Crazed Demon Agreement
Some days later, Not Immortal welcomes Fang Yuan and Chu Du at Crazed Demon Cave’s first layer. He greets Fang Yuan warmly, still calling him Liu Guan Yi. Fang Yuan notices the route down differs slightly from his last visit, and asks whether the demonic sounds have grown more frequent. Not Immortal confirms it: once the sounds start, dao marks fall into chaos, beasts turn wild, and the terrain shifts too. They find Pang Shan, who wakes and greets Chu Du warmly, but tells Fang Yuan only that they will talk once the Crazed Demon Agreement is set. Pang Shan says vaguely that they must go down to the third last layer, and that he cannot move easily enough to join them. ch. 1188
Not Immortal leads the way down, and detours prove faster here than walking straight. Through a cavern entrance they reach the third last layer, where rock, soil and grass throw off the bright light of dao marks, light that only quasi-rank nine immortal materials give off. Not Immortal explains the dao marks here are chaotic and cannot be used, so dense that moving through them is almost like standing inside a battlefield killer move. Chu Du recalls suffering the same shock on his first visit, and warns that each step here is precarious; he spent three years recovering from the injury he took charging in when Not Immortal warned him. He offers Fang Yuan a trick instead, to stay close to dao marks of his own path for the least obstruction. Not Immortal, a rule path Gu Immortal, keeps to rule path dao marks himself, and Chu Du, cultivating strength path, tells Fang Yuan that on this stretch neither of them can help him, and he must walk it alone. ch. 1188
Not Immortal goes first, walking easily for ten steps before a formless pressure builds, and stops for the first time at his forty-second step. Chu Du laughs that Not Immortal only stalls to hide he has stopped. Caught out, Not Immortal challenges him to do better; Chu Du strides forward faster at first, until a wrong step bursts dao mark light beneath him and he spits blood. Badly hurt, he keeps walking anyway, reaching his thirty-ninth step before the fortieth defeats him, and admits he could not match Not Immortal after all. Not Immortal is stunned at the improvement, calling himself ashamed that hundreds more visits than Chu Du earned him only forty-two steps. Chu Du accuses him of holding back to spare his face, which Not Immortal does not deny. He calls Chu Du’s improvement beyond his imagination, a true genius at strength path, addressing him as Domination Immortal. ch. 1188
Chu Du and Not Immortal turn to watch Fang Yuan, who reads the scene: the two are testing him together, despite Chu Du’s recommendation. A poor showing might cost him the Crazed Demon Agreement, and with Limitless Demon Venerable and the secret of eternal life at stake, he resolves to perform well. He steps onto ground rich in transformation path dao marks and feels no obstruction, unlike the other two, whose own paths’ marks still press against them. Fang Yuan guesses his sovereign immortal body is the reason, since these dao marks are no killer move and carry no offensive power to press on him. Taking more than ten steps with visible ease alarms both men. Not Immortal is shocked, and Chu Du wonders whether this Liu Guan Yi has higher transformation path attainment than his own in strength path. Fang Yuan fakes exhaustion, stopping at the twentieth step; Chu Du reads through the act but admits his own first visit went worse, spitting blood by the tenth step. ch. 1188
