"Damn it! The 'Soul-Locking Formation'!"
Xu Fu's heart sank. She realized that the Sixth Division Star Lord intended to trap her divine soul within this mortal body.
Once successful, it would mean that for a very long time, she would be forced to act using Xue Xiang's body.
For a Divine Path cultivator, nearly all of one's cultivation rests within the soul.
But being separated from one's flesh also means a loss of power.
After Spirit Projection, existing within the Intermediate Underworld, the liminal space between worlds, the freshly separated soul is fragile. If it lingers there for too long, it cannot return to its body and will instead be deemed a wandering spirit, eroded until it dissipates entirely, entering the Nine Nether Yellow Springs.
Even for higher Divine Path cultivators, whose souls can survive long after the body's death, their cultivation is immediately diminished by at least one full rank.
And over time, the countless karmic tribulations within the Intermediate Underworld will erode them as well, only more slowly.
Therefore, Spirit Projection has limits; after a certain duration, one must return to their body for "maintenance."
Likewise, if one attempts to seize another's body, their cultivation will inevitably be affected by the vessel's limits.
For example, when Ning Songjun went to aid Gu Lianqian, he seized the body of a fifth-rank master. Though he possessed the experience of a Sword Saint, his power could reach no higher than fifth rank.
The Sixth Division Star Lord's intent was simple: if Xu Fu were trapped within this mortal shell, unable to unleash her true strength, then even if she destroyed his fate chart, it would be meaningless.
Delay her long enough, and with the Demonic Sect's growing might, it would soon conquer the entire Great Wei!
Of course, with Xu Fu's extraordinary ability, even within Xue Xiang's mortal frame, she could still display considerable power, if at full strength.
But at this moment, Xu Fu had already expended nearly all her strength to sever the Sixth Division Star Lord's reincarnating karmic thread.
Now trapped within this "Soul-Locking Formation," she would truly be confined to a mortal's limits!
Xu Fu's expression darkened. Her hands formed seals once more, transforming rapidly.
Behind her, the Astral Water Mirror spun furiously. Ripples and starlight flared one after another, nearly bursting into sparks.
But the result was immediate.
Those vanished threads of karmic fate reappeared, tangled about Xu Fu's body and soul like chaotic strands of red silk.
As she urged her mystical power to its limits, her soul and body began to shift out of alignment. The cold, breathtakingly beautiful face of Xu Fu emerged faintly atop Xue Xiang's fair features.
A dot of cinnabar glowed upon her brow, its crimson hue making that snow-pale beauty even more striking.
At the same time, another faint thought, something ordinary mortals could not perceive, wavered into view, confused and blinking, peeking about curiously.
It was Xue Xiang's soul.
In theory, as a mortal without cultivation, she shouldn't even be capable of Spirit Projection. But because she had shared dual cultivation and divine resonance with Gu Fangchen, her soul's strength had grown significantly.
Still, she could not comprehend what was happening. Terrified and unstable, she soon began to fade, instinctively retreating back into the body.
Xu Fu steadied herself and began sorting the tangled karmic threads upon her body.
But it was already too late.
Some threads belonged to her; others to Xue Xiang.
Now, under the curse of the Soul-Locking Formation, both sets had fused together, inseparable.
The Sixth Division Star Lord's Latitude and Longitude Fate Technique used six threads of karma, weaving time as longitude and distance as latitude, turning heaven and earth into his personal fate chart, a chess game a thousand years in the making.
By severing one of his karmic threads, Xu Fu had ruined his grand design. Naturally, he retaliated with cruel precision.
This Soul-Locking Formation's full name was the "Shared Life Soul-Locking Formation."
Though called a formation, in truth it was a karmic curse, one designed specifically to counter those who seize or possess another's body.
Once struck, the karma and fate of the possessing soul become completely bound to the vessel's own, inseparable.
As time passes, their destinies converge, until they become one and the same.
And this convergence follows the dominance of the body's original owner.
Originally developed during the ancient Zhou dynasty, before the unification of imperial fate, when divine incense power was rampant and cults flourished, this curse had been invented as protection.
Divine cultivators abused their power, fighting over incense offerings, seizing bodies upon death, sowing terror across the land.
The Shared Life Soul-Locking Formation was created to stop this, an anti-possession safeguard.
