A fierce wind battered their faces.
Below their feet, vast mountain ranges blanketed in lush greenery rolled away behind them like an endless herd of elephants charging toward the horizon.
Yet atop the back of the Soaring Sky Eagle, Fang Yuan and the group of Gu Immortals had no mood whatsoever to admire the magnificent landscape.
Their situation was dire.
Every Righteous Path Gu Immortal in the Southern Border was trying to hunt them down. On top of that, there might be rogue cultivators and Demonic Path Gu Immortals lurking nearby, waiting to see if there was any profit to be snatched.
The Southern Border's Righteous Path was already more than they could handle. Any single Eighth Transformation Gu Immortal, or any Immortal Gu House, could bring enormous trouble and mortal danger to Fang Yuan's group.
But beyond that, what worried the immortals even more was — the Heavenly Court.
After seizing the super Gu formation, the Heavenly Court had simply withdrawn.
Though Fang Yuan and the others didn't know the full picture — that there were reasons involving the Dragon Lord needing to suppress the Phantom Soul's true body — the fact remained that even though the Heavenly Court had pulled back, its influence was still very much present. Their intent to annihilate Fang Yuan's group had never waned, and if anything, it was intensifying.
Fang Yuan's judgment had cut deep and was unanimously acknowledged by Hei Loulan, Bai Ningbing, and the others.
Put yourselves in their shoes: if you were the Heavenly Court, you would never let Fang Yuan's group go either. Beyond leaking intelligence to the Southern Border Righteous Path Gu Immortals and using them as pawns, the Heavenly Court would certainly have left a hidden hand in reserve — to guarantee nothing went wrong.
The only question was: what would that hidden hand be?
The unknown only magnified the pressure weighing on their hearts.
The Heavenly Court's hidden hand hung like a blade suspended above all of their heads, ready to fall at any moment without warning.
Even if Fang Yuan and the others fled all the way to the Western Desert, this hidden hand would almost certainly follow them.
"Heavenly Will can actually erode manifested dreams," Fang Yuan muttered to himself.
"I explored the dreams, practically exposing my own secrets. And here I kept using Dark Concealment and Meeting Familiarity to disguise myself, thinking I had been deceiving Heavenly Will all along."
"This was the biggest failure in my dream battle."
Fang Yuan stood on the eagle's back. The Reverse Flow Protection Seal had already been deactivated — maintaining that killer move was far too costly. Now he was channeling various scouting methods, including the Three Breaths Later Reveal.
He scanned the surroundings while simultaneously reflecting on himself, searching for his own errors and oversights.
No mortal is a sage — who can be without fault?
Making mistakes is perfectly normal. Even a Ninth Transformation Venerable's life was riddled with them. Limited by one's field of vision, constrained by temperament, dragged down by circumstances — no one can make the right choice every single time throughout their life.
After making a mistake, recognizing it and correcting it — that is what separates the extraordinary from the ordinary!
Had Fang Yuan known this in advance, he never would have explored the dreams so carelessly.
Now looking back, he could identify many of Heavenly Will's maneuvers.
For instance, his gains within the super dream: Water Path, Formation Path, and Dark Path attainment had each reached Grandmaster level.
But what Fang Yuan truly needed was提升 in Will Path and Time Path attainment. If his Will Path attainment rose, even without a Will Path Immortal Gu, he could gradually solve his own troubles. His Time Path attainment had remained at the ordinary level — if it improved, combined with the Black True Inheritance, it would undoubtedly cause his combat strength to skyrocket.
Even setting aside Will Path and Time Path, Sword Path, Refinement Path, Luck Path, and Soul Path — these four major paths — any increase in attainment to Grandmaster level would have been immensely valuable.
Especially Sword Path.
Fang Yuan currently possessed several Sword Path Immortal Gu, not to mention the Qing inheritance. As a Sword Path Grandmaster, his combat strength would have surged to terrifying heights.
But none of that had happened.
"In the later stages of exploring the dream, I remained stationed inside the super Gu formation, yet could only encounter absurd, nonsensical dreams."
"Heavenly Will eroding the dreams, the dreams shifting and flowing — I fear this was Heavenly Will preventing me from advancing further."
"Five hundred years of memories from my previous life, and there wasn't a single entry about dreams being eroded by Heavenly Will?"
Perhaps this was a secret from Fang Yuan's previous five hundred years that had yet to be discovered, or more likely, when he used the Spring Autumn Cicada to be reborn, his own will had been tampered with by Heavenly Will, causing him to forget this one particular thing.
"My Dark Concealment Immortal Gu was lost as well."
"Now we are directly exposed under Heavenly Will's gaze. Fortunately, the Soaring Sky Eagle is blazingly fast, so the time Heavenly Will has to scheme is limited."
The Southern Border Righteous Path, the Heavenly Court, and Heavenly Will — three forces converging to hunt him down, all wanting Fang Yuan dead.
Fang Yuan remained calm amid the crisis.
He carefully plotted how to preserve his life under these circumstances.
In truth, ever since the collapse of the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, Fang Yuan had been contemplating this very scenario. He was more than mentally prepared.
Having his identity exposed now was far better than the previous exposure, because Fang Yuan still held plenty of cards he could play.
It all depended on how he played them.
At this moment, he activated his Wisdom Path methods, thoughts surging and clashing within his mind. He continuously envisioned certain scenarios, then deduced — how to solve each crisis, how to preserve himself with minimal cost.
"Southeast direction — an Immortal Gu House is rapidly approaching!" Bai Ningbing suddenly spoke up.
She had inherited the White Phase True Inheritance, and her long-range scouting methods were far more suited to this situation than Fang Yuan's Three Breaths Later Reveal.
Right after, Fairy Miao Yin's face changed abruptly as well: "I've detected it too — that is the Hou Family's Immortal Gu House, the Flying Sand Pavilion!"
She was quite familiar with the Southern Border's affairs and identified it immediately.
Then Fairy Miao Yin exclaimed in alarm: "It's coming incredibly fast!"