Because he had gathered the necessary tools—he had Rank 10 Destiny Gu, Rank 10 Heaven's Fortune Gu, and many other treasures, such as the Rank 9 Spring Autumn Cicada and Rank 9 Hope Gu.
Countless Rank 9 Gu filled his aperture, each one a piece in the puzzle that would finally lead him to victory.
A year ago, he had ascended to the rank of Venerable, but it was not through the conventional means.
No, Fang Yuan had used the wills of other Venerables to fuel his rise, siphoning their power until they were nothing but hollow echoes in the wind, discarded once they had served their purpose.
And yet, here he stood, looking at the broken remnants of a world that was no longer recognizable.
But Fang Yuan didn't care.
What was this world to him but a stepping stone, a place to refine his power and shape the future to his will.
In the future he knew of, Temporable Demon Venerable and Nuclear Demon Venerable had already left the Gu World.
They had found a way to escape through the chaos that was surrounding this world.
Temporable Demon Venerable, a seeker of knowledge, saw no profit in staying in this world.
Once he realized there was nothing left to gain here, he opened a passage inside the chaos and walked away.
As for Nuclear Demon Venerable, his attachment to family had drawn him back to his own world, leaving Fang Yuan and the other revived Venerables to fight their own battles in the Gu World.
Only after they had gone, did Fang Yuan make his move.
He attempted for eternal life, and still, he failed.
But today, this was his moment.
"It's time." The thought pierced Fang Yuan's mind like a sharp blade, and in that instant, the sky above the Gu World shifted.
It darkened, swirling into ominous clouds, as a presence of chaos and doom unfurled.
Chaotic Disaster Tribulation, Corroding Rain, had arrived.
The Gu World, a place that had long been teetering on the brink of destruction, now buckled under the onslaught.
Torrential rain fell, not just a deluge, but a destructive force unlike any seen before.
Each raindrop that struck the earth didn't merely fall—it detonated upon impact, ripping apart the ground, corroding it, turning it to dust. It was as if the world itself was being undone with every drop.
But this time, it wasn't just the Gu World being ravaged; Fang Yuan's own body and Immortal Aperture were now part of the storm.
The rain, thick and malicious, found its way into his Immortal Aperture.
Each droplet that struck his aperture tore through his meticulously crafted land, erasing it as if it were made of sand.
He scowled.
This wasn't how it was supposed to be.
With a calm, almost mechanical precision, Fang Yuan began to push the drops away, his hands sweeping aside the corroding droplets.
He could feel the weight of every raindrop, each one bearing the force of a Rank 8 Desolate Beast's self explosion.
And with every drop, a piece of his grotto heaven was obliterated.
No matter how much he pushed against the tide, the rain still found its mark, corroding his grotto heaven, disintegrating his grotto heaven.
If even one of these raindrops fell on him personally, he would be reduced to nothing but mangled flesh and bone.
This was no ordinary tribulation; this was the epitome of chaos itself, The Chaotic Disaster Tribulation, Corroding Rain, had arrived.
But, he did not falter.
He summoned his Immortal Essence and poured it into the air, deflecting each drop with his will alone.
Still, the effort was exhausting.
Even Fang Yuan—who had infinite immortal essence—was beginning to tire.
The rain fell for a full day, each second dragging on like an eternity.
But Fang Yuan did not slacken. His resolve was unshakable, his focus honed sharper than ever before.
Still he could only push them a little farther, just far enough to keep his ground.
Meanwhile, he drew in Heavenly Qi, allowing it to rejuvenate him, but as the days dragged into weeks, something profound happened.
The Heavenly Secrets began to reveal themselves to him.
In the quiet recesses of his mind, a truth emerged, one that had eluded him in his past life.
To refine Eternal Life Gu, he would need to refine Chaos itself.
The revelation stunned him.
This wasn't the path he had walked before, and it wasn't the one he had expected.
But it was the truth, and Fang Yuan never hesitated when faced with the truth.
The rain continued—days, weeks, months.
Each droplet falling like the weight of a thousand years, relentless and ceaseless. Fang Yuan, weary as he was, pressed on.
He had infinite Immortal Essence, more stamina, more resolve.
And yet, as the rain persisted, his mind began to unravel deeper truths.
One day, as he pushed against the relentless tide, it hit him with the force of a sledgehammer: Rank 10 cannot exist in this world.
The realization stunned him.
A Rank 10 Gu Immortal does not possess an Immortal Aperture.
They have an Immortal World.
Fang Yuan's breath caught in his throat as he understood.
He was inside the Immortal World of a Rank 10 being—and that being had been dead for countless centuries.
The realization sent a shiver down his spine.
The world he was fighting through, the very space he inhabited, was but a relic of a once-great power.
And yet, here he was, caught in the heart of it, attempting to seize what was no longer even alive.
