Ma Hong Yun

Inside Imperial Court blessed land he is a rank one Gu Master who cannot usefully enter Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, mixing with hunting groups for primeval stones. The text restates that he saved Ma Ying Jie by coincidence, that Hei tribe’s takeover and later events gave him the Ma surname and the chance to cultivate, and that Zhao Lian Yun coaches what he says in public. ^{ch. 570} On an earth chief hunt he is still rank one and low battle strength when Jiang Dong knocks him out as bait. ^{ch. 571} After surviving inside a blood forest wolf he sets off again and stops to take a wild Gu worm, which he guesses is rank two, off an earth chief beast corpse. ^{ch. 572} Chang Biao then records that Ma Hong Yun contributes his battle gains, that Ma Ying Jie rewards him with three green copper relic Gu for his loyalty and returns the contributed Gu worms to him, and that Ma Hong Yun reaches rank two realm in one night with the Gu he needed most. ^{ch. 576}

Chang tribe later scripts a “hero saving the beauty” tale around him and Chang Li, and Ma Ying Jie rewards him with three red steel Relic Gu, appoints him deputy elder, and says the Relic Gu can push him to rank two peak stage with a path open to rank three. ^{ch. 578 ch. 579} Chang Li becomes his wife through that political marriage. ^{ch. 613}

By the late Imperial Court fighting the text already treats him as rank three and a Ma tribe elder. ^{ch. 614 ch. 617 ch. 618} Mo Yao’s will identifies the aura of fortune rivalling heaven Gu on him: a one-time rank eight Immortal Gu that escaped the luck path true inheritance years earlier and landed on this mortal, making him a child of luck whose fortune can rival what Giant Sun Immortal Venerable once held. ^{ch. 617} The luck path supreme true inheritance then crashes down of its own accord and encloses Ma Hong Yun and Zhao Lian Yun in golden light, shielding them. ^{ch. 620} Narration at that stage still frames the prior-life Ma Hong Yun as someone who inherited Giant Sun’s legacy and a Thieving Heaven opportunity and became a Northern Plains hero against Central Continent, while Zhao Lian Yun is named as the otherworldly demon Giant Sun’s will wants dead and as Ma Hong Yun’s prior-life wife. ^{ch. 622}

During the same Imperial Court crisis Chang Li dies under the treemen’s attacks while Ma Hong Yun and Zhao Lian Yun survive behind the land spirit’s barrier. ^{ch. 616}

In the prior life Ma Hong Yun, defeated and chased to crescent lake, entered the stone forest passage into Lang Ya blessed land and had three rank five Gu refined for him, later regretting that he did not ask for Immortal Gu; in this life Fang Yuan reached that blessed land ahead of him. ^{ch. 461 ch. 490}

After the luck path true inheritance sends Ma Hong Yun and Zhao Lian Yun out of the wind veil of assimilation, Northern Plains Gu Immortals snatch them in chaos, and Fang Yuan notes that Ma Hong Yun has vanished into some Gu Immortal’s hands. ^{ch. 661} Hei Lou Lan later reports that Qin Bai Sheng, a rank seven metal path lone cultivator whose blessed land sits in crimson reed marsh, is the one holding him. ^{ch. 678} Qin Bai Sheng then auctions the pair: he names Ma Hong Yun the sole recognized inheritor of the luck path true inheritance and the mortal on whom fortune rivalling heaven Immortal Gu was used, and he states that reverse refining that Gu would take Ma Hong Yun as the main material. Old Ancestor Xue Hu of Snowy Mountain blessed land buys Ma Hong Yun; Feng Jiu Ge buys Zhao Lian Yun. ^{ch. 761}

Old Ancestor Xue Hu tells Lady Wan Shou that he has already soul searched Ma Hong Yun and learned this lad’s full history; by his plan she is the one to use Ma Hong Yun as the main material and refine fortune rivalling heaven Gu at the end. ^{ch. 772} From that purchase onward Xue Hu and Lady Wan Shou use him as the main material to refine rank eight fortune rivalling heaven Immortal Gu, and they face luck path backlash for harming him. ^{ch. 928} Shadow Sect later learns that Zhao Lian Yun has already been secretly sent to Central Continent, and that Spirit Affinity House, holding a Thieving Heaven true inheritance, would naturally send her there. ^{ch. 989} Much later, after Fang Yuan has stolen sovereign immortal fetus Gu, he reasons that Ma Hong Yun is the example before him: from Shadow Sect’s point of view Fang Yuan is Ma Hong Yun, and Shadow Sect definitely wants to re-refine sovereign immortal fetus Gu, only the current situation does not permit it. ^{ch. 1079} During a third lightning refinement attempt, Lady Wan Shou notices that Ma Hong Yun’s cultivation level has risen a rank, an effect she attributes to the relic Gu used in the process. ^{ch. 1177} During the repeated lightning refinement Lady Wan Shou tells him his cultivation has risen and is going to reach rank five. ^{ch. 1195} After countless lightning refinements he is still intact, and his cultivation level has risen to rank five peak stage. ^{ch. 1232} Because the lightning refinement keeps failing, many lightning path dao marks are engraved on his body. ^{ch. 1267}

