When Fang Yuan opened his eyes, the scene before him had completely transformed.
The sky was light gold in color, the land was like spring, with green agricultural terraces, there were gentle streams flowing, and low-lying mounds, one could see far and wide in this boundless plains.
This was a serene and peaceful world, forming a great contrast to the blizzard outside.
This was northern plains' greatest utopia — Imperial Court blessed land, it opens every ten years, as a reward to the lord of northern plains.
Fang Yuan looked around and found that he was alone.
Although everyone entered from the same gate, after they stepped through the gate, they were separated and randomly transported to any area of the blessed land.
This was as per usual, Fang Yuan was not shocked. According to the earlier agreement, next he had to travel towards the center of the blessed land, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's former place of residence was there — Northern Plains Sacred Palace!
"I am finally in here." Fang Yuan regulated his breathing, the Imperial Court contest was only a prelude, what was truly important was the following events.
He tried activating eagle rise Gu, his crystal purple primeval essence moved according to his will, entering the eagle rise Gu.
Swoosh!
With a light sound, followed by intense pain, two broad and huge pitch-black eagle wings grew on his back.
Within Imperial Court blessed land, the use of mortal Gu was not restricted. As for Immortal Gu, they could not be restrained in any blessed land.
The strong eagle wings flapped lightly and brought Fang Yuan into the air.
Flying in the air, feeling the light wind brushing past his face, he could smell the unique scent of nature that permeated the entire blessed land.
Compared to the outside world, this place was extremely peaceful, it was like heaven.
Fang Yuan was in no hurry, he flew slowly as he enjoyed the scenery around him.
Imperial Court blessed land's landscape was quite similar to northern plains. At one glance, it was a huge plain, there were mounds and slopes with beautiful and elegant lines, it was like a stream of jade green flowing smoothly without obstacles.
But different from northern plains, every eight li, there would be a tower on the ground.
These towers made Fang Yuan think of totem pillars. Each one was about twenty-five meters tall, they were tall and straight, with a gold and silver surface, with lots of precious gems adorning it, beautiful and exquisite.
In the tower, there were countless barriers, like a beehive. Inside, were many Gu worms.
When the worm groups in the blessed land give birth to Gu, these Gu worms would detach themselves from the group and live in these towers.
The towers were built by Giant Sun, no matter what type of Gu worm it was, they would be able to find their food inside the towers.
Every tower had tens of thousands of Gu worms. These Gu consists of many species, there were large numbers of common Gu and few rare Gu.
Undeniably, each of these towers were a huge fortune, even Fang Yuan can feel his attraction to them. He could even see a group of about a thousand starlight firefly Gu in one of the towers.
"Unfortunately, I cannot take these Gu as I wish. When the Imperial Court contest first started, some daring Gu Masters tried to steal or even attack the towers, to take the wild Gu inside. In the end, they were like candles, their entire body melted until their white bone skeleton was left, smashed into a pile." Fang Yuan's gaze concentrated.
This was the heavenly power of the blessed land, the power of heaven and earth.
No mortals could resist it.
Even Gu Immortals would be left in a pathetic state when competing against it.
After enough lessons taught, by now, no Gu Master had the intention to attack the towers.
"If we chase the origin, the Gu Immortal who created Imperial Court blessed land was a space path Gu Immortal whose name can no longer be found. Because of this, this blessed land is huge, far larger than other blessed lands. Before Giant Sun Immortal Venerable became an immortal, he inherited this place luckily and became the blessed land's new owner. After Giant Sun became an Immortal Venerable, and obtained unparalleled power, he displayed great methods and set up the tradition of the Imperial Court contest, allowing this ancient blessed land to continue existing until now.
Fang Yuan flew as he recalled.
The methods of an Immortal Venerable were beyond his understanding. Who knows how Giant Sun Immortal Venerable managed to do it, but the result was, under his manipulation, Imperial Court blessed land no longer suffered from heavenly tribulations or earthly calamities.
Hiss hiss hiss...
After flying for an hour, past numerous towers, Fang Yuan was provoked by a giant python on a small valley.
This bright red giant python was at least a hundred meters long, its body was as thick as a tower.
There was a sharp horn on its head, a pair of blood eyes stared at Fang Yuan fixatedly, hissing with its tongue continuously.
Its tongue was a creepy purple color, and there were eerie blue flames on it.
"Eh? It's a rarely seen eerie fire dragon python." Fang Yuan was slightly shocked.
At this moment, the giant python opened its mouth, and shot out a carriage-sized blue purple flame.
The flame approached quickly, as the temperature in the air rose sharply, from a few hundred steps away, Fang Yuan's hair and eyebrows were showing signs of drying up. It showed the terrifying temperature of the blue purple flame!
Fang Yuan's eyebrows rose as he flapped his eagle wings, going to a higher altitude and avoiding the flame easily.
Killer move — Four Arm Wind King!
He activated more than ten Gu worms at once, his crystal purple was expending rapidly, meanwhile two bronze arms grew out of his body. @@novelbin@@
Thereafter, he flew down like a comet, straight towards the python.
Bam!
He crashed fiercely into the eerie fire dragon python, engaging in fierce combat with it.
At once, smoke rose as shockwaves were sent out, flames shot out as the valley shook.
Eerie fire dragon python was a mutated beast king, mutated beasts has rank four battle strength, while their king had strength equivalent to a rank five Gu Master. But Fang Yuan was rank five peak stage long ago, and after using his killer move, his battle strength was even higher.
If the eerie fire dragon python laid low and hid itself, Fang Yuan might not have noticed it while being on the move. But since it provoked him on purpose, Fang Yuan felt the urge to hunt and improve his killer move by using it as a training dummy.
After half an hour, the battle was over.
Fang Yuan's body was charred black, he stood in the completely destroyed and ruined valley.
The eerie fire dragon python's huge body was half covered in broken mountain rocks.
Fang Yuan coughed a few times, throwing up some blood.
The improved killer move had much less severe aftermath than before. A part of the reason was that the eerie fire dragon python did not have wisdom like humans, it could not find out Fang Yuan's weakness amidst battle.
If the wind was restricted, Fang Yuan would be in a much worse state.
This battle was not easy.
Imperial Court blessed land was a great environment, there were many Gu worms, thus there was a larger number of fire path wild Gu worms on the eerie fire dragon python. Among them, there were several valuable ones.
Fang Yuan's killer move was strong, but it did not have much defense against fire path.
If he did not need to dodge the flames, the thirty minute battle would be faster by at least a third.
Fang Yuan started collecting his loot.
This mutated beast king's body was full of value. For example, the python blood was a top ingredient in feeding blood path Gu worms. The python skin, tendons etc, would cause a huge commotion if sold in the mortal market.
Especially the eerie fire snake gall, it was extremely valuable, it could even be sold in treasure yellow heaven.
Fang Yuan organised his gains, in order to save time, he only kept the valuable items in his Gu.
"Eerie fire dragon python, they live in caves as a family. If there are any young dragon pythons, I can capture them and place them inside Hu Immortal blessed land to breed. It would be a good investment for the future." Fang Yuan thought about this and searched around.
Very soon, he made a discovery.
"Eh? There's a Gu Master inheritance here." Fang Yuan did not find a baby dragon python, but found a bright red rock, like that of a fire lotus.
With his expertise, he quickly understood that this was a Gu Master's work.
When he got close to the huge rock, this fire lotus-like rock opened up in layers, like a blossoming lotus.
The fire lotus rock opened completely, showing the Gu worms inside as well as a stele.
The stele was one with the huge rock, there were northern plains words on it.
Fang Yuan read it thoroughly and understood its existence.
The fire path Gu Master who left behind his inheritance was called Huo Zheng Jun, he was a righteous rank four fire path Gu Master. He entered this valley by accident, and was attacked by the eerie fire dragon python. Before dying from his injuries, he left behind his Gu worms helplessly and made the inheritance.
