The Devil King? No, Please Call Me The Immortal King Xiaoyao.

Although the Yellow Dragon River is vast, stretching over eight thousand kilometers, the travelers along it have specific destinations, rather than traversing its entire length.

On top of the Devouring River Toad's head, One Heart focused intently on the map in his hand, constantly gazing into the distance. Through continuous comparisons, the man and toad slowly moved to the riverbank.

One Heart lifted his foot and leaped from the Devouring River Toad's head. The Devouring River Toad followed closely behind, shaking its head, unable to understand why One Heart had stopped here.

"Croak～"

One Heart gently patted the Devouring River Toad's lowered head and softly said, "We've arrived."

"Croak?"

One Heart smiled slightly, lifted his leg, and walked forward. He didn't turn back, but his voice slowly drifted over, "This is White Bone Mountain. Keep up, Qingzhan."

Upon hearing One Heart call its name, the Devouring River Toad happily hopped along, following him.

"Croak!"

Meanwhile, over a thousand kilometers away on another riverbank, two figures were chasing each other. They appeared to be two boys.

Oh no, one of them seemed to be a girl.

"Fang Yuan, give me back the Yang Gu!"

"Hmph, Bai Ningbing, is this how you treat your benefactor?"

"Beast, Fang Yuan, you beast! You're even more deserving of death than Gu Yue Yixin, that long-dead scoundrel!"

"Achoo!"

One Heart sneezed unexpectedly while walking.

This action immediately drew the Devouring River Toad's attention.

"Croak, croak!" (Are you sick? (≖╻≖;)

One Heart also touched the tip of his nose, feeling somewhat embarrassed. "Probably not. I am a Rank 3 Gu Master, after all. I shouldn't be so fragile, right? Maybe it's just the river wind being strong, causing a slight chill."

But this explanation didn't convince the Devouring River Toad. Instead, it happily patted its belly, excitedly croaking, as if mocking One Heart's weakness.

One Heart could only helplessly rub its belly, coaxing it, "Alright, alright, King Qingzhan is the most powerful. Even raging waves can't move you, unlike me, a small fry who needs your protection."

A bit of "toad-flattery" proved effective. The Devouring River Toad immediately stopped mocking him and instead rubbed its smooth head against One Heart's face, comforting him.

One Heart smiled and patted its broad forehead. To One Heart, it was his first and most intimate friend.

Speaking of which, the Devouring River Toad had been with One Heart for a year now.

He remembered the day he met it. He had just been promoted to Rank 3 for less than half a month. At that time, although he had the title of Young Clan Leader, some people within the clan were unconvinced, and some even publicly questioned him.

Despite being called Young Clan Leader, he didn't actually have much real power. Many elders still treated him like a child, not even bothering to seek his opinion, and excessively arranged forced marriages for him.

During that time, he was both happy, depressed, and worried. Although his initial Rank 3 strength was among the best in the Gu Yue clan, it was still not enough when placed in the entire Qing Mao Mountain, and the dangers that lay ahead.

Finally, with great anticipation, the Devouring River Toad arrived at Qing Mao Mountain.

One Heart greatly admired this gentle and powerful Rank 5 Gu worm from the original story. He hoped that he could become friends with it like in the legends.

Of course, the result was wonderful. With the help of Lin Jianxian, the Devouring River Toad accepted One Heart and followed him back to Gu Yue Village, not only legitimizing his position as Young Clan Leader, granting him management rights over the back mountain, but also playing a crucial role in his subsequent plans.

Without it, One Heart would never have been able to single-handedly slay the thousand-beast horde, obtain a large amount of war merit, thereby deterring the alliance, taking the caravan's fire essence, faking his Ten Extreme Physique explosion, and prematurely drawing out Gu Yue Yi and Heavenly Crane.

Afterward, it even helped him cross the Yellow Dragon River, arriving at White Bone Mountain half a month earlier than Fang Yuan. It could be said that without the Devouring River Toad, his plan would not have been so easily realized.

Its importance to One Heart was no less than that of Lin Jianxian, who had transformed into Gu Yue Qingyao. For this reason, One Heart had even given it a name: Qingzhan, meaning clear and blue water, which was the Devouring River Toad's most coveted residence.

Now that the plan was successful, he had successfully faked his death, escaped Qing Mao Mountain, and even taken the most precious Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus from the Flower Wine Secret Chamber, and, under the guise of breaking through to Rank 4, obtained all the Rank 3 to Rank 5 Gu recipes from the Gu Yue clan.

In fact, looking back at the various aspects of this plan, One Heart couldn't help but sigh at the great pains he had taken to escape Qing Mao Mountain.

First and foremost, the most important thing was the Immortal Gu Lin Jianxian, which suppressed the drawbacks of the Ten Extreme Physique. Without her, none of this would have been possible. After all, with the number and frequency of his true essence surges, he might have exploded when breaking through to Rank 3.

And Gu Yue Qingyao, who sacrificed herself to help him obtain the Immortal Gu, One Heart was determined to revive her and give her a free and beautiful life.

