At the center of heaven and earth, the three qi merged together.
With the aid of the Giant Sun's will, the dense qi currents had almost completely enveloped Tai Bai Yun Sheng within a qi cocoon!
He stood inside it, every wound on his body already healed. His entire flesh, soul, and spirit were constantly ascending.
He looked back on his whole life, scene after scene flashing through his mind in rapid succession.
The mysteries of the Great Dao flowed through his heart. Sparks of insight burst forth one after another, and the cultivation problems that had once shackled him were resolved perfectly, one after the next.
In this moment, heaven and earth seemed like a selfless teacher, bestowing everything upon Tai Bai Yun Sheng without reservation.
But the secrets of heaven and earth were far too vast and profound. The more Tai Bai Yun Sheng learned, the more he felt his own insignificance.
He could only start from his understanding of the Dao of Time, deepening it ceaselessly and extending outward from there.
His comprehension of the Dao of Time had reached the absolute pinnacle of his life!
Learn from nature itself!
Mankind is the spirit of all things, while Gu Insects are the true essence of heaven and earth. Gu Masters who used Gu, refined Gu, and raised Gu were, in truth, engaged in a process of constant exchange, constant exploration, and constant learning from heaven and earth.
At the moment of ascending to immortality, a Gu Master no longer needed to rely on Gu Insects to indirectly comprehend heaven and earth — instead, he could form a direct communion with it.
This precious opportunity for communion would come perhaps only once in a Gu Immortal's entire lifetime.
The peak of the Fifth Transformation was the endpoint for an ordinary Gu Master. But the Sixth Transformation — becoming a Gu Immortal — was the new starting point for transcending mortality and achieving immortality.
At this critical starting point, the accomplishments each Gu Immortal attained and the potential they accumulated for the future would vary greatly.
"What a wondrous experience — what a pity my Ren Qi has run out…" Tai Bai Yun Sheng's expression was wistful, tinged with regret.
His Ren Qi had been entirely exhausted, and this was only with the help of a Ren Qi Immortal Gu — without it, the time would have been even shorter.
The qi cocoon dissipated. In midair, Tai Bai Yun Sheng's figure was revealed once more.
The three types of qi merged and compressed into a Primordial Tri-Colored Qi Ball, condensing where Tai Bai Yun Sheng's Empty Orifice had originally been.
With this, the second step of ascending — Qi Absorption — was complete.
Next came the final step of ascension — releasing the Gu!
Tai Bai Yun Sheng was utterly solemn. He took out three Gu: Jiang Ru Gu, Shan Ru Gu, and Ren Ru Gu.
These three Gu were his most core insects, ones he was intimately familiar with. Among them, Ren Ru Gu was none other than his Life Gu.
"At last, the most critical moment has arrived…" Tai Bai Yun Sheng cast his Life Gu directly into the Primordial Tri-Colored Qi Ball within his body.
Boom!
Thunderous phantom noise erupted in his ears, and Tai Bai Yun Sheng's entire body trembled violently.
The Tri-Colored Qi Ball had originally been merging and circulating ceaselessly. After Ren Ru Gu invaded it, it was as though it had ignited a stockpile of explosives — the Primordial Qi Ball detonated in a violent explosion in an instant.
Destruction before reconstruction, rebirth from death!
To ascend from mortal to immortal — right now!
This detonation was truly ineffable. It blasted open a miracle of life, blasted open an entirely brand-new heaven and earth!
The mortal orifice shattered; the immortal orifice was born.
What a fine immortal orifice — inside, the sky was a brilliant blue like crystal, and the earth was barren wilderness like yellow stone!
The immortal orifice was like a newborn infant, desperately demanding nourishment. It unleashed an incredibly powerful suction force outward.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…
Heavenly qi and earthly qi flooded madly into Tai Bai Yun Sheng, pouring straight into the immortal orifice.
Within the immortal orifice, its territory expanded rapidly. One million mu, two million mu, three million mu…
And the flow of time within it climbed steadily from the original one-to-one ratio — to one-to-ten, one-to-twenty…
The qi currents surged in torrentially, and the immortal orifice began to grow unstable.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng then cast in Shan Ru Gu and Jiang Ru Gu to stabilize the situation.
The immortal orifice's area continued expanding, and from some unknowable source, it drew in tributaries of the River of Time. This caused the time flow to climb steadily.
Throughout this process, Tai Bai Yun Sheng continuously fed Gu Insects into it, maintaining the immortal orifice's stability the entire time.
Five million mu, six million mu, over seven million mu!
One-to-thirty, one-to-thirty-one, one-to-thirty-two, one-to-thirty-three!
Reaching this point, the immortal orifice's growth hit its absolute limit, as though it had eaten and drunk its fill, and abruptly stopped.
But above, the sky was still pouring down its clear radiance of heavenly qi. Below, the golden earthly qi continued surging upward.
At this stage, the immortal orifice's speed of absorbing the two qis slowed considerably. Where it had once gulped them down like a thirsty ox, it now sipped gently.
The two qis of heaven and earth merged into the immortal orifice like clouds of cyan and gold, filling every corner of it.
Within the dense qi currents, Immortal Essence began to condense.
These were exactly the Cyan Grape Immortal Essence of a Sixth Transformation Gu Immortal — a full thirty-six of them formed.
The tribulation clouds in the firmament, the disaster dust upon the ground, began to gradually recede.
But within the immortal orifice, the mist-like heavenly and earthly qi had not dispersed.
They gathered around the Gu Insects — Ren Ru Gu, Jiang Ru Gu, Shan Ru Gu, and the rest — creating dense clouds of qi around these Gu, forming qi cocoons.
The two qis merged. Heaven and earth resonated.
Inside the qi cocoons, individual Gu Insects began to brew with changes of a profound and mysterious nature.
"Now is the time." A Gu recipe flashed through Tai Bai Yun Sheng's mind.
This Gu recipe was only a theoretical one, drawn from the old beggar's Gu Immortal inheritance — a theoretical deduction left behind by the Gu Immortal who had created the inheritance.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng could not guarantee that this theoretical Gu recipe would succeed.
But he had no road of retreat left.
His lifespan was nearly spent — it would be exhausted soon. After ascending to immortality, his senses had reached an entirely new level. His perception of time in particular had improved the most, becoming precise to the span of every single breath.
This novel advancement brought him no more than a brief moment of joy before plunging him into silent pressure, even dread.
Because he could feel it — the time truly left to him was precious little, like a tiny puddle of water baking under the scorching sun, and his lifespan was like that thin layer of water remaining at the bottom.
Originally he had plotted to obtain Life Span Gu, but Fang Yuan's secret interference had caused it to fail. The ordeal within the Blood Dao Hall had become a lingering knot in his heart as well.
Now his only hope lay in the Ren Ru Gu.
According to the theoretical Gu recipe, if he refined Ren Ru Gu to the Sixth Transformation, he could cast it upon himself.