Fang Yuan walked along as this Rank 5 Gu Master, unable to do anything until he reached a dune. There must've been something special about this dune, even though Fang Yuan could not for the life of him guess what that was, because the Gu Master stopped as if expecting something to happen.
From the sands, the form of an elderly man appeared, who radiated a Rank 6 aura. The Gu Master whom Fang Yuan was playing as bowed deeply to this man.
"Very good- that is the first test of your intelligence out of the way," the man said. "It seems that you are truly ready for your immortal ascension."
The gap between Rank 5 and Rank 6 was immense- it was the gap between a mortal Gu Master an an immortal Gu Master. The reason for this was that once a gu master became an immortal, their aperture was instead turned into a miniature world and their primeval essence was converted into immortal essence- a bead of which provided practically limitless primeval essence for the use of mortal gu.
Of course, the process of ascension was quite difficult, even more so if one did not have someone guiding them. Fang Yuan did not when he had ascended, so he had ample experience about the issues one would face while doing so.
"Shall we begin, Father?" the mortal Gu Master asked. So it appeared that these two were father and son- then it made sense as to why the father was so readily helping the son.
"Begin," the Immortal Gu Master said.
Fang Yuan was now in control of this mortal Gu Master's body, and began the first step, which was the shatter the crystalline walls of the Rank 5 Peak Stage aperture. This would completely destroy it, and once this step was done it was irreversible. There was no going back now- either he would ascend to Rank 6 or he would die.
With this, his body began to ascend into the sky as heaven and earth qi began to rush in. It was here that there was a crucial step which the Gu Master had to do on their own and could not rely on outside help- though extensive practice would help.
Their own human qi had to be balanced against the heaven and earth qi. If any of them were in excess of each other, the ascension would fail and they would die. However, during this time they would be able to take advantage of heavenly inspiration- it was said that Heaven knew all, and so for a brief period of time one could gain insights into things like gu recipes and the like during their ascension. Given that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many, one could not squander such and had to make sure to utilize it fully, oftentimes preparing one's questions in advance.
While heaven and earth qi were abundant, human qi was generated from one's own experience. Based on the amount of human qi that this man had, Fang Yuan could guess that he likely only had a few decade's worth of experience and would only get a low or medium quality blessed land.
"Good, good!" the man's father shouted, watching Fang Yuan expertly balance all three qi. The next step was for Fang Yuan to take his gu worms, first being his vital gu, and place it within the fusion of the three qi. The nature of the vital gu would determine the nature of the blessed land one would receive.
Of course, there was an added difficulty to this in the form of an earthly calamity and heavenly tribulation.
The earthly calamity soon emerged as from beneath the desert, a large worm ten times the size of a subway train back on Earth erupted.
Earthly calamity- Desolate Beast Giant Sandworm!
It was here that external help could be provided, as before Fang Yuan turned his attention to the earthly calamity it had already been burst into pieces by this man's father. He had used a gu that manifested in the form of several hundred thousand fiery wisps that rained down upon the Giant Sandworm. Based on the mode of attack, Fang Yuan had likely been correct- this was a Wisdom Path Gu Immortal, and his son was also a Wisdom Path Gu Master.
Next, was the heavenly tribulation. The sky darkened as a the winds howled and raged around them.
Heavenly tribulation- Desert Cyclone!
In response to this, the man's father release several hundred thousand ruby-red orbs, which were likely thoughts though these were designed to be defensive rather than offensive, which formed a wall around the duo as the winds raged on. At multiple points in time it felt like the wall was going to break, but more thoughts went from the Immortal's mind to plug in those gaps.
Eventually the winds subsided. It was at this point that, if there was more heaven and earth qi left, Rank 5 gu worms could be refined into Immortal Gu with somewhat ease, though this part of the dream ended before Fang Yuan could reach that step.
Some time had passed as Fang Yuan looked upon a slightly older version of this man's father, whow as now emitting a Rank 7 aura. They were back in that same dune that he had underwent his ascension in.
"Do you remember this place?" his father asked.
"Yes, father," the man replied. Fang Yuan had once again lost control of this man's body and could only watch on. He could still sense what gu worms this man had- he was at Rank 6 and had one immortal gu whose function Fang Yuan was unaware of.
"This is where you underwent your immortal ascenscion, and so did I," the father answered. He then sighed, a forlorn look upon his face. "My son, there is an important reason that I have brought you here." The father took out two gu worms from his aperture and handed them to his son. "Take these."
Both of them were Rank 6 gu worms- meaning these were likely the highest ranked gu worms that this man had. At Rank 5 and beyond, most Gu Masters only had gu worms of a rank beneath them.
"Father, why are you giving me these?" the man asked in a shocked voice.
"Because, my time has come," the man's father said.
"What are you talking about? You're still young and have many decades ahead of you."
"Child, you have only embarked upon the path of a Wisdom Gu Immortal- and have yet to understand the immensity of heaven and earth. Your father has been able to see but a slice of what is to come, and even that has chilled me to the bone," his father said and then looked at him with a sad look. "There is something that I have never told you- or anyone in our clan for that matter. I am not originally from this world."
"Not originally from this world?"
"It is hard to understand," the man responded. "But I came from a country known as 'England' where I had been but a normal shoemaker. We had things similar to iron sandworms that spat out steam and ran on coal and many other such wonders that you would not easily understand. Gu Masters were not a concept back in that world, and yet, one day, while walking down the street I suddenly found myself in the body of a four-year-old of this world. In other words, I am what is called an Otherworldly Demon. A traveler from another realm."
"I started to cultivate, as that was expected of me, even becoming a Gu Immortal in the process," the man's father continued. "But the deeper I delved into the Wisdom Path, the more I came upon an uncomfortable truth of this world- it is completely deterministic. In other words, fate- Fate Gu-"
"-the same Fate Gu from 'The Legends of Ren Zu?'" The man did not know what 'Ing-Lond' was, so he latched onto the one thing he did recognize in his father's speech.
"Precisely, it governs this world, and none can escape it," the father said. "However, that also means that because fate is fixed, one with enough ability can peer into the future, much as Star Constellation Immortal Venerable could do. And what I saw in the future greatly saddened me- because I am fated to be the cause of your death in the future!"