Chapter 1194

Chu Du’s lone and demonic path immortals arrive on a grey cloud. Chu Du stands at the front. Hao Zhen, Chou Lao Wu, Li Si Chun and Immortal Wang form one formation, Bai Zu Ren, Bai Zu Ling and Hei tribe’s four supreme elders the other. The righteous immortals sit at ease with wine in three Immortal Gu Houses: Loud Thunder Hall to the right, Golden Dawn Hall at the center, Divine Light Hall to the left. They joke that they need only be slightly on guard against Chu Du himself, while his side stands exposed below. Only Chu Du stays relaxed, shrewd, since he had expected this cold reception. ^{ch. 1194}

He tells Xue Wu Hen, a tall immortal with a cold and aloof, white browed look, long secluded and without reputation, that this is his chance to make a name that could go down in history. He hands him the first battle. Xue Wu Hen’s eyes light up. He recalls missing Brother Chu’s last invitation because he was refining Gu, and vows the world will know his name this time. He flies up between the two sides. The immortals in Golden Dawn Hall mock him as a nameless junior sent to his death. ^{ch. 1194}

Nian Er Ping Zhi wants to take the fight himself. Nian Er Yi Fang stops him: killing a nameless rank six would not awe the immortals. Gong Wan Ting asks for a volunteer, and the young Ye Lui Xiao Jin steps forward. She hesitates, since Chu Du would not risk his side’s first battle on an ordinary man. Ye Lui Hui Hong vouches for the junior’s talent, so she agrees rather than contradict him publicly. Leaving the hall, Ye Lui Xiao Jin gives Nian Er Ping Zhi a pointed glance, eager to make his own name. ^{ch. 1194}

At Southern Border, Ying Wu Xie instructs Bai Ning Bing before sending her toward Bai Xiang grotto-heaven. Only a bloodline descendant of Bai Xiang who becomes a Gu Immortal can be guided there by the white form immortal snake. Bai Xiang himself is demonic path, extremely tyrannical toward anyone who crosses him, and associates only with Gu Immortals whose battle strength meets his expectations. She must be very careful, he warns, and know when to yield. Shadow Sect has long studied the bet among the Five Xiangs, but progress has been very slow, mainly because its full effort goes to refining sovereign immortal fetus Gu. It recruited Bai Ning Bing partly for her fate-escapee identity and partly to enter the bet through her. Bai Ning Bing says only that she knows what to do, and Ying Wu Xie lets her go. ^{ch. 1194}

She calls out the white form immortal snake, her rank five mortal Gu, likely attached to her for her Northern Dark Ice Soul physique. She activates her phantom aperture, a flawed method Shadow Sect stole from Heavenly Court and has mastered only fifty to sixty percent. It lets her hold Gu Immortal strength temporarily without a tribulation, a false immortal. Its activation also turns her body from a woman’s to a man’s, embarrassing her. Among the immortals watching, Shi Nu alone grows nervous, since Bai Ning Bing’s success or failure will shape Shadow Sect’s next moves. ^{ch. 1194}

As her aura rises, the snake jolts and gives a hiss unlike a normal snake’s before carrying her into the sky. Ying Wu Xie’s group had gone to Jade Pot Mountain and given her an ice soul Immortal Gu, her first truly owned Immortal Gu. Looking down from the snake’s back, she recalls first meeting it, bursting from Bai tribe’s spirit spring. Bai clan leader knelt at once and urged her to kneel too. She refused, declaring she would never kneel before a Gu, and stood her ground under its cold aura. The clan’s secret records promised a secret place in the sky to a Gu Master the snake approves, and she now reads it as Bai Xiang’s grotto-heaven, with Gu Immortal status the condition. ^{ch. 1194}

In Lang Ya blessed land, Fang Yuan holds a dream path mortal Gu. He just finished refining it. His cultivation is stalled at rank six second heavenly tribulation, because he has annexed nearly every blessed land his previous life’s memory holds and his attainment is too low for the rest. Paired with unravel mystery Immortal Gu, these mortal Gu form the immortal killer move unravel dream, letting him solve dream realms and raise his attainment across paths. The competition should have begun, he reflects, and he means to enter it a few times, killing Gu Immortals and seizing apertures toward rank seven. Judging Eastern Sea’s City Well too far and known to heaven’s will, he decides to keep refining dream path Gu while killing his way through the competition instead. ^{ch. 1194}

He enters a dream realm again, back in the caravan he joined after refusing to concede and losing overwhelmingly to his A grade brother through Gu Yue clan leader’s scheming. That defeat left him branded as someone who overestimated his ability, with no future on C grade aptitude while his brother was the tribe’s future. On the road, a young Gu Master demands the caravan stop to rest again. ^{ch. 1194}

When a steward objects that they must clear the mountain before dark, he whips the man down with a lightning whip and calls him a lowly servant. Feeling every eye on him, the young master threatens to dig out the eyes of anyone who looks at him again. He singles out Fang Yuan and orders him to kneel down as his stool. Fang Yuan refuses. Certain he misheard, his pointing finger slightly shaking, the young master demands he repeat it and calls him an ant-like slave, but Fang Yuan refuses again. ^{ch. 1194}