Chapter 2413 Venerables Take Action

"Tragic, isn't it?"

Feng Jiu Huang turned around to see an illusory red figure standing before giant clear containers filled with a translucent liquid with bodies suspended within.

The shocking scene startled her for a second before she regained her cool.

"You're…"

"Red Lotus."

"…"

"…you're taking that rather well. Most people would be in awe or drop dead in fear. Or even lash out against me."

Feng Jiu Huang scratched her head: "Well if you wanted me dead, I would already be dead, and if I was going to be part of whatever 'experiment' you're running, I would already be in those container things."

"Besides, even if everything I said is false panicking never solved anything," she said while puffing her chest with pride, though the slight tremor in her body and voice couldn't escape Red Lotus.

"Hm, she's acting brave hehe," Red Lotus said: "Oh? Then what if I said I only kept you unbounded to see the absolute despair drain from your eyes."

Red Lotus turned around at that exact moment with a deep expression.

"This…"

Feng Jiu Huang was sizing up her surroundings but as a regular Gu Master, there was nothing she could do against Red Lotus, even though it was just a Will.

"A joke."

"Eh?"

"I'm joking, you're absolutely right if I wanted you dead, we wouldn't be talking and if you were part of Plan A well, we would be having this conversation through the glass."

His subtle implications were sending chills down Feng Jiu Huang's back.

"Then I'm here for…"

"Plan B."

Feng Jiu Huang subconsciously stepped back a little upon hearing the words 'Plan B'.

But Red Lotus mentally rolled his eyes: "Didn't we just establish it was pointless to even think of running *sigh* young people."

With a wave of his hand, a chair was conjured right behind Feng Jiu Huang causing her to trip backward and fall on it.

A table burst from the ground and Red Lotus's Will conjured a chair for himself.

"Eh?"

"What."

"Nothing it's just…"

"Just what?"

"You're sitting down?"

"Hmm," Red Lotus squinted at her: "Is there something wrong with that? Is it weird I sit in front of my guest in my house?"

"Ah, no it's just, aren't you a Will? Can you even interact with the physical plane?"

Red Lotus answered her question by taking out a pot of tea and pouring a cup for Feng Jiu Huang.

!!!

"This…can't be how are you interacting with that teapot." Feng Jiu Huang was shocked.

She had never seen a Will be able to directly interact with the physical world, sure Wills could use leftover Immortal Essence to interact, but she could clearly tell that Red Lotus had picked up the pot with his hands and not as a mere gesture.

"Do you want to know how?"

Feng Jiu Huang nodded her head; her intuition was telling her this was an entirely new path that could be explored.

Red Lotus put down the teapot and explained: "After millennia after millennia and hundreds of thousands of attempts to break free from Fate, I had traversed nearly every possible Timeline that Fate allowed. Fate tries to keep the world balance, but absolute control results in a lack of free will, which the Heavenly Dao would not tolerate, thus, Fate could only do the next best thing, limit the options."

"It built a dam around infinite possibilities, stifling Human progress. It kept a tight hold on Paths it considered detrimental to this control. Paths like Space, Dream, Time, Destiny, and the most worrying to Fate; Luck."

"After all, the unknown is the greatest obstacle to control."

Feng Jiu Huang was enraptured in Red Lotus's story; she never knew the extent to which Fate control the entire world, and frankly, she was quite happy that her Venerable status was no longer pre-destined by Fate."

"I'll control my own Destiny!" she thought to herself.

Red Lotus was unaware of Feng Jiu Huang's thoughts: "Traversing the myriad timelines, I soon realized that Fate had a tight clamp on the possibility of spreading those timelines. I was the sum of everything Fate despised, I was born with the highest known Providence of any Venerable, I obtained Time Path Venerable status, all for one reason."

"Fate allowed me all that just to get me to fail!"

"I was destined to become so consumed by grief that I would be unable to move forward in my life, you see Fate cannot control certain things. It cannot forcefully control the Free Will of people and thus, has no hand in the cycle of birth."

