Fang Yuan stood amidst a wasteland, his immortal essence reserves were dangerously low. Blood gushed out of his chest, as it had multiple holes in it. Old wounds had already started turning green, he didn't even have the time to spare for a healing killer move. Dao marks of ten different paths buried into his body and were trying to damage him further.
He was in extremely bad shape, and even then the people surrounding him didn't dare to make a move. They could only attack him together to even think about standing up against him!
Star Constellation Immortal Venerable glared at him with deep hatred, her lower half nowhere to be seen. The last time she was whole was in Southern Border a few weeks ago. To her right and left stood the other two kings of The Heavenly Court, each one in worse shape than her.
Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable had stumps where his arms were. As the venerable with the longest lifespan and greatest defense, he didn't expect Fang Yuan to damage him let alone almost kill him. Had he not sacrificed his Primordial Treasury and his arms he would have surely died. Thankfully Genesis Lotus Immortal Venerable removed the refinement path dao marks, or he would have already become a Qi harvesting fruit.
Genesis Lotus Immortal Venerable wasn't hurt physically in any meaningful way, but he had no immortal essence left. He was like a duck waiting to get slaughtered. As the venerable with the greatest immortal essence storage in the world, he never was in a situation where he ran out of immortal essence. Now he felt it for the first time in his life, he had no immortal essence to his name.
To Fang Yuan's right, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable took deep breaths. Bright light shone around him as he activated killer moves to improve his luck. With every killer move he was growing more desperate. His signature golden locks were no longer glowing like the sun, instead they were almost black. His abs had deflated and his muscular physique was no more. He looked like a mockery of his previous self.
Somehow Fang Yuan bypassed his defenses and erased his luck! He didn't take it, or meddle with it. He erased it! Usually even if he had bad luck he could use killer moves to either make it positive or use it in an offensive manner. But now, he barely had any luck. His whole combat system was based on his incredibly high luck, but now? All his killer moves, gu, and immortal essence were useless.
Spectral Soul Demon Venerable stood to the left of Fang Yuan, facing the same predicament as Giant Sun, but it was his soul that was damaged. He had tried to fight Fang Yuan soul to soul. I mean, he was a soul path venerable who could win against him in a contest of souls? Apparently the person with all the major soul path secluded domains of heaven and earth. Fang Yuan had somehow turned them into gu worms and used them against Spectral Soul. The more soul path methods he used the weaker he became, but what choice did he have? He had just awoken. He didn't have any immortal gu except rank 9 kill gu.
He could use it with a killer path killer move he created. In Fact he could possibly end Fang Yuan right now, or cause severe damage to him. But what about after?
Would the three kings of heavenly court stand still as he took the Sovereign Immortal Fetus body? Would they even let him live after Fang Yuan is defeated?
Unlike Giant Sun, Spectral soul didn't have a home base he could return to, worst case scenario he will go into hiding in one of the pieces of Spectral Heaven that fell after Fang Yuan refined it. And even then he had not refined any of the world's dao marks.
Reckless Savage Demon Venerable stood behind Fang Yuan, a giant smile plastered across his face. One arm was missing, and none of his tattoos looked like any beast. It was as if someone had painted with a brush across his numerous transformations. He barely had any transformations left, and the ones he had were unusable due to his injuries, but he didn't care. He was half a step inside the doors of life and death, yet he didn't care.
His body pulsed with power, every breath might as well be his last. In his arm was the head of one of Fang Yuan's clones, Zhun Bu Dao. The little runt had given Reckless Savage a run for his money. He was everything Reckless Savage wanted in an opponent, and Fang Yuan had offered it to him. The fact that Fang Yuan hadn't stepped in at any point in the fight was noted by Reckless Savage. This was truly the coolest fight Reckless savage has ever participated in.
Attacking Fang Yuan at this point will be so uncool, what would Zhun Bu Dao think of him? At this point Reckless Savage just wanted to witness the end of Fang Yuan, the coolest Venerable after him!
Inside the rivers of time layed the corpse of Red Lotus Demon Venerable. Feng Jie Ge stood beside him, playing his complete destiny song. Even the new destiny path couldn't heal Red Lotus, how could it? Red Lotus had technically killed himself with destiny path.
As a last ditch effort, Red Lotus had used his time path prowess to entrust his future into Feng Jie Ge's immortal killer move. Doing so he managed to disrupt Fang Yuan refining the world, if he hadn't done so then none of the Venerables would have survived.
But Red Lotus Demon Venerable was left with no time left and withered to dust. He was now truly dead; no method could bring him back.
"Old Demon Fang Yuan, you terrorized the world long enough. Many have fallen to you. You almost annexed the world and killed us all. Truly befitting of your title as the Heaven Refeinint Demon Venerable. You are the greatest calamity this world has ever seen. For your crimes, the Gu world sentences you to death." Spoke Star Constellation Immortal Venerable.
The man in question didn't answer her accusations. Instead, he looked towards the heavens.
"Five hundred years I walked the mortal cage,
Each life a blade, each death a lesson.
The Venerables stand before me — once gods, now obstacles.
They will fall, not as men, but as stones beneath my path.
Their bones shall grind beneath my will; their names shall feed my Gu.
I, Fang Yuan, have seen every heaven's lie and every mortal's dream.
I shall refine the stars, bend time, and forge eternity from ruin.
Let heaven rage, let fate weep — my path is carved in blood and wisdom.
My demonic heart shall rise again,
Unyielding, eternal — the only truth beneath all skies."
With his final poem recited, Fang Yuan activated hundreds of rank 9 gu, their aura no longer concealed.
