113 RI

They appeared before a thick forest which was verdant and lush, the foot of the mountain was serene and fog filled the place.

Fang Yuan had already activated lion fur armor to protect him tightly. He used all his concentration to quickly scan his surroundings and discovered that he had appeared on the waist of a mountain.

Surrounding him were tall ancient trees, and even his six meter tall immortal zombie body could not reach one-third of these giant trees.

Raising his head, he gazed at the sky through the opening between the lush leaves.

The sky was a tranquil green color. There were six giant shadows of stars in the green sky, they appeared to be six round moons in the color of red, brown, yellow, blue, purple and white.

Fang Yuan opened his immortal aperture, and Hei Lou Lan shortly appeared outside, stepping on the mountain stones.

Her eyes flashed with bright light as she looked around: "This is inside Starry Sky grotto-heaven?"

"It is indeed, let's go. The desolate beast that I want to kill, star demon bat, should be nearby."

The two did not know the exact location of the star demon bat, thus they casually chose a direction and moved along it.

While moving forward, the two used investigative methods to scan around them all the time. After advancing to a Gu Immortal, they had unlimited primeval essence and could use mortal Gu freely.

The two had also made ample preparations before they had come here.

Although they did not have investigative killer moves, they had prepared large numbers of investigative Gu worms of all paths to not only enhance their vision and hearing, but also to sense the slight tremors when they walked, and to smell any odd odors when they breathed. At the same time, they spread out their divine senses to cover their surroundings, attaining completion in all aspects of scouting.

Time flowed little by little, but this forest did not seem to have any end.

"Five minutes have already gone by, there seems to be something wrong!" Hei Lou Lan stopped and solemnly asked Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan nodded, saying in a deep voice: "Indeed, we have already been in Starry Sky grotto-heaven for some time now but haven't actually encountered a single wild beast. There are only trees or fog. Whether we go up the mountain or down, or move in any direction, things all look the same."

Hei Lou Lan looked up: "Let's fly."

The two carefully flew up.

The green sky was completely empty; if the two flew high up, they would be very conspicuous and it would be extremely easy for them to be discovered by beast groups and get surrounded.

Thus for safety purposes, Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan had chosen to move along the ground.

Right now, the two took the risk to attempt flying, but the result was disappointing.

The higher they flew up, the thicker the fog became. Finally, the fog became so thick that they could not even see their own fingers.

Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan's investigative methods were greatly restricted in this fog.

The two discussed and chose to be cautious, not willing to continue taking this risk, they descended to the ground.

"Has the Starry Sky heavenly spirit already begun to target us?" Hei Lou Lan guessed.

"The situation here, if it is not a unique law of the grotto-heaven, then it is an illusion, quietly disturbing our sense of direction and obstructing our true senses. Unfortunately, I don't have any investigative killer moves." Fang Yuan replied.

"Don't you have wisdom path methods?" Wisdom path is also specialized in resolving these kinds of circumstances." Hei Lou Lan asked while frowning.

Fang Yuan shook his head: "I indeed have some wisdom path methods, but they are rather special, they cannot deduce directions. How about you, do you have any investigative killer moves?"

Hei Lou Lan snorted lightly and raised her two delicate fists: "I don't have any investigative killer moves, but I do have offensive killer moves! Self Strength!"

She suddenly punched out with her two fists, sending out majestic fist qi.

The fist qi surged all around and rapidly condensed into strength path phantoms.

These strength path phantoms had fat bodies like bears with triangular eyes and jagged teeth. It was the male shape Hei Lou Lan had disguised as before.

Fang Yuan took a few steps back to give Hei Lou Lan sufficient space.

These strength path phantoms pounced at Hei Lou Lan's main body. The phantoms merged together and soon covered Hei Lou Lan, forming a giant strength path phantom.

This killer move had astonishing might, Hei Lou Lan had used it before in Northern Plains to destroy the flying bear phantom.

She again raised a fist.

The giant fist ruthlessly smashed at an ancient tree on the side.

The thick and sturdy ancient tree immediately broke into two; the lower half remained at the ground but was shaking intensely, the soil around it splattered to reveal the tree roots. The upper half was directly sent flying, cutting through the wind as it collided with another ancient tree, smashing two to three branches.

