After inspecting the Blessed Land, Zhou Ming returned to the palace Guo Nan had left behind.
"Master, there are still Gu Masters in the Blessed Land who gave up participating in the Legacy. How should we deal with them?" the Land Spirit asked.
"First, lock them all up and take all their Gu. I still have a use for them."
A cold glint flashed in Zhou Ming's eyes.
The Land Spirit's control over the Blessed Land was extremely strong. Mortal Gu within the Blessed Land could be suppressed with a single thought from the Land Spirit, preventing any Mortal Gu from being used.
Therefore, Gu Masters posed no threat to the Land Spirit within the Blessed Land. Only Gu Immortals with Immortal Gu could attack the Blessed Land, because the Blessed Land could not suppress Immortal Gu.
Keeping those few people was not a sudden act of kindness from Zhou Ming; rather, he still needed living people as Materials for his Hell Soul Cleansing Scripture Cultivation Technique.
Zhou Ming had been Cultivating the Hell Soul Cleansing Scripture since the last plot world. After returning to the Gu World, he hadn't been able to settle down and find a suitable opportunity to Cultivate due to the need to travel.
Now that Zhou Ming had an entire Blessed Land, it saved him a lot of time and effort, and he finally had a stable environment.
The Cultivation of the Hell Soul Cleansing Scripture could once again be put on the agenda.
"Land Spirit, help me arrange the Reaching Heaven Gu. I want to go to Treasure Yellow Heaven to take a look."
Treasure Yellow Heaven, the foremost of the Five Great Trading Markets in the world, connected the Five Regions. It was the largest trading market in the world, only accessible to Gu Immortals.
When a Gu Immortal advanced to Rank Eight, their Immortal Aperture Blessed Land would also be promoted to a Grotto-Heaven.
In the history of the Gu World, there were nine layers of Heaven, recorded in The Legends of Ren Zu, which were the famous Primordial Nine Heavens: White Heaven, Red Heaven, Orange Heaven, Yellow Heaven, Green Heaven, Azure Heaven, Blue Heaven, Purple Heaven, and Black Heaven.
Later, Ren Zu's ten children wreaked havoc on Heaven and Earth, and the Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Azure, Blue, and Purple Heavens successively collapsed. Now, only White Heaven and Black Heaven rotate and alternate.
And Treasure Yellow Heaven originated from the Yellow Heaven of the former Primordial Nine Heavens.
In the Middle Antiquity Era, there was a Rank Eight Gu Immortal, known as Immortal Master Duobao, who accidentally obtained a fragment left after the Yellow Heaven shattered. After he fused it into his own Grotto-Heaven, Treasure Yellow Heaven was formed.
After the Fusion of the Yellow Heaven fragment, Treasure Yellow Heaven could no longer move and was fixed in one place in the world. However, it also became free from Heaven and Earth calamities and did not have to worry about being destroyed by them.
Furthermore, Treasure Yellow Heaven gained the ability to span the Five Regions, which allowed Gu Immortals from all Five Regions to conduct business in Treasure Yellow Heaven without barriers.
Zhou Ming once wanted to buy a large quantity of Treasure Light Gu, which were sold in the Main God Space. The only Immortal Gu of its kind in the world was in Treasure Yellow Heaven, and it was a Rank Eight.
Immortal Master Duobao back then relied on this Treasure Light Immortal Gu to find countless treasures in the world, thus earning him the name Duobao (Many Treasures).
After Immortal Master Duobao's death, Treasure Yellow Heaven gradually opened up for all Gu Immortals in the world to use. The power of the Treasure Light Immortal Gu filled every corner of Treasure Yellow Heaven. When Gu Immortals brought their trading items into Treasure Yellow Heaven, a treasure light would immediately rise, displaying their value.
The higher the treasure light, the greater the value. Gu Immortals found it harder to be deceived when doing business, so they all preferred to trade in Treasure Yellow Heaven.
The method to enter Treasure Yellow Heaven was not by Physical Body, but by using Reaching Heaven Gu to communicate with Treasure Yellow Heaven, and using Divine Sense Gu to project one's Divine Thought into Treasure Yellow Heaven, communicating through intent to buy and sell.
