Chapter 46 New Developments

Barrels full of wine were placed into the formation, nurturing the Steep Tea Gu and with the fermentation creation gu. I was able to speed up the process of refining the liquor worms. All the excess wine was placed into the formation, speeding up the refinement.

The amount of liquid being refined by the Steep Tea Gu increased over time. I stayed near the formation at all times. Since it was now constantly running, I had to replace any used or overused Gu to ensure it didn't fail. This made the process slow and time-consuming, but quicker than I originally thought it would take.

With Steep Tea Gu being my vital Gu, I could feel its advancement to the next rank getting closer. By the end of the month, its aura rose and advanced to rank 6. I took it out of the small pool where it was refining. "Master, congratulations on the successful refinement," Masked Spirit said as he flew over to me.

Steep Tea's appearance didn't change, but its ability did grow. At the mortal level, it could passively raise the stage of the user's primeval sea essence by one stage gradually over time. At the immortal level, as long as it was connected to an immortal essence bead with plenty of heaven and earth Qi around, it would turn it to the next rank after a year.

That's still good, but it would take time, and the Blessed Land would need to be placed down more often to balance out the Qi inside. But how could I settle on that? I left Masked Blessed Land and went far away. Once I reached a good area, I set up methods to hide myself and what I planned to do.

I pulled out one of my own immortal essence beads and my newly advanced Vital Gu. Immortal killer move: Rapid Steeping. The green grape immortal essence bead quickly started turning red as the Qi all around began to be absorbed into the bead. Within a minute, the once-green grape immortal essence bead became a red date immortal essence bead.

Once it was done, I returned it to my Blessed Land. With this, I now had the actual aura of a rank 7 immortal, if I wanted to show it. Rank 6 can be manipulated, but rank 7 makes any opponent cautious about anything. Since it could mean death, most don't bother to mess with rank 7. As for rank 8, it's the current peak of this world. Only a rank 8 can kill another rank 8, with few exceptions for other ranks to threaten them.

As I flew back to Masked Blessed Land, Masked Emotion Immortal Gu on my face shook back and forth three times. "Oh, someone's trying to deduce information about me?" As I flew, I activated some mortal killer moves to protect myself from the deduction. "Something's not right. I'm having to use way too many mortal methods to protect myself from the deduction. Could it be an immortal?"

It's not an immortal method, otherwise, I would have needed one to block it. This method is either a pure deduction from a wisdom/information inheritance that specializes in deductions, or it's an immortal using strong mortal methods on me, which would be more common. Well, there's only one way to know. You can deduce information about me, so why can't I deduce information about you?

Using my own methods, I began to deduce information about the person trying to deduce me. Very quickly, I noticed that this person was hard to deduce and seemed to be in a different region. As I continued, it became harder to do. Their blocking mortal methods won't work with my immortal killer move. I don't want to use my immortal essence beads, but a hidden threat is the most dangerous thing.

Immortal killer move: True Face, using Masked Emotion Immortal Gu as the core Gu. A mask appeared in front of me and transformed into a face. It was Inkwoman, who looked to be in her prime. She was a beauty in every sense of the word, but it was a face I recognized.

In the Western Desert...

"Well, big sister, what did you learn?" A blindfolded woman asked a Inkwoman, who now looked upset. "This grudge should be buried, Moni. Whoever this person was that offended you is all the way in the Eastern Sea, and they're most likely part of a clan," the Inkwoman replied.

"But, big sister, I lost the chance to obtain an immortal Gu recipe because of him," the blindfolded woman whined, but the Inkwoman raised her hand, stopping her from complaining any further. "He was shielded from the very beginning, and then that expert began to deduce information about me. He even used an immortal method, so he most likely knows who I am now. I won't deduce any further and risk antagonizing this expert. Once I stopped, he stopped, meaning he won't push it if I don't."

"But an immortal Gu recipe that would have been perfect for me was lost because of him!" Moni said.

"Forget about it. We still have Gu that can be used for you. I'll also have to place a method to protect you from deductions, just in case that person tries it later." The inkwoman said

Back to the MC...

The Sol clan, a large clan in the Eastern Sea, my only connection to them is when I defeated Moni Sol in the Strength Path event. Does that little brat want revenge, or does she think I have an immortal Gu recipe to take?

