Bluffing, Deceiving
The dual spear wielding Gu Immortal charges Fang Yuan, but he neither dodges nor retreats. He opens his sovereign immortal aperture and releases a gigantic beast: the upper extreme heavenly eagle, now grown to immemorial level. Truly mature, it is extremely huge, several times a whale’s size, matching even the immemorial dragon beast already on the field. It is a terrifying rank eight battle force. The enemy Gu Immortals are shocked, never having expected such a trump card in reserve. They name it a space path immemorial desolate beast said to pass the heavenly wind qi wall into the immemorial nine heavens and to pierce space into grotto-heavens, so their battlefield killer move cannot hold it. The battlefield’s mood transforms completely, the eagle itself the evidence behind everything Fang Yuan has claimed. ch. 1142
The Gu Immortals ask each other by secret transmission whether the eagle is real. Xue Er, a rank six Gu Immortal, answers that it is real, its vitality extremely flourishing beneath its harmless look, and that an attack from it would definitely be earth-shaking. The rank sevens confirm this one after another. In fact their own grey cloud battle puppet’s rock dragon is weaker than it appears: its aura is real, yet it cannot fully display rank eight battle strength. Grey cloud battle puppet carries no core rank eight Immortal Gu, and its snowman and rockman casters sit far underground, feeding Gu worms and immortal essence into puppets no weaker than their own bodies. The real dragon lacks a Gu Immortal’s intelligence to remotely control the puppet or to use Immortal Gu freely, so the puppet cannot manifest that strength. Neither side yet knows the truth of the other. ch. 1142
Fang Yuan is bluffing. The eagle is dying of hunger, and he has used blood path methods to disguise its vitality, a disguise that would fail the instant it is struck. The variant humans dare not attack either, since failing to kill him and letting him escape would be deeply troublesome, and even with the rock dragon they could not stop the eagle if it fled. Their deeper fear is exposure: were their existence known to Northern Plains’ Gu Immortal world, the righteous path, the demonic path and lone cultivators alike would invade at once. It is Fang Yuan’s own desolate beast that has undone their carefully staged ambush. ch. 1142
Fang Yuan waits, but the variant human Gu Immortals stay silent. He asks with a helpless smile whether they mean to fight to the death; he will not be the one to die. A rank seven snaps back in anger, demanding how they could trust a human, and Fang Yuan feels relief that their answering at all means they are deceived, leaving only his performance to carry it. He activates familiar face, turns into a hairy man with no flaw, then reverts, claiming he chose sincerity over an easy deception. He calls himself a supreme elder of Lang Ya Sect, whose blessed land traces to Long Hair Ancestor, and asks them to open their killer move so he can send the sect word. Heaven’s will works on the stalemate, but its influence over variant human Gu Immortals is not high, their intelligence being second only to humans, so Fang Yuan keeps talking, then opens his aperture and places the eagle inside to prove sincerity. ch. 1142
Though warned the eagle could still strike from within the aperture, the variant humans’ leader orders grey cloud battle puppet dispelled, until only the rockman controller’s physical body remains. Fang Yuan suppresses the urge to flee and instead promises to notify Lang Ya Sect at once and wait here for its Gu Immortals to arrive. His joyful attitude is a disguise, yet his acting and attitude Gu leave no flaw for them to see. The rockman invites him underground as a guest. Fang Yuan follows him down into the icy plain. In truth it is Fang Yuan’s words that dispel heaven’s will’s influence, resting on the immemorial desolate beast behind him, since heaven’s will cannot override a Gu Immortal’s reason and challenging such a beast would be courting death. Loosely encircled by his escorts, he takes in the underground scenery until Lang Ya Sect sends a group of hairy man Gu Immortals to the place, Twelfth Hair and Sixth Hair among them. ch. 1142