If triggered, it would ensnare the invader's soul, forcing them gradually to assume the host's karma and consciousness, until they themselves became the host.
Its invention swiftly ended the body-snatching frenzy.
Now, however, the Sixth Division Star Lord had used this very curse against Xu Fu, and she had to admit, it was brutally effective.
Her expression turned grim as the Astral Water Mirror behind her lost its light and dissolved into scattered starlight.
The red karmic threads faded. Her divine soul was drawn back into the body.
...
Far away, atop the Pillar of Silence, the National Preceptor's true body sat cross-legged, still as stone.
For a brief moment, her eyelashes trembled, then stilled again.
...
Realizing she could not return to her true body anytime soon, Xu Fu drew a slow breath and decisively sealed away her remaining power.
Now trapped in a body incapable of cultivation, she could not afford to waste a single drop of spiritual energy.
Until she found a way to break the curse, she would have to act as Xue Xiang.
Worse, the Sixth Division Star Lord now knew where she was and would surely send assassins after her.
While the Shared Life Soul-Locking curse endured, she and Xue Xiang shared fate, if this body died, so would she.
This was perhaps the greatest mortal crisis the National Preceptor had faced since taking the Mandate of "Peace under Heaven."
Rising, Xu Fu's face became an icy mask as she looked up toward the sky, where the green-robed woman and the red-clad woman clashed.
The Demon-Suppressing Grand Formation had been completely shattered. Evil spirits poured forth, chaos erupting among the cultivators below.
After Gu Fangchen's escape, the green-robed woman had tried to pursue him, only to be intercepted by the red-robed woman.
Xu Fu did not recognize the green-robed one, but her cultivation was terrifying, perhaps even a step above Xu Fu's own.
That single step, at the late Second Rank, was a gulf as wide as the heavens.
Even the slightest advancement meant approaching the Eternal Realm, an insurmountable difference.
She suspected the woman was connected to the night Gu Fangchen had suddenly been wounded, and judging by her sword intent, she might well hail from the Sword Pavilion.
As for the red-robed woman, her aura was all too familiar, none other than the Dao Lord of Destruction, the Lord of the Four-Phase Calamity.
Yet the situation was bizarre.
The Sword Pavilion's mysterious woman sought to kill Gu Fangchen, while the demonic Lord of Destruction, his supposed enemy, was protecting him.
Their roles had completely reversed.
Truly, Gu Fangchen was a peculiar man.
Anyone who crossed his path ended up changed, as though bewitched.
Xu Fu touched her brow lightly.
On Xue Xiang's borrowed face, the cinnabar mark reappeared between her brows.
It was the sign of their shared life, a symbol of their fused souls.
Originally, Xue Xiang had painted that dot herself as playful imitation of Daoist attire, teasing Gu Fangchen's flirtations. Now, it had become literal truth.
Perhaps, she thought wryly, words do have power.
Suddenly, Xu Fu's eyelashes fluttered as a memory of that night surfaced, Gu Fangchen's unyielding manner, his hands, her heart skipped a beat.
That little maid was his bed companion... what had happened afterward? Though she'd had her eyes closed, she'd felt the strange serpent in his hand; his youthful vigor had been undeniable.
Had that man perhaps taken advantage, pressing for more "favors"?
The National Preceptor bit her lip, a ripple of unease stirring her composure.
She took a breath, calming herself. No, Gu Fangchen might seem unruly at first glance, but in truth, his conduct was upright.
He aided her grand mission for Peace under Heaven, and his requests of her had always been trivial, some scriptures, a few scrolls, a visualization chart.
She knew enough of human nature to judge a man by deeds, not words.
By that measure, Gu Fangchen was more a true gentleman than those who merely claimed the title.
And back then, it was she who had concealed her identity. He had thought she was Xue Xiang.
Now, with her disguise impossible, all she had to do was reveal the truth; surely Gu Fangchen would restrain himself and treat the National Preceptor with due respect.
The urgent matter was to confirm his current situation.
Xu Fu pressed her lips together and, glancing toward the battlefield surrounded by soldiers, grew solemn. This was no place to linger. She turned to leave.
But after only two steps, her weakened legs buckled. Her foot caught her hem, and she fell forward with a loud "thud."
The dignified National Preceptor lay sprawled in the dirt.
"..."
Expressionless, she stood up, brushing dust from her robes.