Boom boom boom...

Hei Lou Lan punched and kicked, the heavy punches and kicks shook the earth, stones flew, trees toppled down and the fog dispersed.

Fang Yuan flew into the sky, his sight was now much more clear.

He saw this forest only had the range of a hundred li, he and Hei Lou Lan had been moving in a circle.

Outside of this forest, he saw a scene abundant in nature and life; the wild beasts roaming around, the cries of birds and insects, the gurgling of streams and wild flowers swaying with the wind.

"It seems this forest itself was special, it should be an extinct tree species. Your information source is somewhat dubious, our entry was actually in this forest." The giant strength path phantom transmitted its divine sense to communicate with Fang Yuan.

Even Fang Yuan, with his plentiful experiences from his previous life and broad vision, did not recognize the origin of this kind of tree.

He gave a bitter laugh and changed the topic: "After the trees became sparse, this forest no longer has the bewilderment effect. We should take some and plant it in our own blessed lands, maybe we can make some profits."

There was absolutely no issue with the information source.

Because he himself was the information supplier.

In his previous life, Starry Sky grotto-heaven had shattered into many parts which then fell towards Central Continent. When Fang Yuan had sent people to explore the grotto-heaven's fragment world, this forest was already in a different shape, much of it had been damaged and thus it did not show any special effects.

This was an warning to Fang Yuan — although he had previous life's memories, however he had come early to Starry Sky grotto-heaven in this life, the situation was different, and he could not blindly rely on these memories.

The giant strength path phantom gazed at these ancient trees: "Even if you had not said it, I intended to do it."

When the two had just taken four to five trees, a dog shaped desolate beast charged down from the top of the mountain.

The dog shaped desolate beast growled, not concealing the fierce glare of its eyes as it looked directly at Hei Lou Lan. Hei Lou Lan's strength path phantom giant was not concealed by the trees and was exceptionally conspicuous.

Fang Yuan looked at the source of the growl and saw the desolate beast. Its body was as large as a small hill, and glossy azure fur covered it. Whether it was its head, stomach, back, tail or its limbs, they were all covered with star shaped stripes. These stripes were emitting faint blue radiance.

Fang Yuan recognized this beast with just one glance, immediately reminding Hei Lou Lan: "This is a star desolate hound, it should be this mountain's overlord. Let's check how powerful the desolate beasts in Starry Sky grotto-heaven are. If it is weak, don't kill it, it is best if we capture it alive, I have other uses for it!"

Hei Lou Lan frowned.

She had an extreme physique strength path immortal body and possessed several great strength path Immortal Gu; it was not difficult for her to kill a desolate beast, but she still had some difference between the level of capturing a desolate beast alive.

However, Fang Yuan continued: "You take the lead, I will support. Decide it according to the situation, if we can really capture it alive, I will use immortal essence stones to pay you."

"Alright, then let's do it like that." Hei Lou Lan was not an irresolute person, with a loud shout, the giant strength path phantom took large and loud steps as it charged towards the star desolate hound.

The star desolate hound fiercely charged down from above and pounced at the giant strength path phantom.

Hei Lou Lan was not to be outdone and immediately punched and kicked, clashing with the star desolate hound. The two huge figures rolled down from partway up the mountain towards the foot, like a rolling gourd.

It was like a giant compactor had steamrolled through a path, as the trees were toppled, protruding boulders were smashed and beast and birds who had not time to escape were crushed into paste.

Fang Yuan flapped his bat wings and flew down.

Eight lumps of starlight condensed separately on his eight monstrous claws, but they did not crash down yet.

Hei Lou Lan's giant strength path phantom was rolling and turning around at times as it clashed with the star desolate hound, like a rolling wheel. The fight was fierce but the situation was still not decided, the attacks moved so quickly that even an old demon like Fang Yuan was not able to find an opportunity to interfere.

Rumble...

Dust flew up, the giant phantom and the desolate beast rolled down to the foot of the mountain before finally stopping.

