Formless Hand
The pursuers taunt Fang Yuan as he flees through the secluded domain, calling him a coward and telling him he is unworthy of disguising as Chang Shan Yin. Fang Yuan lets the insults pass, his expression tranquil, and studies his surroundings instead. True inheritance secluded domain is vast but not flat, and many masterless true inheritance meteors fly through it in disorder, sometimes colliding. Were Fang Yuan unlucky enough to be obstructed by one, the group behind him could close the distance and encircle him. ch. 629
A dark red true inheritance meteor, Wind Flower Gu, drifts toward him, and Fang Yuan smiles and wills it into a giant flower of condensed wind that carries him and nimbly changes direction. The unparalleled true inheritance shoots on toward the pursuing group instead, scattering them into a moment of panicked dodging that lets Fang Yuan widen the gap. Hei Lou Lan’s group answers with countless long range attacks. Fang Yuan uses Flash Bug Gu, a rare rank five space path movement Gu, to vanish and reappear five hundred steps ahead, so their attacks land on nothing. Flash Bug Gu is not fast in itself and burns heavy primeval essence for each five hundred step jump, better suited to sudden dodges than to sustained flight, so Fang Yuan switches to Eagle Rise Gu instead. Though only rank four, he flies three of them at once through the six wings on his back, gaining real speed while spending less primeval essence. ch. 629
The pursuers can only gnash their teeth as he pulls away, grumbling that he is too slippery to fight and wondering how he still has so much primeval essence after shattering his aperture. One answers that Gu Masters have ways to preserve primeval essence, such as fish bubble Gu, beggar moth or grave yam Gu, while another complains that their own movement Gu cannot endure the backlash from the heaven and earth qi. Hei Lou Lan says they are suffering the same backlash Fang Yuan is. He orders the chase to continue without stop, since it is normal for a flying master to outrun them, but keeping him from advancing to Gu Immortal will fulfil their objective all the same. ch. 629
Fang Yuan’s anxiety deepens as he sees the pursuers have no intention of giving up, and he admits to himself that Hei Lou Lan is striking exactly at his weak point. Pain spreads from his shattered second aperture, a hole holding the three colored qi lump and waiting for his vital Gu to be placed so the immortal aperture can finally form. Without that aperture Fang Yuan would die from the backlash of heaven and earth qi. Forming it, whatever its grade, would force him into total concentration and a period of complete defenselessness whose length depends on the person, and enemies who exploited that window could kill him outright. Hei Lou Lan’s group is firmly blocking him at this exact step. Fang Yuan dares not place his Gu yet, and watches the extremely compressed qi lump begin to vibrate, knowing that if he waits any longer it will disperse and every gain toward Gu Immortal will vanish. ch. 629
True inheritance secluded domain suddenly shakes, once and then again, and panic spreads as onlookers wonder whether the domain itself is collapsing. Hei Lou Lan and Ye Lui Sang look worried. They realize this must be the heavenly tribulation outside starting to affect Eighty-Eight True Yang Building. Fang Yuan and Tai Bai Yun Sheng are overjoyed instead, reading the tremor as proof that Giant Sun’s will has staked everything and that even it has reached its limit against the tribulation. ch. 629
Giant Sun’s will barely endures, gasping that it survived, and the ten meter thick armor that once shielded Eighty-Eight True Yang Building is left a thin, dimmed layer. Thirty-six chaotic branching teeth striking together amplify their might by close to ten times, while snow war tribulation lightning attacks almost without pause, at a frequency never seen before. Not even one percent of the original will remains. Giant Sun’s will destroys eleven of the spirals in advance, but the rest erupt together, and it cannot block seven of them: seven scars appear on Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, four of them cutting straight through, opening the passages that cause the tremor felt inside. Its Gu worms are destroyed in huge numbers and two immortal Gu are lost as well, with no telling how long full repair will take. ch. 629
Giant Sun’s will curses Fang Yuan for making it bear this cost. As the tribulation cocoon thins and light breaks through onto the damaged building, Giant Sun’s will feels a stone lift from its heart. It reasons that the fundamental Gu worms survive, that lost mortal Gu can be replenished, and that even the destroyed immortal Gu can eventually be refined again. It declares the situation set, and says it will get rid of the otherworldly demon and then teach that scum Fang Yuan his place. ch. 629
Just then a giant light blue hand appears before Giant Sun’s will, and it trembles harder than it did before the chaotic branching teeth. It recognizes Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable’s killer move: Formless Hand. Rank nine Gu Immortals are invincible under the heavens and leave traces that can outlast them, so even after death their killer moves can resurface during a heavenly tribulation. Giant Sun’s will reasons that Fang Yuan set out to kill the child of luck, Ma Hong Yun, and suffered a backlash from Fortune Rivalling Heaven Gu that ruined his luck badly enough to draw such a disaster. The irony stings: it was Giant Sun Immortal Venerable himself who left Fortune Rivalling Heaven Gu behind, so Giant Sun’s will is suffering from its own maker’s arrangement. It recalls that Formless Hand once let Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable rob countless Gu worms while the whole world stood helpless, and that with only five fingers it should be able to seize no more than a rank five Gu. ch. 629
Instead, countless formless hands fill the sky, most carrying one to five fingers, but sixteen carry six fingers, nine carry seven, and three carry eight. Giant Sun’s will cannot believe Fang Yuan’s ruined luck could reach this far. It cries that everything is finished, and the great mass of Giant Sun’s will disperses and falls like sand, a self-collapse with no fighting spirit left to endure the impact. The heavenly tribulation has taken its final form as these formless hands, and what remains of Giant Sun’s will curls into a ball, leaving Eighty-Eight True Yang Building exposed. ch. 629
Inside the secluded domain, Fang Yuan and the others still know nothing of this, and the chase continues while both sides lose hundreds of Gu worms to the qi backlash but keep fighting on. Nearly out of movement Gu, Fang Yuan leads his pursuers through a wide detour before suddenly reversing direction toward Tai Bai Yun Sheng. He asks him, by secret voice, to open his immortal aperture. Letting him inside would let Fang Yuan evade the pursuers and complete his advance to Gu Immortal in safety, but Tai Bai Yun Sheng hesitates: the immortal aperture is a Gu Immortal’s foundation, and its ruin would fall on him if Fang Yuan failed there. Fang Yuan presses him not to hesitate at such a crucial moment, promising complete assurance of success and that together they would have the strength to survive. ch. 629
