This was the Gambling Gu refined by Limitless Demon Venerable. To refine this very Gu, he had voluntarily severed the Theft Path dao marks from his body!
Gambling Gu produced random results by nature — no one could influence them.
Limitless Demon Venerable was special. He was a demon from beyond Heaven, bearing foreign-world dao marks. The establishment of Limitless Space was rooted in his foreign-world Space Path dao marks, and so the Gambling Gu had originated from his foreign-world Theft Path dao marks.
Gambling Gu itself carried no offensive power. No matter the outcome, it only provoked a chuckle. But the Fortune Gamble killer move that used it as a core component was extraordinarily risky — its results were completely beyond control.
One moment you won; the next you lost. There was no predicting it at all.
Yet precisely because of this trait, not even Giant Sun Immortal Zombie's fortune could interfere with it.
In a contest of fortune, Giant Sun Immortal Zombie and Qin Dingling had equal odds.
Last time, Qin Dingling had won the gamble. This time, it was Giant Sun Immortal Zombie's turn.
But Giant Sun Immortal Zombie wore not a trace of a smile.
Because regardless of who won or lost, Qin Dingling always came out ahead without suffering any real loss.
Why?
To understand this, one had to probe the deeper mysteries of the Fortune Path.
Fortune could be categorized into two broad types — good fortune and bad fortune. As for the scale of one's fortune, it varied from person to person. In general, the higher one's cultivation, the more vast one's fortune.
Compare the fortunes of Giant Sun Immortal Zombie and Qin Dingling.
Giant Sun Immortal Zombie possessed tremendous fortune — he was at the Dao Lord level — and his bad fortune was sparse, with good fortune comprising the overwhelming majority.
And Qin Dingling?
Qin Dingling's fortune was far smaller in scale than Giant Sun Immortal Zombie's, and bad fortune comprised the majority, with good fortune being rare.
She was only an Eighth Transformation powerhouse, so naturally her fortune was smaller than Giant Sun Immortal Zombie's.
Fortune was a variable! Now she was pitted against a fearsome enemy like Giant Sun Immortal Zombie, and with the fortunes of all beings clashing and interfering with one another, even one's existing good fortune could be affected and transformed into bad fortune.
This meant that, firstly, Qin Dingling's fortune was far smaller than her opponent's. In a fortune gamble, she was risking little to gain much — an inherent advantage.
Secondly, since Qin Dingling's fortune was predominantly bad, even when she lost to Giant Sun Immortal Zombie, that loss would contaminate his fortune.
The foundation of Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's combat system was overwhelmingly positive, vigorous fortune. This had two key requirements: one was that the scale of fortune must be vast and mighty, and the other was that the fortune must be overwhelmingly positive — the more good fortune, the better.
If in the Fortune Gamble Qin Dingling won more often than she lost, Giant Sun Immortal Zombie's fortune would plummet. And if she lost more often than she won, then even though Giant Sun Immortal Zombie absorbed her fortune, it would be thoroughly tainted with bad luck.
Under such circumstances, Giant Sun Immortal Zombie had fallen into a dilemma of choice.
He had plenty of methods to convert his own bad fortune into good. But doing so would consume both his Immortal Essence and mental energy, and during the battle against Star Constellation Immortal Venerable, he would be forced to sacrifice countless openings.
What made it even more aggravating was this: once he converted bad fortune into good, what if he lost the next gamble to Qin Dingling again?
Wouldn't that amount to strengthening the enemy?
Boom, boom, boom…
Successive self-detonations tore through the air. Over thirty more Fact Ice Floes within the Mad Demon Grand Formation were destroyed.
Less than ten percent of the Mad Demon Grand Formation remained!
The formation's power continued to weaken, and the Eighth Layer Great World had been reduced to roughly forty percent. Everything was being channeled to empower the centralmost Fact Ice Floe.
The Mad Demon Trio continued their feverish sculpting within the Fact Ice Floe, their expressions growing ever more frenzied.
The Limitless Countermagic undeniably originated from the Mad Demon Grand Formation. Had it been otherwise, Star Constellation Immortal Venerable or Giant Sun Immortal Zombie would have destroyed the source long ago, annihilating the power of the Countermagic entirely.
This was precisely why Limitless Demon Venerable had deliberately fused the two together in the past — to make later generations hesitate and weigh their options. You wanted the fruit of Eternal Life? Then you had to accept the looming threat and subtle constraint of the Countermagic.
And so, as the Mad Demon Grand Formation was continuously stripped away, the upper limit of the Immortal Gu Masters' combat power kept rising accordingly.
Giant Sun Immortal Zombie's methods had grown ever more formidable.
Yet Star Constellation Immortal Venerable had similarly amplified the might of her own techniques.
Hampered by Qin Dingling, Giant Sun Immortal Zombie had inevitably slipped into a disadvantage.
"Qin Dingling must be killed!" This was a consensus.
Not only had Giant Sun Immortal Zombie himself attempted it — the other Sub-Immortal Venerables had all made their moves as well.
But this was the Star Constellation Chessboard Formation. Having schemed so painstakingly to achieve success against Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, how could Star Constellation Immortal Venerable simply allow Qin Dingling to fall to the enemy?
"The situation is dire — we must reinforce Immortal Venerable Giant Sun!"
"To reinforce Giant Sun, Qin Dingling must be eliminated. At the very least, we must disrupt her and break that killer move of hers."
"But the Star Constellation Chessboard Formation allows her to teleport instantly, so we'd have to destroy this entire great formation first!"
Round and round they went, and everything had circled back to the starting point.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!
Flying stars shot through the air in rapid succession, piercing through the protective golden light and battering Giant Sun Immortal Zombie backward again and again.
Pfft.
He spat out a mouthful of cold, dark-black zombie blood. Starlight blazed brilliantly on his chest — no matter how far the golden light spread, the starlight still burned with searing intensity. The severity of the wound was plain to see!
Hampered by Qin Dingling's interference, Giant Sun Immortal Zombie's combat power had plummeted dramatically. After clashing with Star Constellation Immortal Venerable for merely a brief exchange, he was already showing signs of defeat!
Seeing Giant Sun Immortal Zombie cough up blood, Lu Weiyin and the others all saw their faces change drastically.
Could the battle between two Immortal Venerables really end with Giant Sun Immortal Zombie's defeat?
The various developments on the battlefield had long made it clear that Giant Sun Immortal Zombie had always been the strongest fighting force within the alliance, followed by Gu Yue Fang Yuan. If Giant Sun Immortal Zombie fell, then the entire alliance would be utterly routed!
Yet no matter how unwilling Lu Weiyin and the others were to let this happen, they understood that Star Constellation Immortal Venerable held such an advantage for perfectly good reasons.
In Immortal Gu Master battles, there were many factors at play.