Then, there was the Devouring River Toad, who had made great contributions to the plan. One Heart did not refine it, partly because he couldn't do it now, and partly because he would never do so. After all, refining it would wear away its will.

For it, One Heart planned to let it reside within his immortal aperture after he ascended to immortality, which would both avoid being arrested and provide it with a comfortable and long-lasting residence.

Then, there were the various means he had arranged to achieve his goals.

First, the most important thing was the caravan.

The caravan? Why the caravan, and when did this happen?

To ask him why he had contact with the caravan was like asking him when he had never had contact with the caravan.

First of all, during his Rank 1 stage, he won the Rank 2 Sword Qi Gu from the caravan by passing the challenge, and then exchanged Gu recipes for the Rank 2 Iron Sword Gu. At that time, he had already gotten in touch with the caravan. Later, he witnessed Fang Yuan's exchange with Jia Jinsheng, bought the Bee Herding Gu and Scouting Bee, and secretly followed the two, thus learning the location of the Flower Wine Secret Chamber.

Then, during his Rank 2 stage, he sent away Ah Niu and Ah Lan, and entrusted the traveling caravan Bai Haiying to contact more caravans for him, allowing the fire essence to enter Qing Mao Mountain for sale.

After reaching Rank 3, One Heart single-handedly slew the thousand wolves, used a large amount of war merit to take these fire essences, and entrusted shopkeeper Yue Sehua to trade with them.

In the trade agreement, One Heart even attached rumors of the blood bat phenomenon in Qing Mao Mountain, asking them to spread it along the way.

And Tie Xue Leng rushed all the way, encountering countless caravans. When he heard these news, with his intelligence, he must have guessed that Qing Mao Village was hiding a blood disaster.

And Heavenly Crane was already aware of Gu Yue Yi's previous information. Hearing such news, coupled with the tracking of the close blood Gu, he would definitely know that Gu Yue Yi was hiding in Qing Mao Mountain.

This was why Tie Xue Leng and Heavenly Crane arrived ahead of schedule.

Afterward, One Heart sent a wordless letter from the Flower Wine Secret Chamber to Tie Xue Leng, just to let him use the tracing Gu worm to come to the top of the ancient blood zombie.

Then, he detonated a huge amount of fire essence, faked his Ten Extreme explosion, and caused an earthquake in Qing Mao Mountain.

He directly awakened Gu Yue Yi, who would then face Tie Xue Leng. In addition, the earthquake in Qing Mao Mountain would also cause a beast tide.

Even if Heavenly Crane was blind, he would know that there must be something strange here, not to mention that he still had tracking Gu worms on hand.

And this back and forth constituted the first layer of insurance.

The second layer of insurance was Bai Ningbing. One Heart deliberately did not appear at the Gu Tournament, just to "take down" Bai Ningbing with a letter.

Bai Ningbing's personality was eccentric. Ordinary people and ordinary things could not arouse his curiosity.

Only earth-shattering, life-and-death situations could make him care. Only then could One Heart strive for room for negotiation.

One of the Ten Extremes: the Carefree Wisdom Heart Physique, naturally comes with Wisdom Path Dao marks. One Heart didn't know if it could predict the future and turn bad luck into good, and Bai Ningbing didn't know either.

So One Heart told Bai Ningbing that he was a Carefree Wisdom Heart Physique. After all, he really was a Ten Extreme Physique and knew the stories that would happen in the future.

There is truth in falsehood, and falsehood in truth. True things can be verified, and false things are difficult to distinguish.

One Heart revealed to Bai Ningbing his future, such as the battle with Gu Yue Qingshu, the White Phase Immortal Snake, the birth of Gu Yue Yi, the attack of Heavenly Crane, and most importantly, Gu Yue Fang Yuan.

These things were then verified one by one after Bai Ningbing began to contact Fang Yuan out of curiosity. The development of events proceeded exactly according to One Heart's predictions.

This situation could not help but make Bai Ningbing believe that One Heart was telling the truth. In order to survive, he gradually began to execute the plan formulated by One Heart.

Of course, he was very likely to betray him, but One Heart never expected Bai Ningbing to completely obey him. To put it bluntly, this was just a transaction, a temporary agreement reached by two Ten Extreme Physiques seeking to survive.

However, at the last moment, Gu Yue One Heart still "failed". He "exploded", but Bai Ningbing successfully survived through the future he had revealed.

In this way, not many people knew that he was still alive, except for Ah Niu and Ah Lan, whom he had arranged in advance.

Of course, this was not enough. One Heart still had insurance, that was, his powerful combat power. One Heart at the peak of Rank 3, a Ten Extreme Physique, and the Rank 6 Immortal Gu Lin Jianxian, who had recovered to Rank 3 mid-stage combat power, as well as the Rank 5 Gu worm Devouring River Toad, which could easily destroy Qing Mao Mountain, as long as he wanted to leave, the road would naturally be under his feet. Even Rank 5 Gu Masters could not easily keep him.

Moreover, as long as he and the Devouring River Toad entered the Yellow Dragon River, Gu Masters without the ability to fly across the river could not stop him.

With such confidence, One Heart could naturally hide behind the scenes and plan the situation.

