Bab 19: Chapter 2353
A thick fog of dust permeated the air, no life could be seen for miles away.
In this barren wasteland, buildings of once marvelous quality and prestige lay broken on and scattered amongst the ground.
This destitute wasteland was once the greatest force in the world, Heavenly Court!
The first bastion of Humanity. Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable's last legacy to the world!
It had stood for 3 million years! Gave birth to countless prodigies, Duke Long, Duke Mei, Qi Ding Ling, and was the home for 3 Venerables!
They established humanity's rise to prominence and from the Central Continent, they inspired the rest of the humans to rise up and overthrow the Variant Races.
So many humans across the world looked up to Heavenly Court.
Yet times have changed, humanity no longer needs a protector.
It wasn't Spectral Soul, Giant Sun or even Fang Yuan that ultimately destroyed Heavenly Court what truly did was that the people's hearts had changed.
The era Heavenly Court was born from was the most united humanity had ever been. Humans naturally drift apart from one another to find people who are like them.
But in the Antiquity Era where humans were oppressed, they found solace in one another, disagreements were tolerable as there was a common enemy, Variant Humans!
The hearts of humans had never been more united, Heavenly Court built on that, giving humans a chance, a hope to see a better future.
The hearts of the members of Heavenly Court rang out: "I suffer now in the hopes that one day my descendants can have the choice to."
Star Constellation still remembers those days filled with camaraderie, friendship, the bitterness of loss, and the taste of victory.
Yet now, when she casts her gaze onto the world such people are few and far in-between, the rise of people like Fang Yuan was not an anomaly but an eventuality that she had come to accept.
For millions of years, the system was created to oppress such people; people who believed themselves more important than the whole, people who would use others to elevate themselves.
They were labeled as, Demons!
But after 3 million years that has changed, sure Fang Yuan was the most Demonic Gu Immortal in the world, but who's to say he has no supporters?
The world has moved on from the war with the Variant Humans, but Heavenly Court didn't, wouldn't, couldn't move on, it was humanity's bastion.
It did whatever was necessary to protect humanity from the Variants, even preventing them from chasing Eternity.
In some sense, you could say the Heavenly Court had no faith in humanity to suppress and overturn Fate.
Others would question themselves if they found that the heart of the people had turned on them.
But not Star Constellation.
She herself knew, even if the people hated her, even if the people rejected her, even if the very people she tried to protect fought her.
She knew.
She knew the power of Fate, that it was a constant force of suppression that could have ensured humanity's reign forever!
Fate was a constant, a guarantee, an assurance that as long as it is fated it is as good as decreed.
But humanity had grown selfish, rejecting that assurance, rejecting that guarantee to trade all that in for a chance at obtaining immortality. To throw the hope of the future away just on what? A fantasy.
Seeing Limitless fail only made Star Constellation more aggrieved.
Did she not try to warn them? That it was a meaningless gamble, a chasing after the wind?
But would they have listened? No.
So here she stands alone with one final mission, fix everything.
Fate is gone Variant Humans now have the chance to rise again, all the immemorial desolate beasts have the chance to become a venerable!
Without Fate, it infinitely compounded the number of variables that went into deducing future events.
Star Constellation hadn't explored many possibilities yet just 14,000,605.
In it, she saw victors from various sides, but one thing was for certain; a war between the races would occur!
With no Heavenly Court, the Variant races could establish their own forces either through good connections, kind and naïve humans or, through bribery and force.
Humans being selfish and short-sighted beings they would allow these forces if it benefited them naively believing that humanity's supremacy would go on forever or at least till their lifetime.
But Variant Humans live longer, some can live for a thousand years at minimum some the concept of a lifespan doesn't even apply.
And so, they would keep growing and growing until they could topple humanity!
Star Constellation would not allow this to happen!
Within the destitute Heavenly Court, Star Constellation had the Beast of Devour chained by starlight.
Instead of eating the starlight, it was actually empowering it!
Star Path was one of the Paths that held Yang attributes, though it was nowhere near as effective as Fire or Light Path.
But of course, Star Constellation could have drained the Beast of its Energy earlier instead she brought this Beast here to convert the Dao Marks of other paths into Star and Wisdom Path!
While the conversion rate between other paths to Soul Path would be a measly 10:1, from Soul Path to her Paths would be an even worse exchange it didn't matter.
Who else in Heavenly Court was going to use these paths? And besides Heavenly Court currently needed a defender who else would it but Star Constellation.
The stronger she was the more likely it would be that Heavenly Court could rise.
But of course, to be sure she had thoroughly investigated the Killer Move and managed to instill her Will into the beast to control it!
To some degree, she couldn't make it stop Devouring its natural instincts were too strong, but she could make sure it would not self-detonate or move away from Heavenly Court.
Although Fang Yuan could mess with Primodial's revival plan, but that was due to Fang Yuan's knowledge of Primodial's revival plan and, that the revival process was closely linked to Gu Refinement.
Killer Moves were a Wisdom Path Specialty!
Fang Yuan's move can be considered ingenious and never before seen because no one else had the capability to use every resource they had to their limit!
