The hundred-day battle that had lasted for three months finally came to a complete close.
Qin Bai Sheng had already fallen in battle, while Fairy Jiang Yu and that Rank Seven Yanhuang Leize Immortal Zombie, under Yuan Fang's secret protection, successfully entered the sphere of influence of the Northern Plains Zombie Alliance.
Within the Northern Plains Zombie Alliance, it was again Yuan Fang's orchestration that allowed Black City, Wolf Wolf, Jiang Yu, Wind Returning Child, and Snow Pine Child to successfully reunite with Fairy Jiang Yu and the Yanhuang Leize Immortal Zombie.
Subsequently, Black City, Jiang Yu, Wolf Wolf, Snow Pine Child, and Wind Returning Child, together with Fairy Jiang Yu and the Yanhuang Leize Immortal Zombie, traveled through various routes under the secret escort of the Northern Plains Zombie Alliance, successfully arriving at the Southern Border Zombie Alliance.
Finally, the seven of them set off from the Southern Border Zombie Alliance and returned safely to the Southern Border Shadow Sect headquarters.
Prior to this, Black City, Jiang Yu, Wolf Wolf, and Wind Returning Child were already undercover agents planted early on by Yuan Fang, and Snow Pine Child had also been forced to surrender during the battle of Luo Po Valley, similarly becoming a hidden piece planted by Yuan Fang within the Shadow Sect.
With the five of them entering the Shadow Sect headquarters together, they became key pawns buried in the heart of the Shadow Sect by Yuan Fang. The layout for the future battle of Yi Tian Mountain would use this as an important pivot; every move would be within Yuan Fang's control.
After completing these backup arrangements, Yuan Fang turned his gaze toward the Ten Great Ancient Sects of Central Continent.
In this life, he intended to join forces with Fang Yuan to ruthlessly extort the Ten Great Ancient Sects, allowing the Great Love Sect's Foundation to take another explosive leap forward.
Thus, Fang Yuan took the pseudonym Chen Dao, claiming to be the Northern Plains' Wisdom Star, while Yuan Fang took the pseudonym Li Feiyu.
Using the offensive Flying Sword immortal gu as the core, the two of them barely managed to construct a Flying Sword Letter Killer Move specifically for secret communication with the Ten Great Ancient Sects of Central Continent.
The Flying Sword immortal gu was not originally a communication-type immortal gu, but a pure offensive and killing immortal gu.
A communication Killer Move activated with this as the core was naturally far inferior to the orthodox sword letter Killer Move based on the sword letter immortal gu in terms of stability, secrecy, and transmission speed.
However, since the two of them did not currently possess the sword letter immortal gu, they could only make do with this.
Similar logic applied to the sword escape immortal gu that Yuan Fang usually relied on for movement, as well as the Flying Sword immortal gu used for offense;
His Immortal Path Killer Move, Sword Marks Seeking Life, required the Flying Sword immortal gu as its core to be activated to its Peak power.
If replaced with the sword escape immortal gu, the power, speed, and sharpness would be greatly compromised, far from being as sharp and overbearing as before.
However, both Yuan Fang and Fang Yuan were Zhi Dao Quasi-Grandmasters with unfathomable Wisdom Path attainments, and their immortal apertures contained a series of Wisdom Path immortal gu, perfected Wisdom Path Killer Moves, and Legacies.
Therefore, unless those veteran Wisdom Path experts in the Heavenly Court personally took action to deduce, almost no one in the world could see through the true identities of Chen Dao and Li Feiyu. This layer of disguise was seamless, with no risk of being easily exposed.
When the Ten Great Ancient Sects of Central Continent successively received the news—
Setting Sun Old Lord, Heavenly Deaf Old Man, Hong Chiming, Chen Zhenchi, Bu Feiyan, Old Calculator, Fairy Ling Mei, and Fairy Proud Snow—all eight Rank Seven Gu Immortals had been captured, and Spirit Affinity House's rank seven immortal gu house near water pavilion had also been seized—the entire Central Continent Gu Immortal world was shaken.
