Chapter 195

Turning to Lord Sky Crane, First gen Gu Yue says they were both orphans raised by the same master, but the master always favoured him for his A grade aptitude while First gen Gu Yue’s own C grade forced him to sweat for every step just to keep pace. Called the Twin Cranes of Righteous Paths, Lord Sky Crane was always the lead and First gen Gu Yue only the second. Even the Blood Skull Gu, one of the Blood Sea Ancestor’s true inheritances that purifies a killed relative’s blood to raise the aperture, fell to Lord Sky Crane’s luck rather than his own, and First gen Gu Yue admits he schemed endlessly over it once he saw it. ^{ch. 195}

Lord Sky Crane stamps his feet, insisting the Gu is his, and First gen Gu Yue agrees that it is; his rival’s aptitude and luck both won it fairly. He says that watching Lord Sky Crane’s pride at the time, forcing himself to smile along, was when he understood his place: heaven had marked him to bow under someone else, a shadow behind others, and he could not accept it. With no talent, background or resources of his own, and the righteous path offering nothing but rules, hierarchy and slow, minor gains to a nobody, he says only becoming a demon and abandoning those rules let him carve a path that belonged to him. He declares that he schemed against Lord Sky Crane, seized the true inheritance, and became a demon; the words echo inside the shield, and outside it Lord Sky Crane falls quiet and sombre. ^{ch. 195}

First gen Gu Yue resumes killing the clansmen around him, and as the Blood Skull Gu pours their blood back into his aperture his aptitude keeps climbing, letting him store and burn more primeval essence with every death. Outside the shield, Lord Sky Crane can only burn with anxiety and sigh; he tried to stop it and failed, and the Blood Curtain Skyflower leaves him nothing to do but wait. ^{ch. 195}

As the group inside thins to a few survivors, First gen Gu Yue turns on Fang Yuan and demands the Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus, offering to spare him if he hands it over. Fang Yuan refuses, sneering that he can self-destruct the Lotus with a thought if First gen Gu Yue comes any closer. First gen Gu Yue presses forward anyway, calling him a worthy descendant, then explains that he had meant to purify his own bloodline into a descendant carrying the Ancient Moon Desolate Yin Physique, whose blood would have raised his aptitude to a full ninety-nine percent A grade. Since Fang Yuan’s luck fell short of that, and since being threatened is what he hates most of all, he presses the attack regardless of the Lotus. ^{ch. 195}

First gen Gu Yue lunges, and Fang Yuan cannot dodge a rank five Gu Master alone, but an ice hand strikes in from the side and shatters against the claw, forcing First gen Gu Yue back a step. It is Bai Ning Bing, his shattered arm regrowing instantly as bare ice with no flesh in it, since his Ten Extreme Aptitude is nearing its lifespan limit. He tells Fang Yuan this is as splendid a death as he could hope for, regrets only that he will not see how the battle ends, calls the two of them the same kind of person, and offers to protect him on one condition: live on, and witness the wonders of this world. Fang Yuan is moved, seeing his own younger self from a previous life. ^{ch. 195}

First gen Gu Yue, noting the Northern Dark Ice Soul Physique, calls it a pity Bai Ning Bing was not born into his own bloodline, then attacks him directly. Their first blow sends First gen Gu Yue back two steps and blasts Bai Ning Bing’s skull and body apart, but cold air and frost regrow him whole within seconds; First gen Gu Yue, who has never faced a Ten Extreme Aptitude before, is shocked. Round after round, Bai Ning Bing is outmatched and battered until all colour leaves him and his white hair turns to icicles, yet he never stays dead. When the end finally comes, he recites a farewell poem with a faint smile, and his face freezes still. ^{ch. 195}

Cold wind and frost explode outward, and a glacier rises from under his feet like a mountain being born, crashing toward First gen Gu Yue like a landslide. First gen Gu Yue braces with everything he has, sending his blood guillotines and bats to slow it, but the ice engulfs and confines him regardless. The glacier fills the whole shield, save for a small space Bai Ning Bing leaves open for Fang Yuan, and its force shatters the Blood Curtain Skyflower itself. Lord Sky Crane, unwilling to face it, flees into the air as the glacier keeps spreading, and it soon covers the whole of Qing Mao Mountain from peak to base, a thousand li of ice standing as the record of a fallen young genius’s indignation. ^{ch. 195}

Standing on the rising ice, Fang Yuan watches the space Bai Ning Bing left him shrinking. Bai Ning Bing’s consciousness is fading, and with it his control over the glacier; Fang Yuan realises he must get out soon. ^{ch. 195}