Tai Bai Yun Sheng sat on the chair, he was stunned before laughing and scolding: "Junior brother, you're making fun of me! I've heard this phrase countless times, ever since I started my cultivation journey, its been ringing in my head. Even mortals are familiar with the phrase."
Fang Yuan nodded, there was a hint of arrogance in his tone, he spoke: "The origin of this phrase is the first rank nine Gu Immortal in human history, it was said by Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable. He was the creator of Central Continent's Heavenly Court, it has remained standing up until now, through many eras, never falling to the corrosion of time. This phrase is extremely brilliant, it is the golden rule of Gu Master cultivation, having being passed down since long ago, it is even more popular than <
Tai Bai Yun Sheng heard this and straightened his body, he looked at Fang Yuan with shining eyes as he said again: "Please enlighten me."
Fang Yuan said slowly: "Man is the spirit of all livings beings, among all living beings, humans have the highest intelligence and comprehension ability, we can understand heaven and earth and experience the Great Dao. Gu are the essence of heaven and earth, they are very unique among living beings, Gu worms contain meager traces of the Great Dao in their bodies, while Immortal Gu contain fragments of the Great Dao. Thus, they are the essence of heaven and earth."
"What is dao? Water flows downwards, humans die from hunger, trees grow because of rain and fertilizers, these are all dao. Gu Masters use Gu worms, they can light up fire, make rivers flow upwards, shoot out lightning, heal injuries, these are also dao."
"Humans nurture, use, and refine Gu, they are making use of the Gu worms to display the might of heaven and earth. By living and procreating, they eventually understand the laws of the world. After becoming a Gu Immortal, the aperture becomes an immortal aperture, and dao marks are carved on the body. One could say that Gu Masters are nurturing 'dao' when they nurture Gu worms, they are using 'dao' when they use Gu worms, and they are refining 'dao' when they refine Gu worms. There are Gu Masters of all sorts of paths, strength path, fire path, time path, poison path, these are all created by our predecessors who walked on an unknown path, a cultivation path that they created step by step."
Saying so, Fang Yuan paused before saying: "So in other words, when Gu Masters cultivate, they are basically cultivating dao."
"When Gu Masters cultivate, they are basically cultivating Dao..." Tai Bai Yun Sheng sat on the chair, he frowned as he thought over Fang Yuan's words.
The more he muttered it, the more he felt the extreme brilliance of Fang Yuan's conclusion.
This was truly directed at the core of the issue, to him, it was as if he felt clouds parting, he could see the clear skies!
At this point, Fang Yuan continued: "Let's talk about the foundation of a Gu Immortal's cultivation — the immortal aperture. The immortal aperture is the blessed land or grotto-heaven, it is a small world that contains dao in it. This kind of dao cannot compare to the world of the five regions, it is only expressed in dao marks."
"Take my Hu Immortal blessed land as an example, it has the basic time path dao marks, thus it can draw in a tributary of the river of time, allowing the concept of time to exist in the blessed land, and for time to flow. It also has a rather large number of space path dao marks, thus the blessed land is large, even after losing the north area, it still is very large. Hu Immortal land spirit can even teleport freely. In blessed lands with few space path dao marks, they have a smaller area and the land spirit cannot teleport. It is most abundant in enslavement path dao marks, precisely because of these dao marks, Hu Immortal blessed land is helpful for raising foxes, in addition, it can help in enslaving beast groups that are similar in body structure to foxes, and can even promote the growth of desolate beasts."
Tai Bai Yun Sheng nodded and said in agreement: "That is absolutely correct! In my Tai Bai blessed land, it is most numerous in time path dao marks, thus my time based resources are very abundant. One day in the outside world is thirty-three days in my blessed land. It has the least earth path dao marks, thus there are no mountains in my blessed land, and the soil is infertile as well. In terms of space path dao marks, it is only ordinary, in total, the area is not large, but the sky is very high."
He said this as his eyes shined brightly, he gained some understanding.
"That is why I said the offense and defense of a blessed land only is based at one thing, that is, the composition of dao marks in the blessed land." Fang Yuan continued.
"Blessed lands are a small world, why can they restrict enemies and seal their Gu worms? The reason is because of the large number of dao marks in the blessed land, it is like a pond. Mortal Gu contain traces of dao, they are like drops of water, sparks of fire. One drop of water entering the pond would be fused into it easily. One spark of fire entering the pond will get extinguished easily. Thus, once the dao marks in the blessed land are activated, the heavenly power would be enforced and mortal Gu would lose effect."
"Why are Immortal Gu unrestricted by blessed lands? Because Immortal Gu are the law fragments, they are unique entities, just like a rock. When a rock is tossed into a pond, no matter how the surface ripples, the entry of the rock cannot be stopped. But although it cannot be sealed, it can be suppressed. When an Immortal Gu is used in blessed lands to battle, its power would be weakened or strengthened by the blessed land's dao marks."
"As for Gu Immortals, when they invade blessed lands, they would be suppressed by the dao marks as well. But Gu Immortals have an immortal body, they are fundamentally different from mortals. What are immortal bodies, to put it simply, they are bodies that have dao marks carved on them! When Gu Immortals invade blessed land, the more dao marks in the blessed land, the more suppression the Gu Immortal would feel. In contrast, the more dao marks on the Gu Immortal's body, the less suppression they would experience."
In his past life, Fang Yuan was a blood path Gu Immortal. He could not enter many of the fragment worlds of the immemorial nine heavens. That was because these fragment worlds had sparse dao marks, they were far fewer than the dao marks in his body. If Fang Yuan entered them, it would be like a tiger entering a rabbit's cage, the only result would be that the fragment world would burst, causing the fragment world's dao marks to be destroyed, the winds of assimilation would blow and destroy all of the resources in the fragment world.
Or looking at another example, the demons and Dong Fang Chang Fan had been fighting in Jade Pool blessed land.
Dong Fang Chang Fan used his territorial advantage and caused the Gu Immortals to be unable to use their mortal Gu, but he could not seal their immortal killer moves.
This was because Jade Pool blessed land was a public blessed land, even though it had a lot of dao marks, it was very mixed. Dong Fang Chang Fan could not mobilize all of the dao marks, he could only control the part of the blessed land that he contributed. Thus, its power was limited. He could not even cause the flying Gu Immortals to land on the ground.
Not all Gu Immortals possessed immortal killer moves for flying.
But Gu Immortals have dao marks in their bodies, they can resist the suppression of the blessed land's dao marks. The demonic path Gu Immortals' mortal killer moves had no effect against Dong Fang Chang Fan, but the mortal killer moves used on their own bodies still had effect.
"Truly insightful, truly insightful!" Tai Bai Yun Sheng was struck by realization, he sighed: "I understand. Public blessed lands have weak defenses, why is that? That is because they are formed by numerous Gu Immortals sacrificing a portion of their blessed lands, they were pieced together. These types of blessed lands are very mixed in dao mark varieties, they cancel out each other and cannot form a cohesive strength, it is like having a finger each from five people, they can only act individually, they cannot form into a fist."
"Blessed land that have a sole origin also have dao marks that are pure. If there are land spirits, they can expend immortal essence and mobilize the dao marks to use the heavenly power. Immortal Gu are the law fragments, there are dao marks on the desolate beasts' bodies, Gu Immortals have been mentioned already, Immortal Gu Houses are formed by combining Immortal Gu, while immortal killer moves are the fusion of many types of dao marks, they are an effect or great power formed from varying sources."
"Thus, be it the blessed land or grotto-heaven, the purer the dao marks, the harder it is to take down. Land spirit, immortal essence, they are all to assist the use of dao marks. Looking at Imperial Court blessed land, if not for the land spirit and Eighty-Eight True Yang Building contesting against each other, if it was fully protected, how could it be destroyed?"
Saying this, Tai Bai Yun Sheng left his seat, he straightened his back and faced Fang Yuan, bowing: "After hearing your words, Fang Yuan, I have truly felt enlightened, my questions are answered, I have gained much from it. From today onwards, I would not dare to call you junior brother, a skilled person is a teacher, on the road of cultivation, you have already surpassed me."
"Hehehe, Old Bai, today, we are just having a casual conversation. You do not need to be humble, you know this reasoning deep within yourself, you were just not as clear on it as me." Fang Yuan waved his hand, he was very calm and collected.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng's face was austere: "No, although the reasoning is simple, it is extremely brilliant. The word 'dao' is indeed more brilliant than the phrase 'man is the spirit of all livings beings, Gu are the essence of heaven and earth'. I was quite ignorant in the past, only now have I seen the essence of Gu Master cultivation. This reasoning, I am afraid ordinary Gu Immortals have not comprehended it yet."
Fang Yuan showed a slight smile.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng's words were not exaggerated.
In truth, the reason he could understand this was because he had the advantage of being a transmigrator.
In the previous life of his previous life, Earth was greatly developed in the field of science. Laws of mechanics, trigonometry, acceleration, density, specific heat capacity and others, weren't all these the laws of nature?
From this aspect, science is also a form of cultivation. 'Give me a fulcrum and I shall move the Earth.' This classic sentence, when used in the Gu world, would be 'Give me a Gu worm, and I can give off light and heat. Give me all the Gu worms, and I will be omnipotent!'
Because he had experiences from two worlds, Fang Yuan could observe this world from another angle, he could understand logic that others could not sense or comprehend.