The Ten Great Ancient Sects lost face completely, and there was a massive uproar.
Particularly Heavenly Jealousy Tower; as one of the Ten Great Ancient Sects of Central Continent with a deep Foundation and long heritage, they had suddenly lost two mainstay Rank Seven combatants, Ling Mei and Proud Snow.
The inheritance of Heavenly Jealousy Tower's signature Killer Move, Peerless Crescent Moon Slash, was nearly severed, and the entire Heavenly Jealousy Tower fell into an atmosphere of panic and unease.
Spirit Affinity House's situation was equally embarrassing.
The immortal gu house near water pavilion, which had finally been repaired at a huge cost, was stolen, and the couple Huang Yucheng and Lei Yihao, who were sent to support Feng Jiu Ge, died in battle on the spot, their deaths extremely tragic, without even a complete corpse left behind.
The only silver lining was that Feng Jiu Ge had escaped safely and was still alive.
Feng Jiu Ge was the most dazzling Prodigy of the current generation of Spirit Affinity House, recognized as the number one person below Rank Eight. Even Northern Plains' Qin Bai Sheng, Battle Immortal Sect's Immortal Monkey King Shi Lei, and even some ordinary Rank Eight Grand Elders within the Ten Great Ancient Sects might not match the actual combat capability of Feng Jiu Ge at Rank Seven cultivation.
As long as Feng Jiu Ge did not die, Spirit Affinity House's Foundation would not be shaken.
In addition, the Ten Great Ancient Sects also learned that those two mysterious Gu Immortals had not only kidnapped eight Rank Seven combatants but had also used some extremely bizarre Thievery Path method to steal a total of thirty-five rank six immortal gu from the immortal apertures of the Central Continent Immortals.
Such a loss had already reached astronomical figures.
In their fury, the Ten Great Ancient Sects collectively mobilized the Wisdom Path Gu Immortals within their Sects to jointly deduce the true identities and locations of Chen Dao and Li Feiyu, wanting to forcibly rescue the hostages and reclaim the immortal gu and immortal gu houses.
Unfortunately, Fang Yuan and Yuan Fang's Wisdom Path standards and Wisdom Path methods far exceeded the ordinary Wisdom Path Gu Immortals sent by the Ten Great Ancient Sects.
After several rounds of deduction, the Wisdom Path Gu Immortals of the Ten Great Ancient Sects not only gained nothing but two were injured by counter-deduction. In the end, they could only helplessly give up the idea of a Wisdom Path brute-force deduction and choose to sit down and negotiate with the kidnappers.
Seeing that the Wisdom Path deduction yielded no results, Immortal Crane Sect was the first to lose its composure and took the initiative to send someone to contact Chen Dao and Li Feiyu.
Among the Ten Great Ancient Sects, Immortal Crane Sect was originally the weakest branch, with a small number of Rank Seven Gu Immortals. Now having lost Setting Sun Old Lord, a mainstay combatant, they were naturally anxious and wanted to redeem him as soon as possible.
The two sides officially began negotiations. Yuan Fang took the lead by presenting a ransom list, demanding that Immortal Crane Sect pay two Rank Seven immortal gu, plus ten sets of a full array of immortal materials for refining my will immortal gu, before he would release Setting Sun Old Lord.
When the Grand Elder of Immortal Crane Sect received the list, his face turned ashen on the spot, and he flatly refused:
"Two Rank Seven immortal gu is too ridiculous; I can never agree to that! My bottom line is one Rank Seven immortal gu. As for those immortal materials you need, our Immortal Crane Sect's inventory is limited; we can provide seven sets at most."
Yuan Fang's attitude was firm, directly threatening to kill the hostage.
