Chapter 967

Ten thousand li from Yi Tian Mountain, Southern Border’s Gu Immortals look up at the sky. Even the mortal Gu Masters on the mountain feel a chill. A rumble grows in the sky, and Fang Yuan, mid-refinement, stops to look up as it brightens with white light specks falling fast toward the mountain. Some call it the thousand pearl-light tribulation; that tribulation carries only a thousand light pearls, but this one carries at least a hundred thousand. Baffled, the Gu Immortals search for whoever is undergoing it, but find no rank five Gu Master facing tribulation. ^{ch. 967}

Fang Yuan’s heart jumps as investigative senses sweep his body, and he grows extremely vigilant. His vaguely familiar face, with only a rank six core, has a huge chance of exposure under rank seven or eight inspection. He is not discovered. Some guess Graceful Chaotic Duel Stage itself is the cause, and under their gambling pact agree it must be blocked. Four rank eight, nine rank seven and over ten rank six Gu Immortals destroy the tribulation completely, hiding the anomaly from the mortal Gu Masters below with drawn clouds. ^{ch. 967}

Ye Qing Tang, rank seven, is extremely displeased at being used as a meat shield and demands they find this person. No one steps forward. A second tribulation falls: dark flying frost, one of the ten great catastrophes, on a scale greater even than those. They destroy it too, but Gua Lao is heavily injured and flees, holding no Immortal Gu of his own. Many rank six immortals imitate him and flee, most of them injured and holding no Immortal Gu. ^{ch. 967}

Gua Lao’s figure suddenly reappears in the center of the group instead, and more fleeing Gu Immortals are sent back beside him. It is an ambush. Someone has set a huge space path Gu formation around them. Old Man Yan Shi appears with over ten black robed Gu Immortals, encircling the Southern Border group, and warns that a third tribulation is already here. ^{ch. 967}

Over six thousand qi grand lions, desolate beasts with qi path dao marks who fly innately, fill the sky. Jia Yi, rank eight, furiously unleashes tens of thousands of wind sickles, killing many lions. Old Man Yan Shi praises him as truly mighty. Jia Yi frowns, though: he had aimed most of the sickles at Yan Shi himself, and a Gu formation blocked and destroyed them completely with no damage to itself. ^{ch. 967}

A fourth tribulation falls: the four inferno clouds tribulation. Its four layers, each fiercer than the last, strike together with the dragon roar tribulation. The Gu Immortals work together to hold it back, unsure who is behind it. At Yi Tian Mountain, Fang Yuan also watches, and notes this covers far more ground than the hundred li such a tribulation reaches at most. He grows extremely uneasy, sensing a huge trap: these black robed Gu Immortals resemble the Shadow Sect that Hei Lou Lan once described, and this is their own scheme, not a true ascension. ^{ch. 967}

With Old Man Yan Shi at the lead, Shadow Sect’s immortals have built a giant Gu formation trapping the group completely. The tribulations grow more terrifying. Rank seven and then rank eight Gu Immortals struggle, and attempts to break the formation fail. Peng Shi Long’s trump card only shakes the formation three times before it stabilizes, and their hearts sink. The tribulations keep coming faster, and the Gu Immortals lose the initiative. Some rank six have already died, but Jia Yi urges the rest to hold on, since the tribulations are wearing the formation down too. ^{ch. 967}

Watching the battlefield closely, Old Man Yan Shi softly calls a name: Wu Xie. A young man stands behind him, staring at the sky, grinning somewhat silly. Yan Shi calls again, and Wu Xie smiles that he was watching the fireworks. Yan Shi answers gravely: these are tribulations, not fireworks, the beautiful and fatal work of heaven’s will, their greatest enemy. Wu Xie turns earnest at once, and says to bring heaven’s will out so he can take it down. ^{ch. 967}