Human Path Blessed Land, November of the sixty-ninth year.
Yuan Fang was about to face a Heavenly Tribulation. Knowing he could not survive this tribulation on his own, he once again selected someone from Gu Yue Village—Gu Yue Jianghe.
You all likely remember this fellow.
In the "love-shedding gu" chapter, it was Gu Yue Jianghe who assisted Yuan Fang in killing the Demonic Path Gu Master and wife-killer, Wang Da, upholding the Righteous Path.
Now, he has cultivated to Rank Five Peak and can finally "shine and heat up" for the Gu Yue Clan and Yuan Fang.
Yuan Fang attacked directly, strike with a bold Only I Am Supreme Killer Move. Under the infusion of his majestic will, Gu Yue Jianghe was completely enslaved and turned into Yuan Fang's Clone.
Yuan Fang then used human qi immortal gu to increase his human qi, and ordered the Gu Masters and Hairy People Gu Masters within the Stone Nest to refine large quantities of stingy gu and earth qi gu, all to help Gu Yue Jianghe undergo tribulation and achieve Immortal Ascension.
He replaced all of Gu Yue Jianghe's Gu worms with Human Path Mortal Gu and taught him several Human Path Killer Moves. From then on, Gu Yue Jianghe became a Human Path Gu Master.
As for the Immortal Ascension Tribulation, it was naturally easily overcome by Yuan Fang. The Jianghe Blessed Land successfully advanced to a high-grade Blessed Land and was annexed by Yuan Fang's Human Path Blessed Land.
The newly merged Jianghe Blessed Land added many Human Path dao marks to Yuan Fang's collection. The Blessed Land was located to the south of the Central Continent, the two being less than a few hundred meters apart, almost in the same location.
Yuan Fang took the opportunity to modify the terrain, turning the seawater between them into a wide river like the Yangtze River. Jianghe Blessed Land thus merged with the Central Continent, still collectively known as the "Central Continent."
However, Yuan Fang did not develop this area into a place where Variant Humans and the Human Race lived together.
On this newly merged land, Yuan Fang raised countless ferocious wild beasts.
There were Electric Wolves, Pegasuses, Six-legged Crocodiles, Grass Skirt Monkeys, Earth Chief Beasts, and more, as well as Gu worms with powerful Physical Bodies like the Serrated Gold Centipede, Blade Wing Blood Bat, Blood River Python, Thousand-Mile Earth Wolf Spider, Treasure Artifact Brass Toad, Mad Needle Bee, and River Swallowing Toad.
Gu Yue Fuqi's head was spinning—there was an entire continent on the other side of the sea, making him regret not setting out to explore the ocean earlier.
Worse still, a group of fierce Bandit Monkeys had appeared out of nowhere, occupying the area and plundering Caravans for over a decade; now, another wild land had been discovered to the south of the Central Continent.
That wild land was teeming with wild beasts, with countless beast emperors. Powerful existences like Four-winged Pegasuses and Azure Wolf Kings were everywhere. Gu Yue Fuqi even suspected that rank six Desolate Beasts were hidden among them.
Soon, two massive Wolf Tides broke out in the Central Continent. Hundreds of thousands of Water Wolves were seen swimming across the rivers, and over ten thousand Azure Wolf Kings flew across the water, madly attacking the villages along the banks.
In an instant, the people were displaced, and countless elderly, weak, women, and children were buried in the bellies of the wolves.
Gu Yue Fuqi had no choice but to interrupt his secluded cultivation and personally lead ten thousand Gu Masters to the front lines to resist the Wolf Tide.
Over the years, the three newly emerged Rank Five Gu Masters of the Central Continent were also all stationed at the borders. The Western Cloud Continent wanted to take advantage of the chaos to rebel, but hindered by their alliance treaty, they did not dare to act rashly.
Standing from a god-like perspective, Yuan Fang saw everything clearly, yet he remained a bystander, seeing through it all without intervening. He was not worried that Gu Yue Fuqi would die in the beast tide; at this moment, he cared more about the food for his immortal gu.
Currently, the number of immortal gu in Yuan Fang's hands was quite considerable:
Sword Peak Gu, Sword Hum Gu, Sword Qi Gu, Golden Thunder Bamboo Gu, Calamity Beckoning Gu, Human Heart Gu, human soul gu, Soul Refining Gu, Giant Sword Gu, spirit travel gu, Soul Nourishing Gu, Black Banner Gu, as well as the Cleanse Soul Gu borrowed from Fang Yuan and the malice gu from the Lang Ya Earth Spirit.
Among Yuan Fang's group of immortal gu, self gu was the most worry-free, as it could devour any Gu worm and always had plenty of food; Sword Peak Gu fed on sword leaf bamboo, a requirement that had already been resolved.
As for the food supplies for Sword Hum Gu, Giant Sword Gu, Sword Qi Gu, and Calamity Beckoning Gu, they had all been arranged one by one.