Immortal Crane Sect, afraid of harming the hostage, could only take a step back and reach an agreement:
Yuan Fang received one Rank Seven Sword Intent immortal gu, one Rank Six expand space immortal gu, seven sets of my will immortal gu materials, plus three desolate beast Nine Palace Cranes.
After the agreement was reached, Yuan Fang looted all the immortal materials, immortal essence stones, and resource points within Setting Sun Old Lord's immortal aperture, leaving only a few of the poorest small resource points.
He then dropped him at the agreed-upon location and turned to leave, clean and efficient.
Next was the redemption of the immortal gu.
Setting Sun Old Lord's four rank six immortal gu were all in Yuan Fang's hands. According to the agreed ratio, three rank six immortal gu were exchanged for one Rank Seven immortal gu.
After a round of negotiations, Yuan Fang gained another Rank Seven snack immortal gu, one hundred year longevity gu, plus five sets of immortal materials for ascending Rank Six Hunger Enduring Immortal Gu, five sets for ascending Rank Six blood god child immortal gu, and two sets for ascending Rank Six delicious immortal gu.
Among these, the Sword Intent immortal gu was a treasure for Sword Path cultivation, and the expand space immortal gu could directly expand the area of a blessed land, both being rare immortal gu that Yuan Fang currently needed very much.
The Rank Seven snack immortal gu functioned similarly to big eat immortal gu, small eat immortal gu, and delicious immortal gu, significantly saving on the consumption of food for feeding immortal gu; its practicality was top-tier.
After settling with Immortal Crane Sect, Heavenly Jealousy Tower followed immediately, sending someone to redeem Fairy Ling Mei and Fairy Proud Snow, as well as the six rank six immortal gu taken from them.
With the precedent of Immortal Crane Sect, the negotiation process was much smoother, and Yuan Fang did not need to waste too much breath.
When the final negotiations were completed, Heavenly Jealousy Tower paid the following good items:
Three Rank Seven immortal gu—Rank Seven moon blade immortal gu, Rank Seven dragon whiskers immortal gu, and Rank Seven stomach acid immortal gu—plus Rank Six bright moon immortal gu, Rank Six swallow soul immortal gu, one five-hundred year longevity gu, four sets of my will immortal gu materials, five sets of immortal materials for ascending Rank Six Star Thought Immortal Gu, one set for ascending a Rank Six Healing Immortal Gu, two sets for ascending Rank Six Man as Before immortal gu, and one set for ascending the land remains as before immortal gu, to redeem the two fairies and the immortal gu.
The reason Yuan Fang specifically exchanged for so many Moon Path immortal gu was that Gu Yue Chi Lian and Gu Yue Mo Chen within the Great Love Sect were both Moon Path Gu Immortals.
Recently, the two had collaborated on research and had already deduced sixty percent of a complete Rank Six moonlight immortal gu recipe; their potential was worth cultivating vigorously.
These Moon Path immortal gu would be placed in the Sect treasury in the future for the two to exchange for their cultivation using Sect contribution points.
The Rank Seven dragon whiskers immortal gu was to be used to perfect Yuan Fang's own Ancient Flood Dragon Transformation Killer Move.
The Rank Seven stomach acid immortal gu was directly given to Eastern Orc to use for perfecting the Food Path Killer Move 'Whale Swallows All Things' that he was researching in seclusion.
The Rank Six swallow soul immortal gu was directly integrated into the immortal gu house human sovereign banner, significantly enhancing the human sovereign banner's soul-swallowing ability, allowing the soul beasts and Gu Immortal remnants within the banner to have even stronger growth potential, with their combat power rising steadily.
After Heavenly Jealousy Tower came Wind Cloud Manor.
Wind Cloud Manor's purpose was to redeem the Formation Path Quasi-Grandmaster Hong Chiming and the three rank six immortal gu he carried.
After some bargaining, Wind Cloud Manor finally exchanged a Rank Six Earth Path Immortal Formation 'Flying Stone Hill,' along with the full set of mortal Gu and core immortal gu that made up the formation, for Hong Chiming and those three rank six immortal gu.
