It had been a year since Fang Yuan ascended to the ranks of the Gu Immortals. Yet, for the entire Gu World, this single year had stretched into an eternal nightmare.
Month after month, the earth trembled under the weight of earth calamities, each one more merciless than the last.
But just a few days ago, the final blow was struck: the Heavenly Tribulation.
It was a calamity that left the world broken and battered, sapping the very will to live from every corner of the world.
The hope of the people evaporated like dew beneath the morning sun.
The Gu Immortals had lost everything. No Mortal or Immortal Gu remained in anyone's hands.
Three months prior, the Formless Hands Calamity had swept through the land, stealing every Gu—whether Mortal or Immortal—from all who had ever possessed them.
But Fang Yuan? He stood apart. The world crumbled under the weight of despair, yet within his Blessed Land, he remained unwavering, focused on the task before him.
He moved with the precision of a master alchemist, pouring his heart into refining the mixed paste, never once losing concentration.
Minutes passed, ten… twenty.
And then, from the refined paste, a shape began to emerge—ethereal, delicate. A butterfly, fragile yet powerful, fluttered into being.
The Rank 7 Fixed Immortal Travel Gu.
A smile curved on Fang Yuan's lips, cold and unyielding, as he gently placed the new Gu into his Blessed Land.
Days earlier, he had ascended to the peak, achieving Rank 7 status as a Gu Immortal, a feat that solidified his conjectures.
While the rest of the world reeled in agony, he had seized it all.
Now, with the last remnants of hope shattered, Fang Yuan stood tall, the second most powerful being in the world.
In his hands lay every Immortal Gu in existence, their fates sealed to his will.
...
"Master, how much longer?" A young woman's voice, tinged with impatience, broke through the stillness as she addressed the towering figure of the Dragonmen who led the group.
The old man, his features sharp and his horns twisted like the branches of an ancient tree, turned his gaze toward her.
"We are close," he replied, his voice a deep rumble, filled with both certainty and a hint of something darker.
"The entrance to the Treasure Yellow Heaven must be near," he muttered, his eyes narrowing as they scanned the vast emptiness of the void ahead.
Duke Long's thoughts were far from his companions.
In the stillness of his mind, the world's calamities swirled like an inferno.
Only by finding the inheritor of Treasure Yellow Heaven will we truly understand the source of this chaos...
The world was unraveling at the seams, and Duke Long could feel the tremors beneath his skin.
The demon venerables' true inheritance inheritors, those once indifferent to the will of the Heavenly Court, are now aligning themselves with us.
Even they have been pushed to this…
His eyes gleamed with a mix of urgency and cold resolve.
But who—who could wield such power to manipulate the calamities, to tear the very fabric of reality asunder?
With a slow, deliberate motion, he reached into his robes and produced a mosquito-sized Gu, its dark form shimmering like a shadow under the faint light.
His gaze shifted once more to the void ahead, where nothingness stretched endlessly.
"Let's go," Duke Long whispered, his voice like the quiet before a storm, and with a flick of his hand, they moved forward.
The hunt for the one who could unravel the world itself had begun.
...
"Success," Feng Jin Huang muttered under her breath as her eyes scanned the blessed land inside her immortal aperture.
She had ascended, finally.
She is now a Gu Immortal.
The world, once a place of balance and order, had descended into chaos a year ago.
Calamities erupted across the Gu World, and even those who had reached the pinnacle of power—like the Gu Immortals—were not exempt.
It had been mere months since her mother was claimed by the calamities, leaving her father as the only family she had left.
The loss still stung, but she buried it beneath layers of determination.
The entire world was on the brink of collapse.
The ten great sects, once proud and unyielding, were shadows of their former selves. Their strength crumbled, and their leaders, too, had begun to turn inward, consumed by their own survival.
Everyone, it seemed, had abandoned any semblance of unity.
Each man, each sect, out for themselves.
Whispers spread—rumors of the world's inevitable end. Yet, Feng Jin Huang refused to bow to that notion.
The world may burn, but the Heavenly Court remained an untouched, silent bastion. Calm amidst the storm.
If the end were truly near, surely they would have spoken, made some move. Yet they remained as they always were—impervious to the tribulations sweeping through the world.
Yes, the calamities had taken much. Many had lost their Immortal Gu, their treasures, their allies.
But not all was lost.
The knowledge of the venerables, the power of the Heavenly Court—those were still intact.
The heritage of the past had not vanished, and as long as that existed, there was hope.
Feng Jin Huang did not believe in the end of the world. Not yet.
Not as long as the Heavenly Court held its silence, and the knowledge of the Immortal Gu recipes still remained through this ruined world.
After all, Duke Long had chosen her as his disciple, the most coveted of honors in this fractured world.
He had spoken plainly, his voice unwavering, that she was destined to rise, to transcend, to become—the next Venerable.
That title. That power.
It was not a mere accolade, but a key to the future.
Feng Jin Huang understood the weight of it.
To become a Venerable was to wield the forces that shaped the world itself. With that power, she would not just survive the storm; she could reshape the very course of the calamities that ravaged the land.
She could stand as a beacon of hope.
For all the destruction that rained down upon them, for all the sects falling to ruin, and the immortal Gu being lost to time and tribulation, her path was clear.
A Venerable's influence could pierce through the darkness like a blade cutting through thick fog.
I would become the Venerable.
I must.