The Black lightning began to be collected into the top floor of the tower, striking the same spot over and over again.
Everyone had the same thought.
"What's happening up there?"
Even the Venerables outside were unable to see through the top floor.
"Dammit! The Chaotic aura is too strong coupled with the strength of the Path of Ascension and Descension I can't even discern the luck surrounding it!"
The Chaotic energy made everything unstable, making it impossible to glean anything from the situation.
Even Star Constellation was in a similar situation: "Even using Wisdom Gu to deduce, there are far too many possibilities that can occur due to the Chaos."
Both Wisdom path and Luck path could not discern anything as it was simply impossible to grasp every little detail that could happen in a Chaotic Tribulation.
To put it into perspective, the Venerables were able to discern events, with superb accuracy, far after their deaths, but it was different for every Venerable.
Of course, a Wisdom Path cultivator like Star Constellation could get the exact time, date, month, year, and even the name of the 3 Demon Venerables, Limitless, Giant Sun, Spectral Soul.
But for someone like Giant Sun who could only imitate Wisdom Path's effects using Luck Path, we can see it clearly when Fang Yuan destroyed the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, Giant Sun did not know Fang Yuan specifically only being able to gleam that someone will come and destroy his Eighty-Eight True Yang Building and that someone was the one that Red Lotus was waiting for.
This is also largely due to the nature of Wisdom and Luck Path.
Wisdom Path worked on the known and Luck Path worked on the unknown.
The reason why Wisdom Path results could be so scary was that due to Fate Gu's restrictions the number of potential variables was greatly reduced since everything had a certain path to it, this was why Star Constellation easily deduced the next 4 Venerables because Fate decreed that these were the next 4.
But Luck Path only came into being because Fate was damaged, variables beyond Fate's control became a thing.
This was in essence Chaos, the ability for one Variable to produce an unimaginable amount of change, Chaos was everything and nothing all at once.
It was completely unpredictable, erratic, and never static.
"So, the question that remains is what is Reckless doing with all that Chaos?" This question lingered in the minds of the Venerables.
Meanwhile, all the Gu Immortals present in the Myriad Beast Fusion Color Heaven were standing in awe at the Black Lightning repeatedly striking something at the top of the Path of Ascension.
"Does that mean that those on the path have to face whatever is bearing the brunt of the Black lightning?"
A Gu Immortal voiced out.
Immediately everyone grew increasingly curious as to what might be at the top.
Even those on the steps of Ascension somewhat slowed down their pace due to their fears of the lightning.
Light Emperor in particular was sweating heavily at the prospect: "That's a freaking Chaotic Tribulation what kind of monster is just tanking it head-on?"
But a few more resolute people used this opportunity to try and catch up.
Hei Lou Lan, The Hooded Figure, and Ying Guang Xin were not affected and continued their pace.
Light Emperor had slowed down tremendously, increasing the gap between him and Hei Lou Lan, and Lu Wei Yin was also slowing down.
The rest continued on after catching them breathes from the immense shock they got from witnessing what could only be described as pure terror.
They knew that if so much as a slither of Black lightning slipped into their bodies they would be paralyzed for life, even up till their next life!
Chaos was just that powerful, its effects drove the Pseudo-Venerable Shen Shang to lose control and it completely disintegrated the Combat Beast King.
But for one man all of this was unimportant.
The people cowering or the people advancing were just background noises.
For Zhen Bu Du the only thing worth focusing on was the prize ahead of him.
He instantly activated the move ------- Incomplete Freedom Transformation.
Zhan Bu Du's strength surged to its peak. The struggle seemed long and bitter but from the outside, only seconds had passed.
Slowly but surely, he began to bring the arm of the corpse down.
Until he reached a 45-degree angle, at that point Reckless's Arm would not budge.
Despite being dead for a Million Years the corpses still held a large number of Transformation Path Dao marks that progressively turned into Strength Path the more strength Zhan Bu Du exerted.
"Hmph, I will win if I can't overpower you then I'll outlast you!"
Zhan Bu Du brought 2 more Gu into his Incomplete Freedom Transformation
They were Perseverance Gu and Fortitude Gu.
With these 2 Gu Zhan Bu Du managed to hold his ground against the counter push of the corpse.
Zhan Bu Du held onto the winning position as Reckless's corpse grew increasingly stronger.
"I won't budge! For eternity, no one can stop me argh!"
His muscles were bulging intensely under the constant strain.
