The cracks in the sky widened.
Cold starlight spilled through them, falling into Imperial Court blessed land like thin blades. The golden sky that had covered this world for countless years now looked fragile, as if a careless touch could tear it open further.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng still floated between heaven and earth.
His ascension had not ended.
The immortal aperture had formed inside him, but the danger did not lessen. Instead, it changed shape.
Fang Ming watched from afar, unmoving.
The old man's body was wrapped in heaven and earth qi. His aura continued to rise, no longer purely mortal, yet not fully immortal either. He was trapped between two states, standing on a bridge that could collapse at any moment.
The three qi continued pouring into him.
His flesh, bones, soul, and consciousness were being refined.
For a brief moment, Tai Bai Yun Sheng's crazed expression softened. His eyes became clear, as if he were no longer looking at the world before him, but at the long river of his own life.
Fang Ming understood.
Inspiration from nature.
At this stage of immortal ascension, heaven and earth were no longer distant. They became direct teachers, revealing fragments of the Great Dao.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng walked time path.
Thus, what he saw should be time.
Regret.
Restoration.
Before and after.
The flow of years.
The old man's face trembled. He seemed to gain answers to questions that had tormented him for decades. Yet he did not lose himself inside the feeling.
That restraint was worth remembering.
Fang Ming's own future ascension would likely draw strength path inspiration. Force, body, bone, muscle, steel, dao marks — perhaps heaven and earth would lay their structure bare before him.
But if he became greedy, even enlightenment could become death.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng's human qi began to weaken.
The white cocoon around him thinned.
Fang Ming's eyes sharpened.
Human qi was the Gu Master's own foundation. No matter how deep, it was still limited.
At that moment, a white light descended from Eighty-Eight True Yang Building and entered Tai Bai Yun Sheng's body.
His human qi surged.
The crowd cried out in surprise.
Fang Ming's expression did not change.
Human Qi Immortal Gu.
The real one.
Unlike Fang Ming's counterfeit, the real Human Qi Immortal Gu could adjust human qi with far greater safety. It could support the ascension without leaving such a fatal flaw behind.
Fang Ming's Counterfeit Human Qi Gu could only add.
If used correctly, it could save him.
If used carelessly, it would kill him.
The difference between real and counterfeit was not small.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng accepted the help immediately.
His human qi swelled, and with it, he drew in even more heaven qi and earth qi. The wind howled. The earth groaned. Imperial Court blessed land trembled faintly, as if something had been cut from its foundation.
Fang Ming looked toward Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.
Giant Sun's will was not helping out of kindness.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng was not Giant Sun's bloodline descendant.
The reason was simple.
The longer Tai Bai Yun Sheng survived, the more heaven qi and earth qi he absorbed from Imperial Court blessed land. The more he absorbed, the weaker Frost Jade Peacock became.
Help could also be a blade.
And Giant Sun's will was using Tai Bai Yun Sheng to cut the land spirit.
Soon, the three-colored qi around Tai Bai Yun Sheng shrank inward.
A muffled sound echoed through the air.
Inside Tai Bai Yun Sheng, a small world opened.
His immortal aperture began to expand.
Sky formed.
Earth formed.
A tributary of the river of time entered, and time inside the aperture accelerated.
The space expanded rapidly, drawing in heaven and earth qi like a starving beast.
Fang Ming watched closely.
The aura of the new aperture rose again and again.
It did not stop at low grade.
Nor did it stop at medium grade.
High-grade blessed land.
Green grape immortal essence began condensing within it.
One bead.
Two.
Ten.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Thirty-six.
Fang Ming silently remembered the number.
Thirty-six beads.
This was the result of Tai Bai Yun Sheng's deep accumulation and successful qi fusion.
For a normal immortal ascension, this was already excellent.
But Fang Ming did not feel joy or envy.
Only pressure.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng was not one of the ten extreme physiques, yet his ascension had already shaken Imperial Court blessed land. Fang Ming carried the Great Strength True Martial Physique now. If he succeeded, his result might surpass this.
But so would his disaster.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng took out his Gu.
Man as Before.
River as Before.
Mountain as Before.
His eyes lingered on Man as Before Gu the longest.
That was his vital Gu.
His last hope.
Becoming immortal alone would not extend his lifespan. If his life was ending, rank six cultivation would not stop death. But if Man as Before became an Immortal Gu, perhaps he could still seize several more years.