The star desolate hound fiercely pounced on the giant phantom. It raised its head and opened its mouth, revealing the snow-white canines that were as sharp as swords and long as halberds, and bit down.

Fang Yuan saw the chance, his eight arms moved and the eight lumps of starlight that had accumulated enough energy slammed down.

Bam bam bam...

A series of explosions resounded, the star desolate hound furiously barked, its attack was interrupted.

The giant hound head shook in every direction, flinging off the starlight lumps.

However, Hei Lou Lan obtained the critical opportunity due to this, letting out a fierce attack.

The giant strength path phantom bent its knee and fiercely struck a crucial part between the star desolate hound's rear legs.

Howl——!

The star desolate hound immediately let out an extremely painful cry, its giant body fiercely jumped like it had been electrocuted and bounced around in the lush forest.

Fang Yuan immediately fluttered over, not giving the star desolate hound any time to recover.

He flapped his wings in the sky, moving nimbly like a fly as he threw down lumps of starlight right at the star desolate hound's vital areas like eyes, mouth and anus.

The star desolate hound bounced around everywhere but it was gradually not able to hide from Fang Yuan's crafty attacks and started to whine in pain.

The star desolate hound had defensive wild Gu on it.

But facing a killer move like icy drill stardust, a defense from ordinary wild Gu would not work, instead the defensive Gu would rapidly die when facing icy drill stardust.

Hei Lou Lan controlled her giant strength path phantom and stood up.

"As expected of a desolate beast." Hei Lou Lan sighed in her heart.

The strength path killer move that had never failed her before was actually not able to resist the tyrannical strength of the star desolate hound. Especially this giant strength path phantom, which was the pinnacle transformation of her killer move, and yet was actually not a match against the star desolate hound in terms of strength.

"Since that is the case, then let me use self strength Immortal Gu." Hei Lou Lan gave a sinister smile and was about to attack.

Suddenly, familiar barks came down from the nearby two mountain peaks.

Shortly afterwards, two female star desolate hounds charged into Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan's sight.

Fang Yuan's movement slowed down, Hei Lou Lan's pupils shrunk, and as if they had identical thoughts in mind, they transmitted the same message to each other: "Run!"

-x-X-x-

Three star desolate hounds chased, as Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan retreated along the way.

It was not that they could not defeat the three desolate beasts, but they would have to engage in fierce combat and expend a lot of effort to defeat them.

As Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan were inside an unfamiliar environment like Starry Sky grotto-heaven, they would not want to fight with their full strength randomly, especially not against these desolate beasts which they had met by chance, only a fool would do such a thing.

Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan were experienced schemers, this trip of exploring Starry Sky grotto-heaven needed to be handled with caution, they had to preserve their battle strength to deal with unexpected situations.

Especially when the heavenly spirit of Starry Sky grotto-heaven had not shown itself yet.

The heavenly spirit controlled all aspects of the grotto-heaven, when Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan entered, they would have been detected already.

Fang Yuan led the way, flapping his wings continuously, he was extremely fast. He did not dare to fly at high altitude, he only flew near the ground.

Hei Lou Lan was much slower than Fang Yuan, she was behind him as she deeply looked at his wings, thinking and comparing in her heart: "Fang Yuan's current speed is not outstanding, I can reach it. But he can move and maneuver so agilely and precisely, he can swerve around the branches of the trees so freely."

After nearly ten li of flying, the three star desolate hounds behind them stopped and gave up on Hei Lou Lan and Fang Yuan, no longer chasing them.

The two stopped at a tall tree and took a small rest to recover.

Fang Yuan stood on the crown of the tree, trying to decipher their direction, the surrounding mountains were not far from each other, yet they were independent and distinct.

Some mountain peaks had green pines growing on them. Some had only shrubs. Some had no trees and only had weeds and wild flowers — all these were man made arrangements, nature would not have made things so organized.

Fang Yuan could tell.

The owner of Starry Sky grotto-heaven, Seven Star Child, had categorized these mountain peaks into independent areas to nurture different vegetation. This way, he could raise the productivity of specialized products.

"It seems that the owner of this grotto-heaven had spent quite some effort on managing it." Hei Lou Lan walked over, standing beside Fang Yuan and observing the area.