Half her life spent soaring above the mortal world, half spent possessing others, never had she known such humiliation.
Usually she would appear with a single flash, never needing to walk at all.
But would the great National Preceptor be defeated by mere clumsiness?
She rubbed her forehead and knees, inhaled softly, lifted her skirt, and continued walking.
Moments later, another loud "thump."
...
Gu Fangchen watched as Dugu Yue fell before him, then raised his blood-red saber and pointed it straight at Gu Yuye.
Forged from hatred, the blade pulsed with murderous bloodlust, its crimson light chilling to the bone.
A killing blade, once drawn, must drink blood.
Ning Caiyong stepped forward, tears glinting, but her relief turned to alarm as she saw how soaked in blood his clothes were.
"Chen'er, are you hurt?"
Gu Fangchen shook his head.
Though he looked pitiful, he'd only felt pain at the start.
The rest had been borne by Princess Prajna.
Through the Demon Refinement Method, he had reforged his flesh, merging it with the earth's veins and the Sky-Piercing Sword of the Seventy-Two Peaks.
Veins of earth as his meridians, the divine sword as his bones, his body had become the rarest of all living artifacts.
A body so hard it would make anyone curse in awe.
The excruciating agony of shattering his old body would have killed most, but he had offloaded it onto Prajna. Even she, nearly divine, had retreated to recover.
Had he endured it himself, he would've died on the spot, physically.
But all was according to plan.
"How touching, mother and son reunited, shame it's too late," Gu Yuye sneered.
With a motion, he summoned a black spear coiled with dragon-serpents. "This time, you have no chance to turn the tables."
Gu Yuye's mastery lay in the Path of War, but his true expertise was the spear.
Yet even he could not rival those of the Heavenly Rankings.
Gu Fangchen shrugged. "Confidence is good. But haven't you noticed every time you said that, I won?"
He sighed. "You really shouldn't tempt fate."
Earlier, he'd hidden a merman pearl inscribed with "Teleportation Array 1.14514" on Ning Caiyong.
The instant he escaped, he had triggered it, arriving beside her and killing Dugu Yue in one strike.
He'd deliberately fed the Dugu clan false hints about their "investigation," knowing they'd attempt to silence Ning Caiyong to protect their reputation.
Dugu Yue, desperate to claim merit, had charged straight into Gu Fangchen's blade, a fitting irony.
Gu Yuye, not understanding what a "flag" was, dismissed his words as nonsense.
"Wretch. Even if you've reached fourth rank, you're still an insect to me, one squeeze, and you die."
He sneered. "Before, you survived only by others' help. Now, who will save you? Ding Xingfeng?"
He turned to the elderly man standing silently among the crowd. "Old Ding, I've thought long on it. The only reason you'd serve this brat is because of that lie years ago, when Xiao Ding trusted the slanders of Nie Xu and stripped you of rank."
"Xiao Ding," the personal name of Emperor Yong'an, rolled from his tongue with disdain.
Ding Xingfeng's face stayed calm. "So what?"
Gu Yuye knew he'd struck a nerve and pressed on. "In truth, Emperor Yong'an may have known you were framed. That vile Maha Wuliang infiltrated Great Wei disguised as a man, plotting your fall. I, too, loathe the barbarians of Qingman. If I commanded forty legions and the mandate of heaven, I'd crush them utterly!"
"Forty legions under my banner, the dragon vein upon me, heaven's fate with me, Qingman will fall like rotten wood!"
"No one under heaven could seize this chance from me!"
His fervent cry ignited the soldiers behind him. "Heaven's mandate! Heaven's mandate!" they shouted.
Gu Yuye extended his hand toward Ding Xingfeng. "Join me, old friend. When I've conquered Qingman, I'll let you behead Maha Wuliang yourself and drink from his skull!"
Ding Xingfeng hesitated, then took two steps back.
Gu Yuye laughed wildly. "Hahaha! Brat, if you have more tricks, show them! If anyone will save you, summon them now, or never again!"
Gu Fangchen glanced around and spread his hands. "Nope. No one left."
Gu Yuye inhaled deeply, exhaled, and floated into the air. His golden-scaled armor gleamed under the shifting light, like a true dragon ascended.
All his pent-up fury, every thwarted plan, all released in that moment.
It was glorious.
