Chapter 970: Rebirth, Ghost Face, Red Lotus! Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios Legend says there was a river in this world. It connected the beginning and the end, it had hidden causes and effects, flowing to every part in the world, it was everywhere. With its irrigation, the world could operate normally and all things were able to change. This river was called the river of time. This was a secluded domain of heaven and earth, a place where time path flourished, and countless time path Gu worms lived and propagated. The endless river flowed wantonly without pause. The river was vast and boundless, its tides rose and fell along with the surging waves. Each drop of the water of time was pale and colorless, but innumerable droplets of water crashed, intertwined, collided, and spun all the time, giving off a brilliant show of lights. These brilliant lights were in all kinds of shapes and colors, and were hard to put into words. Fang Yuan felt this was one of the most beautiful sights in the world. When the rank nine Immortal Gu House, Heaven Overseeing Tower, sent out the attack which it had prepared for a long time, Fang Yuan was like a bystander that had been implicated, unable to avoid it. His only remaining option was to activate Spring Autumn Cicada. However, the rank six Spring Autumn Cicada had a huge flaw. There was a chance of failure every time it was used! At Qing Mao Mountain, Fang Yuan successfully activated it once. At San Cha mountain, Fang Yuan successfully activated it again. If his previous life of five hundred years was counted, then Fang Yuan had already successfully activated Spring Autumn Cicada three times. Now, he had finally failed. Spring Autumn Cicada’s activation failed. Although his will entered the river of time, at the moment of activation, Spring Autumn Cicada self-detonated, turning into countless fragments. Fang Yuan’s will was like a baby that had lost the small boat it was in and was drowning. The surging river of time would engulf and destroy Fang Yuan’s will in an instant, not even a trace would remain. “In the end, I still failed...” At the moment of death, Fang Yuan’s remaining will was strangely tranquil. There was no worry, no discontent, and no regret. When he had first chosen this path, he had already expected the situations that could occur, the situation right now had already been within Fang Yuan’s consideration. He could do nothing now. He had already done everything he could. “If a chance was given to me again, I would still choose to live this way. Hehehe, so be it, my story as a Gu Immortal shall end here. Although I did not leave behind any biography or inheritance, but... it doesn’t matter.” Fang Yuan’s will was quickly dissipating. He was tranquil, even feeling happy in a way. If he still had a face, the corners of his lips would probably be curled up into a smile right now. Dying while pursuing one’s goal, what regrets could he have? “Hehehe... hmm?” Fang Yuan’s laughter abruptly stopped, a strange change was occurring at this moment. From the remote and grand river of time, a ghost face suddenly came out. The ghost face first looked at Fang Yuan’s remaining will and made faces, seemingly in silent mockery. Then, the pitch-black ghost face’s cheeks swelled up, its expression seemed like one of extreme suffering, like it was going to vomit. A giant flower bud, dripping wet, came out from the ghost face’s mouth. The ghost face’s mouth almost ripped apart, its lips had stretched to an exaggerated degree, even reaching its ears. After vomiting out the flower bud, the ghost face relaxed before starting to make faces at Fang Yuan again, it was amusingly comical, but at the same time was a ghastly and terrifying smiling expression. And that flower bud started to slowly blossom in the river. Time seemed to have stopped at that moment. In the blink of an eye, the flower bud opened, turning into an enchanting red lotus! From the center of the lotus shot out a slightly red light ray that landed at the area where Spring Autumn Cicada had shattered, the time in the red light began to turn back. At the same time, the ghost face that had carried the red lotus slowly sank down into the river. Like a movie being played backwards, everything began to go backwards. As if water spilled from a basin was returning. Fang Yuan’s will had almost completely dissipated, the scant few bits remaining were negligible. But under the illumination of the red light, his will began to rapidly restore and countless Gu worm fragments also began to appear. And when these Gu worm fragments joined together, they turned into an intact Spring Autumn Cicada! Spring Autumn Cicada carried Fang Yuan’s restored will, and began to set on its path again. The red light dissipated, the red lotus immediately scattered, and that ghost face also had been completely washed down into the endlessly surging river of time. It was as if everything had been an illusion. However, Spring Autumn Cicada was already forcibly restored. It carried Fang Yuan’s will, carrying Fang Yuan’s remaining hopes as it flowed in the river. Flowing backwards.... Returning to the past! ... Star Form blessed land. Poisonous fog was spreading, poisonous blood was boiling, three layers of Gu formations were already destroyed by corrosion, the surrounding land turned into a thin layer of poisonous swampland. Fang Yuan’s face was stern. “Next is the most troublesome and difficult to process immortal material, earthly limit astral qi.” He took out an immortal material and held it in his hands. This Gu refinement material was very peculiar, it was made up of soil and qi. They gathered into a lump. At the top was light azure colored astral qi, below was black soil. Astral qi was the heaven qi found up in the nine heavens. Outside the immemorial nine heavens was a thick wall of astral qi. If a Gu Immortal