Chapter 1720

Fairy Zi Wei’s analysis is right: while fate Gu is whole, ancient Gu Immortals cannot come to the present and future ones cannot go to the past. Its injuries have greatly reduced the restriction on time path, which lets future self, call of the ancient and support of the future project a person into the present. Once fate Gu is fully restored, these killer moves stop working. ^{ch. 1720}

Bing Sai Chuan knew this from the start. The refinement path formation cannot be destroyed, or Heavenly Court’s repair of fate Gu fails entirely. An overly damaged fate Gu is useless even to Longevity Heaven, which cannot repair it and so can only break past the formation, enter Heaven Overseeing Tower and take fate Gu by force. Bing Sai Chuan has sent Five Elements Grandmaster and Bull Demon but no more, since the formation can hold only five rank eights. In the worst case, Bing Sai Chuan will destroy the formation so that Heavenly Court’s objective fails. ^{ch. 1720}

Five Elements Grandmaster’s lights destroy Che Wei’s shields, but new ones form. Five Elements Grandmaster secretly asks Bull Demon what to do, and Bull Demon says to attack and lure their attention. Five Elements Grandmaster trusts Longevity Heaven and fights on against Che Wei. ^{ch. 1720}

A flower lands unnoticed in Heaven Overseeing Tower and turns into a little girl, the Flower Lady who had died earlier. Yuan Qiong Du senses her and shouts a warning. He pays a huge price: his seven orifices bleed and his mind cracks into two halves that cannot merge. Che Wei and Cong Yan retreat to stop her, but Bull Demon and Five Elements Grandmaster restrain them. Bull Demon and Flower Lady share a lifespan, so if one dies while the other lives, the dead one revives after some time. Revived, Flower Lady flies up the tower while the formation holds. ^{ch. 1720}

Yuan Qiong Du, his mind heavily injured and his thinking greatly slowed, faces the toughest decision of his life. He could destroy fate Gu and ruin all of Heavenly Court’s work, or leave the enemy a nearly recovered fate Gu, which may let Heavenly Court get it back but otherwise benefits Longevity Heaven. When Flower Lady sees fate Gu at the top, he has yet to decide. She reaches to grab it, but a bamboo forest painting appears on the tower walls. ^{ch. 1720}

Three hundred thousand years ago, Genesis Lotus Immortal Venerable walks down Star Zone Mountain. He judges that forcing the chess game of Limitless Demon Venerable and Star Constellation Immortal Venerable means resisting both venerables plus Heavenly Court’s replenishment. Even success would only harm Heavenly Court, so he need not be a sinner. Not completely assured, he reaches the top of Heaven Overseeing Tower and leaves a painting on its walls. It vanishes, so deeply concealed that even Heavenly Court never knows of it. ^{ch. 1720}

Flower Lady’s hand stops an inch from fate Gu, and the distance cannot be breached. She floats unable to move, falls into an illusion of a huge bamboo forest she cannot leave, and faints. The painting stays. Every immortal in the battle hears wind that does not exist. The wind enters Duke Long’s heart, and he falls into an illusion among thick jade bamboos. ^{ch. 1720}

He feels the pure power of wood path, and his limbs gain the strength of grass and trees. He stands and seems to see Genesis Lotus Immortal Venerable as a young man in green. Genesis Lotus Immortal Venerable walks past and enters the bamboo forest, leaving one sentence naming the move Through Branches and Leaves. Duke Long wakes standing. The silver chains that bound him have become scattered bamboo leaves that look like jade. ^{ch. 1720}