Chapter 1619

Feng Jin Huang, a refinement path great grandmaster, finishes refining a rank five Gu worm with the dual metal and fire path technique she finds most suitable. The cocoon of light shrinks, turns dark blue and gains a metallic luster. She succeeds after failing many times. She breathes cold air on it, since the technique leaves residual heat that would otherwise injure the Gu severely. Leaving the secret room, she finds Duke Long sitting beside a pool. ^{ch. 1619}

She runs to him with the newly refined dream pillow Gu. Duke Long nods slightly and says only that it is not bad. Pouting slightly, she tells him that mortal Gu Masters can enter dream realms by sleeping with their heads on it, an enormous help to her Spirit Affinity House and the whole of Central Continent. Mass-produced, it would let Central Continent’s Gu Masters extract dream path Gu materials from their dream realms and gain an early advantage in the great era. Duke Long shows no surprise and starts calling her the future Great Dream Immortal Venerable, but she interrupts in discontent. ^{ch. 1619}

Duke Long changes the subject and asks whether she believes in fate. She asks if he means fate Gu. He says yes, the one recorded in The Legends of Ren Zu and now on the point of being restored completely by Heavenly Court. According to those legends, Ren Zu had spent enormous energy gathering Gu materials and sacrificed his own two hands to refine wealth Gu. He took his son Blazing Glory Lightning Brilliance and his daughter Myriad Gold Wondrous Essence to the feathermen’s residence, but every featherman had vanished. ^{ch. 1619}

A black and white spider told them the feathermen had fled because it arrived, and named itself fate Gu. Blazing Glory Lightning Brilliance said its aim matched theirs and called it a failure for catching no featherman while hindering them. It said the feathermen pursued freedom, but it had bound them and arranged their road to freedom. White spider silk already bound Ren Zu, his children and everything around them in an all-encompassing web. Fate Gu said struggle was useless, because fate cannot be altered. Ren Zu accused it of causing all his hardships and the loss of his children. ^{ch. 1619}

Fate Gu answered that his eldest son Verdant Great Sun was already dead and could not be saved, and that wealth Gu could not save his daughter Boundless Forest Samsara. It dragged Ren Zu’s wealth Gu over with silk despite his children’s protests. It declared him fated to be poor, tormented into insanity and dead in the end, without the fate to enjoy wealth Gu. It flung Blazing Glory Lightning Brilliance and Myriad Gold Wondrous Essence far off, completely beyond Ren Zu’s sight, saying loneliness is the fate of everyone. Pressed to the point of suffocation, Ren Zu cried and asked why his fate was so pitiful. ^{ch. 1619}

Self Gu told him from within to trust his own strength rather than blame fate. It had bitten strength Gu, and its light tore some silk, but more silk came to bind him. A second attempt relying on love, which self Gu had also bitten, failed too. Fate Gu said love was fate as well, since it had arranged both Verdant Great Sun’s and the rockman’s love for Desolate Ancient Moon and arranged their success and failure until they ended up dead. ^{ch. 1619}

Ren Zu lost the strength to cry and said he now understood why the feathermen pursued freedom. He said he would pursue a different, absolute freedom. Fate Gu said absolute freedom is insanity, and Ren Zu retorted that his own strength and wisdom would win him freedom. Fate Gu answered that self Gu gave him only strength and love, not wisdom, so thinking himself intelligent was the sign he was going crazy. Ren Zu refused to believe in fate, and when fate Gu said it would exist regardless, he insisted it would stop existing once he stopped believing. He scratched his hair and skin, wept and rolled on the ground, insane as fate Gu had declared. ^{ch. 1619}

A scene from a million years earlier surfaces in Duke Long’s mind. In it, Duke Long asked his disciple Red Lotus, a youngster with a red lotus birthmark, whether he believed in fate, and told him he was the future Immortal Venerable who would definitely lead humans to the greatest prosperity and glory. Red Lotus smiled and said he believed in fate, since nothing seemed bad in it. Duke Long returns to reality and tells Feng Jin Huang that she is the future Great Dream Immortal Venerable, who will surpass all past venerables, create dream path and stand invincible across the world. She smiles, then says that if all this is predestined by fate, she does not believe in fate. His smile freezes. ^{ch. 1619}