As the Hooded Figure ascended the stairs, he saw the deadlock between the two.
He sighed and began to sing: "Seasons come, and people go, only a day has passed yet it feels like three autumns go. Hero take a rest, go to sleep."
The melody that he sang invoked the emotions of longing within a person, longing to rest.
Although the move targeted Reckless Savage Demon Venerable it was also affecting Zhan Bu Du.
But with Fortitude and Perseverance Gu he managed to hang on until Reckless completely relaxed allowing Zhan Bu Du to win.
"Why did you help," Zhan Bu Du turned to ask: "Feng Jiu Ge what are you after?"
The Hooded Figure removed his cloak and revealed none other than Feng Jiu Ge!
The Dao Guardian, and father, of Great Dream Immortal Venerable.
"I am merely following my heart to refine Destiny Song, consider us even for the events in Heavenly Court during the Fate Wars."
Feng Jiu Ge began to walk ahead of Zhan Bu Du.
As he walked past, he whispered a song: "To see a world in a grain of sand…"
Or more accurately he whispered one verse.
"I apologize it's not complete yet," Feng Jiu Ge said as he began ascending.
Zhan Bu Du didn't know why but he stood there dazed, somehow that song resonated with him.
"I felt a strange connection to that song almost like…Destiny!" Zhan Bu Du was about to rush after Feng Jiu Ge but at that moment a wisp of black smoke emerged from the corpse.
It was a Predicament!
But it seemed rather small, but before Zhan Bu Du could punch it away, the Predicament dove straight into Zhan Bu Du!
It made its way into his Aperture and swallowed Ability Gu!
Shocked Zhan Bu Du immediately sat down and began to inspect the situation.
"Hmm, this Predicament seems unique, it has an ability never heard of before, it was actually able to infiltrate an Aperture and directly consume a Gu!"
Indeed, right now Ability Gu was being tempered by the Predicament, but it was also being injured repeatedly.
Of course, Zhan Bu Du wasn't too worried about it since all of Fang Yuan's Gu had a symbol of the Regret Pool carved onto them allowing them to be retrieved from the River of Time.
As Ability Gu grew more damaged the Predicament's tribulation also became smaller, and as the Gu healed so to do the Predicament's tribulation.
"Oh? It seems that this Predicament is made with the intention of increasing Ability Gu's strength, which means it has something to do with Reckless's plan."
Zhan Bu Du communicated this with the other 2 clones, Wu Shuai and He Chun Qiu.
"What do you all think?"
Although they shared the same attainments, they each had different life experiences and thus, had different opinions, after all when looking at the Truth different people will have different opinions.
"Hmm, from my understanding it seems to be fine," Wu Shuai responded.
He Chung Que nodded his head: "Mhm, I agree to focus on the mission, losing one Gu is worth it if we can get Myriad Beast Color Fusion Heaven."
The 3 then shut off the mind link just in time for Zhan Bu Du to encounter Hei Lou Lan entering the 4th Floor.
"Fang Yuan!" Hei Lou Lan instantly recognized one of his clones, the infamous Zhan Bu Du.
"Hei Lou Lan, don't you know it's rude not to call people by their names?" He snickered.
But before he could turn away, she jumped across the platform with her fist raised.
"Tch," Zhan Bu Du grew annoyed.
Luckily, he was still in the Incomplete Freedom Transformation and thus, was at the peak of his strength.
Hei Lou Lan's fist was aimed at Zhan Bu Du's face.
But he easily sidestepped it and caught her right hand by the wrist.
Using her own momentum against her, combined with his own strength, he somersaulted her into the air only to bring her plummeting straight into the ground!
Still holding onto her arm, he began to, easily, flail her around.
But Hei Lou Lan was stronger than before and managed to use her feet to break free from Zhan Bu Du's grip.
"Hmm? You've grown much stronger. I've no time to waste." He turned his back and prepared to continue on the Path of Ascension.
"Don't look down on me!" Hei Lou Lan shouted.
Immortal Killer Move --------- Biao!
"Hmph, I've already seen,"
Before Zhan Bu Du could finish The Dark Capital Strength Totem burst forth but different from the last time he had seen it this Biao had 3 heads and 6 Wings.
"Oh? That's new."
The Biao had incredible speed, as soon as it was released it immediately made its way behind Zhan Bu Du.
Hei Lou Lan followed it up by charging forward, Zhan Bu Du was caught in a pincer from the front and back.
