Chapter 1164

Blinded inside Hei Fan grotto-heaven since Liu Guan Yi destroyed its brass bell heavenly spirit, Chu Du reasons that Bai Zu, unable to enter personally, keeps feeding in clones to stall for time, and refuses to fight at the enemy’s tempo. He erupts, his body expanding into a ten meter giant. He activates battle strength transpiration, turning red as his sweat becomes steam. He then raises his right hand to the sky and his left hand to the ground, chanting heaven and earth combined strength. Three Bai Zu clones are pinned motionless while Chu Du himself strains as his immortal essence drains. As those three near breaking, a fourth, fifth, and sixth clone arrive to save them; the first two are smashed to dust, their Immortal Gu and immortal essence missing rather than destroyed. The third, saved, calls it an amazing move that can attack, defend, and immobilize multiple targets, almost like an incomplete battlefield killer move. ^{ch. 1164}

Chu Du declares his next move is meant for rank eight existences and warns that no number of clones will help unless Bai Zu shows himself. Immortal Gu and mortal Gu aura pours from his body, stronger than his combined strength move. The Bai Zu clones retreat to raise their defenses, but then self-detonate without warning. Outside, Bai Zu’s main body frowns; his clones’ memories teach him of the attack, a formless killer move that detonates anything within a range he realizes is huge. He concludes he cannot deal with Chu Du unless he enters personally, and uses an immortal killer move, a white centipede that tears a huge shadow into Hei Fan grotto-heaven, and strides toward it. Chu Du kicks the shadow, sending Bai Zu flying back out before he can enter. ^{ch. 1164}

Bai Zu judges Hei Fan grotto-heaven easy to defend and hard to attack: entering himself would take twenty breaths, time enough for Chu Du to stop him, while clones sent in would only self-detonate. Chu Du, on the defensive, leaves him stalled against a fortress. Elsewhere, Fang Yuan reads Chu Du’s letter of emergency support and feels his worry lift, since Chu Du staying to fight Bai Zu serves Fang Yuan’s interests. He had dreaded explaining that he could no longer use the northern icy plain for tribulation, risking Chu Du exposing the snowmen and rockmen hidden there. Bound by the alliance agreement not to lie, he had planned to slow his aperture’s time and tell Chu Du truthfully, then hasten it before the tribulation so Chu Du could not arrive. ^{ch. 1164}

Fang Yuan writes back with sympathy and anger at the invasion, promising to help once his own coming tribulation and the threat of Bai Zu are dealt with. Chu Du replies that he has already rallied allies and can manage, hoping Fang Yuan can settle his own problem. Fang Yuan promises to do his best. ^{ch. 1164}

A few days later, Fang Yuan leaves Lang Ya blessed land by teleport. He rushes to Earth Trench. He avoids the crowded search around Zombie Alliance’s sunken former headquarters, Dark Flow City, and Earth Trench’s other already-claimed sections. He chooses instead a barren, abandoned spot rich in both earth path and dark path dao marks. ^{ch. 1164}

Fang Yuan activates immortal tribulation tempering aperture, opening his aperture’s entrance as heaven and earth qi rush in, and the fifth earthly calamity forms. The sky turns dark under a skeletal shadow that spits a dark current resembling a black python, the earthly calamity corrosive dark current, corroding the soil into foul rotten water. Fang Yuan recognizes it but has no method to resist it directly, fighting it only with offensive methods as heaven’s will drives the calamity to its limit. Lacking Reckless Savage’s true meaning and controlled by heaven’s will, this calamity is many times more powerful than his previous four. Fang Yuan is in a difficult state. Though distressed, his growth since, including Eastern Sea’s information path methods, Hei Fan’s true inheritance, and time path killer moves, lets him preserve strength for what comes. ^{ch. 1164}