But in the Gu Master world, was there nobody who can understand this reasoning?
How could that be!
There were lots of people who understood, Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable was one of them. 'Man is the spirit of all livings beings, Gu are the essence of heaven and earth', this was a more detailed and easily understood explanation of 'Dao', Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable said it to aid in educating people of the future, it led to the development of inheritances of various paths, he had a different objective.
Anyone who could understand this was someone of high position, a Gu Immortal that stood up high, after looking at their cultivation journey over their entire life, they could conclude this.
Ordinary Gu Masters were living in the mortal world, ordinary Gu Immortals were busy dealing with their calamities and tribulations, why would they have time to think about such 'useless' things? Whether they could understand this reasoning or not, their lives would not be affected.
In the end, it was only a way of thinking.
But one could not look down on this way of thinking.
Gunpowder was first used to refine pills in ancient China. When exposed to other civilizations, it had been developed into use for guns and cannons. The ingenuity of Chinese civilization was unquestionable, but modern Earth was on the path of science, and the western world's contribution was the greatest.
Different streams of thought would prevail in separate societies when viewing the world, and two different civilizations would be created.
Between civilizations, one could not say which was superior or inferior, they were specialized in different things.
Thus, Tai Bai Yun Sheng, who was part of the Gu Master civilization, heard Fang Yuan's words and was deeply enlightened. From his perspective, he could feel that Fang Yuan's understanding was much higher than him, he did not dare to call him junior brother anymore.
A skilled person is a teacher.
If he continued to call Fang Yuan 'junior brother', Tai Bai Yun Sheng would feel extremely embarrassed inwardly.
There was a type of feeling called humiliation of being inferior, Tai Bai Yun Sheng was currently in such a state.
The two talked for some more time before Tai Bai Yun Sheng said his goodbyes to Fang Yuan.
Even though they had always communicated with each other using Gu, after a face-to-face conversation, any distance between them had vanished.
Fang Yuan had lived in two worlds, his manipulation techniques were extremely amazing. After a simple 'conversation about dao', he left a deep impression in Tai Bai Yun Sheng, making the latter have a feeling of inferiority.
-x-X-x-
After learning that Tai Bai Yun Sheng had returned to Hu Immortal blessed land, Fairy Li Shan rushed to Hu Immortal blessed land as quickly as possible.
Right now in Snowy Mountain, Old Ancestor Xue Hu was present all the time, Tai Bai Yun Sheng was an outsider and had a sensitive identity, he could not go there anymore.
Thus, the best location was still Hu Immortal blessed land.
Because Tai Bai Yun Sheng had the experience of saving Dang Hun mountain, this process did not have any issues, it was completed uneventfully.
Fairy Li Shan's pale face let out a sigh, after getting past this difficulty, a weight on her mind had finally been lifted.
But she still had severe injuries on her, she needed to recuperate.
"Wait a moment." Fairy Li Shan was about to return to Snowy Mountain blessed land, but Fang Yuan stopped her.
"I have a huge transaction, I wonder if you are interested?" Fang Yuan talked about his plan.
He did not have the wealth to refine Immortal Gu.
But that did not mean that the combination of Tai Bai Yun Sheng, Fairy Li Shan, Hei Lou Lan, and Fang Yuan could not afford it.
"Right now, Fairy Jiang Yu's whereabouts are unknown, and to take dark limit Immortal Gu, we do not have a technique like that of Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable, it would be very difficult. I obtained an immortal killer move from Dong Fang Chang Fan's inheritance, it is called star fog concealment, it can conceal one from heavenly secrets and is suitable for us."
Fairy Li Shan's words immediately interested Fairy Li Shan and Hei Lou Lan, who was beside her.
But after hearing that star fog concealment needed two Immortal Gu as the core to activate it, Fairy Li Shan smiled bitterly as she shook her head: "Refining an Immortal Gu is already beyond our capabilities, two Immortal Gu are an impossible task."
Now, although restoring Miniscule Mountain saved Fairy Li Shan a huge amount of expenses, the injuries on her body still needed to be healed by other Gu Immortals, there was also Old Ancestor Xue Hu's missions that had been given to her, and the fact that she was sponsoring Hei Lou Lan to cultivate all along, her deep financial power was at its limits.
She was in difficult circumstances with funds, just like Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan had no choice, he could only come up with another investment plan.
He suggested: By gathering the wealth of all four of them, they could purchase knowledge and experiences of raising hairy men, and buy hairy man slaves in bulk. They could also raise the scale of the stone nests, increasing the production of airsac Gu, to increase the amount of guts Gu traded. The four can split the profits after that.
This plan was much cheaper than refining Immortal Gu.
But he was rejected by Fairy Li Shan: "Fang Yuan, have you thought about Immortal Crane Sect's reaction? Your guts Gu trade is a monopoly, it is extremely profitable and has attracted much attention. If you increase the scale of production, Immortal Crane Sect is bound to become even more jealous, if the balance in their mindsets change, they might target Hu Immortal blessed land again, what will you do then? We have enough trouble already, the less complications, the better."
Fang Yuan was silently before replying: "You are right, forget about it."
After Fairy Li Shan returned to Snowy Mountain blessed land, Hei Lou Lan stayed in a stone nest to refine airsac Gu for Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan's two suggestions did not succeed. He was unresigned, after returning to Dang Hun palace, he contacted Lang Ya land spirit.
The hairy men in Lang Ya blessed land were the best quality he had ever seen. Even in a high end market like treasure yellow heaven, none of the hairy men were as skilful as the ones in Lang Ya blessed land.
From this, one could easily guess that Lang Ya land spirit had the best methods to raise hairy men as well as rich experience in doing so.
Fang Yuan did not have immortal essence stones, but he had the wisdom path inheritance, many Immortal Gu recipes, and he had a huge amount of immortal materials, they were all things that Lang Ya land spirit desired.
Could he use these to make a transaction with Lang Ya land spirit?
Fang Yuan started with hope, but he ended with disappointment. Lang Ya land spirit's attitude was firm, it was like an iron wall with no way of getting through.
"You're targeting the hairy men? Don't even think about it! If you want to trade with me, there is only one way, by completing the task!" Lang Ya land spirit repeated the task again, he wanted that rank six immortal material, poisonous flower petals.
Fang Yuan was slightly interested, he thought about it as he asked: "If I can get this immortal material for you, can you sell me some hairy man slaves, or a portion of your experience in raising them?"
Lang Ya land spirit waved his sleeves in rejection: "Impossible, anything involving hairy men is not for sale, you should forget about this idea! But if you can find the immortal material I want, I can give you the Gu recipes of all-out effort Gu. In fact, I not only have the rank one to five Gu recipes of all-out effort Gu, I also have the rank six all-out effort Immortal Gu recipe! Isn't this something you need?"
Lang Ya land spirit tossed out this bait, it indeed enticed Fang Yuan, but he was also a little angry internally.
Lang Ya land spirit was trying to make use of Fang Yuan, but could it be so easy to get this immortal material?
The danger was too great, Fang Yuan would have to risk his life.
As the saying goes, a fall in a pit, a gain in one's wit. How many times had Fang Yuan taken advantage of Lang Ya land spirit?
The Northern Plains auction was simply too much of a loss for the land spirit, the pain was so great that the land spirit had come to a realization.
That was why Lang Ya land spirit became so hard to deal with, the reason was Fang Yuan.
Investment or effort leads to reward, the reverse is also true, any reward would have its price.
Fang Yuan obtained so much in immortal materials for essentially no cost, the price was that his relationship with Lang Ya land spirit became ice cold.
Land spirits were formed by the fusion of obsession and heavenly power, they were very stubborn. Even though they could not lie, once they made up their minds, they would not easily change it.
Thus, suddenly, Fang Yuan could not do anything. Lang Ya blessed land could not provide him any more help, there was no need to ask Lang Ya land spirit for any investments.
His plan failed, Fang Yuan sighed as he placed his attention on the blessed land's calamity.
Two days later.
"Myriad self giant hand, rise!"
Fang Yuan activated his immortal killer move, four of the eight strength path hands grabbed on four sides of Dang Hun mountain as it lifted, while the other four lifted the base of it into the air.
Dang Hun mountain rose up rapidly, it was tens of meters away from the ground in no time.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng was floating in the air, seeing this, he was stunned.
At a stone nest, Hei Lou Lan looked from far away at the huge Dang Hun mountain floating in the air, she muttered to herself: "In such a short time, he got stronger again..."
It was much easier now for Fang Yuan to lift Dang Hun mountain. Not only because he was using eight strength path hands, but because he had already completely fused pulling mountain Immortal Gu into the killer move myriad self, making it part of its core.
Originally, myriad self's core was cleanse soul Immortal Gu. After cleanse soul Immortal Gu was starving, it could not be used anymore, so he used Self Strength instead. But now, the core of myriad self killer move became two Gu, one was Self Strength, the other was Pulling Mountain.
"Don't just stare, take it." Fang Yuan shouted.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng quickly opened up his immortal aperture, as the eight strength path giant hands brought Dang Hun mountain into his blessed land slowly.
"Alright, next, the land spirit will lead you to collect several resources in the blessed land." Fang Yuan said.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng nodded, under Little Hu Immortal's control, he vanished in front of Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan landed on the ground.
