"Why are you following me? What do you want?"
"You are so heavily injured; wouldn't it be better to have my protection?"
After Jiang Xiaobai's injuries improved slightly, he realized he only had the Blood Blade Gu, blood moon gu, Blood Drinker Gu, and Blood Curtain Gu left. His combat power was not nearly what it once was, so he decided to return home.
Ancient Moon Deep Love's protection along the way made him feel quite uncomfortable; he constantly suspected this little brat had some malicious intent.
He was a Demonic Path Gu Master, accustomed to suspicion and conspiracy, living every day in a state of constant anxiety.
"You should just go back on your own. I'm a Demonic Path Gu Master who kills without blinking; aren't you afraid I'll kill you to perform Gu Refining?"
Ancient Moon Deep Love laughed loudly and said, "You, kill me for Gu Refining? For real? Even if there were two of you, you couldn't kill me."
Jiang Xiaobai felt extremely irritable, but hearing Ancient Moon Deep Love say this actually made him feel a bit more at ease. He asked:
"Young Miss Ancient Moon, why are you following me?"
Ancient Moon Deep Love shook her head and said, "I don't know. Probably because I feel like you're walking alone and seem quite pitiful."
"What? Pitiful?" Jiang Xiaobai was surprised. Was he living a happy life? Where did this idea of being pitiful come from?
"Whatever, time reveals a person's heart; let's see what she does." Jiang Xiaobai thought this and stopped talking to Ancient Moon Deep Love. One walked, the other followed; the two crossed the ocean and arrived at the Western Cloud Continent.
At this moment, Yuan Fang was watching all of this using the Heavenly Eye Gu, and he was also puzzled. Jiang Xiaobai was pitiful? Demonic Path Gu Masters are indeed pitiful, but aren't the people who died at their hands even more pitiful?
He couldn't quite understand Ancient Moon Deep Love's thoughts.
However, these matters were not very important. Not long ago, Yuan Fang had killed a rank six Water Path Loose Cultivator whose name seemed to be... it seemed to be Dai Xuan.
In any case, he was insignificant and was taken out by a sneak attack from a Sword Path Immortal Rank move.
Currently, his corpse was lying inside the Heavenly Palace, and Yuan Fang was preparing to find a secret place for placing the aperture.
Yuan Fang pulled out the prototype of the Rank Seven immortal gu house, the human sovereign banner, and forcibly extracted the soul of this Water Path Loose Cultivator, placing it inside the banner to be nurtured.
(Fellow Daoist, please enter my banner for a chat)
When this soul first entered the human sovereign banner and saw the darkness on all sides, it trembled with fear.
The next moment, the Human Heart Gu, human soul gu, and Soul Refining Gu were activated, and the soul of this Water Path Loose Cultivator was instantly refined.
The next moment, the Cleanse Soul Gu was activated, and the Water Path Loose Cultivator's soul was stripped of all Impurities, becoming increasingly pure and condensed, ready to fight to the death for its master.
(Similar to Spectral Soul Demon Venerable)
The cleansed soul was immediately sent into a completely new space.
There, a middle-aged man with a small mustache was already sitting; he looked to be about fifty years old and was also a soul. The middle-aged man looked up and asked:
"Newcomer, I am Gu Yue Dongtu. Who might Your Excellency be?"
"Immortal Friend, I am a Central Continent Loose Cultivator, Dai Xuanzi. Your accent doesn't sound like someone from the Central Continent; may I ask where you are from?"
"Uh... Southern Border, Qing Mao Mountain, Gu Yue Village." Gu Yue Dongtu spoke slowly, as if reminiscing about a distant past.
Dai Xuanzi asked again, "Immortal Friend Dongtu, I wonder what place this is? Why is it so cold and gloomy?"
"This is the Soul Nourishing Banner within the human sovereign banner. By nurturing yourself here, your soul will become increasingly resilient. After condensing for a while, we can leave the banner to fight for the master."
As Gu Yue Dongtu spoke, he walked toward his "residence." That so-called home had no walls or roof, only a small wooden table with a crooked leg, a wooden chair, an old wooden cabinet, and a simple wooden bed.
He pulled a string of silver keys from his sleeve and handed them over.
Dai Xuanzi took the keys with a smile: "From now on, we are neighbors. This is your door key and the key to your cabinet."
