Chapter 400

Fang Yuan regards fixed star Gu as a rope around his neck. He has ways to remove it, but they need long preparation. Cutting off his left forearm would discard it at once but cost him a limb and alert Tie clan and Bai Ning Bing, who would then attack, worse than his previous life. Knowing what is to come is his only advantage from the rebirth, and losing the arm would derail the events he remembers and cost him that advantage completely. He decides not to alert them prematurely, since Tie clan and Bai Ning Bing are still of use to him. ^{ch. 400}

He turns over every person and thing in play for a way to protect himself while keeping the greatest benefit. An absurd thought strikes him: take a step back and widen his view. He first rejects it as riskier, then sees that success would bring overwhelming gains. An inch of miscalculation would leave him completely finished, worse than falling into Tie Ruo Nan’s hands, and Spring Autumn Cicada cannot be used again for a while. Then he laughs, resolving that only an overwhelming benefit makes him go forward relentlessly. The plan means death without a proper burial if he fails and flying into the sky like a dragon if he succeeds. Life is but a few hundred years, he declares, all a grand gamble. ^{ch. 400}

Wang Xiao, the rank five lord of Wu mountain, begs underfoot to negotiate over the path in. Asked whether he will tell the entrance, Wang Xiao says he will if let off. Fang Yuan crushes his head, since the new plan has discarded him. Fang Yuan takes Wang Xiao’s Gu and has beast strength placenta Gu devour the apertures of Wang Xiao and Yun Luo Tian, raising its aptitude to eighty-three percent. ^{ch. 400}

He then asks Ba Gui whether it wants him to stop, and leaks Spring Autumn Cicada’s aura. The land spirit, shocked, recognizes a rank six Immortal Gu and asks how a mortal holds it. In his past life Fang Yuan talked long before gambling on this trump card. This time he tells Ba Gui from the start that he is a future Gu Immortal who rebirthed into the past, its next master, who succeeded in refining the second aperture Gu. With his knowledge of the future and his refining experience as evidence, the land spirit is quickly convinced, and exults that, lie or not, the second aperture Gu’s odds of success have risen by thirty percent. ^{ch. 400}

Fang Yuan says he must first kill a person, and Long Qing Tian dies. In the last life Long Qing Tian entered a weakened area and poisoned the blessed land with jade sky Gu, forming a loophole. This time Fang Yuan strikes right after rebirth and restricts him with heavenly power before he enters. The land spirit, whose control has weakened since the three kings modified the blessed land, now believes him but cannot even detect the fixed star Gu on Fang Yuan’s arm. Fang Yuan takes Long Qing Tian’s Gu worms and aperture, unrestricted because Long Qing Tian cannot use his Gu. Besides the aperture, the greatest prize is rank five jade sky Gu from the immemorial era, extremely rare, with an extremely strong poison. ^{ch. 400}

Ba Gui next transfers him before Zhang San San, a rank four Gu Master whose rank five slavery Gu is Fang Yuan’s greatest motive for killing him. Zhang San San dies before he can react, and Fang Yuan plunders his aperture. Another flash brings him before killer ghost doctor Chou Jiu, who is extremely shocked. Fang Yuan uses the slavery Gu, which explodes into yellow light and lands on Chou Jiu, who swears he will never be enslaved, though in the previous life he begged for it. With the land spirit suppressing his Gu worms, it is planted easily, but controlling a rank five Gu Master is still a contest of souls. Chou Jiu resists and sneers that the soul’s foundation decides. Fang Yuan slaps him, tilting the contest as the yellow light merges, and once it fully merges Chou Jiu will be his most loyal slave. ^{ch. 400}