In the future, if a fated individual comes here, them this set of Gu worms would be his.
Huo Zheng Jun left behind seven Gu worms. But after these years, four died, and only three remained.
Among the three Gu worms, only one attracted Fang Yuan, it was the rank four fire pupil Gu.
When a Gu Master uses fire pupil Gu, fire would burn at anywhere they looked at, burning their opponents. Such a convenient attacking method often caught people off guard.
But it had its weaknesses.
If it was used for a long time, the Gu Master's eyes would be damaged. They would need to use good healing Gu as well as complementing Gu worms to weaken this side effect.
This fire pupil Gu was Huo Zheng Jun's core Gu worm.
Aside from the Gu worms he left behind, there were Gu recipes that he recorded on the stele.
Fang Yuan looked at it three times, storing the information inside east window Gu.
Although he did not cultivate fire path, these recipes were useful for him when researching about Gu refinement or even in his cultivation, as a form of inspiration. Especially the refinement recipe of the fire pupil Gu, it had high value.
According to this Gu Master, rank four fire pupil Gu was advanced using rank three fire eye Gu, together with sight blow Gu and some associated Gu refinement materials.
Fang Yuan knew about rank three fire eye Gu, it was a one time expenditure Gu used for investigative purposes. It could transform the eyes into fire eyes, having the ability to see through fog, but it did not work every time, once it failed, one would turn blind.
Fang Yuan knew about sight blow Gu too, Hao Ji Liu from the Hei tribe army had one. He had once used it together with rank four location swap Gu.
Fang Yuan kept the fire pupil Gu, he did not intend to go onto the fire path.
Fire pupil Gu did not suit his current style. While the attacking method was convenient, it was very restrictive, it was too reliant on visual contact.
There were too many strange Gu in this world, there were countless methods to prevent eye contact.
There was no strongest Gu worm, only strongest Gu Master.
Gu worms were the hosts of the great Dao, they were fundamentally tools. When Gu master use them together, they could form great effects. Some combinations were even far superior and harder to counter, they were known as killer moves.
"This means, this should be the first Gu Master inheritance I've obtained in Imperial Court blessed land." Fang Yuan thought about it, feeling interested.
In Imperial Court blessed land, there were countless Gu Master inheritances.
It was because of the superb environment, in contrast, many inheritances in the main world were often destroyed by calamities and beasts before the fated person arrives.
Furthermore, all the Gu Masters that entered Imperial Court blessed land were experts that had undergone tough battles, they had to have at least some superior qualities, if they were not heroes or grand conquerors already.
Thus, there were abundant inheritances inside Imperial Court blessed land. Anyone who was fated would have gains.
Fang Yuan kept the three Gu worms inside his aperture, before smashing the stele to bits.
Next, he searched around, finding a cave indeed. He entered the cave and walked to the lowest part of it, at about a hundred meters underground, he found six eerie fire dragon python eggs.
He was troubled now.
If it was a baby eerie fire dragon python, he could bring them away to Hu Immortal blessed land and allow them to hunt freely.
But it was not easy to hatch an eerie fire dragon python's egg. He needed to use eerie fire and python blood to bathe them daily. After the little dragon python hatches, they need to taught by the eerie fire dragon python personally, on how to use their strength to hunt.
Fang Yuan did not have the time or effort to waste just to hatch these eggs.
There was no choice, he quickly kept these eggs before getting out of the hot cave, flying towards the sky and continuing on his journey without any lingering feelings.
-x-X-x-
Just like this, Fang Yuan flew for another three days, but could not see even a glimpse of the sacred palace on the plains.
Fang Yuan thought to himself: "It seems that I was transported very far away after entering Imperial Court blessed land. Otherwise with my speed, I would've reached the sacred palace within three days."
On the way, Fang Yuan met many Gu Masters and mortals.
They were Hei tribe alliance members, after entering the blessed land, those with ability would gather at the sacred palace. Those who did not would choose a place and settle down.
Imperial Court blessed land was not safe, there were large numbers of wild Gu worms and vicious beasts.
Hei tribe army came here and destroyed their order, disturbing the beasts and worms which had already sorted out their territory.
Thus, conflict and killing was natural.
But all in all, the environment was infinitely better than the outside world, which was face a fierce blizzard.
Fang Yuan had seen several slaughtering scenes along the way. Some were beast group corpses, some were humans with broken limbs.
Imperial Court blessed land had much greater foundation than Hu Immortal blessed land. There was no weather changes in Hu Immortal blessed land, but Imperial Court blessed land had it.
In fact, Imperial Court blessed land had morning and night!
This might not be spectacular in mortal eyes, because in northern plains, there was also day and night, they were used to it.
Only someone like Fang Yuan would understand the true value of this.
It was very rare for blessed land to have weather changes. If there was day and night, it meant that this particular heaven and earth had sufficiently deep foundations, at least, the time path law here was quite complete.
Normally, blessed land with astronomical phenomenon were first rate blessed lands. Fang Yuan's Hu Immortal blessed land had not reached this level yet.
Day and night was the characteristic of grotto-heavens.
Blessed lands were small worlds. Above blessed lands, there were even more complete and refined small worlds, they were grotto-heavens.
Imperial Court blessed land already had the characteristics of a grotto-heaven, it could be said to be a quasi grotto-heaven. Lang Ya blessed land was originally a grotto-heaven that fell, by now, it had lost its day and night trait.
Night descended.
Fang Yuan looked at the sky, it turned from a glorious gold color to a light and elegant silver.
The daytime in Imperial Court blessed land was a dazzling golden day. At night, it was not completely dark, as silver light shine in the sky.
Flying in the air, Fang Yuan witnessed the changing of the sky.
Silver light rained down, compared to the hot and dazzling golden rays during daytime, it had traces of sharpness to it.
Fang Yuan's flying speed was slowing down, he looked down and after searching for a while, he found a gentle slope.
With his years of experience, he knew that the gentle slope was a great place to set up camp.
But he was in no hurry to descend, he circled around the slope several times, like a bird flying freely.
Eventually, when he confirmed that this area was safe, he landed and kept his wings.
The strong eagle wings were pitch-black like steel. After Fang Yuan stopped using eagle rise Gu, the wings vanished into thin air, as one or two black feathers were left floating in the air, landing on the grass.
Fang Yuan willed and activated big lizard house Gu.
Immediately, a mystical light shot out from his aperture, landing in front of him.
The light expanded and grew, as a big lizard house Gu eventually appeared.
The lizard opened its mouth and shot out its tongue, showing the door in its mouth.
The tongue was like a red carpet ladder, as Fang Yuan stepped on it, the door opened automatically. After he entered the lizard house Gu, the door closed on its own, as the lizard closed its huge mouth without a gap.
Although Fang Yuan was energetic, he was still of mortal body, when fatigue accumulates to a degree, he will need to rest to ensure that he stays at peak condition in terms of mind and body.
Chichichichi...
After Fang Yuan got into the lizard house, he heard some noises outside.
His gaze concentrated as he muttered: "As expected, it is the blissful snow bats..."
Fang Yuan had already understood the rules, when day turns to night, large groups of blissful snow bats would fly out.
The blissful snow bats were pure white like snow, they were furry and did not look ugly like ordinary bats, in fact they were rather cute.
Such a beast group was huge in scale, each group had about several hundreds of thousands of bats. Among them were beast kings, and myriad beast kings were very common, there were even snow bat beast emperors.
Even with Fang Yuan's dual aperture and killer move like four arm wind king, he could not fight against them, he could only avoid them.
The snow bats only hunted in the air, eating the particles in the air or flying worms. The big lizard house Gu was not part of their food chain. But because of Fang Yuan's vigilance, he moved the big lizard house Gu to the back of the slope.
The big lizard curled up into a ball, from the sky, it resembled a huge rock.
Fang Yuan was on the bed as he slept, but before long, the cries of the blissful snow bats became very erratic, as wolf howls could be heard as well.
