An array of multi-colored lights formed a mesh-like net that trapped heaven and earth qi into a huge sphere. Heaven qi and earth qi did not mix together. Clear and light, the small portion of heaven qi floated above the heavy and dense golden earth qi. Under Lo Jik's control, the mesh immobilizing the two types of qi let out a scorching pink light. It was as if the huge ball momentarily transformed into a blinding pink-colored sun. The sharp glow temporarily suppressed the two types of qi before provoking a shocking change.
Heaven qi swirled and shook while earth qi rumbled and exploded. A formless aura, primal and lethal, left Lo Jik reeling from shock.
'Shattering the aperture draws in heaven qi and earth qi alongside Heaven's Will. A prospective gu immortal seed deals with earthly calamity and heavenly tribulation, balances the three qi, and throws in the gu worms to establish an immortal aperture.'
The current event before him was not so different.
'Thereafter, every earthly calamity and tribulation is manipulated by Heaven's Will by expending a huge amount of heaven qi and earth qi within the immortal aperture. That's why it is a common practice to place the immortal aperture in the real world to replenish one's heaven qi and earth qi before the tribulation else the gu immortals undergoing tribulations risk overdrawing heaven qi and earth qi, which can lead to the destruction of the blessed land!'
All these thoughts flashed in Lo Jik's mind. He was entering uncharted territory here. While dangerous, Lo Jik had enough experience to realize that he couldn't keep taking such beatings from Heaven's Will passively and had to brave risks regarding this matter in hope for a breakthrough.
'The crucial factor behind a tribulation's formation is none other than Heaven's Will. In terms of refinement path, tribulation can be considered a gu worm while Heaven's Will is the material required to refine this gu worm. Meanwhile, in formation path, a tribulation is like a huge formation while Heaven's Will is the immortal material around which the entire formation is constructed.'
A flash of inspiration struck Lo Jik at this moment.
'Can Heaven's Will manipulate the natural dao marks in the gu world? Every tribulation carves beneficial dao marks on the immortal apertures. Tribulations and calamities can also take several forms and have no fixed pattern. Heaven's Will can be likened to a gu immortal and every tribulation can be compared to a killer move. It's like Heaven's Will has a method of directly forming these killer moves using natural dao marks.'
'Since it is a will, it can think and store thoughts. Is there a possibility to plunder this method from Heaven's Will?' Lo Jik felt his throat drying. He intuitively believed that this method would provide substantial assistance in his dream of cultivating all paths with Chen Jiu's dual cultivation killer move as the foundation.
'No matter what. This is the first proper confrontation. I can't dream of victory without even winning a single battle.'
Lo Jik focused on the terrible change stirring within the cage of pink light.
This formation used Dream Creation immortal killer move as its base. Since Heaven's Will could think and scheme, it certainly had its own attainment towards the great dao. After all, even unique existence like the land spirits boasted attainment towards their corresponding paths. Using this formation, Lo Jik had hoped to target Heaven's Will and capture it in a dream realm.
Stirred by this change and enraged by Lo Jik's audacity, the heaven qi and earth qi meant to nourish his blessed land rumbled and transformed. The claps of lightning and roaring thunder faded while Heaven's Will within heaven qi and earth qi was like a fish in a river. It exposed another one of its skills—the ability to freely manipulate calamity and tribulations!
"Hmph!"
Lo Jik could see what was happening inside.
Gone was the disunited lump of heaven and earth qi. Instead, thrashing against the dream-like confines was a hill-sized desolate beast. It had a body of a brown bear with fur growing all over its body. However, the bear desolate beast sported a long furry trunk instead of a regular nose and snow-white elephant tusks. To Lo Jik's surprise, the effects of Dream Creation diminished greatly.
'This is a new dream path desolate beast!' Lo Jik furrowed his brows, slightly astonished. This was a bit troublesome. Not only could Heaven's Will control the meager amount of heaven qi and earth qi to mimic a tribulation but its choice directly countered Lo Jik's arrangement.
Dream path could be used to gain true meaning of every other path except for dream path itself. Lo Jik knew about it long ago and that's why he treasured the dream path true inheritance he obtained during his ascension. Lo Jik was not talented enough in dream path to become an accomplished great grandmaster. If not for his dream path attainment, he would be forced to spend and waste a long time refining countless mortal gu worms just to feed Dreamer Gu.
