Chapter 1975

In immemorial black heaven, An Xun ambushes an army of a thousand wild soul beasts, killing four hundred and capturing the rest. He offers the soul cores to Spectral Soul, who absorbs them. Since enslaving him, Spectral Soul has secretly taught An Xun soul path profundities and made killer moves, a beast-locating method and a lure formation for his missions. An Xun now completes his missions to a high degree, and Lady Cold Ash is very happy. ^{ch. 1975}

Lady Cold Ash is the only rank eight of Soul Pacifying grotto-heaven, with An Chong and An Xun below her. She does not know that An Xun is Spectral Soul’s slave or that the whole grotto-heaven, herself included, is targeted. She tells An Chong that Ice Crystal Immortal Monarch has been very active in asking grotto-heavens to cooperate, and that she has contacted Granny Skeleton, a rank eight Gu Immortal of Eastern Sea’s black heaven. Central Continent’s black heaven, she adds, has many variant humans but only two human rank eights, herself included. She sends An Chong to Eastern Sea to show Soul Pacifying grotto-heaven’s sincerity. He accepts bitterly, knowing she is clearing An Xun’s way to become the grotto-heaven’s nurturing target, since An Xun is doing far better than he is. ^{ch. 1975}

An Chong takes immortal materials as a meeting gift and crosses from Central Continent to Eastern Sea, possible now that the regional walls are gone, and easy since qi tides keep local Gu Immortals recuperating. On the way he sees huge disasters caused by the qi tides. He reaches Shattered Bone grotto-heaven, and Granny Skeleton agrees at once, saying humans must unite now that Fate is destroyed. She warns that variant humans dominate Eastern Sea’s black heaven and reckons Ice Crystal Immortal Monarch is gathering variant human forces in other regions’ black heaven too. She proposes bringing in white heaven as well, with Old Immortal Hua Yu, the rank eight who controls Profound Literature grotto-heaven and is well known in Eastern Sea’s white heaven, as the key person. She asks An Chong to persuade him, and he accepts, seeing a chance to compete with An Xun again. ^{ch. 1975}

An Chong goes to immemorial white heaven, where Old Immortal Hua Yu, not daring to ignore a fellow rank eight’s representative, invites him in. Hua Yu, who dislikes fighting and killing, is unmoved by An Chong’s speech and says Profound Literature grotto-heaven is neutral, though they can exchange resources. Profound Literature grotto-heaven has good use for Soul Pacifying grotto-heaven’s soul path resources. An Chong accepts the trade as better than nothing. Hua Song, a Gu Immortal, then invites him to stay for the world poetry competition, and he agrees in order to improve relations. ^{ch. 1975}

The competition is unprecedented, and the capital has been filled with people for a month. Li Xiao Bai walks beside Teacher Jiang, who says the eighteen rounds are Xiao Bai’s best chance and that they might end up as opponents. Li Xiao Bai privately expects this too. ^{ch. 1975}

Li Xiao Bai is Fang Yuan’s clone, sent into Profound Literature grotto-heaven as a pawn to take it over. He first sailed smoothly, won Su Qi Han’s affection and became one of the ten great scholars, with a chance to become Su clan’s son-in-law. A disaster then trapped his group in a valley for months, some of them died, and he missed the emperor, so his title went to others. Su Qi Han went looking for him and has not returned. In the capital he had a tough time, offending officials without knowing it, and only Teacher Jiang’s help kept him off the streets. ^{ch. 1975}

He knows the cause: his main body destroyed fate Gu and spent their strong luck almost completely, so he, as a clone, is really unlucky. The competition is Profound Literature grotto-heaven’s event to choose new Gu Immortal seeds. He will definitely face his teacher, who might hate him for life if beaten, but he will use this rare chance. ^{ch. 1975}