The "Lord of the Four-Phase Calamity" was in fact the brewing girl of the Lu family tavern, Yi'er.
Her given name was Lu Fuyi.
As Gu Fangchen had suspected, she should not have appeared at this point in time.
Most of the time she lay dormant in the void, not disturbing Yi'er's ordinary life, but this time her sudden emergence ultimately traced back to several days earlier.
To secure the succession of the true heir and push Gu Yuandao into the seat, Tenfold Dao had nearly allied as one to set this plot.
Lu Fuyi did not mind being involved in such affairs, and beforehand she had agreed to cooperate.
Originally, this action was meant to be only a perfunctory display.
Gu Yuye had long since spoiled his fake son, the true wastrel Gu Fangchen; there was no reason for the Extinction Path to intervene and waste a great resource on such a trivial matter.
But unexpectedly Gu Fangchen suddenly not only called out the Martial Saint, he also colluded with Tara Sect and traveled with the Xiyin Attendant for protection.
The demonic sect, wanting a swift conclusion, had to send out the Extinction Path's "Form-Grass Sword."
What they had not foreseen was that the location of the "Form-Grass Sword" would be exposed for no reason, leading to his death at the hands of the Tara Sect's saintess, Princess Prajna.
That one event immediately stirred Lu Fuyi, who had been silently dormant in the void.
For Lu Fuyi, the death of a few underlings was a common occurrence.
Infighting among Extinction Path followers happened often.
But this time the fallen was a Third Rank, a "Form-Grass Sword."
At that level, such a practitioner could provide significant four-phase karmic power; they were not comparable to ordinary Extinction Path devotees.
Followers of that rank were the main force that guided the world toward the correct trajectory,
In Lu Fuyi's view, the behaviors of all living beings had been steadily heading toward the same outcome: self-annihilation.
As long as things continued to change, they would tend toward eternal extinction.
In theory, even if she did nothing at all, she could eventually reach the "Emptiness" state on her own.
But the world was not reasonable.
In Great Wei rose a First Rank Confucian Sage, Xie Qian.
A First Rank Eternal Realm cultivator was a true saint.
A saint's methods could turn rot into wonder and reverse the rules of this world.
Most directly, one utterance of Xie Qian's "Half the Rivers and Mountains" had already arrested the development of Qingman's subsequent expansion, halting the world's slide toward extinction.
To resist that Confucian Sage, Lu Fuyi had had no choice but to start proselytizing, found the Extinction Path, and join Tenfold Dao under the banner of the demonic sect.
By accumulating karmic power through the Extinction Path, she aimed to push forward the "Destruction" phase.
But now one of her most capable subordinates, the "Form-Grass Sword," had died.
His death was so sudden and senseless.
More importantly, the instant the "Form-Grass Sword" died, the world's "Destruction" karmic progress actually regressed a step.
Keep in mind, Xie Qian, the First Rank saint, had only been able to stall the "Destruction" tribulation.
Yet the death of a single Third Rank cultivator could make the "Destruction" tribulation step back!
It was simply inconceivable.
This awakened Lu Fuyi's consciousness in an instant.
At that time she could clearly perceive that the causal thread which truly killed the "Form-Grass Sword" was not on Princess Prajna's body.
When she tried to probe further, she found that she could not locate the landing point of that causality.
Though she was dormant in the void and separated from reality with greatly diminished power, she remained a Second Rank divine-power great being.
How could she fail to sense such an obvious causal trace?
Lu Fuyi immediately realized this matter was not simple, but without finding the source she could not set a target in the void.
She nevertheless marked the presence of Gu Fangchen in her mind.
To her, this uncertain factor capable of regressing the "Destruction" karmic tide was a greater threat even than Xie Qian.
However, as she thought, she still could not find Gu Fangchen,
In other words, Lu Fuyi could not normally perceive Gu Fangchen's causality and had to continue lying in wait, waiting for the right moment.
But unexpectedly, Gu Fangchen came searching for her himself!
Although Lu Fuyi did not wish to disturb Yi'er's life, that did not mean she could not forcibly seize control of the body.
She merely avoided doing so when possible, because such forceful action would alert Yi'er to her presence and shake the foundation of their coexistence... so she would not expose herself unless absolutely necessary.
This time, however, the matter concerned her Extinction Path's grand enterprise, and she had to act.
After briefly observing and discovering that Gu Fangchen's objective appeared to be the jar of Drunken Spring Breeze buried under the ground, she directly chose to occupy Yi'er's body.
Thus, this accident was actually Gu Fangchen's own fault.
Because he had preserved his life by prematurely killing one of the Extinction Path's most capable hands, the Lord of the Four-Phase Calamity Lu Fuyi had been roused ahead of schedule.
And the timing happened to coincide with the instant he used his skill.
...
Lu Fuyi's original plan was, upon seizing the body, to finish the matter quickly and kill Gu Fangchen outright.
This creature's existence made no sense, it was impossible, and it seriously threatened her path.
If she had the chance, she could not simply let such a thing go.
Moreover, the longer she forcibly occupied the body, the more likely Yi'er would detect her presence, so she had to act immediately.
But the moment after Yi'er blinked and Lu Fuyi's consciousness took over, as she deployed spiritual power and prepared to annihilate this mere Sixth Rank nuisance, she suddenly discovered that her entire Wheel of the Sea of Calamity..
Was gone!
"???"
Lu Fuyi froze.
Her body locked up; her first thought was whether Xie Qian had intervened, had the Confucian Sage set a trap so that she would fall into an illusion?
But the next moment she realized this was not a hallucination.
Because, her Wheel of the Sea of Calamity had actually transferred to that other person's body!
So it could not be an illusion.
Even an illusion must follow some logic!
But clearly, the situation before her made no logical sense; it was absurd beyond comprehension.
The great Lord of the Four-Phase Calamity took one second to understand the situation, then slowly formed a huge question mark in her mind.
She then saw the golden wheel begin to turn; in an instant it began to tug at the causal threads on Gu Fangchen's body.
If it turned only a little, it could crush his causal connections and reduce him to ashes.
"Utter stupidity!"
Lu Fuyi sneered at the ant who had walked into its own death.
...
Gu Fangchen ought to have been crushed by the karmic weight on that wheel.
But he was not like ordinary people, when the wheel tried to revolve, the countless causal lines on his body did not move an inch; they bound it firmly in place.