Dream path dao marks on the beasts displayed a great resistance towards Lo Jik's formation.
'But why can't it escape?'
Lo Jik mused before grinning.
'Oh, I see.'
The strange dream path beast might appear impressive but it was actually quite weak. In fact, it was of the same level as the snake desolate beast Lo Jik killed as a mortal. That's because the fuel to create this beast, the previous lump of heaven qi and earth qi, was not all that much when compared to the amount drawn by Heaven's Will during an actual calamity and tribulation.
It could resist the effects of Lo Jik's dream path immortal formation, but it was too weak to break free.
This confirmed Lo Jik's suspicions that Heaven's Will was not an omnipotent force but another entity that followed certain rules. It targeted Lo Jik because he represented a great force capable of upsetting the balance of the gu world.
Thinking about something, Lo Jik called in even more clones. Soon, the large number of clones surrounded the intensely glowing prison. The number of the clones surpassed hundreds of thousands! It was as if a sea of Lo Jik had formed around the prison!
Gazes gleaming with certain hunger and intensity pinned the desolate beast captured within the formation.
"Start preparing the formations."
Lo Jik commanded plainly as all the clones began arranging several immortal formations. They took out immortal materials of different paths and surrounded the prison with multiple formation. Lo Jik made a move whenever it was time to incorporate an immortal material. It didn't take long for his clones to create several layers of formation around the dream path desolate beast.
"Take this!"
Lo Jik's immortal essence reserves dwindled as he suddenly activated one of the outer layers of formations. Shockingly enough, the space path formation encompassing the entire arrangement flashed and replaced the dream path prison with a fire path prison.
*Whoosh*
The bear-shaped dream path desolate beast let out a horrifying trumpet filled with unimaginable pain as yellow-red fire suddenly filled its world, burning it into a crisp! However, it had monstrous vitality. Burning alive, albeit painful, did not destroy the beast.
'Eh? No!'
Lo Jik came to his senses and switched the formations again. He had a terrible expression as he saw the pitch-black beast. Its fur was burned and its orifices were melted shut.
Indifferent to its superficial injuries since he knew the beast's true nature was that of Heaven's Will, Lo Jik scrutinized the bear-shaped beast and noticed something amiss. Unfortunately, he knew too little about this entity to come to a decisive conclusion.
'What is going on? Why do I feel that this is what Heaven's Will truly wants. The beast appears weak…'
His eyes suddenly widened.
'Dao marks! The dao marks on the beast decreased!'
Usually, dao marks only started dissipating after a desolate beast died. However, the dream path dao marks on the bear beast had already decreased slightly.
He couldn't help but hesitate.
'The goal was to turn Heaven's Will into my nourishment using Dream Creation immortal formation. I already revealed my hand this time. Heaven's Will's preparations next time around cannot be underestimated. The only method to secure a bright future is to establish a dominance from the beginning and keep on piling the advantages until achieving a qualitative change. What will happen to Heaven's Will if all the dream path dao marks dissipate?'
Lo Jik grew was troubled by this change.
Heaven's Will was truly a tough opponent. Lo Jik didn't dare underestimate it.
'Beast… dao marks… dao marks' dissipation…'
He muttered several things under his breath before his eyes shimmered coldly.
He wasn't without options yet!
"Go to Pool of Wisdom. Quickly deduce this."
Lo Jik ordered all his craftsmen clones at once as they moved like a well-trained army, rushing off into the distance.
Still keeping the beast confined, Lo Jik started using several investigation killer moves and collected every imaginable research data on the beast save for understanding its habitat.
He also contacted Old Man Desolate and prepared for the transportation of an ancient desolate beast.
Usual formations, even the formations related to painting path, would only serve to hasten the dissipation of Heaven's Will. Lo Jik did not want that. Sure, he could accept that transforming Heaven's Will into a dream realm was not possible, but losing this battle was also an unfavorable result. So, he could only opt for the next best method.
Lo Jik's clones returned after acquiring several materials and gu worms.
The craftsmen clone started their work. The produced a formation at an impressive speed.
