The Water Screen Heavenly Splendor Gu, despite being only Rank Four, turned into a huge spherical water barrier when activated. The barrier had exceptional defense, even capable of blocking attacks from Rank Five Gu. However, it had a massive drawback: it could not move, nor could it be stopped. The inside and outside of the barrier were completely isolated. Even the master of the Water Screen Heavenly Splendor Gu could not freely enter or exit. Many factions used it to protect their cities.
Fang Yuan was not very familiar with the Spring Autumn Cicada.
In his past life, right after he successfully refined the Spring Autumn Cicada, he was besieged by the righteous path and had no time to experiment with it. Back then, the Spring Autumn Cicada wasn't his Lifebound Gu either, so this characteristic hadn't revealed itself.
In this life, his cultivation was meager, so he dared not casually release the Spring Autumn Cicada.
The Spring Autumn Cicada was one of the world's wonder Gu, innately extremely mysterious. No user's insights or experiences regarding it were ever circulated in the world.
Furthermore, once a Gu reached Rank Six or above, it became the one and only of its kind in the world. If someone else wanted to refine it, success was only possible if the previous one died. Otherwise, failure was one hundred percent certain.
This chain of events meant that Fang Yuan only found out about this characteristic now.
"Rebirth is no easy task. The Spring Autumn Cicada hides disaster! Its recovery speed is getting faster and faster. Even with a Grade A aptitude and abundant resources, I'm afraid my cultivation speed can't keep up. Sooner or later, the Spring Autumn Cicada will rupture my aperture!"
Fang Yuan inwardly gritted his teeth.
Rebirth was wonderful, but possessing the Spring Autumn Cicada was akin to half a Deca-Extreme Physique. It was like being born under the gallows, waiting for the execution time to arrive!
"If I can't release the Spring Autumn Cicada, is the only option to activate it and be reborn again?" Fang Yuan frowned deeply.
This seemed like the only way. If he were reborn again, the Spring Autumn Cicada would fall into a weakened state once more, and Fang Yuan could also indirectly extricate himself from the dangerous situation he was currently in.
However, although the situation seemed ideal, it was actually deeply flawed with enormous risks.
First, success upon rebirth was not guaranteed every time.
Fang Yuan had already experienced rebirth once and often contemplated his one valuable experience.
Combining this with concepts from his past life on Earth, he understood: the world is three-dimensional space. Time is an axis, running through past and present. Without time, space is static. The movement of everything requires a process, which means consuming time.
The world is singular; parallel spaces do not exist. Using the Spring Autumn Cicada to be reborn means leaping from a point in the latter half of the timeline (the future) to a point in the former half (the past).
But Fang Yuan's aged body in the "future" does not exist at that point in the "past".
Bound by the Heavenly Dao of the world, the body cannot be brought to the past. It is forced into self-destruction. The energy from this self-destruction is the driving force, while the Spring Autumn Cicada, containing fragments of the laws of time, acts as a lone boat carrying Fang Yuan's consciousness from the "future" to be reborn in the "past".
Consciousness is unlike the physical body; it is not purely material. Strictly speaking, this "future" consciousness also did not exist at that point in the "past".
Yet, the ingenious part of the matter lies exactly here!
The "future" consciousness guides the Gu Master to change himself, which influences his surroundings, which then gradually extends to affect the entire world. This is the butterfly effect.
Once the butterfly effect occurs, the world becomes different from the original, and the "future" consciousness thus gains meaning for its existence, receiving recognition from the Heavenly Dao.
Someone has said that history is like a long river. Changing an event's outcome upstream will make the downstream completely unrecognizable.
This magical world of Gu is like the water in a long river. The vast majority of people can only flow from upstream to downstream. But Fang Yuan's consciousness, relying on the Spring Autumn Cicada, travels against the current from downstream to upstream.
When he makes changes upstream, the water downstream also changes. Yet the water remains the same water, the Gu Master world remains the Gu Master world. It's just that history has turned a corner, becoming another possible outcome.
This vivid metaphor makes it easy to understand.
However, the Spring Autumn Cicada has not completely recovered yet; it is comparable to a leaky, broken boat.
Fang Yuan's cultivation is only at the early Rank Three stage. The power generated by his self-destruction is unimaginably inferior to his previous life's Rank Six power, completely unable to drive the Spring Autumn Cicada to swim against the river of time over too great a distance.
"If I self-destruct and rebirth, I may not succeed. I might just run the broken boat aground in the middle of the river, letting my consciousness and memories be ruthlessly washed away by time into nothingness. To increase the chance of success, I should wait until my aperture is at its limit. Prolonging the time as much as possible allows the Spring Autumn Cicada to recover better, leaving fewer holes in the broken boat. At the same time, my cultivation will increase, providing more power to travel against the current after the self-destruction."
Thinking up to here, Fang Yuan let out a long sigh.
This change in the Spring Autumn Cicada was somewhat unexpected, but he was always cautious and had long prepared a contingency.
Behind him, the flock of blood bats flew, but Fang Yuan sank his consciousness into his aperture.
The aperture was filled with jade-green light. The Spring Autumn Cicada had a majestic aura. The sea of Silver Primeval Essence was as calm as a mirror, but the light membrane on the surrounding aperture walls showed dangerous signs of strain and cracks.
All the other Gu were suppressed to the bottom of the sea by the aura of the Spring Autumn Cicada.
Under Fang Yuan's will, a Gu worm resisted the pressure and slowly flew up from the surface of the sea.
This Gu was shaped like a dice. It was perfectly square, an ashen gray-white, and extremely hard.
This was simply the very Gu that Fang Yuan had once used a Snatch Gu to forcibly take from Bai Ning Bing's aperture.