Chapter 1041

Wary of Fang Yuan, Qi Zai stays outwardly calm while racking his brain. He recalls that only Reckless Savage Demon Venerable, founder of strength path and a transformation path cultivator besides, could use any path’s moves through any transformed form. A lightning wolf form let him use lightning path moves, a swamp crab form earth path moves, neither weakened by the other’s marks. Ordinary transformation path Gu Masters manage only one shape, as Cheng Long and Cheng Hu, in the Imperial Court contest, become a dragon and a tiger. Even a transformation path Gu Immortal like He Lang Zi, who commands three wolf forms, must wait and clear his old dao marks before switching. The method died with Reckless Savage Demon Venerable, and countless later attempts to learn it failed. ^{ch. 1041}

Qi Zai wonders whether Fang Yuan inherited that lost method, since no other explanation occurs to him, though he allows that Gu Masters cultivate in countless unconventional ways. This guess still underestimates him. His versatility actually comes from the rank nine sovereign immortal fetus Gu, refined by Spectral Soul Demon Venerable as the crucial thing for his revival and his hope of surpassing every venerable in history. Not resigned to his death, Spectral Soul Demon Venerable built Shadow Sect, planned meticulously, and spent tens of thousands of years gathering inheritances. With immense effort and huge sacrifice, he made this Immortal Gu carry his soul path and his accumulation in every other path. Heaven’s will made a tool of Fang Yuan, but at the crucial moment he broke free of its manipulation as an otherworldly demon and turned the Gu to his own use. ^{ch. 1041}

Suspicious but careful, Qi Zai withholds his Immortal Gu, since the essence matters less to him than the information their use would leak to an enemy. Fang Yuan probes him the same way, using only mortal moves. Fang Yuan’s mortal moves and handsome appearance greatly capture Qi He’s attention, and the huge commotion has her watching unblinkingly and gasping inwardly. Fang Yuan’s immortal essence, rank six, is inferior to Qi Zai’s, and only stones from Lang Ya Sect keep him from certain defeat. Fang Yuan’s dao mark accumulation is lower than Qi Zai’s, but mortal killer moves hold no Immortal Gu, so Qi Zai’s amplification stays very limited and cannot exceed an Immortal Gu’s effect, while Fang Yuan’s many methods win the initiative. ^{ch. 1041}

Only one mortal killer move is publicly known to equal an activated Immortal Gu. It is White Bone Chariot, made by Proud Bone Demon Lord Shen Jie Ao, a rank eight demonic path Gu Immortal whom no one among the ten venerables could match in this one achievement. ^{ch. 1041}

Feeling the fight turn, Qi Zai counters with qi lockdown, a mortal battlefield move that seals the air. Fang Yuan is unworried, since only a rank six Gu Immortal holding no Immortal Gu would feel it a huge threat, and he owns a battlefield move too. He answers with Xue Song Zi’s snow domain, splitting the battlefield into an icy domain and a stretch of motionless air. Qi He gasps aloud. ^{ch. 1041}

Losing patience, Qi Zai activates a rank six qi path Immortal Gu, saying nothing. The qi lockdown battlefield dissipates into fuel for that Immortal Gu, and a long rope of yin qi pierces through snow domain at Fang Yuan. Fang Yuan answers with his rank seven sword escape Immortal Gu, becoming a sharp sword and vanishing almost beyond Qi He’s sight. Qi Zai is shocked, since he had judged from the mortal moves that Fang Yuan specialized in snow, wind or dark path, not sword path. ^{ch. 1041}

Qi Zai activates an immortal killer move he finished not long ago after three years of design, his aura covering himself, Qi He and the qi grand lion, which chases Fang Yuan down. He summons the same Immortal Gu again, the identical yin qi rope as before. Fang Yuan reasons that an activated Immortal Gu leaks its aura, letting each read the other’s rank and path, though special methods can conceal that aura and mislead. He answers with flying sword Gu, peerlessly sharp, cutting the rope apart easily. Shocked at another rank seven sword path Immortal Gu, Qi Zai asks whether Fang Yuan is really a sword path Gu Immortal and why he used so many mortal moves first. He suspects Fang Yuan may be a rank seven Gu Immortal concealing his aura at rank six to seem weak while preying on others. Unable to guess Fang Yuan’s true situation, and deep thinking by nature, Qi Zai grows only more shocked the more he reasons, until he is scaring himself. ^{ch. 1041}