Chapter 683

Tai Bai Yun Sheng returns with underworld jellyfish and deepsea lightning eels, food for worldly wave trace Gu, surprising Fang Yuan. Displaying Landscape as Before had won him wide welcome among Gu Immortals, and some in Hai Shi blessed land, the largest lone cultivator force in eastern sea, have invited him to join. Half the elders there must still agree. Fang Yuan understands why: one thought from Tai Bai Yun Sheng could destroy that Immortal Gu. ^{ch. 683}

Tai Bai Yun Sheng explains the eels: he met Shark Demon, a Zombie Alliance immortal zombie carrying goods toward Hai Shi blessed land, and bought them without spending immortal essence stones. Shark Demon agrees only after learning the buyer’s name, selling the eels for help repairing a secret blessed land. Tai Bai Yun Sheng wins his trust by accepting Death Sentence Awaits, a rank seven rule path Immortal Gu that fixes a person’s time of death. Fang Yuan frowns at such trust placed in a weapon that could kill him. Tai Bai Yun Sheng laughs it off, then admits his true motive: the secret blessed land needing repair is not Shark Demon’s own but Yu Lu blessed land, once held by Fairy Yu Lu, second disciple of Paradise Earth Immortal Venerable. Its destroyed entrance needs Landscape as Before to restore, which wins Tai Bai Yun Sheng that trust and a chance to explore inside. ^{ch. 683}

Two days later the six headed snake’s skeleton has completely melted in the blood pool. Fang Yuan feeds the resulting black blood to calamity beckoning Immortal Gu, then feeds the jellyfish and eels to worldly wave trace Immortal Gu, a Gu he will need in the coming fight. Counting his assets, he converts nearly all his immortal essence stones into green grape immortal essence, reaching forty-six beads. Judging that still insufficient, he borrows further: thirty immortal essence stones from Fairy Li Shan without question, and only fifteen from a reluctant Lang Ya land spirit. Converted, his total reaches an unprecedented ninety-one beads. ^{ch. 683}

On the day of the tribulation, Fang Yuan and Tai Bai Yun Sheng reach northern plains by stargate, joining Hei Lou Lan and Fairy Li Shan on a silent snowfield. Tai Bai Yun Sheng names it the absolute ice battlefield, where legend says Reckless Savage Demon Venerable once fought here, wrecked the land, then became the desolate beast ice phoenix and froze it with absolute profound ice. Fairy Li Shan explains its heaven and earth qi is thin from that history. Fang Yuan asks why Hei Lou Lan chose so weak a site, since insufficient qi limits a Gu Immortal’s future potential. ^{ch. 683}

Fairy Li Shan answers by showing small family qi Gu, an ancient qi path Gu that stores heaven and earth qi and by rumor can advance into Immortal Gu Big Family Qi. Fang Yuan recognizes it at once, earning her praise. She admits that without it she would have no confidence in Hei Lou Lan’s ascension, and promises Fang Yuan the recipe, plus half his debt forgiven, if the ascension succeeds. Hei Lou Lan adds a second worry: Hei Cheng tracked her once before by unknown means, though surviving to the second stage of ascension would cleanse any such mark completely. Fang Yuan tells her to begin. ^{ch. 683}

Hei Lou Lan releases the seal on her aperture, and the ten extreme aperture shatters on its own, tearing a hole that draws heaven and earth qi violently toward her. Clouds gather, the ice cracks, and wind rises to a storm as the sky turns black. Tai Bai Yun Sheng and Fairy Li Shan withdraw and hide. Only Fang Yuan remains exposed, unmoved by the mortal winds and snow, while Tai Bai Yun Sheng marvels from hiding at how much qi so thin a place still yields. As the qi thickens, Hei Lou Lan begins scattering small family qi Gu, which absorb and store it, slowing the tribulation’s approach. ^{ch. 683}