"What's going on?" Fang Yuan was woken up by this noise, he opened his eyes and got up from bed, going to the window.
Only to see that in the silvery backdrop, two beast groups were fighting.
The snow-white lump had a grand scale, it was the blissful snow bats. As for the dark-green lump, it was a pack of azure wolves, although they were fewer in numbers, they fought fiercely and had great cooperation.
Although they were many snow bats, under the wolves' attacks, they suffered huge losses.
Fang Yuan's brows lifted, feeling slightly shocked.
Azure wolf had a trace of the desolate beast heavenly wolf's bloodline, thus it could float in mid air even as a cub. A mature azure wolf can use this talent to its limits, able to run freely in the air.
Azure wolves were elites, they were different from ordinary wolf groups. Among the azure wolf group, each azure wolf was at least a hundred beast king!
Azure wolf groups were often small, but they had great battle strength. But regardless of how strong a wolf group is, they cannot withstand the trial of time, and the trials of mortality.
Right now, in northern plains' sky, barely any azure wolves could be seen. They were getting rarer, going to be extinct soon.
However, as the largest blessed land in northern plains, Imperial Court blessed land had such a huge scaled azure wolf group, it was not a surprise.
The wolves got more energetic as they fought, as the bat group gradually got into a disadvantage, after leaving behind several tens of thousands of corpses, they escaped.
The azure wolves did not have many deaths, most of the azure wolves landed on the ground and started consuming the bat corpses. Some of them remained in the air, looking around and staying vigilant.
Fang Yuan's heart was moved: "After entering the blessed land, my wolf group had scattered. Imperial Court blessed land is too wide, I cannot gather them here in such a short time. This azure wolf group is really timely, not only can they fly to keep up with my pace, they can even protect me, in the future when we encounter bat groups, we can just charge through."
At the same time, several wolves found Fang Yuan's big lizard house Gu and surrounded it.
Fang Yuan left the Gu house immediately and kept the big lizard house Gu, charging towards the myriad beast king in the sky.
The wolf group went into a commotion as they attacked Fang Yuan from all directions.
But the azure wolves which had just eaten were moving sluggishly, their battle intent had also decreased severely. This was the best time for Fang Yuan to subdue the myriad wolf king.
Fang Yuan snickered, he turned left and right, making circles in the air. With his flying master attainment, these azure wolves could only chase after him fruitlessly.
The myriad wolf king that Fang Yuan was going after was different from the other two myriad wolf kings, in the earlier battle, it had charged ahead and sustained some injuries, as well as losing some wild Gu on it. Fang Yuan had paid close attention to it earlier, and knew all the wild Gu worms currently on it.
Going up to the myriad wolf king, Fang Yuan activated the killer move four arm wind king and thrashed the wolf king.
This unlucky myriad wolf king was beaten into a daze by Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan used this chance to activate rank five wolf enslavement Gu, subduing it.
Once it joined Fang Yuan, it howled and a third of the azure wolf group changed sides along with it.
Fang Yuan laughed loudly, it was dangerous to subdue a myriad wolf king under the attack of the wolf group, but now that he had succeeded, the situation was different.
With the wolf group, the situation was overturned.
Under Fang Yuan's manipulation, the wolf group attacked from left and right, cooperating with him and surrounding the second azure myriad wolf king.
The wild wolf group attacked furiously, as Fang Yuan used his wolf group to form a line of defense, protecting himself. He himself, engaged with the myriad wolf king.
After fifteen minutes, Fang Yuan subdued the second myriad wolf king.
Victory was assured!
The final myriad wolf king saw this and immediately ran, bringing its subordinates to escape with it.
Fang Yuan first stopped his bleeding and checked his own injuries. After checking the battlefield, he kept the big lizard house Gu and shifted the campsite.
This area was filled with the intense smell of blood, quickly, waves and waves of beast groups were attracted. If Fang Yuan continued staying there, he would be disturbed endlessly.
About ten li away, he rested for four hours before flapping his wings and continuing his journey.
But different from before, Fang Yuan was now surrounded by two azure myriad wolf kings, thirty-eight thousand beast kings, and two hundred fifty-six hundred beast kings. It was a huge force.
In the blink of an eye, six days of travelling went by. @@novelbin@@
In this process, Fang Yuan found three inheritances. They were small inheritances however, in Fang Yuan's eyes, they were as good as nothing.
What was worth mentioning was, the wolf group expanded.
With the foundation of two azure myriad wolf kings, another was subdued. This way, Fang Yuan had three azure myriad wolf kings under his control.
Imperial Court blessed land was a true land of treasures. There were huge beast groups within, and even the rare azure wolf was a common species here.
Other than the azure wolves, Fang Yuan subdued batches of night wolves, wind wolves, turtleback wolves, and vermillion flame wolves along the way.
These wolves were originally his to begin with, except that they were scattered after entering the blessed land. Fang Yuan had only found a small portion of them by now.
-x-X-x-
Two days later. A high mountain peak protruded Fang Yuan's vision.
The deep blue mountain was like a lone vulture with a bizarre shape.
Fang Yuan was somewhat startled as his gaze became suffused with joy: "This should be Xing Jiu peak. It seems my direction is correct, according to Gu Immortal Lord Tian Ku's description in the past life, the place where the vulture's gaze falls in is the sacred palace!"
Immortal Court blessed land had a lofty and holy position in the hearts of northern plains' people, and was a spiritual symbol. It was also a cradle which had nurtured many northern plains' Gu Immortals in the Imperial Court contests before.
When central continent invaded northern plains, they had first attacked this significant strategic location.
Due to the lack of preparations, Immortal Court blessed land was breached by the alliance of central continent's Gu Immortals and the sacred palace was ruthlessly destroyed, turning into a ruin. Eighty-Eight True Yang Building was also destroyed, vanishing in the surging river of history, and causing people to sigh while wringing their wrist.
Lord Tian Ku was one of the Gu Immortals who participated in the surprise attack against Immortal Court blessed land. Fang Yuan made his plan by referencing the surprise attack methods of the central continent's Gu Immortals.
"Hmm? There are people on Xing Jiu peak." When Fang Yuan was about to cross the Xing Jiu peak with his wolf group, he suddenly paused as he saw many Gu Masters at the summit of the peak, among were familiar people as well.
His thoughts moved and decided to not hurry on his way, but instead descended to the Xing Jiu peak with his wolf group.
"Pan Ping greets Lord Wolf King."
"Brother Shan Yin, we meet again."
Looking at the Wolf King descending, the Gu Masters all felt their hearts shiver. From among them, two Gu Masters walked out; one was Pan Ping who had become rich and famous with this time's Imperial Court content, while the other was one of the twin demons Tai Bai Yun Sheng invited, Zhu Zai.
Pan Ping was now already at rank four peak stage, and with sole blade Gu, his battle strength could match against some rank five Gu Masters.
Zhu Zai was a strength path rank five Gu Master and was an expert in close combat, thus he was much more fearful of sole blade Gu than other people. He had been separated from Gao Yang when he entered Imperial Court, and on the way to the sacred palace, he got into an argument with Pan Ping.
"We greet Wolf King!" After Pan Ping and Zhu Zai, the rest of the Gu Masters greeted one after another while kneeling on the ground.
In Ma tribe army, Fang Yuan's prestige was raised to the highest status, and was recognized as the number one person of this generation. His prestige suppressing Hei Lou Lan and even Ye Lui Sang who had a fire path Immortal Gu.
If not for Chang Shan Yin not being of Huang Jin bloodline and Hei Lou Lan being the alliance leader, there might have been people who would have shouted to change the alliance leader.
"Stand up, there is no need to be so restrained." Fang Yuan was sitting on an azure myriad wolf king as he lightly nodded and then directly asked, "For you guys to gather here, what inheritance did you discover?"
Everyone inwardly grumbled.
