F off, fate

I know fate Gu is actually a thing from Baby Dao Alchemist and it has really impressive powers, but come on! It had to summon lord sky crane on me? What am I even supposed to do in this situation? Heaven always leaves a way out for people, but this is just ridiculous.

Let me explain how fucked I truly am. Fate declares my bloodline is supposed to die here, on this mountain, two rank 5s might clash right above my poor, rank 2 head and Fang Yuan is in full motion here. He is ready to increase his talent at any moment.

"Mum and dad, stick close to me and don't attract any attention. This guy has brought an army of hundred beast kings, normal beasts, thousand beast kings and is even riding a myriad beast king myriad feather crane. I don't think even my shield can block his attacks, so make sure you stay behind me and keep the Zombie Gu at hand. One of you might have to use it on me or eachother."

"bzzzzzz"

What's that noise? Why does it sound like a bunch of mosquitoes are flying overhead? So weird... Oh crap!

I just remembered, one of ma boy first generation Gu Yue's arrangement was the locust Gu, what's its name again? Right, blood guillotine, that weird Gu, that is fed, refined and used at the same time. Guess we now have the answer to why I hear death.

My methods probably don't even stand a chance against these two. I barely can fight a single thousand beast king, much less beast emperor level Gu masters. Where is Chun Jack? His specialty is dealing with these types of people.

My luck is of rank 4, so I refuse to believe I won't survive this huge predicament, but my parents are different. They don't have much luck and the death luck around them now is too dense. It almost looks like a coffin even. This is not something my sagely luck can overcome, so my choices are to either save myself and leave my parents or die trying to save them. Well, I guess I have my answer now.

I checked my own luck and, unsurprisingly, all of my Sagely luck has disappeared and turned into a small coffin on my shoulder. I am guessing the thing that will kill me is going to do it from my shoulder, as my dad has a coffin around his head and my mum has a coffin around her entire body, which isn't a good sign.

"I am here, selfish little brother! To think you have been chasing me for nearly a thousand years just for 1 Gu worm! If you want to die by my hands, then you are more than welcome to come and fight us!"

Great, now the man, the myth, the dumbass First Gen Gu Yue has appeared!

"Mum, dad I have a plan on how to get out of this situation. Take these rank 2 Gu worms. They are called Unrestricted movement Gu and phantom gu. If you use them together, then you might suffer slight injuries, but you can resist all attacks until your primeval essence runs out. Mum, you are going to be in between me and dad with dad at the front. Don't look back, don't get distracted and don't run out of primeval essence!"

My idea here is, that lord sky crane probably doesn't have ways to deal with phantom path. He is probably an enslavement path gu master, so he is, at most, a quasi-grandmaster in enslavement path and a quasi-master in one other path, which is probably soul path.

This is the worst case scenario, according to which, he still has no method to counter phantom path. We can most definitely escape from him if our primeval essence doesn't run out, which is probably why my mum is in the most danger amongst the three of us.

My thoughts are really fast and so are my actions. It has been only a few minutes after lord sky crane appeared and we are already escaping. The two rank 5s probably won't care much about three ants escaping, so we should be mostly clear.

And my plan is working. A huge blood python is flying above us and a chunk of corrosive lime blood fell on my mother, which would have definitely killed her, if not for phantom Gu. Phantom Gu can make your body turn into a phantom, which causes non-phantom path attacks to pass through you. Unrestricted movement Gu is a space path Gu, which can interrupt movement restricting Gu worms effects.

We have mostly left the huge battlefield area. first gen Gu Yue might have lost to lord sky crane in cannon, but he was fighting a 2 v 1 battle that time. Now he only has to face his brother, so the huge stalemate is even more noticeable.

Blood path attacks ate flying left, right and center. The intensity physically doesn't allow them to deal with us, so we are safe, until lord sky crane gets the upper hand, which is inevitable because of first gen Gu Yue's zombie Physique.

"AWOOOOOOO!"

And here comes a beast tide! Fan-fricking-tastic! I need to analyse this further. My coffin and my parents's coffins haven't changed at all, which means the first half of my plan was destined to work and the big trouble awaiting my mum is something else. Actually, let me try this. "Mum, this Gu worm is called heavenly essence treasure lotus. It can help a lot with primeval essence generation and you should keep it until we are safe."

She looked at me with wide and shocked eyes and said "Son, I can't accept this! This is a rank 4 Gu, that you personally refined! How can I take it from you?!"