For a dying man, several years were enough to gamble everything.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng sent Man as Before into the qi.
Boom.
The sound echoed strangely, seeming to come from within his body and from the world at the same time.
Heaven qi and earth qi wrapped around the Gu, forming a cocoon. River as Before and Mountain as Before followed, stabilizing the new immortal aperture.
Fang Ming's gaze deepened.
Releasing Gu.
Using heaven and earth qi to push mortal Gu toward Immortal Gu during ascension.
This was another gate.
One that had to be prepared before the ascension began.
During his own ascension, which Gu should he risk?
Which Gu should he protect?
Which Gu should become the center of his path?
By the time the moment arrived, hesitation would be fatal.
The qi cocoon around Man as Before trembled.
But before the result fully settled, danger erupted again.
Above Tai Bai Yun Sheng, lightning gathered.
Not ordinary lightning.
Purple lightning balls rolled through the sky, each one making a strange sound like laughter and crying mixed together. Their movement was unpredictable, drifting left and right without pattern.
Below, smoke rose from the earth.
It was thick and strange, curling upward like an ancient forest. Wherever it spread, space seemed to blur. Even from afar, Fang Ming felt that if someone entered it, their senses would be swallowed.
Chaotic lightning balls.
Restraining smoke.
Fang Ming's eyes turned cold.
The first attacked thought and will.
The second trapped movement and senses.
Together, they were far more dangerous than simple force.
Steel Body Gu could harden flesh.
It could strengthen defense.
But what use was a steel body if the mind became chaotic?
What use was strength if the senses were sealed and direction lost?
Tai Bai Yun Sheng clearly understood the danger.
He did not retreat.
He rushed upward instead, directly charging into the thundercloud.
The crowd cried out in shock.
To them, it looked like seeking death.
But Fang Ming's eyes flashed.
Correct.
The restraining smoke was the greater trap.
If Tai Bai Yun Sheng allowed it to surround him, his senses would be sealed. Once movement was restricted, the chaotic lightning balls would rain down endlessly until his mind collapsed.
Charging into the lightning cloud was dangerous.
But staying below was worse.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng's flying skill erupted fully.
His body moved through the lightning storm like a thread passing through needles. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes rising, sometimes falling. Lightning balls brushed past him again and again, but he continued forcing a path through the gaps.
Blood stained his robes.
His breathing was rough.
Yet he endured.
Fang Ming silently watched.
Movement.
He had prepared 30 diffrent movement Gu.
Defense alone wont be enough, even an imotal gu like the Steel Body Gu was not enough.
A tribulation could attack the body, the mind, the senses, or the environment. If he prepared only for one kind of danger, the others would kill him.
A light pillar shot out from Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.
Divert Disaster Gu acted again.
The pillar struck the chaotic lightning balls, dissolving them into pure heaven qi. It swept toward the restraining smoke, thinning part of the earthly calamity.
The watching Gu Masters cheered once more.
"Old ancestor is helping again!"
"Lord Tai Bai will succeed!"
Fang Ming ignored their voices.
He saw only the deeper contest.
Giant Sun's will wanted Tai Bai Yun Sheng alive.
Frost Jade Peacock wanted him dead.
If Tai Bai Yun Sheng lived, he continued draining Imperial Court blessed land, weakening the land spirit.
If Tai Bai Yun Sheng died, his immortal aperture could be devoured by Imperial Court blessed land, strengthening Frost Jade Peacock instead.
The old man struggling in the sky had become a chess piece between two powers far above him.
Fang Ming's expression remained calm, but his heart grew heavier.
Could the same happen to him?
When he ascended, would his life and death still be his own?
Or would other powers also turn his tribulation into their battlefield?
Inside Tai Bai Yun Sheng's immortal aperture, light suddenly burst out.
An Immortal Gu rose slowly.
It looked like a ladybug, its round back carrying natural markings: half rivers and seas, half mountains and valleys.
Landscape as Before Immortal Gu.
It had formed first.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng was overjoyed, but he did not lose focus.
His true hope was still Man as Before.
At the center of the immortal aperture, another cocoon cracked.
Rainbow light leaked through.
The cocoon broke.
A colorful butterfly emerged, trailing rainbow light behind it.
Man as Before Immortal Gu.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng laughed loudly, almost mad with joy.
He had succeeded in refining his vital Gu into Immortal Gu.
But the next breath, his joy was crushed.