Without Dang Hun mountain, the center of the blessed land was very empty.
He sat there and closed his eyes, mobilizing time luck Immortal Gu as countless mortal Gu flew up from within his immortal aperture, his dead land.
As beads of green grape immortal essence were consumed, with time luck Immortal Gu as the core, and the surrounding mortal Gu acting as support, a huge white-gold mist of light was formed.
The mist of light entered the air, flying across the grey sky for several li, towards a group of Gu Master captives.
These captives were from Dong Fang tribe.
Earlier, they were imprisoned by Fang Yuan in an underground cell, now, they were taken out and placed in his immortal aperture.
As the mist of light covered them, these captives screamed in shock: "What is this thing?"
They had an ominous feeling within themselves, they wanted to dodge but they were restrained and could not move.
The white-gold mist of light circulated around them, initially slowly but growing faster, it soon spun quickly as it form a spiral of white-gold light.
The white-gold light spiral circulated for a while before exploding into a white-gold colored light pillar.
Immortal killer move —Time Assist Luck!
The light pillar penetrated out of Fang Yuan's immortal aperture, it went all the way up along Fang Yuan's spine, until it shot out of Fang Yuan's head, into the sky.
After several breaths of time, the light pillar vanished.
At the same time, the white-gold spiral in Fang Yuan's immortal aperture was consumed. On the rotting ground, there were corpses of all the Dong Fang tribe captives.
These corpses were all dried-out and old, they were originally young people, but they were now extremely aged.
Time assist luck had such an effect. It snatched the lifespan of others to give the Gu Immortal a temporary boost in his own luck.
"I won't give in!"
"You killed us, you murderer, we will haunt you even as ghosts!"
"For your own selfish reasons, you murdered us innocent souls, you are a sinner, you are a murderer!"
"Ahhhhh, eat him, eat him."
Suddenly, a large number of vengeful remnant spirits came out of Fang Yuan's body, they twisted around his soul and were attacking him fiercely.
Fang Yuan snickered, his tall immortal zombie body was unmoving like a mountain.
The soul in his body had already counterattacked, colliding with these souls.
These souls were very tattered and were originally were mortal souls, it was reasonable to say that they were not worth mentioning, but at this point, Fang Yuan's soul was being suppressed by them!
Thankfully, they did not have intelligence, they could not cooperate.
Fang Yuan moved his soul and killed them one by one, he paid a huge price but he exterminated these souls.
After the battle, Fang Yuan's soul was thirty percent of its original size, it was dim and resembled a flickering candle, it was barely alight, its injuries could be said to be severe.
But thankfully, he had guts Gu.
He crushed airsac Gu one after another, the guts Gu inside broke as well, turning into the purest form of nourishment for his soul to strengthen and recover.
A moment later, Fang Yuan's soul completely recovered, it was back at its peak condition.
Compared to before, his soul was more refined, it was like forged steel, becoming more compact and durable.
"The backlash of remnant souls is time assist luck killer move's greatest weakness, but after the soul battle ends, when my soul recovers, there is some advantage of refining the soul." Fang Yuan could clearly discern the benefits and weaknesses of this move.
-x-X-x-
Time assist luck increased one's luck without expending one's own lifespan, but it had two big disadvantages.
First was the backlash of the remnant souls. Because of the immortal killer move, the remnant souls become extremely fierce, and in the dangerous battle of souls, one could not use any soul path methods and had to rely on their own soul to battle. Thus, even soul path Gu Immortals often suffered severe damage to their soul after the battle of souls.
Second was that time assist luck could only be used once a month, and this related to the amount of time experienced by the immortal body.
What was meant by the time experienced by the immortal body?
Blessed lands and grotto-heavens had different rates of time flow compared to the outside world. For instance, one day in the outside world could be over fifteen days in the blessed land. If the Gu Immortal was in the outside world, the time experienced by their immortal body was one day. If they were in the blessed land, the same time in the outside world experienced by the immortal body would be fifteen days.
The length of a Gu Immortal's lifespan was the total amount of time their immortal body experienced.
Fang Yuan took back time luck Immortal Gu as well as the other mortal Gu, and subconsciously gazed upwards.
"It's a pity that I don't have luck inspection Immortal Gu and cannot inspect the change in my luck. I also can't tell how effective the killer move, time assist luck is. Oh? Right, I can't inspect myself, but I can inspect others." Fang Yuan suddenly thought of a way.
He had luck inspection mortal Gu, although it could not be used to see his own luck, he had connected his luck with Ye Fan, Han Li and Hong Yi.
The series of luck connections made the luck of the four of them the same, like four bowls of water with the same volume.
The water in Fang Yuan's bowl had suddenly increased, this rise would immediately be divided into four portions, one portion would be left in his bowl while the other three portions would flow to the other three people.
Fang Yuan could not inspect his own luck, but he could inspect the other three. After all, these three were still mortals at present!
Southern Border.
In a lush forest on a mountain, Ye Fan was quickly moving along the ground like an ape.
He occasionally jumped over boulders, and at times climbed and grabbed long green vines flying between the tall trees.
He was extremely fast, as if he was truly possessed by an ape.
In fact, fine ape hair grew on his nose, cheeks, arms and other areas.
Ye Fan's eyes were also not white and black, instead they had turned golden. He was staring at a blue speck of light in front of him with a slightly anxious look.
"This blue face Gu is truly slippery, it is so hard to catch. No, I must catch it, it is rank three Gu of transformation path and can change a male Gu Master's appearance. I am currently under an arrest warrant, this Gu worm is even more important to me!"
Suddenly, a strange itch was felt at the bottom of Ye Fan's heart.
Ye Fan glanced quickly at his body and saw his arms were already covered in thick ape hair, his heart sank: "Damn it! I forcibly activated the killer move ape transformation, the longer I maintain this killer move, the more ape hair there will be, and once it goes beyond the limit, I might turn into a half-man and half-ape monster. But if I stop this killer move, my speed will definitely fall and I will only be able to watch this wild blue face Gu leave..."
Right as Ye Fan was in a dilemma, the sky rapidly changed, as dark clouds covered the sky, and soon, bean-sized rain drops started to fall. In a dozen breaths of time, the drops of rain had turned into torrential rain.
The rainstorm obstructed his vision, Ye Fan had completely lost the blue light he had barely been able to chase.
"Damn it, I spent several days and nights, and now all my effort has failed. Sigh, without a Gu worm specially meant to capture wild Gu, it is really difficult to capture them with just bare hands!"
Ye Fan was soon soaked thoroughly, inwardly in great disappointment.
Crackle... Right at this time, a bolt of lightning struck a large tree on the mountain.
The tree fell down, fire burned and soon spread, unable to be extinguished by the rainstorm.
"On this tung oil mountain, there are tung trees everywhere and they are very combustible. I need to quickly leave this place, otherwise it will be too late once there is a wildfire."
Ye Fan quickly left.
After fifteen minutes, he was standing at the base of the mountain looking at the wildfire spreading wildly over the mountain, the rainstorm unable to extinguish it.
He sighed and was about to leave when suddenly a blue light swayed into his vision.
When Ye Fan saw it clearly, his eyes opened wide.
It was that blue face Gu!
But this blue face Gu had dense soot over its body and was clearly heavily injured.
Ye Fan quickly hurried over and grabbed it. Normally, a Gu Master would face stubborn resistance from a Gu worm's will when they refined wild Gu, but as the blue face Gu was too weak, Ye Fan was able to refine it within a few breaths of time.
"I had never imagined I would obtain blue face Gu like this." Ye Fan sighed inwardly at the mysteriousness of fate.
He was fully satisfied with this pleasant surprise and was about to leave, when suddenly his body stiffened like a stone statue.
After the blue face Gu, there were still three wild Gu worms that had escaped the fire and were flying in his direction in heavily injured states...
Western Desert.
On a rocky beach, all sizes of rocks were piled up and spread over the surroundings, forming a natural rock field.
Han Li was breathing heavily as he ran over the broken rocks, his legs hurt badly but he endured it.
"Brat, put down those three nodding stones!" A rank three Gu Master shouted in fury from behind while in fierce pursuit of Han Li.
Han Li ran even faster when he heard the voice.
In his vision, a tall pile of rocks was getting bigger and bigger.
Han Li involuntarily showed a happy expression.
These rocks were extremely large and firm, with gaps of all sorts of sizes in between the rocks, this was a very good hiding place.
The rank three Gu Master who was chasing Han Li, however, was exceptionally anxious.
Han Li was only a young man with a weak and thin physique, he would be able to leave the Gu Master's vision soon if he entered the gaps. The previous intense battle had consumed the primeval essence of the rank three Gu Master, he was not able to even activate rank three movement Gu and had no choice but to chase him by simply running.
"Damn it, do I let him slip away like this? No, I am a grand rank three Gu Master elder, while he is only a mortal, if I let him escape and word of this matter spreads, how am I going to hold my reputation up in the future? Those three nodding stones are materials to refine rank five Gu, they are very valuable! If they were sold..."
The rank three Gu Master was extremely unwilling, he gritted his teeth fiercely and finally used his trump card.
His mind blanked out briefly, as his lifespan decreased by two years in exchange for twenty percent rank three primeval essence.
He used ten percent to activate a movement Gu worm; his speed increased sharply and in several breaths, he was right behind Han Li.
