Chapter 685

Light bursts from Hei Lou Lan’s eyes, forming a pillar that pierces the tribulation cloud and destroys two chimes completely. This is Divert Disaster Immortal Gu, its power in stark contrast to Fang Yuan’s own mortal killer moves. She opens her eyes twice more, destroying two chimes each time, and Fang Yuan realizes she has built an immortal killer move around the Gu, paired with mortal Gu for a sharper, more precise strike. This is strange and unthinkable to Fang Yuan, yet the truth stands before him. ^{ch. 685}

The unfinished killer move carries a heavy cost. Opening her eyes a final time to clear the last two chimes, Hei Lou Lan’s eyes shatter, blood pouring from the empty sockets, and the divert disaster Immortal Gu bursts in her hand and is destroyed. Her Great Strength True Martial Physique recovers at terrifying speed, but the forced activation left luck path dao marks in her sockets that she cannot heal. Fang Yuan silently praises her resolve. She had no choice, since a strong foe still threatened to interfere, and by this sacrifice she ends the heavenly tribulation for good, leaving only the earthly calamity ahead. ^{ch. 685}

Heaven qi pours down and earth qi rises like a fountain as Hei Lou Lan’s own accumulation bursts out as human qi, many times thicker than Fang Yuan and Tai Bai Yun Sheng combined, a mark of her ten extreme physique. The three qi converge into a cocoon around her, and she enters the second stage of ascension, taking in the qi, recalling every small family qi Gu to focus on balancing it. She cannot defend herself for now. ^{ch. 685}

Frozen rivers shatter as a huge frenzied ape bursts from beneath the ice, gouging holes where it lands and roaring loud enough to still the tribulation cloud. Fairy Li Shan names it: Icefall Divine Ape. It is an ancient desolate beast calamity, an earthly calamity only rank seven Gu Immortals face, and the ape itself holds rank seven battle strength. With Hei Lou Lan unable to fight and Hei Cheng still absent, Fang Yuan strikes early, activating his immortal killer move myriad self ahead of plan. Over ten thousand strength path phantoms burst out around him, the first of an army several times the force that once beat the swamp crab, and the ape chooses to wait rather than charge. ^{ch. 685}

Fang Yuan sends the army forward to encircle the ape. It splits and closes in from every side. More than a hundred thousand phantoms wait in his immortal aperture, cast in advance before he came north, and he releases eighty thousand. The ape fights back fiercely, destroying phantoms without breaking the encirclement, and the army’s losses slow as spent fist qi gathers into phantoms again. He learns the ape carries no Gu of any kind, mortal or immortal, lowering its true threat. Manipulating the army costs him joyful will fast, and he burns through delight in water and mountain Immortal Gu nearly ten times in mere breaths. ^{ch. 685}

Closing in at speed, Fang Yuan calls his forty-five group strength Gu into myriad self, and hundreds of phantoms disperse so their strength gathers into him. He slams one arm down on the ape’s skull, and the recoil shatters his own forearm to dust. The skull cracks wide and then bursts apart, which shocks Fang Yuan, since his own move at most splits a skull and cannot destroy a whole head. Tai Bai Yun Sheng shouts a warning too late. The ape’s fist, already swinging, catches Fang Yuan directly before he can dodge. ^{ch. 685}