Chapter 187: Spectral Soul
White light swallowed the battlefield.
Heaven Overseeing Tower Lord stood at the top of Heaven Overseeing Tower and looked down at the result of Heavenly Court's final strike. Sacred Feather City had collapsed into rubble, Shadow Sect's Gu Immortals lay dead across the ruined ground, and Graceful Chaotic Duel Stage had shattered under fate power. The red Immortal Gu House was broken beyond recognition, its remains scattered across the battlefield, while the Gu Immortals who had hidden within it had become torn corpses. The dark clouds of the ten extreme immortal zombie lifeless formation faded, and golden light descended from above like judgment from heaven.
For a brief moment, Heaven Overseeing Tower Lord believed that Heavenly Court had won. His laughter echoed across the battlefield, carrying relief, exhaustion, and the conviction that those who defied heaven's will could only end this way. Yet as the laughter left his mouth, his brows slowly tightened. Heaven Overseeing Tower had already been badly damaged. Its strongest fate attack could not have been used so cleanly, and Shadow Sect had died far too easily. Graceful Chaotic Duel Stage had already been ruined by the third grand tribulation, yet in this scene its destruction felt strangely neat, as if fate itself had arranged everything for him to see. More importantly, the laughter itself felt wrong, as if his emotions had been pulled by invisible hands.
Faint voices reached him from somewhere far away. They called his name, urging him to wake, but Heaven Overseeing Tower Lord felt no sense of waking. He was standing there, looking down at victory, yet the more he looked, the more false the scene became. The other Heavenly Court Gu Immortals were gone. The battlefield was too silent. Fate had never been this simple. His expression changed sharply as realization struck him like cold water.
He was inside a dream realm.
Outside the dream, Heaven Overseeing Tower Lord lay on the floor inside Heaven Overseeing Tower, surrounded by anxious Heavenly Court Gu Immortals. They had poured water over him, burned him with fire, shouted into his ears, and used every available method, but none of it could wake him. The old rank eight slept deeply, his soul dragged into dream path. He had repaired Fate Gu, commanded Heaven Overseeing Tower, crossed white heaven, fought through Shadow Sect's arrangements, and pushed the damaged tower beyond its safe limit. The instant the dream realm caught him, all that fatigue sank into his soul like chains.
On Shadow Sect's side, Ying Wu Xie's aura had changed again. The Pure Dream Reality Seeker Physique had matured further, pushing him to rank eight. At rank seven, his lead soul into dream had failed to truly stop Fang Ming and Fang Yuan because Fang Ming could escape dreams quickly and Fang Yuan had Dream Garment protecting him. But at rank eight, the same killer move became far more terrifying. Even Heaven Overseeing Tower Lord, a Heavenly Court rank eight expert controlling a rank nine Immortal Gu House, was pulled into dream and interrupted at the decisive moment.
Heaven Overseeing Tower trembled in the sky. The other Heavenly Court Gu Immortals took over its controls, forcing the tower to move again, but without Heaven Overseeing Tower Lord, its coordination weakened noticeably. Before the tower could fully recover its rhythm, Ying Wu Xie activated lead soul into dream again. The new controller stiffened, his eyes losing focus as his soul was dragged away. Another Heavenly Court Gu Immortal replaced him, only to be targeted as well. Ying Wu Xie did not need to defeat Heaven Overseeing Tower directly; he only needed to drag away whoever tried to command it at the critical moment.
On the ruined ground below, the remains of Graceful Chaotic Duel Stage lay broken across the battlefield. The third grand tribulation had already destroyed its structure, leaving only wreckage, dead Gu worms, shattered fragments, and traces of dim crimson light fading among the cracks. Fang Ming, Fang Yuan, Fairy Huang Sha, Fairy Qing Suo, Fairy Fen Meng, Bian Si Xuan, and Ju Go had survived the fall, but survival did not mean safety. With Graceful Chaotic Duel Stage destroyed, Fang Ming could no longer protect himself in this level of battle. Their group was completely helpless now.
Fang Ming's face grew heavier as he looked at Fang Yuan. Dream Garment's faint protection still covered him, but Fang Ming knew that the situation had changed. Rank seven lead soul into dream could be resisted by Dream Garment for a time, but Ying Wu Xie had reached rank eight now. If the dream path killer move targeted Fang Yuan again, Dream Garment could no longer be trusted to fully protect him. Fang Yuan might fall into dream, and if he entered Star Constellation's dream, he might hear clues that Fang Ming had spent so much effort preventing him from hearing.