Reaching Heaven Gu and Divine Sense Gu were both Rank Five Gu, but they did not circulate among Gu Masters at all. Furthermore, activating them consumed a huge amount of True Essence. Even a Rank Five Gu Master could not sustain it for long, only Gu Immortals could use them freely.
Because a Gu Immortal's Immortal Essence, a single piece could transform into infinite True Essence, so there was no need to worry about True Essence consumption.
Soon, the Land Spirit prepared the Reaching Heaven Gu. Under the Land Spirit's activation, it transformed into a boundless round mirror, embedded in mid-air.
The round mirror displayed the scene of Treasure Yellow Heaven.
Treasure Yellow Heaven was empty, without mountains, trees, birds, beasts, insects, or fish. There was no sign of life, only boundless yellow light filling the entire Grotto-Heaven.
As the Land Spirit continuously activated it, the mirror surface changed unsteadily, flashing with various items, various Gu, Gu Materials, animals, plants, mineral resources, even delicacies and fine wines, Variant Humans, and even humans, constantly flickering, dazzling the eyes.
In Treasure Yellow Heaven, everything could be sold.
"Good, very good!" Zhou Ming stared at the fleeting images without blinking, his gaze burning with intense greed.
Why did he want to go to Furei Sea Area? Wasn't it to exchange for a large number of different Gu there and bring them back to the Main God Space to exchange for a massive amount of reward points?
Now, Furei Sea Area hadn't even arrived, and he already possessed a Blessed Land, capable of directly communicating with Treasure Yellow Heaven, the largest trading market in the world. Why go to Furei Sea Area then!
He could directly purchase a massive amount of Gu in Treasure Yellow Heaven!
Immediately, he issued the order to the Land Spirit to acquire different Gu.
Although the Land Spirit was curious why Zhou Ming wanted to acquire various different Gu, and only one of each, the Land Spirit always unconditionally carried out its master's orders. It immediately began to act according to Zhou Ming's command.
In the following days, Zhou Ming settled down in the Blessed Land, diligently studying the several Legacies left by Gu Immortal Guo Nan, waiting for the Land Spirit to collect enough Gu.
Among the Legacies left by Guo Nan, the most detailed and largest portion was naturally his own Water Path Legacy. It meticulously recorded various Cultivation problems he encountered and their solutions, his Cultivation experience, various Gu secret recipes, Gu Refinement experience, and even incomplete Immortal Gu recipes.
Among them, how to ascend to Gu Immortalhood occupied a large amount of space, detailing the entire process of the three steps of ascending to Gu Immortalhood: shattering the Aperture, absorbing Qi, and exploding the Aperture. It listed the potential problems that might be encountered during the entire process and various coping methods, various precautions, and even several calamities he knew of were meticulously recorded, which could be called a conscience of the industry.
Unfortunately, Zhou Ming's Water Path Realm was not high. Even after experiencing Guo Nan's dream and absorbing some Water Path true meaning, his Water Path Realm was still not high, not even reaching the quasi-Great Master level.
He also had no intention of switching to Water Path. Even if he obtained the Second Aperture Immortal Gu in the future and opened up a Second Aperture in his body, he would prioritize Soul Path, or the Great Master level Sword Dao or Blade Dao.
After the Water Path Legacy, came the Food Path Legacy.
Food Path was created by the Beastmen of the Ancient Era and has been rarely circulated for millions of years. The function of Food Path is to maintain the survival of Gu Cultivators and Gu, and to strengthen the target through various specific dietary supplementation methods.
Throughout the Five Regions, there were very few primary Food Path Cultivators, but all Gu Immortals yearned to also Cultivate Food Path as an auxiliary for feeding Gu, managing Immortal Apertures, and enhancing themselves, with a considerably wide range of applications.
However, when he truly read the Food Path Legacy and saw the relevant content within, Zhou Ming was immediately startled into a cold sweat.
"Bronze Dragonfish breeding method???!!! I, I'll be damned!"
Zhou Ming's hand trembled, almost sending the Legacy in his hand flying.
