Chapter 365

Back at Shang Liang mountain Fang Yuan had made only a small name for himself; after the battle with Tie Ba Xiu, that name spreads across Southern Border and he rises to genuine fame as a demonic path genius. Attention converges on him from every side: some retreat rather than provoke him, like Century Boy; some add fuel to the fire, like Li Xian and Hu Mei Er; and others feel their battle intent stirred and mean to challenge him outright. ^{ch. 365}

In a cave on San Cha mountain, Fang Yuan sits cross legged behind Bai Ning Bing and pours his essence gold primeval essence into her aperture through bone flesh unity Gu, purified from his own bright golden essence by nine eyes liquor worm. Hours later she wakes, calm, showing neither gratitude for her rescue nor anger at his delay, though privately she is troubled: she has always cultivated ahead of him, yet stands now as the one who benefited from his strength. A thought crosses her mind that cultivating alongside Fang Yuan is not so bad after all, and she snuffs it out at once. Standing, she tells him with cold amusement that rumors already credit him with a great secret of three kings inheritance, and that Tie clan has issued a public warrant for him across Southern Border. Fang Yuan answers that since everyone already knows their bond, she is on the same hit list; she says she will guard him until midnight, then leaves to keep watch. ^{ch. 365}

Alone, Fang Yuan weighs what he has brought on himself. Killing an elder and chasing Tie clan’s young master crossed a line no top clan of the righteous path could ignore, and Shang clan, Wu clan and other righteous factions now watch him alongside Hu Mei Er, Li Xian, Century Boy and other demonic path figures; this is the price of fame, a whirlpool that could either destroy him or, if he survives it, make him a recognized power in Southern Border. He calculates Divine Thief Lu Zuan Feng should already be repeatedly infiltrating Demon Suppression Tower and straining Tie clan’s resources, so gathering the strength to deal with him will take Tie clan far longer than a month or two, and for now he can set them aside. He credits the rumor about him to Li Xian and Hu Mei Er, planning to deal with them eventually, though Li Xian still has uses and Hu Mei Er answers to a rank six Gu Immortal, so both require care. Three kings inheritance is too large to take whole, he decides, so he will settle for its best parts, hoping above all for undefeated hundred battles Gu, a gain that would help greatly at the coming great battle of Yi Tian mountain. His thoughts turn to Central Continent: by his reckoning Hu Immortal Inheritance on Tian Ti mountain should already have opened, a true Gu Immortal blessed land many times more precious than three kings inheritance, the very inheritance that made Feng Jin Huang a Gu Immortal and, in his memory of his previous life, a figure who will one day shake the world. ^{ch. 365}

At the foot of Tian Ti mountain, the elite disciples of Central Continent’s ten great sects gather as a months long competition to rank them finally ends, the real Gu Yue Fang Zheng among them, letting out a breath of relief. Because of Fairy Bi Xia, Fang Zheng faced deep hostility from many rivals in the competition, but his ironbeak flying crane group and Lord Sky Crane’s guidance from inside the spirit incubating flea carried him through to a respectable ranking. Overhead, ten formless Gu Immortals trade praise for the strongest juniors, above all Feng Jin Huang, before agreeing to strike together and open Hu Immortal Inheritance. Their combined power collides with Tian Ti mountain in silence; a hundred foot vermillion gatehouse rises with a nine colored plaque, and a bridge of cloud and sunlight stretches down to the waiting disciples. A Gu Immortal’s voice orders them to enter by competition rank. ^{ch. 365}

Feng Jin Huang, first in the ranking and unrivalled in the crowd’s eyes, becomes a golden light that collides into the gatehouse and vanishes through the void it opens; she had beaten Fang Zheng in only six moves during the competition. Xiao Qi Xing, Ying Sheng Ji and others follow her in, and after twenty to thirty disciples have entered, it is Fang Zheng’s turn. He crosses the bridge, enters the gatehouse, and feels the world spin into a whirling storm of color. A young girl with a snow white fox tail and rainbow clothes appears before him, calls him another fated hopeful for Hu Immortal Inheritance, warns that only the first to reach the mountain’s peak can claim her, and touches his forehead before vanishing as suddenly as she came. At once his weightless body regains its weight and begins to fall; he reaches for his Gu and finds his whole aperture sealed by a formless force, and as he screams he wonders whether Gu Yue Fang Zheng is truly about to die from so absurd a fall. ^{ch. 365}