Ying Guang Xin talked with Earth within their share minds, "Did you see this coming?"
Earth shook her head, "No."
"Should I get out of here? Things are starting to look really bad, even if Fang Yuan comes and helps."
Earth smiled, "You can't escape."
???
"Our contract says that I-"
Earth cut her short, "I know about the contract, what I meant was you literally can't escape, have you known anyone to be Free from Death? Even Venerables die."
!!!
Ying Guang Xin immediately tried activating her Freedom Gu and found that Earth was telling the truth!
"So now what?" Ying Guang Xin was now quite worried and regretting her contract, "Do we call Fang Yuan for help?"
Earth actually smiled, "No need, I have her right where I want her, since she wants to use the power of Death, we'll just need to counter with this."
A small Dao brimming with positive energy and vitality filled the mindscape, it was unmistakable what Dao Earth had just brought out.
"The Dao Of Life!"
Earth nodded, "I knew that psycho would pick the Dao of Death so I purposefully picked the Dao of Life, there isn't much the Dao of Life can do in terms of actually fighting power though."
"But it can restrict the Dao of Death, it's just that-" Earth bit her lips, "This is just the blueprint of the Dao of life and there's no way your Rank 8 body can even handle it, let alone the full thing."
"So what are you saying?"
"I'll have to give it to the only other Rank 9 here without a Dao."
"You don't mean."
Earth sighed but nodded, "What choice do we have."
"We are going to Ma Hong Yun!"
!!!
Meanwhile,
Fang Yuan had just completed his looting of the Southern border,
"Perfect!" he clapped his hands, "I have everything I need now."
"Hmm?" he had been keeping track of the battle at Heavenly Court the entire time and the moment Heaven revealed his possession of the Great Dao of Death, Fang Yuan sighed.
"Seems I really must do that don't I," he rubbed his temples, and with a wave of his sleeve he arrived in a secret part of Heavenly Court.
In it a man was sitting cross-legged, meditating, no part of his body was not riddled with cracks, it must have been excruciating, yet the man sat there, with no expression.
The cracks were spreading at a speed that was barely visible to the naked eye.
"You're really daring you know? If things had gone slightly differently you would be dead!"
The man was still as a rock as if he had heard nothing, but a small smile was slowly creeping along the edges of his lips as if he knew what was happening outside.
Fang Yuan had used Obscure Heavenly Secrets inside the sealed space, so not even Genesis Lotus had noticed his presence.
"I guess I do owe her this much," Fang Yuan rubbed his temples with greater strength, "Fine. I was really saving this for a better time but I guess this is as good a time as any."
A spider-like Gu appeared on the palms of Fang Yuan's hands, one could see that its entire body was supposed to be as bedazzling as a jewel, but it was instead seeped in a darkness that was so dark it seemed to not exist.
It was Rank 9 Ability Gu! (1)
And right now it was filled to the brim with Chaos!
Fang Yuan hadn't been idling about, from the moment he found Ability Gu possessing the power to hold Chaos he had begun slowly and steadily absorbing Chaos.
This was all for Order research.
Order can only be derived from Chaos, and having one of the only two known vessels capable of carrying Chaos helped boost his research efforts.
And now he was about to showcase the fruits of that Research.
"It's your lucky day Feng Jiu Ge," Fang Yuan smirked to himself, "I am about to let you embark on a path to survival, so you best seize it."
A tiny little Gu of light appeared in Fang Yuan's hands, it was so small and its aura so weak, that one would mistake it for being a Gu material rather than a Gu worm, but make no mistake this Gu was the most important Gu to every Gu cultivator in the world.
Rank 1 Hope Gu!
"I wouldn't have gotten the Rank 9 Hope Gu recipe if it wasn't for Great Dream," Fang Yuan shook his head, he couldn't believe that he of all people was helping Feng Jiu Ge, much less as a favor to Great Dream!
Ability Gu crawled up to the ceiling and began spinning a Black Web, while Fang Yuan took out a Gu House.
"No one in the world has seen this Gu House, so savour this moment."
Rank 9 Immortal Gu House: The Heavenly Crafting Table!
A stone table, composed of half-black and half-white marble, with gold splitting the table down the middle, adorning and accentuating its design.
It stood at waist height and had a base that twisted and swirled up from the ground as if it had been born from the depths of the earth.
It was a round table, with an inlet at the centre that could adjust itself to hold any Gu.
Fang Yuan placed Hope Gu in the centre.
At that moment, Ability Gu rappeled down from its Black Web and was mere inches away from Hope Gu, it used its fangs to drip Chaos onto the Heavenly Crafting Table, which then began pulsing and shifting in every colour imaginable, until both sides had inverted, the Black became White and the White became Black.
