Court’s Gu Immortals to force him back into Obsession Death Domain. Fate Immortal Gu itself had traveled both roads into that Domain. All things passing through life and death is the world’s fairness, and this resurrection would violate it and likely cripple fate Immortal Gu’s recovery. This is why Heavenly Court spared no cost to activate the rank nine Heaven Overseeing Tower and came with its main forces. ^{ch. 1010}

Heavenly Court’s Gu Immortals steady each other: he is already dead, merely a lingering soul, no longer the Demon Venerable he once was. Still, facing a rank nine existence leaves these rank eight immortals anxious. Bi Chen Tian calls the ten extreme formation Spectral Soul’s weakness, and part of Heavenly Court’s immortals fly out to stop the hand first. Heaven Overseeing Tower activates, but Ying Wu Xie strikes again with Lead Soul Into Dream, trapping its Lord and then whoever replaces him, so Shadow Sect’s long labour in creating him ties down a rank nine House alone. ^{ch. 1010}

The immortals who flew out bring a second House, the rank eight Embroidered Tower, exquisite but damaged, missing part of its foundation. Immortal zombie Bo Qing mocks it. He attacks with the sword path killer move five finger fist heart sword. Embroidered Tower shakes, then fires seven embroidery needles of faint light that pierce the hand and ground repeatedly, sewing it down with threads of actual dao marks in the House’s strongest attack. Rising would need power to lift Southern Border’s ground, power Reckless Savage Demon Venerable may once have had but this remnant soul cannot match. Embroidered Tower was Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable’s dowry for his disciple Star Constellation Immortal Venerable, and once forced Reckless Savage Demon Venerable to discard three bloody skins escaping this same move. ^{ch. 1010}

Fang Yuan’s group stares, dumbfounded. But the hand turns soft, becoming black water that floods out and submerges the mountains, and Fang Yuan’s group flees skyward. The water soars into a monster thousands of meters tall, smashing Embroidered Tower with one hand while another grips and cracks Heaven Overseeing Tower. The zither mind and star flow tribulations crash down together, but Spectral Soul roars over the zither and tears open a rift with two more hands, letting the starlight tsunami vanish, resolving both at once. Fang Yuan and the rest are left speechless. ^{ch. 1010}