The truth was indeed so. At first, someone had discovered an inheritance in Xing Jiu peak, but did not have enough strength to get it. Helplessly, the Gu Master called for other Gu Masters to explore together. But the result was, they lost several people instead.
The Gu Masters were no resigned to failure and searched all around for help, inviting Pan Ping and Zhu Zai one after another.
The two, for their respective benefits, competed with each other, creating the situation to turn into a stalemate before finally Fang Yuan crashed in.
Now, since Fang Yuan directly asked it, Pan Ping and Zhu Zai did not dare to hide it and could only explain this matter.
"Lord Wolf King, it is fortunate you are here. This inheritance opens every seven days, and during the opening, it lets out a soaring high starlight and reveals a starlight door. This duration is not only extremely short, there are also insect groups that rush out of the starlight door, preventing us from entering." Pan Ping introduced with a slight smile.
"There is only a short time before the inheritance opens now. Lord Chang Shan Yin, since you graced us with your presence, I represent all the Gu Masters here to request you to uphold justice." Zhu Zai said with sincerity on his face.
The corners of Pan Ping's lips twitched as he glanced at Zhu Zai with extreme disdain.
'Zhu Zai's reputation of being a famous expert in the demonic path is laughable, he actually is going so far in his flattery!' Pan Ping was filled with disdain towards Zhu Zai.
'Wolf King might be strong, but I, Pan Ping, will have a day when I can reach his level!' Pan Ping was young, his heart still had arrogance, but he did not show it, instead lowering his head to show his respect towards Wolf King.
He was a demonic path Gu Master and naturally was extremely clear of his current situation and understood the logic of being able to bow and submit.
Fang Yuan straightforwardly agreed, immediately becoming the main person in charge here.
As time gradually passed, everyone was indeed able to see starlight gradually filling the summit.
When the time arrived, the starlight majestically soared up, piercing through the sky. A small door then slowly opened in the dazzling starlight.
Bzzz Bzzz Bzzz....
Large numbers of insect groups rushed out like a tide.
These insect groups were of all kinds of colors with many wild Gu mixed among them; their stance was fierce but they only hovered near the starlight door and did not pounce upon the people.
Clearly, this was a test.
Fang Yuan carefully observed before snickering - this insect group test was not difficult. Even without him, with the combined strength of the rest of the Gu Masters, they would be able to overcome this.
However, Pan Ping and Zhu Zai's internal dispute caused the overall strength to be divided with other Gu Masters supporting different sides; no one conceded which allowed Fang Yuan to take this opportunity.
Fang Yuan glanced at Pan Ping and Zhu Zai; these two both had somewhat unsightly expressions right now.
Fang Yuan did not care, instead he sent an order: "These insect groups are often more difficult to deal with than beast groups. All of you, listen to my arrangement, and we will be able to reduce the losses and deal with this easily." @@novelbin@@
Everyone promptly agreed. Under Fang Yuan's command, they attacked in segments, drawing away the insect group and exterminating them.
After a dozen or so breaths of time, most of the insect groups had been drawn away and the originally tight defense line now had a huge gap.
Pan Ping said in joy: "Lord Wolf King is truly amazing! All of our eyes were obscured, exterminating the insect groups is not important, the main thing was to open a passageway. With this, we will have plenty of time."
Zhu Zai also sighed: "Having Lord Wolf King to lead us is our fortune."
But Fang Yuan's next words shocked them: "You guys stay here to hold back the insect groups, don't make a mistake. I will make a trip inside."
With that, he suddenly rushed to the starlight door with the wolf group.
"Thi... This... Lord Wolf King..." Zhu Zai's expression paled, he had not expected Fang Yuan to act so selfishly in the open.
Pan Ping's eyes also opened wide as his heart filled with anger at the injustice.
Under everyone's gazes, Fang Yuan first sent an azure wolf to investigate the inside and seeing there were no dangers, he rode an azure wolf king and entered the door.
Of course, he left behind a large number of azure wolves to form a defensive line around the entrance to protect his escape route.
"Didn't they say Wolf King was proud and aloof, how could he be so shameless?"
"He is truly too overbearing, this inheritance was clearly discovered by us first, but now it was snatched by Chang Shan Yin!"
"Chang Shan Yin has let down the name of the grand Wolf King, he actually left us out here..."
The people present were all furious but they did not dare to express their anger.
"Lord Pan Ping, should we also charge in?" A rank three Gu Master rolled his eyes, then turned towards Pan Ping and urged him.
Pan Ping snorted and sent this Gu Master flying with a kick, shouting fiercely: "If you want to go in, feel free. What, you want me to test the water?"
"Lord, you misunderstood, how could I dare!" The rank three Gu Master immediately retorted.
"Get lost!"
Pan Ping angrily rebuked while clenching his fists tightly.
He rigidly looked at the starlight door with sharp light flashing past his eyes.
The gap that had been cleared was now jammed with azure wolves. There were two myriad wolf kings, dozens of thousand wolf kings, over 300 hundred wolf kings, and even over two hundred guarding the air.
Pan Ping could not charge through this scale of wolves.
His thoughts turned around and he then looked at Zhu Zai, speaking in a faint ridiculing tone: "This is the result of you wanting Wolf King to uphold justice?"
Zhu Zai coldly glanced at Pan Ping, immediately seeing through Pan Ping's thoughts.
He snorted inwardly with disdain: 'This Pan Ping is still young and has been infected by hastiness gained from the recent fame. He actually wants to entice me to ally with him to break the wolf group's defense line, too naive! Is Wolf King so easy to deal with? Even if Wolf King only left behind one ordinary night wolf, I would not dare to make a move. This brat simply overestimates his own abilities!'
Pan Ping furiously snorted as he saw Zhu Zai not answering him, and could only swallow the words that he had been about to speak.
----------
Fang Yuan arrived before a courtyard after entering the starlight door.
The style of the courtyard was peculiar, it was completely constructed out of blue metal and its shape was strange and abstract, not belonging to any style of the five regions.
Fang Yuan pushed upon the gate and entered. The courtyard was covered in a layer of thin light cotton, and appeared mysterious, quiet and magnificent.
At first, Fang Yuan moved cautiously, but after searching around once, he did not find any mechanisms for tests or traps.
The courtyard had six rooms, and Fang Yuan explored all of them.
"So over a hundred years ago, this was the residence of northern plains' great poet Du Min Jun." Fang Yuan received the entire inheritance left behind by the courtyard master and learned this person's identity.
Du Min Jun was a rank five Gu Master, he travelled alone and had never married in his whole life. He was called Vagrant Lone Star by people. He was the famous Poet Immortal in northern plains and his verses mostly portrayed the starry sky, his longing towards his hometown and his powerless struggle against fate.
He was proud and noble, and separated himself from mortal affairs. He had been pursued by many northern plains' women throughout his life and there were even men who pursued him, but they were all heartlessly rejected by him.
Future generations evaluated and praised him: He was immersed in his own world, although he was in northern plains, his mind was in the starry sky. He was not a northern plains' man, he was a poet, he was a Poet Immortal who was denounced to the mortal world from the starry sky!
"So Du Min Jun eventually chose to suicide at this place." Fang Yuan sighed.
Du Min Jun was not able to endure the melancholy in his heart in the end; he built his final residence in Xing Jiu peak and ended his life of his own accord. What he had left behind were countless poems to be read and admired by the later generations.
Du Min Jun had outstanding talents and his inheritance was also extremely valuable.
First of all was a emotion poetry Gu. Emotion poetry Gu was especially used to store emotions and along with painting idea Gu, was a wisdom path Gu. It was extremely rare and very expensive.
Then, there were large numbers of star path Gu worms of all types. It basically had all the star path Gu of northern plains.
Fang Yuan was amazed at this.
"It seems Du Min Jun had a fortuitous encounter, otherwise how could he have so many and such complete star path Gu worms? Hmm? He actually innovated an entire set of star Gu recipes?"
