A Monkey Achieves Success
One day later, at Tai Qiu’s third and final marked site, Fang Yuan climbs a grass stalk to look out, now shaped as a fire swallowing monkey, an ancient desolate beast that eats only fire. The coiling mountain goat could not go this deep. The first site held desolate beast black blood wolves; the second lay empty, a region between two carnivorous groups. Ahead stands the ruined trunk of the thousand snakes haze tree, a fallen giant resembling a beached ship. ch. 1088
This immemorial desolate plant once stood mountain-tall with seventy thousand seven hundred and seventy snake-headed branches that strangled and drained passing beasts for food. Countless victims rotted beneath it for ages, building a grudge that drew heavenly lightning in storms, and three hundred thousand years ago a huge fire burned it for months. Its dominance over a territory with no natural enemies may instead have drawn heaven’s will and the lightning. Yet the tree still lives. Long Hair Ancestor left the map three hundred thousand years ago, and the tree has lived that whole span, its vitality the strongest Fang Yuan knows of. Now fallen, more than half rotted away, only a last few li remain, though dozens of branches there can still strike and kill. Ruined as it is, the tree still kills ancient desolate beasts and whole desolate beast groups with ease. ch. 1088
The complete tree once killed enough to keep drawing lightning; this diminished segment kills too little to build fresh grudge, so no bolt has struck it since. That is why it survives. His mission is part failed: the first two sites are gone, and this third is unsuitable too, since the tree remains alive, an immemorial desolate plant rivaling rank eight Gu Immortals in strength. Even the weakest such being is beyond him. The living tree is a huge problem for Lang Ya Sect’s plan, and a fight here might set off a beast tide. He concludes he has made the map more accurate by eliminating three locations, but failed to find a site for the transportation Gu formation, and decides to withdraw while dark limit Immortal Gu still holds. ch. 1088
Succeeding now would be best, since he faces no immediate threat. Failing would leave him little time to try again, given all he must already manage: his aperture, his cultivation, his zombie’s problem, and Fang Zheng’s mindset. Leaving toward the nearest exit, he notices two ancient desolate beasts fighting and three groups verging on battle, blocking his path, signs of a forming beast tide. He realizes dark limit Immortal Gu’s fading protection has let heaven’s will sense his area and stir this tide to expose him. He had somewhat underestimated what heaven’s will could do. Even sealed in his aperture, Spring Autumn Cicada and his snow monsters carry heaven’s will that can resonate with the will outside, striking at him despite not knowing exactly where he is. He allows that Shadow Sect’s intelligence on heaven’s will may have been incomplete. ch. 1088
Fang Yuan tries to flee, but the two beasts crash into the clashing groups first, igniting chaos that grows into a beast tide. Predator and prey lose all order. He cannot resist it, carried like a plank on floodwater. He must keep his disguise, since exposure means death by the tide’s force, though staying hidden forever is equally impossible as dark limit Immortal Gu fades. As a rank six Gu Immortal past one earthly calamity, he considers a last resort: blood torrent and sword escape Immortal Gu to break free, despite the danger this deep in Tai Qiu. Then the tide suddenly changes direction, and ahead he sees a mountain-like red corpse still burning with cool blue flame, an immemorial desolate beast that seems to have just died, its aura so overwhelming that even the tide avoids it. Hope has come when he least expected it, and he nearly laughs aloud. ch. 1088
