Fang Yuan and Giant Sun Immortal Venerable stood under the ongoing rain. Fang Yuan was the first to speak.

  “…Have you considered using this rain, venerable?”

  Giant Sun glanced at him, then at the rain, alternating between the two, waiting to hear Fang Yuan’s plan.

  Meanwhile, Spectral Soul spoke to Star Constellation Immortal Venerable.

  “Even amid such a convoluted battle, I’m ignored once again.”

  Star Constellation replied, “That’s precisely why you disrupted the fight by flinging them away. It would’ve been better if you had remained silent.”

  Then added, “Your sealing is now nearly impossible. You should just leave.”

  Spectral Soul gave a slightly twisted expression, somewhat displeased by her tone, and muttered as if to himself, “Acting in such a hurry… even when you can predict everything.”

  Star Constellation ignored the remark. She intended to use Prediction Gu again to foresee Fang Yuan’s actions, but hesitated. She figured Fang Yuan would have already anticipated her using the Gu here. Then again, what if he expected she would hesitate and instead anticipated her not using it at all? This dilemma circled her mind. She ultimately chose to rely not on prediction, but on her instincts and intellect.

  On the other side, Fang Yuan reasoned that Star Constellation would prioritize reacting to their current situation rather than using her prediction, so he told Giant Sun that as long as Star Constellation couldn't comprehend their current situation, they could win easily.

  Spectral Soul, watching Star Constellation, eventually decided he needed to take action of his own and scattered elsewhere. However, Star Constellation had already deployed Surveillance Gu to keep an eye on Giant Sun and Spectral Soul from another angle. Unluckily for her, Fang Yuan was the only one who avoided her gaze—thanks to the residual effects of the fortune aura Giant Sun had infused into him.

  Fang Yuan told Giant Sun, “Don’t do anything that reveals our situation. Just pull out the Gu from your pouch and activate them—don’t even move your lips.”

  Then, with a grin that was hard to distinguish between genuine or calculated, Fang Yuan quietly thought of a new idea to highlight himself.

  He considered that facing the Fate System now would be a loss, and so decided to target Spectral Soul first. This marked the beginning of his new plan. Giant Sun had no choice but to trust him and tried to read Fang Yuan’s words solely from the movement of his lips. But Fang Yuan, anticipating that he might be misunderstood, had already activated Mind Reading Gu in advance.

  At this point, Star Constellation had narrowed Fang Yuan’s possible routes to three using Surveillance Gu: the Fate System area and two others, based on her experience and understanding of Fang Yuan’s tendencies. However, Fang Yuan anticipated that she would assume he’d target the Fate System first—so instead, he went straight to where she was.

  As Star Constellation was about to leave for another place, she saw Fang Yuan’s silhouette in the distance. She frowned momentarily in surprise, then confirmed it was him. She immediately laid ancient Gu insects in preparation for a surprise attack.

  But Fang Yuan launched a stun Gu in the shape of a giant bird toward her, riding it with an Area Expansion Gu. Star Constellation swapped places with the approaching Fang Yuan using Position Swap Gu, but the one she hit was merely a clone, causing only an explosion. She tried to link the clone with the real Fang Yuan using Clone Link Gu to harm him, but Fang Yuan had already shielded himself with a high-grade Defense Gu—because, to him, there was no reason why she wouldn’t try exactly that.

  Star Constellation, attempting to escape the forest, mounted the bird called ???? (Unjomengsan) and ascended into the sky, activating Wind Resistance Gu.

  Fang Yuan assumed she would choose one of three major exit routes—sky, ground, or underground. He had already sent clones using Clone Gu to the underground and sky paths and left the ground path empty, making the clones appear to do trivial motions to mimic himself. Giant Sun, boosting the probability of discovery, guided Star Constellation to spot the clone atop ???? (Unjomengsan).

  Star Constellation, curious about Giant Sun’s moves, confirmed the identity using Identification Gu. Fang Yuan, watching from afar, immediately switched places using Substitution Gu when the signal from the Identification Gu activated. He followed with Mist Gu to obscure her vision, then launched a Chain Explosion Gu using Impact Gu. ???? (Unjomengsan) blocked it with its talons but triggered a chain reaction.

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  To counter, Star Constellation enhanced ????’s healing with a high-grade Recovery Gu. Just then, Spectral Soul attacked from below using Soul Gu, dragging Fang Yuan, Star Constellation, and the bird back to the ground. Fang Yuan used Substitution Gu again to swap with Spectral Soul, but the latter landed safely using Defense Gu. ???? (Unjomengsan), unable to regenerate its legs in time, suffered critical damage upon crashing. Star Constellation survived with minor damage.

  Fang Yuan quickly approached the rising Star Constellation and used Flash Gu to blind her like a flash grenade. She raised a Barrier Gu to block her front, but Fang Yuan drove a long white spear through it—Weapon Gu. He didn’t stop there, emitting more blinding light. Star Constellation tried to swap places with him again, but Activation Seal Gu prevented it.