He used the other ten percent primeval essence to punch out a stone fist.
The stone fist could definitely kill Han Li if it struck.
However, a bright light flashed past the Gu Master's eyes as he dispelled this thought. On one hand, he was afraid of shattering the nodding stones with Han Li, and on other hand, he really hated Han Li and wanted to properly torture him to death to vent his anger.
Therefore, this stone fist brushed past Han Li's right leg and crashed into the tall and sturdy rock pile, a series of muffled sounds echoed, dust swirled and shattered rocks splattered everywhere.
Han Li received a heavy injury, his right leg was directly fractured.
However, he had a firm disposition and knew his life was hanging by a thread right now. He screamed before using all his strength to jump forward.
His thin and small body allowed him to land right into a crevice.
The rank three Gu Master was startled, he had used up all his primeval essence and had no more ways now. Was he really going to let this brat escape alive?
But soon, the Gu Master relaxed.
Han Li had jumped into a crevice, but his head had hit a wall and was bleeding, and with the serious fracture of his right leg, he was dizzy and could not even climb up.
"Brat, you really can run! Run, run more!" The rank three Gu Master slowly walked closer to Han Li with a vicious expression.
Han Li was filled with despair, he subconsciously stepped back, but his speed was extremely slow.
The rank three Gu Master thought of countless cruel methods to torture Han Li as he entered the crevice with a sinister smile.
Boom!
Suddenly, the many large rocks forming the crevice collapsed above the rank three Gu Master.
The rank three Gu Master's sternum broke and his lungs were pierced, he struggled for a while before dying.
Han Li was left stupefied on the spot.
Central Continent.
Universal Life Academy.
The Gu refinement competition had already entered its final round.
Sixteen young Gu Masters were sitting cross-legged on the plaza, and under everyone's gazes, started refining Gu simultaneously.
The Refinement Path Convention of Central Continent was already approaching. Universal Life Academy might only be a small sect, but every sect of Central Continent had a quota for participating in the Refinement Path Convention.
Universal Life Academy only had three places reserved, and one each was given to a disciple, elder and external elder of the sect.
Now, sixteen Gu Master disciples were fighting for the sole reservation.
"This competition will soon reach the crucial moment."
"Right, there is one final barrier in refining red face Gu, which tests the Gu Master's subtle control of their senses, their hands and mind must be coordinated to maintain control over the fire."
"Look, Cao Yu has already reached this barrier. He is intentionally slowing down the speed of Gu refinement to have sufficient time to react."
Spectating disciples discussed and analyzed the situation in soft voices.
After a while, two others entered this final barrier.
"As expected, they are Xie Lan and Lu Wen."
"These two along with Cao Yu are publicly recognized as the three ultimately most talented elite disciples in refinement path of our academy."
"The final winner of this competition should be from among these three!"
"Maybe there is a dark horse?"
"Hehe, this is not possible. Cultivating refinement path requires large amounts of practice and is not a matter of instant success. Even if someone secretly practices, this process would also waste enormous amounts of resources, and the records of buying Gu refinement materials cannot be concealed."
On the raised platform, the academy principal was sitting at the front with six elders beside him, watching the competition to prevent any cheating from occurring.
Time flowed by, there was a fourth young Gu Master, then a fifth and a sixth who stepped into this final crucial step one after the other.
"We can basically confirm it now, the winner will be from among Cao Yu, Xie Lan and Lu Wen."
"As long as they don't make a mistake, they are the top three. Other Gu Masters have also reached the final step, but it is already too late."
While the spectators discussed outside the plaza, the elders were also secretly communicating.
-x-X-x-
"The refinement hall elder spent all his effort to nurture the three of them, they are at the upper level even in Central Continent, they are truly prized students of a brilliant master." An elder praised.
"Hehehe, I am flattered, I am flattered. These three children have talent, but it was mostly because of Lord Principal's support, otherwise, they would not have become so familiar with the refinement steps." The refinement hall elder was very modest.
The academy principal did not speak.
The refinement hall elder shifted the topic as he spoke about Hong Yi: "Speaking of which, your son, Hong Yi has such talent as well, he is in the finals now. Most notably, he is not a disciple of the refinement hall, it is very impressive that he managed to attain such results despite having little practice."
All of the elders looked at each other, they were secretly despising the refinement hall elder for boot-licking the principal so smoothly, but they all voiced out their agreement with him.
"Indeed, indeed."
"With Lord Principal's bloodline in him, how can he be weak?"
"When he first entered the academy, he was still inconspicuous. But now, Hong Yi is already the leader of the disciples, in the future, he is sure to be a leader somewhere."
The principal snorted: "You are praising him because he is my son, do you think I cannot tell? He could get into the finals because of his dogshit luck. He tries out everything without putting hard work into any of them. By learning everything, he is also being unskilled at every aspect, after this competition, send him into seven days of seclusion, so that he can reflect on himself."
The elders were silent.
Lord Principal had several sons, Hong Yi was the most capable one, but he was the son of a concubine and did not have a good relationship with his father, he had a rebellious nature and was thus often suppressed by the principal.
This time, Hong Yi signed up for the refinement path competition behind his father's back.
At the moment, Hong Yi's forehead was covered in sweat as he looked at the lump of fire in his hands.
In the fire, the Gu worm was gradually taking form.
"I am finally at the last step, it is a pity that I wasted too much time!" Hong Yi observed the others while in the midst of his refinement.
He saw that Cao Yu, Xie Lan and Lu Wen's flames had shrunken to the size of wicks, Hong Yi knew that he had no hope of winning.
In truth, he had refinement path talent greater than Cao Yu and the other two. But he practiced very little, one reason was because this was not his main path, he could not divert too much attention to it as he lacked in the time he could invest. Secondly, he had no financial support, even though he had some fortuitous encounters, his father did not support him, he could only cultivate his main path.
"Damn it! Father has already noticed my intention, I want my mother's memorial tablet to be placed in the ancestral hall, but father follows the ancestral rules strictly, why would he allow it? He wants me to be like my other siblings, obeying him without question, and not challenging his prestige. But Hong clan had been really unfair to my mother, this is injustice! If I do not seek justice for my mother, I am not a filial son!"
"Forget it, at this point, I can only take a risk and make a shot in the dark. The refinement of this red face Gu is usually completed in an instant in a refinement path master's hands. But the fire is hard to control, thus the others are slowing down at this step. I cannot complete it instantly, of course, but if I can surpass their speed, I will have a chance of winning."
Hong Yi made up his mind, he immediately acted on it.
Be it the disciples around him or the elders on the stage, they quickly noticed Hong Yi's actions.
Everyone shook their heads.
"He is so naive."
"Hong Yi is taking a risk, but how can he turn this around? Unless he is a refinement path master!"
"He is obviously not a refinement path master, he is seeking his own doom, look, his fire has gone out of control already."
"Oh no!" Hong Yi cried out in dismay, the flame in his hands was flickering, it was making cracking sounds as it burned, it was going to explode.
The force of the explosion would not be scary, after all this was a test from the academy, they were concerned about the disciples' safety.
"I failed!!" Hong Yi's heart sank, the flame in his hand had completely lost control, it even flew away from his hand.
At once, Hong Yi felt extremely bitter.
"I still failed in the end... achoo!"
He had been practicing Gu refinement for the last few nights, he had been putting in last minute effort but had gotten a cold in the process, because he relaxed himself now, and his body was full of sweat, he could not help but sneeze.
His sneeze blew at the fire and the flames extinguished at once.
A refined red face Gu fell onto the concrete floor of the stage with a loud sound.
"I... I refined it successfully?!" Hong Yi was stunned.
Everyone stopped their movements on the spot.
"Guh!" An elder who was drinking tea spat out all of the tea in his mouth.
Even the academy principal, Hong Yi's father, stood up subconsciously, he had a strange expression, he was stunned: "This, this sneeze actually worked like the method of a refinement path master, causing the refinement's final step to be completed in an instant, creating the red face Gu! Hong Yi, this lad... just what kind of dogshit luck is this..."
Hu Immortal blessed land.
Fang Yuan, Tai Bai Yun Sheng, Hu Immortal land spirit and Hei Lou Lan were floating in the air, awaiting the start of the earthly calamity.
"What earthly calamity would it be this time?" Little Hu Immortal looked at her master.
Fang Yuan touched her little head: "Don't worry, this time, the situation is different from last time. We have three Gu Immortals here, and Dang Hun mountain along with lots of our resources were moved out, the blessed land's foundation is greatly depleted. Furthermore, I raised my own luck, I have an eighty percent confidence of getting through this calamity."
The way of heaven was to take away surpluses while replenishing deficits, it emphasized on balance.
The deeper the foundation of the blessed land, the stronger the heavenly tribulation or earthly calamity. Thus, Fang Yuan moved Dang Hun mountain and all the other precious resources into Tai Bai Yun Sheng's immortal aperture.
This way, with less fortune in the blessed land, the heavenly tribulation or earthly calamity would be much weaker.
In Imperial Court blessed land, he learned about the power of luck path. He knew that the stronger his own luck was, the weaker the heavenly tribulation or earthly calamity would be.
One could say that Fang Yuan had done all the preparation possible.
But even so, there was still a twenty percent chance that he would fail in resisting the earthly calamity!