While he is still captive, Zhao Lian Yun endures days of rain at Spirit Affinity House in Central Continent as her only path to save him. ^{ch. 1195} Duke Long then orders her made Spirit Affinity House’s current generation fairy, gives her a phantom aperture that turns her into a Gu Immortal, and orders the ten great ancient sects to form a team with her as the core to rescue Ma Hong Yun in Northern Plains. ^{ch. 1230}

Fang Yuan’s memory of the five regions chaotic war recalls a Spirit Affinity House supreme elder swaying Prince Feng Xian into defecting to that sect, and the shock of it almost killed Ma Hong Yun after he had already become a rank seven Gu Immortal, worsening Northern Plains’ war and helping put Spirit Affinity House at the top of the ten great ancient sects. ^{ch. 756}

In that same previous life, during the third Imperial Court contest, three hearts combination soul left Ma Hong Yun suppressed and captured alive by Dong Fang tribe, until Dong Fang Yu Liang’s sister Dong Fang Qing Yu freed him and gave him the technique’s secret, turning the contest into a defeat for Dong Fang tribe instead. ^{ch. 795}

Love Gu’s power and Zhao Lian Yun’s obsession throw her group into Snowy Mountain blessed land. She recognizes that Ma Hong Yun is there and demands him from Hair Mistress, who says he is kept at the first peak under Lady Wan Shou and Old Ancestor Xue Hu. Zhao Lian Yun swears she will save him even if she dies there. ^{ch. 1250}

Still set on reaching him, Zhao Lian Yun walks down the peak and goes alone to another snowy peak, where Xiao Fei Fei’s memory-erasing killer move strikes her, and it surfaces her memory of Ma Hong Yun spreading his arms to shield her from Giant Sun’s will after it exposed her as an otherworldly demon, refusing to disown her even before that ancestral will. ^{ch. 1266} On a floating mound inside Reverse Flow River, Ma Hong Yun recognizes the aged, voiceless Zhao Lian Yun as Lady Xiao Yun, throws away the fruit he is eating, runs to her, and takes her hands. ^{ch. 1277}

In Reverse Flow River, when Ma Hong Yun is about to step out holding Zhao Lian Yun’s hand, Mao Li Qiu refuses Black Extremity’s call to snatch them and explains that Reverse Flow River has no end at the upstream exit: each final step only extends the river, so Ma Hong Yun cannot leave that way. ^{ch. 1283} Fang Yuan then catches Ma Hong Yun and Zhao Lian Yun. Ma Hong Yun stops breathing: Fang Yuan reads the death as exhaustion after carrying Zhao Lian Yun through the river, with the body relaxing once caught. The effect of Fortune Rivalling Heaven dissipates with that death, and the corpse is only a rank five Gu Master corpse, useless as a living luck path material. ^{ch. 1284} Fang Yuan keeps the corpse and the soul; the portion of all living beings luck that Ma Hong Yun held passes with that soul, while Zhao Lian Yun escapes under rank nine love Immortal Gu. ^{ch. 1286}

Fang Yuan later soul searches that soul, excavates the all living beings luck true inheritance portion Ma Hong Yun received when the inheritance protected him and Zhao Lian Yun, and keeps the soul because Zhao Lian Yun still lives. Qin Bai Sheng belonged to Shadow Sect when he captured Ma Hong Yun after Imperial Court. ^{ch. 1304} Fixed luck, an immortal killer move from that all living beings luck inheritance, is later taken from the same soul. ^{ch. 1415}

A much later chapter states that in Fang Yuan’s five hundred year prior life, Ma Hong Yun’s rise looked humble but was in fact Longevity Heaven’s chess piece, an arrangement of Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, and that killing him in this life made Longevity Heaven’s work of uniting Northern Plains harder. ^{ch. 2170}