Fang Ming was helpless to stop Ying Wu Xie directly. If Fang Yuan was dragged into that dream, Fang Ming's last resort would be to seal him immediately and throw him into his immortal aperture before the dream could reveal too much. Doing so would trigger their alliance pledge backlash and heavily injure Fang Ming, but that was not even the worst consequence. His survival until now had partly depended on heaven's will still being partial to Fang Yuan because it expected Fang Yuan to destroy Sovereign Immortal Fetus Gu. Fang Ming, however, had already offended heaven's will and was being targeted alongside Shadow Sect. If he attacked and sealed Fang Yuan at this moment, heaven's will might turn even more pressure onto him.
The thought made Fang Ming sigh inwardly, but his decision did not waver. If Fang Yuan was about to enter Star Constellation's dream, Fang Ming would still do it.
Above the battlefield, the fourth and fifth grand tribulations appeared together.
Zither music spread through the sky. It was clear, elegant, and terrifying, entering the minds of every Gu Immortal as if invisible strings were being plucked inside their souls. At the same time, endless starlight gathered in the heavens, forming a vast blue torrent that pressed downward like a collapsing starry river. The zither mind tribulation and star flow tribulation descended together, announcing heaven's will's fury toward Shadow Sect's refinement.
Even Shadow Sect's Gu Immortals, who had endured unimaginable sacrifices, showed grim expressions. They had already consumed Sacred Feather City's wish power, sacrificed Immortal Gu Houses, relied on Bo Qing's sword path strength, and even thrown the five-region Zombie Alliance into the formation. Yet now, after all that, two more grand tribulations appeared at the same time. The ten extreme immortal zombie lifeless formation trembled under the pressure, and the dark clouds warped violently, as if the entire structure might be torn apart at any moment.
Fang Ming wanted the refinement to succeed, but at this moment, that desire was useless. He could not help Shadow Sect. He could not even fully protect himself. His only path was to survive until the final stage arrived and wait for the one opening that could decide everything. Around him, the five Eagle Sect Gu Immortals were pale. They had fought rank sevens, maintained Immortal Gu House control, and endured situations far beyond ordinary rank six Gu Immortals, but now all of that experience felt small. Without Graceful Chaotic Duel Stage, they were exposed to a battlefield where Heavenly Court, Shadow Sect, heaven's will, and a coming rank nine existence were all moving.
Shadow Sect's Gu Immortals began charging forward. They knew they might die, but they still rushed to resist the zither mind tribulation and star flow tribulation. Only Ying Wu Xie remained focused on restraining Heaven Overseeing Tower. His role was too important now. As long as Heaven Overseeing Tower could not act freely, Shadow Sect still had a chance to push the refinement through this impossible moment.
Then, from the ruins of Yi Tian Mountain, an immortal aperture entrance opened.
A rank nine aura erupted from within.
The battlefield seemed to freeze. The tribulations still descended, the zither music still echoed, and the star flow still pressed down, but every Gu Immortal felt their soul tighten. A huge ghostly hand stretched out from the entrance, dark and solid, its size like a mountain. Only part of the hand had emerged, yet the pressure it released was already suffocating.
Fang Yuan stared at the ghostly hand, his thoughts shaken. A soul should be weak after leaving the body, and even if it survived, it should be incorporeal. Even an immemorial soul beast should not possess such terrifying aura, much less a hand that seemed solid like material and could crush the ruins of Yi Tian Mountain by merely pressing downward. The common sense of the Gu world was being broken before his eyes.
Fang Ming recognized it immediately.
This was Spectral Soul's main body. This was the moment he had been waiting for, the moment that proved the final stage had arrived. Yet knowing this would happen and standing before Spectral Soul's rank nine soul body were completely different matters. Fang Ming had seen rank eights before, and some of them had been able to move the world with a wave of their hands, but even those terrifying rank eights did not seem to hold a candle to a rank nine soul alone. As for a complete rank nine venerable with body and Immortal Gu, Fang Ming could not even imagine the true gap.
