Chapter 997

An immortal zombie body holds a larger soul than a living body but cannot nourish one, and a corpse’s soul keeps withering. Guts Gu and other soul path methods have kept Fang Yuan’s soul intact, and he does not cultivate soul path, whose Gu Immortals carry dao marks letting a body hold an even stronger soul. Fang Yuan reaches his limit nourishing his soul at Hu Immortal blessed land and moves to Star Form blessed land, where Tai Bai Yun Sheng has restored Luo Po Valley after Shadow Sect’s tampering. Imitating Ren Zu, he sends his soul into the valley’s maze and endures the bewilderment fog, then the Luo Po wind, a pain from the soul’s depths countless times worse than death by dismemberment. He retreats to his body once he reaches his limit again. The ordeal leaves his soul shrunk and heavily injured, and going further, though it would stop short of dissipating the soul, would greatly weaken the enslavement and give the featherman Zhou Zhong a chance to break free. ^{ch. 997}

Returning to Dang Hun Mountain, Fang Yuan again consumes guts Gu, a mortal Gu whose soul-healing effect shows instantly, until his soul completely recovers, condensed by at least one fold and coated in a faint, oil-like eerie glow. The burden of enslaving Zhou Zhong drops by thirty percent. Alternating between the two sites, one refining his soul and the other strengthening it, drives his soul’s foundation forward at a tremendous pace. In his previous life, Hei Lou Lan and Fairy Li Shan cultivated the same way once they held Luo Po Valley. ^{ch. 997}

The Immortal Gu House has appeared and his own arrangements near Yi Tian Mountain have vanished without alerting him. Fang Yuan makes time to inspect Southern Border in person but finds nothing worthwhile. As in his previous life, the mountain replays its ancient battle: a mysterious red-lotus-marked Gu Immortal uses the House to suppress a rank eight Gu Immortal. He wonders whether the mark connects to Red Lotus Demon Venerable and to the red lotus that saved his own rebirth. ^{ch. 997}

With his soul foundation rising while Zhou Zhong’s stays unchanged, the burden of enslaving him disappears completely, letting Fang Yuan slip into Yi Tian Mountain to refine the Immortal Gu House in secret. He abandons his repeated failed attempts at refining all-out effort Immortal Gu rather than keep investing in a lost cause. His rebirth plan has reached its final stretch. ^{ch. 997}

In Central Continent, immortal zombie Bo Qing rises from Falling Heavenly River, whose corpses of many Gu Immortals leave only Heavenly Court’s Bai Cang Shui alive. Having lost many Immortal Gu, he asks what they should do next. Beside him stands immortal zombie Seven Star Child, who is Envoy Blue of Shadow Sect and owner of Starry Sky grotto-heaven. With him are the blood path demonic immortal Song Zi Xing known as Blood Dragon and the hairy man refinement path Gu Immortal Yu Mu Chun. Unlike Fang Yuan’s previous life, when Bo Qing had killed both Seven Star Child and Song Zi Xing, this time both are alive, perhaps because Fang Yuan plundered Bo Qing’s immortal zombie body with Mo Yao’s fake will. ^{ch. 997}

Seven Star Child speaks for the group: together with Song Zi Xing and Yu Mu Chun, he will trigger an immortal killer move carrying all four to the north-east to strike Heavenly Lotus Sect. In the previous life both had died, leaving only Yu Mu Chun. He alone could not activate the move. Heaven Overseeing Tower Lord in Heavenly Court, a Gu Immortal formerly of Heavenly Lotus Sect with many disciples there, reacts with shock and fury, summoning Lian Jiu Sheng and Bi Chen Tian to reinforce it. The three teleport there just as Bo Qing’s group arrives, and a battle between rank eights erupts at once. ^{ch. 997}

In an underground cave in Hu Immortal blessed land, Fang Yuan’s Gu formation of the light of wisdom, Mo Yao’s fake will, Woman’s Heart and Unravel Mystery refines only one of Bo Qing’s Immortal Gu in three days. He still does not know its use. With the battle of Yi Tian Mountain already begun, he decides he cannot wait any longer for the Immortal Gu House, and that delay might bring trouble. ^{ch. 997}