High in the sky, illuminating the surrounding land and the several layers of formation underneath was an enormous plane of square grey screen. Sensing something amiss, the burnt bear beast exploded with shocking strength and tried to escape the prison but all was for naught.
Indeed, this was the first part of Core Beast Formation!
Lo Jik waved his hand and controlled a sleeping ancient desolate beast to float in the sky. It was fifty meters long with a body resembling a centipede. Its face was like a porcelain mask.
Ancient Face Stealer!
This was a human path ancient desolate beast Lo Jik acquired through his trait.
Lo Jik and everyone else cleared way.
He activated several formations successively. These formations were all previously built as a method of weakening Heaven's Will before Lo Jik realized that injuring the beast was similar to destroying Heaven's Will. But plenty of materials and gu worms went into creating these formations. Being a quasi-supreme grandmaster in formation path and boasting at least grandmaster-level attainment in all the known paths, Lo Jik simply modified Core Beast Formation to include all these precious materials and gu worms instead of getting more supplementary materials or wasting the ones he already used to construct the other formations surrounding Heaven's Will.
Slowly and steadily, the glowing pink prison also floated under the grey screen until it was directly underneath the central region of the plane of light.
'Rise!'
Lo Jik raised both his hands. Brilliant flashes of light and gusts of wind rose from the surrounding regions as he activated all the formations at once. Half of his reserves of thoughts were consumed at once. Sweat started to drip from his forehead as Lo Jik controlled countless gu worms. He felt his immortal essence reserves deplete greatly. He had actually consumed more than 200 beads of green grape essence within a second!
Anyone else would puke out mouthfuls of blood in response but Lo Jik couldn't care for the expenses. When would he make use of his immortal essence reserves if not now?
He regarded Heaven's Will as the most dangerous opponent ever since he found out about it.
This confrontation?
It was nothing in the grand scheme of things.
Heaven's Will existed everywhere. Destroying this portion of Heaven's Will meant nothing since it could regenerate. Lo Jik was just one person.
Instead of braving the impossible task of destroying Heaven's Will, he chose to understand it. Understand yourself and understand the enemy, and you will never know defeat.
The opponent knew almost everything about Lo Jik but he knew so little.
How could he ever hope to surpass this opponent without making necessary sacrifices and enduring risks?
Imagine Lo Jik's circumstances if the nine great ancient sects kept on sending various gu immortals to test his limits. It was a bleak future indeed. Who knows how many among them were influenced by Heaven's Will. Staying passive was a surefire way of letting the enemy accumulate advantage and exhausting Lo Jik to death.
The thought of suffering similar losses that he endured as a mortal made Lo Jik grit his teeth and endure the sharp pain in his mind. It was nothing. It was just pain—nothing!
The plane of grey screen extended downwards and upwards, swallowing the sleeping Ancient Face Stealer and bear beast. Although the bear beast was a dream path desolate beast, its nature was that of Heaven's Will. Lo Jik wasn't sure what to expect of such a beast. Using Core Beast Formation in this scenario was quite dangerous. Any unexpected change could result in a backlash.
Fortunately, backlashes from a formation were less severe than backlashes incurred from gu refinement or killer moves.
As the grey light covered the two beasts in sizable hemispheres, Lo Jik started adding several mortal gu worms and a small stream of immortal materials. Core Beast Formation was complicated to deduce. A gu master had to accurately deduce the arrangement of dao marks within their planned core beast, which changed every time. As such, it was also one of the most flexible formations despite its complexities, something that could even be used by a rank 1 gu master.
His arms began to shake and tremble.
Lo Jik was a rank 6 gu immortal while dealing with a grand entity known as Heaven's Will and an ancient desolate beast. It would be weird if his mental energy wasn't entirely consumed by the task. But it was nothing to him. What kind of pain and torture hadn't he already experienced?
Alas…
The grand formation in the sky fluctuated before stopping. The pause was sudden and eerie. Lo Jik sensed something amiss and quickly scanned the formation before noticing relevant clues.
'The beast is gone?'
He revealed a shocked expression.
The bear beast had unexpectedly disappeared!
"How could this be?" He blurted out.
Two or more beasts were necessary to activate and maintain Core Beast Formation. Lo Jik quickly controlled his emotions and noted this change.