The reason was that there were an immense variety of earthly calamities, it was unknown which one was coming. Earthly calamities have all sorts of strange effects, even those rare and unheard of abilities were possible, even those that had never been seen before could appear, the difficulty of resisting them would be much greater.
As they waited, earth qi started to rumble as the earthly calamity began.
Stalks upon stalks of flowers pierced the ground of Hu Immortal blessed land as they grew rapidly, in a few breaths' time, bright red stalks of flowers grew all around Hu Immortal blessed land.
"This is..." The immortals hesitated, the flowers were blooming in all directions.
These flowers were huge, they had the size of a person's face. The petals were soft and delicate like silk, they were layered on top of each other, each flower had at least six layers of petals, and around a hundred petals in total.
"This is the blood poison kerria." Fang Yuan said in a quiet tone.
He recognized this flower, he felt very helpless.
To think that this earthly calamity was a type of blood calamity. These blood poison kerria flowers only took ten breaths of time from budding to wilting. When they wilt, their petals and roots would turn into a pool of poison. The poisonous blood would pollute the blessed land, causing widespread damage to life, leading to great losses.
Only wood path techniques were specialized at dealing with these blood poison kerria flowers. Other than that, any blood poison kerria that was destroyed would also turn into a pool of poisonous blood.
But in fact, even if Fang Yuan had wood path techniques, it was too late.
There were so many blood poison kerria flowers all over Hu Immortal blessed land, what could he do to stop them?
Thus, even though there were three Gu Immortals on his side, facing the vast sea of blood poison kerria flowers, they were helpless!
The blood poison kerria flowers quickly wilted, as poisonous blood covered the surface of the ground like a layer of water. The water surface was not deep, about the height of a person's ankles, but it was all over Hu Immortal blessed land.
The lake at the eastern part of the blessed land had been completely polluted. The fox groups and wolf groups at the western part of the blessed land faced countless deaths, corpses were lying in the pool of blood, their blood flowed out and added to the pool of poisonous blood.
The rockman slaves in the southern part were rudely awakened. Many of the rockmen had blood poison kerria flowers growing on their bodies. After the flower wilted, poisonous blood flowed out as the rockmen cried out in pain, but few of them died.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng felt a chill as he looked at the sky, sighing: "Heaven really wouldn't give us an easy time!"
Fang Yuan smiled bitterly.
Hei Lou Lan consoled him: "Tribulations are hard to endure, the current situation is quite good already. Looking at the poisonous blood all over the blessed land, even though most of the land is polluted and your losses are severe, the earth qi has already settled down, this earthly calamity is over already."
Little Hu Immortal's eyes were watery: "Master, we have to clear up the poisonous blood. The soil is polluted, it will not produce anything for the next few years. Our pink flower rabbits, wolf groups, and fox groups suffered great losses in numbers!"
Fang Yuan made a move immediately.
He used pulling water Immortal Gu to siphon the poisonous blood into his own immortal aperture.
His immortal aperture was a dead land, it was full of death energy and had no life, the poisonous blood could not pollute anything.
But the poisonous blood was all over the blessed land, the range was too huge, even if Fang Yuan used pulling water Immortal Gu, the efficiency was too low.
He felt some regret inwardly: "If I knew this, I would not have fused pulling mountain Immortal Gu into the killer move, myriad self, I would have fused pulling water Immortal Gu first. That way, my efficiency would be higher, and my immortal essence expenditure would be lower!"
Man proposes, heaven disposes, this saying fit the current situation.
After spending a day and a night, Fang Yuan finally extracted all of the poisonous blood in this blessed land and moved it into his immortal aperture.
During this period, he worked without a break, he did not rest or sleep. He spent quite a sum of green grape immortal essence during the process.
Removing the pollution of the poisonous blood could not be dragged on. The longer he took, the deeper the pollution, and the greater the aftereffects.
Even though the poisonous blood was removed, the soil on the surface of the blessed land was entirely poisonous, squeezing it with one's hand would produce some bloody red mush. If it was not settled, in several days, this layer of soil would completely rot, turning into poisonous blood and polluting soil in other areas.
Fang Yuan immediately made up his mind, removing this layer of soil.
Even though Tai Bai Yun Sheng had Landscape as Before to restore the land back to its original state, Fang Yuan did not adopt that method.
Thus, Fang Yuan, Tai Bai Yun Sheng, and Hei Lou Lan worked together, spending several days and finally getting rid of the soil layer. Fang Yuan moved all of the poisonous soil into his immortal aperture, even with his immortal zombie body, he was extremely exhausted.
There was a lot of work to do, looking at it from another perspective, it was a good thing that Fang Yuan removed the north area of the blessed land previously.
-x-X-x-
Hu Immortal blessed land's seventh earthly calamity was finally over.
Afterwards, looking back at this earthly calamity.
There was really nothing dangerous. But this earthly calamity targeted Fang Yuan's weakness, it was quite unpleasant.
Fang Yuan and the other two Gu Immortals could only watch the earthly calamity develop, making as much compensation as possible afterwards.
After the earthly calamity ended, Hei Lou Lan continued to stay in Hu Immortal blessed land, this place was the safest to stay in for her right now.
Under Fang Yuan's arrangement, she continued to use strength qi Immortal Gu, assisting the hairy man slaves in the stone nests, refining large numbers of airsac Gu.
Right now, there was a mountain of airsac Gu in the storage.
Airsac Gu was a one time consumable Gu, it was paired with guts Gu and sold together.
Before the tribulation, Fang Yuan had made full use of Hei Lou Lan, the three stone nests were refining Gu crazily, creating large numbers of airsac Gu.
Right now, there was a high number of airsac Gu, the production of guts Gu could not keep up.
Fang Yuan changed his refinement plan, he made one stone nest refine airsac Gu, while the other two refined mortal star thought Gu.
This made Hei Lou Lan grit her teeth in anger.
Because their earlier deal was: Before the tribulation, Hei Lou Lan would help the hairy men with the refinement of airsac Gu. After these airsac Gu were used to store guts Gu and sold for profit, all of it would go to Fang Yuan.
Now that Hu Immortal blessed land had gone through the tribulation, from now on, the sale of guts Gu would include Hei Lou Lan's share of the profit.
Hei Lou Lan lacked money too.
Or more accurately speaking, any Gu Immortal who had just ascended into an immortal like her would lack money.
Especially now, when Fairy Li Shan's wealth was dwindling, she could not support Hei Lou Lan's cultivation anymore, Hei Lou Lan's desire towards immortal essence stones was at an all time high.
But just when she wanted to start building and accumulating her foundation, Fang Yuan shrunk the production of airsac Gu.
Hei Lou Lan was helpless.
The three stone nests were Fang Yuan's possession, he could refine whatever he wanted to, he did not need to get her input.
But was Hei Lou Lan someone who gave up easily? She found Fang Yuan and talked to him, hoping that he would allocate at least two stone nests to refining airsac Gu, so as to increase the sale of guts Gu.
Fang Yuan attended to her enthusiastically, telling her about his difficulties with much emotion: "Fairy Lou Lan, I also want to increase production. I have a huge headache right now, you've also seen how many hairy men I've lost in the production of airsac Gu. If I want to replenish the number of hairy men, the cost will go up. Meanwhile, refining star thought Gu is much milder and would cause fewer deaths in the hairy men. At this point, I've lost about thirty percent of my hairy men, if this goes on, I'll need to buy hairy man slaves. But you've just witnessed Hu Immortal blessed land undergoing tribulation, the losses were very great, now it's necessary to be more sparing."
Hei Lou Lan heard this and frowned, she felt vexed inwardly, she almost lost control and shouted 'you're bullshitting me'.
Even if Hei Lou Lan did not know about Fang Yuan's total assets, she knew this: Before the tribulation, Fang Yuan had already transferred all of his precious resources into Tai Bai Yun Sheng's immortal aperture, he had no great losses.
Meanwhile, in Jade Pool blessed land, he seized so many resources and even obtained Dong Fang Chang Fan's soul, it could be said that he was one of the biggest winners out of the people in Tai Qiu.
The sale of guts Gu was very much in demand, most of the profits went to Fang Yuan.
No matter how poor Fang Yuan was, he could definitely afford to buy a group of hairy man slaves.
Fang Yuan was lamenting about poverty to Hei Lou Lan, seeing that she was unhappy, he continued smiling, saying: "Actually, in my opinion, my earlier suggestion is quite appropriate. We can pool a huge fund and buy experiences and knowledge of raising hairy men, before buying the slaves and raising them ourselves. This is a long term investment, it is extremely worth it in the long run."
Fang Yuan mentioned his suggestion again as Hei Lou Lan sighed in her mind.
Fang Yuan's plan was advantageous to all four of them. But the first time he mentioned it, why did Fairy Li Shan object immediately?
Because once this plan worked out, Fang Yuan was the biggest winner! This provided him too much help.
Among the four of them, Fang Yuan needed hairy man slaves the most, he had the stone nests and could use them to their greatest value. Fang Yuan's cultivation plan involved the refinement of large numbers of mortal Gu. But Hei Lou Lan, Fairy Li Shan. and Tai Bai Yun Sheng did not have such a need.
If this plan succeeded, Hei Lou Lan and the others would need to invest time and money into raising hairy men. The best use of this was to sell hairy man slaves. But their immortal apertures were not suitable for raising hairy men, meanwhile, Hu Immortal blessed land was a much better location.
