The Strange Life and Death Gu
"What a wondrous species, nurtured with the flesh and blood of the heart and linked to the soul." Fu Yuan held the Life and Death Gu in his hand, suppressing it like a great mountain. It could not move an inch.
This was a path that had once produced an Emperor. Its practitioners entrusted everything to their Life-Bound Gu, cultivating both human and Gu. It was bizarre and powerful.
His father had once described the Gu Venerable of his own era as a madman of unparalleled talent, saying that his combat prowess was immense and uncanny.
The Life and Death Gu's two wings beat rapidly, an intent of death spreading as it tried to break through its confinement. But it was useless. Fu Yuan's Qi and blood were too astonishing, and it could not break free in the slightest.
"A complete Life and Death Gu should have eighteen wings: nine of life and nine of death. Half its body represents destruction, and the other half rebirth. It really is a Life-Bound Life and Death Gu, so why is it so strange?" Fu Yuan frowned, a faint light flickering in his eyes.
Both wings of this Life and Death Gu were black wings of death, with no life in them at all. That was indeed strange, and its presence was also rather weak. It should not have been so easy to suppress.
"Has the Gu Venerable Hall's successor entered the world?" Fu Yuan asked again, his tone brooking no refusal.
The Gu Realm had two supreme orthodoxies. One was the Gu Venerable Hall, whose members cultivated Life-Bound Gu. The other was the Gu Emperor Clan, whose members turned their bodies into Gu, becoming one with them.
"The Gu Child entered the world ten years ago." The black-robed figure spoke for the first time, her voice crisp and pleasant. "Brother Dao, could you return the Life and Death Gu to me?"
Fu Yuan's smile grew even brighter. Few people possessed a Life-Bound Gu, making it excellent research material. After a moment's thought, he said, "Our meeting is fate, fellow Daoist. How about lending it to me for a while to study?"
A kindly tone paired with a kindly smile always made it hard to refuse. It was certainly not because her Life-Bound Gu was under someone else's control, leaving her unable to refuse with her life and death in his hands.
Seeing that she agreed, Fu Yuan placed the Life and Death Gu inside his spiritual platform.
Fu Yuan's spiritual platform was a sea of blood. Freed from his grasp, the Life and Death Gu did not sit and await death. It churned through the blood sea, seeking a way out.
At the center of the vast blood sea sat two Fu Yuans, one blood-red and one golden. The blood-red body bathed in the sea, while the golden body occupied the heavens above, a blood-red sun and moon hanging over its shoulders.
The sacred and the slaughterous coexisted. The blood sea battered the heavens, and the sun and moon shone upon the blood sea, forming a strange yet tranquil picture.
The Life and Death Gu fluttered onto the shoulder of the body in the blood sea. It immediately felt at peace, folded its wings, and fell asleep.
Nangong Mengzhu gazed curiously at the youth in ink-black robes. She could clearly sense the emotional fluctuations of her Life-Bound Life and Death Gu, and only a few dozen breaths had passed since its initial agitation gave way to tranquility.
It had not been forcibly suppressed. Rather, it had entered a peaceful environment, a place close to the Life and Death Gu's origin. Only that could have calmed it so.
Returning to its origin, embracing its origin.
Is this the most glorious golden age in all of time that Father prophesied, the most powerful generation? Watching Fu Yuan's retreating back, Nangong Mengzhu's beautiful eyes shone with shifting colors.
In the era when the Great Dao was at its weakest, extremes would turn to their opposites. One final stretch of madness would arise, surpassing every era, glorious beyond belief. Heavenly Venerable bloodlines from the Mythic Era, children of ancient emperors from the Imperial Dao Era, descendants of Great Emperors from the Emperor Dao Era, and monstrous talents and freaks from every age would all emerge.
This was the final chance, the most glorious feast in the Three Thousand Worlds, which had accumulated strength for hundreds of millions of years since the path to "immortality" disappeared.
A peerless monstrous talent who could suppress a Life-Bound Gu with a turn of his hand was undoubtedly an Emperor's child. His bloodline was terrifying in the extreme, and he was most likely the offspring of an ancient Great Emperor.
