Liu Nan had returned to the ancient grotto-heaven belonging to Red Lotus Demonic Venerable and was patiently waiting for events to unfold. He was observing the River of Time. The River of Time was a mystical secluded domain of Heaven and Earth that had existed since the Gu World's creation. Past, present, and future - all could be divined by peering into its waters if one had the required skillset.
This was a segment of the River of Time that had been placed here by Red Lotus Immortal Venerable himself. This segment was extremely safe to be around. No Year Beasts would intrude upon this segment and Time Path gu worms could be harvested with great ease. Ordinarily the surface of this tributary was as smooth and unblemished as glass, save for tiny ripples or an eddy current here and there.
But then, all of a sudden, there was a massive disturbance. The waters of the River of Time suddenly became turbulent, frothy foam rising from the surface as water droplets crashed against one another in a crazed chaotic cerulean cascade. This was not an insignificant observation - it signaled a massive change in the timeline which had huge ripple effects throughout the entire River of Time!
Slowly but surely, the waters began to calm down. Fate Gu controlled the timeline, and even in its damaged state, it was able to eventually soothe the waters until they resumed their gentle lamellar flow.
"It is time," Liu Nan muttered to himself, this disturbance being the exact signal he had been waiting for.
Walking down the massive stone steps leading away from the grand dais that overlooked the River of Time, Liu Nan turned to a man sitting at the base of the staircase.
The man had long silvery hair and deep, icy-blue eyes. He was quietly sipping fresh water from a flask - preferring clean spring water over wine. Hearing movement, this man turned his frigid gaze toward Liu Nan.
This man was none other than Bai Ning Bing.
Bai Ning Bing was currently utilizing a specialized time path technique created by Red Lotus Demonic Venerable - it used a Rank 5 gu worm known as Timeless Body. It allowed a Gu Master to lock their physical form into a fixed state from their past.
Despite being named 'Timeless Body', it did not actually extend one's natural lifespan by even one second. A person would still die when their lifespan ran out. But they could maintain the peak of their physique throughout this time. For example, a man might die at the age of one hundred, but they could retain the physical appearance and strength of their twenty-year-old self until their dying breath.
This technique was not without significant drawbacks. Healing oneself became considerably more difficult, the user lost their fertility while it was in use, and several other subtle side effects took hold. It would not, for example, get rid of the Poison Vow Gu's dao marks - but Liu Nan had taken care of that long ago.
Furthermore, it did not resolve the root cause of Bai Ning Bing's condition.
While Bai Ning Bing now had the same body he possessed right before the Yin Rotation Gu was used on him, if he stopped using primeval essence to power the gu worm he would revert back to being a woman.
Worse still, if he ever underwent Immortal Ascension, the effect of Timeless Body would instantly shatter and he would end up back as a woman.
There were other methods, such as Liu Nan handing her pills filled with masculinizing energy that could transform her female body into a more masculine one, but this would not truly make Bai Ning Bing a male again.
But that wasn't why Liu Nan was here.
Liu Nan activated several investigative methods to inspect Bai Ning Bing's luck.
"So, the disturbance in the River of Time was not just a fluke or coincidence. It has finally happened," Liu Nan remarked.
"What exactly has happened?" Bai Ning Bing asked, his voice cold and even.
Liu Nan briefly recounted the chaotic climax that had just unfolded inside the Hu Immortal Blessed Land.
"You mean to tell me..." Bai Ning Bing's eyes widened slightly as he processed the news. "Fang Yuan has already become a Venerable? Why didn't you stop him?!"
"It was inevitable that sooner or later; he would succeed in this even if we tried to delay him. He has a profound method and would only need for the time to be appropriate. There was no way to stop this outcome short of killing Fang Yuan," Liu Nan shook his head. "And he has stolen the fate of becoming a Venerable, he has not become one yet. That is something entirely different. What Fang Yuan hasn't yet realized is that such a monumental action comes with several immediate, unintended side effects."
"What kind of side effects?" Bai Ning Bing asked. He still didn't fully understand why they had brought him to Red Lotus's grotto-heaven in the first place, but Liu Nan was finally laying out what was going on.
"You see," Liu Nan explained smoothly, "every fated Venerable throughout history has had either a primary rival or a guiding mentor - someone intimately tied to their growth who pushes them along their path. That person is known as their Dao Guardian. Fang Yuan stole Feng Jin Huang's fate to become the Great Dream Immortal Venerable and claimed it for himself. Because of that, Fate Gu must now acknowledge him as the future Great Dream Venerable. But by that same fundamental cosmic law, just like every Venerable before him, he must now have a Dao Guardian. And that Dao Guardian... is you, Bai Ning Bing. You are now Heaven's designated counter to Fang Yuan."
