Chapter 651

Fang Yuan finds his stalled cultivation is only the largest of a zombie’s drawbacks; smaller ones include the total loss of pain and a mind that thinks more slowly. With his soul now the whole of him, he generates far fewer thoughts and thinks much slower, which he judges is why zombies such as First Gen Gu Yue and Giant Sun’s will choose deep sleep, banking thought for bursts in battle. Fang Yuan gathers his scattered thoughts. ^{ch. 651}

Fang Yuan sends Little Hu Immortal to bring his senior brother Tai Bai Yun Sheng. Ten breaths pass before she returns with him. Tai Bai Yun Sheng is stunned at the sight of him, eyes reddening as he asks what they should do now. He already knows Fang Yuan has become a six arm heavenly zombie king, a fact Fang Yuan had allowed her to reveal. Fang Yuan laughs that he had advanced into a strength path Gu Immortal only to end up like this, leaving him no choice but to keep calling him senior brother. ^{ch. 651}

The cave was dug from the center of Dang Hun Mountain by Fairy Bai Hu, who built Dang Hun Palace on the site. The gruel mud Immortal Gu later destroyed the mountain, and Fang Yuan restored it together with Tai Bai Yun Sheng, leaving the cave intact but bare. The rank six Immortal Gu Landscape as Before can return a mountain or a body of water to a past state, but furniture does not count as part of either, so none of the palace’s fittings came back. Fang Yuan does not want the palace restored, since Fairy Bai Hu’s bedroom was too pink for him. Tai Bai Yun Sheng takes the boulder closest to Fang Yuan. ^{ch. 651}

Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s thoughts are full of gratitude and trust, forged by the dangers they survived together in northern plains. In the true inheritance secluded domain, Fang Yuan had already helped him twice, once retrieving Landscape as Before for him and once giving up Man as Before to save his life. Hei Lou Lan then captured him, and Fang Yuan turned aside to take Man as Before Gu back first, which Tai Bai Yun Sheng thought rational. Tai Bai Yun Sheng woke safe inside Hu Immortal blessed land. Little Hu Immortal then returned both Immortal Gu, and he was overjoyed. Hearing of Fang Yuan’s true condition swept that joy away into guilt and grief, and he has tried repeatedly since to see him. ^{ch. 651}

Fang Yuan pats his shoulder and says destiny is unpredictable, and that being half alive beats the truly dead or Giant Sun’s will. At the final moment he even gained wisdom Gu, a huge profit senior brother should not mourn. That Gu had followed him through the stargate on survival instinct alone. Stargate Gu is only a mortal Gu and cannot hold an Immortal Gu’s aura, so Fang Yuan forced it into his own dead aperture and barely endured the short passage before releasing it once safely back. Hu Immortal blessed land is a rank six immortal aperture on Tian Ti mountain, drawing central continent’s earth qi and far more stable than an aperture still carried inside a living Gu Immortal. Tai Bai Yun Sheng already knew of wisdom Gu. ^{ch. 651}

Moved, Tai Bai Yun Sheng praises junior brother’s abilities and says even a legendary rank nine Immortal Gu could not treat a zombie’s body, so he rises to offer Man as Before Gu instead. Fang Yuan stops him. He explains that Man as Before can only return someone to a single past moment, too far gone now to heal him, so trying would only waste senior brother’s essence. ^{ch. 651}

Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s face turns ashen and he slaps himself hard, again and again. Fang Yuan catches his hands and stops him. Immobilized, he cries that he has let junior brother down, and as he tries to kneel he blames himself for not lending Man as Before Gu sooner. He is a kind man who once indirectly caused the deaths of Gao Yang and Zhu Zai out of mere survival instinct, a thought that has haunted him since he woke. ^{ch. 651}

Inwardly pleased but outwardly gentle, Fang Yuan tells him a zombie’s body is hard to revert but far from hopeless, and that they still have wisdom Gu and Mo Yao’s will. Though wisdom Gu is rank nine and beyond his refining, he expects great reward from even a portion of its light, his lifespan-less zombie body suiting the approach. Confused, Tai Bai Yun Sheng asks who Mo Yao is. Fang Yuan explains she is an extra gain from Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, once a refinement path grandmaster and a fairy of central continent’s Spirit Affinity House, a name new to him but reassuring. ^{ch. 651}

Fang Yuan claims master surely has a solution, and says he had already reported in two days earlier using a single Gu master had left him for that purpose. He had earlier soul-searched Tai Bai Yun Sheng and learned of a mysterious beggar who had granted him a time path inheritance. Using his eloquence, Fang Yuan had lied that the two of them share that same beggar as master, inventing for him the title Purple Mountain True Monarch. Tai Bai Yun Sheng believes this completely, his hope rising. ^{ch. 651}

Fang Yuan tells him to wait for master’s letter. Tai Bai Yun Sheng calms at the name Purple Mountain True Monarch. He steps back and swears by Longevity Heaven, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable’s own grotto-heaven, to spend his life searching for a cure if master cannot provide one. Fang Yuan calls the oath ironic, sworn just after they toppled that fellow’s own True Yang Building. Calling them both master’s pupils, Fang Yuan says the debt for saving his life is now due in full. Tai Bai Yun Sheng agrees without hesitation, guilt leaving him ready to do anything to ease his conscience. ^{ch. 651}

Fang Yuan turns solemn and names his price: as master’s legacy disciple he was originally a strength path Gu Immortal, and Tai Bai Yun Sheng only caught up by becoming an immortal, so he wants the senior brother’s place back. Tai Bai Yun Sheng, stunned that so great a debt comes down to so small a request, is touched, and pats Fang Yuan’s rock-hard leg in thanks. Fang Yuan stands six meters tall. He laughs that seniority cannot be changed so easily, and unless master rearranges their places himself, he will remain senior brother. Fang Yuan shouts back that he, too, meant what he said, and will not call him senior brother. Both end up laughing, Tai Bai Yun Sheng moved to tears, feeling for the first time in years that he has found an organisation and something like family. ^{ch. 651}