Chapter 1469

In the Gu refinement hall, Fang Yuan reaches the final step of refining rank seven heavenly secret Immortal Gu. Light path refinement suits this Gu best, other paths spending more effort for a weaker result or working against it. Only the Gu Immortal himself, not the formation, can complete this step. Heavenly secret Immortal Gu alone cannot be bound by rules and has to be refined in freedom, so the Immortal’s own control must not become a restriction. ^{ch. 1469}

Sixth Hair dispels the formation at the right moment, and Fang Yuan condenses the surrounding light into a floating white-gold ring the size of a house, with himself at its center. Sixth Hair names the refinement path killer move Heavenly Light Ring. It must complete seven rotations to finish refining the Gu. The first four rotations succeed, each faster than the last, willed, then guided by his gaze, then by his breath, then by his voice. Sixth Hair grows more anxious as they pass the halfway point, warning that the rotations ahead will only get harder to control. ^{ch. 1469}

After resting, Fang Yuan attempts the fifth rotation, and the ring rises with his arms until it pauses at shoulder height. It explodes there in a huge blast, and though the refinement hall contains most of it, Fang Yuan takes the full force and coughs blood. He is heavily injured. Immortal Gu Man as Before reduces the injury from heavy to light but cannot completely heal it, and the refinement of rank seven heavenly secret Immortal Gu fails. This is not the first failure, Sixth Hair having failed earlier attempts midway, though this time they reached the final step before Fang Yuan himself fell short. Fang Yuan had already used luck path methods beforehand, and though his coming tribulation makes the failure costly, he tells Sixth Hair he remains confident of passing it without heavenly secret Immortal Gu. ^{ch. 1469}

Days later, Fang Yuan travels by teleportation formation to a desolate area and opens his immortal aperture to begin his tribulation. A vast rush of heaven and earth qi pours into his sovereign immortal aperture, astonishing Ying Wu Xie and the Shadow Sect immortals who came with him. He brought them to face the human calamity heaven’s will plots whenever he undergoes tribulation, and left Xue Er in Lang Ya blessed land because he does not trust her. Bai Ning Bing says they underestimate the rank nine venerables and claims, from Bai Xiang’s true inheritance, that his own absorption made a far bigger commotion. Ying Wu Xie counters that Bai Xiang was already rank eight with a grotto-heaven full of resources, while Fang Yuan’s sovereign immortal aperture is too huge, still largely undeveloped, and holds unimaginable potential despite his rank seven cultivation. Fairy Miao Yin agrees, the other immortals nod, and Bai Ning Bing falls silent. The tribulation gathers in Mini Red Heaven, the empty stretch where he once fought the immemorial year monkey, chosen because it holds no resources and keeps his losses to a minimum. ^{ch. 1469}

Ying Wu Xie names it the five poison tribulation, its poisonous fog condensing into five giant beasts: a snake, a scorpion, a spider, a toad and a centipede. The five circle Fang Yuan and grow stronger without attacking, and Bai Ning Bing wonders aloud why he does not strike first. Fang Yuan instead waits until they reach maximum strength, against a tribulation heaven’s will has enhanced to the greatest power this world allows. When all five pounce at once, he vanishes on the spot. He answers with a rampage of blows that completely suppresses all five. The poisonous fog fades and leaves only Fang Yuan standing on the battlefield, and he calls the rank seven heavenly tribulation too weak. ^{ch. 1469}