Hei Lou Lan's face was a mix of shock and dread.
Of course, this was a major setback for her.
Strong Gu was extremely beneficial to her, even though it was a Rule Path Gu.
"Argh," Hei Lou Lan screamed out as swiped at Zhan Bu Du with a left hand while preparing a punch with her right.
But Zhan Bu Du remained motionless, with a grin on his face.
Hei Lou Lan's claws collided into Zhan Bu Du's chest but were repelled!
"What?!" Although she was shocked, she still followed through with her punch.
Immortal Totem Fourth Form --------- King's Might!
This move allowed the Supreme King Totem armor to channel the Dao Marks of the surrounding area into one part of the armor to unleash a one-time burst of strength!
The move was incredibly tricky as if released too early, it would be negligible and too late, and the energy would gather so much that it risked the user more than the victim.
But Hei Lou Lan was a genius, and she seized the moment at just the right time where she managed to output a punch 2x stronger than her regular punch!
Using the recoil from the punch she created space between her and Zhan Bu Du.
"That should have at least forced him to recover, next I can begin using the Fifth Form of the…"
Before Hei Lou Lan could finish her thoughts, she began to feel elevated off the ground, as the pain came from her ankle.
"Shit! When did he," not wasting time on thoughts she activated her wings to not fall on the ground and to gain distance from Zhan Bu Du as she had been caught off guard.
But as her sight was still focused on the sky a fist was making its way toward her gut.
"Dammit," although she could see the fist coming her body could not react fast enough and so she braced for impact.
"Not bad but this is how you throw a punch!" was the last thing she heard before.
*Boom*
Zhan Bu Du's fist was driven into Hei Lou Lan's gut as he shot her straight into the ground!
Of course, Zhan Bu Du did not let up merely because Hei Lou Lan was a girl, he continued unleashing a flurry of punches that kept knocking onto Hei Lou Lan.
Hei Lou Lan of course tried to defend, but each punch from Zhan Bu Du was becoming stronger and stronger!
"Dammit! If not for the Supreme King Totem's ability to reduce the damage I would have died long ago! Why did Reckless give Fang Yuan Rank 9 Strong Gu?!"
Reckless's voice then clicked in her head: "so I have to force him to act!"
"That son of a bitch!" Hei Lou Lan roared in her heart she had finally understood Reckless's plot: "By giving Fang Yuan both Rank 9 Strong Gu and the Myriad Beast Fusion Color Heaven it will force the other 3 Venerables to act on him. This means he can no longer be passive!"
Indeed, Reckless had set this up as soon as he knew that Fang Yuan was maddeningly cautious.
As Hei Lou Lan was being repeatedly bashed in, the other 3 Venerables grew grim.
"Friend Star Constellation you still have a few moves, I'm not asking for much but for the greater good could you use your,"
Without waiting for Giant Sun to finish Star Constellation threw in her Rook: "Friend Giant Sun I am willing to throw your descendant a bone but if you want the meat you'll have to pay up," she added: "Feng Jiu Ge has upheld his part of the deal and I believe he will no longer act, thus my moves are useless but at the same time it's your descendent that will benefit so let's work out a deal shall we."
Star Constellation politely smiled.
The sight would have filled any man with great joy but for Giant Sun he could only feel his wallet and mind begin to bleed.
Within their Minds, they conversed and negotiated for hours on end, though in reality, it happened in a split second.
Ultimately, Giant Sun conceded and gave Star Constellation some information and his experience in creating an artificial Secluded Domain of Heaven and Earth, along with some notes on Blood Path.
Star Constellation did not press harder than she needed as she knew that Luck Path was too tightly guarded of a secret to Giant Sun and thus, she did not push too hard for it.
The Rook piece entered the Myriad Beast Fusion Color Heaven and hit Zhan Bu Du!
As he was mid punch into Hei Lou Lan his actions suddenly slowed down, giving Hei Lou Lan the chance to counter-strike him!
Zhan Bu Du was sent flying a few meters back while Hei Lou Lan ascended to the skies.
Reckless Savage's words rang once more in her head: "while I do hope you will make Fang Yuan stronger, I have also given you the potential to overthrow him."
"Tch, so you really forcing me to use that huh," Hei Lou Lan thought to herself as she activated the final move Reckless left for her while shouting out: "Venerables if you can hear me! I have one final attack that Reckless Savage Demon Venerable gave me but I need you to hold him still for at least 1 minute!"
Immortal Totem Fifth Form ------------ Chaotic Strike Phase 1 Charge!
The boundless Chaotic Tribulation began to gather and condense into pure Chaos!
This scene shocked the Venerables present and, even without Giant Sun's prompt Star Constellation threw down her Queen, to bind Zhan Bu Du down even more.
Zhan Bu Du who had just broken out from the mental block Star Constellation had been quickly once again blocked by her Rank 8 version.
But Fang Yuan also activated his Queen, not to clear Star Constellation's effect but to mess with Hei Lou Lan's activation!