Fang Yuan flipped through the recipes and realized how shockingly talented Du Min Jun was.
He founded a set of new Gu, from rank one 'a bit of star Gu' to rank two 'brilliance of two stars Gu', rank three 'three stars in the sky Gu', rank four 'four stars cube Gu' to rank five 'five stars aligned Gu'.
This set of Gu worms was especially targeted star path Gu and could raise star path Gu's effects by a huge degree; it was equivalent to a non-mainstream amplify effect Gu. But this set of Gu worms had much higher success rate than amplify effect Gu, moreover their refinement materials were extremely common. This meant, if this set of Gu recipes was spread, it would definitely lead to a huge rise in popularity of star path Gu and would have some amount of influence towards all Gu Master paths!
-x-X-x-
"Although I am not a star path Gu Master, if I refine this set of star Gu, it would be a huge help in opening the stargate and linking to Hu Immortal blessed land."
Fang Yuan could not help but feel a bit of joy in his heart.
He had invested heavily earlier to nurture a batch of starlight firefly Gu in his Hu Immortal blessed land. He also got many air bubble fish to increase the starlight firefly Gu's growth.
But even so, the starlight firefly Gu's expenditure was greater than its production.
Every time the stargate was opened, large numbers of starlight firefly Gu would be used. But to nurture starlight firefly Gu, a lot of time was needed.
It was easier for Fang Yuan back in northern plains, when he could use the starlight in the sky for one of the two sides of the gate. But in Imperial Court blessed land, there was no starlight in the sky. Thus, to open the stargate, he would needed to expend even more starlight firefly Gu.
But if he could refine this set of Gu that could amplify the power of star path, one starlight firefly would be able to achieve the effects of a few, that way, he would have several times less expenditure than currently.
"Furthermore, this Gu recipe is interesting, the thought process and viewpoint is different from the norm, it is like a deduction done using Earth's science and math. To think that Poet Immortal was so knowledgeable, having such incredible ideas."
Fang Yuan could see a portion of Poet Immortal's wisdom from this Gu recipe.
Taking all that was valuable in these few rooms, Fang Yuan returned back to where he came from.
Du Min Jun was a righteous path Gu Master, his inheritance was naturally a righteous path inheritance, there was only one trial and was not difficult.
When Fang Yuan returned to the mountain peak, the worm group that was troubling everyone had dispersed.
"Lord Chang Shan Yin, you are finally back! I wonder what gains lord had made inside?" Pan Ping's expression was ominous as he walked up to Fang Yuan. His intention was obvious: You Wolf King took the meat, you have to at least leave us the soup right!
"Hahaha, congrats Lord Wolf King, with this inheritance, you are like a tiger who gained wings." Zhu Zai cupped his fists and spoke, not mentioning anything related to splitting the gains.
Fang Yuan nodded lightly: "This inheritance was set by Poet Immortal Du Min Jun, there are still a lot of beautiful treasures left inside. You can go take it."
Saying so, he sat on the azure myriad wolf king and flew into the sky.
Pan Ping saw him leaving and immediately shouted: Sir Chang Shan Yin! We restrained the worm group for you painstakingly, yet you took all the best things inside the inheritance, according to the rules, you have to give us some compensation."
"Compensation?" Fang Yuan stopped his wolf, floating in the air as he looked at this Sole Blade General with a half-smiling expression.
"What compensation do you want?" Fang Yuan asked.
Pan Ping expressionlessly requested: "We can't determine what compensation to get yet. Why don't lord show us the inheritance you obtained, so that we can evaluate it?"
"Hehehe." Fang Yuan laughed, looking at Pan Ping amicably: "Look at this compensation, are you happy with it?"
Saying so, he willed and the azure wolf group surrounded Pan Ping from the ground and the sky tightly.
Pan Ping's expression changed, he held onto his scimitar as he shouted: "Lord Wolf King, what are you doing?"
Fang Yuan sat on the wolf back, looking down at Sole Blade General, snickering.
Howl!
The azure wolf group moved and charged at Pan Ping.
Pan Ping's expression turned into shock as he blocked left and right, unleashing all his moves.
He was a rank four peak stage cultivation, after getting much gains in the battles, he had high quality Gu worms that were a complete set, his battle strength far surpassed his previous state.
But the azure wolves were not ordinary wolves. Each one was at least a hundred beast king, this meant that they each had large numbers of wild Gu in them.
After Pan Ping killed several azure wolves, he could not hold on anymore, bleeding profusely as he got into a desperate situation.
"Lord Wolf King, you are too overbearing. We are of the same army, are you trying to kill me?!" He shouted loudly, trying to suppress Fang Yuan using righteousness.
The other Gu Masters had no idea what to do.
Fang Yuan's overbearing attitude made them uncomfortable. But because of his strength, they did not dare to say anything.
"Lord Wolf King, please calm down. Pan Ping did not know what was good for him, he verbally insulted lord, but lord is such a grand hero, why is there a need to put yourself at his level?" Zhu Zai urged quickly.
Pan Ping was Hei Lou Lan's beloved general, it is said that he was already part of Hei tribe. If he died here, when Hei Lou Lan pursues the matter, he might not do anything to Chang Shan Yin, but he Zhu Zai would be doomed.
Since Zhu Zai joined Hei tribe alliance army, he naturally wanted to join Hei tribe!
"Zhu Zai, you're overthinking this, I am not angry." Fang Yuan smiled at Zhu Zai lightly, but the azure wolves were attacking even more fiercely under his manipulation.
Zhu Zai's heart was anxious, but he was secretly shocked by Fang Yuan's ruthlessness.
Over there, Pan Ping was in a critical state, he activated sole blade Gu but could only defend himself, he could not break out of the wolves' encirclement.
"Lord Wolf King, please have mercy. Pan Ping is going to die!" Zhu Zai showed an expression of fear as he urged once again.
Fang Yuan finally stopped his attack, sighing at Zhu Zai: "Sigh, I am not violent, but this junior does not know how to respect his seniors. If I do not teach him a lesson today, is he going to dance on my head in the future?"
"Yes, yes, yes, lord is absolutely right!" Zhu Zai quickly answered.
Fang Yuan waved his hand and the azure wolves stopped attacking, they moved back but the encirclement was still present.
Without the pressure of the wolves, Pan Ping collapsed on the ground.
He was bathed in blood and covered in injuries, he breathed roughly as he stared at Fang Yuan with eyes filled with hatred.
Fang Yuan saw his expression and laughed: "It seems you have not had enough? Maybe my lesson wasn't severe enough, Zhu Zai, what do you think?"
Zhu Zai shuddered, he could see the overwhelming killing intent hidden in Fang Yuan's calm gaze. He quickly waved his hand: "Enough, it is enough. Pan Ping had received a sufficient lesson. Pan Ping! Quickly apologise to Lord Wolf King!"
Pan Ping clenched his fist, he gritted his teeth as he took a few deep breaths, closing his eyes and saying with much pain: "Lord Wolf King, I... I am sorry!"
He howled in his heart however: ' Today's humiliation, I will return it to you a hundred fold! Wolf King, remember this! I am not someone you can humiliate as you please!'
Pan Ping was a vigilant and low-profile person, but after the Imperial Court contest, the pride in the deep parts of his heart burst out. Especially in the battle against Liu tribe, he was first killed by three heads six arms, but was revived by Tai Bai Yun Sheng later using man as before Gu.
Such a revival process made his nature change slightly, making him feel like he was a 'person blessed by the heavens'.
'According to the rules, I should be allowed to check the gains from the inheritance. Wolf King, you are too overbearing, you will definitely regret all that you did today! Although you are strong now, it is only because you started cultivating several years earlier than me. One day, I will catch up to you, surpass you, and return all this humiliation right back at you!' Pan Ping screamed internally.
Fang Yuan naturally had no idea what he was thinking, but he was not interested either.