But it was not just the magnitude of the truth that shook him—it was what came next.
In order to attain Rank 10, he would have to subdue this chaos that had now engulfed him.
The very essence of Chaos itself, the thing he had been trying to refine all along, was the final step.
It was akin to Eternal Life.
Years bled into one another as Fang Yuan continued his relentless battle against the storm.
The power within him, once infinite and boundless, now waned, dimming with each passing day.
But Fang Yuan did not falter.
He pressed on.
Two more years slipped by, and it was then that Fang Yuan's tenacity bore fruit.
Amidst the eternal downpour, he captured a single drop of the Corroding Rain, drawing it into his Immortal Aperture.
The drop was unlike anything else he had encountered in his entire life—he refined it, reshaping it to his will.
This seemingly insignificant droplet became the key to escape his predicament.
The flood of chaos, once overwhelming, now bent to his strength.
Each subsequent drop fell with ease, absorbed and refined, piece by piece.
He began to devour the very chaos that sought to undo him.
One by one, the drops became part of him, part of his eternal process.
Ten years passed.
Fifteen.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Fifty.
A century of ceaseless labor followed.
The chaos that had flooded the world, the Corroding Rain, was no longer a curse. It was fuel, sustenance.
Fang Yuan's Immortal Aperture, once a simple vessel, had now transformed.
His will stretched across the world, absorbing it, reshaping it.
His Aperture collided with the fabric of the present world itself.
And then—
Boom!
A cataclysmic explosion of energy, a reverberation that shattered and annexed the Gu World.
Fang Yuan's Immortal Aperture had not only grown—it had replaced the world.
The chaos that once ravaged him was now a part of him. The Gu World crumbled, assimilated into his very being.
Fang Yuan's mind expanded.
With a flicker of thought, he reshaped the world in his image.
His human form returned, the flesh of the past solidifying into a physical vessel.
He was reborn.
The Heaven's Will that had once belonged to the previous Rank 10 Being shattered in the wake of Fang Yuan's ascension.
Where the old will once reigned, now only his will held sway.
"This is…" His voice echoed through the new reality.
"Eternal life."
Fang Yuan had achieved what he sought for countless lifetimes—eternal life.
But as the weight of his success settled, so did the sharp, bitter realization. Eternal life was not as he imagined.
With a thought, Fang Yuan's will surged beyond the world, into the vast Void, an endless sea of space where countless realms spun in the cold silence of infinity.
Here, in this boundless expanse, he saw others—Gods, beings like himself, their wills manifesting across countless realms.
A giant sun burned in the distance, its light the heart of this cosmic web.
As Fang Yuan's presence rippled through the Void, some of the Gods turned, acknowledging him. Their expressions were unreadable, but their nods were unmistakable.
They were congratulating his ascension.
But within them, Fang Yuan sensed an unspoken tension. One of them—an ancient being clad in the shimmering light of countless worlds—did not bow. Its gaze was piercing, cold.
Fang Yuan's mind flickered. What is this?
The God did not speak. But the warning was clear in the silence: Eternal life is not peace.
The realization struck him like a blade.
He was not alone in this cosmos.
Others—perhaps just as powerful, perhaps far greater—walked this endless road too.
In this realm, immortality was no longer a simple matter of survival. It was a game of faith.
Each God had their following.
The more faith they commanded, the stronger they became.
It was not a place of morality or betrayal.
There were no enemies—only the cold, eternal peace of those beyond death.
But as Fang Yuan stood among them, he felt the weight of that peace, the hollow emptiness of it. The absence of conflict, of struggle, was deafening. Was this truly immortality? Was this truly freedom?
His human heart, the one that had fought for survival, revenge, and power, felt a faint twinge of loss. The struggles of the past had given his existence meaning. And now, that meaning had been replaced by something otherworldly—something that could never be touched by the sweat and blood of mortality.
This—this—was eternal life: to live without end, but to grow only through the faith of others.
To have your existence validated, not by your own strength or victory, but by the belief of those who worship you.
The Void stretched on forever, silent, endless.
Fang Yuan understood now.
To live forever was not simply to outlast death—it was to control the faith of all who believed in you.
His eternal life, his victory, was but one facet of a far larger cosmic order.
Eternal life was not a prize to be savored in isolation.
It was a path of continuous struggle. A war of influence. A war of belief.
There was no true end to the journey.
The Gods before him, those whose faith had sustained them, stood as silent witnesses to the same truth: that eternal life, in its purest form, was a cold, unyielding game.
And now, Fang Yuan, with his unmatched power, was part of it.
For all his victories, for all his manipulations, for all his striving—he was still just another player in the eternal game.
And as the realization settled, a bitter truth took root in Fang Yuan's heart.
This is Eternal Life.
But it is not freedom.