Chapter 869

A deathly silence falls over the feathermen. Zhou Zhong is the last Gu Immortal left among them, and his enslavement would leave their survival unclear. ^{ch. 869}

Zhou Zhong asks Fang Yuan whether his immortal zombie appearance is fake, since no immortal zombie could scheme all this. Fang Yuan, surprised by how quickly he has calmed, feels a bad premonition. ^{ch. 869}

Tai Bai Yun Sheng speaks with compassion. He promises Zhou Zhong would keep his freedom except in critical times, and that the feathermen behind him could live and work in his blessed land, paid and unharmed. ^{ch. 869}

Zhou Zhong only shakes his head, and Fang Yuan’s expression turns grave. Bowing to the feathermen, he says, calm but decisive, that there is a Gu Immortal Zhou Zhong and a featherman Zhou Zhong, but never a slave Zhou Zhong, and apologizes for failing them. He bids them goodbye and spreads his wings. ^{ch. 869}

Already a slave from landing earlier to heal a clansman, Zhou Zhong breaks the agreement by flying free, and the backlash tears through him as he shouts he will never be a slave. His wings stiffen as he flies, until his body crystallizes into transparent glass. He falls, shattering into fragments before he reaches the ground. ^{ch. 869}

Fang Yuan does not have Tai Bai Yun Sheng revive him. A Gu Immortal unwilling to live as a slave has no value. With his Immortal Gu gone, the aperture is better broken apart, its dao marks passing into Tai Bai blessed land. ^{ch. 869}

After a brief silence, Yu Fei, the new featherman king, refuses to be a slave and names the two human Gu Immortals demons. He tells the others to choose a new king and suicides. Inspired, the feathermen erupt, roaring that even in death they are free, and suicide in turn. ^{ch. 869}

Fang Yuan snaps at Tai Bai Yun Sheng to use Man as Before, so as not to forgo this wealth of slaves. Tai Bai Yun Sheng does not move. Fang Yuan finds his face torn with struggle. ^{ch. 869}

Tai Bai Yun Sheng admits two voices shout in his head: one says to raise the feathermen as slaves, the other says to let them go, since these are true feathermen. His eyes glisten with tears. ^{ch. 869}

Raising them as slaves would have helped Fang Yuan’s plans in Western Desert. But seeing Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s heart soften, he inwardly calls him a fool, then grips his shoulder and says the opposite. He tells him he is right, that these are the true feathermen of The Legends of Ren Zu, and that he need not hesitate to let them die for freedom. ^{ch. 869}

Relieved, Tai Bai Yun Sheng thanks him. He apologizes that his softness spoiled the plan. Fang Yuan waves it off: wisdom path methods, from Dong Fang Chang Fan’s inheritance, are hard to defend against, and he will use some on Tai Bai Yun Sheng, whose Eastern Sea trip should wait, against other wisdom path Gu Immortals. ^{ch. 869}

Within moments, every featherman on the ground has suicided. This recalls to Fang Yuan a featherman assassin from his previous life who had once tried repeatedly to kill him. ^{ch. 869}

The assassin had cut off his own wings and killed his village for refusing to let him leave, fearing exposure to slave hunters. Citing The Legends of Ren Zu, the assassin called his love of freedom dozens of times fiercer than an ordinary featherman’s, and claimed nothing in the world could restrict it. Fang Yuan, not yet on the demonic path, called him a lunatic, but the assassin laughed, calling them the same kind. Furious, Fang Yuan denied it and lunged to fight. ^{ch. 869}