First of all, he wanted to let Bai Ningbing know that there was such a person as Fang Yuan. He was both his nemesis and his life force. If he wanted to live, he must get the Yin Yang Transformation Gu from him.

Of course, this Gu must be exploded out only after Gu Yue Yi was hit by Tie Xue Leng's ultimate move, so he needed to wait.

As long as Bai Ningbing had seen Fang Yuan, with his personality, he would take the initiative to find Fang Yuan to "play" without saying much, so things would proceed according to his plan.

Then One Heart sent someone to Gu Yue Yao Ji to buy Nine Leaf Vitality Grass. The storage capacity of the medicine hall must not be enough, so she could only set her sights on Fang Yuan.

Bai Ningbing's "inexplicable" pursuit and Gu Yue Yao Ji's excessive suppression and trouble greatly forced Fang Yuan to advance as soon as possible. Everyone's time was limited. Where would there be time to explore the Flower Wine Secret Chamber to improve his cultivation?

After that, the caravan's news prematurely attracted Tie Xue Leng, and One Heart asked Gu Yue Bo to write a letter in advance to inform Tie Xue Leng of the reception matters, and asked Gu Yue Bo to assign Fang Yuan to complete this task.

Because the Gu recipes and Gu worms that One Heart had selected in the name of advancing to Rank 4 could only be announced to be closed for rectification, Fang Yuan's Gu worms could not be issued for a long time, and then Gu Yue Bo used the double benefits of immediately issuing Gu worms and selecting Gu recipes as a lure, Fang Yuan accepted this task of welcoming guests who did not know who they were.

And when he knew that the visitor was Tie Xue Leng, it was too late. The task required him to personally lead Tie Xue Leng and carefully answer Tie Xue Leng's questions about the clan.

With such a divine catcher as Tie Xue Leng, any strange words and deeds would inevitably attract his attention, and Fang Yuan could only do so. In fact, Tie Xue Leng and Tie Ruonan noticed Fang Yuan when they came to Gu Yue Village. Because Gu Yue Bo's letter had already introduced Fang Yuan and the previous case situation, of course, this was also One Heart's arrangement.

The various things afterward all restrained Fang Yuan, making it impossible for him to escape.

And One Heart brought Bai Ningbing into the village and discussed with him in advance, asking him to sneak into Gu Yue Village in advance to avoid being attacked by the beast tide and Heavenly Crane, and also to contain Fang Yuan to prevent Fang Yuan from coming to the Flower Wine Secret Chamber.

Even if Fang Yuan was able to escape because Tie Xue Leng was taken away by One Heart's wordless letter, he would be entangled by Bai Ningbing again.

One Heart took advantage of this to take down the Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus and detonated the fire essence in the back mountain.

After that, the beast tide broke out, Gu Yue Yi was born, and Heavenly Crane attacked.

He would not think of killing Fang Yuan now, because it was impossible. After all, Fang Yuan at this moment represented the layout of Star Constellation Immortal Venerable.

And a small mortal Gu Master like himself could still play with her chess pieces? Heh, at least he can't do it now, but he still secretly moved a little bit on the chessboard.

Then the things that will happen will be the same as before, even if Fang Yuan uses Spring Autumn Cicada, he will most likely only go back to before Bai Ningbing self-detonated.

After all, whether Spring Autumn Cicada is successful and when it returns is determined by the will of heaven. Moreover, he has not changed the general direction and original ending of things, but only made it a little earlier.

If he is reverted and Fang Yuan discovers his plan, he can also rely on his combat power, which is far stronger than Fang Yuan and the vast majority of people in Qing Mao Mountain, to directly escape Qing Mao Mountain.

If it reverts to an earlier time, such as the premature exposure of the Ten Extreme Physique, or even not opening the aperture, then he can only accept it. In the absence of means to counter Spring Autumn Cicada, he has tried his best to do the best, and there is nothing to be angry or regretful about if he fails.

He can only blame his weakness.

But in fact, he also has great confidence, because he dares to assert that the Heavenly Dao, influenced by Star Constellation Immortal Venerable, wants Fang Yuan to leave Qing Mao Mountain as soon as possible, and he is not thinking of harming Fang Yuan, but accelerating everything. Fang Yuan did pass the Qing Mao Mountain copy earlier than in the original book.

As for the others, One Heart dares to assert that under the protection of Heaven's will, they will definitely survive.

Just like he is currently outside Qing Mao Mountain, it has naturally confirmed all of this.

Standing on the back of the Devouring River Toad, looking at the approaching White Bone Mountain, One Heart felt an unspeakable pleasure.

He has been hiding, planning, and laying out, all for this moment, to escape fate and pursue freedom.

Of course, One Heart also secretly planned for the future.

"This time, the effect of avoiding the influence of Fang Yuan's Spring Autumn Cicada, or directly not letting him use Spring Autumn Cicada, is the result of the superposition of various factors. In the future, if I want to avoid being influenced by Fang Yuan's Spring Autumn Cicada, I must go to a completely different path from Fang Yuan."

"After getting the inheritance of this White Bone Mountain, I must never go to Shang Clan City again."

If we're not going to Merchant City, then where are we going?