Chapter 1021

Fang Yuan’s soul leaves Ying Wu Xie’s body, entering the sovereign immortal fetus Gu. The pull is unbelievably fast, the sensation dark but warm. Outside, the sky rumbles as the ball shifts through a long sequence of colors toward black, swelling as a rainbow-lit fetus grows inside. Its surface passes through frost, lightning, and rotten-looking purple fruit across eighty-one changes in all, until it turns to mud and a baby is born. ^{ch. 1021}

Shielded by a formless force, the baby grows on the ground at astonishing speed, reaching a body of sixteen within moments. He has clean white skin, long black hair, and a thin frame. This is Fang Yuan. He opens his eyes, shocked at his own young body. ^{ch. 1021}

He judges this body, made by Spectral Soul and Shadow Sect over countless years, needs further study, but already feels incomparably better suited to his soul than his old immortal zombie body. He concludes the sovereign immortal fetus Gu’s true use is revival, granting rank six cultivation immediately, confirmed by the Gu Immortal aura he now carries. He judges he made the right gamble. ^{ch. 1021}

Looking up, he finds Spectral Soul still caught in the dream realm. Ying Wu Xie’s body floats motionless nearby, no longer under Fang Yuan’s control. He calls the Gu worms back: change soul Immortal Gu, unravel mystery Immortal Gu, attitude Immortal Gu, and assorted soul and dream path mortal Gu. Other dream path Immortal Gu remain stuck inside, their wills already reacted against him, though the body itself, he notes, still holds research value. ^{ch. 1021}

An immortal zombie approaches with an imposing air: Ying Wu Xie’s soul, now controlling Fang Yuan’s old body. Still adapting, and carrying fewer Gu worms than his old body held, Fang Yuan is not nervous and waits. Ying Wu Xie hesitates, approaches, and asks who he is. Pretending to be Spectral Soul, Fang Yuan declares success: Fang Yuan’s soul, he says, has already been completely destroyed. Sensing no split-soul connection to this stranger, Ying Wu Xie sees through the lie and names him outright. ^{ch. 1021}

Ghostly concealment became the flaw that exposed him, Fang Yuan reflects, though familiar face might have let him deceive Ying Wu Xie. He laughs it off. Furious, Ying Wu Xie charges to kill him, but stops short when Fang Yuan needles him: Fixed Immortal Travel is Fang Yuan’s own Gu, so how could Ying Wu Xie have used it? Ying Wu Xie freezes, realizing he used it unconsciously without ever questioning that detail, his momentum broken. ^{ch. 1021}

Fang Yuan explains he lent Fixed Immortal Travel deliberately, to draw Ying Wu Xie here. Most of his accumulated strength had stayed behind in his old body. He had planned the swap in advance, hiding fake will in his own mind so a waking Ying Wu Xie would rush back and overlook anything amiss. He had also injected special will into his Gu worms, learned from Giant Sun Immortal Venerable’s method at Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, set to trigger on specific conditions. ^{ch. 1021}

Fang Yuan calls out the trigger phrase: still not returning here. His Gu worms, mostly mortal with some Immortal among them, fly from his old body back to him. The balance of power flips entirely: Ying Wu Xie is left with only Spring Autumn Cicada, which he cannot activate. The arrangement needed only Ying Wu Xie to carry that body back to Yi Tian Mountain, after which the worms would go to whoever called the phrase. Not yet knowing the fetus Gu meant revival, he had wanted backup strength ready in case Ying Wu Xie’s own Gu worms failed him at the crucial moment. ^{ch. 1021}

The special will he injected would also make every Gu worm, mortal or Immortal, self-destruct once its time limit passed, a lesson learned from Mo Yao and Giant Sun’s own special wills. With a wave, Fang Yuan easily sends Ying Wu Xie flying. Everything is over, he says, looking at the body before him with complex emotion, and Ying Wu Xie feels chilled to the bone. ^{ch. 1021}