Profound Concept of the Universe, Demon Venerable Hong Lian
The land spirit tells Fang Yuan to stop, since the primeval essence expenditure has deviated from the plan. He refuses, wanting ninety percent, not eighty-three, and is told greed has blinded him. His sixteen portions of immortal essence kept a spare after eight for refining, four to sustain the three kings inheritance and three and a bit for killing Gu Masters. The land spirit answers that the spare is the margin for repeated attempts, so using it up means one more failure ruins the second aperture Gu. ch. 383
Fang Yuan is anxious, for he cannot directly command the land spirit. Rank five and rank four experts remain as obstacles to his later refining, but the immortal essence left is too little. The land spirit warns that if he keeps taking risks, it will stop cooperating and take away his examination chance. Fang Yuan offers to spare the others but urges that the rank five Gu Master, one of the four great doctors with a great network, must die. The land spirit denies it: the girl he planned to use can block enemies for a while with the beast groups, it will protect him, and the refining matters most. ch. 383
That rank five Gu Master is Chou Jiu, called killer ghost doctor, whose influence is great. In Fang Yuan’s previous life Chou Jiu joined the demonic faction at Yi Tian mountain, took the third-in-control position and gathered countless Gu Masters, and his healing lifted their morale. Only when Shang Yan Fei invited Doctor Su Shou and Divine Doctor Sheng Shou was his glamor suppressed. The battle made him publicly recognised as the head of the four great doctors. Captured when the righteous path subdued the mountain, he refused Wu clan leader’s recruitment and scolded Shang Yan Fei and Doctor Su Shou, revealing some of the pair’s ancient history, and the furious Shang Yan Fei killed him on the spot. Fang Yuan cannot rest easy about Chou Jiu attacking at the final step. ch. 383
The land spirit refuses any killing, since the immortal essence must be preserved for refining, and blames the demonic path for being too extreme and greedy. Fang Yuan rebukes that demonic path members must live by greed, selfishness, extremity and risk-taking. The land spirit sighs that his demonic nature will lead him to destruction. Fang Yuan laughs that he wants to be a demonic head who commits sins and slaughters living beings, and also succeed in refining the second aperture Gu. ch. 383
He then activates Spring Autumn Cicada and for the first time leaks its aura, gambling on the risk. The flabbergasted land spirit recognizes a rank six Immortal Gu, calls Spring Autumn Cicada the seventh mysterious Gu in this world and asks how a mortal can possess it. Fang Yuan says he refined it himself. The land spirit understands that Fang Yuan was a Gu Immortal who used it to return to the past and change history. ch. 383
At his request the land spirit explains that since the immemorial era there have been space path, for up, down, left and right, and time path, for past, present and future. Its own blessed land once had 6000 km² and time six times normal speed, now three times. Spring Autumn Cicada is a time path Gu once held by Demon Venerable Hong Lian, who resisted the Immortal Court and broke the chains that bound fate. Demon Venerable names a rank nine demonic path Gu Master and Immortal Venerable a rank nine righteous one, and each era holds only one Venerable, never two at once. Fang Yuan gasps that Hong Lian is the most mysterious Demon Venerable, with the least records among them. The world’s five regions share one river of time, a thread joining history’s still images, and using the Cicada sends will and memories backward along it into an earlier image, changing that image and later ones. Fang Yuan benefits greatly. ch. 383
The land spirit gives in: a future Gu Immortal who refined the Cicada is truly the most appropriate candidate, so it will trust him once and asks whom he wants to kill. It had expected a mortal to waste much immortal essence, and now reduces that estimate. Fang Yuan promises the refining will succeed, since he must rely on the second aperture Gu to ascend to Gu Immortal realm again. The land spirit laughs in agreement. Once Fang Yuan is a Gu Immortal, it says, the second aperture will bring him unparalleled benefits. ch. 383
