Chapter 1408

The earth vein tremor devastates Southern Border, collapsing mountains, blocking rivers and burying pits. Countless mortals die, and whole mortal forces are wiped out. No earthquake of this scale has struck in ten thousand or a hundred thousand years, nor in the Olden Antiquity or Remote Antiquity eras, it is the first in all history, and every super force pauses its conflicts to investigate together. Fang Yuan, relocated again within Western Desert, gathers reports of the commotion and recognizes it as the sign that the great era has begun. ^{ch. 1408}

He recalls that the great era should have arrived five hundred years earlier in his previous life, but Spectral Soul defied heaven’s will and forced a delay. Heaven’s will then took a great risk and used Fang Yuan as its tool, sending him into the past with Spring Autumn Cicada to thwart Shadow Sect’s plans. With Shadow Sect and Spectral Soul no longer interfering, the great era now proceeds on schedule, and the tremor is its opening signal. Before the five regional walls vanish, the earth veins of Southern Border, Northern Plains, Central Continent, Western Desert and Eastern Sea will combine into one, and tremors will continue across all five regions. Southern Border is struck first because it holds the most earth path dao marks and the deepest earth vein of the five. The tremors will open earth trenches and pits rich in rare life. Southern Border’s harvest will be the largest of the five regions, and Eastern Sea’s the smallest. ^{ch. 1408}

The great era’s early arrival wrecks Fang Yuan’s former plan to quietly reach rank eight cultivation and near great grandmaster in every path before the five regions’ chaotic war. He must now stay on the run from Heavenly Court and heaven’s will instead. As Wu Yi Hai he could have used his previous life’s memories to claim the treasures and wild Immortal Gu the tremors uncover, but his identity is exposed and that advantage is gone. Yet the tremor secretly helps him: it destroys Wu clan’s immortal formation, ruining Wu Yong’s scheme against him, and the timing traces back to his own burning soul bursting luck. Using rank seven self love Immortal Gu and self cleansing, he clears the harmful dao marks binding him to Wu clan, ending that alliance entirely, and believes his life tablet Gu and soul lantern Gu are now destroyed beyond Wu Yong’s use. ^{ch. 1408}

Self cleansing does not follow his intentions on what counts as harmful. It removes his alliance agreement dao marks with Wu clan but leaves those with Chu Du, Lang Ya land spirit, the variant humans and Crazed Demon Cave, harmless for now yet certain to punish him the moment he betrays them, too late to cleanse. Most importantly, the dao marks of Fairy Zi Wei’s investigative killer move are removed but regenerate completely within six hours. Fang Yuan has seen such self regenerating dao marks before, in his original zombie body where Ying Wu Xie set a soul path trap, and in Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable’s defensive killer moves divine concealment and ghostly concealment. Every rank nine venerable’s main path is publicly recognized to stand at supreme grandmaster, which Purple Mountain True Monarch’s experience defines as regeneration of dao marks and self sustenance beyond immortal essence, above grandmaster’s imitation of paths and great grandmaster’s natural dao marks. Fang Yuan recalls Giant Sun Immortal Venerable’s rank eight Fortune Rivalling Heaven, whose luck path dao marks drew in the luck of those around Ma Hong Yun and raised his fortune at no cost, lasting until he died. Since only a rank nine venerable could create such a move, Fang Yuan guesses Fairy Zi Wei used Star Constellation Chessboard, which belonged to Star Constellation Immortal Venerable. ^{ch. 1408}

Fang Yuan can now resolve the soul path trap in his original zombie body, but one use of self cleansing removes only ten percent of the investigative dao marks on his sovereign immortal body, which then regrow in full. Clearing them entirely would need roughly half a month of nonstop use, which he judges unrealistic, since each cast lasts only a fixed duration. He remains uncertain what to do next. ^{ch. 1408}

In Heavenly Court, Fairy Zi Wei smiles, certain that this investigative killer move against Fang Yuan and the rest will hold. It is inextinguishable star target, Star Constellation Chessboard’s method and a killer move created personally by Star Constellation Immortal Venerable. Compared to other investigative killer moves it can only locate its target’s position, an effect weaker on its own than the method she used on Feng Jiu Ge, which lets the chessboard display the target’s situation. Its greatest effect is that it regenerates endlessly, beyond proper removal by normal methods. As long as it lasts, Fang Yuan remains a pawn on her board, and eliminating him is only a matter of time. Against Fang Yuan and the others she holds a complete, unshakeable advantage that grows the longer he is denied time to develop, an invincible position. ^{ch. 1408}