Fang Yuan instead frowned.

This landscape was simply too different from the one in his memories. Did that mean that hundreds of years later, there would be a huge change to Starry Sky grotto-heaven's terrain, causing it to be completely different after it broke apart and collapsed?

This way, Fang Yuan's previous life's memories could not give him any precious help.

Hei Lou Lan directed her gaze towards the small bat wings on Fang Yuan's back, asking with great interest: "Your killer move is not bad, where did you buy it?"

According to the Snowy Mountain Alliance, Fang Yuan could not lie to Hei Lou Lan, but he could choose to not talk about it.

However, true solid bat wings was an ordinary technique of Fang Yuan's, he did not need to hide it.

He answered plainly: "This killer move is based on an improvement of my previous killer move, suited for my immortal zombie body. If you want to use it, you will need to transplant a pair of bat wings onto your back."

Hei Lou Lan heard this and frowned, though not because she was concerned over destroying her image, she pursued strength: "The body of a desolate beast is also an immortal body. Just like the bodies of us Gu Immortals, their bodies contain dao marks and are closer to certain laws. Your pair of bat wings should not have the dao marks of strength path, they are closer to wind path. Transplanting them casually like this, are you not afraid that there would be a conflict between strength path and wind path, resulting in your strength path killer moves weakening?"

Fang Yuan chuckled: "You know about how Reckless Savage Demon Venerable can transform into all sorts of fierce beasts, right?"

"Of course. Reckless Savage Demon Venerable created transformation path, he was the progenitor of transformation path." Hei Lou Lan answered.

"The essence of transformation path is to transform one's own body into a fierce beast or plant, and obtain their strength and abilities at the same time. A transformation path Gu Master can become a wind path bird, fire path tiger, or water path fish, using just one path to project countless paths. Why do their dao marks not interfere with one another?" Fang Yuan asked.

Transformation path Gu Masters who solely transform their bodies had not truly ventured into transformation path.

A truly successful transformation was not only changing one's appearance, but also gaining the beast's respective dao marks.

Gu Immortals who become desolate beasts not only have the strength, defense, and speed of the desolate beast itself, they can even amplify the effect of Gu worms in their respective paths.

"That is because, every time they transform, they will turn into a single fierce beast, they would only have one type of dao mark on their bodies, it is unlike you who has two types of dao marks mixing together, like a Gu Master trying to cultivate two paths. Furthermore, after they transform, they will use their relevant Gu worms to cleanse their bodies, removing all of their current dao marks, before they can transform into a fierce beast which has another dao mark." Hei Lou Lan said.

Fang Yuan laughed arrogantly: "No, that is because they are not good enough yet, their methods are lacking. Reckless Savage Demon Venerable was not like this, he ate immemorial desolate beasts and formed desolate beast totems on his body, encompassing countless dao marks in his body, allowing him to transform at will. When you were undergoing your tribulation, I obtained the true meaning infusions of the Demon Venerable, I have already become a transformation path master."

Hei Lou Lan was truly shocked: "That is to say, you obtained pointers from Reckless Savage Demon Venerable, you have a method to balance different dao marks?"

Fang Yuan nodded, but shook his head soon after: "I am only at master realm, I can only balance three different dao marks. I am also limited by physical transplantation and other restrictions, true solid bat wings can only have up to three pairs of wings, that is the greatest display of my current transformation path master realm attainment."

Hei Lou Lan heard Fang Yuan's words and gained much interest in true solid bat wings: "Sell this movement killer move to me, I will purchase it at a high price!"

Fang Yuan shook his head, rejecting her.

He had modified this killer move after much effort, it was his unique method, how could he give it to someone else?

Unless he no longer needed it in the future, then he would consider selling the simplified version.

Hei Lou Lan was slightly disappointed that Fang Yuan rejected her, but she was not surprised. If their roles were swapped, she would have rejected him as well.

Fang Yuan did not lack immortal essence stones currently.

"I finally understand why you want to kill star demon bats now. What does your information say? A star demon bat is nearby?" Hei Lou Lan asked.

Fang Yuan nodded: "From my information, it is close by. But the terrain here is slightly different, let's look around first."

