Chapter 567

Fang Yuan smiles as he reads the ink text on the bowl, which describes calamity beckoning Gu, a rank seven Immortal Gu one rank above his Spring Autumn Cicada. Its ability is extremely strange: it draws the earthly calamity and heavenly tribulation of a Gu Immortal’s trial away from the original target and onto the user. He wonders why Mo Yao, thirty-sixth generation fairy of Spirit Affinity House, would refine such a Gu. The last section of the ink text gives the reason. ^{ch. 567}

Mo Yao and Bo Qing were deeply in love, a famous couple of the righteous path. Sword Immortal Bo Qing had no match in the world, and his one goal was to break through to rank nine. The attempt was extremely dangerous, and he judged his own chance of success at fifteen percent at most. Mo Yao could not dissuade him. He set up his inheritances, and his first attempt failed, leaving him bedridden for seventy years in her care. When he wanted to try again, she knew he lacked the sustainability to endure the final trial of limitless calamities and tribulations. To help her husband she secretly betrayed her sect and began planning around Eighty-Eight True Yang Building. ^{ch. 567}

Through the girls it gave Giant Sun as concubines, Spirit Affinity House held many secrets of Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, and Mo Yao learned the building’s secret there. Imperial Court blessed land lay at the center of northern plains. The building’s good fortune was extremely deep, so at set intervals it drew extremely powerful calamities and tribulations. Giant Sun Immortal Venerable placed divert disaster Gu, a rank seven Immortal Gu, as a cornerstone to push these out to the world beyond, where they became the ten year blizzard disaster. He turned that disaster into the rule behind the Imperial Court contest. ^{ch. 567}

Mo Yao discovered a loophole, though not strictly one, in this arrangement. Every ten years the blessed land opens a crack to send out the calamities, and for that moment the setup barring Gu Immortals fails. Risking her very life, she entered through the crack and spent close to ten years inside before finding the crucial node, the small tower at Di Qiu area. She destroyed it and created a cave to foster calamity beckoning Gu, and after refining its early stage she set up the Immortal Gu house Water Pavilion in a nameless valley. There she completely nurtured the Gu to its completed form and secretly brought it outside, leaving the arrangements standing so she could refine another if Bo Qing failed again and the Gu was destroyed. She never returned. Bo Qing’s second attempt failed completely, the vast heavenly tribulations turned him into ashes, and Mo Yao perished alongside him. ^{ch. 567}

Fang Yuan now understands why Mo Yao left the inheritance’s true content unexplained: her act betrayed the sect, yet she still left clues, and in his previous life central continent’s Gu Immortals used them to destroy Eighty-Eight True Yang Building. To protect her love, Mo Yao was willing to draw the calamities and tribulations onto herself with the Gu. Fang Yuan sighs that she is a strange woman. He would absolutely not sacrifice himself for love, yet he understands her, since her goal was her lover and his is eternal life. ^{ch. 567}

The cocoon in the bowl has burst, and calamity beckoning Gu, a genuine self sacrifice Gu, has completely formed, grey and the size of a little finger. It seems to have no use to Fang Yuan but holds enormous value. It could be exchanged for an enormous amount of immortal essence stones in treasure yellow heaven, and as the counterpart of divert disaster Gu it would give huge assistance to his plans in the building. A condition stands before he can completely subdue it: the bearer must have a heart of self sacrifice. Without that, subduing it by force brings a backlash at best, and at worst the Gu self-destructs and harms the Gu Master’s life. Fang Yuan stands before the bowl in Water Pavilion, asking himself whether he has that heart. ^{ch. 567}

Tang Miao Ming lies in bed coughing blood, her brows furrowing deeply in pain, while Tang Fang asks why she risked her life when their father and the others have died. She tells him that the tribe suffered heavily in the Imperial Court contest and was almost swallowed by other tribes, and that as tribe leader he must use Eighty-Eight True Yang Building to make it prosper again. He complains that the gains do not repay her injuries and that he has been very distressed, with no mood to manage the tribe’s affairs. She reprimands him as Tribe leader Tang Fang, saying that reviving the tribe is his duty, and he admits his mistake. Softening, she sets the meaning of his life as revitalizing the tribe. As punishment she orders him to copy the first section of chapter three of a book ten times. ^{ch. 567}

The passage tells how Ren Zu’s second daughter Desolate Ancient Moon climbed Cheng Bai mountain to search for success Gu and rescue her father, but failed, lost her sense of self and became a monster. Ren Zu, with no daughter to rescue him and with Verdant Great Sun, his eldest son, still lost in addiction and dejection, stayed trapped in Luo Po valley with no way back to life. Luo Po wind cut down his soul until it grew weaker. The fragments converged into a youth, and Ren Zu’s third son, Northern Dark Ice Soul, was born. ^{ch. 567}

Cold in appearance but warm-hearted, and very filial, he decided to rescue Ren Zu. Ren Zu said life and death cannot be forced, but his son answered that his efforts might be in vain and he still had to try, so Ren Zu let him go. Immune to the valley’s wind and fog, he still could not find the exit. There he met unexpected Gu, which said the valley was a death realm and offered to take him to the human world to be resurrected. It could take only him and not his father, so he refused, but it forcibly carried him out through the door of life and death. ^{ch. 567}

Northern Dark Ice Soul obtained a flesh body and felt extremely bewildered alone in the vast world. Cognition Gu found him and told him of Cheng Bai mountain and Desolate Ancient Moon, his elder sister, whom he decided to see first. Desolate Ancient Moon, now a monster, only repeated questions, and when he urged her to wake and help resurrect their father, she asked why Ren Zu should be resurrected and why humans live. He could not answer. ^{ch. 567}

While he pondered, bewilderment Gu, love Gu and disguise Gu approached him, a trio so notorious for mischief that even cognition Gu would not provoke them. Love Gu, completely unreasonable, drove cognition Gu away, then used disguise Gu’s power to pose as cognition Gu and sent him searching for a meaning Gu that does not exist. The three guffawed and followed him to toy with him in turns, and he kept persevering through their tricks. Moved, cognition Gu came to help him while love Gu was away, and its strength let him see through the disguise. Bewilderment Gu and disguise Gu left in defeat. ^{ch. 567}

He told cognition Gu that although no meaning Gu exists, he could create one. Back beside his sister, he made a meaning Gu and pressed it into her head, and her eyes brightened as she declared that the meaning of her life was to search for success Gu and resurrect her father. Late at night, Tang Fang puts down his brush, deeply moved after repeated copying. He takes his sister’s intent to be that people who find a meaning find direction and fear no sacrifice, and he resolves that his life’s meaning is to bring the tribe to prosperity. ^{ch. 567}

At the same time in Water Pavilion, Fang Yuan smiles and without hesitation picks up calamity beckoning Gu, which absorbs his aura and becomes his possession with not the least tremor or backlash. He has already seen through life and death, and familial feelings, friendship and love do not interest him. Eternal life is the meaning he gives this life. He calmly accepts death and failure. Playing with the rank seven Immortal Gu in his hand, he says he already has the necessary resolve to sacrifice. ^{ch. 567}