After finishing the extortion of Wind Cloud Manor, Ancient Soul Sect came to the door, wanting to redeem Old Calculator and the four rank six immortal gu he carried.
Yuan Fang was not polite, directly stating his price, demanding that Ancient Soul Sect offer two Rank Seven Soul Path immortal gu: Rank Seven soul-shaking immortal gu and Rank Seven soul-congealing immortal gu, plus one three hundred year longevity gu, ten sets of immortal materials for refining Rank Six Soul Purification Immortal Gu, and ten sets of immortal materials for refining my strength immortal gu.
These Soul Path immortal gu were likewise integrated by Yuan Fang into the human sovereign banner one by one, causing the Soul Path power of this immortal gu house to surge once more, its Foundation becoming increasingly profound.
After Ancient Soul Sect came Battle Immortal Sect.
Battle Immortal Sect had no Gu Immortal hostages in Yuan Fang's hands, only two rank six immortal gu had been seized, so the pressure in negotiations was much smaller.
Ultimately, Battle Immortal Sect used the Rank Six sword dragon strength immortal gu, a complete immortal gu recipe for refining Rank Six group strength immortal gu, ten sets of refining materials for group strength immortal gu, and three sets of immortal materials for refining Rank Six All-Out Effort Immortal Gu to exchange back those two seized rank six immortal gu.
Next was Black Heaven Temple.
Black Heaven Temple wanted to redeem Heavenly Deaf Old Man and the three rank six immortal gu on him; at first, they even tried to play tricks during the negotiations, secretly setting up a plot against Yuan Fang.
As a result, they failed miserably, instead being counter-plotted by Yuan Fang; a Rank Seven Gu Immortal was injured because of it, and another rank six immortal gu was swapped away by Yuan Fang using the Flower Transfer and Wood Grafting Killer Move, making their losses even more severe.
After suffering a great loss, Black Heaven Temple no longer dared to play any tricks and honestly paid the following immortal gu and gu materials:
Rank Seven dark shadow immortal gu, Rank Seven dark heaven immortal gu, Rank Six black heart immortal gu, plus six sets of immortal materials for refining Rank Six hidden arrow immortal gu, seven sets for Rank Six puzzle solving immortal gu, four sets for Rank Six Black Banner Immortal Gu, and six sets for Rank Six dark passage immortal gu; only then did they redeem Heavenly Deaf Old Man and all those rank six immortal gu.
After Black Heaven Temple, Heavenly Lotus Sect appeared, aiming to redeem Bu Feiyan and the four rank six immortal gu on her.
After some negotiation, Heavenly Lotus Sect finally paid Rank Seven treeman immortal gu, Rank Seven willow leaf immortal gu, seven sets of immortal materials for refining Rank Six golden lightning bamboo immortal gu, three sets for Rank Six green vine immortal gu, and one fifty year longevity gu to redeem Bu Feiyan and all the immortal gu.
Finally, it was Myriad Dragon Dock, coming to redeem Chen Zhenchi and the two rank six immortal gu on him.
Yuan Fang did not ask for immortal gu, but instead had Myriad Dragon Dock directly send a complete set of immortal gu food sufficient to feed all the immortal gu of the Great Love Sect for twenty years.
The members of Myriad Dragon Dock were actually overjoyed by this, feeling that they were the only force among the Ten Great Ancient Sects that had not lost a Rank Seven immortal gu, and had gained a huge advantage.
But how could they know that the number of immortal gu within the Great Love Sect was enormous, and there were even Rank Eight level immortal gu; the food required for feeding them were all Rank Eight rare immortal materials, and the total amount for twenty years, when converted into immortal essence stones, was already an astronomical figure.
Myriad Dragon Dock seemed to have it easy, but in reality, they still suffered a massive financial blow.