Meanwhile, taking advantage of the Sword Pavilion woman being held off by the Lord of the Four-Phase Calamity, Lu Mingyuan arrived.
The acting dean of Yaoshan Academy, respected across the realm, appeared disheveled, missing an arm, drenched in blood.
Those watching gasped. Even the "Heart Saint" had been maimed? What horrors lay beneath the Tower of Civil and Martial Trials?
Lu Mingyuan's face was dark as he roared, "Gu Fangchen! The Saint invited you into the Academy, yet you collude with demons, destroy the Tower, release evil spirits, unforgivable!"
"Two of our great scholars have died by your hand! You monster!"
His voice thundered across the battlefield.
He had to shift the blame. Once Gu Fangchen died, the story would be fixed, the Academy blameless, the Tower's destruction pinned on demonic treachery.
And so the crowd's gaze turned to Gu Fangchen, murmuring in shock, not because of his supposed crimes, but because Lu Mingyuan now sided with Gu Yuye.
Though suspicious, none dared oppose the momentum of fate.
With Lu Mingyuan's endorsement, Gu Yuye's rebellion gained legitimacy.
And the maimed dean, desperate, only wanted Gu Fangchen dead.
Gu Fangchen glanced at the sky, yes, perfect timing.
The stage was set. Time for the real play to begin.
He looked lazily at Lu Mingyuan. "Dean Lu, we've never met, never quarreled. Why frame me?"
Never met, no enmity, such gall!
Lu Mingyuan snarled, "You dare deny it? The thing that took my arm, was it not summoned by you?!"
Gu Fangchen blinked. "Oh, that? I thought the Academy was helping me share the burden."
"It was after my sword. I tried to fight it alone, who knew you'd try to steal my blade?"
"Whoever holds it, that thing follows, so yes, you snatched my sword."
"Impudent!" Lu Mingyuan roared, but many in the crowd now nodded.
They weren't fools. The Academy was too close to the court; siding with Gu Yuye reeked of politics.
Now Gu Fangchen's words made sense.
Gu Yuye might've warned Lu Mingyuan not to argue with him, but watching the arrogant scholar squirm brought him strange satisfaction.
Still, he hadn't forgotten his goal. He raised his spear, preparing to activate the military formation.
His troops already encircled Jiangling's shores. Gu Fangchen could not escape.
Gu Fangchen tilted his head. "Dean Lu, I'll give you one warning: don't say later I didn't."
"Stand with him now, and you'll bear the fallout yourself."
Realizing further debate was dangerous, Lu Mingyuan barked, "Enough lies! Prince, kill this demon!"
Exactly what Gu Yuye wanted, a scholar's sanction.
With the dragon vein and the Academy's backing, the Gu banner was unstoppable.
"Since the dean commands, I'll oblige," Gu Yuye said coldly. "Xuanhuang Army, form ranks!"
"Yes!"
The soldiers roared as one. Divine sense linked them with their commander.
"Boom!"
The heavens dimmed. Yellow sands swirled upward, forming behind Gu Yuye a colossal golden giant, its eyes like suns, limbs like pillars, towering to the sky.
Even the bystanders trembled before its power.
This was the Xuanhuang Army Formation.
Gu Yuye lifted his spear; the giant mimicked him, raising a fist that blotted out the sun.
The watchers gasped, finally understanding why he was hailed as the Sage of War.
With only fifty thousand troops, his formation radiated the might of a Second Rank cultivator.
If all four hundred thousand marched as one, none could stand against them. The mere thought of it defied imagination.
Gu Yuye felt as though he could swallow the sun and moon. Light blazed in his eyes as he shouted,
"Today I will slay the demon and forge the heavenly path of the Martial Way through my own hands!"
His voice rolled like thunder, the very dust on the ground lifting in waves as the sound crashed outward. The weaker cultivators were blown clear off their feet by the sheer pressure.
His aura surged higher and higher.
He was on the verge of a breakthrough, this was the chance to step into the Heavenly Sovereign Realm of the Second Rank.
Heaven, earth, and man, all in perfect harmony.
Now was the time!
Once he seized the throne, he would ascend to First Rank!
Gu Yuye lowered his head and looked down at Gu Fangchen. Yet what he saw was not despair, not fear, not even that usual playful smile the young man always wore.
