Chapter 1284

All three sides now offer Fang Yuan terms, and if he succeeds in this attempt, whichever side he joins will reward him greatly. He does not answer, with no strength to spare for words, and instead climbs onto the riverbed and keeps walking, since only capturing Ma Hong Yun and Zhao Lian Yun gives him standing to negotiate. Nobody threatens him at all. His cover identity, Liu Guan Yi, already marks him as the man who killed Ye Lui Qun Xing and defied Liu tribe, and threatening such a man invites only trouble. ^{ch. 1284}

Fang Yuan reaches Ma Hong Yun and Zhao Lian Yun and puts a hand on each of their shoulders. Ma Hong Yun shoves Zhao Lian Yun aside and charges him, but Fang Yuan, furious at failing to kill Ying Wu Xie and Purple Mountain True Monarch, subdues both in a few moves and carries one in each arm. Both struggle until Fang Yuan warns he will kill whoever they love if they move again, and the threat stops them cold. He carries them onward and calls out that he is ready to negotiate. Old Ancestor Xue Hu is pleased, Wei Ling Yang urges patience, Mao Li Qiu sprawls out bored, and Black Extremity asks what he wants. ^{ch. 1284}

Without warning, Ma Hong Yun stops breathing and dies. The immortals fall into shocked silence, and even Fang Yuan, who had used no force against him, is caught off guard. He understands at once: carrying Zhao Lian Yun through the river had pushed Ma Hong Yun completely past his limits, and once caught, his body simply gave out. With his death Fortune Rivalling Heaven’s effect dissipates completely, and only a living Ma Hong Yun has value as a luck path immortal material, a dead one being just a rank five Gu Master corpse. Old Ancestor Xue Hu erupts in rage, screaming that Fang Yuan will die a terrible death for the killing, and Mao Li Qiu roars louder still, baring its fangs and readying to pounce. ^{ch. 1284}

Zhao Lian Yun, unable to make a sound, can only scream Ma Hong Yun’s name inside her heart as her tears fall like a river. Fang Yuan moves to knock her out before grief kills her too, but a burst of blue light, rank nine Love Immortal Gu, erupts from her body first. The Gu cannot be controlled, and it carries Zhao Lian Yun out of Reverse Flow River to Wei Ling Yang and Bi Chen Tian before anyone can react. Flood Extremity asks how any Gu worm can work in Reverse Flow River, and Mao Li Qiu answers that the river’s dao marks cannot suppress a rank nine Immortal Gu because such a Gu is a fragment of the Great Dao. Ma Hong Yun’s corpse, soul still inside it, remains in Fang Yuan’s hold. Old Ancestor Xue Hu loses all interest in it, since reviving Ma Hong Yun would be no use or Lady Wan Shou would never have chosen so difficult a living refinement. ^{ch. 1284}

Fang Yuan judges the mishap definitely heaven’s will, plotting against him ever since he first fell into the river. He is completely trapped now, targeted not only by Old Ancestor Xue Hu, Mao Li Qiu, and Central Continent’s Gu Immortals but by heaven’s will itself. Fang Yuan is completely stumped, unable to see a way past Xue Hu alone. Beyond him waits Mao Li Qiu, an unfathomable giant purple ferret that was Giant Sun Immortal Venerable’s steed, and the other Gu Immortals besides. Expressionless despite it, he keeps moving forward through the river while the Gu Immortals around him call for his death and mock his chances. He settles on persevering in the river until the three sides fight each other and open him a way out. ^{ch. 1284}