"If I kill him here, Hei Lou Lan would not pursue the matter with me. But this is a demonic act, it clashes with my identity. Furthermore, it does not benefit my future plans at all. I might as well leave this Pan Ping for the future..."
Pan Ping only had one sole blade Gu which Fang Yuan had some interest in.
If he was killed now, Fang Yuan would probably not receive the Gu.
Thus, Fang Yuan said: "Since you admitted your mistake, that is very good, it means you have noticed my hard work. A junior should behave like a junior, do you understand now?"
"Un... understood..." Pan Ping shut his eyes, he was furious but he squeezed out the words.
Fang Yuan snickered, he understood his feelings but he did not expose him, only continuing to say: "Very good. Since that is the case, compensate me. In order to educate you, I made quite a loss, look at my wolves, fifteen corpses are lying here."
"What?!" Pan Ping opened his eyes out of pure rage. @@novelbin@@
"What, are you unwilling?" Fang Yuan smiled lightly, looking at Pan Ping with an obvious expression of mockery, like a cat toying with a mouse.
"I, I am willing to!" Pan Ping breathed in deeply, nodding his head as he accepted his fate.
"Mm, this is the attitude of a junior indeed." Fang Yuan chuckled, smiling gently and kindly. But in everyone's view, he looked extremely scary.
"It was all thanks to lord." Zhu Zai was smiling at the side.
"Mm, of course." Fang Yuan nodded in agreement, smiling as he accepted this hypocritical flattery. He then looked around: "What about you guys? Do you need some lessons too?"
Everyone quickly rejected him with pale expression, they were shuddering, obviously scared out of their wits.
Fang Yuan laughed loudly, extorting all of Pan Ping's Gu recipes and several of his Gu worms.
Pan Ping was extremely furious, the few Gu that Fang Yuan chose were critical to his Gu set, without them, his strength would fall by at least two levels.
After toying around with Pan Ping, Fang Yuan felt the fun turning into boredom as he patted the wolf head, rising into the sky: "That will be all, there are still rather good things inside, they are unique. Go ahead and take them."
Everyone heard this and were revitalized. Many people thought: Lord Wolf King is truly righteous, it was natural for him to take the bulk of the meat, Lord Pan Ping was simply too small-hearted.
Only until Fang Yuan and the azure wolf group vanished into the sky did everyone start moving towards the starlight door.
According to seniority, Zhu Zai and Pan Ping were the first two to charge in.
The two first entered a small courtyard, but only found Du Min Jun's original poems. As for Gu worms, Gu recipes, they were all swept away by Fang Yuan, not a trace of them were left.
"Lord Wolf King was right, these are really unique treasures." Zhu Zai held the poems in his hand as he laughed bitterly.
Pan Ping who was hopeful and wanted to get some benefits to recoup his losses had a dark expression.
Puu!
Suddenly, he threw up a mouthful of blood as he fainted from anger.
Several days later.
"With my current speed, the sacred palace should be close by." Fang Yuan rode on the azure myriad wolf king's back, pondering to himself.
Soon after, his gaze became fixed at an area on the ground below him.
"Eh? This terrain is so familiar, don't tell me..."
-x-X-x-
Fang Yuan looked at the ground.
He saw that there was a mound protruding high up above the ground.
There were no forceful contours on the mound, there was an opening on it that showed a huge hole, like a tunnel underground.
As for the surroundings of this mound, it was a huge swampy area.
There were sparse trees in the swamp.
On the southwest side, there was a river. The river water was not clear, but it was a very long river, both the start and end of the river were beyond Fang Yuan's field of vision.
"Light in the soil, shine up to a hundred thousand feet high, swimming in the sky for a hundred li, praising plum fragrant snow." Looking at this scene, Fang Yuan could not help but think of this phrase in his mind.
"Is this Di Qiu inheritance ground?" Fang Yuan had a flash of inspiration as he felt dazed.
Back then, he had obtained information about Di Qiu inheritance from a fake grey-white stone slab. The painting idea Gu on the grey-white stone slab etched this map into his brain.
Thus, Fang Yuan had a clear memory of it, he could not forget it even if he tried.
He flapped his wings and flew around it in the sky, confirming that this terrain was exactly as he remembered.
"So this is it. I was wondering before, an inheritance using terrain as a clue was not reliable. If this was outside in northern plains, the terrain could be easily changed or destroyed. But in Imperial Court blessed land, that would be a different case." Fang Yuan thought.
This Imperial Court blessed land opened once every ten years. The victors of the Imperial Court contest would enter and might change the terrain due to battles.
However, when Imperial Court blessed land closes, the terrain slowly recovers.
Until ten years later, it would reopen after being restored to its original state.
"Di Qiu inheritance... since it was set up inside Imperial Court blessed land, and even had an innovative idea of using a fake grey-white stone slab to do it, the owner definitely put in huge effort and time for this. The inheritance should not be bad."
With such thoughts, Fang Yuan slowly flew to the mound, after observing the mound's entrance for a while, he summoned several azure wolves, and entered the dark hole.
Fifteen minutes later, the azure wolf returned to Fang Yuan unscathed.
This deep hole looked pitch black from the outside, but once someone entered, they would realize that it was full of glowing moss, it was not dark at all.
There was nothing inside the hole, the air was moist and there were only rocks and moss.
Fang Yuan personally entered to check it out, but still found nothing.
He frowned slightly, leaving the place. He was prepared for this result long ago: "This inheritance is not simple, if it can easily obtained, others would have gotten it long ago. Of course, I cannot rule out the possibility that someone else got it before me."
But Fang Yuan analyzed and realized that the possibility of that was very low.
"To come here, there are two conditions, one is to obtain the clue to the inheritance, and decipher the grey-white stone slab, a Gu Master skilled at appraisal is needed to do it. Secondly, they need to enter Imperial Court blessed land, that means they need to survive the Imperial Court contest, thus they need to have a keen eye, in order to be part of the victors."
"This inheritance is not simple at all. It seems that to get it, I will need to interpret the cipher." Fang Yuan concluded.
Light in the soil, shine up to a hundred thousand feet high, swimming in the sky for a hundred li, praising plum fragrant snow.
What was this cipher trying to say?
Fang Yuan thought about it but he got no answers. Even though he had many thoughts, none of them lead to any conclusive ideas.
"Nevermind, I'll leave it at that. There is still some time left inside Imperial Court blessed land."
Fang Yuan flapped his wings and flew, bringing the wolf group with him towards the blessed land's central sacred palace. That was the most important part of his plan, he spent so much time disguising himself, it was all in order to enter Imperial Court blessed land.
Obtaining landscape as before Gu was his top priority, but other than that, it was the inheritance of Giant Sun Immortal Venerable inside Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.
Not must him, most of the strong Gu Masters would choose to go to the sacred palace.
The sacred palace was the central area of Imperial Court blessed land, it was the essence of the blessed land.
The sacred palace was one of the four resting chambers of Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, it was also his most important resting chamber. His other chambers were in eastern sea, western desert and southern border.
In central continent, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had an even larger and grander resting chamber in the sky, it was situated within Longevity Heaven.
In history, there were ten rank nine Gu Masters, known as 'Immortal Venerable' and 'Demon Venerable'.
These ten existed across the long river of time, from the immemorial antiquity era to the remote antiquity era, to the olden antiquity era, to the medieval antiquity era, and finally, the late antiquity era. Each one of them was the absolute expert of their time, they were unparalleled and invincible in the world. At the same time, they each had their specialities and unique abilities, they were all very different.
The bloodthirsty Spectral Soul Demon Venerable, the mysterious Red Lotus Demon Venerable, the knowledgeable Star Constellation Immortal Venerable, the peaceful Paradise Earth Immortal Venerable...
Similarly, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable was also a person full of legends and incredible stories.
He was a demonic path Gu Master born of northern plains. He was always lucky and fortunate in his life, having lots of good events. Not only could he avoid dangers, he could even turn them into blessings.
