Chapter 1638

Fang Yuan arrives with Bai Ning Bing inside the small world past the gatehouse, where mysterious information enters her mind but not his. This is a public grotto-heaven, formed when the Heaven Surveying Five Xiangs each donated a portion of their grotto-heavens. Its five segments are not directly connected and only the central mountain range is shared. The bet’s treasure lies at the center. Resources set along the way may be taken by stronger experts, who are advised to leave some so that they regrow. ^{ch. 1638}

Fang Yuan suspects that his disguise as a Bai Xiang descendant was made too roughly in a rush, and wonders whether it confines him to the Bai Xiang grotto-heaven region. Fixed Immortal Travel is unlikely to work, since he does not know Qi Xiang’s territory and the defense here is very strict. Qi Zai, whom he once killed, became a Gu Immortal only in the last thousand years, so he never entered this place and left no memories of it. He decides to head for the center. He will meet Qi clan’s Gu Immortals there anyway. ^{ch. 1638}

The two fly over snow-covered mountains and pass a steep peak where a hundred ice mirror snow lotuses grow, a rank six immortal material with ice path and wood path dao marks. Snow monsters, desolate level ones among them, guard it. Fang Yuan has already noticed it and flies on. He ignores the many resource points that follow, small to mid sized yet plentiful in storage, among them hundred years and thousand years profound ice, mystical frost water and heaven craft divine jade. The deeper he goes, the more valuable the resource points and the stronger their guards, an arrangement the Five Xiangs made to test their descendants. ^{ch. 1638}

Jade frost antelopes attack, and his immortal killer move Summer Fan kills the whole herd in an instant and collapses the mountain below. In the crater he destroys a qi path Gu formation. He remarks that the restriction of five independent regions cannot restrain Qi clan’s Gu Immortals. Bai Ning Bing answers that Qi clan has come here so many times that many of the Five Xiangs’ restrictions no longer stop them, so the journey will not be smooth. Qi clan’s beast tides are slaughtered easily, barely delaying him, and even the defense at the central mountain range, which holds an immemorial desolate beast, is broken through. ^{ch. 1638}

Fang Yuan reaches the central mountain range and enters the Immortal Gu House on its highest peak. Five Qi clan Gu Immortals sit around the treasure, a one-legged white crane. It is neither a living being nor an Immortal Gu, yet it gives off a rank nine aura. Fang Yuan laughs on realizing that the bet’s ultimate treasure is in fact a rank nine killer move. The Qi clan Gu Immortals shudder, fearful and furious. ^{ch. 1638}

Fang Yuan sends a sword light at one of the Qi clan Gu Immortals, but the five lights of the hall dispel it soundlessly. The Five Xiang’s seal is strongest in this hall, so he and Qi clan cannot fight. Forcing the matter would mean suppressing the Five Xiangs’ power and damaging the whole public grotto-heaven. Bai Ning Bing sends her will into the killer move as the Qi clan Gu Immortals do and shouts for Fang Yuan to hurry up. Fang Yuan instills his will beside her, and information from Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable enters his mind. Calling himself Ben Jie Sun, the Demon Venerable addresses people of the future. He says he captured a natural heavenly spirit in immemorial white heaven, matching the latter half of The Legends of Ren Zu, and, unable to refine it by human will, forcefully condensed it into the immortal killer move Heaven Form. ^{ch. 1638}