Fang Yuan already knew these things, but he nodded along. "I am quite thankful for senior brother's advice!" After all, he had to play the part of a newly ascended Gu Immortal.
"At the same time, you can make your tribulations stronger by putting the appropriate resources inside," Jun Shen said. "Given your resources with Immortal Essence Stones, I would recommend placing more items in your aperture, actually. They might be destroyed, but you can always rebuild - and more dao marks would still make it worth it."
"Hmm..." Fang Yuan said.
"Is something still bothering junior brother?"
"Indeed, there is one thing," Fang Yuan said. "I am the first Immortal within my clan, so I naturally need to look after their matters as well. I was wondering the best way to do so... placing them within my aperture might be an issue."
"Ah! No doubt you are worried for their safety and that they might be hurt in the process," Jun Shen said. "No worries, in such a case you can either look for a place for them in this Paradise. Or, just have them leave your aperture when the time for tribulation comes."
"The thing is that they are reliant upon a certain mountain for cultivation resources," Fang Yuan said. "And that conflicts with the main path of my aperture. I'm not sure if I can get them all to change their cultivation paths in the future."
"Why not move this mountain into your aperture?"
"Oh? Is that possible?"
"Sure it's possible," Jun Lin said. "Father has two gu worms that are quite useful for this - Mountain Into Molehill Gu and Molehill Into Mountain Gu!"
Fang Yuan smiled inwardly.
Jun Shen turned around, sighed, and smacked Jun Lin on the back of his head.
"Ow! Father - why-"
"Don't you know better than to run your mouth now that you're an Immortal?" Jun Shen asked. "It is fine because we have someone upstanding like Fang Yuan with us. But what if we had someone evil or with malicious intent in the room? Do you want to go ahead and leak all of your father's secrets to them?"
Immortal Gu were precious and also one's trump cards - naturally no one would be happy about that information being paraded around.
"Ah, sorry Father," Jun Lin said.
"With that said, Fang Yuan, this is quite a useful pair of gu worms," Jun Shen said. He went into the depths of the cave and brought back four objects. They were each small enough to fit into his hands and were the shape of cones.
It was only when Fang Yuan looked closer that he could see the details among them.
One of them was a mountain covered in grassy shrubbery from the bottom to the top.
Another was mostly covered in snow and thick layers of ice.
The third one had plentiful rivers and what even looked like small fish in the streams.
The fourth one was sandy and looked like it belonged in a desert.
At first these four objects might seem like miniatures to one's eye - but upon looking closer one could see impossibly detailed parts of the mountain. There was even an additional aspect to it wherein Fang Yuan felt if he looked at a mountain's area for long enough, his vision zoomed in almost as if he were looking at it through a microscope.
"These are real mountains?" Fang Yuan asked.
"Indeed they are," Jun Shen said proudly, puffing out his chest. "These are part of my private collection - I love collecting mountains!"
"If you were going to show him the mountains anyway why'd you hit me..." Jun Lin muttered under his breath, though either Jun Shen hadn't heard or just ignored him.
"So your gu worms can shrink mountains like this?" Fang Yuan asked.
"Indeed they can," Jun Shen said. "Mountain Into Molehill Gu can make them smaller, while Molehill Into Mountain Gu can make them bigger. Like that, one can easily move mountains into and out of one's aperture."
"Ah, but they are Immortal Gu - and need Immortal Essence to use..." Fang Yuan said, sighing.
"Don't worry," Jun Lin said. "We can help you out for free!"
Jun Shen smacked him aside the head again. "For free? Do you want to bankrupt our tribe?"
"But it's only one person..."
"Well, Fang Yuan, I can't give out this thing for free," Jun Shen said. "However, I can help you out at cost, given the fact that we are friends."
This in and of itself was a big deal , meaning Fang Yuan only had to pay for the Immortal Essence used to move those mountains. Many Gu Immortals used similar methods to earn an income by charging such gu worms and services from others. Jun Shen, however, didn't seem to do much else other than for his little hobby and for perhaps nurturing his own aperture.
"But what kind of mountain do you want to move?" Jun Lin asked.
"A boney mountain..."
"Are you a Bone Path Cultivator?"
"Ah, no, I am an Emotion Path Cultivator," Fang Yuan said. He was not going to reveal the extent to which he had explored the Human Path and it was easiest to masquerade as an Emotion Path Gu Immortal given his Great Grandmaster Attainment in the path.
"Oh? Emotion Path? I don't see many of those," Jun Shen said. "Here in the great Paradise, most are Poison Path while the Human Path Cultivators are Earth Path. But I can see now why you would be hesitant, Fang Yuan. A boney mountain might alter the environment of your aperture, and make it harder to cultivate Emotion Path resources."
"Yes, quite rare to see an Emotion Path Gu Immortal indeed," Jun Lin said. "How did you get into the Emotion Path? Did you happen to find an inheritance of some sort?"
For the third time, Jun Shen smacked Jun Lin. "Why are you asking those kinds of questions to strangers? Don't you have any manners?"
"B-But, isn't Fang Yuan our friend?"
"Ahaha, yes, no need to scold him," Fang Yuan said. "But yes - I did stumble onto such an inheritance."
"Well, it still doesn't fix the underlying issue of conflict, Fang Yuan," Jun Shen said. "Bone Path resources might not suit you later on."
"Indeed," Fang Yuan said. "And the Emotion Path, while interesting, is hard for ordinary Gu Masters to adapt en masse. I cannot demand that my clansmen change their main paths to it, given it does not have that many good prospects..."
"I see," Jun Shen said. "There are Wisdom Path mountains that I happen to know, like Thoughts Mountain or Far-Seeing Mountain that grow Wisdom Path resources. But they are already occupied. And the Wisdom Path isn't exactly like the Emotion Path." Jun Shen gave Fang Yuan a sympathetic look. "If you don't mind me saying, you might want to switch to cultivating Wisdom Path. It is not hard to do so at Rank 6, and would have better prospects than such a niche path that might limit what you can do and grow as. As a matter of fact, our Paradise doesn't have someone skilled in deductions - you could fill in that gap quite well, I think." Most large forces and sects had someone who could do deductions, otherwise they would be at a disadvantage when faced against another Wisdom Path Gu Immortal.
"Well, thank you for trying nonetheless," Fang Yuan said, having gotten the information that he needed. "I will take your words into consideration regarding my future cultivation."
The trio talked for a while more and they invited Fang Yuan to rest before heading back outside.
Fang Yuan took them up on their offer, sitting down within the cave and turning his attention to his aperture. He could also tart working on decrypting the Formation Path inheritance that he had been given.
Fang Yuan then frowned as he saw that a troubling development had taken place on Fang Yuan Continent.