After he became a demonic path Gu Immortal, he was a casonova and toyed with women everywhere, no one could restrain him. Even the number one fairy of Spirit Affinity House in central continent back then, one of the top ten sects, became his wife.
Because of that, he became an external supreme elder of Spirit Affinity House, and converted over to the righteous path.
Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had a dissolute nature, after becoming an Immortal Venerable, and ascending to the Immortal Court, he became the fourth generation Immortal King. He next build five great resting chambers, and had over several tens of millions of concubines.
He was extremely energetic, when he was a thousand years old, he was still taking in young girls from all over the world to expand his harem.
Thus, among all of the venerables, he had the most offsprings.
He had too many children, he could not even remember most of their names.
These children were spread all over the five regions. Right now, they were mostly concentrated in northern plains, and those Gu Master who had Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's bloodline, were collectively known as the Huang Jin family.
"Women are like clothes while brothers are like our hands and feet.""Hereditary monarchy!""Beauty is the natural dowry of a woman.""I wish I could marry every single woman in the world!" All these were his catchphrases.
Even though time flowed mercilessly, and eras changed, he still left behind a dazzling proof of his glorious existence in history.
Especially in northern plains, Huang Jin family controlled nearly the entire region, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable was still influencing every generation thus far.
Sacred palace, the central control hall.
Night.
The silvery brilliant light shone on Hei Lou Lan's face.
He raised his head as he looked at a plaque on the central control hall. His giant bear-like body stood upright under the silver light.
As the alliance leader, with the Huang Jin bloodline flowing in him, once he entered Imperial Court blessed land, he would automatically arrive in the sacred palace.
This plaque in the central control hall was huge. It was sixty meters long, twenty-five meters wide, and there were two huge words on it — Hereditary Monarchy!
The golden light shining off it was clear and dazzling.
The central control hall was huge and grand, like the house of a giant. Under this plaque, even Hei Lou Lan's fat body seemed tiny.
"Hereditary monarchy huh..." He looked with a complicated expression, there was pain and hatred, admiration, anger, and aloofness.
"Lord." Cunning Gentleman Sun Shi Han came over, calling out softly.
"What is the matter?" Hei Lou Lan turned around, his expression had been completely sealed away, he returned to his usual arrogant, boorish, and irritable attitude.
Cunning Gentleman did not feel anything amiss as he took out a letter from his pocket, reporting: "This is Sole Blade General Pan Ping's letter. He said in the letter that Wolf King Chang Shan Yin devoured an inheritance alone, extorting him in public and made very vile actions. He hopes lord can seek justice for him."
"Oh?" Hei Lou Lan stretched out his fat right arm.
Cunning Gentleman quickly passed the letter to him with both hands.
"Lord, I am not trying to be nosy, but this Chang Shan Yin is getting more overbearing. He actually bullied and humiliated his own alliance mate. Sigh, Lord Pan Ping was too kind hearted, he thought about old relationships and wanted to share an inheritance with Chang Shan Yin. But the result was that he was treated like this. Wolf King Chang Shan Yin has great merits indeed, but this does not mean he can act as he wish. Otherwise, if everyone was like him, wouldn't we be in complete chaos?"
Cunning Gentleman carefully chose his words while Hei Lou Lan was reading the letter.
Hei Lou Lan snorted, stretching out his hand: "Hand it over."
"Ah, lord you mean..." Cunning Gentleman was shocked.
"This is only Pan Ping's side of the story, Zhu Zai should've sent a letter too." Hei Lou Lan had a sharp gaze. @@novelbin@@
Cunning Gentleman quickly laughed: "Lord is truly wise and mighty, I am in complete awe."
Hei Lou Lan took the second letter and swept through the content, he was expressionless and Sun Shi Han could not read his intentions at all.
This letter was merely Zhu Zai seeking credit for his actions, combined with the first letter, Hei Lou Lan understood what had happened.
He squeezed with his hand and the two letters were corroded into nothingness by a dark light.
"After Pan Ping and the others arrive, go to the supply camp and give them some compensation." Hei Lou Lan instructed.
"Yes, lord." Cunning Gentleman bowed, but after a while, he raised his head in confusion as Hei Lou Lan did not speak further: "Are we not punishing that Wolf King Chang Shan Yin?"
"Punish? What a joke!" Hei Lou Lan laughed: "Why do I need to punish him? If it was me, I would've done the same time. Except I would not do it in such an ugly way."
Sun Shi Han was indignant, urging: "Lord, I am different opinions. This Wolf King Chang Shan Yin regards himself highly and is untamable, we cannot tolerate his actions. Although he has great achievements, without lord's tribe funding him, would he have such a huge wolf group? He is a northern plains hero, he has great reputation. If lord does not punish him, he is just going to become more overbearing. In fact, he might even overthrow you and in the end, everyone would know the name of Chang Shan Yin, but not lord's name."
"Hahaha."
"Lord, why are you laughing?"
"Shi Han, you're overthinking it. After this happened, what reputation would Chang Shan Yin still have? Bullying the weak because he is strong, greedily taking an inheritance for himself, it would ruin his reputation. Furthermore, he does not have the Huang Jin bloodline, without a guest token, he cannot enter the True Yang Building."
After pausing for a while, Hei Lou Lan continued: "From this matter, we can see that Chang Shan Yin is only a mortal. He has desires, and greed, that makes things easy. Moreover, I have Chang tribe and Ge tribe in my hands now. He is already rank five peak stage, such a genius like him would definitely want to progress further. But I will only reveal to him the method to reach Gu Immortal realm after he joins Hei tribe."
"I know you hate Chang Shan Yin, but later, I still need him when challenging True Yang Building. Do not bother me in the future with such tiny matters. Do you understand?"
"Yes lord." Cunning Gentleman lowered his head, his voice slightly trembling.
"Mm, you may leave."
"This subordinate takes his leave." Sun Shi Han brought his disappointment with him as he left the central control hall.
-x-X-x-
The wind was blowing past the ears.
In the golden sky, brilliant rays were shining down.
The azure wolf group moved in the sky, as Fang Yuan rode the azure wolf king, allowing the wind to blow his hair backwards.
His gaze was solemn, he was pondering internally. These days, he had been trying to decipher the quote from Di Qiu inheritance, but he was making no progress.
A glorious palace gradually appeared in his vision, emerging from the plain horizon.
Sensing this, Fang Yuan looked over as he swept the scattered thoughts in his mind away.
A trace of relief flashed past his face.
Sacred palace, he was finally there!
As Fang Yuan got closer, the large palace slowly showed its full features.
It had eight levels, each was about two kilometers tall. The first level, which was the bottom level, had the greatest surface area. The second level was above the first level, and so on.
Each level had walls around it, forming a hollow tube.
The snow-white walls were nine meters thick, the walls were joined together with no gaps. On the walls, there were rainbow colors towers at set intervals. Each tower had different colors, red, orange, yellow, green, azure, blue, purple, respectively.
After many levels were stacked together, the entire sacred palace looked like a tall mountain.
As Fang Yuan got closer, it was as if the sacred palace was rising from the ground, shooting up and piercing the heavens!
Grand and spectacular, the sacred palace!
Even with Fang Yuan's depth of knowledge, he was gasping in admiration when he saw this.
"What's that thing flying in the sky 1 ?"
"Wolf King has arrived!"
"Just like what the information said, that should be the azure wolf group."
Fang Yuan's arrival attracted the attention of the Gu Masters inside the sacred palace.
At this point, there were almost ten thousand people in the sacred palace. These people were lucky, after entering the blessed land, they landed close to the sacred palace. Thus, they were earlier than Fang Yuan.
Hei Lou Lan had given instructed already, thus the Gu Master tasked to welcome him quickly reacted.
When Fang Yuan landed, there were already people standing at the huge gate of the first level.