"Every soul is created by the Heavenly Dao itself! Fate cannot interfere with that process thus, the biggest variable to Fate was the Heavenly Dao!"

"The Heavenly Dao is fair and impartial it assorts and gives Providence completely randomly."

"But when there are less and less talented people in the world it will draw from its abundance to produce more talented individuals, that's why every era with a Venerable can be considered a 'great era' countless geniuses are bound alongside a Venerable to compete and elevate the world's progress."

"But why?" Feng Jiu Huang asked: "Why would the Heavenly Dao do all that?"

Red Lotus sighed: "*Sigh* It's all because of 2 beings known as Heaven and Earth."

"Heaven and Earth?" Feng Jiu Huang was obviously confused; this was considered a secret of the world that even few Venerables knew about.

"Mhm, Heaven and Earth you can think of them as deities. They were here before the Gu World was ever a thing, after spending eternity with one another they grew bored. Out in the vast empty Chaos, no life could have any hope of evolving to withstand the Chaos, they were Primordial Beings, born with the Chaos."

"Thus, the Gu World was born using their bodies, souls, and minds. They were each in charge of various tasks, Earth set up the rules of the world, while Heaven regulated them."

"Wait isn't that…"

Red Lotus cut Feng Jiu Huang off: "Yup, <Legends Of Ren Zhu> Rules and Regulations Gu was actually inhabited by the Wills of Heaven and Earth!"

!!!

What a shocking revelation, one of the most critical stories in the Gu world actually, held such deep secrets!

The shock was plastered across Feng Jiu Huang's face.

Seeing Feng Jiu Huang's mind get blown made Red Louts laugh internally: "Hehe that's nothing, the <Legends Of Ren Zhu> hold more than just his Human Path inheritance. It holds the history of our entire world!"

Feng Jiu Huang's mouth could not drop any lower.

Outside the Stone Continent, in the River of Time,

"I've got something!"

Giant Sun and Star Constellation immediately turned to Genesis Lotus.

"Quick, tell us," Giant Sun was impatient.

Genesis Lotus nodded: "The formation detects the presence of a Rank 9 Heavenly Essence Treasure Imperial Lotus!"

!!!

The outcome they dreaded had indeed come to fruition.

"Shit, if he's refining Heavenly Essence Treasure Imperial Lotus that can only mean he is also done absorbing most, if not all, of Primordial Domain!"

"Giant Sun now!" Star Constellation said and he begrudgingly agreed.

He activated the Wake Up! Formation to its fullest capacity.

Since it had been slowly weakening the surrounding Endless Night, and given how long it has been around, the Pink Fog was already showing signs of dispersing now with Giant Sun's push the move burst forth with all its might-shattering the Endless Night Killer Move.

About 500 meters away from the Painting World an illusory pink bubble could be seen, the Qi of Heaven and Earth was rushing in.

"There he is!"

It was none other than Fang Yuan who was refining Gu! And the aura it gave off was unmistakably Rank 9!

"Tch, I knew you old fogies weren't that affected by Great Dream's Endless Night."

Fang Yuan had long finished absorbing Primordial Domain and all his Paths had been given a massive boost, he had long felt the disturbance in the Endless Night Killer Move and when he tried to use Stealing Heavenly Secrets, he found that he was cut off by an illusory barrier.

"The barrier was most likely due to Painting Path but it seemed almost as if they were in another world as if I encountered a world barrier while trying to pry."

When the Pink Fog dispersed Fang Yuan got a good look at Genesis Lotus's Painting World.

"Fascinating, that's no Killer Move it's a half-completed artificial Secluded Domain of Heaven and Earth no wonder it could block Stealing Heavenly Secrets!"

Indeed, Genesis Lotus's Painting World was his attempt at making an artificial Secluded Domain of Heaven and Earth!

Rather than boosting his Painting Path Killer Moves, like what Fang Yuan does, rather his Killer Moves helped disguise the Painting World.

