Chapter 197

First gen Gu Yue continues devouring primeval stones while Bai Ning Bing watches coldly. Fang Yuan approaches instead, offering the Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus with a show of desperate sincerity. First gen Gu Yue believes him: he has not yet fallen out with Fang Yuan, he once lied that he was protecting him by sending the bladewing blood bat groups after him, and Fang Yuan’s earlier help grabbing the white eyebrows had already won loyalty in his eyes. Convinced Fang Yuan has nowhere else to turn for protection against Lord Sky Crane, he raises his chances of victory by twenty percent and waves him closer. ^{ch. 197}

Fang Yuan praises him as the village’s founder and its living glory, then throws him bodily out of the blood barrier toward Lord Sky Crane. Silence follows before the crowd erupts, calling him a traitor and a madman. Bai Ning Bing alone laughs, giving Fang Yuan a thumbs up and calling it spectacular. Fang Yuan answers the crowd’s rage by naming his own rank three peak stage strength and daring anyone left inside, mostly mortals and low ranked Gu Masters, to touch him. ^{ch. 197}

He picks up First gen Gu Yue’s Blood Skull Gu and Yin Yang Rotation Gu, still sealed under a thin yellow light by the Problem Nipped in the Bud Gu and unable to answer their old master’s calls. Fang Yuan waits rather than force the seal, knowing the Demon Suppression Iron Chain Gu and the Problem Nipped in the Bud Gu will soon be corrupted by the Blood Frenzy Gu and dissolve into blood water. Outside, Lord Sky Crane attacks the chained First gen Gu Yue; when the chains dissolve, he flees back toward the barrier and is blocked, since the Blood Curtain Skyflower he built can only be exited, never re-entered. Cornered, he turns to fight Lord Sky Crane instead, drawing on primeval essence eaten earlier to hold his ground despite the disadvantage. ^{ch. 197}

Fang Yuan turns to Bai Ning Bing, judging the two rank five combatants too dangerous to exploit directly and the barrier’s protection temporary. He offers, in three sentences, a way to undo the ten extreme aptitudes and return him to life, warning the odds of success are poor but promising a spectacular ending even in failure. Bai Ning Bing is moved, and asks what it will take. Fang Yuan does not answer him directly; instead he lets the last seal dissolve, seizes the two freed Gu, and uses the Spring Autumn Cicada’s aura to tame and refine them on the spot. First gen Gu Yue, robbed of his own Gu mid battle, screams and hurls himself against the barrier in despair, pouring his fury into the fight against Lord Sky Crane instead. Fang Yuan calls Bai Ning Bing to kill alongside him and, before finishing the sentence, cuts down a nearby Gu Master with the Chainsaw Golden Centipede and begins drawing his blood with the Blood Skull Gu. ^{ch. 197}