When Ren Zu was in a certain-death situation, after he fell into Luo Po valley and had no way to get out.
Desolate Ancient Moon, in order to save her father, climbed up Cheng Bai mountain and tried to get to the top, in order to get that one and only success Gu.
As long as she made a wish to success Gu, Desolate Ancient Moon would be able to save Ren Zu.
But when Desolate Ancient Moon got to the foot of the mountain, she was obstructed by the rockman.
It turns out that when Ren Zu"s second daughter arrived at Cheng Bai mountain, she ruined love Gu"s wonderful dream.
Out of anger, love Gu awakened the rockman in order to obstruct Desolate Ancient Moon.
After Desolate Ancient Moon killed the rockman, and got to the mountain waist.
Love Gu had yet to leave, it appeared before Desolate Ancient Moon and said: "Oh human, you interrupted my sweet dream, yet you still desire to take away success Gu. Now I will topple the entire Cheng Bai mountain, you can have fun finding that one and only success Gu out of billions of rocks. Hahaha."
Saying so, love Gu crashed towards Cheng Bai mountain.
Cheng Bai mountain was not an ordinary mountain, it was a mound entirely made up of stacked rocks.
After love Gu crashed into it, the entire mountain crumbled.
Love Gu left smugly, leaving behind Desolate Ancient Moon who looked at this huge pile of rocks in a daze.
How was she going to find that one and only success Gu among this chaotic pile of rocks?
Desolate Ancient Moon was troubled, without a choice, she had to return to cognition Gu to seek advice.
After cognition Gu heard Desolate Ancient Moon"s description, it sighed: "Love Gu had always been demanding and unreasonable, even if it was me, or my child wisdom Gu, we would not want to confront it."
"Right now, Cheng Bai mountain had collapsed, you can only look at these rocks one by one, to find the real success Gu from among them. There are no other ways."
Cognition Gu said again: "But you have to be careful, there are two Gu on Cheng Bai mountain. One is success Gu, at the peak of the mountain. The other is failure Gu, at the bottom of the mountain. Failure is the mother of success, but it also has many other children. Those rocks are success Gu"s siblings. When you pick those rocks, many unthinkably bad situations will occur. I will tell you a secret here, as long as you continue to affirm the belief of "me" in your heart, these disastrous situations will gradually disappear."
Desolate Ancient Moon heard this and her heart sank, she asked again: "Then how do I differentiate the rocks in my hand? What do success Gu and failure Gu look like?"
Cognition Gu sighed: "They look almost the same, but it is easy to differentiate them. Just hold them in your hands, you will learn about their ident.i.ties."
"In your search for success Gu, that failure Gu will be your biggest threat. You cannot hold on to the failure Gu, otherwise, you will be completely lost and your life would be in danger."
Desolate Ancient Moon heard this and nodded, expressing her grat.i.tude.
Cognition instructed her again before leaving: "Do not say that I taught you that. If love Gu comes to find me, I"d be in trouble. In the face of fanatic and toyful love, wisdom and cognition can only run away."
"Don"t worry, I won"t expose you." Desolate Ancient Moon agreed, returning to Cheng Bai mountain.
Seeing the huge pile of rocks, her heart was gloomy.
Success was not easily obtainable, to obtain success, she would need to bend down and search while taking great risks.
Desolate Ancient Moon breathed in deeply, picking up the first rock.
This rock was ordinary, but when Desolate Ancient Moon held it in her hand, it shook slightly.
A light wound appeared on Desolate Ancient Moon"s hand.
This was not success Gu, but one of success" siblings, one of the children of failure Gu.
Desolate Ancient Moon"s heart was shocked, she touched the wound on her hand as she recalled what cognition Gu said —"When you pick those rocks, many unthinkably bad situations will occur. You have to affirm the belief of "me" in your heart."
"So this is the terrible situation." Desolate Ancient Moon understood.
She chanted in her heart: "Me, me, me, me…"
As she chanted, the wound on her hand miraculously healed! Only a light scar was left.
She tossed the first rock away, and picked up the second rock.
When she held this rock in her hand, Desolate Ancient Moon"s heart jumped, as an intense feeling of fear a.s.saulted her.
Desolate Ancient Moon was s.h.i.+vering in fear, she almost ran away to escape, away from this place.
But she held on, and chanted "me".
After a long time, she slowly recovered as the fear in her heart was gone by half, finally picking up the third rock.
This rock made her dejected. She could not help but think: "I want to find that one and only success Gu among these billions of rocks, how difficult is that, how long would it take me?"
She could barely move anymore, she felt that the future was shrouded in darkness, it was too difficult to find success Gu.
She almost wanted to give up, but she thought about her father who was trapped in life and death door.