He had surveyed for a long time, but he could not confirm the location.

The place in his memory was a rotten swamp with poisonous air. But here, there were mountains independent of each other, how could there be a rotten swamp?

Two hours later.

Two figures were attacking a desolate beast.

This desolate beast's body was transparent, like it was made of diamond, its figure resembled a bear, but it was as large as a mammoth, it was a diamond bear that was rarely seen in the five regions.

It was Hei Lou Lan and Fang Yuan fighting the diamond bear.

"Take this." Fang Yuan flew in the air, his eight arms were moving around as they sent out lumps of starlight specks.

The diamond bear stood up, waving its paws and smashing the starlight completely.

Hei Lou Lan transformed into the strength path phantom giant again, she raised her leg and kicked at the diamond bear's belly.

The diamond bear growled, as its diamond-like body shined, Hei Lou Lan's giant strength path phantom's right leg broke.

"This diamond bear's body contains wild Gu worms that counter my strength path giant!" Hei Lou Lan was shocked, retreating immediately.

Killer moves were not invincible, they had weaknesses and could be countered.

But the diamond bear did not want to let Hei Lou Lan go, it pounced in her direction.

Fang Yuan saw this and immediately rushed over, the starlight lumps in his hands were shot out more quickly, like the pelting of raindrops.

At once, the diamond bear was unable to raise its head from the attacks.

"Here's a big one, enjoy it." Fang Yuan raised four of his arms up, summoning a huge icy drill stardust lump that he threw it down.

With a loud explosion, the entire diamond bear was covered by the icy drill stardust.

The diamond bear was assaulted by the stardust, it growled in pain, it had become greatly angered.

Boom!

At the next moment, it charged out of the starlight lump, flying into the sky.

"This bear could fly?" Fang Yuan was the closest to it, caught off guard, he was hit by the diamond bear's raised paws.

Bam.

At the next moment, Fang Yuan was like a cannonball, he flew out, crashing into dozens of large trees before stopping.

His zombie blood was pouring out, with two of the arms used to block the bear paw having been cut off, and three were fractured.

Fang Yuan's mouth twitched, accidents were bound to happen when fighting desolate beasts.

Desolate beasts were not like Gu Immortals, they did not have much intelligence, but as for which wild Gu they had in their bodies, one could not tell upon first contact.

Like earlier, the diamond bear actually dispelled Hei Lou Lan's strength path phantom and flew into the air, causing heavy injuries to Fang Yuan.

Only after suffering some injuries did Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan learn that the diamond bear had very powerful Gu worms on it, not only were there Gu worms that countered the strength path phantom, it even had flying Gu that could raise such a heavy body into the air.

"Retreat!" Fang Yuan shouted to Hei Lou Lan.

Hei Lou Lan had the intention to retreat already, she stopped her killer move and escaped with Fang Yuan.

The diamond bear did not chase after them, it picked up Fang Yuan's two arms and placed them into its mouth, chewing.

Crack, crack...

The diamond bear's teeth were sharp, they easily broke Fang Yuan's immortal zombie arms. It continued to chew, turning the arms into minced meat.

The green zombie blood flowed out from the space between the diamond bear's teeth, and an intense stench spread out.

The diamond bear swallowed the zombie meat with a weird expression, but it immediately opened its mouth and vomited the food that it had just eaten.

What a terrible taste!

The diamond bear had a constipated expression as it looked at Fang Yuan's remaining arm with disgust, slamming it into a mountain rock before moving back to its cave that was at the mountain peak grumpily.

A moment later, Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan sneakily returned.

Fang Yuan picked up the amputated arm, after verifying it, he placed it at a wound on his body.

He used healing Gu worms, and with the recovery ability of the immortal zombie, the amputated arm quickly connected to his wound.

As for the remaining arm, it was chewed up by the diamond bear, Fang Yuan could not use it, he sighed and had to regenerate it himself.

The immortal zombie body was not a mortal body, to regrow limbs, six to eight hours were needed. This was not simply a regrowth of body parts, the relevant strength path dao marks had to be replenished.

