"You said at the beginning that you could help me become a Venerable," Fang Yuan said, recalling the words of the Goody Two-Shoes System. "Was that true?"
"Indeed, the power of a living Venerable will be needed to save the world from its destruction," Paradise Earth said.
"But isn't the Great Dream Immortal Venerable a woman? Not to mention an Immortal and not Demonic Venerable. How can it be me?" Fang Yuan asked. "Or do you intend to destroy Fate Gu?" Fang Yuan was unfamiliar with the requirements to becoming a Venerable - these two were the best sources of information for that. However, if the legends were to be believed, the future Venerables were set in stone.
"No," Paradise Earth said. "We don't want you to destroy Fate Gu. Fate Gu is necessary to uphold the structural integrity of the world. Humans may curse Fate, but they curse the idea of complete and utter destruction even more. There is no humanity without the world."
"How then, is anything beyond this going to be possible?" Fang Yuan reminded him. "Is not Fate what is limiting you in the first place from doing anything?"
Genesis Lotus said, "Think of it this way: Fate Gu acts as a cage, preventing us - the Embodiment of Humanity's Collective Will - from acting freely like we would want. However, this cage also serves as a protection. We are like prisoners in a cell. However, imagine that the cell is inside a building, and the cell is what is holding the roof up. If we destroy the cell, we might be free, but the roof will then crash on our heads and kill us anyway. Fate Gu serves as an armor, one of the laws that binds the world together. If you cut it off, the world will begin to unravel and its destruction will be greatly accelerated."
"Fate Gu is required to exist in order to maintain the world's stability for as long as possible then..." Fang Yuan frowned. "So then how can I become a Venerable?"
"There is no strongest gu, only the strongest Gu Master," the faces all across the Embodiment of Humanity's Collective Will said. "Fate Gu is just a gu, after all, even if it is incredibly powerful, who says that there are not ways around it? Were it all-powerful, we would not be having this problem in the first place as Heaven's Will could use it to ensure the world never ends. Fate Gu is powerful and is one of the main pillars sustaining the world, but it cannot stop the end of the world on its own either. Nothing that Heaven's Will can attempt can stop the world's eventual end. That is why we have to act. We have been working tirelessly for several million years, Fang Yuan, in order to find a way to counter it without destroying it. You just need to look for them Fang Yuan, and you will find the answers."
At this point, Fang Yuan had balanced the three qi - Human, Earth, and Heaven - within his aperture perfectly. Beads of Grape Green Immortal Essence began forming as a world began crystallizing within his aperture.
It was time for Fang Yuan to place his vital gu within it.
Now, it was time to make the decision as to which gu that would be. At this point, he could change his Vital Gu without any backlash. Whichever gu worm he placed would influence the development of his aperture.
Remembering what Paradise Earth had said, he reached for Integration Gu and placed it within his aperture first of all.
And it was then that it appeared - Fang Yuan's Earthly Tribulation!
From all around the white, blank canvas of the world, red objects appeared.
They seemed to be vaguely humanoid in appearance but were composed entirely of blood from head to toe, the stark crimson contrasting greatly with the white canvas.
Fang Yuan's eyes widened, and even though he had never seen this before, he could recognize it from his experience in the Blood Path: Blood Deity, Rank 6 Immortal Gu!
Except there wasn't just one of them. There were over half a dozen. The Blood Deity was extraordinarily powerful, having the strength of not just a Rank 6 Gu Immortal, but being able to rival those of Rank 7 Gu Immortals in some aspects. After all, there was a reason that Fang Yuan had labored in his early life in order to refine one before he had been unable to find the desired recipe and had refined the Spring Autumn Cicada instead.
These Blood Deities were not gu worms, but rather what was formed after using the Blood Deity gu worm to develop one of them, like puppeteering a Blue Lightning Shadow.
That was how multiple of them could exist at once since Blood Deity was after all, an immortal gu.
Fang Yuan's eyes widened. How could he possibly fight seven, each of which was nearly as strong as a Rank 7 Gu Master? What kind of Earthly Tribulation was this?!
Fang Yuan glanced at his gu worms. What could they possibly do against a force this strong?
At that moment, before the Blood Deities could strike out at Fang Yuan, hands reached out from the Embodiment of Humanity's Collective Will, grasping onto each of the Blood Deities, crushing them.
One of them almost came within an inch of decapitating Fang Yuan. However, he dodged, several of the hairs on his head being cut by the creature.
"Why is this tribulation so strong?" Fang Yuan asked.
"Heaven's Will has sensed you," the Embodiment of Humanity's Collective Will said. "Rather unfortunate, but because of that, it is trying to put an end to you. The Human Path counters the Heaven Path, and in the hands of an otherworldly demon, it thinks that it would be too powerful. Additionally, the special aperture you are making is very valuable, beckoning a stronger tribulation in turn."
"Well, then, at least it's over," Fang Yuan began to say before he paused, as the Earthly Tribulation took on another form.
It was far from over!
Hands began emerging out of the void. Some of them had one finger, some had two, others had three, four, to five, and so on. Fang Yuan gasped.
Formless Hands!
It was the signature move of Thieving Heaven Demonic Venerable. Being a Rank 9 Gu Master, he had still left traces of himself amongst the Great Dao, and it had manifested in the form of this kind of calamity.
Each hand was designed to take the corresponding rank of gu worm - Rank One by the hands with one finger, Rank Two by those with two fingers, and so on and so forth.
"Heaven's Will cannot directly destroy you, so it is attempting to take your gu worms," the Embodiment of Humanity's Collective Will said. "Dodge them!"
Fang Yuan swerved, intending to retreat. It was difficult. The hands were ghostly, and as a rule, they would pass through any kind of solid object and could not be attacked directly. Only when they had latched onto a gu worm would there be a small window in which they could be destroyed and the gu worm retrieved.
"Let me deal with it," a voice called out from within the Embodiment of Humanity's Collective Will. A face appeared which Fang Yuan recognized: Ben Jie Son, Thieving Heaven Demonic Venerable himself.
Thieving Heaven Demonic Venerable clicked his tongue. That was all that was required. The hands suddenly became erratic, flying off into the void, seemingly repulsed from Fang Yuan, as if they were two magnetic poles that would not touch each other.
At that moment, dark balls of fire began forming in the space above them.
Dark Flame Meteor!
An Earthly Tribulation that could damage one's aperture by causing damage to the resources within. Many tribulations were like that; they were not intended to simply kill the Gu Immortal in question, but rather weaken their foundation so that a larger tribulation could finish them off later on. Dark Flame Meteor was like this.
However, there wasn't just a single one like one would ordinarily expect from an Earthly Calamity. Multiple Dark Flame Meteors began raining down from the sky towards Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan found himself moving, a cloud forming beneath him thanks to the efforts of the Embodiment of Humanity's Collective Will.
Not just one, two, three - but over a dozen! All of them coming for him!