"I knew something was off when he used that move to block Steal Dao!" Fang Yuan couldn't understand at the time but now with Master attainment in Painting Path, he could at least see past that illusion.

Right now, Fang Yuan was in a tough position, he had reached the critical point in the refinement process and had few thoughts left in his mind.

Luckily, he prepared a lot of things before he attempted to refine Gu.

He took out a few Gu Houses, Cooking Luck Pot, Peaceful Soil Heavy Mountain Fortress Myriad Thought Prison, and Dragon Palace.

But they were all tricky.

Cooking Luck Pot could block Giant Sun and Myriad Thought Prison could block Star Constellation, while Dragon Palace's Dream Path move proved challenging even for all 3 Venerables.

"Quick, he's stalling for time he must be at his most critical stage!" Giant Sun called out.

"Hmph," Fang Yuan waved his hand.

Immortal Killer Move ------- Daybreak Sword

The battlefield became flooded with these Quasi-Rank 9 Daybreak Swords!

Due to the abundant Time Path Dao Marks here, Daybreak Sword had long exceeded a Rank 8 Killer Move and with the boost of Strong Gu, it could have become a full-fledged Rank 9 Killer Move.

But the consumption of Immortal Essence was too high for Star Constellation to not notice something fishy, especially since he was refining Gu.

He wanted to keep his advantage, of having Rank 9 Heavenly Essence Treasure Imperial Lotus, a secret.

Of course, Fang Yuan did not hope for these Gu Houses and Quasi Rank 9 Killer Moves to make a dent against a Venerable, much less 3.

Giant Sun was worried of an endless stream of such moves but a volley or 2 would not hurt them, physically, their pockets, on the other hand, would bleed.

The 3 Venerables reached a tacit agreement, spare no expense to deal with Fang Yuan!

Immortal Killer Move ---------- Contended Lifestyle

With Divine Emperor City combined with his Painting World, the Contended Lifestyle Killer Move was almost Rank 9!

Genesis Lotus managed to pull in both Cooking Luck Pot and Myriad Thought Prison!

2 Peak Rank 8 Gu House had been taken care of just like that.

"Quick, I can't hold these 2 for long, the foreign Dao Marks will slowly erode and destabilize the world, Emperor City was only meant to hold Humans!"

Genesis Lotus had tried his best to take Dragon Palace but couldn't, as it hid behind Cooking Luck Pot and Myriad Thought Prison.

Immortal Killer Move ----------- Myriad Shooting Stars

Countless Stars left a dazzling trail in the air as they collied with the Daybreak swords, consuming them and producing more stars, though many stars were destroyed upon an impact with a single sword.

The end result was that Star Constellation had to drown these swords faster than they could break her stars.

In terms of Immortal Essence, it would be a 1:2 ratio between Fang Yuan and Star Constellation.

"Dammit, this River of Time makes things tricky…"

Giant Sun and Genesis Lotus were left to deal with Dragon Place as Star Constellation held off his near-endless Daybreak Sword.

"Quick! Fang Yuan must be desperate he's using so much Immortal Essence against us despite Refining Gu!"

All this while Fang Yuan held a stern expression on his face, to give them the illusion that they were applying pressure, but in his heart, he was completely calm.

"Tsk, Painting Path was more troublesome than I thought, to take out both Gu Houses in mere seconds…no matter."

Immortal Killer Move ---------- Twelve Zodiac Battle Formation

The legendary Battle Formation once again made its appearance but at the same time a miniature ship rose up and the Twelve animals merged into the ship.

"No way,"

"It couldn't be,"

"How?"

Mixed emotions rang out among the 3 Venerables but they were either shocked, worried, or even afraid!

The Twelve Zodiac Battle Formation managed to merge with Fang Yuan's Gu House Gu!

To create the peak form of the Myriad Year Flying Warship and with it came its signature move.

Quasi-Rank 9 Killer Move --------- Day! Break! Torrent!