A portion of the Web shattered!
In a split second, time seemed to freeze.
Countless thoughts of worry filled the minds of Meng Qiu Zhen, Wu Shuai and, Hei Chun Qiu.
Anxiety, doubt, fear, all these emotions crept up even as the seconds seemed to slow down.
At least, time was slow from Wu Shuai's point of view.
He was spinning AI Gu to its maximum power, turning seconds into minutes, to hours.
Limitless did not wait to bring up his follow-up punch, and with every extra second Wu Shuai was buying in the slowdown world, he was analyzing the best play, maximizing their chances of survival.
"I would sacrifice Meng Qiu Zhen easily, and he would give his life up for the cause just as quickly, but losing Heavenly Web Gu is unacceptable!"
Even though his perception had been pushed to the limits thanks to Meng Qiu Zhen and AI Gu, it wasn't enough to be faster than the instantaneous instincts of Venerable.
Before the thought ever entered his brain, before hesitation could even be produced, his follow-up punch was already locked in, aimed at an unavoidable angle.
Experts who have lived for a century are already at a level beyond understanding, and peerless within a generation.
Much less an expert with the strength of a Venerable and the experience that makes centuries look like seconds.
Time was running short and Wu Shuai kept deducing and deducing every possible outcome and it looked completely hopeless…
The only thing that moved in this still world was Wu Shuai's thoughts, and yet, he could feel the sweat cascading down his forehead, in actuality, they had yet to even take form!
"Think think think!" time was truly running short as inch by inch, second by second, the inevitable approached.
And at that moment Limitless's fist passed without any resistance and made contact with Meng Qiu Zhen…it was over…
But!
At the very last second, the tiniest most infinitesimal split second, right at the precise spot Limitless was about to touch, by about a fraction of a fraction of a second, and by the tiniest border between the space between Limitless and Meng Qiu Zhen, a tiny infinitely repeating series of Golden Webs formed.
It happened so fast and in such microscopic view, that even to someone as powerful as Limitless and as observant as Star Constellation, it was completely undetectable, the only person in the entire world to have seen what transpired were the Heavenly Dao and Wu Shuai who had entered the world of Stillness.
And both looked on mouths agape.
For you see, it was no ordinary Golden Web that had formed, but a series of infinitely repeating layers that stretched from the observable to the infinite layers within and they seemed to flow perfectly between the layers, continuously interviewing and flowing within itself.
This created a net that could stretch between what could be observed and what could not, creating a rebound effect and the result was observed by everyone.
As Limitless had victory assuredly in his grasp, Star Constellation felt that finally, things were on their side.
But at the very moment and point that Limitless struck Wu Shuai, a huge explosion occurred!
The force and might send everything flying away, even the Peaceful Soil Heavy Fortress was shaken and its entire being pushed back!
Though incorporeal, even Dream Realms were not immune from the sheer whiplash from the resulting shock.
"Zzz…ah! What's happ-" sand flooded into the mouths of Red Lotus, Giant Sun, Heaven and Earth as they tried to speak.
But it was the least of their concerns as they were sent flying.
And they weren't the only ones,
Despite being the furthest away, Star Constellation was knocked onto her ass,
"What the hell was that!?" shock plastered across her face, an expression she had begun getting more acquainted with in these recent years.
The number of times she had made that expression in the time Fang Yuan had been around had been more than the past million years combined!
But more shocking than that was the figure flying towards and then past her, in a sordid state.
It was none other than Limitless Demon Venerable!
His clothes were ripped to shreds, entire sections completely erased, cuts were plastered across his body and he was bleeding so much that it looked like he replaced his clothes with blood instead!
The scariest thing of all was that rather than looking dejected, he had an expression of sheer thrill and excitement!
"HAHAHAHA," his laugh didn't contain any hint of insanity, but of sheer joy and exhilaration, so much so that in his present state he looked more insane than Spectral Soul!
"I don't know how you did it but incredible!" Limitless spoke loudly and heartily, causing him to cough out some blood in the process.
Star Constellation rushed to his side, "What just happened? Why did you suffer such a backlash!?"
"Heuh," Limitless coughed out another mouthful of blood, "...my attack didn't fail."
"What!" Star Constellation was once again shocked, to her the only way a surefire kill like that could fail was if Limitless received some backlash from his super-powerful Killer Move that caused him to be in his sordid state.
"On the contrary, it worked too perfectly!" though it sounded like praise, the sorry state he was in begged to differ.
"My move was so good that when reflected at me with double the power I was sent flying!"
!!!
"Reflected!?!?! How!?!?" Star Constellation racked through her brain and only one thing came to mind,
"REVERSE FLOW RIVER." Wu Shuai and Star Constellation shouted.
Hei Chun Qiu was confused by Wu Shuai's sudden outburst from returning to normal time, he had just witnessed a miracle, under the guise of the ensuing dust clouds, the momentum from Limtiless's attack and the repelling force of the Reverse Flow River.
Meng Qiu Zhen had crossed the last remaining gap and entered the Peaceful Soil Heavy Fortress Mountain.
ngl I'm pretty proud of this chapter and we're coming close to the big 2 0 0 woohoo!
once this is done I have a personal project that I plan to release, though it'll unfortunately have nothing to do with the Gu world and it is both sad and exciting to me!
sad because Fang Yuan's journey has almost come to an end, but exciting because I get to tell the story of someone else :)