Central Continent, Fox Immortal Blessed Land.
Fang Yuan held that Rank Seven immortal gu, his brows furrowed tightly, his voice carrying a hint of gravity:
"Is this the Rank Seven soul exchange immortal gu? If what you said about the future righteous-demonic battle at Yi Tian Mountain is true, will this Gu be the key to breaking the situation?"
Just a moment ago, Yuan Fang had activated the Rank Seven Fixed Immortal Travel to teleport himself back to Fox Immortal Blessed Land and completed the exchange of Gu with Fang Yuan.
In Fang Yuan's palm lay two Rank Seven sword path immortal gu—one was Sword Accumulation immortal gu, and the other was Sword Drawing immortal gu. Additionally, there was a Rank Seven Wisdom Path immortal gu that was particularly useful to Yuan Fang: Sword Intent.
"The wonder of the soul exchange immortal gu lies in its ability to completely swap a soul with a Physical Body." Yuan Fang's voice was slow and leisurely, carrying the certainty of someone who knew the future:
"Combined with Dao Tian Demon Venerable's Rank Nine Thievery Path Killer Move 'Ghost Does Not Perceive', by then, even the ancestor of Soul Path, Spectral Soul Demon Venerable, would never be able to detect that your soul had quietly swapped physical bodies with the soul of his Clone, Shadowless Cultivator."
These words fell into Fang Yuan's ears, and he couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration. Yuan Fang's vision and intelligence were truly unfathomable.
Although Fang Yuan was filled with curiosity about how Yuan Fang knew these secrets, he ultimately did not ask further.
Everyone has secrets; he did not fear Yuan Fang hiding things, only that Yuan Fang was not on the same side of interests as him.
Over these years, his cooperation with Yuan Fang had become increasingly tacit; in just a few short years, it had actually matched the cultivation achievements of his previous five hundred years.
By now, there was even a faint momentum of catching up from behind and taking the lead.
To the current Fang Yuan, Yuan Fang's weight was already comparable to the spring autumn cicada, or perhaps even heavier—after all, the flaws of the spring autumn cicada were simply too fatal.
Just then, Yuan Fang suddenly looked up at the sky of the blessed land and softly recited:
"Broken sword sinks into the sand, the rise and fall of history, the endless Luotian River rolls on."
"Sorrow..."
"The long, dark night of the soul's dream, where can one find peace?"
"Time passes through the seasons, only Heaven's Will remains vast and indifferent."
Fang Yuan's heart jolted; he was too familiar with this song!
It was the melody he had heard in a pavilion when he was exploring the fragments of the Starry Sky Grotto-Heaven and stepped into the third layer of Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's dream realm—
Star Constellation Immortal Venerable was sitting in the stone pavilion, playing the zither and singing for him; she was singing exactly this poem.
But after waking from the dream, apart from the vague memory of the pavilion and the lingering zither music, the rest of the details had been forgotten. He couldn't even remember the lyrics of Star Constellation Immortal Venerable completely, only the cold, clear zither music and her low, lingering chant.
He compared the residual zither music from the dream with Yuan Fang's recitation and found that it was exactly the same, and he immediately understood:
Yuan Fang must know about his experience in the third layer of Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's dream realm.
But how did Yuan Fang know about the past that even he himself had almost forgotten? What deep meaning was hidden in this poem?
Yuan Fang's next words resolved the doubts in his heart.
"'Broken sword sinks into the sand, the rise and fall of history, the endless Luotian River rolls on.' This line of the poem speaks precisely of the Sword Immortal Thin Green and the Luotian River." Yuan Fang said slowly:
"I followed the hints in the poem and stepped into the Luotian River. Sure enough, I found the Immortal Zombie Thin Green, and from him, I obtained this Rank Seven soul exchange immortal gu—this is the key to breaking the situation."
"As for 'The long, dark night of the soul's dream, where can one find peace?', the characters for 'dark/dim' (You) and'soul' (Hun) appear together, pointing to the obvious: it speaks of Spectral Soul Demon Venerable." Yuan Fang's tone deepened:
"Spectral Soul Demon Venerable founded Shadow Sect and laid out plans for one hundred thousand years, all to refine the Supreme Immortal Fetus Gu. And Heaven's Will, by using this poem, is hinting for you to disrupt his one hundred thousand year grand plan."
Fang Yuan's eyes lit up; the weight of this intelligence was enough to shake the entire Gu World.