Not only could Fang Yuan sell hairy men slaves and have the greatest advantage in raising them, he could even use them to refine Gu and sell large numbers of mortal Gu.
Precisely because of this, Fairy Li Shan rejected him.
Fang Yuan was developing too quickly, an experienced Gu Immortal like Fairy Li Shan could not allow it any further. Even though they were allies, the Snowy Mountain Alliance would expire eventually.
After cooperating with Fang Yuan so many times, would Hei Lou Lan and Fairy Li Shan be unclear about how unscrupulous and ruthless this demonic schemer was?
Hei Lou Lan sighed, her brows were tightly knitted, she did not continue the conversation, she turned around and left.
Fang Yuan smiled as he sent her off and watched her leave, he shouted: "This is not an urgent matter, fairy, do give it some thought."
Hei Lou Lan was flying in the air as she inwardly scoffed at these words: "Consider what? I don't believe that you can keep this up! You are only using one stone nest to refine airsac Gu, the sale of guts Gu will fall by half. This way, your monthly revenue will also shrink greatly. You spend much more money than me each month, I don't believe that you can endure it!"
"Oh? Wait, no!" After a few breaths, Hei Lou Lan's flying speed slowed down: "Even though he is refining less airsac Gu, Fang Yuan has a huge batch in his inventory. He can totally use this batch to keep up with the sale of guts Gu, or even sell multiple times the current amount!"
Hei Lou Lan flew slower and slower, her heart was turning colder: "This is a deep scheme from Fang Yuan, he was aiming this at me! His monthly revenue would not fall, it could even go up. What about me? All of the airsac Gu in the inventory are refined by me, but according to our earlier transaction, I cannot profit from them. Meanwhile, little aunt has a lot of problems to deal with now. Fang Yuan is using this timing and taking advantage of me! Oh, how can I cause more problems to little aunt now? She has already helped me enough!"
Hei Lou Lan's heart felt chilly, she returned to the stone nests, seeing the three majestic buildings, she jolted to awareness!
"Compared to Fang Yuan, I have many flaws, there are many things that I am worse in."
"I have the Great Strength True Martial physique, Fang Yuan is only an immortal zombie, but unknowingly, he has already gone far ahead of me."
"I thought that my scheming and plotting ability was good, but Fang Yuan has fathomless depths, he is much shrewder!"
"I pride myself in having outstanding battle strength, but Fang Yuan's myriad self can fight rank seven!"
"My greatest weakness is that I do not have economic support. Gu Immortal cultivation is not just about fighting, management is the foundation. In this aspect, I am way behind Fang Yuan."
Thinking of this, Hei Lou Lan stretched out her arm and gave herself a few slaps.
"It is time to wake up!" Hei Lou Lan's face was burning from pain, but her eyes were sharp like lightning, her expression was firm as steel: "From a young age, I was nurtured as the successor to the tribe leader. As a mortal Gu Master, I had no lack of resources, I did not have to manage resources, thus I lacked awareness in this aspect. Fang Yuan, I have to thank him for awakening my perception of this. Indeed, the best teacher is often your strongest enemy! I have decided, my first step currently is to become truly independent!"
Hei Lou Lan was truly a capable genius, she realized her own shortcomings and had the courage to acknowledge them, attempting to make changes.
After she gained awareness, she did not approach Fang Yuan anymore. She placed her focus on herself, finding businesses that were suitable for her immortal aperture to develop, those that could gain the most profits.
This way, even if only one stone nest was refining airsac Gu, it was not a problem. Because now, she had much more time to learn and accumulate her foundation, to think about how she could earn a living for herself.
Fang Yuan was extremely busy.
He first took Dang Hun mountain out of Tai Bai Yun Sheng's immortal aperture, and returned it to the center of Hu Immortal blessed land.
Next, he started creating new homes for the dragonfish and air bubble fish.
Even though the poisonous blood was drained out and the surface of the corrupted soil was removed, the remaining soil was still light red in color. If one gripped it hard, blood would flow out of it.
Fang Yuan decided to reorganize the entire place, this was a huge project, first he dug around the original lakes and ponds. Next, he started setting up Gu worms and forming Gu formations at the center of the soil.
From the base of each Gu formation, he purchased large amounts of fertile soils and filled the ground with it.
The new soils were classified into different types.
In the lake that raised dragonfish, Fang Yuan used dragon scale soil. This type of soil was grainy and tough, viewed from afar, it resembled layers of dragon scales. In fact, it was the soil that dragon type desolate beasts, ancient desolate dragons, or even immemorial desolate dragons lived on, it was injected with the aura of dragons.
Dragonfish living in the lake made with dragon scale soil would have greater urge to procreate.
The lake that raised the air bubble fish was made with jade root soil. This soil was icy cold when held, and if it was squeezed tightly, it would turn into jade. Ordinary jade root soil would form qi veins that resembled the blood vessels of humans, they also looked like the roots of ginseng. That was also a reason for its name.
When air bubble fish lived in such an environment, their lifespan would be increased greatly, and they would be much more vigorous.
Because of the soil, the areas that the dragonfish and air bubble fish lived in were called the dragon scale lake and the jade root lake.
These two lakes were in the eastern part of Hu Immortal blessed land, they were the largest and second largest lakes.
Dragon scale lake was the largest, there was a large number of dragonfish inside, there was even a desolate beast dragonfish.
On top of jade root lake, there was a thick layer of clouds, there was star fragment grass growing on the clouds, forming a plain of clouds. Groups of starlight fireflies ate star fragment grass, they danced in the air on the plain, forming the scene of a sky with beautiful specks of starlight.
-x-X-x-
Fang Yuan had also placed starlight fireflies in Tai Bai Yun Sheng's immortal aperture. He had also moved a portion of the star fragment grass in, now that they had been merged together once again, they recovered their original scale.
The poisonous blood from the blood poison kerria flowers had only contaminated the ground, it had not caused the slightest harm to the star fragment grass in the sky.
Dragon scale lake and jade root lake were placed opposite each other at a distance, many small lakes were dug up between the two large lakes, as well as in the surroundings, like they were stars in the sky surrounding a moon each.
These small lakes and pools did not use any special soils.
Dragon scale soil and jade root soil were Gu refinement materials. Although they were not immortal materials, but with such great quantity, enough to construct two large lakes, Fang Yuan had spent quite a sum.
Some remaining water wolves and shark fin wolves lived in these small lakes. The shark fin wolf desolate beast that Fang Yuan had subdued also moved around here, eating the fish in these small lakes when it was hungry.
There were large numbers of blue jade carps in the pools and lakes. These blue jade carps could remain alive stubbornly in harsh conditions, even the poisonous blood could not kill them, instead it caused a portion of them to undergo a mutation, becoming blood jade carps. The price of these blood jade carps was several times that of blue jade carps.
In the western part of Hu Immortal blessed land, Fang Yuan had followed a set pattern; digging soil, arranging Gu formations, and using charcoal stones to construct a large lake.
However, this lake did not have even a drop of water. On the contrary, hot air rose with the charcoal stones covering the lake bed, when wind blew, the black-grey charcoal stones shone with a red light.
Fang Yuan named this lake charcoal lake, it was the second-best breeding ground for eerie fire dragon pythons. The optimal method was used in Dong Fang tribe's headquarters — the arrangement in Jade Pool blessed land.
Fang Yuan knew this optimal method from Dong Fang Chang Fan's soul, it could be said that he was extremely clear of the arrangement.
But it was a pity that Fang Yuan's wealth could not support it. In particular, the amount of money required at the earlier stages was too high, Fang Yuan considered it carefully and chose to use the second-best method of charcoal stones to construct the nest for the eerie fire dragon pythons.
He placed all the eerie fire dragon pythons inside and let them develop. Fang Yuan moved away, and at every set distance, he dug a small lake, he did not use any special soils and after setting up simple Gu formations, he poured all the poisonous blood taken into his immortal aperture into them.
Under the effect of isolation from the Gu formations, these lakes of poisonous blood would only seep out a little every year, contaminating the surrounding soil.
In the entire western part of Hu Immortal blessed land, Fang Yuan dug hundreds of small blood lakes.
Why did Fang Yuan do so?
This related to the connection between heavenly tribulations or earthly calamities and the blessed land.
Good fortune is hidden within bad, bad fortune lurks within good.
The deeper the blessed land's foundation, the greater the fortune, and the stronger the heavenly tribulation or earthly calamity, and the more they would target such fortune.
For instance, the previous earthly calamity of Hu Immortal blessed land, a desolate beast swamp crab carrying gruel mud Immortal Gu, was targeted at the most valuable part of Hu Immortal blessed land – Dang Hun mountain. The result was that Dang Hun mountain gradually started turning into a pile of gruel mud, it was barely rescued by Fang Yuan from its death.
Heaven was fair and paid attention to balance. If you had a special superiority in one aspect and attracted heaven's envy, the heavenly tribulation or earthly calamity would weaken you. Naturally, there were too many types of tribulations and calamities, this rule was not absolute and one could only say that the probability was high.
This was the embodiment of 'bad fortune lurks within good'.
After the swamp crab earthly calamity, Hu Immortal blessed land had, in fact, gained large amounts of enslavement path dao marks as well as small amounts of earth path dao marks.
