Chapter 592

Fang Yuan looks down at Tai Bai Yun Sheng, who lies unconscious and bathed in blood, and Fang Yuan is the culprit who caused it. Outside the main hall’s doors, a sea of blood beasts growls until Fang Yuan tells them to shut up. They fall silent at once. The six-edge owner token makes him master of this floor. Through its control system he senses the Gu Masters left in the round, among them information gatherers from the Hei, Ma and Ye Lui tribes and other forces who have come to see whether Tai Bai Yun Sheng fails or succeeds. Inside the hall, only the two of them remain among the dried corpses. ^{ch. 592}

Fang Yuan closes the door, grips Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s skull and activates his prepared Gu worms one by one. His eyes turn pure white without pupils as he extracts every memory of the old man’s life, among them Gao Yang and Zhu Zai kneeling to thank him for saving their lives. Another memory shows an inkman in the inkmen city choosing Tai Bai Yun Sheng in his youth. The flood of information damages Fang Yuan’s mind and makes him scream from intense pain. Because he does not want to harm Tai Bai Yun Sheng, he takes most of the soul search’s pressure himself. When the images end he rests, and the old man sleeps on peacefully. ^{ch. 592}

Fang Yuan sighs that he did not find it, and Mo Yao’s will in his mind asks what. He does not answer her, since the matter belongs to his grand scheme after rebirth. He was searching for the Immortal Gu recipe for Landscape As Before, a Gu that Tai Bai Yun Sheng obtains only after he becomes an immortal. Rumors say it condenses on its own when heaven and earth resonate with him. Had the recipe been in his mind, Fang Yuan could have stolen it and had Lang Ya land spirit refine the Gu, which would greatly reduce his danger. The search finds no recipe, so the rumors are really true. ^{ch. 592}

Fang Yuan must now snatch the Gu by force from Tai Bai Yun Sheng once he becomes an immortal, while Fang Yuan is still a mortal. He has never heard of a mortal winning against an immortal. He has no other choice. Having invested time and effort, he keeps preparing despite lacking absolute confidence of success. ^{ch. 592}

Outside Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s image appears, and the Gu Masters crowd around to find him unconscious with extremely serious injuries. Many healing Gu Masters hurry to stabilize him, since he is much more beloved than Hei Lou Lan and Chang Shan Yin. Seeing even Tai Bai Yun Sheng so gravely hurt, someone sighs that the round was probably not passed; the time is up, and most Gu Masters did not return safely. No one has seen Gao Yang and Zhu Zai, and the round stays intact but closed to entry for now. Everyone is very clear what this implies. Five rank five experts have been sacrificed since the building formed, and deep silence falls. ^{ch. 592}

Tai Bai Yun Sheng wakes weak on a bed in Hei Lou Lan’s residence. The healing Gu Masters say his injuries are no longer a problem, but he must recuperate for the next few months. To get a team for the challenge he had agreed to Hei Lou Lan’s request and become an external elder of Hei tribe. Told that he failed the round and returned barely alive, he recalls spending his final primeval essence to activate his defense Gu and charge into the great hall, then fainting. He laughs that he failed after all and weeps that Gao Yang and Zhu Zai sacrificed their lives to protect him. ^{ch. 592}

The consoling words of the healing Gu Masters feel to him like utter sarcasm. At the final crucial moment he had kept his primeval essence for himself and not saved Gao Yang and Zhu Zai, so that he could activate the defense Gu and charge the hall. He chose it in an instant, purposely sacrificing them for a chance at the fifteen year lifespan Gu, the reward for passing the round. He feels very unfamiliar with himself, extremely ashamed, extremely inferior and extremely regretful. ^{ch. 592}

Hei Lou Lan arrives smiling as the room kneels, calls the attempt admirable, and says the round can be passed in future. Tai Bai Yun Sheng keeps his eyes closed and says nothing. He understands why he failed: after charging in and avoiding the blood beasts he laughed wildly in great joy, and with his greatly volatile state of mind and grave injuries he lost consciousness. He lay senseless until the time limit ended and he was sent out forcefully, a single step from success. Yet his intense pain comes from having abandoned his comrades for his own selfish gains. ^{ch. 592}

He recalls his life. Reputed for a kind heart since childhood, he asked to marry his childhood friend when Tai Bai tribe devoured other tribes and she faced slavery, and the batch of captives were spared. On their wedding night she betrayed him, saying his parents had devoured her tribe and killed her parents. The captives contacted outside enemies and assaulted his tribe, and his parents died. His slave life afterwards was extremely tough, with intense guilt and regret. One day he gave an old beggar a bowl of water, and the beggar offered three immortal inheritances. ^{ch. 592}

He chose the third, which allowed surpassing life and death to assist people, and felt completely reborn. He truly achieved it and became a living legend whose kind reputation spread widely. ^{ch. 592}

Now his failure lies not in missing the lifespan Gu but in betraying his comrades and the way of life he had set for himself, all done by his own subconscious. He has seen his own selfish nature, and the image of the savior of the world he held of himself limps away from him. His shadow stretches into the horizon under the setting sun. The shadow is extremely dark. ^{ch. 592}