"*Sigh*"
Immortal Killer Move --------- Myriad Self!
Soon Zhan Bu Du created 50 clones!
Each clone possessed only a fraction of his power, but his real self was hidden amongst them with more than half his full strength.
The aura of the clones was all perfectly matched and Zhan Bu Du had also made it so that he could raise their auras at any time to throw off his enemies.
Both Hei Lou Lan and the Biao were confused, and their instincts were being abused by Zhan Bu Du as every time their heads were turned, he would have a clone burst forth with strength making them turn around only to be attacked from their new behind!
"Dammit!" Hei Lou Lan roared.
The Biao then charged toward her and turned into armor for her to wear.
Although she could not control the Biao armor normally, she had the Killer Move Familial Emotion active at all times.
This meant that all the Huang Jin Tribe members were bearing the emotional burden along with her.
The 6 Wings were transferred onto the back of Hei Lou Lan with the 3 heads forming a helmet and 2 shoulder blades.
Her appearance now resembled a tribal god of war.
With the armor on Hei Lou Lan no longer feared attacks from her back as the clones could not deal enough damage to pierce the armor.
And a move strong enough to pierce the armor would reveal so much aura that it'd be impossible to fake.
So Hei Lou Lan became like a wolf in a sheep's pen.
She dove through the crowds of clones killing them almost as soon as she came in contact with them.
One by one she thinned the crowd, but the annoying thing was that the residual energy within the clones would be absorbed by the remaining clones, making them stronger with each clone killed.
But after a long fight, she was left with only one.
"Hmph, can't hide any longer today it'll be Zhan Bu Du that dies at my hand tomorrow, Fang Yuan."
Zhan Bu Du merely stood there with his gaze seemingly piercing into the distance.
Hei Lou Lan noticed the seeming sorrow in his eyes and thought he had given up and was feeling despair towards the main body.
She plunged forward, stabbing her arm into the chest of Zhan Bu Du.
It happened so fast that she was in shock at how easy it had been…
"Wait! This is too easy,"
As soon as she smelt something fishy the 'Zhan Bu Du' that she had to pierce through grabbed her arms and began to glow.
"Fang Yuan you bast,"
*BOOM*
An explosion that shook the entire Path of Ascension took place on the 4th floor.
Even those at the very bottom of the Path could feel the explosion.
"What happened up there?"
"Do you think it's a fight between the Pseudo-Venerables?"
The people could only speculate.
For the people on the Path of Ascension, they knew that Hei Lou Lan had just gotten up to the 4th floor and soon after an explosion took place it can't have been a coincidence.
That solved half the mystery but there were 2 other people before her, The Hooded Figure and Zhan Bu Du.
So, the questions that remained were, who caused the explosion?
And more importantly who amongst the 3 received the explosion!
Feng Jiu Ge who was further ahead felt the shockwaves and turned behind to see, but to his surprise, a figure was not far behind him.
He looked up and smiled at Feng Jiu Ge, it was none other than Zhan Bu Du!
As soon as Hei Lou Lan revealed Biao's new strength he knew that fighting them would be too time-consuming.
Feng Jiu Ge had already left for quite some time and to catch up would be no easy feat.
Thus, he came up with a plan.
He used the killer move Myriad Self to create perfect clones of himself that contained half of his strength.
In the start, he finely controlled the clones to bait and attack Hei Lou Lan and the Biao.
Forcing them to merge.
During the merger, he slipped away onto the path of Ascension and left clones with a little Will.
Just enough to activate the self-destruct feature.
Though this plan cost quite a lot of Immortal Essence, Zhan Bu Du had stockpiled quite a lot since and had his Aperture constantly sped up.
It was only during this Contest did he stop after his latest tribulation, so that Heaven's Will could not play tricks while he was away from the main body.
Of course, doing this was harmful to the Aperture but this was merely a clone, even though it was a powerful clone it did not matter to the main body.
In fact, all the clones were willing to sacrifice their very lives for the main body!
So, what if their potential dropped or they weren't using their resources 'efficiently' everything was for the main body's sake.
"Hehe, I wonder how Hei Lou Lan is doing?"
Sorry for the late chapter I was busy with work ystd and I came home exhausted, I worked on half the chapter then fell asleep on my chair mid-sentence!
I'll try being more regular but it's hard writing and doing a full-time job.
But I'll preserve on for Fang Yuan and you guys.
Thank you for all the support I really enjoy seeing discussions about RI.