The fortune path dao marks within Eternal Life Heaven were originally Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's own immortal aperture, and since they had not absorbed any Nine Heavens fragments, they had not been eroded by Heavenly Will.
As long as he fought within Eternal Life Heaven, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's current strength surpassed that of Spectral Soul Demon Venerable in the Crazed Demon Cave!
Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's fortune path dao marks alone were fewer than Spectral Soul Demon Venerable's. But when combined with the vast dao mark boost of Eternal Life Heaven, they exceeded Spectral Soul Demon Venerable's true body.
The most critical factor was that Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's mind was clear and lucid!
"Too bad I can't yet merge this original immortal aperture into myself." Giant Sun Immortal Venerable did not lack the means to relocate an immortal aperture.
Once he merged with Eternal Life Heaven, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's strength would skyrocket. The fortune path dao marks on his body would vastly exceed even Fang Yuan's restricted count. At that point, walking through the Five Regions and Two Heavens, he would be virtually unstoppable!
After all, Eternal Life Heaven was the achievement of Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's first life at Peak Stage — the foundation he had built after enduring three great Chaotic tribulations.
Fang Yuan, on the other hand, had only broken through a single Heavenly Dao restriction. The chaos he withstood in the Crazed Demon Cave could at most count as a minor Chaotic tribulation.
However, now was not yet the time for Giant Sun Immortal Venerable to absorb Eternal Life Heaven.
Because in this life, he also cultivated the Blood Path.
Giant Sun Immortal Venerable took Blood Path as his primary and Fortune Path as his auxiliary, planning to dual-cultivate both paths.
Having schemed for so long, he naturally possessed an excellent method for dual-cultivating Blood and Fortune. But his body was not the Supreme Immortal Body — no matter how he dual-cultivated, the dao marks would still repel each other.
Now, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had only recently begun formal Blood Path cultivation. His body contained many fortune path dao marks but relatively few blood path dao marks, and the gap between them was already at its limit. If he rashly merged with Eternal Life Heaven, the fortune path dao marks would surge in number, completely suppressing the Blood Path and destroying his dual-cultivation plan outright.
"Although I can't reclaim Eternal Life Heaven for now, when it comes to refining natural dao marks, I possess one supreme advantage — immortal essence!"
Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had the largest immortal essence reserves among the three Venerables! As things stood, he had over a thousand yellow apricot immortal essence.
The vast majority had been left behind in Eternal Life Heaven from his first life.
He had preserved a great deal back then, but over time it had been consumed bit by bit. Plus, since Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's fall, Eternal Life Heaven could no longer produce immortal essence on its own. In the end, less than a tenth of the original reserves remained.
"But even this amount is still the greatest by far!" Giant Sun Immortal Venerable was fully confident in this.
Because he knew that Refinement Heaven Demon Venerable Fang Yuan had just advanced — his Ninth Transformation immortal essence reserves were at absolute zero. As for his Eighth Transformation reserves, while he might have some, they had to be meager.
Anyone could figure this out.
Since his rebirth, Fang Yuan's cultivation had advanced at breakneck speed, and he had been present in nearly every major battle. On top of that, he had refined so many Immortal Gu and assembled so many Immortal Gu Houses. With such massive expenditures, how much immortal essence could he possibly have left?
What Giant Sun Immortal Venerable was most satisfied about was that in the Crazed Demon Cave, he had landed his fortune path killer move — Disaster Turns to Blessing — on Fang Yuan.
Although Fang Yuan had used this killer move to turn the tables and successfully deceive him, there was no denying that the Supreme Immortal Aperture must have suffered devastating losses from this strike. Combined with the minor Chaotic tribulation, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable estimated that the Supreme Immortal Aperture's current state must be absolutely miserable!
With Fang Yuan in this state, Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's immortal essence reserves were also inferior to Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's.
Why?
The reason was actually quite simple.
Because Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's era was far too distant from the present. Even if she had left behind generous immortal essence reserves, they had been nearly depleted by the Heavenly Court Gu Immortals who came after her.
One had to remember that after Star Constellation Immortal Venerable came three successive Demon Venerables — Limitless Demon Venerable, Frenzy Demon Venerable, and Red Lotus Demon Venerable — all of whom had invaded Heavenly Court.
When Heavenly Court resisted those three Demon Venerables, could they avoid using Venerable-level methods? Could they avoid consuming a Venerable's immortal essence?
"Unfortunately, with the merger of the Two Heavens and the convergence of Heavenly Dao marks, the environment shifted dramatically, forcing me to withdraw the Fortune Suppression Heavenly Palace. Otherwise, my current advantage would be even greater."
Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's withdrawal of the Fortune Suppression Heavenly Palace had been an act of necessity.
The Fortune Suppression Heavenly Palace was situated within the Primordial Black Heaven. In essence, it continuously laid fortune path dao marks, participating in the transformations and operations between heaven, earth, and all living beings. This gradually turned the Primordial Black Heaven above the Northern Plains into Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's territory, under his control.
Back then, during the great battle at Reverse Flow River, Heavenly Court had dispatched an army to the Northern Plains on a far-reaching expedition, but they had suffered tremendous losses in the Primordial Black Heaven. The Fortune Suppression Heavenly Palace was responsible for the lion's share of those victories.
Now, with the Primordial Two Heavens merging and fusing, all the fortune path dao marks previously scattered by the Fortune Suppression Heavenly Palace had been affected by this cataclysm, becoming chaotic and fragmented. If he tried to forcibly protect those fortune path dao marks against the Heavenly Dao's upheaval, the entire Fortune Suppression Heavenly Palace would be dragged down and destroyed.
Over these past days, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had been recovering from his injuries within Eternal Life Heaven while contemplating the state of affairs. He now had a fairly thorough understanding of the situation.
In the vast expanse of the Five Regions and Two Heavens, regardless of how dramatically the environment changed, it ultimately came down to the contest between Venerables.
For Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, whether it was Star Constellation Immortal Venerable or Refinement Heaven Demon Venerable, both were enemies of unprecedented strength. In the short term, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable simply had no way to find a method to eliminate either of these two formidable foes. He could only do his utmost to weaken them and seize the upper hand first.
Abundant immortal essence was Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's advantage.
"If I leverage this advantage well, I can be the first to refine all the fortune path dao marks in heaven and earth. On that foundation, striking at either one of the two Venerables is guaranteed to give me the upper hand!"
"Once I gain the upper hand, I must deliver a devastating blow to Heavenly Court or Fang Yuan. If I can't accomplish that, trouble will follow."
Giant Sun Immortal Venerable felt a pressing sense of urgency.
If he missed the early phase and failed to seize his advantage, the longer time dragged on, the deeper Star Constellation Immortal Venerable — a Wisdom Path cultivator — would set her plans, making her even harder to deal with.
There was also the critical need to guard against Star Constellation Immortal Venerable secretly resurrecting other Heavenly Court Venerables!
As for Fang Yuan, the same applied.
Right now, his immortal essence was at its most depleted. Once his reserves were replenished, given his Refinement Path mastery, he would mass-produce Immortal Gu, and his strength would advance by leaps and bounds, changing daily.
"Attaining Venerable status through the Refinement Path..." Thinking of Fang Yuan's recent Grand Love declaration, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable could not help but furrow his brow slightly.
He had already sensed that a force originating from Fang Yuan himself was about to shake the entire Gu Immortal world.
This force was so vast, so unprecedented, that even Giant Sun Immortal Venerable could not fathom the extent to which the future would be transformed by Fang Yuan.