"So, Heaven's Will can freely transform the dao marks of other paths? Is that how it is? It led me to believe that this ability could not be used more than once when it chose to endure the fire prison and was burned to a crisp."
Lo Jik was troubled immensely.
Heaven's Will disappeared. Where else could it go but observe his blessed land?
"Shit!" Lo Jik hissed. "We need to disassemble this formation and search for Heaven's Will. Hurry. I need to get back some of the gu worms and materials from the formation."
The clones instantly buzzed into activity, each appearing stressed and shaken.
It didn't take long for the clones to open a gap—
The pitch-black bear beast suddenly appeared outside the formation with triumphant trumpet! The beast glared in Lo Jik's direction, noting his ashen face and the daze in his eyes.
How could this be?
Lo Jik realized the next instant.
'This dream path desolate beast must have a natural ability of its own. I couldn't sense it at all. Where did it hide itself?'
'But…'
A sharp brilliance replaced the daze in Lo Jik's eyes. His open lips puckered into a gentle smile.
'You finally dropped your guard.'
*Boom*
Hundreds of marks appeared on the surface of the blessed land, each glowing sharply and connecting into a grand formation already created by Lo Jik's clones. The bear beast was shocked to realize that it never escaped the formation!
The sizable screen of grey light vanished like an illusion, replaced by a grey sky!
The entirety of Lo Jik's blessed land was used in this formation.
'Did you really think I wouldn't notice human path methods displaying great results for a strange reason? Or did you think a human path great grandmaster like me is not even capable of this much? Or could it be that a formation path quasi-supreme grandmaster and dream path great grandmaster like me would not think of adding defenses against dream path and keep such methods from escaping the formation?'
Disguise Gu released a sharp brilliance, revealing the truth.
How could Lo Jik realize that human path was strangely effective on Heaven's Will?
It was thanks to Disguise Immortal Gu.
The bear beast suddenly looked at its body and was shocked to find out that it wasn't burned at all!
It had been a disguise all along.
Disguise Immortal Gu changed the truth and confused the boundary between what was real and what was the lie. When used on gu worms, it could even confuse the gu worms into believing they were a whole different gu. Water path gu would start eating food necessary for food path gu worms. It wouldn't notice the change even until it destroyed itself by eating the wrong food.
Earlier, the so-called fire prison was actually a human path formation using Disguise Immortal Gu as its core.
That's why Lo Jik chose Ancient Face Stealer among all his desolate and ancient desolate beasts to use in Core Beast Formation.
That's also why Lo Jik drew strength from his accumulated human path foundation in the Core Beast Formation!
Human path!
To think it would have such an exemplary effect on Heaven's Will. It was unexpectedly better than dream path itself.
'I guess I got lucky.' Lo Jik activated the formation with full force, revealing no ounce of exhaustion and strain he displayed earlier. The entire formation lit up, casting a shocking grey radiance on the entire blessed land.
'Hopefully, this time…'
Lo Jik suppressed his nerves and watched as both the Ancient Face Stealer and the bear beast covered by the grey light broke into several motes of light, each shooting at each other but held back by the grey screen separating down from up.
He sighed.
He knew he failed.
'I missed something after all.' Lo Jik thought peacefully as the light from the bear beast unexpectedly started to vanish into thin air. Despite human path proving effective against Heaven's Will, it was Lo Jik's own lack of understanding that became his undoing in this battle.
He played his cards right.
It might appear that he was rushing things by confronting Heaven's Will, but this was the usual pace for someone with Lo Jik who had too many advantages and attainment levels.
'I sacrificed Ancient Face Stealer for nothing.'
Lo Jik scoffed but did not feel at a loss.
But the day's twists did not end here.
"What the—"
He gasped audibly.
A threatening aura flooded the surroundings.
Rank 9 Love Gu on his shoulder suddenly spat out a lump of grey cloud that fused with the Core Beast Formation.
"Ugh…"
Lo Jik felt weak for some reason. Inspecting himself, he realized he had gotten extremely old. His hair was white as snow and his once impressive physique was now thin to the point that his bones protruded outwards.
Love Gu activated on its own. Its sacrifice was especially demanding this time around.
It actually took Lo Jik's lifespan!
But…
The grey cloud infused into the Core Beast Formation exploded outwards and filled the bottom space of the formation. Strange marks gathered under the grey space.
