Chapter 196

Fang Yuan tries to cut free with the Chainsaw Golden Centipede and the Blood Moon Gu, but every layer of ice he shaves away grows back two layers thicker, and he cannot free himself. ^{ch. 196}

Blood light spreads beneath the frozen ground until a blood-coloured aurora covers the area, and First gen Gu Yue laughs his way out of the ice, miserable-looking but arrogant, boasting that the Northern Dark Ice Soul Physique might have killed him at rank four, but Bai Ning Bing only reached rank three peak stage. He turns to look at Fang Yuan, still trapped in the ice. ^{ch. 196}

Lord Sky Crane arrives on his flying crane king, which had already killed the blood river python and returned; only three living presences remain on the mountain. Bai Ning Bing has become the ice mountain itself, his consciousness spent, and Fang Yuan sits trapped in the ice like an insect in amber. Both rank five Gu Masters have mostly recovered, First gen Gu Yue’s aperture holding more essence than before and Lord Sky Crane rested from his own recovery. Neither will let a bystander profit from their fight, so both turn on Fang Yuan: First gen Gu Yue for his blood, Lord Sky Crane simply to deny it to him. ^{ch. 196}

Fang Yuan knows he is finished; he has already lost the Thunderwings Gu and the Thousand Li Earthwolf Spider, and even with them he could not outfight or outrun two rank five Gu Masters. His only remaining option is his rank six vital Gu, the Spring Autumn Cicada, to travel against the current of time. The river of time is forbidden to mortals, and crossing it risks the retribution of heaven and earth. The Cicada has not fully recovered and could sink mid-journey, and Fang Yuan, only rank three peak stage, wielding it is like a baby swinging a sword. Using it means detonating his own cultivation, flesh and remaining Gu as fuel, a far smaller force than he commanded in his previous life, and he judges his odds of survival under ten percent. He has no other option left. ^{ch. 196}

Both Gu Masters attack together, forcing Fang Yuan to the cliff’s edge, and he jumps as two green and yellow lights burst from his body and the Spring Autumn Cicada activates. Both men, shocked by the rank six aura, turn greedy and lunge faster to seize him and the Gu, but a loud boom sounds first: Fang Yuan self-detonates, and he hears their cries of shock before he dies. ^{ch. 196}

The narration likens time to a great river carrying humanity downstream like fish, with only the rare leap above the surface offering a glimpse of what is to come; without that river the world would sit still as a drawing. A tiny Gu, carrying Fang Yuan’s consciousness and memory inside a yellow-green light, fights upstream against the current, battered nearly to destruction by every wave, until its protecting light finally gives out. In its last motion, it flashes and burrows into one ripple in the river. ^{ch. 196}

Fang Yuan’s body shudders as memory and consciousness merge, and he knows at once that he has succeeded and been reborn again. Looking around, he finds his arms and body coiled once more by the white eyebrows, his primeval essence draining away, while First gen Gu Yue lies bound in Tie Xue Leng’s iron chains with the yellow talisman on his forehead and Lord Sky Crane stands inside his own white barrier, sustaining the same draining technique. He is back at the moment the two rank five Gu Masters first turned the tables on First gen Gu Yue. ^{ch. 196}

Held fast and unable to move, Fang Yuan chooses to wait rather than act. The Problem Nipped in the Bud Gu draws the Blood Skull Gu out of First gen Gu Yue’s aperture again, and Lord Sky Crane again exclaims that he can finally see it after hundreds of years, while First gen Gu Yue again clenches his fangs in useless fury. A second light becomes the Yin Yang Rotation Gu, and Lord Sky Crane names it with the same taunt about a ruined plan to become human again. Fang Yuan tells himself his opportunity is still coming and keeps waiting. ^{ch. 196}

When the third light falls as a scarlet, translucent sphere, Fang Yuan’s heart leaps: this time, from memory, he already knows it will become the Blood Curtain Skyflower before anyone destroys its seal. Gu Masters attack the seal as before, the shield blooms again, and the white eyebrows split, freeing Fang Yuan and the others trapped by them. ^{ch. 196}

Lord Sky Crane, blocked again, asks what the Gu is, and First gen Gu Yue repeats his boast that his Blood Curtain Skyflower improves on the rank four Water Curtain Skyflower by letting its owner leave the shield. Furious, Lord Sky Crane attacks and fails again, then settles down to recover his own essence while he waits for the shield to expire. Inside, the Gu Masters flatter First gen Gu Yue with relief, and only Bai Ning Bing snorts. First gen Gu Yue again asks for primeval stones, and despite Lord Sky Crane’s shouted warning that helping him only buys their own deaths, the crowd mocks the warning and gives generously. ^{ch. 196}