  Spectral Soul attacked from behind using Soul Shock Gu. Fang Yuan partially absorbed the impact with Inner Shock Absorption Gu. Star Constellation, temporarily blinded, backed off. Fang Yuan whistled—a signal for Giant Sun to infuse fortune aura into Star Constellation. She, unable to grasp his intent, was already cautious just from hearing the whistle. To regain vision, she recalled her Surveillance Gu to substitute for her eyesight and assess the battlefield.

  Feeling it was finally safe, she activated Prediction Gu from Fang Yuan’s blind spot. She foresaw that Fang Yuan’s next move was to unleash the powerful Ancient-High Soul Destruction Gu on her. She immediately activated Activation Block Gu and Reflection Gu to counter him. However, no such attack came. Instead, she was struck by a Stun Gu combined with a Heavy Impact Gu, thrown far and nearly unconscious. Though her prediction wasn’t incorrect, Giant Sun had already—at Fang Yuan’s command—destroyed the Fate System. She had not predicted fate itself, only a misleading path. Fang Yuan now appeared before her with a Teleportation Gu and used the Ancient-High Soul Destruction Gu.

  Spectral Soul ignored Fang Yuan and tried to eliminate Star Constellation himself, but Fang Yuan teleported him away with a high-grade Teleportation Gu. Fang Yuan paralyzed the near-dead Star Constellation with Paralysis Gu and said:

  “You weren’t born of fate. You never asked for a name, never wanted to live in a world like this, never even desired these abilities. Yet, you tried to see fate. What a contradiction.

  Your vision of fate was already misaligned from the moment you were born.”

  Star Constellation, overtaken with anxiety and the sense that she had lost her best possible outcome, felt the collapse of her composure. Fang Yuan left her to burn with Flame Gu, incapacitated and unmoving, and turned his back, saying:

  “If the Fate System is broken, there’s no true prediction, only scenarios.

  You should’ve focused on reading paths, not outcomes, Star.”

  To restore the Fate System, Fang Yuan had to consume an Immortal Gu to forge an Ancient-High General Restoration Gu. After doing so, he approached Giant Sun—only to find him nearly overwhelmed by Spectral Soul, who now sought to seize the Fate System.

  Fang Yuan now viewed Spectral Soul not just as a nuisance, but as an interfering fool. He cast Soul Manipulation Block Gu and sent a High-Grade Anti-Immortality Gu at him. From that moment, Spectral Soul was bound to a lifespan and further accelerated its end using High-Grade Lifespan Gu, reducing his remaining time to mere minutes. Bewildered by a Gu he had neither seen nor prepared for, he realized his time was running out.

  Fang Yuan used Ancient Time Gu to advance time and cause Spectral Soul’s natural death. Spectral Soul tried to anchor his soul with Soul Suppression Gu to survive. After being kicked hard by Fang Yuan, his defenses faltered, and he lashed out with High-Grade Soul Ignition Gu, knocking out Giant Sun and briefly hindering Fang Yuan. Fang Yuan, deducing that neutralizing the suppression was key, tried to disable it with Activation Block Gu. Spectral Soul countered with High-Grade Forced Activation Gu—now both powers clashed.

  Gradually regaining power through soul resistance, Spectral Soul pulled Fang Yuan into a pure soul realm. There, Fang Yuan faced all those he had slain. But he dismissed them as worthless, attempting to escape using Dimensional Transfer Gu. In that realm, he even saw Star Constellation and many others, realizing vaguely that the dead were somehow still "alive." However, those slain via soul destruction did not appear at all.

  Escaping the soul realm, Fang Yuan found that Spectral Soul had already absorbed the Fate System, rewriting Fang Yuan’s fate toward annihilation. Doubting how he even managed to absorb it, Fang Yuan began losing ground. Using Immortal Gu, he activated High-Grade Regression Gu and rewound time by one year.

  However, Star Constellation, Spectral Soul, and others all retained their memories—making it practically a resurrection rather than a reset. Though he restored his resources, the retention of enemy memory was a loss in itself, and he suffered an indirect defeat.

  Because the Fate System had already been shattered in the future, even after rewinding time, predictions remained unstable. The world itself had shifted: some people now carried items he didn't recognize, and both the living and dead from that era had seemingly returned.

  Fang Yuan had underestimated Spectral Soul for a moment—that was the true cause of defeat. He avoided low-probability plans due to Gu consumption concerns, but that too proved fatal.

  He thought to himself:

  “If the world has changed, so has the path of freedom.

  But shortcuts exist on every road, and I can create them.

  …Though, in the end, it wasn’t the world that changed—I’m the one who changed it.

  after thar, fang yuan was feeling lost and winning, it’s was wild.