The whole Gu world felt the power of the killer moves unleashed. Even as they were activated inside his own aperture, the five regions shook. Earthquakes formed and tsunamis rose. Natural disasters started occurring in an instant.
The heavens began to shake and even the earth veins trembled. Not even the Venerables were spared. They were shocked to the core, none of them expected Fang Yuan to have held such a large amount of rank 9 gu, nor did they expect him to even have this many rank 9 gu worms in his position. They had all monitored him from the moment he became a venerable, from Star Constellation Immortal Venerable to the newly awakened Spectral Soul Demon Venerable.
Instantly hundreds of rank 9 killer moves were unleashed in an instant. All of them aiding the activation of the spring autumn cicada which in itself acted as the core rank 9 gu in this complex killer move.
Star Constellation used a killer move that intensified the lingering effects in Fang Yuan's wounds. Primordial Origin used his own dao marks as materials in his qi wall killer move. Spectral Soul unleashed his newly created killing path killer move. Giants sun unleashed a blood path killer move. Finally Genesis lotus used a pre-saved killer move in his chest painting, quite literally using his own life essence for this killer move.
Only Reckless Savage didn't attack, instead he laughed as he felt the aura of rank 10. "HAHAHA, YOU REALLY ARE THE COOL! FAANG YUAAAN!" He shouted with all his might.
Rank 10 killer move: Rebirth
Using the Sovereign Immortal Fetus Gu as the core of this move elevated it to rank 10. Fang Yuan had stacked hundreds of rank 9 killer moves into this one. It had already eclipsed the performance Limitless Demon Venerable had put on in Crazed Demon Cave so long ago. This was the realm of true immortality!
For a singular moment in time, Fang Yuanhad stepped into the realm of rank 10.
Then his body exploded.
Inside the river of time Fang Yuan's consciousness looked around, unleashing killer moves left and right. Unlike the first time he used the Spring Autumn Cicada, Fang Yuan was in full control of the Spring Autumn Cicada, he had to be. This wasn't the still river of time like the one in Fate gu's time. This was a raging ocean, many waves here even posed a threat to Venerables!
Fang Yuan waved his hands as killer moves were moved from the river of time and attacked him, a few thousand killer moves were unleashed, not only destroying the incoming killer moves, they had already quelled the turbulent waters of the river of time.
Now not even Heaven's will can do anything against him for now.
Now the hard part began, Fang Yuan had to fight his way through the river of time. After the Fate war everyone knew that it was impossible to do that, yet here was Fang Yuan on the Spring autumn Cicada causally rowing.
That was until he reached the point in time where Fate gu was destroyed, but he was prepared. The rank 10 killer move he used activated, once it did his Spring Autumn Cicada continued up on the stream of the river of time. It faced resistance as it went past the inflection point of destroying fate gu. But once it did, the river stopped raging and returned to the one he was familiar with. Now he was truly safe.
The waters of the river of time became docile again, but there were still dangers, to a normal person of course. Fang Yuan had thousands of rank 9 killer moves stacked on the Spring Autumn Cicada, anything that could come his way received on a one way ticket to the doors of life and death.
Just as he moved upstream, he found another person in a similar situation. He found another Spring Autumn Cicada, a far weaker one than the one he was on. It looked like it would break apart at any moment. On it layed a unconscious will. This was of course himself back in the day, when he first acquired this mystical gu.
Suddenly the weak rank 6 Spring Autumn Cicada began to shake. He knew why of course. It was because of his rank 9 Spring Autumn Cicada. Naturally there were no two immortal gu worms which were exactly the same, so how did two Spring Autumn Cicada's exist at the same time. One of them had to go.
His rank 9 spring Autumn cicada was a huge part of the heavenly dao, so naturally it would survive. But before anything happened to the rank 6 Spring Autumn Cicada, Fang yuan activated a few rank killer moves on it. Then he transferred his will into it and he 'merged' with the unconscious will on the rank 6 gu. The leftover killer moves detonated and contained the explosions of his rank 9 Spring Autumn cicada.
Now there should be no paradox nor any problem of his rebirth, in fact everything after the fate war should already be erased, as if it never happened.
Only he would remember what happened after. This was his precaution for the possibility of Heaven's Will noticing him. Now he is the 'same' will that got sent back 500 years into the past by Heaven's will. It shouldn't notice any difference in him, and now, with the aid of the few killer moves he had left, anytime Heaven's will tries to use him or influence him his rank 9 killer move obscure heavenly secret will activate on its own and defend against Heaven's will.
Along with a couple defensive killer moves to defend against deductions, reading the river of time, souls searching, bad luck, and another one that allowed him to send false information into Heaven's will. He instantly used them all and engraved them into 'himself' and Spring Autumn Cicada.
In an instant he could feel an invisible voice inside his mind. But he didn't outright eliminate it, he quarantined Heaven's will in a secluded section of himself, now there was a 0% chance anyone could detect his regression.
With a final check up on the killer moves and plans he had. Fang yuan closed his eyes and drifted on the Spring Autumn Cicada, into the past.
A young teen slowly opens his eyes. Two dark orbs sprung back to life. Emotionless, cold, calculating and like the abyss his eyes overlooked the entirety of Gu Yue village. Beyond the bamboo buildings, beyond the mountain that was too dangerous to the current him, towards the Central Continent he looked. A small smile bloomed on Fang Yuan's lip.
'Star Constellation, I'm back again.' He took a deep breath. 'This time, my demonic heart will not only subject you, I'll annex the Gu world and refine eternal life gu!'