wanted to explore the nine heavens, they would need to break through the astral qi wall. Meanwhile, the black soil was made up of the essence of earth qi condensed from the ten depths. Heaven and earth qi could not coexist, but at this moment, this earthly limit astral qi was joined together in harmony. Not only were they existing peacefully, they were converting into one another constantly. Black soil turned into astral qi while astral qi turned into black soil. Fang Yuan shook it by moving his hands rapidly, as this lump of earthly limit astral qi melted, fusing with the black soil and becoming a lump of fog. But after shaking, after a dozen breaths, the black soil sank while the astral qi stayed on top. Black and white was separated again, the two were rotating, it was a mystical sight. “Processing such an immortal material is most troublesome. Ordinary refinement path killer moves cannot deal with it perfectly. Only the four publicly recognized strongest immortal killer moves to deal with immortal materials — slumbering lightning python, reflect snow, muffled thunder stone drum, and wind grind, can complete this step instantly. Unfortunately, I do not have any of these four immortal killer moves, to process the earthly limit astral qi, I can only put in much time and effort.” Fang Yuan’s thoughts flashed as he moved his feet, his huge body shot into the air, he leaped and jumped into the turtle shell, into the poisonous blood. Boom! Fang Yuan flashed his sharp nails, causing injuries on his six monstrous arms, he next slashed at his chest, back, and other areas, creating openings on his skin. Blood refinement killer move — Blood Trace Travel. From these injuries, traces of blood appeared. The blood traces quickly fused into the dark purple poisonous blood, the poisonous blood in the turtle shell was drawn away, it moved into Fang Yuan’s wounds. Intense pain assaulted him, Fang Yuan snorted. Immortal zombies did not have a sense of pain, Fang Yuan could feel pain because he used Gu worm methods. He needed to feel pain so that he could know what step the immortal materials were at. Fang Yuan’s blood and the poisonous blood in the turtle shell acting as a pot continued to fuse and circulate, they were entering and exiting Fang Yuan’s body. After this process stabilized, Fang Yuan took out the earthly limit astral qi and swallowed it. Gulp, the earthly limit astral qi entered his stomach. This was his own original method, created in his previous life, an abnormal technique using blood path to refine Gu. He called this the flesh body blood refinement technique. The earthly limit astral qi entered his body, it was engulfed by the blood and slowly melted into the blood. Blood flowed out of Fang Yuan’s body through the wounds, into the turtle shell pot, and sank to the bottom. At the same time, the other poisonous blood in the pot flowed into Fang Yuan’s body through the wounds, engulfing the earthly limit astral qi again. Time slowly passed, three days and two nights later. Fang Yuan was covered in wounds, the pain made his face distorted, his eight monstrous arms were inserted into the poisonous blood, his fangs were exposed and his eyes were red, he was breathing heavily like an ox. “Still... still a night remaining, I need to completely process all the earthly limit astral qi in my body... as long as I can get past this step, the most difficult part of refining change form Immortal Gu would be over... uh!” Suddenly, Fang Yuan’s pained expression stiffened. Under his deep frowning expression, his bright eyes suddenly showed confusion, almost losing all their luster. When refining Immortal Gu, one had to maintain high degrees of concentration, how could he be allowed to be distracted? Pff—! He immediately spat out a large mouthful of poisonous blood. Shortly afterwards, he fell down heavily in the poisonous blood in the giant turtle shell, raising a huge wave of blood. The bloody wave splashed out of the turtle shell, into the grassland; soon, a large patch of healthy green grass turned into dark red smoke due to the corrosion. “Master!” Star Form land spirit shouted worriedly, jumping into the turtle shell. Suddenly, Fang Yuan’s head emerged from the pool of blood. He splashed around twice, before standing up. The confusion on his face quickly disappeared, his gaze brimming with energy as he mumbled: “This is... this place?” Hearing Fang Yuan’s mumbling, Star Form land spirit became even more worried: “Did master lose his mind because of the refinement failure?” Fang Yuan gazed at his hands first, then swept through the turtle shell and the blood pool, before finally stopping on Star Form land spirit. “What time is it now?” Fang Yuan asked. Star Form land spirit jolted inwardly, but still replied: “Many days have already passed since master began refining the Immortal Gu.” “Hahahaha...” Fang Yuan raised his head and laughed heartily. Star Form land spirit felt bleak: “Oh no, master has lost his mind! After failing the Immortal Gu refinement, his body suffered heavy injuries, he has even forgotten the time, and is still laughing so happily!” There was no need for Fang Yuan to tell others about the reason for his happiness. “I have returned once again!” “Despite the activation of Spring Autumn Cicada failing, because of a strange change, I returned to life from death, from defeat to victory, my will has once again returned to the past.” 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖 “I am still refining change form Immortal Gu... the time is over a year ago? This is actually so short!” “According to my foundation and with so many Immortal Gu on me, I should have at least traveled several hundred years back. Is it because Spring Autumn Cicada failed to activate that I only returned to a point over a year ago?” “Also, that ghost face and the red lotus, what was going on... what had happened?”