Chapter 1014

Tai Bai Yun Sheng carries the still sleeping Fang Yuan as he and Hei Lou Lan flee Yi Tian Mountain. Hei Lou Lan’s last look at the grey fog, showing Spectral Soul Demon Venerable’s pitiful childhood, leaves her with a private sense of understanding, since she has lived through something similar herself. For some reason grand tribulation Earth Collapse never catches them, and the ten extreme formation, at its most critical moment, cannot restrict the surroundings, so the pair escape very easily. Within minutes the grey clouds over Yi Tian Mountain are out of sight. ^{ch. 1014}

Hei Lou Lan slaps Fang Yuan’s face, but he does not wake. Without his Fixed Immortal Travel they cannot leave Southern Border, except by crossing the regional walls at too great a cost. Three Southern Border Gu Immortals arrive, having lost contact with their own clans’ experts sent to Yi Tian Mountain, and every super force is very concerned about who now holds Graceful Chaotic Duel Stage. Seeing Hei Lou Lan and Tai Bai Yun Sheng weak with injuries, the three demand to know what happened at Yi Tian Mountain, and Hei Lou Lan only tells them to go and see for themselves. Angered at being defied by Northern Plains Gu Immortals inside their own Southern Border, the three order the pair to obey, then attack when refused. ^{ch. 1014}

Back at Yi Tian Mountain the stalemate holds: Heavenly Court’s Gu Immortals still cannot escape their phantom form, and Bo Qing and Ying Wu Xie remain pinned by Earth Collapse. Grey fog coils around Bo Qing’s immortal zombie body, drawing out Mo Yao’s own remnant memories of being ostracized as a variant human, which her strong will endures. Bo Qing notices Ying Wu Xie is untouched by any grey fog. He puts it down to Ying Wu Xie being newly born with only eighteen hours to live, leaving him no experience for the tribulation to draw on. If her own memories already trouble her this much, Mo Yao’s remnant soul wonders, how much worse must it be for Spectral Soul, whose life and experience run so much longer. ^{ch. 1014}

Inside the grey fog the immortals also see Spectral Soul’s own past as a Gu Immortal, entering Earth Abyss to claim an inheritance. Its guardian is an ancient beastman Gu Immortal with dragon horns and a crocodile’s head, the inventor of food path himself and a variant human of a kind once hunted hardest during the era of the three Demon Venerables. His test is simple: the seeker must let him eat. Spectral Soul agrees without hesitation. ^{ch. 1014}

The beastman devours Spectral Soul’s arms, legs, and organs one by one, and though the pain is intense, Spectral Soul shows no expression at all. Fear normally sours the flesh he eats, the beastman says, and this flesh has none, but it is cold with bones too tough to enjoy, tasting of the icicles he ate as a boy hunted hungry through frozen lands. Reduced to only his head, Spectral Soul stays calm. He says he finds the experience interesting, since he has killed many but never been killed slowly himself, and the feeling teaches him something new about killing. ^{ch. 1014}

The beastman laughs: Spectral Soul is only his two hundred and seventieth victim. Once rank eight himself, he was trapped rather than killed by Barbarian Jiu Lie, who wanted his food path; he could not beat his captor, who in turn could not take what he wanted easily. They agreed the inheritance would pass to future humans through this same eating test, never to Barbarian Jiu Lie, who even so never understood his true ability. After a thousand years eating rocks, wind, and even Gu worms to build his food path dao marks, the beastman has finally broken that old agreement, and means to eat Spectral Soul’s head to recover fully. Spectral Soul answers that every piece of flesh eaten carries part of his soul, and that he has some attainment in soul path himself. The beastman asks when soul path appeared and cries that splitting a soul brings pain immensely worse than torn flesh, and Spectral Soul names himself its founder, saying only by feeling that pain does he enjoy killing. As the beastman’s expression turns to horror, he stops moving and dies, eyes still wide with fear even though only Spectral Soul’s head remains. ^{ch. 1014}