At this point, all eight Rank Seven hostages had been redeemed, and Yuan Fang still had seven rank six immortal gu seized from the Immortals of the Ten Great Ancient Sects, coming from Spirit Butterfly Valley and Spirit Affinity House respectively.
Among these seven immortal gu, one was a Rank Six human path carefree immortal gu from Spirit Butterfly Valley; Spirit Butterfly Valley sent people several times wanting to redeem it at a high price, but they were all flatly refused by Yuan Fang, who directly kept it for himself.
The remaining four came from the long-dead couple Huang Yucheng and Lei Yihao, being the four rank six immortal gu: Heaven Shaking, Earth Moving, Electric Current, and Lightning Flash.
Spirit Affinity House was unwilling to pay ransom for two dead people, so these four immortal gu also completely belonged to Yuan Fang.
Among them, the two Space Path immortal gu, Heaven Shaking and Earth Moving, could be combined into the Immortal Path Killer Move Heaven Shaking Earth Moving; Yuan Fang then used this pair of immortal gu to replace the shifting form immortal gu in Clan Leader's hands;
The shifting form immortal gu was then transferred to the Clone Gu Yue Qingzhuo for use, allowing him to truly possess the Flower Transfer and Wood Grafting Killer Move.
As for these two lightning path immortal gu, Electric Current and Lightning Flash, the Great Love Sect currently had no lightning path Gu Immortals, so Yuan Fang stored them in the Sect treasury, to be exchanged for cultivation with contribution points once a lightning path Gu Immortal appeared in the Sect in the future.
Just then, a formal message came from Spirit Affinity House, expressing their willingness to redeem the Rank Seven Water Path immortal gu house near water pavilion at any cost.
Seeing this, Yuan Fang immediately asked for a Rank Eight immortal gu, which was promptly and flatly refused by the Spirit Affinity House Grand Elder.
The gap between a Rank Eight immortal gu and a Rank Seven immortal gu was like a chasm, far more terrifying than the gulf between Rank Seven and Rank Six.
For super forces of the level of the Ten Great Ancient Sects, refining a rank six immortal gu was merely a scratch, refining a Rank Seven immortal gu would consume their Foundation, but once it involved a Rank Eight immortal gu, it would truly be a deep injury that shook their very roots.
Even super forces like Shadow Sect, Zombie Alliance, Longevity Heaven, and the Ten Great Ancient Sects did not dare to refine Rank Eight immortal gu lightly.
Looking across the entire Five Regions, only the Heavenly Court was wealthy enough to refine Rank Eight immortal gu relatively easily.
No other force would easily use a Rank Eight immortal gu to redeem someone.
Seeing Spirit Affinity House's firm attitude, Yuan Fang no longer made an outrageous demand and spoke slowly:
"Since a Rank Eight immortal gu won't work, then hand over all the human path immortal materials and human path resource points in your Spirit Affinity House's inventory. Additionally, my Lifespan is running low, so I also want one five hundred year longevity gu."
The Spirit Affinity House Grand Elder pondered for a moment and finally gritted his teeth and agreed.
Although Spirit Affinity House was one of the Ten Great Ancient Sects, its cultivation mainly focused on Water Path, and its human path Foundation was inherently weak.
Therefore, Spirit Affinity House's reserves of human path immortal materials and resource points were far inferior to other mainstream paths.
Handing these things over, although a loss, would not shake their Foundation; it was merely a surface wound;
Meanwhile, near water pavilion was a symbolic inheritance left by the Ancestral Master, its significance far exceeding an ordinary rank seven immortal gu house; no matter the cost, it had to be redeemed.
At this point, this ransom drama that had shocked the entire Central Continent finally came to a complete close.
Tallying after the battle, Yuan Fang's extortion this time had yielded a total of eleven Rank Seven immortal gu:
Sword Intent immortal gu, snack immortal gu, moon blade immortal gu, dragon whiskers immortal gu, stomach acid immortal gu, soul-shaking immortal gu, soul-congealing immortal gu, dark shadow immortal gu, dark heaven immortal gu, treeman immortal gu, and willow leaf immortal gu.