Golden Thunder Bamboo Gu relied on an immortal material called Thunder Bamboo, the food for Human Heart Gu was the Rank Seven immortal material Open Door Wind, human soul gu fed on the souls of Gu Immortals, and Soul Refining Gu required zombie souls for nourishment.
spirit travel gu preferred fine wine, Soul Nourishing Gu survived on Soul Breeding Wood resin, and the food for Black Banner Gu was an extremely rare rank six immortal material—Dark Cloud.
Yuan Fang was already attempting to cultivate the immortal material Thunder Bamboo himself. Open Door Wind was a peculiar immortal material that only appeared at the entrances of Mortal residences in bustling marketplaces where Mortals congregated; it had once appeared in Gu Yue Village.
The reserve of Gu Immortal souls was also quite sufficient, as Yuan Fang directly took Gu Yue Jianghe's soul to feed human soul gu. To obtain zombie souls, he went as far as the Western Desert, capturing over ten thousand Mortals and using zombie Gu to refine them into zombies before killing them to extract their souls.
The food for spirit travel gu was the easiest to obtain; Yuan Fang directly used the monkey wine brewed by the Bandit Monkeys of Bandit Monkey Mountain to sustain it.
The Soul Breeding Wood resin required by Soul Nourishing Gu came from Soul Breeding Wood—a tree that looked like withered wood and required no soil, being planted directly on rocks. The denser the Soul Path dao marks, the better the Soul Breeding Wood grew.
Yuan Fang had seen this tree in Soulfall Valley and wanted to buy saplings from Qin Bai Sheng to plant on Soul Searching Mountain, but the other party refused, only willing to sell the resin and not the seeds.
What troubled Yuan Fang the most was the food for Black Banner Gu, the Dark Cloud. Dark Cloud came from the Immemorial Black Heaven, a place of extreme danger occupied by countless Primeval Desolate Beasts, definitely not a place he could set foot in now.
Seeing that the Black Banner immortal gu was about to starve to death, relying solely on one Gluttonous Immortal Gu was not enough to fill its stomach.
Yuan Fang made a prompt decision to refine a Food Path immortal gu called "Endure Hunger."
The miraculous effect of this Endure Hunger immortal gu was that it could greatly increase a Gu worm's ability to withstand hunger; a single feeding could sustain it for an additional five years.
Fang Yuan had once used wisdom gu to assist the Lang Ya Earth Spirit in deducing many immortal gu recipes, and the recipe for this Endure Hunger immortal gu was one of them.
The immortal materials and Mortal materials required for the Endure Hunger immortal gu were not particularly rare. Yuan Fang originally intended to take out a hundred immortal essence stones to purchase them from the Lang Ya Earth Spirit.
But the Lang Ya Earth Spirit flatly refused—he felt he had suffered a loss before and now wanted to get back at Yuan Fang, so he proposed a condition:
"Listen up, you arrogant brat! If you want to buy my Gu materials, you have to help me find out which ignorant bastard is calculating against me! It's made me afraid to trade in Treasure Yellow Heaven now!"
Yuan Fang knew exactly who the calculator was, but he put on a troubled expression and said:
"Although I am skilled in deduction, my Killer Move's methods are quite peculiar. Not only might it severely injure your malice immortal gu, but it will also backlash against me."
"This..." The Lang Ya Earth Spirit immediately hesitated. It wasn't concerned about Yuan Fang, but purely distressed over its own malice immortal gu.
Seeing this, Yuan Fang began to describe how terrifying the enemy was and how dangerous the Lang Ya Earth Spirit's current situation was.
It was as if if Yuan Fang didn't help, the Lang Ya Earth Spirit would be abducted by human traffickers, or be steamed, braised, or deep-fried.
This psychological tactic worked, and the Lang Ya Earth Spirit truly became afraid. To prevent "the end of the world" or "Mars colliding with Earth," he took a deep breath and said helplessly:
"Fine! Let's do it that way then."
Yuan Fang was secretly delighted that his goal had been achieved, but his face still wore a pitiful expression:
"Do you know how much damage this Wisdom Path Killer Move will do to me? Not to mention the massive amount of immortal essence it will consume, it will also cost me countless years of Lifespan! I'm only a few hundred years old, still very young, and I don't want to die so early..."
The Lang Ya Earth Spirit's eyes darted around, and he immediately said:
"As long as you help me deduce that force, I can refine the Endure Hunger immortal gu for you for free!"
Yuan Fang still shook his head, looking righteous and stern:
"At our level, what do immortal gu matter? Lifespan is the most precious thing! Besides, if you help me refine the Gu for free and you fail the refinement, wouldn't I have lost a hundred years of Lifespan for nothing?"
His appearance of having been greatly taken advantage of, almost to the point of being fuming with rage, actually made the Lang Ya Earth Spirit blush and feel a bit embarrassed:
"Then... then I'll give you another fifty-year Longevity Gu..."
