This day shook the hearts of every mortal and Immortal Gu Master across the entire Southern Border.
The violent upheaval of the earth's veins affected the whole of the Southern Border, with certain key areas turned completely upside down — mountains collapsed, waterways were blocked, and sinkholes swallowed everything in their path. The majestic force of heaven and earth revealed its terrifying, unparalleled power in this moment.
Countless mortals perished in this massive and sudden tribulation of the earth. Every super force was tallying its losses.
Many mortal organizations were annihilated in the blink of an eye. Even the super clans saw numerous resource points utterly destroyed, suffering severe casualties and losses.
The sudden upheaval of the earth's veins brought a hush over the already tense political landscape of the Southern Border.
All the major super forces temporarily set aside their previous conflicts and unanimously began to actively investigate the cause of the earth's veins' violent disturbance.
Such a massive upheaval — one need not look back ten thousand years, a hundred thousand years, or even hundreds of thousands of years, let alone ancient or primordial times — nothing like this had ever occurred before.
In all of recorded history, this was the first time.
The entire Southern Border's Gu Immortal world — whether Righteous Path, Demonic Path, or independent cultivators — was gripped by tension and curiosity. What exactly had caused such a colossal upheaval in the earth's veins?
"The signs of the Great Era have appeared." Far away in the Western Desert, Fang Yuan gathered intelligence on the Southern Border's earth vein upheaval through the Treasure Yellow Heaven. He let out a deep, quiet sigh.
At this moment, he had relocated once more.
He had arrived at yet another location.
The night was fading, and the distant horizon was beginning to show the pale glow of dawn.
Dawn had come.
Soon, the rising sun illuminated the horizon, its magnificent light scattering across the vast desert.
It was a new day.
Fang Yuan, clad in white robes, his face weathered by wind and frost, gazed at the rising sun with a heavy, contemplative expression. His heart was burdened.
The sun rose in the east, but his path forward was nowhere near as bright as the sight before him.
Previously he had been kept in the dark, but after obtaining the inheritance of Purple Mountain True Monarch, he finally understood the relationship between the Great Era, the Spectral Soul, and the Shadow Sect across both his past and present lives.
The Great Era was supposed to arrive at this very time.
But during Fang Yuan's five hundred years in his previous life, the Demon Venerable Spectral Soul had succeeded in defying heaven and rewriting fate, suppressing both Heavenly Court and Heavenly Will. Using supreme means, he had forcibly delayed the Great Era by a full five hundred years!
Heavenly Will, cornered into desperation by Spectral Soul, had been forced to make a final gamble. It selected Fang Yuan as its pawn, using the Spring Autumn Cicada to send him back to the past — a last-ditch, razor's-edge move that successfully shattered the Shadow Sect's grand plan.
Because of this, the operation of the entire world had returned to its proper course.
Without the delays caused by Spectral Soul and the Shadow Sect, the Great Era had now slowly begun to draw back its curtain.
The upheaval of the earth's veins was merely one corner of this grand opening act.
"When the Great Era arrives, the boundaries between the Five Regions will dissolve. However, the prerequisite for the dissolution of those boundaries is that the earth veins of all five regions — Southern Border, Northern Wasteland, Central Continent, Western Desert, and Eastern Sea — make contact and merge into a unified whole."
"In the coming period, upheavals of the earth's veins will occur frequently. And not just in the Southern Border — the other four regions, the Central Continent, Eastern Sea, Western Desert, and Northern Wasteland, will all experience them in succession."
"The reason the Southern Border experienced the upheaval first is that among all five regions, it possesses the densest Earth Path dao marks. Its earth veins are therefore the most robust and vast — the foremost among the five regions. Precisely because of this, when the Great Era arrives and heaven and earth undergo transformation, the Southern Border is the first to be affected."
A look of deep contemplation surfaced in Fang Yuan's eyes.
The Great Era had arrived just like this, undoubtedly disrupting the cultivation plans he had previously laid out.
His original plan had afforded him plenty of time — ample and leisurely.
