Chapter 686

Fang Yuan crashes through the ice and slides a long way before stopping, immortal zombie body unmoving, blood pouring from broken skin, only three of his eight arms left. The icefall divine ape that hit him keeps standing after losing its head, and strikes him again in total silence, though it carries no Gu worms at all. By common sense, that should be impossible. ^{ch. 686}

Fang Yuan cannot move at first. But his zombie body heals fast underneath, since zombies run on death energy rather than life force. Tai Bai Yun Sheng pours prepared black light onto him instead of an ordinary healing Gu, and he is soon back on his feet. The headless ape self detonates into a herd of ancient pegasi, far larger than today’s two winged breed and long extinct across the five regions; most carry four wings, matching a beast emperor, and a few carry six, matching a desolate beast. They crash into Fang Yuan’s phantom army, and the fight turns into a massacre against him: his phantoms, spread thin to ring one ape, cannot hold against the herd. Neither side leaves a corpse, since the phantoms are only qi and the pegasi turn to nothing once killed. ^{ch. 686}

Sensing a link to Hei Lou Lan’s three qi cocoon, too thick to show even her shadow, Fang Yuan tells Tai Bai Yun Sheng to hold back and charges into the herd alone. Pegasi swarm him, but hair armor guards his head while he smashes an injured four winged pegasus into the ice, cracking a deep pit, taking fresh wounds as he pins it down. Two phantom groups close overhead to intercept the rest. The pinned pegasus nearly overpowers even his zombie strength, and with the moment slipping he bursts its head with his fists and keeps punching until the ice cracks beneath them. It carries no Gu worms and dissipates completely once crushed, leaving nothing behind, and a formless will rushes into Fang Yuan’s mind at that instant: he kneels motionless on the ice, oblivious to the fighting still raging around him. ^{ch. 686}

Tai Bai Yun Sheng moves to fly to him, alarmed, but Fairy Li Shan stops him: this is a golden opportunity. He turns on her in anger, accusing her of deceiving them both as allies protecting Hei Lou Lan’s tribulation. She denies it: the Snowy Mountain Alliance’s oath would have killed her had she lied, and what she withheld was only speculation, now confirmed. Even allies do not share every secret, and Fang Yuan would not either. Breathing hard, he demands she explain it at once. ^{ch. 686}

She explains the icy plain’s origin: as a strength path Immortal Venerable, Reckless Savage Demon Venerable founded both the strength and transformation paths. Long ago he fought a battle that tore part of northern plains into void, then became an immemorial ice phoenix and breathed out extremely cold profound ice to freeze the wound into this plain. Every rank nine venerable is a child of the Great Dao, she says. When one dies, their signature killer move imprints itself into heaven and earth as a kind of heavenly tribulation and earthly calamity. The ice phoenix transformation was itself a transformation path killer move, and as the plain’s creator he imprinted strength path and transformation path true meaning into this ground. A rumor holds that a strength or transformation path Gu Master who ascends to Gu Immortal here sets dao fragments resonating and evokes that true meaning. ^{ch. 686}

The icefall ape and the pegasi, she confirms, are that true meaning wearing the shape of an earthly calamity. Destroy the form completely and the small true meaning inside breaks free, entering the killer’s body on its own. It is comprehension of heaven and earth, of the Great Dao, of law fragments, and the one pegasus Fang Yuan destroyed has already yielded the true meaning inside it, which makes the Demon Venerable his teacher. Fairy Li Shan says this with open envy. An opportunity to learn from a rank nine venerable is enormous: three qi converging gives a Gu Master natural inspiration, while true meaning taken here is study under the Demon Venerable himself. ^{ch. 686}