To other's Fang Yuan's Killer Moves are ingenious and unique but completely impractical to the common man because who could emulate Fang Yuan's use of compound killer moves?
Who else had the ability to cultivate all paths?
But to Star Constellation, these were easily deducible, although she could not use them she could easily counter a move once seen.
Of course, that was not to say that Fang Yuan's moves did not greatly trouble Star Constellation especially when it came to Refinement Path.
But for a Killer Move such as this Star Constellation was confident enough to bet her venerables status on.
As a Wisdom Path cultivator, she of course made numerous fail-safes should things not pan out, only a fool is certain that they are always right.
"With this now I will have more natural Dao Marks to refine, adding an extra layer of security, although it will add Dao Marks at a slow rate, enough quantity will produce a qualitative effect."
Star Constellation then headed out of the ruined Heavenly Court.
Meanwhile, the other venerables were still unsure why Star Constellation had decided to finish the Beast of Devour in Heavenly Court.
Giant Sun and Spectral Soul assumed that Star Constellation was afraid the explosion would harm many lives.
But Fang Yuan had his guesses: "Could she have found some other way to use my Beast of Devour? Hmm, I can't check I have no connection with the Beasts as having one is both impossible and pointless, in the event they explode it harms me, and it's impossible as they would just eat the link."
Fang Yuan was racking his brain behind what Star Constellation might use the Beast of Devour for when it suddenly hit him: "Star Constellation you sneaky bitc"
Of course, Fang Yuan was not happy that Star Constellation would profit from his bomb but it gave him the idea to reverse engineer it to achieve something with a much better result.
Star Constellation's use of Fang Yuan's move made him realize how ingenious the move truly was.
It allowed for one to transform the Dao Marks of Paths they don't use into Paths that they do!
In the short run, this would mean that Venerable could receive a big boost in strength within their home territory or even allow them to bring the Dao Marks with them like a giant portable charger!
Of course, there were downsides, first, it was highly detrimental to the area. Converting Natural Dao Marks of one path to another was not efficient, it was effectively cutting off one's organs so that more blood could go to the arms. Technically useful but overall harmful.
But with the contest of Venerables increasing from 3 to 4 who needed to care about long-term investments in the future? Immediate strength was more important.
Fang Yuan would have wanted to immediately use this move to his benefit, but he knew that the other Venerables were currently under the assumption that Fang Yuan had run out of Immortal Essence.
Casting this Move now would make light the fact that Fang Yuan had Essence to spare, after all this wasn't a normal move, it was equivalent to a Rank 9 Killer Move!
He knew exposing himself wasn't a good thing, after all, it would give the venerables a good reason to unite.
This was a classic case of short-term benefits that would lead to long-term problems.
Fang Yuan knew when to prioritize short-term benefits and when to pursue long-term benefits.
Now was not the time. He could only sit back and watch Star Constellation reap his work.
For the first time in a while, Fang Yuan felt the bitter taste of defeat.
Which further reignited his devotion to pursuing Immorality.
Fang Yuan stopped peering into Heavenly Court and went to talk to Reputation Gu!
"Ah Master you have returned; I am truly amazed at how you've developed your aperture." Reputation Gu was currently taking the form of Star Constellation.
Seeing the person who just bested him grovel at his feet made even Fang Yuan feel something.
But he steeled his heart.
"My clones are absorbing all the information you passed to them, but I must ask this of you personally what do you want from me?"
"I want you to become Immortal, my whole purpose and function are to record the Reputations of illustrious beings but hearing the deeds of others has made me grow sick of it all, I want to live freely, I desire Freedom and if you become an Immortal, I would finally be relieved of this duty."
"I would no longer be bound to Heavenly Dao as you would become it!"
Fang Yuan was still apprehensive towards Reputation Gu: "Wouldn't that just mean you went from one Master to another?"
Reputation Gu could feel that Fang Yuan still didn't trust her: "Yes it would but I've decided to take a gamble, I can no longer tolerate such a life. I would rather fight for a chance at freedom than live a life of suffering."
"Besides the Heavenly Dao made me with this purpose and burden in mind, but what need do you have for me to do that? Aren't you pursuing Immortality? Once you achieve it do you need my services?"
"My purpose was assigned to me with no consent or freedom to choose, I was born a slave, I can never live without a master, no matter what you do in the future this one shall obey."
Reputation Gu kowtowed in front of Fang Yuan.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
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zulbucks Wow, I can't believe that between my last chapter and this the series was viewed an additional 1k times! You guys are truly my motivation and source of creativity, I had a viewer comment about the inclusion of time-honored characters like Wu Yong and, Tie Ruo Nan if you rmb her you are a stellar fan, anyway I did have some plans regarding them but I'm going to keep it a secret for now but for sure a character that will be making more appearances would Bai Ning Bing and, Hei Luo Lan. Of course, their role will be interesting to see. As always I am very grateful to all the readers who are willing to give me the chance to give RI the ending it so desperately deserved. Fang Yuan's adventure should not be left unfinished. I hope to be able to deliver a conclusion to this nearly decade-old legacy. Please do add this book to your collections it gives me so much hope.
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