The moment the keys touched his hand, the surrounding environment suddenly changed. In front of Gu Yue Dongtu's wall-less "home," an upright wooden door appeared out of thin air.
Opposite Dongtu's home, another door appeared, and everything behind it was fully equipped:
The bed, cabinet, chair, and table were all brand new.
"Immortal Friend Dongtu, what is going on?" Dai Xuanzi looked at Gu Yue Dongtu, his eyes full of curiosity.
Gu Yue Dongtu explained with a smile, "The human sovereign banner changes according to the number and quality of souls. The more souls and the better their quality, the stronger the human sovereign banner becomes, and in turn, it will nourish us."
Dai Xuanzi's eyes lit up as he realized, "So that's how it is!"
If you don't work hard in your cultivation, you'll end up as brothers in the human sovereign banner. Unfortunately, currently, the human sovereign banner only accepts Immortal Rank human souls and nothing else.
At this time, Gu Yue Dongtu pulled a Gu out from under his covers. That Gu was completely transparent and shaped like an air sac; inside the sac curled an even smaller Gu, which was none other than courage gu.
He handed the courage gu to Dai Xuanzi and said:
"Eat it; this can help strengthen the soul. You must Cultivate well and not hold everyone back."
"Ah, for everyone's happiness, I'll give it my all!" Dai Xuanzi nodded and immediately crushed the courage gu.
On the other side, Yuan Fang was flying at high speed in the sky above the Southern Border, following the Yellow Dragon River all the way south, finally arriving at the former Qing Mao Mountain.
The ice and snow on the mountain had long since melted, leaving only a wild scene where beasts roamed and vegetation grew rampantly.
Who would have thought that just a few years ago, this was the site of the bustling and prosperous Gu Yue Village.
Yuan Fang flew over the ruins of the village; even though the wild grass was already ankle-deep, he could still faintly make out the broken walls, the frames of bamboo buildings, and the foundation outlines of the Clan Leader Pavilion.
He landed on the roof of that Clan Leader Pavilion; the tiles were already shattered, the roof was covered in soil, and only a few clumps of weeds grew sparsely, a scene of complete desolation.
Yuan Fang looked around, filled with a myriad of emotions. He took to the air once more and entered the Rock Crevice Secret Cave from years ago, where the bones of the Flower Wine Walker were still scattered on the ground.
"I'll just leave it here." Yuan Fang gently placed Dai Xuanzi's corpse next to the bones, then activated his immortal aperture and stepped into the Dai Xuan Blessed Land.
The moment he stepped in, he was met with a vast ocean. The sea met the pitch-black sky, with only a few patches of stardust grass and a few wisps of black clouds floating in the void.
Yuan Fang dove into the water and saw large schools of Lightbulb Fish and Bubble Fish being raised in the sea.
The Lightbulb Fish emitted a faint white light, moving through the darkness in groups like ghosts swimming in the deep sea, appearing and disappearing unpredictably, yet bringing a glimmer of light to this dead sea.
But these were all just mortal materials, their value far inferior to ancient glory light. What truly made Yuan Fang's heart leap with joy were the Gu materials he saw next.
It was a giant Dragon Fish. Although the Dragon Fish is the weakest desolate beast in the world, it is a genuine rank six Food Path immortal material, worth far more than those mortal materials.
Dragon Fish are gentle by nature and dislike fighting; seeing Yuan Fang, it turned and swam away.
Yuan Fang was in no hurry to catch it—after all, this blessed land was already in his pocket, and these Dragon Fish would be his sooner or later.
Just then, the Dai Xuan Land Spirit suddenly teleported in front of him.
This Earth Spirit had a pair of long, horn-like antennae and a pair of wide brown wings on its back, as thin as a cicada's. When it flapped them, the wings rose high, and when retracted, they pressed tightly against its back.
Looking at its appearance, Yuan Fang thought to himself, "Isn't this a fucking flying cockroach?"
That's right, this Dai Xuan Land Spirit was indeed a giant Xiao Qiang.
Flying Xiaoqiang waved its antennae angrily and shouted from above:
"Immortal Friend, where did you come from? Where are you going? If you don't leave... hmph hmph!"
Yuan Fang got straight to the point: "What are your ownership conditions?"