The higher the enslavement path dao marks, the easier it was to control the living beings raised in the blessed land and the higher their reproduction. Rockmen, hairy men, fox groups, wolf groups, fish groups and so on were among this list.
This was the most superior aspect of Hu Immortal blessed land, after all, the original owner, Hu Immortal, was an enslavement path Gu Immortal. Among the dao marks increased after every tribulation and calamity, the highest quantity would be in enslavement path dao marks.
Besides enslavement path, there were a small number of earth path dao marks. These dao marks could increase the fertility of the soil in Hu Immortal blessed land, the ground would become more firm and could absorb even more earth qi, and support Dang Hun mountain.
These dao marks could not be inspected with ordinary methods. They merged into Hu Immortal blessed land and comprehensively were built into this small world, making it more outstanding.
And this was the embodiment of 'good fortune lies within bad'.
Heaven and earth targeted Dang Hun mountain, creating the swamp crab earthly calamity. But after the tribulation, Hu Immortal blessed land had obtained benefits, the earth path dao marks increased, which instead caused the mountain to be better suited for the blessed land.
And this earthly calamity was blood poison kerria flowers. Fang Yuan inwardly guessed that this was probably sent by heaven and earth in relation to his blood path grandmaster attainment level.
After getting past this calamity, Hu Immortal blessed land once again gained a large amount of dao marks. Enslavement path dao marks were still the highest in quantity, further enhancing Hu Immortal blessed land's specialty. At the same time, there was also many blood path dao marks.
The appearance of the blood path dao marks undoubtedly changed Hu Immortal blessed land.
The mutation of blue jade carps into blood jade carps was only one manifestation of this. After Fang Yuan spent a lot of effort and energy to remove the top layer of soil in Hu Immortal blessed land, the layer of soil exposed below already had large quantities of tender grass and exquisite flower buds growing.
The grass was called blood sickle grass and after completely maturing, the stalks would be bent like sickles, broad and with edges as sharp as a knife.
And the flowers were called red axe flowers. The petals were like axe blades, they were white but gave off a hint of red light.
Regarding both blood sickle grass and red axe flowers, they were excellent Gu refinement materials, although not immortal materials, they could be used to refine rank three mortal Gu.
Once the blood sickle grass and red axe flowers that were all over Hu Immortal blessed land matured, they would be in astonishing quantity and act as a good source of wealth.
And this wealth was actually given by the last earthly calamity to Hu Immortal blessed land.
In fact, there were many kinds of grass and flowers grown in Hu Immortal blessed land previously, like blue degree grass which was both blue and poisonous, water chestnut grass which were shaped like chestnuts, six divine grass which looked like six thin leaves with the feeling of jade. And also the seven treasure flower which was in seven colors, and the cup-shaped milk tea flower, filled with nectar that was like milk tea.
However, these flowers and grasses could at most be used to refine rank one and rank two mortal Gu. Their value was far lower than blood sickle grass and red axe flowers.
The poisonous blood had seeped into the soil, changing a portion of the root systems and seeds of these flowers and grasses into the seeds of blood sickle grass and red axe flowers. The key point was that the addition of blood path dao marks remodeled Hu Immortal blessed land's environment, which created the foundation for blood sickle grass and red axe flowers to grow.
Rank six Gu Immortals experience an earthly calamity every ten years, and a heavenly tribulation every one hundred years. After three hundred years, facing a total of thirty earthly calamities and three heavenly tribulations, they could advance to a rank seven Gu Immortal.
Earthly calamities were weaker than heavenly tribulations, every calamity and tribulation was a difficult test from heaven, they were filled with dangers but also filled with opportunities.
The newly added dao marks would reform the world of the blessed land to produce even more valuable resources. These resources provided the supplies required for the Gu Immortals to cultivate.
In the beginning, Hu Immortal could only plant large numbers of ordinary grasses and flowers in the blessed land. At that time, the soil was weak, there was no water and no wind, blue degree grass and chestnut grass would not be able to survive in this environment.
After several earthly calamities, the flowers and grasses withered and died out several times. Hu Immortal suffered great losses, but got new additions of wood path dao marks and earth path dao marks.
Because of the fire calamity, the blessed land gained fire path dao marks. Through the water calamity, there were water path dao marks.
With these dao marks, Hu Immortal blessed land's environment was remodeled, Hu Immortal could then plant blue degree grass, chestnut grass, six divine grass, milk tea flowers and so on.
Although blessed lands were able to improve greatly with these opportunities, every earthly calamity would cause losses which would test the Gu Immortal's management ability.
Hu Immortal weakened time and time again, her strength constantly fell, and while facing the fifth earthly calamity, she died at the hands of the blue charm lightning shadow.
After Fang Yuan inherited the blessed land, he was barely able to pass the sixth calamity, the desolate beast swamp crab calamity. Now, Hu Immortal blessed land had already passed seven earthly calamities.
With this last earthly calamity, Hu Immortal blessed land gained blood path dao marks, producing a living environment for blood sickle grass and red axe flowers.
Experienced farmers knew what to plant in particular kinds of soil to get the best harvest. Fang Yuan managed the blessed land in accordance with the conditions, developing the strong points and avoiding the weak points. He did not let Tai Bai Yun Sheng use Landscape as Before, instead digging the poisonous blood lakes for this reason.
"In fact, it is not only these flowers and grass, with these blood path dao marks, I can raise blood stripe foxes. The blood stripe fox's reproduction rate is higher than any of the fox groups raised in Hu Immortal blessed land earlier. The annual yield would be even greater and if I buy some knowledge and experiences in raising blood stripe foxes, with some good luck, I might be able to turn them into a small source of income."
However, blood stripe foxes were partway up the food chain, Fang Yuan would have to bring in some blood stripe rabbits to feed them.
Then what would blood stripe rabbits eat? It would be blood sickle grass.
Thus, Fang Yuan put in great effort to dig so many poisonous blood lakes, it was to use this poisonous blood as nutrition. Under the control of the Gu formations, they would seep into the soil and constantly nourish the growth of blood sickle grass and red axe flowers.
To provide beneficial competition for the blood stripe foxes, Fang Yuan also planned to buy some poison beard wolves. Previously, Hu Immortal blessed land was not suitable for the growth of these poison beard wolves. But with the contamination of poisonous blood now, Fang Yuan could raise some poison beard wolves.
There was no need for a lot of poison beard wolves, he only required a small number of them to form a catfish effect with the blood stripe foxes.
Fang Yuan was very busy, it was as if he was running around to and fro.
Time flies quickly when one was busy.
Almost in an instant, over half a month had passed by in Hu Immortal blessed land.
Fang Yuan's project of remodeling Hu Immortal blessed land finally came to an end.
Hu Immortal blessed land was changed beyond recognition.
In the eastern part, dragon scale lake and jade root lake mutually enhanced each other's beauty, with many small lakes and pools in the surroundings. The lakes contained dragonfish, air bubble fish, blood jade carps and blue jade carps. Beside the lakes were some numbers of shark fin wolves, water wolves and earth skin pigs.
In the western part, the number of lakes had increased sharply, surpassing the eastern part. The center of the western part was fully occupied by the charcoal lake.
Every set interval of distance was a small poisonous blood lake. Hundreds of blood lakes were evenly spread over the western part, looking from a bird's eye view, it was a magnificent spectacle. Not long later, there would be fields of blood sickle grass and seas of red axe flowers here. There were small quantities of blood stripe rabbits, poison beard wolves and blood stripe foxes living here. But blood stripe foxes were being constantly drawn in from the outside world, and their numbers were increasing day by day.
Something that was worth mentioning was the desolate beast giant horned sheep, it was also placed here to prevent the desolate beast shark fin wolf in the eastern part from hunting it.
-x-X-x-
In the southern part of Hu Immortal blessed land, a small portion of rockmen were still hibernating underground. Because large numbers of blood poison kerria flowers had spawned and died in their tunnels, the underground homes of these rockmen would produce bloodstone ores after tens of years. The underground cave that hid wisdom Gu was, however, restored with Landscape as Before. The zhi forest was looking weak, but it did not need to be cured and could dispel the poison on its own, there was even a certain chance of producing a blood zhi forest.
The northern part of the blessed land, where the terrain was narrow and the area smaller, was set up as a breeding ground for regretful spiders.
In the center of the blessed land was Dang Hun mountain. Dong Fang Chang Fan's soul was locked up in Dang Hun palace, along with the remaining dozens of Dong Fang tribesmen. Large numbers of immortal materials were placed in storerooms. Five thousand kilograms of oil water, the giant dead egg of the worldly sand gull and large numbers of airsac Gu were also kept in stock. Near Dang Hun mountain were the three Fang Yuan stone nests, where many hairy man slaves lived and refined Gu without stopping. As for the small batch of mirror willows, they were already dead. The beggar moths which ate mirror willow leaves as food no longer had any use, and were sold off.
By now, the three large scale resource points — eerie fire dragon pythons, regretful spiders and dragonfish — were truly established. Instead of just storing them like before, this development ensured that the three resource points could grow and multiply in numbers, and be sold for profit.
However, at present, these three resources points were still being built up in scale and could not be put into the market immediately.