Rank 8 Immortal Killer Move ------------ Time cutting edge! [1]
This tyrannical move that once swept the Gu World, had once again appeared.
The move was incredibly sinister, 1 strike 1 kill, no more no less.
Over repeated use, the move would erase itself from the memory of the user until it no longer existed!
It was not as simple as mere 'forgetting' the move would literally erase itself, there was no counter to this.
Fang Yuan had once remarked that this move was on par with a Rank 9 Killer move just that its limitations held it back too far.
In the battle of Heavenly Court, Fang Yuan use this move to slay the Immemorial Space Path Vine Beast, Cang Xuan Zi!
The move must be accompanied by the move Shrink Time as it needs to be unleashed in 3 breaths of time or else the user will face serious backlash.
But thanks to the uniqueness of the Chessboard and its pieces, Fang Yuan is able to store the move within, though he still had to activate it within that time when he was making the piece.
Hei Lou Lan felt the chill of death rapidly approaching her, but she could not identify where it was coming from.
But as the blade began to draw a tiny bit of blood on Hei Lou Lan it was suddenly stopped!
Layers upon layers of Star Path Dao Marks filled Hei Lou Lan's body.
It was Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's King Piece!
"Tch, to think Fang Yuan still held that move," she sighed to herself.
It now all lay upon Fang Yuan's final piece.
He had 1 Rank 9 move left, if Hei Lou Lan could not break through it or survive it then all was lost.
But to everyone's surprise, Fang Yuan just sat there toying with the piece.
He was in deep contemplation.
Sometimes more strength is not beneficial, in this case, Fang Yuan was deeply troubled: "Hmm, now with the possession of Rank 9 Strong Gu, even without being a Dao Lord I can still hold my own against these 3 Venerables, as long as I'm outside their HQ, but I will no longer be perfectly safe in my own HQ."
Fang Yuan sighed; he had understood Reckless's plan.
It was to force him to act and show his hand!
Reckless gave Fang Yuan enough strength to compensate for the loss of safety that his Dao Lord status provided but he had also forced Fang Yuan on his feet.
He could no longer sit around and refine Gu, slowly accumulating a large enough advantage that he could sweep the competition.
"*Sigh* Reckless what exactly is your goal?"
He said aloud as he stood up.
Glancing down at the board the world was reflected in his eyes as he began formulating plans for the future.
"Dear friends it's been fun." He said as he began to activate his King piece.
Meanwhile, Hei Lou Lan had just finished charging up her move.
"Argggh," the Chaos that accumulated in her fists was rapidly destroying it at the same time!
While the Supreme King Totem was trying its best to resist, there was nothing that could stop Chaos!
"One chance that's all I got!" She said between pained breaths.
Immortal Totem Form 2 ----------- Biao 3
6 Wings burst from Hei Lou Lan's back and with a flap she was propelled forward toward Zhan Bu Du!
Using both the momentum of the Wings and the free fall of gravity, this was Hei Lou Lan's strongest strike!
"ARGGGGGH Quasi Rank 9 Killer Move ---------- Armagaden Punch!!!"
Zhan Bu Du had just awakened and could see the speeding Hei Lou Lan, with no time left to prepare much he was almost resigned to death.
In slow motion, the fist grew closer and closer until
-
The silence was deafening and then
*BOOM*
A giant black shockwave exploded outwards before being sucked back into the point of collision and imploding!
Hei Lou Lan's arm was till raised in its punching motion, but her arm was completely shredded,
Bone could be seen and chunks of flesh were just loosely dangling, some even fell off!
Her skin was charred black, and it was amazing that she did not pass out from the sheer pain.
Hei Lou Lan's breath was now rugged, even though she had withstood the pain, there was nothing that could have compared to that.
But despite the horror of her arm and the trauma of the pain she still chose to look up and see the result of her impact.
"You still lost Hei Lou Lan,"
Her eyes sank back as she looked up and saw not Zhan Bu Du but Fang Yuan!
He stood before Zhan Bu Du and her, with his hand outstretched to block the attack.
Hei Lou Lan's fist was caught in Fang Yuan's palm!
"Not bad," he said: "If I wasn't covered in Dao Marks of so many paths your attack might have severely injured any other Venerable!"
This was true!
Chaos was able to eat any and everything, there was no direct counter.
Sure Human Path could alleviate its effects but that was no counter.
Fang Yuan's body hosting all kinds of Dao Marks was actually the best bet one had against Chaos.
Because he encompassed all paths his body was sort of resistant to Chaos, as it had to fight every Path at once!
If it was anyone else, the Chaos would eat through their Paths easily but for Fang Yuan, each part of him had a myriad of Paths that included, Human and Heaven Path, Dao Marks, as well!
[1] I checked the OG and I know FY had 1 more use of Time cutting Edge b4 it was erased from his memories and I checked from chapter 1943, where it was mentioned that he can use it 1 more time, it said he wanted to use it on Duke Long but he retreated and put up his guard, so FY turned into a sword dragon and attack using Five Finger Fist Heart Sword in later chapters. From there it was never used again, as far as I'm aware.