Yuan Fang immediately glared at the Lang Ya Earth Spirit, while secretly ecstatic, though his face wore the expression of someone who had been cheated by a dishonest merchant but was helpless to do anything.
Seeing this, the Lang Ya Earth Spirit assumed he had taken advantage of Yuan Fang's "fifty years of Lifespan," feeling smug yet fearing Yuan Fang wouldn't perform the deduction, so he tentatively tested him:
"Yuan Fang, one fifty-year Longevity Gu in exchange for a chance to obtain an immortal gu—if the refinement succeeds, won't you have made a profit?"
Yuan Fang gave the Lang Ya Earth Spirit a "vicious" glare, raised his hand as if he "wanted" to slap him, then "sighed" as if having reservations, and helplessly withdrew his hand.
His expression looked as if his parents had died; after a long pause, he finally nodded.
The Lang Ya Earth Spirit felt refreshed, thinking he had scammed Yuan Fang, and secretly laughed with pride:
"Hehe, this arrogant brat is finally getting what's coming to him! Hahaha, I really am brilliant! This Yuan Fang is interesting, but unfortunately for him, he ran into me!"
"This kid isn't bad; I can develop a deeper relationship with him in the future."
The Lang Ya Earth Spirit was immersed in the pleasure of taking advantage, looking at Yuan Fang's aggrieved expression and feeling that with his "superior intelligence," he could completely manipulate Yuan Fang.
He naturally didn't know Yuan Fang's scheme; if the truth were revealed, one wonders what the Lang Ya Earth Spirit's mood would be.
Yuan Fang then began the "deduction," which lasted for three whole days. During this period, he "coughed up blood" dozens of times, and his hair at the temples turned mostly "white," looking as if he were at death's door.
At the moment the "deduction" ended, he had his self gu bite the malice gu twice.
Instantly, he added a large number of dao marks, and his Wisdom Path Realm directly broke through to Quasi-Grandmaster, at which point he jumped up in surprise:
"Lang Ya Earth Spirit! I've deduced it!"
"What? Who is it exactly?" the Lang Ya Earth Spirit hurriedly asked.
Yuan Fang then presented the "result" he had prepared long ago:
The one deducing the Lang Ya Blessed Land was Old Man Yan Shi from the Southern Border, and he added details about Old Man Yan Shi being a member of the Shadow Sect and a Clone of Spectral Soul.
The more the Lang Ya Earth Spirit heard, the more afraid and shocked he became, feeling that asking Yuan Fang for help was truly the correct choice.
Before this, he only knew that Yuan Fang had a "deep" background, but he didn't know the details of the Shadow Sect.
The Lang Ya Earth Spirit felt a trace of guilt, but his emotional intelligence was not high, and for a moment he didn't know how to comfort him, only able to clumsily blame himself.
Yuan Fang was secretly overjoyed and wasn't truly angry. After being comforted for a few sentences, he took the opportunity to "let go of his anger":
"Fine, then I'll give you five hundred immortal essence stones."
In the end, the Lang Ya Earth Spirit successfully refined the Endure Hunger immortal gu—he had failed once before, and Yuan Fang had added another three hundred immortal essence stones until it finally succeeded on the third attempt.
Yuan Fang naturally couldn't produce eight hundred immortal essence stones, so he had to borrow over a hundred more from Fang Yuan through Treasure Yellow Heaven.
With this Endure Hunger immortal gu, the feeding cycle for all immortal gu of the Gu Yue Clan was extended by five years, saving over a hundred immortal essence stones in one go.
The food for the Endure Hunger immortal gu was Dragon Fish eyes, originally one meal every two years consisting of two eyes; now extended by five years, it became one meal every seven years.
Yuan Fang's Xiaoqiang Blessed Land happened to be raising some Dragon Fish, and they were currently in their breeding season. Within three years, their numbers would exceed a hundred, enough to sustain this Gu.
At the same time, his self gu nibbled on hope gu day and night, allowing Yuan Fang's Human Path Realm to break through to Quasi-Grandmaster.
He also used Gu Yue Fuqi's Mortal Path Killer Move "Peoples Hearts Are Drawn To" as a base to improve and create an Immortal Path Killer Move, still named "Peoples Hearts Are Drawn To."
This Immortal Path Killer Move used the Rank Seven Human Heart immortal gu as its core, along with the Rank Five Human Will Gu, and could collect the wills of everyone on his side to bless a single person.
If the wills of hundreds of thousands of people were gathered, Yuan Fang's combat power could directly double, making it a watered-down, mini version of the "Hero Among Men" Killer Move.
After his combat power doubled, Yuan Fang could use the Giant Sword Technique and the Green Bamboo Bee Cloud Sword to fight against veteran Rank Seven Gu Immortals like Zi Zai Shu Sheng and Pi Shui Han.
But facing existences like Qin Bai Sheng and Feng Jiu Ge, he was still like a stray dog by the roadside.
After all, not everyone can use Rank Seven cultivation to go head-to-head with a Rank Eight Gu Immortal.