Chapter 609

The three qi fuse into a cocoon around Tai Bai Yun Sheng, and every trace of his injuries vanishes as his body, soul and consciousness are refined to a higher level. His whole life flashes past him. Inspiration on the Great Dao pours in, heaven and earth teaching him directly. The knowledge is too vast to hold at once, so he narrows his focus to time path, where his understanding reaches the peak of his lifetime. Gu Masters normally come to know the world only indirectly, through the Gu worms they use, refine and raise. Advancing to a Gu Immortal meets heaven and earth directly. Rank five peak is the finish line for a mortal Gu Master, but rank six is only a new starting point, and each Immortal’s future achievement depends on the potential accumulated going in. ^{ch. 609}

Tai Bai Yun Sheng regrets that his human qi runs out too soon to hold the feeling longer, and it lasted that long only with the help of human qi Immortal Gu. The qi cocoon disperses, and the three qi shrink into a mass of tri-colored primordial qi where his old aperture once sat, completing the second step of advancing, receiving qi. Only the final step, releasing Gu, remains. He takes out his three core Gu, river as before, mountain as before and man as before, the last of them his vital Gu. He sends his vital Gu into the primordial qi mass, and a thunderous boom shakes his whole body as the mortal aperture breaks apart and an immortal aperture forms in its place. Its sky is azure like crystal and its ground a desolate wilderness of yellow stone, and it pulls at the outside world with a newborn’s hunger. ^{ch. 609}

Heaven qi and earth qi pour in without pause, the ground inside expanding to four and two thirds of a thousand square kilometres as the time flow climbs to a ratio of one to thirty three. He adds river as before and mountain as before to steady it. ^{ch. 609}

The immortal aperture reaches its limit and stops growing, its intake slowing from great gulps to slow sips as thirty six beads of rank six green grape immortal essence brew inside the thickening mist. Outside, the tribulation clouds and calamity dust begin to dissipate. Inside, the heaven and earth qi still linger, condensing into a cocoon around river as before, mountain as before and the other Gu, each one fermenting a change of its own. A theoretical Gu recipe from the old beggar’s inheritance surfaces in Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s mind, promising that man as before Gu, once raised to rank six, can be turned on its own owner. ^{ch. 609}

He cannot be sure the recipe will work, but he no longer has another option. Since advancing, his senses have sharpened, especially toward time, which is now precise to within a single breath. He can feel how little lifespan is left to him, like a thin puddle drying under strong sun. He had once planned to obtain a lifespan Gu, but Fang Yuan’s secret manipulations foiled it, and the ordeal on the road to the great hall still sits in his heart like an unresolved knot. Now man as before Gu is his only remaining hope. ^{ch. 609}

He pours the recipe’s countless thoughts into the qi cocoon covering man as before Gu, and the cocoon erupts, devouring the last of the heaven and earth qi in the immortal aperture. Man as before Gu becomes the eye of the storm as the qi surges into it as refinement resource. Tai Bai Yun Sheng murmurs to himself, gratitude and hope in his voice. ^{ch. 609}

Without True Yang Building’s help he would have failed the second step already. He is not of Giant Sun’s bloodline, yet the building helped him anyway, which he cannot explain. He wonders if Giant Sun’s will has woken, and why it would aid him when advancing here already breaks Giant Sun’s own taboo against a Gu Immortal entering Imperial Court blessed land. ^{ch. 609}

Gruel Mud keeps melting Frost Jade Peacock’s seals, and its chains rattle inside True Yang Building. Yet it shows fear rather than joy. Giant Sun’s will laughs that the struggle is useless, since it has used Tai Bai Yun Sheng to strike at the land spirit’s foundation and buy itself more time, having already seen through most of the special will Gu formation surrounding him. Once free, he plans to reseal the disobedient land spirit for good, so that Eighty-Eight True Yang Building stands, in his own words, for hundreds of thousands of years longer. Every feather on Frost Jade Peacock stands on end at this, and, formed from an obsession too proud to bend even here, it vows it will not let him have his way even in death. It stops struggling and lies down instead, its gaze still sharp with hatred, and Giant Sun’s will realizes too late what this means and shouts in fury that the little sparrow dares. ^{ch. 609}

Outside, as the tribulation clouds and calamity dust seem to fade, onlookers who do not know the truth grow excited, wondering if Tai Bai Yun Sheng has succeeded. Ye Lui Sang marvels that Tai Bai Yun Sheng has reached the third step at all, and wonders what grade of blessed land will form for him. Past the second step a Gu Immortal forms an immortal aperture. That aperture is a blessed land at rank six or seven and a grotto heaven at rank eight or nine. Hei Lou Lan recalls that blessed lands come in three grades, ranked by size and by how much heaven, earth and human qi have fused. ^{ch. 609}

Small ones reach up to two thousand square kilometres, draw in a small tributary of the river of time, and form just over ten beads of immortal essence with few resources. Medium ones range from two and two thirds to four thousand square kilometres and draw a slightly bigger tributary. They form over twenty beads and have plentiful resources. High grade ones range from four and two thirds to six thousand square kilometres, draw a large tributary, form over thirty beads, and leave enough heaven and earth qi over to refine a mortal Gu into an Immortal Gu. ^{ch. 609}

Hei Lou Lan wonders how he should treat Tai Bai Yun Sheng if he becomes a Gu Immortal. Fang Yuan expects him to obtain a high grade blessed land barring the unexpected, and thinks that refining an Immortal Gu still carries risk, since it forms calamities and tribulations inside the immortal aperture. Such tribulations are not unique to becoming a Gu Immortal, but happen whenever a Gu worm absorbs heaven and earth qi. Outsiders cannot interfere with a tribulation inside someone else’s blessed land, and True Yang Building can help Tai Bai Yun Sheng but not reach into his aperture. From here, he can only rely on himself. ^{ch. 609}

Fang Yuan suddenly looks up: the golden sky of Imperial Court blessed land, gold by day and silver by night, now shows pitch black scars with starlight from the outside world of Northern Plains showing through. The whole blessed land trembles, and the crowd cries out in shock as the fading tribulation clouds and calamity dust condense again, pouring more heaven and earth qi into Tai Bai Yun Sheng. Too much qi has been drawn out, injuring the blessed land’s own foundation. Fang Yuan guesses the cause at once: Frost Jade Peacock, too proud to bear more of Giant Sun’s suppression, would rather die than stay caged, and it has lived up to its word. ^{ch. 609}