Chapter 20 – The Future Venerable?
Fang Yuan stared at Li Tianyu.
His gaze was calm.
Yet beneath that calmness...
There was a faint pressure.
"Why do you possess a body capable of supporting non-conflicting Dao marks?"
His voice carried an unmistakable hint of threat.
Li Tianyu didn't care.
To him...
It was merely empty intimidation.
Fang Yuan knew that as well.
Neither of them had any intention of truly fighting to the death here.
Li Tianyu had always kept several Rank Three expendable Gu hidden within his aperture.
They were his emergency trump cards.
Although his current cultivation was only Rank One...
Expendable Gu had extremely low activation requirements compared to ordinary Gu worms of the same rank.
Combined with his terrifying primeval essence recovery...
He could barely satisfy the activation requirements of certain Rank Three expendable Gu.
Some of them could even threaten a Rank Four Gu Master if used at the right moment.
That was precisely why Li Tianyu had deliberately collected them.
They were his insurance.
His means of ensuring that even a Rank Four Gu Master couldn't casually decide his fate.
Therefore...
Fang Yuan's threat didn't frighten him.
Li Tianyu calmly replied,
"What about it?"
"I created a Gu that allows me to possess such an ability."
Fang Yuan's eyes narrowed.
He remained silent for several breaths.
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Li Tianyu's answer wasn't particularly unbelievable.
The Gu World was vast.
There were countless Gu worms.
And throughout history, countless geniuses had created Gu worms with similar abilities.
Different recipes.
Different mechanisms.
Different limitations.
The same fundamental effect could appear through completely different methods.
If Li Tianyu truly possessed an extraordinary attainment...
It wasn't impossible for him to create such a Gu.
Fang Yuan finally spoke again.
"Did you create those killer moves as well?"
Li Tianyu nodded.
"Yes."
"Everything was my creation."
Technically...
That wasn't a lie.
The Rank Two Burning Ember Gu—or rather, its former Rank One form, Ember Spark Gu—had been responsible for the actual deductions.
But the ideas had ultimately come from him.
From that perspective...
They were indeed his creations.
Since fang yuan possessed a truth detection type Gu, and since what li tianyu said was true.
Fang Yuan's expression changed slightly.
He had expected another answer.
He possessed a Truth Detection type Gu.
The moment Li Tianyu spoke...
It had reacted.
There was no lie.
That answer was completely different from what Fang Yuan had expected.
A fortuitous encounter.
An ancient inheritance.
Perhaps the legacy of some mysterious Gu Immortal.
Anything...
Except this.
"You created all of them?"
"How?"
There was genuine curiosity in Fang Yuan's voice this time.
Li Tianyu looked at him as though the question itself was strange.
"What do you mean, how?"
"If you can create a Gu with conflicting and non-conflicting Dao marks..."
"Why can't I?"
Fang Yuan fell silent.
Why couldn't he?
Indeed.
There was no reason.
The Gu World had never lacked geniuses.
Throughout history, countless astonishing talents had appeared.
Some had created entirely new paths.
Some had invented Immortal Gu.
Some had developed killer moves that shook the world.
Some had even become Venerables.
But...
This talent was still absurd.
A Rank One Gu Master...
Creating a Gu capable of allowing the simultaneous use of conflicting paths.
Creating multiple compound killer moves.
And using Fire Path methods to imitate the effects of other paths.
Even Fang Yuan couldn't help but feel a little amazed.
'The Gu World truly is filled with geniuses.'
Fang Yuan had once stood at the peak of the Gu World.
He had become a Venerable.
He had believed that he had already witnessed the limits of what a Gu Master could achieve.
Yet after returning to the beginning...
He had encountered someone as absurd as Li Tianyu.
Fang Yuan's eyes gradually became deeper.
A thought suddenly emerged within his mind.
'Could he be...'
'The future Venerable of this era?'
The thought appeared suddenly.
But once it appeared...
It refused to disappear.
Fang Yuan carefully examined Li Tianyu.
During their previous exchange...
Li Tianyu had used Fire Path methods to imitate the effects of several different paths.
Attack.
Defense.
Movement.
Investigation.
Healing.
Even theft.
All of them had been accomplished through an astonishingly unified system.
His fighting style wasn't simply powerful.
It possessed...
Potential.
The potential to continue developing.
The potential to create something entirely new.
And that was precisely what a future Venerable required.
A Venerable couldn't simply be strong.
They needed an unprecedented level of talent and potential.
They needed the ability to forge their own path through an era.
Li Tianyu...
Possessed such potential.
But Fang Yuan didn't stop there.
He had already used his own methods to investigate Li Tianyu's true soul age.
Only a few decades old.
Far too young.
Furthermore...
He could clearly sense something else.
Li Tianyu was an Otherworldly Demon.
That discovery made Fang Yuan even more certain.
Could Li Tianyu be another reborn Venerable?
Fang Yuan immediately rejected the possibility.
He had lived through an entire lifetime.
He understood the pride of Venerables better than almost anyone.
A Venerable possessed an arrogance that ordinary Gu Masters could never understand.
If another Venerable had truly been reborn...
There would be no reason for them to hide behind such an elaborate performance.
They had no need to pretend to be a young genius while carefully imitating the behavior of an ordinary Rank One Gu Master.
Nor would they need to deliberately create such a strange fighting style.
A Venerable had their own path.
Their own methods.
Their own pride.
They would not stoop to acting out an elaborate play merely to deceive another reborn Venerable.
Therefore...
Fang Yuan was nearly ninety percent certain.
Li Tianyu wasn't another reborn Venerable.
Then...
There was only one possibility left.
He was a genuine genius born in this era.
Perhaps...
The future Venerable chosen by Destiny Gu.
Fang Yuan's eyes narrowed.
'Interesting.'
'If that's truly the case...'
His expression remained calm.
But his thoughts were already racing.
There was no answer yet.
But Fang Yuan had already changed his assessment of Li Tianyu.
He was no longer looking at him as merely a strange Rank One Gu Master.
He was looking at him as...
A possible future Venerable.
And that alone...
Was enough to make Li Tianyu's existence extremely important.