Dragonfish, this creature, was not a species naturally born in Heaven and Earth, but was created by the powerful figure who founded Food Path in the Ancient Era. It was itself a product of Food Path.
Whether it was the Dragonfish in Water Ripple Blessed Land now, or the Dragonfish traded on the market, they were all more or less the same. Besides abundant Food Path dao marks on their bodies, there were also other miscellaneous dao marks mixed together. These dao marks were basically useless in Food Path feeding.
The direction for optimizing Dragonfish cultivation was to remove as many heterogeneous dao marks as possible, allowing Food Path dao marks to increase.
And the Bronze Dragonfish recorded in the Food Path Legacy in Zhou Ming's hand was a brand new species superior to ordinary Dragonfish.
It was just that the information recorded within was incomplete, an incomplete cultivation method, which is why there were no Bronze Dragonfish in Water Ripple Blessed Land. It is estimated that Gu Immortal Guo Nan had been researching this incomplete method throughout his life, but never managed to complete it until his death.
However, this was not what Zhou Ming was concerned about.
The problem Zhou Ming was concerned about was that the cultivation method for Bronze Dragonfish came from Spectral Soul Demon Venerable, one of the ten historically famous Venerables!
Spectral Soul Demon Venerable, the founder of Soul Path, and also the most murderous Venerable in history. During his lifetime, he slaughtered the world, plunging all living beings into darkness, using the lives of the Five Regions as nourishment, and making the entire Gu World fall under his terrifying domination.
And after Spectral Soul Demon Venerable's death, his Soul returned to the Gate of Life and Death. He tried every means to re-inject his split Souls into the present world, founding Shadow Sect, lurking and plotting for a hundred thousand years, to defy fate and destroy fate to be reborn.
Shadow Sect's power was immense, spread throughout the Five Regions, using all living beings as chess pieces, having laid countless hidden moves.
And this Bronze Dragonfish was currently in Shadow Sect's hands and had not yet circulated in the Five Regions.
So, the Food Path Legacy that Zhou Ming obtained from Gu Immortal Guo Nan actually contained the cultivation method for Bronze Dragonfish. What did this imply?
"Could it be that this Guo Nan was also a chess piece arranged by Shadow Sect long ago, just like Fox Immortal Blessed Land was for Fang Yuan?"
"Doesn't that mean I fell into Shadow Sect's arrangements from the start? No, wait, I seem to have been ignoring something…"
Zhou Ming frowned deeply, pondering bitterly, his face growing increasingly grim.
"Among Shadow Sect, True Monarch Purple Mountain, one of Spectral Soul Demon Venerable's split Souls, voluntarily merged his will into the Heavenly Dao to explore the secrets of the Heavenly Dao, thereby glimpsing a sliver of heavenly mystery."
"Then, as long as Heaven's Will pays attention to me, True Monarch Purple Mountain will also notice me, and thus use me to set up a scheme!"
"And! And there's more! There's also Star Constellation Immortal Venerable! She was the first to merge herself into the Heavenly Dao, even deeper than True Monarch Purple Mountain. If True Monarch Purple Mountain knows about me, how could Star Constellation not know about me!"
"The biggest problem is, why did I only realize such an obvious problem now! Before this, I never even had the slightest thought about it!"
After Zhou Ming returned from the second plot world, he brought a World Tree leaf back to the Gu World, but Heaven's Will took the World Tree leaf and raised his Aptitude to Grade A ninety-nine percent.
At that time, he found it strange. Looking back at the content of that novel in his previous life, Heaven's Will always acted by slowly laying out plans, secretly influencing, guiding the situation, and overwhelming with the general trend.
But never once had it directly intervened, snatching away a Gu Master's possession, changing a Gu Master's Aptitude, Cultivation, and other specific things!
However, Zhou Ming at the time was only briefly surprised, then quickly accepted this difference and shifted his thoughts elsewhere.
He never delved into why this happened, nor did he ever think of Star Constellation Immortal Venerable, who was merged with Heaven's Will!
"Star Constellation Immortal Venerable…"
Zhou Ming gritted his teeth, feeling a deep fear engulf him, an icy chill freezing his body and mind.