The moment Fang Yuan's myriad wolf king touched the ground, the escort Gu Master came to greet him: "Lord Wolf King, you have arrived. It is my honor to bring you into the city. Your place is residence is on the eighth level, we have already prepared the room for you."
"Mm, no rush, bring me around the place first." Fang Yuan said lightly, getting off the azure wolf. As a form of respect to Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, Gu Masters were not allowed to ride their steed inside the sacred palace, they could only walk.
"As you wish lord, this is my honor."
Fang Yuan followed the escort Gu into the sacred palace.
Inside the sacred palace, there were large numbers of pavilions and terraces, palaces and courtyards. Looking from outside, the edges of the roof were curved outside, they were silver and golden in color, looking magnificent and grand.
All sorts of buildings were interconnected. At some places, there was lots of free space and buildings were huge. At some places, the pathways were intercrossed and halls were everywhere, making it easy to get lost.
As for the interior of the pavilion hall, be it the pillars or the main support, they were carved with lots of beautiful images and decorations, it radiated an aura of prosperity.
"Lord, this is entertainment palace, the noble ancestor Giant Sun would hold a grand music festival here in this palace daily when he lived here. According to history, during each festival, there would be large numbers of concubines fighting to present their dance, in order to get ancestor Giant Sun's attention."
"Lord, this is spring soup hall, it has the largest hot spring in northern plains. Ancestor Giant Sun would come here weekly with a thousand concubines, to soak in the water and have fun."
"This is floating scent yard, ancestor Giant Sun had once moved the legendary 'wine pool' and 'meat forest' here. Every morning, the meat forest would produce all sorts of delicious meat fruits. At night, the wine pool would produce lots of fragrant wine."
The escort Gu Master introduced each area they went to, he was very eloquent.
Fang Yuan walked casually, looking around, he found it very interesting.
At the sacred palace's fourth level, the escort Gu Master brought Fang Yuan into the main palace.
"Lord, this is one of the eight main palaces of sacred palace, drawing palace. Ancestor Giant Sun was very talented, he was very skilled at drawing beauties. All of the drawings inside this palace were done by him alone. Please come this way."
The escort Gu Master opened the side door of the palace, inviting Fang Yuan in.
The eight main palaces of sacred palace had main doors, but only Giant Sun Immortal Venerable could use them. Although he was dead already, this rule was passed down, and his descendants followed this rule as a form of respect and reverence towards Giant Sun Immortal Venerable.
Once they entered the palace, a large wall of drawings filled Fang Yuan's vision.
There were nothing in this drawing palace, but huge walls. On these walls, there were all sorts of beauties, alluring ones, innocent ones, smiling ones, or those deep in thought. They were in all sorts of postures and positions, there were eighty thousand drawings!
"Those that were drawn here were well-liked by ancestor Giant Sun for a period of time. Of course, it is a woman's greatest honor to be hand-drawn by a venerable. Ancestor Giant Sun had lots of concubines, but those recorded here were the cream of the crop, they could be preserved eternally here."
The escort Gu master said with a look of admiration.
Fang Yuan did not speak, he only looked and thought to himself: "I wouldn't call this eternally. At least in my previous five hundred years, Imperial Court blessed land was destroyed by central continent Gu Immortals, and the sacred palace became history. Sigh, true immortality is something that not even someone as strong as an Immortal Venerable could achieve..."
When people came here, they would be stunned by the sacred palace's grand and imposing aura, even if they were not overwhelmed, they would feel great admiration.
But Fang Yuan could sense a trace of decay and rot in this brilliance.
Without eternal life, so what if you were as strong as a venerable? @@novelbin@@
Even the casanova Giant Sun had turned into ashes now. His traces were still here, proving his existence, but in Fang Yuan's opinion, such a proof was filled with the mockery of failure, it was truly pitiful.
His interest had waned.
"Let's go, bring me to the eighth level's accommodation." Fang Yuan sighed, instruction.
The escort Gu Master got out of his daze and said hesitantly: "But lord, sacred palace has a lot of famous sites, we just started! Other than these, there are also beauty palace, young girl palace, alluring palace, innocent palace, and unique scent palace. Back then, female variant humans lived there, there were even hairy men. There is also jade statue palace, meant to sculpt beauties, and offer them to the ancestor."
The escort Gu Master was anxious, all these places that he mentioned were not accessible with his status.
He wanted to use this chance to satisfy his curiosity.
But Fang Yuan did not fulfill his wish.
During Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's final years, he rarely went to the mortal realm to stay in sacred palace. He lived in Longevity Heaven, in a reclusive manner.
As for northern plains, large numbers of girls would be chosen for him to fill the sacred palace.
The last time Giant Sun Immortal Venerable came to the sacred palace, he did not meet these girls, instead he built the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building and established the rules for the Imperial Court contest, before vanishing from this world completely.
The sacred palace thus faded out of history and those beautiful yet pitiful women became sparrows trapped in cages.
Although Imperial Court blessed land was huge, it had no freedom, it was a prison even though the place was large.
Eventually, they stayed there obediently and exhausted their lifespan. They could not escape, and no one had the guts to save them either.
Under Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's glorious and noble light, countless women were buried in pain, grudge, and sadness.
In Fang Yuan's eyes, the sacred palace did not have high value.
It was merely Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's inheritance, no Gu Masters dared to set up their inheritance here. As for the precious resources he left behind, they had been taken by previous generations of Gu Masters already. Even the central continent Gu Immortals who came later could not find anything valuable.
The only thing valuable in the sacred palace, was also the entire Imperial Court blessed land, no, more accurately, the most valuable thing in northern plains.
That was at the peak of the eighth level — Eighty-Eight True Yang Building!
As Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had suggested, the Gu house made by Long Hair Ancestor personally.
Rank eight Immortal Gu!
But now was not the time.
At the peak of the eighth level, it was complete emptiness. Only when the ten year blizzard strike would the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building show up.
In the following days, Fang Yuan lived in seclusion, cultivating as he waited for True Yang Building to open.
The azure wolf group was taken care of by others, he did not need to bother with it.
During this period, Hei Lou Lan sent people to invite him, and revealed the intention to recruit him.
To join Hei tribe, and become an external elder?
Towards this suggestion, Fang Yuan said he needed to consider it. Although he showed a moved expression, he would definitely refuse this in this heart.
Human skin Gu could disguise him as Wolf King, but it was a mortal Gu, the investigation of an Immortal Gu could expose him.
The recruitment of external elders was a common trick used by northern plains' super forces. This way, demonic path Gu Immortals could become become righteous, and it would help the Huang Jin tribes greatly in managing northern plains.
As for the incident on Xing Jiu peak, Hei Lou Lan did not mention a word about it. There was a rumor growing however, that Wolf King was extremely overbearing, describing his actions on Xing Jiu peak as vile and evil, using his strength to suppress the weak, the description was extremely biased but it sounded very convincing.
Fang Yuan laughed in his heart, someone was obviously trying to ruin his reputation behind the scenes.
"It is likely to be Pan Ping or Sun Shi Han who has motives to do this, or even Hei Lou Lan. But so what if my reputation turns sour?"
Back then, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had a terrible reputation, he was a demonic Gu Master who toyed with women all over the region. But now? He was a revered Immortal Venerable!
When he expanded his harem, how many women's lives and happiness were ruined by him?
But now, no one publicly accused him of anything.
In this world, strength was everything.
On Earth, one had to be mindful of rumors, it was easy to ruin a person's life with some malicious lies. But that was because they were all mortals, the laws of the world was different, individuals could not surpass the power of society.
But here, it was different.
That was one of the reasons why Fang Yuan loved this world.
Half a month later, there was a water-like ripple in the golden sky.
The entire land started shaking.
Out of nowhere, there was wind as a piercing light shone at the peak of the sacred palace.
The light lasted for forty-five minutes, as it gradually dispersed. A tower appeared at a previously barren area.
Eighty-Eight True Yang Building!