"The tribulation is here!" Fang Yuan gritted his teeth, staring fixedly as the grey mourning clouds slowly descended.
The Gu Immortal zombie Bo Qing couldn't help but narrow his eyes either, his entire body's muscles tensing tightly.
But when the grey clouds fell, they seemed completely harmless.
"What's going on? Could there be a harmless tribulation?!" Fang Yuan had been tense for a long while, yet nothing happened. He frantically felt all over his own body with both hands, shouting in bewilderment.
The Gu Immortal zombie Bo Qing didn't answer him.
Among the Heavenly Court Gu Immortals, someone recognized this as the Grey Memory tribulation. But neither Fang Yuan nor Mo Yao's remnant soul knew this.
However, soon enough, both Fang Yuan and Mo Yao's remnant soul came to understand.
Because after Demon Venerable You Hun found himself enveloped in the grey mist, the fog churned and surged, bringing forth the grey portions of his memories.
Various childhood experiences, his encounters in youth, adventures during his young adult years... throughout his entire life's journey, You Hun's soul-searching questions and fateful choices made again and again.
Meanwhile, Tai Bai Yun Sheng carried Fang Yuan along, flying rapidly outward.
Hei Lou Lan took one last look back at the grey mist filling the sky, then followed close behind.
Inside Fang Yuan's body, Ying Wu Xie had fallen into the dream realm, facing Star Constellation Immortal Venerable.
He gritted his teeth, howled like a madman, and lunged at Star Constellation Immortal Venerable.
But he lunged at nothing but empty air.
This was a dream — a realm where an inch away could be as far as the horizon.
He appeared to be very close to Star Constellation Immortal Venerable, but no matter how many steps he took forward, the distance between them remained unchanged.
Star Constellation Immortal Venerable rested her fingers on the strings of her qin, yet did not recite poetry. The zither's melody flowed gentle and clear, like a mountain spring murmuring over rocks.
It formed a stark contrast with Ying Wu Xie's frantic desperation.
"Let me out, let me out! Heavenly Will! You damn Heavenly Will!!" he pointed at Star Constellation Immortal Venerable, cursing her bitterly.
But Star Constellation Immortal Venerable remained unmoved, showing no additional joy, nor any additional anger.
Ying Wu Xie blinked repeatedly, forcing himself to calm down, muttering under his breath: "Don't panic. Stay calm, stay calm. I know the 'Guiding Souls into Dreams' Gu inside and out. This dream hasn't reached the point of external manifestation yet, so it will eventually dissipate — it won't trap me forever. Besides, the Gu Immortal beside Fang Yuan will probably try to rescue me too. The moment I wake up, I have to go back immediately and expose Fang Yuan's identity! Now I just hope that after I wake, I won't be too far from Yi Tian Mountain!"
But Ying Wu Xie was destined not to have his wish granted.
Because next, Hei Lou Lan and Tai Bai Yun Sheng encountered Southern Border Gu Immortals, and both sides fought while retreating.
This not only left Hei Lou Lan and Tai Bai Yun Sheng no time to think of ways to awaken Ying Wu Xie, but it also carried them farther and farther from Yi Tian Mountain.
"Ying Wu Xie" and the Gu Immortal zombie Bo Qing, because of the ground collapse, remained trapped on the surface, unable to move.
Waves of grey mist, shimmering with ethereal light, continuously shifted their imagery, swirling around the Gu Immortal zombie Bo Qing.
These were Mo Yao's early memories — the tragic history of being ostracized as a non-human.
"Hmph." The Gu Immortal zombie Bo Qing let out a cold laugh.
Confronted with her past's disgrace and shadows, Mo Yao's remnant soul showed a resolute side.
"Strange. How come you aren't affected by the grey mist?" Bo Qing looked again at Ying Wu Xie beside him.
Fang Yuan thought to himself: "That's exactly what I'd like to know!"
Under normal circumstances, if the Grey Memory affected Demon Venerable You Hun and also affected Mo Yao's remnant soul, it stood to reason that it would reach Fang Yuan's soul as well.
Yet somehow, nothing happened around Fang Yuan at all.
Clearly, this Grey Memory tribulation had spared Fang Yuan, preventing him from being exposed.
"Could it be that this is the Heavenly Will deliberately looking the other way? Before, when the Heavenly Will didn't interfere with Hei Lou Lan and Tai Bai Yun Sheng, it was also because it wanted them to carry my body out of here — far away from this place?"
Many conjectures ran through Fang Yuan's mind, and behind them lay a bone-chilling cold that made his hair stand on end and sent shivers of horror through him at the mere thought.
But now, faced with the Gu Immortal zombie Bo Qing's questioning, Fang Yuan could only play dumb.
"I don't know either," Fang Yuan scratched his head, then pointed forward. "But yours seems pretty interesting."
Bo Qing snorted coldly: "You must have been born just recently and only have nine hours to live, so you simply never had the chance to experience these things."
The Mo Yao remnant soul within the Gu Immortal zombie Bo Qing didn't dwell too much on suspecting Fang Yuan. Instead, her main attention was focused on Demon Venerable You Hun.
She was deeply worried about You Hun's main body.
Then, within the grey mist, images appeared of Demon Venerable You Hun inheriting the beast-man Gu Immortal's true inheritance of the Path of Food.
You Hun's temperament and will also left Fang Yuan in awe.
The Heavenly Court Gu Immortals were in an uproar over this, but trapped in their ethereal state, they were powerless to act.
At this moment, from the firmament above, the third tribulation descended — the Great Clear Void Sky!
Countless cyan birds tore at Demon Venerable You Hun with a thousand blades, their might utterly terrifying, causing both Fang Yuan and Mo Yao's remnant soul to change color.
Then Fang Yuan saw the various images within the grey mist.
Yu Sheng City, the Robber's true inheritance, within the Eighty-Eight True Yang Buildings, and Hong Lian within the River of Time...
"So You Hun already knew the location of Yu Sheng City when he was alive."
"The Robber Demon Venerable was called Ben Jie Sun — although he was an Otherworldly Demon like me, he wasn't from Earth!"
"Life Gu... it seems the Heavenly Will is the greatest restraint upon Immortal Venerables and Demon Venerables."
"Hong Lian! Ghost Face! Last time, my rebirth failed because Demon Venerable You Hun intervened to help me! I understand now — in my previous life, when the Forcefully True Martial Gu Zombie was destroyed, the Ten Absolute Formation could not be completed. Demon Venerable You Hun then used me to start over!"
"What? The Legend of Human Ancestor is Human Ancestor's true inheritance?"
After that, Fang Yuan saw how Demon Venerable You Hun, confident in his Soul-Devouring art, nonetheless suffered a setback before the Golden Light soul. Then he saw that of the ten great soul clones, seven survived and returned to the mortal world.