Fang Yuan would have continued to cultivate in seclusion, using dreams to elevate his realm, accumulate wealth, and increase his cultivation base. By the time the Great Era of all-out war across the Five Regions descended, he would already be at the Eighth Transformation, with vast wealth. Even if he had not yet achieved the status of grandmaster across all paths, he would have been close.
That way, he could have reaped the greatest possible benefit from the chaos of the Five Regions war.
But now, that was clearly impossible.
The Great Era had come too quickly, and Fang Yuan's plans had been completely thrown into disarray.
Moreover, he was currently being hunted by Heavenly Court and besieged by Heavenly Will, trapped in a wretched and desperate situation. Every single moment he was on the run, constantly on guard, because at any time a powerful enemy might suddenly appear and attempt to assassinate him.
"This is a change of cataclysmic proportions — one that comes once in an eternity!"
"So far, I'm afraid only I, Heavenly Court, the Shadow Sect, and a handful of other forces understand the true significance behind the earth vein upheaval."
"But no other Gu Immortal is stupid. After some investigation, they will more or less come to realize the truth of the matter."
"After a while more, that awareness will become a consensus, and the entire Gu Immortal world will understand: an unprecedented transformation of heaven and earth is about to arrive."
"Sigh... the advantages I've held since my rebirth are about to decrease by yet another."
"Had it not been for the great dream battle, I would still have had my identity as Wu Yihai. The earth vein upheaval in the Southern Border will produce massive chasms and sinkholes, and countless veins of ore, rare underground beasts, and bizarre flora will be unearthed."
"It will be a grand feast — a frenzy of contention among every major force and every Gu Immortal. All five regions will experience this, but the Southern Border will benefit the most, because its earth veins are the most robust and its subterranean treasures the most numerous and valuable. The Eastern Sea will gain the least, being nothing but vast ocean — its opportunities during the earth vein upheaval will be the fewest."
Fang Yuan recalled.
The Eastern Sea had always been the region with the richest resources among the five. This had driven Gu Immortals from the other four regions to brave danger and venture there, exploring and searching to aid their own cultivation.
But in this earth vein upheaval, the Eastern Sea would reap the smallest harvest.
In his previous life's five hundred years, a Gu Immortal had remarked: this opportunity seemed as though heaven and earth were bestowing upon the Gu Immortal world a vast trove of rare treasures, deliberately to balance the power of the five regions.
If Fang Yuan still had his identity as Wu Yihai, this very moment would have heralded a tremendous opportunity. Relying on his memories, he knew of numerous locations where masses of heaven and earth treasures would emerge — even wild Immortal Gu!
Unfortunately, this time his identity had been exposed. This grand opportunity would likely slip through his fingers.
Fang Yuan felt a twinge of regret in his heart, but he did not realize that the earth vein upheaval had actually helped him.
It was precisely because of the earth vein upheaval that the Wu clan's Immortal formation had been damaged, causing Wu Yong's scheme to fail and allowing Fang Yuan to weather a crisis unharmed, escaping the Wu clan's treachery.
The earth vein upheaval was bound to happen regardless, but the fact that it occurred at precisely that moment — neither too early nor too late — was obviously the result of Fang Yuan's soul-burning fortune burst.
"Fortunately, this time I have obtained the Seventh Transformation Immortal Gu Self-Love. Previously, I successfully activated the Immortal Killer Move Keep Clean and managed to clear away a number of dao marks from my body, including the Wu clan's alliance contract."
In this way, Fang Yuan had completely severed ties with the Wu clan, having no further connection to them.
"Presumably, by now my Life Card Gu and Soul Lamp Gu have both shattered. Wu Yong can no longer use that leverage against me."
This particular concern had been resolved, but it also revealed to Fang Yuan the shortcomings of the Keep Clean Killer Move.
Though the Keep Clean Killer Move was truly wondrous — capable of clearing away any dao mark detrimental to a Gu Immortal — it was ultimately not sensitive or flexible enough.