Refining this little bastard cost me the last bit od my savings. I have only 32 Gu points left now. This one can produce 250 thousand portions of primeval essence a day, which is about 25k% light red primeval essence or 5k primeval essence stones. And, just as I suspected, the huge coffin around my mum turned into a small one encasing her neck.

The chances of us dying have decreased to the point of not likely, but if you want to die hard enough, no amount of luck can save you. The wolves kept trying to kill us, but the phantom people kept not dying.

I never understood why the beasts are this stupid. Can't they at least have some wisdom path Dao marks?

"Son, I am running out of primeval essence extremely quickly, so we need to do something!"

Right! My dad's a zombie, so he can't regenerate primeval essence, so he should have a high risk of death, but why does his luck still look normal?

Why is the temperature suddenly increasing?.. Is that a fjing dragon made out of black oil rushing towards us?

sploosh

That was extremely unsettling. If not for phantom path invincibility, then I would have most definitely been washed away. Which genius thought pulling such a stupid stunt will have an effect?

"Lord sky crane, I, Tie Xue Leng, have arrived to help you uphold justice and rid this world of the blood sea inheritance!"

And now they are all here. I have come to expect this at this point. My ability to change fate boils down to influencing rank 1s, 2s and maybe 3s. Influencing rank 5s is way out of my league.

"Thank you for helping us, lord, but I don't recommend siding with that crane guy. He isn't aligned with any clan and isn't fond of his identity being leaked."

A look of surprise dawned on the divine investigators face, as he understood my meaning, which wasn't all that complicated TBH. I just told him Lord Sky Crane isn't from southern border and that he wants to and has tried to kill the innocent clansmen.

"You don't need to worry. I will uphold justice and make sure none of your clansmen get injured!"

That's an undesirable outcome, but I'll take Fang Yuan having a few more % over my own death.

The divine investigator looked at me for a second and then nodded. I am guessing he used some kind of lie detection Gu or something like that to check my words. Good thing I twisted them enough for them to be true and biased towards me. Can never be too careful.

With the divine investigator being our shield, my luck stopped being a coffin and returned to normal. My luck looks like an older version of myself dressed in patched clothing and reading what looks to be a children's book. Guess the recovery time is a bit longer than a half hour.

After running like crazy for a good 2 hours, we managed to escape the range of Qing Mao mountain and arrived at the foot where Chun Jack and the rest are located and reunited with them.

When Luck and planning cooperate, no amount of setbacks or predicaments can stand in your way. Still, why does my brother look so panicked?

I brought my parents into the small house we dug out and he sighed in relief. "I didn't think you'd all make it out alive with that person there. His strength was far beyond mine and I could barely even compete with him."

I nodded at him, but I felt a bit sad. "Even though we did make it out alive, dad is still a zombie. Sure, I can make him a rank 3 heavenly essence treasure lotus to somewhat fix his aperture, but I don't have any finances left. I am extremely broke and can't do anything."

The look on Chun Jack's face was grim. I don't know exactly what happened to him. I'll ask and check on him "Brother Liu, it is okay. You forgot to cover your name the time you broadcasted, but we can deal with that. I was only trying to get extra insurance for our identities."

My brother sighed and hung his head down and stayed quiet for a few minutes. What? You think I am going to tell you my exact details? Look at what I have done to Fang Yuan from simply knowing a bit of the future. I am trying to make use of this broadcast to increase my power, but I won't endanger myself for it. I want to make sure if someone like me does appears here, they won't be able to find me for a while. It is dumb to give away information so freely.

"That isn't why I am in a bad mood. Guts has been vibrating non-stop for the past couple of minutes and won't calm down. I don't know what happened to it, but I think he is angry or confused or something."

I held Guts for a few seconds and felt it took. What is up with this little guy? Why is he so agitated all of a sudden? Recklessness is deeply imbued into its instincts, so how can it even feel fear?

"Forget it. We can figure out why Guts is so agitated later. Let's rest for now. Our primeval essence reserves are exhausted and we have a long journey ahead of us"

My brother nodded his head and went outside to try to pacify Guts. I need some effing sleep. Even though I have perpetual motion Gu, the same can't be said about my family. My first victory came with a heavy price and took a lot of mental energy, but I managed to save all those dear to me and that is all that matters.

I'll continue my cultivation for now and let all the others rest.