Inside Heaven Overseeing Tower, Heaven Overseeing Tower Lord finally woke from the dream. The moment he saw the huge ghostly hand, his expression became heavy beyond words. He had already deduced the truth before coming to Southern Border, but seeing it with his own eyes still pressed a mountain onto his heart. His voice carried across the battlefield, revealing the name of the existence before them.
"Spectral Soul Demon Venerable."
The Heavenly Court Gu Immortals also felt fear, but they forced themselves to suppress it. They reminded one another that Spectral Soul was already dead and that only his soul remained. If he truly possessed his full venerable strength, he would not have needed split souls, Shadow Sect, Zombie Alliance, and countless years of arrangements. Their words were as much for morale as for reason. Facing a rank nine existence, even Heavenly Court's rank eights needed to steady their hearts.
Heaven Overseeing Tower tried to move again, but Ying Wu Xie immediately used lead soul into dream. Heaven Overseeing Tower Lord's expression changed as he was dragged back into the dream realm, and when another Heavenly Court Gu Immortal tried to take over, Ying Wu Xie's dream path killer move followed. Heaven Overseeing Tower, the rank nine Immortal Gu House that had pressured the entire battlefield, was being restrained by one rank eight dream path existence.
Heavenly Court did not rely only on Heaven Overseeing Tower. A second Immortal Gu House appeared, smaller and more delicate, with red walls and jade tiles, its beauty unable to conceal the signs of ancient damage. Embroidered Tower descended onto the battlefield, a damaged rank eight Immortal Gu House, yet still part of Heavenly Court's deep foundation.
Embroidered Tower released several embroidery needles condensed from faint light. They flew gracefully, but their power was terrifying. In the blink of an eye, they pierced Spectral Soul's ghostly hand and sewed it to the earth. The method did not use ordinary threads. It used dao marks as threads, stitching the ghostly hand to Southern Border's ground. For a moment, even Spectral Soul's hand could not move freely.
Among the ruins of Graceful Chaotic Duel Stage, Fang Ming's eyes narrowed. Even at this moment, he could not ignore the principle behind the method. Using dao marks like threads to stitch a target to the earth was a sealing concept of immense value. It touched battlefield formations, sealing methods, teleportation restrictions, and dao-mark manipulation. Fang Ming could not study it deeply now, but he engraved the sight into his mind.
Heavenly Court's method only delayed Spectral Soul briefly. The pinned ghostly hand suddenly softened, losing its solid shape and turning into black soul water. The water surged out from the entrance like a dark sea, spreading across the battlefield before rising upward. In an instant, the black water formed a giant soul body thousands of meters tall, and Spectral Soul's rank nine aura became even heavier.
The hand had only been the beginning.
Now the true terror had risen.
Spectral Soul swept one hand across the sky, smashing Embroidered Tower with terrifying force. Another ghostly hand reached out and grabbed Heaven Overseeing Tower. Cracks spread across the damaged rank nine Immortal Gu House as Spectral Soul's fingers tightened. Heavenly Court's Gu Immortals were horrified, while Shadow Sect's Gu Immortals felt wild hope rise in their hearts.
The zither mind tribulation and star flow tribulation descended at this moment. The zither music intensified, trying to pierce into Spectral Soul's mind, but Spectral Soul roared toward the sky and suppressed the sound directly. The star flow tribulation poured downward like a blue heavenly river, but Spectral Soul raised another pair of hands, tore open space, and sent the vast starlight torrent into the void. Grand tribulations that had terrified every Gu Immortal on the battlefield were handled by him as if they were obstacles rather than disasters.
Everyone was shaken.
Fang Yuan, Fang Ming, the five Eagle Sect Gu Immortals, Heavenly Court's rank eights, and even Shadow Sect's own side felt the weight of Spectral Soul's power. This was not another rank eight expert. This was the remnant might of a venerable-level existence, a being who had once stood at the summit of the world.
For the first time, Fang Ming truly felt how thin the rope beneath his feet was. He had schemed, prepared, copied Gu, gathered resources, seized dream realms, taken Luo Po Valley, entered Yi Tian Mountain, and endured until this point, but before Spectral Soul's might, all of it seemed fragile. He even began to doubt whether Star Constellation's arrangement could hold Spectral Soul for even a second. Both were venerables, so Star Constellation should not be defeated instantly, but Fang Ming could only hope that her arrangement was strong enough to create the opening he needed.