Nature of the Three Inheritances
Night over Imperial Court blessed land glows silver, like silk or fog, as azure wolves fly free above it, chasing birds and hunting for the pleasure of it rather than for food. Fang Yuan stands atop Di Qiu and opens his eyes. Besides preparing for Gu refinement these days, he has expanded his wolf groups, and the land wolves alone, turtleback wolf, water wolf and night wolf among them, now number two hundred thousand. He judges the wolves, spread across a hundred li, a good deterrence, since most Gu Masters recognize the azure wolf group in the sky as Wolf King’s symbol and choose to detour. A Gu Master who does not detour is read as having ill intent and is attacked once the wolves notice, and Fang Yuan spares no concern for an innocent bystander’s bad luck. ch. 563
Fang Yuan turns his gaze to the sacred palace and sees its dazzling aurora, the sign that Eighty-Eight True Yang Building is about to materialize its second floor. As its towers sink, countless wild Gu are sacrificed and turned into the mystical power that forms an Immortal Gu house, and this aurora is that power’s accumulation reaching a qualitative change. To open the Di Qiu inheritance, Fang Yuan needs to borrow this power’s strength and force it to flow backward. He reasons that Hei Lou Lan has intentionally opened Eighty-Eight True Yang Building to the public to get through its stages, drawing every Gu Master outside the sacred palace to gather here, so their attention gives him the perfect chance to open the inheritance. Without hesitation, he strikes. ch. 563
He sends out thirty-six rank one little light Gu, tiny five-pointed shapes giving off milky white light, and they fly into Di Qiu’s cave and lift its darkness. He follows with thirteen rank three light fences Gu, which can turn into restraining fences once activated, and they mix with the little light Gu inside the cave without changing anything. He then releases three rank five light path Gu. They are lightning flash Gu, which speeds a target; unlimited spring light Gu, which heals; and heaven blazing spark Gu, which attacks. ch. 563
Lightning flash Gu flies in first as a blue glow, and Di Qiu finally reacts, its ground and soil expanding and connecting as if a mechanism has unlocked. The blue lightning destroys the little light Gu and swells into a powerful blue-light glow, but the light fences Gu link together and pen it in. Unlimited spring light Gu flies in next. Its gentle jade-green aurora suppresses the blue light into a stalemate. Heaven blazing spark Gu then turns into a bright red light, pierces both auras, and drives deeper into the cave. With loud sounds the cave entrance slowly closes, and deep in the ground the three lights mix in a transformation Fang Yuan cannot describe. ch. 563
Fang Yuan’s heart settles: he was right, and this matches “light in the soil,” part of the quote guiding the ritual. He holds only the latter half of the inheritance’s clue, since central continent Gu Immortals hold the first half, so despite feeling eighty percent certain he still worries over a mistake. That latter half, though, describes the method for opening the inheritance. Fang Yuan draws on his foundation as a refinement master and on what he knows of Eighty-Eight True Yang Building to force an interpretation of the code, gaining a chance to snatch the inheritance partway through its formation. ch. 563
About an hour later the sounds beneath the ground soften, though the earth grows hot enough that even Fang Yuan’s northern plains deer leather shoes cannot block it. The hole reopens slowly, its light gone and only darkness left inside. Fang Yuan grows elated. He knows the next part of the quote, “shine up to a hundred thousand feet high,” would be a mistake read literally. It is instead a test of the Gu Master’s refinement ability, its words describing the steps of the refinement process rather than mere scenery. ch. 563
Fang Yuan calmly throws in two defensive rank five shine back spike Gu, three investigative high observation Gu, one attack type ten thousand heart piercing arrow Gu, and nine assistance type nine feet flame Gu. Grey-yellow smoke rumbles inside the cave without escaping, and for seven minutes the sounds of chirping birds, flying arrows and piercing shrieks come from within it before darkness returns and the cave closes again. This time Di Qiu gives off cold instead of heat, stiffening Fang Yuan’s legs. Fang Yuan sighs and looks back to the sacred palace, thinking that if his guess is right, it is about to fall into chaos. ch. 563
At the sacred palace, a secret door concealed by trees opens at a side hall, and first elder Hei Pei walks out with Tai Bai Yun Sheng. Hei Pei pats his own chest and promises that with him involved, Tai Bai Yun Sheng is sure to get a guest token. Tai Bai Yun Sheng laughs, says he trusts the promise, and turns to leave. Hei Pei bows and watches him vanish among the trees. ch. 563
Hei Pei reflects that the pull of an Immortal Venerable’s inheritance is enormous, since even Tai Bai Yun Sheng has come to bribe him. Ever since Hei Lou Lan opened Eighty-Eight True Yang Building to the public, Hei Pei, who oversees the matter, has become sought after, visited daily by people offering connections, flattery, bribes and even seduction. Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s visit still shocks him. The novel names Tai Bai Yun Sheng the number one healer in northern plains, credited with saving countless people and holding great character, so Hei Pei had not expected him of all people to offer a bribe. Hei Pei reasons to himself that even Old Sir Tai Bai remains a mortal in the end, with guest tokens too scarce to resist, and that he would not have resisted either in his place. ch. 563
Near the top of the sacred palace, the dazzling aurora has condensed into a thick fog, and inside it the second layer of Eighty-Eight True Yang Building is already visible. Hei Pei predicts the second layer will materialize in no time, and nearby, Tai Bai Yun Sheng looks up as the colorful aurora lights his white hair and wrinkled face. He drifts into a daze as a memory resurfaces: a sunset burning bright like fire, and himself at fourteen years old meeting the old beggar who changed his life. The old beggar, whose messy purple-red hair marked him as sometimes insane and sometimes unconscious yet deep-eyed when awake, thanked young Tai Bai Yun Sheng for a bowl of water that saved his life and offered to grant any wish. Young Tai Bai Yun Sheng asked to become a Gu Master. The old beggar offered three complete inheritances: one to bathe in flame and walk on fire beyond mortal limits, one to command wind and air and roam freely, and one to surpass life and death and help the people of the world. The young Tai Bai Yun Sheng thought it over and chose the third. ch. 563
Snapping out of the memory, Tai Bai Yun Sheng laughs bitterly. He admits he is, in the end, a man afraid of dying. He felt nothing of the sort when young, having grown indifferent after witnessing many deaths, but as his once healthy body weakened with age he began reminiscing about his youth, since people’s thoughts change with their circumstances. On Earth a person cannot surpass the limits of life and death and must accept them, but here a trace of hope is enough to make people struggle and fight. Only as death drew closer did Tai Bai Yun Sheng come to feel this great terror, and he secretly watched and waited through several rounds of the contest before deciding to enter Imperial Court blessed land. ch. 563
He hopes to raise his lifespan with a lifespan Gu from Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, hard as such Gu are to find or trade, and means to attempt ascension to the Gu Immortal realm only if that fails. The old beggar’s inheritance, outstanding enough to cultivate a mortal all the way to rank six Gu Immortal realm, states plainly the method for that ascension. To ascend, a cultivator must fuse the elements of heaven, earth and man. A shortfall in any one of the three means death and the soul’s dissipation. Tai Bai Yun Sheng would not attempt it unless desperate, since ascending alone would not lengthen his life, but his inheritance leaves him one hope for that, obtainable only once he has already ascended. For years he has searched for a lifespan Gu without success, since they form from heaven and earth and are hard to locate or catch, and he now looks to Eighty-Eight True Yang Building to cheer himself with the hope of finding one there. But the next moment his pupils widen at an unbelievable sight. ch. 563
