Chapter 1016

Another Grey Memory scene shows Spectral Soul bodiless in the Door of Life and Death’s Obsession Death Domain, having devised a soul devouring method from food path that restores him and lets him take other Gu Immortals’ memories and cultivation experience. His main body cannot leave yet, so he sends split souls ahead. He finds no other Immortal Venerable or Demon Venerable souls there, wonders whether Thieving Heaven returned home, and promises to deal with one sleeping golden soul once he rules the world again. ^{ch. 1016}

A later scene shows seven mortals, split souls of his main body. They alone escaped past Reverse Flow River’s obstruction, of an original ten. Keeping their main body’s cultivation experience, they resolve to spread in secret across the five regions, founding Shadow Sect and taking the codenames Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Azure, Blue, and Purple. ^{ch. 1016}

Heavenly Court’s Gu Immortals cry out that Sword Immortal Bo Qing is himself a split soul of Spectral Soul Demon Venerable. An old woman of Spirit Affinity House admits her house failed to investigate him, while another notes that split soul spies lurked even inside Heavenly Court until Tower Lord’s Heaven Overseeing Tower exposed them. Spectral Soul himself remains standing still under Grand Clear Space, covered in countless wounds. ^{ch. 1016}

A grey fog scene then shows Mo Yao begging the young Azure, Bo Qing’s Shadow Sect name, not to die on a ruined battlefield, and he warns her that loving a split soul of Spectral Soul brings only pain. She refuses to leave, since only their love matters to her. ^{ch. 1016}

Six of Shadow Sect’s first immortals gather. More split souls arrive meanwhile through Reverse Flow River. Green blames himself for once sending Azure to punish a merchant, since that errand let Azure fall into a love trap exposing their main body. Purple says it is heaven’s will’s doing, not Green’s fault, and proposes turning Fairy Mo Yao to their side rather than eliminating Azure. ^{ch. 1016}

Purple explains that Azure fell to Spirit Affinity House’s rank nine love Gu. He calls it no fault of Azure’s, since Azure’s sword path is not yet complete. His own wisdom path has just reached great grandmaster, letting him deduce a wisdom sword Immortal Gu recipe that can cut the love Gu’s dao marks from Azure. The plan is for Azure to think he found it himself, freeing him to rejoin them, and, through Mo Yao’s own love threads, to turn her to their side too. ^{ch. 1016}

Mo Yao’s remnant soul realizes her lover invented wisdom sword Immortal Gu himself. In a further scene Azure boasts he will be unrivaled once he becomes a venerable, brushing off Green’s warning not to underestimate heaven’s will. Asked his opinion by Yellow, Purple says ample preparation and handled mishaps leave no big problem after Azure’s first failure. He then asks after Fairy Mo Yao, and Azure answers coldly that she means to sacrifice herself, refining calamity beckoning Immortal Gu to draw his tribulation onto herself. Purple judges her method will fail, but tells Azure to hand her change soul Immortal Gu and its killer move anyway, so an intact soul lets him start over quickly if his own tribulation fails; Azure agrees. ^{ch. 1016}

This shakes Bo Qing’s body intensely, though Ying Wu Xie tells him not to overthink a tribulation that may not be real. In a final scene, five Shadow Sect members gather, and Yellow reports with deep pain that Blue has fallen deep into a dream realm after fusing with an immemorial blue heaven fragment to research heaven’s will. Purple warns against a hasty rescue, since Blue can be saved but his plight is a trap of heaven’s will to expose them, and Azure’s second failed tribulation struck more than ten times as hard as his first. First Azure, then Blue: he fears he is next. By his own wisdom path prediction, Gu Immortal Da Li will take his place once he is gone, and Shadow Sect will now lay low, gathering strength in secret to strike all at once when heaven’s will has no time to react. ^{ch. 1016}