Power was coursing through the golden veins into Hope Gu.
If Heaven or Earth were present they would instantly recognise what that Power was.
Order!
The mystical ingredient that allowed one to fill in the Dao Marks required to form Gu, as long as one possessed the recipe and skills to shape those Dao Marks into the correct shape of the Immortal Gu they wish to make.
Only 3 people in the world possessed that power and skill, Heaven, Earth and Fang Yuan!
And now Fang Yuan was using that skill to make Rank 9 Hope Gu for Feng Jiu Ge!
"I hope you know that this isn't cheap to do," Fang Yuan lamented to the stationary Feng Jiu Ge, "The amount of Order within each Chaos is abysmally low, it will take every drop of Chaos just to refine this one Hope Gu."
This was why it was why Fang Yuan still refined Gu as per normal rather than just willing them in with Order, it was far too expensive!
Getting Chaos is not simple, the world inherently rejects Chaos and to acquire enough to fill Ability Gu took Fang Yuan to speed up his aperture so much that it attracted another Calamity Tribulation.
"There must be a better way of obtaining Chaos," Fang Yuan stroked his chin.
This method was not sustainable if he didn't receive the info and request he got from Great Dream, he would never have done it.
Speeding up time meant that everything within his aperture would age much faster, this could result in unstable space and result in the collapse of his aperture.
Fortunately, the Sovering Immortal Fetus Aperture had become so stable it showed signs of existing even without the Gu World present.
It could withstand this speed-up of time.
"But it can't do this indefinitely," Fang Yuan was racking his brain when an idea popped into his head!
"Oh! I can pay that place a visit!"
He turned to look and found that Hope Gu was progressing at a snail's pace.
"Might as well kill 2 birds with one stone," Fang Yuan entered his aperture and sent out a mission for Gu Refinement.
Urgent Mission: Helping in the refinement of Rank 9 Water Gu, Metal Gu, Wind Gu and Dark Gu. All cultivators above Rank 7 with these particular Path's Dao Marks can help, with additional emphasis on Hairymen.
!!!
A mission on as grand a scale as this hadn't been issued in a long time, and the rewards were just as generous.
"Each participant will receive 35000 points!"
"Holy shit!"
"That's enough to buy a Rank 8 Immortal Gu!"
The mission was quickly filled up with people, it would have been more if the request didn't have a minimum Rank requirement.
"Damnit! Why didn't I cultivate Wind Path???"
"Argh! If I had known then I would have focused on cultivating Water Path instead!"
Many were disheartened that they could not participate.
Fang Yuan stood on a platform overlooking the massive Four Elements Square Regret Blood Refinement Pool.
"Let's begin the Refinement process, beginning with Rank 9 Water Gu!" as soon as the words left his mouth, steam burst forth from the Gu House as it began roaring to life.
To most people Rank 9 Gu is the stuff of legends, even Long Hair Ancestor would have been hard-pressed to call his success rate with Rank 8 Gus high, let alone Rank 9.
But for Fang Yuan? Well, he wasn't called the Heaven Refining Demon Venerable for no reason.
Rank 8 Gu was like candy for Fang Yuan and Rank 9 Gu were just mildly challenging.
It took him a mere 2 tries to obtain Rank 9 Water Gu, and the first failure only happened in the beginning stages so not much was lost.
Fang Yuan instantly threw the Rank 9 Water Gu into the Four Elements Square Regret Blood Refinement Pool.
Instantly, the low volume of Refinement Water began to rise.
Each use of the Four Elements Square Regret Blood Refinement Pool would consume some of the Refinement Water held in the Refinement Sea, which took time to produce, even Fang Yuan could only do so much without this Refinement Water.
But with Rank 9 Water Gu? He could directly convert his Immortal Essence into Refinement Water!
All thanks to Rank 9 Water Gu, which could reproduce any water in the world!
This meant Fang Yuan no longer needed to wait for the Refinement Water levels to rise, he had an infinite supply!
"Next we can begin with the Refinement of Wind, Metal and Dark Gu."
The order was no longer important since he now possessed infinite Refinement Water, the only obstacle was resources, and that was something he wasn't lacking after his trip through the 5 Regions.
As Fang Yuan and Feng Jiu Ge were hidden by Fang Yuan's array version of the Obscured Heavenly Secrets Killer Move, not a single person knew of the numerous Rank 9 Gus being produced underneath Heavenly Court.
(1) If you forgot because it was very long ago, I had Ability Gu set up as a Gu that can contain Chaos.