Ten rank six immortal gu:
expand space immortal gu, bright moon immortal gu, swallow soul immortal gu, sword dragon strength immortal gu, black heart immortal gu, carefree immortal gu, heaven shaking immortal gu, earth moving immortal gu, electric current immortal gu, and lightning flash immortal gu.
Besides these, there was also a complete Rank Six earth path defensive Immortal Array, Flying Stone Hill; this Immortal Array used earth and stone as a barrier, flying sand as concealment, and scattered stones for offense.
When immortal essence was sufficient, it was enough to withstand the bombardment of ordinary Rank Seven Gu Immortals, making it an excellent defensive Killer Move.
In terms of longevity gu, a total of one thousand four hundred and fifty years of longevity gu were harvested, along with a massive amount of immortal materials used for refining immortal gu, piled up like mountains, almost filling half of the Great Love Blessed Land.
Having harvested such a massive reserve of immortal materials, Yuan Fang acted decisively, using all the contribution points he had accumulated in the Lang Ya Sect to borrow the usage rights of the Lang Ya Blessed Land's Long Fur Refining Path Grand Array, preparing for a large-scale centralized refinement.
To prevent himself from suffering backlash if the Gu refinement failed, Yuan Fang used a clever trick, repeatedly replacing Snow Pine Child's vital Gu with the immortal gu that was about to be refined.
The key to this plan was that as long as the immortal gu itself was not destroyed, the vital Gu would not directly die regardless of whether the refinement was successful, normal, or reversed;
But once the Gu refinement failed, Snow Pine Child, as the vital Gu master, would suffer a violent backlash, ranging from being severely injured and dying at best, to Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering at worst.
Snow Pine Child thus suffered through such torment, being severely injured time and again, nearing death time and again, and being forcibly revived time and again by the Man as Before immortal gu.
Amidst endless pain, Snow Pine Child served as Yuan Fang's "humanoid Gu Refining vessel," perfectly completing this extremely arduous task.
In this centralized refinement, there were a total of sixteen immortal gu successfully refined from Rank Six to Rank Seven:
Hunger Enduring Immortal Gu, blood god child immortal gu, delicious immortal gu, Star Thought Immortal Gu, Healing Immortal Gu, Man as Before immortal gu, the land remains as before immortal gu, Soul Purification Immortal Gu, my strength immortal gu, All-Out Effort Immortal Gu, hidden arrow immortal gu, puzzle solving immortal gu, Black Banner Immortal Gu, dark passage immortal gu, golden lightning bamboo immortal gu, and green vine immortal gu.
Additionally, Yuan Fang also successfully refined the Rank Six group strength immortal gu, and Eastern Orc also successfully refined the Rank Six stomach acid immortal gu, further advancing his own Food Path attainment.
During this time, Eastern Orc also used stomach pouch immortal gu, gastric juice immortal gu, fish scale immortal gu, and giantification immortal gu as the core to create a brand-new Transformation Path Immortal Rank Killer Move—Heaven Swallowing Giant Whale Transformation.
The accompanying Killer Move Whale Swallows All Things was also perfected; after transforming into the Heaven Swallowing Giant Whale, it could directly swallow and destroy the enemy's pure physical type offensive Killer Moves and digest them through the stomach acid immortal gu.
As for Yuan Fang himself, after gathering all the harvests and perfecting the Sect's arrangements, he completely entered a state of secluded cultivation, fully polishing his own cultivation and enhancing the power of his Killer Moves.
At the same time, he was making the final thorough preparations for the upcoming Yi Tian Mountain battle that was destined to shake heaven and earth.
Last time, Yuan Fang had seen on the rank eight immortal gu house Homecoming Board within the Mecha Grotto-heaven that he could use contribution points to exchange for a Gu Immortal dream realm named Wu Cheng.