Chapter 963

Bo Qing’s sword light cuts through illusions to reveal the true scene, but Heavenly Pool, where Heavenly Lotus Sect stands, stays far beyond the horizon, and the illusions close again moments later. Yu Mu Chun explains this is Heavenly Lotus Sect’s Immortal Gu House, Illusion Garden, built on illusion path over three hundred years earlier by Illusion Demon Immortal Huang Xiao. Illusion Demon Immortal has since died, and Yu Mu Chun judges the trap needs a very high cultivation to control it. Heaven Overseeing Tower Lord, Bi Chen Tian and Lian Jiu Sheng appear. Heaven Overseeing Tower Lord accuses them of planning to attack sects under Heavenly Court. Bo Qing’s furious sword light breaks their killer moves, but all three evade, and the three rank eights combine Illusion Garden’s power to trap Bo Qing and Yu Mu Chun in its layered illusions. ^{ch. 963}

Days later on the nameless Southern Border mountain, explosions and bright light send Xiao Mang flying, and the elders behind him catch him with difficulty. Defeated, Xiao Mang stares at Xiao Shan with hatred. Days earlier, Xiao Shan had been punished for entering the forbidden area, and Xiao Mang seized the chance to hunt him down and kill him. Cornered on this peak with no way out, Xiao Shan is saved when two rank five demonic path Gu Masters descend from the sky. ^{ch. 963}

Xiao Mang, furious, accuses Xiao Shan of secretly colluding with demonic path Gu Masters. Xiao Shan answers that he badly misjudged his brother, who was willing to kill him for power. The elders note Xiao Shan is heavily injured and near death while his rescuers are in good condition, and urge retreat. Xiao Mang privately reasons he already holds the advantage and the moral high ground, and can later brand Xiao Shan an outlaw and kill him at leisure. He warns Xiao Shan will surely die like a dog and that he will definitely return to kill him, then retreats with the elders. ^{ch. 963}

The two Gu Masters are Sun Pang Hu and Zhou Xing Xing, both once shown kindness by Xiao Shan. They stabilize his heavy injuries at once. Xiao Shan tells them to leave so he will not implicate them, certain his brother will return. Both refuse, declaring their lives belong to him and that they will fight Xiao Mang to the end. ^{ch. 963}

Moved to tears, Xiao Shan reflects that demonic path Gu Masters have shown him more loyalty than the righteous path’s hypocrites. Sun Pang Hu agrees many in the demonic path stay true to their nature while the righteous path hunts them, and proposes banding together as demonic path allies. Xiao Shan falls silent. He still holds to righteous ideals and, knowing an Immortal Gu is hidden in him, wants to restore his standing in Xiao clan. ^{ch. 963}

The voice returns, telling him not to fixate on the righteous-demonic divide since his inherited Immortal Gu lets him found his own clan. Xiao Shan listens closely. It sets him a task: gather Gu Masters, build a fortified village, and hold off invading righteous forces for a hundred days. Only by passing this test can he truly earn the inheritance, the Immortal Gu, and the method to become a Gu Immortal. ^{ch. 963}

Xiao Shan agrees, declaring he will show the righteous path his strength. The three become sworn brothers over a blood oath. Xiao Shan declares the righteous path Xiao Shan of yesterday dead, names himself Xiao Shan of the demonic path, and names the settlement Yi Tian Village and the mountain Yi Tian Mountain. ^{ch. 963}

Far off, Fang Yuan watches all of this unfold. He recognizes this nameless mountain as the one hiding the Immortal Gu House, Graceful Chaotic Duel Stage, and a suppressed rank eight Great Strength True Martial immortal zombie. Only now does he learn the true reason behind the battle of Yi Tian Mountain, glimpsed only dimly as a low status mortal in his previous life. ^{ch. 963}

His gaze pierces the soil: Graceful Chaotic Duel Stage suppresses the immortal zombie, extremely strong, its leaking strength causing the forbidden zone outside. The House also holds food path secrets, keeping its Gu worms fed. The zombie, whose main cultivation is wisdom path despite his Great Strength True Martial Physique, once tried to refine the House with his battle will and failed, his soul thoroughly dying and leaving only an empty body. But he did not completely fail: the battle will he left became pure and ownerless inside the House. ^{ch. 963}

Fights on Yi Tian Mountain generate battle will that resonates with this pure reserve, turning it into the fighter’s own. Whoever converts all of it would complete the zombie’s unfinished step and become the House’s true owner. This is what the gambling contest revolves around. Since the forbidden zone bars Gu Immortals from acting in person, each can only select a mortal Gu Master as a proxy fighter. A wisdom path technique alters that mortal’s body so the battle will converts to the sponsoring Gu Immortal’s own. ^{ch. 963}

Xiao Shan is the pawn selected by Xiao clan’s supreme elder, who placed the Immortal Gu, immortal essence and battle will in him, though as a mortal he has no awareness of the truth. Xiao Mang, too, is a pawn of the same supreme elder, arranged to intercept him at the forbidden area. Both rank five Gu Masters have been played without knowing it. ^{ch. 963}