Central Continent.
Not because it was spared.
But because something worse had descended upon it.
No fire. No beasts. No lightning.
Only formless hands.
They appeared without warning, without form, without morality — like the manifestation of fate's cold will. They reached into homes, into apertures, into blessed lands, into souls, and stole.
Gu Masters wept. Gu Immortals roared. But it was useless.
Vital Gu were snatched away. Defensive Gu, healing Gu, even rank nine Gu — all vanished into nothingness.
Not a single person was spared. Not a single Gu worm was left untouched.
Only wild Gu remained — and even those were vanishing, one by one, plucked from the skies and earth like fruit at harvest.
The continent was left sterile. Hollow. Defenseless.
In the span of two hours, the greatest cultivation hub of the Five Regions had become a carcass — picked clean by unseen hands.
...
Heavenly Court.
A towering figure stood amidst the marble pillars—nine feet tall, broad-shouldered, crowned with twisted dragon horns that gleamed like obsidian. His gaze was locked on the distant formless hands plundering the Central Continent, his expression twisted with grim displeasure.
Every Gu Immortal in hibernation had been roused by this cataclysm. The links to the outside regions were severed, as if the world itself had been cleaved.
Duke Long's voice was low, bitter. "By death toll alone, the Central Continent has suffered the least. But..." His eyes darkened, "...everyone here has been stripped bare."
"No Gu Worms, no Immortal Gu. The fighting force of the Central Continent is reduced to absolute zero."
He clenched his fists. "At least we destroyed some Immortal Gu before they could be taken. That's the only sliver of hope for refinement."
"But even the Fate Gu—" His voice cracked with frustration. "It's taken away."
"That... is our greatest wound."
He snarled through clenched teeth, voice sharp as a blade. "Investigate."
"Whether it's 'Defy' or some other lurking faction—I don't care."
"If anyone had a hand in this phenomenon, I want them erased from existence."
...
Two hours later...
Fang Yuan's eyes opened.
There was no emotion within them — only clarity.
They reflected neither joy nor awe, but the boundless indifference of someone who had walked through the threshold of heaven itself and returned unmoved.
His body sat cross-legged within the stillness of the True Yang Building, pulsing with quiet power.
With a mere thought, his soul detached — silent, invisible, perfect.
It hovered far above, observing its new body from a detached vantage, like a puppeteer studying his masterpiece.
Without hesitation, he summoned his Gu Worms.
Calamity Beckoning Gu.
A cluster of Immortal Gu.
A cauldron filled to the brim with yellow apricot Immortal Essence.
And floating beside him — the source of this entire upheaval —
Fortune Dominating Heaven Gu came towards his soul from his body.
The fabric of luck twisted around Fang Yuan's body.
Then—
BOOM.
CRACK.
The skies above Imperial Court Blessed Land split open.
A divine thunderclap roared down from the void, tearing apart space.
But this was no ordinary lightning.
From within the bolts, formless hands surged forth — ancient, invasive, brimming with Gu worms that twisted and pulsed unnaturally.
They merged with the lightning mid-strike, forming a living, devouring storm.
...
Across the Central Continent, the formless hands vanished.
In the Southern Border, lightning finally ceased.
The dark clouds parted, allowing the sun's pale rays to cut through the ruin. Yet the warmth brought no comfort — only silence, only fear.
In the Eastern Sea, the few survivors who remained trembled beneath calm waves.
The very sight of water now summoned terror — not from nature, but from memory.
The sea was no longer a source of life. It had become a grave.
In the Western Desert, the beast tide ended. Not with a battle, but with eerie retreat.
The desolate beasts scattered into the sands, vanishing in all directions.
The Gu Masters left behind didn't rejoice — they didn't chase — they didn't even speak. They were broken.
In the Northern Plains, there was only fire.
And from fire, ash.
Few lived. Fewer still would speak again.
After four hours, the disaster had passed through the Five Regions of the Gu World like a divine blade.
But that was merely the prelude.
Now — the true tribulation descended.
BOOM.
CRACK.
Heaven's fury fell once more — not on the world, but on a single man.
Fang Yuan.
The lightning that roared down was not of this world. It bore the will of heaven — sharpened, refined, and targeted.
Its sole purpose: to erase what defied the natural order.
Fang Yuan's new body sat beneath it — a reborn vessel, forged by the Dao.
And just as the bolt fell, his soul, floating above like a sovereign overseeing judgment, moved.
A cluster of Immortal Gu was cast out in a flash.
His voice echoed through suspended space — cold, clear, final:
"Killer Move: Space-Time Lock."
The world stopped.
The lightning froze mid-strike. The clouds ceased to churn.
The Gu worms suspended in the sky like fragments of broken constellations.
The entire Imperial Court Blessed Land was engulfed in stillness.
Time broke.
Reality slowed — a near-complete halt.
From the outside, it looked like a world trapped in a single heartbeat. What once flowed at the pace of life now crawled at a fraction — 0.01x.
Everything… except Fang Yuan's soul.
Unbound by the shackles of time, Fang Yuan moved freely within the suspended world — a ghost in stopped space.
No longer was he reacting to the tribulation.
He was orchestrating it.
With precise movements, he guided another cluster of Immortal Gu, pouring streams of yellow apricot Immortal Essence into his new body.
But he did not repel the tribulation.
He welcomed it.
The lightning, suspended in place, began to sink slowly — not to destroy, but to refine.
Fang Yuan was drawing the heavenly tribulation into his body.
Not as punishment.
Not as trial.
As material.
He was forging himself with heaven's own weapon — bending the will of the world to temper his flesh.
Within that suspended world, he was not prey. He was not victim.
He was the craftsman.
The experimenter.
The anomaly.
Time had halted, space had bowed, calamity had been chained — and in the heart of it all…
Fang Yuan was refining his new body.
...