Flying Xiaoqiang proudly raised its antennae: "There are two ownership conditions; you can choose either one. First, possess a Water Path immortal gu; second, complete the Gu recipe for the Overturning River Immortal Gu."
"A Water Path immortal gu?"
Yuan Fang smiled faintly and took out the immortal gu, Wandering the World, from his immortal aperture.
Upon seeing this Gu, Flying Xiaoqiang's face immediately lit up with joy, its antennae trembling wildly as it hurriedly bowed and cried out, "Master!"
Yuan Fang understood that Dai Xuanzi probably hadn't possessed an immortal gu during his life, which was why he was so obsessed with refining the Overturning River Immortal Gu. Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to complete the full Gu recipe until the moment he perished.
"Earth Spirit, bring the incomplete recipe for the Overturning River Immortal Gu!"
"Yes! Master!"
Flying Xiaoqiang teleported away in response and returned a moment later holding an ancient-looking bookworm. Yuan Fang took the bookworm and sent his Divine Thought inside to carefully examine the incomplete immortal gu recipe recorded within.
This Overturning River Immortal Gu was a rank six Water Path immortal gu, capable of causing rivers to change course and overturning the seas, hence its name.
The incomplete recipe in the bookworm was ninety-eight percent finished, missing only the final crucial part to be complete.
Seeing this, Yuan Fang immediately sent an order to his zombie clone in the Fox Immortal Blessed Land to use the wisdom gu to deduce the Gu recipe. Only an hour later, the complete recipe for the Overturning River Immortal Gu was finished.
One could only say that the ability of the wisdom gu was truly Heaven-Defying.
Seeing that Yuan Fang had actually completed the immortal gu recipe that even its original body had failed to finish in just one hour, Flying Xiaoqiang was both shocked and delighted, dancing with excitement:
"Master is so amazing! You could even get your hands on the complete recipe for the Overturning River Immortal Gu!"
Yuan Fang put away the Gu recipe and looked around, unable to fathom what a cockroach had to do with the ocean. However, this was no longer important; he was more concerned with the "assets" of this blessed land, so he asked Flying Xiaoqiang about the resources and wealth within.
Flying Xiaoqiang chuckled, its pair of horn-like antennae waving happily, actually appearing somewhat naively cute. It reported with great pride:
"Master, this blessed land has a total of 7.84 million mu of sea area! The time flow is ten times that of the outside world, and it contains 198 beads of green grape immortal essence and 249 immortal essence stones!"
"In the sky of the blessed land, there are twenty-two types of Cloud Path mortal materials like black clouds, dark clouds, thin clouds, and green clouds; there are also thirteen types of Star Path mortal materials like stardust grass, star flowers, galaxy water, and nebulae!"
"The sea area is home to four Dragon Fish and eleven desolate beast Water Cockroaches. Water Path mortal materials are even more abundant, with eighty-seven types including Bubble Fish, Lightbulb Fish, Water Cockroaches, and Red Reef Coral!"
"The seabed also raises over a thousand Merfolk slaves. These Merfolk are born with Sound Path and Water Path dao marks, and their entire bodies are precious mortal materials!"
"In addition, there are 38.98 million Rank One Gu, 22.11 million Rank Two Gu, 9.89 million Rank Three Gu, 490,000 Rank Four Gu, and 40,000 Rank Five Gu within the blessed land."
These assets were far more substantial than when Yuan Fang first obtained the Fox Immortal Blessed Land. At that time, the entire blessed land only had one Rank Five defense Gu, and other rare resources had long been exhausted.
Yuan Fang was very satisfied with this result and nodded in approval, then asked, "Earth Spirit, what is the monthly income of this blessed land?"
Flying Xiaoqiang became even more proud and said loudly, "The monthly income can reach a maximum of 121 immortal essence stones, and at minimum, 72. Among all rank six Loose Cultivators, this already surpasses more than ninety percent!"
This was not a lie. Thinking back to those years, the leader of the Blood Wing Demonic Cult, Old Demon Fang, who once dominated the Central Continent, only had a monthly income of a mere 36 immortal essence stones.
However, the real surprise was yet to come. As the saying goes, 'it is better to teach a man how to fish than to give him a fish,' the blessed land also contained many management methods: such as how to breed Bubble Fish, how to stimulate the reproductive desires of Water Cockroaches...
In short, this trip was not in vain.