Chapter 636

Fang Yuan hesitates over the choice between saving Tai Bai Yun Sheng and retrieving Man as Before. As a mortal Gu, Man as Before could already turn a Gu Master’s condition back to an earlier state. As an Immortal Gu it can do more, since it can affect not only others but Tai Bai Yun Sheng himself, and because Tai Bai Yun Sheng is a Gu Immortal, that means Man as Before can heal a Gu Immortal too. Its value far surpasses an ordinary Immortal Gu. ^{ch. 636}

Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s shout came from raw anxiety, not from weighing the consequences. Had Fang Yuan truly abandoned him to chase the Gu instead, Tai Bai Yun Sheng would have been in real danger, since even a Gu Immortal falling from that height would be gravely hurt, and other Gu Masters were still below him. Fang Yuan also weighs the cost of time and the risk of a rift, since a person’s heart is fickle. Even though Tai Bai Yun Sheng said the words himself, seeing his own abandonment from the other side would leave him doubting Fang Yuan afterward. ^{ch. 636}

Fang Yuan has his own trouble besides. With Fixed Immortal Travel gone and the wind veil of assimilation still contracting around them, he will need the stargate, opened with starlight firefly Gu, to reach Hu Immortal blessed land at all. But the formless hands would swarm the moment that Gu appeared, and even as a Gu Immortal he has no confidence he could protect it from them. ^{ch. 636}

He reasons the hands cannot last, since the sealed veil now admits no new heaven and earth qi to feed them, and the collapsed building keeps dissolving into loose Gu worms besides, an insight he draws from five hundred years as a demonic path cultivator. Once the hands weaken, Giant Sun’s will becomes the strongest force left on the field, and it will come for Fang Yuan once it finishes with Ma Hong Yun and Zhao Lian Yun. As the weaker side, he will need an ally. Only Tai Bai Yun Sheng qualifies, since even as a healing Gu Immortal stripped of his own Gu worms he is still a Gu Immortal, and Fang Yuan can lend him more. Hei Lou Lan and Giant Sun’s other bloodline kin are the will’s natural allies, and they will not switch sides in so little time. ^{ch. 636}

The choice takes only a moment, and Fang Yuan flies without hesitation toward the falling Tai Bai Yun Sheng, twisting past the hands in his way. Tai Bai Yun Sheng, having calmed himself, looks touched but only manages a sigh. Before Fang Yuan arrives, though, Hei Lou Lan solidifies out of nowhere and seizes Tai Bai Yun Sheng by the collar. With no Gu worms left to defend himself, Tai Bai Yun Sheng is easy prey, and Hei Lou Lan seals his limbs and knocks him out, delighted at the leverage this now gives him over Fang Yuan. ^{ch. 636}

Fang Yuan guesses Hei Lou Lan’s purpose the instant he sees it: the capture is meant to threaten him into returning the vital Gu. His heart sinks, but he stays calm. A hostage kept for leverage will be kept alive, so Tai Bai Yun Sheng is safe for now, which frees Fang Yuan to turn away and chase Man as Before instead. ^{ch. 636}

After fifteen minutes of hard flying, alternating wind flower and flash bug Gu on his eight wings, Fang Yuan finally smashes the fist and reclaims Man as Before. The Gu does not struggle, since it already trusts him from Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s own hand, so he stores it in his aperture without needing to force it. Hei Lou Lan, worn out from chasing while carrying a captive, catches up at last. He threatens to trade the senior brother’s life for his own vital Gu. A formless hand forces him to dodge as he says it, though, undercutting the menace he tried to project. ^{ch. 636}

Fang Yuan cannot face Giant Sun’s will alone. He needs Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s help, but a captive cannot give it. He now holds Man as Before, yet he has no permission to use it on Tai Bai Yun Sheng. Reviving a Gu Immortal instead of a mortal would cost far more immortal essence. It would take at least ten of the twenty one green grape beads he has left after already spending one, his greatest assurance against Giant Sun’s will, so he refuses to spend it unless there is truly no other choice. The narration calls Hei Lou Lan a genuinely formidable rival, no fluke as the Imperial Court contest’s victor. The more anxious Hei Lou Lan grows over his seized Gu, the more it must be worth keeping, especially since Hei Lou Lan cannot be trusted to honor any trade. ^{ch. 636}

Giant Sun’s will, fighting at full strength, fights to retake control of the one and only luck path true inheritance even as six of its Immortal Gu are already stolen, only three of them recovered. Only his wish to preserve the true inheritance holds him back. Otherwise he would already have destroyed the light lump and killed Ma Hong Yun and Zhao Lian Yun outright. Their guardian Frost Jade Peacock has already died, and the light lump has shrunk to under a third of its size, leaving the pair to hug each other and await death. Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan, meanwhile, stay locked in a slow, distrustful standoff over the vital Gu, until the ring of a blade sounds from beyond the wind veil. ^{ch. 636}

Everyone looks up. Even Giant Sun’s will’s dragon stops its attacks as a huge opening tears open in the wind veil, showing the sky of northern plains outside. Three Gu Immortals of Chanyu tribe stand there breathing hard, having just struck with their immortal killer move Winged Blade, with a dozen or so other Gu Immortals gathered around them. When the three were plotting this earlier, other righteous path Gu Immortals had approached them, and because Hei tribe’s Gu Immortals negotiated sincerely and put in real effort, the group agreed quickly and struck sooner than planned. With the inside and outside now joined, the ownerless Gu worms formed from Eighty-Eight True Yang Building’s collapse instinctively fly for the opening before any human reacts, though formless hands keep snatching some along the way. The Gu Masters see it as their best chance to escape, while the northern plains Gu Immortals outside watch, startled at how many Gu worms the fallen building has produced. ^{ch. 636}