Although he had long heard of the existence of "Heaven's Will" from Yuan Fang, and understood the principle that "Heavenly Dao reduces the surplus to replenish the deficiency, while Human Dao reduces the deficiency to serve the surplus."
But at this moment, he still could not fully penetrate the true intention of this Heaven's Will.
He couldn't help but ask: "You said that Star Constellation Immortal Venerable merged her body with the Dao and could influence Heaven's Will, but if Heaven's Will is so powerful, why would Demon Venerables still appear in the world?"
Yuan Fang rubbed his chin and pondered for a long time before speaking slowly: "Actually, Heaven's Will is capable of growth. While Star Constellation's will influences it, it is also constantly learning and assimilating Star Constellation's will. It is precisely because of this that the world has not completely fallen into the hands of Heavenly Court."
"Three million years ago, the first Venerable in the history of Gu cultivation, the founder of Heavenly Court, the first generation Immortal King Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable, was born at that time."
"He was the longest-lived Venerable because he collected all the longevity gu in the world, and even the dao marks from the Star Constellation era were all gathered under his command."
"At that time, Heaven's Will was far from mature; it could not understand why the world was willing to offer the most precious longevity gu to Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable."
"One era cannot contain two Venerables; this is the underlying rule inscribed by Heaven's Will. Seeing Star Constellation Immortal Venerable achieve Rank Eight and about to step into Rank Nine, Heaven's Will used the hand of the Chaos calamity to severely injure Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable, eventually causing him to fall."
"After Star Constellation Immortal Venerable became a Venerable, she merged her body with the Dao and, carrying the will of Heavenly Court's Immortal Tomb, constantly influenced Heaven's Will, making it become increasingly intelligent."
"It no longer relies solely on calamities to balance things; it has learned to control the quantity of longevity gu, causing no new longevity gu to be born in the world, thereby letting the Venerables exhaust their Lifespans and die."
"By now, Heaven's Will is already like a chess player holding the pieces, using you as a pawn to destroy Spectral Soul Demon Venerable's one hundred thousand year grand plan step by step."
"From this, it can be seen that Heaven's Will is becoming wiser and more cunning."
As soon as Yuan Fang finished speaking, a muffled clap of thunder suddenly exploded over the sky of Fox Immortal Blessed Land.
Yuan Fang looked up, a flash of surprise in his eyes—Fox Immortal Blessed Land was isolated from the Gu World, and the lightning path dao marks inside were extremely rare; logically speaking, it was impossible for thunder to occur.
This thunder sounded as if Heaven's Will had discovered its conspiracy had been exposed by Yuan Fang and was unleashing lightning to vent the anger in its heart.
A chill couldn't help but well up in Fang Yuan's heart—Heaven's Will had actually grown to such an extent that it could even penetrate a blessed land that was isolated from the world.
"It seems that quite a bit of Heaven's Will remains within Fox Immortal Blessed Land; perhaps it took advantage of the blessed land's calamity back then to infiltrate." Yuan Fang looked at the rolling clouds, his tone calm.
"Then do you have any means to eliminate Heaven's Will?" Fang Yuan asked urgently.
Yuan Fang shook his head: "This type of will, Heaven's Will, is simply too special. Even if I used the human path Immortal Rank Killer Move 'Only I Am Supreme', I would be unable to eradicate it completely."
"However." He changed the subject: "Although I cannot eliminate it, I can temporarily suppress it. First, use the 'My Will' from my My Will mortal gu to consume most of the Heaven's Will, then use the dark passage immortal gu, and I will be able to deceive the heavens."
"As long as the concealment effect of the dark passage immortal gu remains, it will be very difficult for Heaven's Will to affect you again."
Not long after, the righteous-demonic battle at Southern Border's Yi Tian Mountain would occur. Before that, Fang Yuan and Yuan Fang had to improve their strength as quickly as possible, and the most critical link in this was refining the rank seven immortal gu house—Jinghong Luandoutai.
The importance of Jinghong Luandoutai was self-evident.
Not only did it possess the power to suppress Rank Eight Gu Immortals, but the most core key to refining it was "Battle Intent".
For this reason, Yuan Fang planned to go to Lang Ya Blessed Land to find Lang Ya Earth Spirit to refine the Battle Intent immortal gu.
He originally wanted to entrust this matter to Lang Ya Earth Spirit, but no matter how deep the foundation of Lang Ya Blessed Land was, it did not have the Gu recipe for Battle Intent immortal gu, only the mortal Gu recipe.
