Chapter 724

Feng Jin Huang recounts meeting many life forms in the dream realm: Gu Masters, ordinary people, wild beasts, even a desolate beast iron crown eagle she watched grow up. At the end she met an odd, muttering old man who named himself Kong Jue and often killed people and dissected their corpses. He tried to block her path, forcing her to dodge and flee. ^{ch. 724}

Fairy Bai Qing responds with sudden joy: Kong Jue is likely Old Immortal Kong Jue, one of the Three Olds alongside Old Eccentric Tian Nan and Long Hair Ancestor, history’s refinement path supreme grandmasters. Feng Jin Huang understands why the name felt familiar, but stays confused why he wanted to capture her and why refinement path knowledge, recipes, materials, funds, now comes clearer since waking. Fairy Bai Qing calls it great fortune. She admits she knows little of dream realms, but says their earliest record appears in The Legends of Ren Zu. ^{ch. 724}

That record tells how Northern Dark Ice Soul, deep in black heaven, obtained fire Gu and, chased by many life forms, threw it toward them. The fire caught many walking meat trees and spread to the beasts around them, and fire Gu, grown tall and fierce voiced, boasted it could eat almost anything and spark a blaze. A wall of flame rose toward Northern Dark Ice Soul, and he stepped back. Fire Gu, calling him its true friend since only he had helped it, wanted to hug him, but he refused and asked for a path out. ^{ch. 724}

Walking free, he was swallowed whole by a wild beast, a dream realm in disguise. Others fled around him, shouting that more dream realms were closing in. Fire Gu, enraged, pursued, melting the fleeing dream realms with its light, though the one holding him only grew faster the more it fed on his fear and desire. His will to survive, his goal of reviving his father, and his guilt over his sister made him its ideal prey. ^{ch. 724}

Inside, he dreamed his sister forgiving him and his father revived and proud of him, and days of bliss passed this way. The fire eventually reached his dream too, and he woke on the ground, cold and weeping, knowing it had been false. He begged to be put back to sleep, but Fire Gu warned him dreams often run opposite to reality. When he refused to listen and said a friend should not restrain him, it sighed and opened him a path to leave. He ran off, seeking another dream realm to be eaten by again. ^{ch. 724}

In the present, Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan realize who stands before them: Star Constellation Immortal Venerable. She is one of the ten venerables in the history of Gu Masters, founder of wisdom path and creator of star path. Even after death, legend says, she protected Heavenly Court from three Demon Venerables. Her rank nine aura crushes down on them, and Hei Lou Lan’s legs go soft despite her own hardened confidence, while Wan Xiang kneels and kowtows in fear. Fang Yuan grits his teeth, recognizing the feeling as a dream realm, but finds himself unable to move or speak, gripped by mortal danger. ^{ch. 724}

He detonates his true solid bat wings as a sacrifice, unwilling to let the dream realm end every plan he has laid since his rebirth. The pain shields him and forces him out. Star Constellation Immortal Venerable gasps, calling him a fascinating immortal zombie, and the whole scene changes around him. She and the star hall vanish, replaced by a blue robed Gu Immortal gazing at the moon: Seven Star Child, muttering in joy that he has fused the seven star spaces into one grotto-heaven, one step closer to rank nine. He seems unaware of Fang Yuan. His joyous laughter begins to infect Fang Yuan too, even as Fang Yuan’s own body turns cold. Fang Yuan realizes this is a dream within a dream, and this time he has no bat wings left to detonate. ^{ch. 724}