Instead, there was only pity.
Gu Yuye frowned.
Pity? What was there to pity?
No matter. The thoughts of ants were beneath him now.
He had long prepared this strike. He exhaled sharply, eliminating all distractions, and thrust his spear.
The spear moved like a dragon.
All the killing intent in his heart gathered into that single blow.
"BOOM-!"
The sound ripped through heaven and earth. The spear was like a meteor tearing through the skies. Its edge blazed, the world dimmed.
Moist air from the recent rain hissed into steam, white trails slicing the air behind it.
The shockwave thundered in every ear, then shrank into a ringing hum.
The golden giant behind him mirrored his strike, its colossal fist crashing down.
"Swish-!"
In an instant, the black spear, like a writhing serpent, pierced straight through Gu Fangchen's chest.
"CRACK, BOOM!"
The ground beneath his feet split wide open, spiderweb fractures spreading until a massive crater yawned beneath him.
"Pfft!"
Gu Fangchen spat a mouthful of blood, yet he did not die. His skin burst apart, arms shattered, chest caved in, yet with gritted teeth he held on, that reforged body of his resisting the strike.
This was the toughest flesh in the world, he'd forged it himself!
He raised his head, lips curling into a grin.
"What's wrong? No strength left?"
Gu Yuye's pupils burned scarlet. He poured even more power into the strike, pressing forward.
"Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang-!"
Each step Gu Fangchen retreated drove him deeper into the ground, each step bringing the spearpoint closer to his heart.
But his smile only grew wider.
"Die struggling!" Gu Yuye roared.
He yanked the spear back, drawing in his breath to thrust again,
When suddenly..
A cry went up from the soldiers:
"What-what is that?!"
"The Dragon Vein, why is it spewing black mist?!"
"Look! That's not a Dragon Vein at all! It's a Mire Illusion Array! Once broken, how could it turn into this?!"
"This isn't a Dragon Vein!"
Gu Yuye's heart skipped. His brows twitched. He looked up, and the rainbow light in the sky had vanished. In its place was a sea of blood.
From the ground rose waves of foul black qi, coiling into smoke. Within the smoke, faint wailing faces drifted, ghosts and spirits, countless in number.
A piercing scream tore the air.
From within the smoke, a colossal dragon-shaped creature emerged, its body raw and flayed, crawling with writhing souls like maggots through open flesh.
Its skull was made of countless human heads fused together.
And on Gu Yuye's body, the golden armor of dragon scales, burst apart into fragments of flesh and broken limbs, dripping blood.
The crowd erupted in chaos.
All the aristocratic families watching from afar went mad.
Now they understood everything.
The "Dragon Vein"... was fake.
"Gu Yuye! You dared to deceive us!"
"That's no Dragon Vein, it's filth from the Nine Hells!"
"You tricked us into drawing power from a pit of ghosts!"
"Using the energy of fiends to claim Heaven's Mandate, you madman! You'll doom us all!"
Even Gu Yuye's own soldiers froze in horror.
They were connected to him by the formation, body and soul.
The golden scales that had covered their bodies turned into pulsing slabs of meat, twitching and bleeding.
Ghostly faces screamed from within their own flesh.
Men dropped their weapons, shrieking and clawing at their bodies.
The towering golden giant crumbled, collapsing like a sandcastle in a storm, two-thirds of it gone in an instant.
The Xuanhuang Army Formation shattered.
Gu Yuye stood stiffly, veins bulging, eyes crimson with madness. He bellowed:
"Impossible! This is your trick! You, little bastard, you laid a Mire Illusion Array! You're trying to deceive everyone!"
"Psshht!"
Gu Fangchen's blade flashed, his long-prepared Third Rank saber intent found its mark, sliding clean through Gu Yuye's heart.
A quiet voice spoke in his ear:
"You're right. I did set it up."
The so-called Dragon Vein's blessing had been half true, half false from the very start.
He had merely shifted the battlefield's ley lines.
By completing the Heaven-Inversion Formation, he had pulled a "Wrathful Dragon Vein" from beneath the Nine Hells up into the mortal realm,
bringing it to coincide perfectly with the location of the real one.
False became true. True became false.
"Oh, and one more thing," Gu Fangchen said softly.
"The fake Dragon Vein? It was never meant for show."
"It was used to pinpoint your real body."