Chapter 419

Tian Ti mountain rises three thousand kilometers into the clouds at the center of central continent. It is a land of inheritances, once called the ladder of immortals for carrying cultivators up to the heavenly court in ancient times. Immortal Crane Sect’s elite disciples have been waiting an hour at its foot, grumbling that this Fang Yuan is putting on airs. One hushes the rest: he is the brother of Gu Yue Fang Zheng, owner of Hu Immortal blessed land. ^{ch. 419}

Talk among them runs that this brother of Fang Zheng’s has already defeated Feng Jin Huang, Xiao Qi Xing, Ying Sheng Ji and others. A hidden supreme elder helped him use fixed immortal travel Gu to win, some say, and the sect’s elders were clever to let Fang Zheng draw attention while keeping Fang Yuan as the real trump card. To sustain that story, Immortal Crane Sect has told its whole membership that a Gu Yue Fang Yuan belongs to the sect. For three months he has been its hottest topic, mysterious and low key. He shocked the world by winning Hu Immortal blessed land for the sect, helping it stand out among the ten sects. ^{ch. 419}

Every word of it reaches Fang Zheng, standing at the front with a dim gaze fixed on the mountain. He has been a walking corpse these past days, and barely knows how he has kept going. Since leaving Qing Mao mountain he has sworn to avenge his slaughtered clan, working harder than any other disciple and fantasizing about forcing Fang Yuan to kneel and repent so the dead could finally rest. That hatred carried him through Dang Hun Mountain’s trial on the occasions he wanted to quit. It was partly why he wanted the Hu Immortal Inheritance himself: not only for his master and clan, but because holding the blessed land would have improved his odds of revenge. ^{ch. 419}

Instead, Fang Yuan, his own blood brother and the figure of his nightmares, appeared atop the mountain and took the inheritance in front of everyone, beyond even the Gu Immortals’ power to stop. Fang Zheng returned to the sect defeated, hit by shock, pain, loss and fear together. He already knew the clan’s story was a lie, but knowing the truth only deepened a wound that has been forming in him since childhood. He keeps asking himself why his brother is so clever and he so stupid, why hard work keeps losing to Fang Yuan in both southern border and central continent, whether he is doomed to live forever in his shadow. That question has always driven him to cultivate harder. This time is different. ^{ch. 419}

The clan has just given him a new mission. Since the blessed land is in Fang Yuan’s hands, the sect means to recruit him, and if he hands it over, Fang Yuan becomes a sect elder. Central continent’s sects rank members from outer disciple up through inner, elite and legacy disciple. Above them sits sect elder, typically rank four; above that, sect leader, at rank five middle stage or higher. Above even the sect leader stand the supreme elders, all Gu Immortals, rarely seen except in a crisis or a matter that shows the sect’s true strength. ^{ch. 419}

Fang Zheng has climbed from outer disciple to elite disciple and topped the elite disciple examination. Yet a single word from Fang Yuan would make him a sect elder that every disciple, Fang Zheng included, must bow to. Sunk in doubt at the mountain’s foot, he asks his master, Lord Sky Crane, whether all his effort has been for nothing. ^{ch. 419}

Lord Sky Crane urges him to adjust his mindset. The sect sacrificed heavily for the Hu Immortal Inheritance, an Immortal Gu among the cost, and Fang Zheng owes it his personal grudges set aside for the greater good, since the sect raised him. Privately, though, Lord Sky Crane worries. Revenge has been the pillar of Fang Zheng’s whole cultivation, and being told to let it go now, he fears, will cost his disciple all remaining drive and leave him sunk in self pity. The stakes explain the order: Dang Hun Mountain’s gutstones could lift the whole sect’s strength, and Fang Yuan alone holds blood skull Gu and fixed immortal travel Gu, resources no elite disciple could ever match. ^{ch. 419}

Lord Sky Crane tells Fang Zheng to master his desire for revenge, and to treat this meeting as a trial of endurance. Above all, he warns Fang Zheng not to attack Fang Yuan: within the blessed land, Fang Zheng is no match for him. He recalls He Feng Yang’s private instruction: if needed, Fang Zheng can be sacrificed and Lord Sky Crane can negotiate in his place. Every supreme elder in the sect is watching how He Feng Yang handles this. ^{ch. 419}

Fang Zheng loosens and reclenches his fist, agreeing through gritted teeth to try. The narration frames his situation as the worst of three pains. Finding an enemy already dead after swearing revenge is pain. Finding him alive and unbeatable is worse. Finding that he must feign friendliness and negotiate, hoping the enemy becomes his superior, is worse still. ^{ch. 419}

Lord Sky Crane offers one more comfort. Fang Yuan, however he came by an Immortal Gu, is still mortal, and a calamity is already striking the blessed land. It will leave the land riddled with loopholes and Fang Yuan badly weakened, giving Fang Zheng good odds on this trip. Fang Zheng’s mood eases at the thought. He Feng Yang, who has stayed hidden to protect the elite disciples, watch for other Gu Masters’ schemes, and step in if Fang Yuan cannot survive the calamity, senses an aura of destruction from the blessed land’s hiding place. He murmurs that the earthly calamity has begun. ^{ch. 419}

Patches of illusory grassland, like drifting clouds, begin appearing on Tian Ti mountain: a loophole large enough only for Gu worms, letting outsiders glimpse inside the blessed land. Lord Sky Crane orders the lightning symbol paper crane Gu sent through it. Fang Zheng, teeth gritted under everyone’s watch, activates the Gu. The grassland image collapses into a lump of primeval essence and dissipates before it can pass through, and the Gu circles twice before returning to his hand. ^{ch. 419}

He Feng Yang, briefly shocked to see Fang Yuan discarding blessed land outright, sneers that every piece given up is like cutting away his own flesh. Let him see how much he can afford to lose, he thinks. As the abandoned ground grows from a few square kilometers to tens of square kilometers, his expression sours. He judges the calamity must be dangerous indeed, and calls Fang Yuan a wastrel for throwing away so much land. ^{ch. 419}