Yuan Fang had no choice but to start refining Battle Intent mortal gu according to the mortal Gu recipe. However, refining mortal gu required a massive number of Hairy People, and the number of Hairy People in his own blessed land was far from enough.
Thus, he used contribution points to bring in Mao Two, Mao Three, Mao Four, Mao Five, Mao Seven... these Hairy People Gu Immortals to refine Battle Intent mortal gu together, and even the Hairy People in his own blessed land were mobilized to work day and night.
Northern Plains, Lang Ya Blessed Land, First Cloud City.
Lang Ya Earth Spirit was leaning comfortably on his chair, holding a cup of fiery red black tea, sipping it slowly.
This fiery red tea was his favorite drink, and it also happened to set off the fiery and aggressive temperament of this Lang Ya Earth Spirit.
On another chair opposite him sat a Hairy People Gu Immortal; it was Little Lang Ya.
Not long ago, Little Lang Ya had learned of the changes in the Luotian River through Treasure Yellow Heaven, and he was currently here to report the recent results to Lang Ya Earth Spirit.
Ever since the Immortal Zombie Thin Green had sliced off the top of the Heaven Overseeing Tower with one sword, allowing the Heavenly Watchtower Master to see the stars when looking up at night, Gu Immortals from Central Continent had swarmed into the Luotian River like a tide, wanting to investigate.
This also resulted in Lang Ya Sect no longer daring to set up teleportation Gu Formations on the banks of the Luotian River, and Lang Ya Earth Spirit had truly had a headache over this for quite a while.
"Since the Luotian River is not suitable, then we will change to another place." Lang Ya Earth Spirit stared at the map in his hand, and his gaze quickly fell on two locations within the Northern Plains:
One was the Northern Plains Earth Trench, and the other was Taiqiu.
"Let's choose the Earth Trench and Taiqiu! Although it is dangerous there, we have the Second Supreme Elder presiding over it, so we don't have to fear any mishaps." Lang Ya Earth Spirit rubbed his chin, a flash of ruthlessness in his eyes.
But Little Lang Ya shook his head, his small face full of seriousness: "The Second Supreme Elder is busy with a thousand tasks every day; it is best we do not go and disturb him."
"I recently created a new Killer Move and just happen to want to test it out. I want to borrow the immortal gu house returner, and take the two Guest Elder Grand Elders, White Dove and Rock Black Tortoise, to go to Taiqiu to set up a teleportation Gu Formation."
Lang Ya Earth Spirit hesitated for a moment, but ultimately nodded—for the prosperity of the Hairy People, this bit of risk was worth taking.
Just then, a black shadow stepped into First Cloud City. The person wore a black robe, and his jet-black long hair hung down to his waist like a cape; it was Fang Yuan.
"Kid Fang Yuan, what are you here for? No! This aura..." Lang Ya Earth Spirit stood up abruptly, his eyes full of shock.
He saw Fang Yuan slowly emit that strand of aura; it was the aura of the Rank Six Space Path immortal gu—spring autumn cicada!
"I want to borrow your Gu Refining opportunity here to upgrade this Rank Six spring autumn cicada." Fang Yuan's tone was flat.
He took out another Gu Immortal Physical Body, activated the Rank Seven soul exchange immortal gu, and moved his soul into it, just to be able to upgrade this Space Path immortal gu that concerned fate more conveniently.
"You actually have the spring autumn cicada! The spring autumn cicada, one of the Ten Great Strange Gu!" Lang Ya Earth Spirit's voice was trembling:
"Legend has it that the spring autumn cicada is the life immortal gu of Red Lotus Demon Venerable, capable of carrying a Gu Immortal's will to travel upstream in the River of Time and transmigrate back to the past. Are you... a person from the future?"
Fang Yuan did not hide it any further.
He knew that after the Yi Tian Mountain battle, the existence of the spring autumn cicada would sooner or later be known by everyone in the world.
Thus, he told Lang Ya Earth Spirit everything about some key events in the future.
"You mean... in the future, Lang Ya Blessed Land will be breached by Heavenly Court?" Lang Ya Earth Spirit's brows instantly knit into a ball.
"However, in this life, because of me, you have mastered the God Knows Not Killer Move; even Heavenly Court would never be able to find the location of Lang Ya Blessed Land." Fang Yuan said slowly:
"The entire Five Regions and Two Heavens have undergone massive changes because of me. For your Lang Ya Sect, and for myself, this Rank Six spring autumn cicada must be upgraded to Rank Seven."
