Central Continent, Heavenly Court.
Silver starlight shone down, seemingly eternal and undying. Below, palace after palace stretched across the land, yet all was deathly silent — not a soul in sight.
Among the palace complexes, an ancient tower stood in solemn solitude.
The tower bore countless scars across its surface, boasting a history of over three million years.
It was none other than the famed Heaven Monitoring Tower — an Immortal Gu House personally constructed by Star Constellation Immortal Venerable!
Surrounding the tower was an enormous Refinement Path Gu formation.
Within the formation, at four separate formation cores, stood four Eighth Transformation Gu Immortals — three men and one woman, one elder and three juniors.
At this moment, as they watched the massive Gu formation gradually wind down, all four Heavenly Court Gu Immortals unconsciously let out a breath of turbid air, their tightly wound minds slowly relaxing.
The moment he loosened his guard, Lian Jiusheng's body swayed, his legs gave out, and he dropped straight to the ground.
The others fared no better.
Bai Cangshui's forehead was drenched in cold sweat, and Bi Chentian's face was deathly pale. The aged face of the Tower Master of the Heaven Monitoring Tower bore even deeper wrinkles than before.
Any one of these four, venturing out into the world, would be a figure of great renown throughout Central Continent — even a powerhouse famed across the Five Regions.
Yet at this moment, all of them were exhausted to the verge of collapse, as though they had fought a formidable enemy for three hundred days without sleep or rest while starving.
How could repairing the Ninth Transformation Fate Immortal Gu possibly be easy?
Recalling the perils they had faced while powering the Gu formation, Bai Cangshui and the others silently rejoiced in their hearts.
During the process of repairing Fate, there had been a critical step: channeling down Heavenly Will.
Heavenly Will was vast and boundless. A human will, measured against it, was as insignificant as a grain of millet. The four Gu Immortals had endured with all their might, struggling to maintain their lucidity amid the residual waves of Heavenly Will. Each second had felt like a year, and yet they had persisted for hundreds of days. At last, the task was complete.
"Good! This restoration of the Fate Immortal Gu has been a great success. You have all worked incredibly hard." The Tower Master of the Heaven Monitoring Tower leaned on his cane and rose unsteadily to his feet, gazing with deep satisfaction at the Fate Immortal Gu hovering in the center of the formation.
The Fate Immortal Gu resembled a black-and-white spider. Upon its body was a crimson wound — one that had now shrunk by thirty percent.
"At last, we've succeeded," Bi Chentian sighed.
"With this repair, the Fate Gu can now exert fifty percent of its power. Even without being housed in the Heaven Monitoring Tower, it has already begun to take effect!" Lian Jiusheng said excitedly.
"Oh? What kind of effect?" Bai Cangshui asked in confusion.
The Tower Master, exhausted beyond measure, offered a gratified smile: "The function of the Fate Immortal Gu is Fate itself. You must understand: all things in this world possess a predetermined life trajectory that cannot be altered. After Red Lotus Demon Venerable shattered the Fate Immortal Gu, the entire world fell into chaos! Now that the Fate Gu has recovered fifty percent of its power, its mere existence is already setting the world back on course. From this moment forward, every life that had deviated from its path — no matter how far a detour it had taken — will begin converging back toward its original fate trajectory, ultimately returning to where it was meant to be!"
And at that very moment, in the Northern Plains.
Burning Sky Demoness put forth her true demands.
After weighing his options, Fang Yuan gave his response.
Regarding the sixth demand, he did not flatly refuse it either. Instead, he said he could not make the decision on his own. He would do his utmost to notify his master, Purple Mountain True Monarch, but whether a deeper discussion would take place depended entirely on the old master's wishes.
Burning Sky Demoness expressed her understanding.
Once both sides reached a preliminary consensus, the heavy atmosphere immediately eased considerably.
After patient deliberation, the two parties formally established a new alliance on the spot.
This alliance was not easy to break. Drawing on his experience from his previous life, Fang Yuan did his utmost to eliminate loopholes in the agreement. He greatly increased the difficulty of violating the terms.
By Fang Yuan's estimation, even if Li Shan Fairy possessed the realm of an Information Path Grandmaster, she would still need at least two to three years of preparation before she could breach the contract.
And Li Shan Fairy was not yet an Information Path Grandmaster.
Once the alliance was signed, Fang Yuan's safety received powerful assurance, and he acted in accordance with the agreement. In front of both his aunts, he returned the My Strength Immortal Gu to Hei Loulan.
Though he had lost the My Strength Immortal Gu, Fang Yuan was still satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations.
To put it bluntly, the negotiations led by Burning Sky Demoness were not unreasonably harsh.
That Fang Yuan had been unwilling to hand over the My Strength Immortal Gu was another matter entirely, set aside for now.
Fang Yuan had already reaped considerable gains from this exchange.
Overall, it could be said to be a relatively fair trade of interests.
Burning Sky Demoness had not laid a finger on Fang Yuan's Fox Immortal Blessed Land, Star Constellation Blessed Land, Soul Stirring Mountain, or Fixed Immortal Travel. She had not even mentioned the Fortune Timing Immortal Gu he had obtained from Li Shan Fairy.
This showed that she genuinely wished to cooperate with Fang Yuan.
Whether in terms of Wisdom Path attainments or assets like Fixed Immortal Travel, Fang Yuan held tremendous value. So long as mutual cooperation could achieve a win-win outcome, Burning Sky Demoness would not resort to force.
After all, in her mind, standing behind Fang Yuan was still Purple Mountain True Monarch.
Hei Loulan received the My Strength Immortal Gu, and with Fang Yuan willingly ceding control of his will, she quickly and smoothly refined it.