The battlefield held its breath.
In the skies above the collapsing bronze hall, a cocoon of jade light floated inside a storm of divine radiance. The blinding torrent of Xiao Mang's killer move continued to crash down in golden waves. And within that flood, a lone figure flew.
Burned. Cracked. Tattered.
Yet unwavering.
"He… he's refining a Gu inside that killer move?"
Voices broke the silence, stunned and uncertain.
"He's insane."
"No… this isn't madness. This is…"
Yi Huo's voice trembled. "He's… replicating Verdant Great Sun's refinement!"
That name struck the crowd like thunder.
Even Xiao Mang, high above, narrowed his eyes, disbelief etched into his noble face. "That legend? The myth of the immemorial era?!"
Fang Yuan's body, battered by radiance, pressed forward.
The cocoon glowed brighter, drawing in the surrounding light. From its core, time seemed to distort—space rippled. Even the heavenly power that had scoured the land now circled the cocoon like moths to a flame.
Feng Tian Yu, renowned refinement master, stood still in the crowd below. His weathered eyes quivered with tears. "That cocoon… that aura. I can't believe it. This is the birth of an Immortal Gu."
A whisper passed through the crowd like wildfire.
"Is this real?"
"That's not just any Gu…"
"That's—Fixed Immortal Travel Gu!"
They remembered the tale from <>. How Verdant Great Sun, son of Ren Zu, refined the Fixed Immortal Travel Gu by braving the light of glory. They remembered the story as children, told by firelight. A tale of courage, madness, and heavenly fortune.
And now, before their eyes, that tale was alive.
"No," Xiao Mang muttered. "I will not allow this!"
With a snarl, he ended the Torrential Light Stream.
The light cut off in an instant.
Fang Yuan's body jerked in the air as the supporting flow vanished. Without the heavenly light, the final catalyst was missing. The cocoon dimmed. The spatial waves slowed. The refinement faltered.
Below, gasps of horror erupted.
"No!"
"It's ruined!"
Feng Tian Yu's knees buckled. "So close…!"
But Fang Yuan—master of deceit, demon of foresight—had anticipated this.
He reached into his robes.
"Third Watch Gu!" he growled.
Two Gu worms flared in his hands. Silver light twisted the space around him.
Time accelerated—ninefold.
The cocoon flared to life once more. The spatial patterns surged. Gu essence rippled like electricity through the clouds. From dimmed glow to raging flare, the cocoon revived like a dying flame fed dry wood.
But Feng Tian Yu's joy was short-lived.
"No! That speed—too fast! The Gu won't stabilize!"
He understood the laws of Gu refinement better than most. "It will self-detonate before it's born!"
And again—Fang Yuan defied logic.
He drew out a final Gu.
It was simple. Plain. Like a gray stone plucked from a riverbed.
But Feng Tian Yu's eyes widened.
"That… that's—!"
"Undefeated Hundred Battles Gu."
A refinement support Gu of legend. Its very existence was doubted. In the past, Fang Yuan had acquired it only after sacrificing countless schemes. In this life, it had come from another source—Chou Jiu, the killer ghost doctor who owed him everything.
Fang Yuan crushed the Gu.
A pulse of fate erupted across heaven and earth.
All probability collapsed into certainty.
In the next instant, the cocoon began to crack.
Its emerald surface split like a hatching egg.
From within emerged—
A butterfly.
Wings translucent and shimmering with green light. A jade body spiraled with spatial runes. Its wings flapped once, and ripples of space distorted the very sky. It hovered around Fang Yuan like a guardian star.
Fixed Immortal Travel Gu.
There was no mistake.
There could be no doubt.
A miracle had unfolded.
A mortal had refined an Immortal Gu before the eyes of all, inside a collapsing blessed land, under the pressure of heaven, while hunted by all sides.
Even Xiao Mang stood frozen. His mouth parted, but no sound emerged. Mo Wu Tian, Yi Chong, Li Xian—none could speak. Only awe remained.
In that silence, Fang Yuan laughed.
It was not madness, nor mockery.
It was joy.
Cold. Precise. Fulfilled joy.
"This is only the beginning," he said, his voice echoing over the battlefield.
Bai Gui reappeared, more translucent than ever, his form nearly breaking apart. "You… truly refined it. You've made the impossible real."
Fang Yuan nodded. "Now. The immortal essence."
"I have some left. Quickly—choose your destination."
Fang Yuan turned his gaze downward.
The battlefield smoldered. Corpses littered the land. Dust choked the air. The bronze hall was rubble. The land trembled with each passing breath, the winds of assimilation nearing.
He breathed in once, then recited aloud:
Since ancient times land immortals pass with the wind,
Today three kings return to eternal slumber.
Who would not experience failure? Verdant Sun died regretfully.
Start over again and proclaim oneself as King.
The Fixed Immortal Travel Gu hovered before him, flapping once.
A pulse of jade light enveloped his form.
Fang Yuan's body shimmered. His outline blurred.
Then—he vanished.
As if he had never existed.
The cocoon fragments scattered like falling stars. The battlefield fell into stunned silence.
"Where did he go?"
"Did he really…"
"He succeeded… He truly did it."
A generation of Gu Masters would forever remember this moment.
Some would become obsessed with it. Others would curse it. And a few—very few—would worship it.
Feng Tian Yu collapsed to his knees again, this time in joy. "To witness the birth of an Immortal Gu… within my lifetime…"
The legendary refinement scene had become reality once more.
History had bent to the will of one man.
A man who would not stop.
A man whose ambition rivaled even heaven.
A man named—
Fang Yuan.