'Dao marks.'
Lo Jik realized at once.
Shockingly, he lost control of the formation as it continued running on its own.
The hundreds of dao marks returned in a dramatic fashion, each controlled by the effects of rank 9 Love Gu.
'What is going on?'
The dream path dao marks strangely combined into a singular pure-white dao mark. Lo Jik observed this pale dao mark intently.
'Is this dao mark the true source of Heaven's Will?' He guessed but felt this conclusion was superficial at best. The more he observed this lone dao mark, the more he sensed dream path from within. That wasn't all. He also detected a breath of human path as well as space, fire, theft, sword paths and more.
'What kind of dao mark is this? It actually has an aspect of including all the other paths?'
He recalled the earlier scene where hundreds of dream path dao marks combined into this tiny dao mark. He also remembered how Heaven's Will actually controlled and changed the dao marks within heaven and earth qi to materialize a bear beast.
Earlier, Lo Jik believed that Heaven's Will could freely transform dao marks of one path to another.
'What if that's not the case? What if Heaven's Will controlled this singular dao mark and transformed it into hundreds of dream path dao marks?' Lo Jik gulped.
He gulped because the more he saw this dao mark the more familiar it felt. Although not displaying the same kind of all-inclusive capacity so openly…
'Doesn't this dao mark resemble the dao marks forming the fragment of dao within Second Aperture Immortal Gu? It means this dao mark also relates to the same dao that refines Lifespan Gu!'
Lo Jik didn't get enough time to observe everything as the singular dao mark suddenly lost all its resistance and merged with the lump of dao marks transformed from Ancient Face Stealer.
A piercing grey glow spread across the entirety of the blessed land, surprising its denizens. Chen Jiu and Hu Mei Er stopped cultivating but couldn't approach Lo Jik. The other humans and variant humans also appeared shocked and worried. They closed their eyes and covered their faces with their hands. Many of them turned blind!
The light vanished without any prior indication.
Before Lo Jik appeared a tall grey egg nearly twenty meters high.
'The first step of Core Beast Formation was actually a success.'
Lo Jik observed this egg as he slowly activated a Lifespan Gu to recover his lifespan.
"Good job."
He gently stroked Love Gu with a kind and appreciative gaze before turning to the grey egg. He activated rank 7 Beast Enslavement Immortal Gu before adding all sorts of materials to finalize its creation.
This confrontation was filled with twists and turns. Ultimately, call it Lo Jik's foresight in continuously supplementing his luck or a coincidence, he ended up gaining a huge benefit. He acquired a great clue and realized that Heaven's Will was related to Second Aperture Immortal Gu and Lifespan Gu. In fact, Lo Jik also learned about this unnamed path's aspect of all-inclusivity.
In return, he lost thousands of beads of immortal essence, a couple years of lifespan, and an ancient desolate beast.
It was his victory.
With a sigh, Lo Jik waited patiently for the egg to hatch while he started converting precious materials into pure heaven qi and earth qi, greatly replenishing his human path and strength path blessed lands alike.
For the time being, he decided against absorbing heaven and earth qi from the main continent.
***
Alternate Title: Love Gu and Lo Jik really taking turns with Heaven's Will; Star Constellation's Will gonna need a cigarette after this one; Heaven's Will: It was me! I've been fucking you up since the beginning! *Lo Jik: My turn* Also Heaven's Will: Star Constellation, you're up… I've got things to do; Lo Jik: You thought you fooled me but it was me who fooled you! *Heaven's Will's NANI intensifies*; Heaven's Will: Oh? You're not hiding but actually inviting me in? You're walking straight towards me?; Star Constellation after this event: I renounce my virginity, Jojo— wait, what?!; Heaven's Will and Star Constellation getting what Hu Mei Er keeps getting wet dreams about: A sea of Lo Jik; New artificial secluded domain of heaven and earth: Lo Jik Sea; Disguise and Love coming in clutch; The lone dao mark; Seeing heaven path dao mark for the first time; Now… no path is safe
***
Join the discord through the link in the synopsis.
Read 60 chapters ahead @ Patron and Subscribe Star (Links in the synopsis.)
Support the Fanfic through comments, likes, reviews and such (if the published site allows it.)