The onlookers exchanged glances. This crushing battle had overturned their understanding: a heaven's chosen who had cultivated a Life-Bound Gu had been suppressed with a turn of the hand.
"Could he be an Emperor's child?" many cried out in alarm.
This time, no one spoke up to contradict them. Fu Yuan was too overwhelming, his methods extraordinary. Even if he was not an Emperor's child, he belonged among the strongest beneath them.
Fu Yuan continued to climb as though strolling on level ground, catching up to the pure-blooded ferocious beast Zheng on the 80,100th step.
The steps on the ninth level were two meters wide. Zheng had taken human form, standing like an iron tower and brimming with savage power. His nine crimson tails had stopped swaying, and he stared at Fu Yuan as though facing a formidable enemy.
He stopped and turned sideways to make way. The battle just now had shown everyone in the Lone Lamp Pavilion that Fu Yuan was not to be provoked.
"My eldest brother is a drunkard, and he's especially picky about the food he has with his wine," Fu Yuan said softly after passing the ferocious beast Zheng and climbing three meters above him.
"Qilin blood, true dragon sinew, phoenix marrow, phoenix liver, and white tiger meat are all delicacies."
"Golden Peng wings and divine phoenix legs are also exquisite."
The youth's voice was gentle and mild as he appraised each peerless delicacy, but to everyone listening, it sounded like the whisper of a devil.
"Food like that to go with wine is too... heaven-defying!" Everyone was stunned. Even the Heavenly Wind Holy Son and Zhuge Lingfeng on the ninth level were startled by those words and stopped to look back.
All nine tails of the pure-blooded being Zheng stood on end. He was on guard to the utmost, having sensed extreme danger. He edged backward, ready to retreat at any moment.
"It's rare to come into the world, so one ought to try all kinds of delicacies." The youth smiled and spoke with utter casualness. "Though a Zheng is a few grades lower, he's a pure-blooded being at least. He'll do for a little treat."
Before his words had faded, Fu Yuan struck with overwhelming force, unleashing the Star-Plucking Hand once more to seize the stars and moon and capture the heavens.
His hand reached out in an ordinary motion, yet it was an unrivaled art of attack. The pure-blooded ferocious beast Zheng flew into a rage. He was a great ferocious beast, and a pure-blood at that. He could fight and kill white tigers and black tortoises, and contend with taotie and qiongqi. Yet a human brat of unknown background had dared to look down on him so, intending to suppress and kill him and turn him into a delicacy for a treat.
He had not wanted to contend with Fu Yuan and had even prepared to retreat.
But what a monstrous humiliation this was! The red horn in the center of his face blazed with brilliant light, making a sound like stones striking together. His blood and Qi erupted as he sought to make Fu Yuan pay.
Only blood and fire could wash away this humiliation. He would suppress this ignorant brat, break every bone in his body, drink his blood raw, skin him and rip out his sinews, and let everyone on this ancient path know the price of provoking him.
Boom!
Fist and palm collided, and the sound of breaking bones rang out. The ferocious beast Zheng spat blood and staggered back several steps before regaining his footing.
Fu Yuan did not stop. He continued executing the Star-Plucking Hand, his right palm shimmering with faint golden light as he sought to capture Zheng.
"Die!" the ferocious beast Zheng roared. His horn unleashed an enormous beam of red light, as though it would blast through the Lone Lamp Pavilion and punch a great hole in the heavens.
The strike was so powerful that fear appeared on many faces. Even Zhuge Xiao lost his composure. Zheng was indeed a top-tier ferocious beast; few beings in the Profound Understanding Realm could withstand such a blow.
The red beam, carrying the power of destruction, blasted forth and struck Fu Yuan in an instant. The terrifying sound of their clash rang through heaven and earth.
"So this is a pure-blooded being capable of fighting and killing a Holy Son. Too powerful!" someone cried. Though tens of thousands of steps away, they were still shaken by the beam and the terrifying power it contained.