Well, now I can't do anything to her, but the same can be said about her. I'm in another region, and they don't know who I am. This is nothing I can't put aside, but if this brat bothers me again, I'll have to teach her another lesson. I flew back to Masked Blessed Land. I need to refine more Fast-Forward Gu. My killer move, Rapid Steeping, uses up a good amount of them.

I don't have much time until the Sound Path event happens, so I'll spend the rest of the time in Masked Blessed Land. Upon entering Masked Blessed Land again, I planned on refining more Fast-Forward Gu, but the Players' Shop alerted me that a request of mine had been completed.

From the shop, a large cage that radiated heat appeared. Inside were odd-looking beasts whose arms and legs resembled brown branches. Their hair was light brown, and large like leaves; if they weren't moving, most would assume they were odd-looking tree saplings. It wasn't until you looked at their wrinkled faces that you could vaguely tell they were apes.

They were a species of apes called Sweet Wood Apes. They're incredibly weak and rely heavily on their natural camouflage to survive. My request in the Players' Shop was for certain apes, and the Sweet Wood Apes were one of them. They're usually found in the Central Continent or rarely in the Southern Border.

Considering how weak they are, I'm not surprised they were turned in first. I spent some time examining them... Tch, they're a bit disappointing. There are only 67 of them, with only 15 females, and not a single wild Gu on them. But I expected all of that. The true letdown is that not a single one of them is even close to being a Beast King.

Well, they're the weakest type of apes I wanted, so it's to be expected. My request was for certain ape Beast Kings or a good number of normal apes. This was clearly the latter, but at least it's something. Using some investigative methods, I saw that these apes had no enslavement methods on them. It was just the cage that gave off heat that kept them in check.

The cage wasn't anything special. Most likely, they had been heating up the cage to scare the apes into submission. Sweet Wood Apes are more of a Wood Path beast, but like a few other apes, they enjoy brewing their own alcohol. They love to brew sweet liquor, hence the "sweet" in their name.

They'll do well in my Blessed Land with all the berries and fruits; they'll be able to naturally make wine and can eat everything else in the Blessed Land. Since they love sweet wine so much, they'd rather eat other things before berries and fruits, so they can use them to make wine. Eventually, I'd like to have other Food Path beasts, but they're not that common.

Let's see, this Sweet Wood Ape appears to be the leader of all of them. Mortal killer move: Masked Leader. A clear mask shot out and hit the elder Sweet Wood Ape. All the other apes looked at him as their leader became still. But within seconds, he returned to normal. I then took them into my Blessed Land.

Inside Insatiable Blessed Land...

The main body brought in the cage with the apes. Using Qi Shape, I took the cage of apes to the upper part of the Blessed Land. From there, I let them out, but they didn't go far. One ape, the leader, took his time to slowly go to a certain part of the Blessed Land.

The ape was the leader of the Sweet Wood Apes, so the rest of the tribe followed after him. The leader was already under the main body's control with the enslavement method called Masked Leader, a killer move that can control a being to do as the user likes, as long as the user is smarter than the target.

With this, the apes won't leave a certain part of the Blessed Land and won't cause trouble. Now, we need a being to pollinate the plants here. That will be the next addition to the Blessed Land. Managing a Blessed Land is a pain, but it's necessary. Each addition needs to be useful for the Blessed Land and its ecosystem.

If there were more Food Path resources, the development would be quicker, but it's not easy to find such things. The Dead Sea with the salt plague is already a huge boon, but so little can be done with it currently, besides making more salt for refinement materials.

I've been constantly nurturing the Dragonfish, changing the Blessed Land's terrain, planting more useful plants, and increasing the number of Nutripedes throughout the Blessed Land, and this is only the beginning. More will be added and altered, and then tribulations can change what will be added or removed from the Blessed Land.

From past experiences, Water, Fire, Light, and Earth Path tribulations combined with Food Path tribulations would assault my Blessed Land. Those paths are necessary for most food to grow well in a Food Path Blessed Land. Of course, there were other ones too, like certain beasts flooding my Blessed Land, but for the most part, it was the other paths.

All these tribulations can easily destroy and alter the Blessed Land, but for many capable immortals, it's also an opportunity. If handled correctly, the tribulations can greatly assist the Blessed Land. For me, I see the tribulations as a form of nourishment. The Blessed Land would need to "eat" what's necessary, whether the immortal likes it or not, and if they can't digest the tribulations properly, the immortal will be the one devoured.