There were also large numbers of airsac Gu in Dang Hun palace's storage. But Fang Yuan could not put them in the market all at once and make huge profits, with Immortal Crane Sect still eyeing Hu Immortal blessed land. The less attention it received, the better. Selling them slowly could decrease the risks and allow the profits to come steadily.
The second day after Hu Immortal blessed land was restored, Tai Bai Yun Sheng bade his farewell to Fang Yuan.
He had put in a lot of effort during this time period. Without his help, Fang Yuan would require half a month longer to complete such a large project.
He had not only spent a lot of effort, but also lent some immortal essence stones to Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan did not have much immortal essence stones and he lacked capital during the initial investment of the renovation. Tai Bai Yun Sheng gave him some immortal essence stones to make up for this shortage.
Speaking of which, among the four who signed the Snowy Mountain Alliance, Tai Bai Yun Sheng was the richest at present.
He had made good progress in Eastern Sea, importing large numbers of resources into his immortal aperture, which caused his immortal aperture's foundation to be unable to keep up, the earth qi became lacking in quantity and there was instability. Just now, Tai Bai Yun Sheng returned to Hu Immortal blessed land not only to help Fang Yuan, but also for another purpose, to return to Northern Plains, place his blessed land down, absorb earth qi and also face the earthly calamity.
However, it was not yet the time for the earthly calamity to appear and absorbing earth qi also required some time. When the earthly calamity struck, Fang Yuan would also have to help Tai Bai Yun Sheng.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng left Hu Immortal blessed land, Hei Lou Lan, however, remained behind.
Soon, Fang Yuan also left Hu Immortal blessed land to go to Central Continent.
It was because Central Continent's Refinement Path Convention was about to start!
Central Continent, Fei He mountain, Immortal Crane Sect.
Clouds and fog lingered around this floating mountain, with cranes flying in between the pine forests.
In an underground secret room in Immortal Crane Sect, it was damp and dark, and the walls were covered in moss. Besides a stone bed in the room, there was no other furniture.
On the stone bed, a young Gu Master was lying down, his face was pale as paper but there were no injuries on his body, as if he was in a coma.
It was Gu Yue Fang Zheng.
A Gu worm lied motionless on Fang Zheng's chest.
Suddenly, a faint light flashed in the stone room, before a Gu Immortal appeared.
His wide sleeves were swaying, he looked like a young man with a handsome appearance. Most eye-catching of all were his eyebrows, they were green and long, reaching down to his waist. Under the eyebrows, his gaze was dark and eerie.
"Lord He Feng Yang!" The Gu worm lying on Fang Zheng's chest immediately moved its wings and flew up, excitedly greeting the newcomer.
This Gu worm was the spirit incubating flea that contained Lord Sky Crane's soul.
"Lord, please heal Fang Zheng's soul, please awaken my disciple." Lord Sky Crane implored.
"Sky Crane, is your decision still this..." He Feng Yang sighed, feeling somewhat disappointed. Why did he want Lord Sky Crane to revive using possession?
It was because Lord Sky Crane was originally his subordinate and had handled many matters for him. His background and origin was clear, and he was quite capable himself. On the contrary, Gu Yue Fang Zheng was too young, and had been forced to sacrifice himself, if he happened to hold a grievance against Immortal Crane Sect, that would not be a pleasing scenario.
"Sky Crane, do you know that the possession technique our Immortal Crane Sect obtained now can be considered perfect and is extremely outstanding? If you had done possession previously, perhaps the body and soul would not match and leave behind side-effects. But with this possession technique, it will be like you were born that way, the body and soul would blend together and match each other. There is not even a slight amount of shortcomings. This is your luck, you can be reborn and regain the glory you once had. Heaven is bestowing you with this opportunity, why do you not want to take it?" He Feng Yang persuaded.
"Lord..." The spirit incubating flea flapped its wings, and said in a quiet voice, "Please forgive me for being obstinate. Fang Zheng, he is my disciple. He resembles my past self, and this future belongs to him. If I possess him, I won't be able to face myself, to face my inner feelings. Please think of the many years of my servitude to you, and help me, lord."
"You!" He Feng Yang was starting to get angry.
Nothing was going like he wanted recently. To save the nine palace crane, Little Jiu, he had requested help from various people and spent large amounts of wealth, but it still was not showing much effect.
Now, even his former subordinate was acting willfully and disregarding his persuasion, everything was going wrong!
This possession technique was powerful but it had a condition. It could not be used rashly and it was best to let the soul be in contact with the possession target's body for a long period of time before this technique was used.
Lord Sky Crane had intended to possess Fang Zheng, thus had placed the spirit incubating flea in Fang Zheng's aperture. So much time had passed already, the condition for possession was already fulfilled, but Lord Sky Crane had now changed his decision.
This also meant that if Lord Sky Crane wanted to possess others, he would not be able to do so in a short period of time. His soul would need to be in contact with the body of the possession target for a long time.
As for Dong Fang Chang Fan possessing Dong Fang Yu Liang, he had secretly stored a part of his soul in Dong Fang Yu Liang's body. His methods were so ingenious that Dong Fang Yu Liang had not sensed anything wrong.
He Feng Yang was not feeling good these days, he was feeling frustrated and agitated, and wanted to berate Lord Sky Crane.
But in the end, he did not speak out the words in his thoughts, because he could not help but associate his own situation with Lord Sky Crane's.
Wasn't he also like Lord Sky Crane earlier?
To save Little Jiu, he was determined to follow his own way and was even willing to sacrifice himself. Back then, when he was facing the hopeless situation, if not for Immortal Crane Sect's third supreme elder, Lord Tiger Demon helping him, there would not be He Feng Yang in the present.
He Feng Yang heaved a deep sigh: "Alright, alright. Since you are determined to do this, I, He Feng Yang, shall help you. This is the compensation for all the work you have done me. If later, you want to undergo possession and request me to help, it won't be free."
He Feng Yang then waved his large sleeve, brushing it past Gu Yue Fang Zheng's face.
After this movement finished, He Feng Yang disappeared from the spot.
Several breaths of time later, Gu Yue Fang Zheng's soul became as firm as before, and he woke up from his coma.
"You are awake!" The spirit incubating flea fluttered towards his eyes.
Gu Yue Fang Zheng was dazed: "Mas... Master, where are we?"
"Of course we're in Immortal Crane Sect, foolish disciple." Lord Sky Crane laughed heartily.
"Why am I here?" Gu Yue Fang Zheng was still in confusion, mumbling. Suddenly, he shivered, a terrified expression appearing on his face.
He thought of that blood pool, the terrifying memory of blood vines growing over his body when he looked into Hu Immortal blessed land.
"Aaaahh!" Gu Yue Fang Zheng screamed and subconsciously leaped back.
The back of his head struck the firm stone wall, his raised head lowered down as he fell unconscious.
Lord Sky Crane: "..."
Three days later.
Immortal Crane Sect officially announced the news of Gu Yue Fang Zheng waking up.
Gu Yue Fang Zheng appeared in front of the disciples again, outrageously having rank five cultivation.
In the morning class, Immortal Crane Sect's leader publicly announced Gu Yue Fang Zheng as an elder of Immortal Crane Sect.
For a while, the whole sect was in shock!
The former rivals of Fang Zheng, like Sun Yuan Hua and others, were dumbstruck, disciples and elite disciples were in a clamor, and elders also discussed this with each other.
To assist in capturing Hu Immortal blessed land, Immortal Crane Sect's Gu Immortals forcibly raised Fang Zheng's cultivation to rank five. The identity of a disciple was no longer suitable for Fang Zheng.
Fang Zheng was just adapting to his new status, and was at a loss on what to do.
When he walked around the sect, every disciple he met would bow to him in greeting, among them were many elite disciples older than him.
Sometimes he would see his past rivals like Sun Yuan Hua, they would also pay respects to him. Many beautiful female disciples frequently flocked around Fang Zheng, some looked at him with watery eyes, while some sweetly called him Elder Fang Zheng.
Compared to other elders, Fang Yuan was extremely young, it could be said that he was unique. Like stories of legends, he attracted the attention of many female disciples, some even forming crushes on him.
Even Fang Zheng himself forgot his identity sometimes when he saw other elders, and would bow to these elders like a disciple. And each time this happened, the situation would turn awkward.
Fortunately, Fang Zheng had Lord Sky Crane with him. Immortal Crane Sect's leader also occasionally called him over to ask about his well-being and if he was facing any problems, making him feel overwhelmed from the attention and favor.
What made Gu Yue Fang Zheng even more happy was that the sect's benefits to elders were tens of times greater than the treatment received by disciples.
Lord Sky Crane could faintly see the intention behind this.
Previously, the sect's higher-ups intentionally sacrificed Fang Zheng, using his life to increase the possibility of capturing Hu Immortal blessed land. Right now, they were showering him with status and perks, to restore his loyalty to the sect.
In the end, Fang Zheng was not Fang Yuan, he was too young and had scant life experience, not having even the slightest sensation of this intention.
In fact, he had no complaints towards Immortal Crane Sect, and after becoming an elder, he had even more of a sense of belonging to Immortal Crane Sect.
As for the terrifying memory of looking into Hu Immortal blessed land, he was subconsciously evading it, not wanting to recall it. It was only that sometimes, deep into nights, he would dream of the scene in the blood pool, recall the pain and suffering, and wake up with his body filled with cold sweat.