Speaking of this, Gu Yuan said with a half-smile: "Elder Xiu, what do you think?"

Elder Xiu remained silent.

Because Gu Yuan’s words hit him right where it hurt the most.

At the beginning, he knew clearly that Gu Yuan would not spare him, so in despair and desperation, he no longer cared about anything.

With no fear of death, what would he be afraid of?

But now, Gu Yuan gave him a chance, a chance to survive, and this truly moved him.

Elder Xiu was no saint, and naturally, he feared death. Previously, knowing death was certain, he was unafraid.

But now, upon learning there was a chance to live, his determination wavered.

Moreover, he was eager to accept it.

As for Elder Chaotic Heaven, his master?

Elder Xiu knew well that, although Elder Chaotic Heaven was kind to him, he actually had other plans, with the intention of using him as a puppet.

If not for certain reasons, he would have succeeded long ago.

So, towards Elder Chaotic Heaven, he felt both awe and resentment.

Earlier, he simply thought it better to die than let Gu Yuan gain anything, so he wasn’t going to disclose any information.

But now that he had a chance to live, he had other thoughts.

"Fine, I agree with you."

Elder Xiu said decisively.

He had reached his current level of achievement because he was a figure of power, understanding the difficulty of indecision.

Besides, reaching such a level was no easy task for him; he’d experienced countless hardships and had no intention of dying just like that.

It was better to agree, since Elder Chaotic Heaven harbored ill intentions. If he could escape, relying on his cultivation divine techniques to find a good host for possession and continue cultivating, there might still be a chance to achieve Dao fruit longevity.

Hearing this, Gu Yuan smiled.

Next, the two of them swore an oath, and it was a blood oath, a vow made with one’s divine soul as paper and essence blood as ink.

This kind of blood oath was extremely binding. According to Gu Yuan, unless one achieved the primordial spirit, even the Yin God giants and Yang Spirit masters must adhere to their vows, otherwise, they’d face the consequence of annihilation.

It even had some influence over primordial spirit true immortals.

Nevertheless, primordial spirit true immortals have already forged a primordial spirit longevity Dao Fruit, making them true immortals rather than mere humans. Very few things in the world could trouble such individuals.

So, although the blood oath had some effect on primordial spirit true immortals, it was not very strong.

However, Gu Yuan was confident and did not believe that Elder Xiu would escape successfully.

Even if he did manage to escape, he’d likely have no chance to cultivate into a primordial spirit.

Therefore, for Gu Yuan, this blood oath was a strong and satisfactory contract.

And likewise for Elder Xiu.

After making the blood oath, Elder Xiu truly let go of his worries.

Gu Yuan then directly released Elder Xiu from his restraints.

Elder Xiu relaxed his body, and although he was now only a Yin Spirit, the Yin Spirit still possessed some characteristics of a physical body.

However, Elder Xiu had no intention of fleeing. He requested a jade scroll from Gu Yuan, then imprinted important information about Elder Chaotic Heaven onto it.

Afterwards, he tossed the jade scroll to Gu Yuan.

Gu Yuan received it and directed his divine thought into it.

Soon, he withdrew his divine thought, looking at Elder Xiu with some surprise: "So, it turns out Elder Chaotic Heaven, due to forcibly cultivating a forbidden divine technique, unexpectedly injured his Yang Spirit origin, which has ruined his chances of advancing to the primordial spirit stage."

"And not only that, due to the damaged origin, even his lifespan is running short. Therefore, he uses demon dao secret techniques to refine numerous avatars, hoping to use them as nourishment to restore his origin and further advance to the primordial spirit?"

"That’s correct. My master somehow obtained the technique of ’Eighteen Demon Dragons Hell Transformation,’ aiming to cultivate eighteen demon dragons and build a furnace of hell, to reforge his Yang Spirit."

Now, Elder Xiu felt no need to conceal anything, revealing the secrets he knew:

"The Zheng Xingkong you previously killed was one of the incarnations he prepared. Even I caught his attention. If not for my insufficient cultivation and him having other plans, I would have already been refined into a hell demon dragon."

So that’s how it is...

Gu Yuan understood the reason why Zheng Xingkong was used by Elder Chaotic Heaven as an avatar.

He also understood why Elder Xiu agreed to his terms. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The desire to survive was a major reason, and another was that Elder Chaotic Heaven harbored ill intentions towards him, so Elder Xiu saw no reason to keep secrets for him.

However, from the information provided by Elder Xiu, Gu Yuan detected an opportunity, or rather, a weakness of Elder Chaotic Heaven.

If he plotted carefully, he might be able to kill him.

"Elder Xiu, you can leave now."

Gu Yuan looked at Elder Xiu and said, "According to our agreement, I give you one hour. During this time, I won’t follow you or try to kill you. After some time, I will begin my pursuit. If you can escape, I will refrain from attacking. If you die by my hands, it’s just your bad luck."

"Alright."

Responding to this, Elder Xiu did not say much, immediately turning around to leave. His half-foot tall body turned into an escape light and passed through the rock wall, leaving the temporary cave mansion.

Meanwhile, Gu Yuan did as he promised, remaining seated in place, unmoved and indifferent to Elder Xiu’s departure.

Yet, his avatar moved.

Even though Elder Xiu used every method at his disposal, first concealing his form and aura, then fully utilizing his escape technique, he was after all only a Yin Spirit, revealing a trace.

Gu Yuan’s avatar followed this trace closely, soon discovering his whereabouts.

About half an hour later, the avatar returned, appearing in Gu Yuan’s cave mansion, and handed him a broken golden mace.

This was Elder Xiu’s lifebound magical treasure, but it was heavily damaged now.

With the golden mace here, it was evident what fate befell Elder Xiu.

It wasn’t that Gu Yuan violated the blood oath, but rather, there had been a loophole from the start — Gu Yuan himself couldn’t act within the hour, but nothing was said about his avatar not being able to act.

Thus, Elder Xiu was doomed.

Gu Yuan felt no guilt over this. Elder Xiu was not a good person, and they had a deep feud; for instance, Gu Yuan’s friend Zhang Kai suffered due to Elder Xiu, whom Gu Yuan wouldn’t easily forgive.

At least now, he extracted key information about Elder Chaotic Heaven from Elder Xiu, which was a significant gain.