Within the newly formed immortal aperture, calamity rose again.
An azure tribulation cloud formed above the aperture sky. From it emerged a huge green-scaled python with a silver horn on its head.
Below, the earth split apart.
Molten lava surged upward, burning across the newly formed land.
Silver horn green scale python.
Molten earth.
Fang Ming's gaze sharpened.
Internal tribulation.
The danger was not only outside the body.
Inside the immortal aperture, calamity could also form.
This was even more troublesome.
The ascender had to face attacks outside, maintain control inside, protect the new blessed land, and refine Gu at the same time.
No wonder countless rank five peak experts never dared to take this step.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng hurriedly activated Landscape as Before.
Green grape immortal essence fused into it, and the ladybug-like Immortal Gu flew across the immortal aperture. Wherever it passed, the damaged land restored itself to its previous state.
Molten earth was suppressed.
The landscape recovered.
Fang Ming's thoughts moved toward Steel Body Gu.
A suitable Immortal Gu after ascension could save one's life.
But Steel Body Gu protected the body.
It would not restore damaged land.
It would not calm internal calamity.
It would not stabilize a newly formed blessed land by itself.
He needed more.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng was soon forced into a corner.
Externally, chaotic lightning and restraining smoke pressed him.
Internally, the silver horn green scale python attacked, and molten earth damaged his blessed land.
Even with Landscape as Before, he could not handle everything.
Then Tai Bai Yun Sheng made a harsh choice.
Part of his blessed land began to peel away.
Layer after layer of sky and land were cut off, carrying tribulation clouds with them.
The discarded fragments left his immortal aperture and fell into Imperial Court blessed land.
Frost Jade Peacock devoured them.
Fang Ming's eyes narrowed.
Sacrificing part of the blessed land.
Reducing one's future potential to preserve one's life.
Cruel.
But correct.
A dead Gu Immortal had no future.
A weakened immortal aperture could still be repaired over time.
This lesson was even more valuable than the earlier ones.
Survival came first.
Everything else came after.
Inside Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, Giant Sun's will grew furious.
Protecting Tai Bai Yun Sheng was weakening Frost Jade Peacock, but Tai Bai Yun Sheng's self-mutilation was feeding the land spirit instead.
Divert Disaster Gu continued acting, but cracks had already appeared on it from backlash.
Giant Sun's will could not rely on it forever.
Then the light of Divert Disaster suddenly vanished.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng was struck by chaotic lightning balls.
His body froze in the air.
His eyes lost focus.
His mind had fallen into chaos.
More lightning balls rushed toward him.
The watching crowd cried out.
Fang Ming's expression tightened slightly.
If Tai Bai Yun Sheng died now, everything would shift again.
But Giant Sun's will would not allow that.
The next moment, Eighty-Eight True Yang Building erupted with a terrifying absorption force.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng's body vanished from the sky.
He was pulled directly into the building.
For a breath, the entire world seemed silent.
Then the calamity followed.
Chaotic lightning balls crashed down onto Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.
Restraining smoke coiled around it like a giant python, seeping into its structure.
The Immortal Gu House had taken Tai Bai Yun Sheng inside.
So heaven and earth treated it as part of the target.
The tribulation began striking Eighty-Eight True Yang Building itself.
The crowd stared in disbelief.
No one could understand what they were seeing.
Fang Ming understood enough.
Giant Sun's will had chosen to bear the calamity and tribulation directly rather than let Tai Bai Yun Sheng die.
The situation had spiraled beyond ordinary ascension.
Beyond Tai Bai Yun Sheng.
Beyond Frost Jade Peacock.
Even Eighty-Eight True Yang Building had been dragged into the tribulation.
Fang Ming watched the lightning strike the giant structure again and again.
His face remained calm, but his thoughts were heavy.
Human qi.
Calamity.
Movement.
Mind protection.
Internal aperture danger.
Sacrificing blessed land territory.
Outside interference.
One lesson after another had unfolded before him.
And each lesson said the same thing.
Immortal ascension was not a ceremony.
It was war.
A war against heaven and earth.
A war against one's own limits.
And sometimes, a war between powers that did not care whether the ascender lived or died.
Fang Ming looked at Eighty-Eight True Yang Building as restraining smoke wrapped around it.
When his time came, he could not rely on luck.
He could not rely on one Gu.
He could not rely on brute strength.
He needed more preparation.
And he had less time than ever.