"If I give up, who will save father?" Desolate Ancient Moon shuddered: "Oh no, I forgot to chant "me"."
Desolate Ancient Moon chanted again, getting rid of the despair in her heart, bending down to pick up another rock.
Once she held the fourth rock in her hand, Desolate Ancient Moon was shocked to find out that her nose had changed, it turned into a pig"s nose.
She chanted "me" once again, allowing her nose to recover.
Spending a lot of time, she exerted all her effort to get rid of the pig nose. But her nose was still slightly deformed compared to before.
Like this, Desolate Ancient Moon continued to pick up rocks, hoping to find that success Gu.
But days pa.s.sed, and all she found was failure Gu"s children.
Among these rocks, some made her injured, some made her dejected, despair, or fear, while some made her grow a pig head, rat"s tail, etc.
Despite Desolate Ancient Moon chanting "me" continuously, some of the scars still remained on her. As they acc.u.mulated, these scars turned her into a monster.
She grew six heads, three arms, five tails, and looked like a centaur. She had sixteen legs, and some of her legs had soft fur, some had snake-like scales, some had sharp claws, some had tough hooves.
In the search for success, people often transform and become completely different.
But Desolate Ancient Moon also became much stronger because of this.
After going through so much, she had become several hundred times as strong as before. These rocks could not longer trouble her.
"Success, oh success, where in the world are you?" Her seven mouths opened together. Some were screaming, some were shouting, some were whispering while others were growling.
The more she failed, the more she desired success in her heart.
After her great effort, the number of unpicked rocks became fewer and fewer.
Eventually, when there were only two rocks left, Desolate Ancient Moon was stuck between two difficult choices.
Undeniably, among these two rocks, one was success Gu, while the other was failure Gu.
If she obtains success Gu, that would be the best. But if she picked failure Gu, then Desolate Ancient Moon would become completely lost, she would be in danger of dying.
Even if Desolate Ancient Moon became a monster, becoming so much stronger.
One step to heaven, one step to h.e.l.l, what should she choose? Desolate Ancient Moon could not help but become hesitant.
"If I do not dare to take the next step for fear of failure, then I will never succeed! I am already so strong, success is a step away from me, even if I take failure Gu, as long as I chant "me", I should be able to endure it right?" Eventually, she mustered her courage and stretched out her palm, picking one of the rocks.
Unfortunately, she picked failure Gu.
An unforseen feeling of lost, self-doubt a.s.saulted her.
"Me, me, me…"
Desolate Ancient Moon continued to chant "me, but her voice became softer, as her seven mouths stopped moving eventually, her expression turning into a daze.
She had fallen into endless perplexity, she had completely lost herself.
The biggest tragedy for a human, is to lose your sense of self.
...
"Sigh…" After reading this, Fang Yuan sighed as he closed the book.
At once, his thoughts were drifting as he showed a very complicated expression.
It was still snowing outside the window, snowflakes were floating in the air.
As the ten year disaster approaches, the blizzard did not show signs of weakening, instead it was growing.
Northern Plains, end of December.
When Hei Lou Lan led the army and and arrived at the last minute, at Imperial Court blessed land"s entrance, the alliance had about half its members left.
A large number of mortals died on the way there.
In fact, many Gu Masters died from the attacks of beast groups.
The item to open the Imperial Court blessed land was on Hei Lou Lan.
When he stood up, a mild golden light shone in the air.
Immediately after, the golden light intensified, forming a light ring.
The light ring expanded, turning into a grand city gate.
On the gate, there were exquisite silvery flower patterns. Many fist-sized copper b.u.t.tons were plastered on the gate.
Boom…
There was like an invisible hand behind the door, pulling the heavy door open.
Immediately, the thick smell of sandalwood spread.
The snow in the air stopped moving. Under the influence of a mysterious power, the snow in the air gathered like bees, in an instant, a solid and magnificent ice ladder was created.
At the top of the ladder, it was connected to the floating Imperial Court gate. It extended all the way to the ground.
"Imperial Court blessed land!" Hei Lou Lan could not conceal his excitement, he took three steps as one step as he ascended the ice ladder, becoming the first person to enter the Imperial Court.
"Eighty-Eight True Yang Building…" Fang Yuan was the second person, his gaze became solemn as he took calm strides in.
After that, Tai Bai Yun Sheng, Hao Ji Liu and other high level experts went in.
About an hour later, the entire Hei tribe army had entered Imperial Court blessed land. The ice ladder broke apart, as the red city gate closed itself.
The light ring shrunk into one dot, and vanished.
"They have all entered." The Gu Immortals observed in secret retracted their helpless and nostalgic gazes.