Awakening
A formless heavenly power lifts Tai Bai Yun Sheng into the air as he laughs maniacally, his face losing its usual warmth for a crazed, distorted look. Gu Masters flee the sacred palace in a panicked stream. At a distance they stop, watching from hilltops and the sky with investigative Gu. Word spreads that he is advancing to Gu Immortal, an event most people never witness in a whole lifetime. ch. 606
The ground begins shaking too. Onlooking tribe leaders recognise the sign: to advance to Gu Immortal, a Gu Master must first shatter their own aperture in an all-out assault of primeval essence, with no way back afterward. Gu tribe leader Gu Guo Long says the first step alone takes great courage, since there is no turning back once the aperture breaks. Nie tribe leader Nie Ya Qing calls Tai Bai Yun Sheng too courageous for daring it, given how slim the odds of a successful advance are. ch. 606
Hei Lou Lan privately knows his own provocation is part of why Tai Bai Yun Sheng is attempting this in such a crumbling state of mind. He wants to watch and learn from the advancement, but frets over how he should treat Tai Bai Yun Sheng if it succeeds. The thought gives him a headache. ch. 606
Fang Yuan watches from an azure wolf king’s back, among his wolf group. He turns luck inspection Gu on Tai Bai Yun Sheng again. The reddening flame of his luck now blazes like an inferno. In Fang Yuan’s own previous life Tai Bai Yun Sheng advanced successfully, and Fang Yuan judges it should not be a real problem this time either. Unlike Hei Lou Lan’s hesitation, Fang Yuan already has a plan for dealing with an immortal Tai Bai Yun Sheng. ch. 606
When Fang Yuan tries to look again, the pressure injures luck inspection Gu itself and burns his own eyes, so he stops the Gu without surprise. Tai Bai Yun Sheng, having broken his aperture, is drawing heaven and earth qi from a huge surrounding range, and any Gu worm activated inside that range triggers a chain reaction and a backlash from the surging qi. Even an Immortal Gu could be injured and might even die. A mortal Gu would fare far worse. This is why Fang Yuan has not tried using Gu worms to move against Tai Bai Yun Sheng now: acting rashly in this period could get him caught in the backlash himself. ch. 606
Two giant vortexes take shape, a dark cloudy one in the sky and a dusty golden one on the ground. Each spans miles. Ye Lui Sang calls the sight more spectacular even than his own tribe’s supreme elder’s advancement, and puts it down to the depth of Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s accumulation. The chapter adds that he spent a whole life roaming northern plains with a Gu Immortal inheritance. Tai Bai Yun Sheng shouts for it to come, shaking with fear and excitement and also relief, willing to fail if failing frees him from his nightmare. ch. 606
Heaven qi, clear and free, rains down from the sky vortex. Earth qi, dense and profound, rises from the ground vortex. Both converge on the white, cocoon-like sphere of human qi that Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s own body gives off. Hei Lou Lan names the two stages under way: first breaking the aperture, second taking in the qi. Ye Lui Sang lays out the risk of the second stage: too much human qi causes self-detonation, too much heaven qi dissolves the Gu Master into the sky, and too much earth qi turns them into a suffocating fossil. Because the danger is so extreme, most rank five peak stage Gu Masters who know the method never attempt it except as a last resort, since there is no turning back once it begins. ch. 606
Having gone through this himself in his previous life as a blood path Gu Immortal, Fang Yuan reflects that the second step tests a Gu Master’s fundamental nature even more than their control. Brushing this close to heaven and earth can let a Gu Master glimpse the Great Dao, and losing themselves in that wonder, growing greedy for a higher chance to advance, is what usually unbalances the three qi and kills them. Tai Bai Yun Sheng does not disappoint him. He steadies himself and keeps the three qi in balance, advancing slowly. Hei Lou Lan and Ye Lui Sang remain wary, noting that holding this state now does not guarantee he can sustain it to the end. ch. 606
Suddenly the aurora above shakes. Eighty-Eight True Yang Building trembles violently, and the sacred palace beneath it shakes too, collapsing several courtyards. Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s qi absorption is drawing from Imperial Court blessed land’s own small world rather than the outside world, weakening the blessed land and draining the very source of the land spirit’s strength. The land spirit had planned to wait until Gruel Mud corroded its shackles further before striking, fearing Giant Sun’s will, but Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s advancement is sure to wake that will regardless. With its hopes about to be dashed and suppression likely to follow, the land spirit chooses to strike now, before Giant Sun’s will can fully wake and prepare. ch. 606
Frost Jade Peacock cries out, and the attack works: the green paste covering it melts down past its neck, and five or six of its black chains break. A giant will like the sun then stirs awake in the depths of the building, demanding to know who dared disturb its slumber. Its light sweeps every corner of Eighty-Eight True Yang Building and instantly destroys the will Fang Yuan had left behind, refined into the guest halt stele. The glass owner token in Fang Yuan’s hand begins turning burning hot. ch. 606