"Fine, I agree." Lang Ya Earth Spirit took a deep breath, a flash of determination in his eyes:
"According to my agreement with Yuan Fang, all the costs for this Gu Refining will be covered by me."
"To help you succeed, I will teach you the Mao Tribe Natural Refining Method, and I will also use the rank eight immortal gu house Refining Furnace, the Long Hair Refinement Path Formation, and Refining Sea to fully increase the success rate!"
Central Continent, Heavenly Lotus Sect.
Thin Green, Song Zixing, Yu Muchun, and Seven Stars Child, a total of four people, were fiercely attacking the Heavenly Lotus Sect's immortal gu house, Heaven Pool.
Not long ago, Thin Green had just awakened from his Immortal Zombie state in the Luotian River and subconsciously swung a sword at Song Zixing and Seven Stars Child.
Fortunately, Seven Stars Child was prepared—as the Blue of Shadow Sect's "Seven Rainbows", he was a Rank Eight powerhouse himself, and he timely used means to awaken the remnant soul of Mo Yao within Thin Green, so the three of them finally recognized each other.
After the three recognized each other, they found the Shadow Sect Gu Immortal Yu Muchun, and the four joined forces to start attacking the Ten Great Ancient Sects, and Heavenly Lotus Sect's Heaven Pool was their first target.
Perhaps Seven Stars Child and the others had long anticipated that Thin Green's immortal gu would be stolen by Fang Yuan, so after Thin Green awakened, Seven Stars Child immediately lent him a few sword path immortal gu to help him recover his combat strength.
But the Immortal Zombie state would ultimately diminish a Gu Immortal's strength, and Shadow Sect had long been prepared for this.
After Thin Green awakened, they used an Immortal Path Killer Move that had been prepared in advance to restore him from the Immortal Zombie state back to a normal Gu Immortal.
The Heavenly Lotus Sect's immortal gu house Heaven Pool was of immeasurable value and was one of the three pools in the world; the other two were the Wine Pool and the Regret Pool.
(It seems to be the Wine Pool)
At this moment, although Thin Green was controlled by Mo Yao's remnant soul and his combat strength was far from his Peak period, some of his dao marks, some immortal gu, and Killer Moves were still there, and he still possessed the combat strength of a Pseudo-Venerable.
With the addition of Thin Green, the defense of Heaven Pool retreated step by step, and it looked like it was about to be broken.
But just then, eight Rank Eight Gu Immortals descended from the sky, all of them members of Heavenly Court.
With the intervention of Heavenly Court, the battle situation instantly stabilized, and both sides fell into a stalemate.
But Thin Green was, after all, a Pseudo-Venerable. He raised his hand and unleashed a sharp sword light, killing a Central Continent Gu Immortal with one sword.
Immediately after, another heaven-piercing sword light beheaded a Heavenly Court Rank Eight Gu Immortal on the spot.
But as Central Continent Gu Immortals kept arriving, Thin Green's immortal essence gradually ran out.
In the end, the four had to choose to retreat, abandoning the plan to attack the Ten Great Ancient Sects.
While Thin Green and the others retreated, in the Northern Plains Lang Ya Blessed Land, after failing six times in a row, Fang Yuan finally succeeded in upgrading the spring autumn cicada to a Rank Seven immortal gu.
At the same time, the will of Heaven's Will that had invaded the spring autumn cicada was completely cleared away, and it would never again be triggered by Heaven's Will, causing it to self-detonate and Rebirth again.
"Right, kid Fang Yuan, that kid Yuan Fang sold the immortal gu house returner to me, which can be exchanged for one Rank Seven immortal gu." Lang Ya Earth Spirit suddenly remembered something and patted his head, saying:
"That kid still hasn't exchanged it yet, and asked me to pass it to you, letting you pick a Rank Seven immortal gu yourself."
Saying this, he opened the treasury of Lang Ya Sect and showed Fang Yuan all the Rank Seven immortal gu within Lang Ya Blessed Land.
Fang Yuan stood before the dazzling array of immortal gu, pondered for a long time, and finally chose a Rank Seven Metal Path immortal gu—an immortal gu named "Golden Hammer".
This Golden Hammer immortal gu was originally Qin Bai Sheng's immortal gu. After Qin Bai Sheng died in battle, the Golden Hammer immortal gu was destroyed. Thus, Lang Ya Earth Spirit re-refined one.