"Me? Why me?" Bai Ning Bing frowned, suspicious.
"Heaven is limited in how it can act - it is bound by its own rigid rules," Liu Nan explained. "You, Bai Ning Bing, are what is known as a fate escapee. You were supposed to die on Qing Mao Mountain, but Fang Yuan pulled you back from the grave using Yin Rotation Gu. That violated the laws of Heaven; every person's life is subject to Fate Gu from birth until death. Because you died and came back, you no longer had a designated destiny other than to die. Heaven's Will cannot simply point at a random person and declare them a Dao Guardian out of nowhere. That would violate Fate's own rules in that a person's Fate is something which is definitively set at birth. But it can weave a brand new fate for someone who has escaped the original script." Liu Nan paused, letting the weight of the revelation sink in. "That said, you were not the only candidate Heaven's Will evaluated."
"Who else?" Bai Ning Bing asked.
"Gu Yue Fang Zheng," Liu Nan replied with a dry chuckle. "Red Lotus Immortal Venerable foresaw all of this through the River of Time long ago. Wisdom Path Gu Immortals can try to mimic this ability, but no one amongst the Venerables - not even Star Constellation can match his foresight; for the River of Time is his own domain. He saw that Heaven's Will would have two potential candidates before it. Fang Zheng was originally engineered by Heaven's Will specifically to restrict Fang Yuan. However, in this timeline, Fang Yuan has exerted absolute control over his brother by manipulating Fang Zheng's emotions, including his dislike towards women. Fang Zheng is essentially Fang Yuan's obedient dog now, doing whatever his master commands. Given that Fang Yuan has just committed an act that defies the supreme laws of heaven, Heaven's Will would never select someone who is that compromised. It chose the candidate it believes possesses the ruthlessness, the will, and the methods to actually deal with Fang Yuan."
"But before that, we needed to make Heaven's Will aware of what Fang Yuan would do," Liu Nan said, smiling. "And so we did - by preventing him from reverse-refining the Spring Autumn Cicada, Fang Yuan was forced to reveal this plot to Heaven's Will before he embarked on it. He succeeded, but he didn't succeed in deceiving Heaven's Will like he would have otherwise. Now, Heaven's Will is alerted to what he did, and acted accordingly, influencing which potential Dao Guardian Fate Gu chose. Otherwise, Fate Gu may have chosen at random, or have simply chosen Fang Zheng. But by giving Heaven's Will this piece of information we were able to avoid that kind of outcome!"
The Embodiment of Humanity's Collective Will predicted all of this and had taken measure to get Fang Yuan and Fang Zheng to get along; and to great success (though likely not in the way that it had expected). Regarding Bai Ning Bing, it had tried the same thing, but Fang Yuan was simply not compatible enough with his 'wife' and things had fallen apart on that end.
Liu Nan looked Bai Ning Bing up and down. "And so it chose you. You were supposed to die, but you now have a new fate now as Fang Yuan's Dao Guardian. I can see it in how your luck has changed - before it was in the form of a polar bear skating on thin ice. Now, it is a white dragon coated in a radiant aurora borealis shining in all colors of the rainbow and ascending to Heaven."
"You can see my luck?" Bai Ning Bing asked. "You have Luck Path methods?"
"Indeed. Giant Sun Immortal Venerable and Red Lotus Immortal Venerable have cooperated in the past and continue to do so. What this means is that now your destinies are inextricably intertwined once more, meaning your paths will inevitably cross again. You still intend to retrieve the Yang Rotation Gu from Fang Yuan, don't you? You will definitely get a chance. We need Fang Yuan's help to destroy Fate Gu - but think, if Fang Yuan is guaranteed to become the Great Dream Demonic Venerable, would he go against Fate Gu? Of course not!" Liu Nan said.
Bai Ning Bing snorted coldly, his icy gaze drifting down toward his aperture and the Rank 5 Timeless Body Gu. If he wanted to contend with Fang Yuan, he had to become an Immortal. In a game of Venerables, what could he hope to do as a mortal?
But to do that, he had to accept becoming a woman again, and moreover, he would need to refine the Yang Rotation Gu that Fang Yuan had into an Immortal Gu in the future to go back to the way he was.
It would not be easy. But a part of him relished the challenge itself.
That was what he lived for!