Hei Lou Lan looked at the cave entrance at the highest point of the mountain: "In that cave, there are at least fifteen kilograms of diamond soil left."

Diamond soil was formed from the feces of the diamond bear, it was filled with rich nutrients, and was one of the soils that could be sold for a high price in treasure yellow heaven.

Not long ago, Fang Yuan had come to this mountain peak with Hei Lou Lan. While Fang Yuan attracted the bear out of the cave, Hei Lou Lan sneaked in and took hundreds of kilograms of diamond soil, they were worth at least thirty immortal essence stones.

Fang Yuan shook his head: "Fifteen kilograms of diamond soil is not worth the risk. The first time was fine, but if we try a second time, with even more animosity, the diamond bear might not let us off. The diamond bear is sturdy and tough, we will need to pay a huge price to kill it. My goal is the star demon bat, since it is not in this direction, let's try another direction."

-x-X-x-

Half a day later, Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan had almost searched through this area and seen many desolate beasts, but did not come across the star demon bat.

"Your information seems to be somewhat unreliable." Hei Lou Lan casually sat down on the ground and said while healing her wounds.

There was a long, bloody wound on her left arm which stretched from the back of her palm to her elbow.

This was the mark left behind from the encounter of Hei Lou Lan and Fang Yuan with a desolate beast flying sword rat.

The flying sword rat was small and extremely fast, a bit of carelessness resulted in it slashing its claws at them.

Even if Hei Lou Lan had the Great Strength True Martial Physique, having a strength path extreme immortal body, she had to struggle to heal this wound.

This was because the wound the flying sword rat caused was filled with dao marks of metal path, which were repelling the strength path dao marks of Hei Lou Lan's immortal body, and resisting the extreme immortal body's recovery ability.

A long while later, Hei Lou Lan was able to heal the wound and a thin layer of scab had formed on top of it.

She went up to Fang Yuan; Fang Yuan was sitting on the ground, using his iron-sharp fingernails to draw the outline of the terrain they had explored on a flat rock.

There were dozens of green mountain peaks. Most of the green peaks were the territory of a desolate beast, like the star desolate hound, flying sword rat, diamond bear and so on.

The mountain peaks with no desolate beasts had large numbers of beast groups as well as a sea of Gu worms living together.

Seven Star Child had clearly invested a great amount of effort to manage Starry Sky grotto-heaven, only then could such dense numbers of desolate beasts survive in this piece of territory.

However, the strange thing was there were no ancient desolate beasts.

Ancient desolate beasts were comparable in battle strength to a rank seven, according to common sense, there should be ancient desolate beasts in this outstandingly managed Starry Sky grotto-heaven.

This was only one of the strange aspects.

The second strange aspect was that the heavenly spirit had still not shown itself.

Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan had explored all around and encountered many fights, but were able to smoothly free themselves.

Strictly speaking, they were invaders, but this Starry Sky grotto-heaven was behaving as if it had no heavenly spirit to manage it, and the suppression Fang Yuan had expected did not appear.

The third strange thing was that Fang Yuan could not find the poisonous swamp no matter where he searched.

According to his previous life's memories, the area he was in right now was the same as the small fragment world of the original grotto-heaven, which he had sent his subordinates to explore in his previous life.

Originally, the poisonous swamp should have been near that ancient tree forest, but Fang Yuan was not able to find it.

"Could it be that the poisonous swamp is part of the terrain that only appears after several hundred years? I came here this early, thus I am not able to find it? If that is the case, my plan to hunt star demon bat will end in failure."

Fang Yuan stared at the diagram of the terrain on the rock, and was pondering everything when suddenly a bright light shot out.

He and Hei Lou Lan raised their heads at the same time and looked at the green sky; unknowingly, the sky was filled with countless star specks.

The amount of this starlight grew rapidly and continued to grow. In a blink of an eye, the starlight filled the whole world, drifting in disorderly fashion like snow.

"This is an astronomical change that occurs only in grotto-heavens." Fang Yuan stood up with an alert gaze, activating lion fur armor.

Hei Lou Lan also activated her defensive killer move with a vigilant mind.

The bright starlight shone on all living beings; beast roars resounded from each mountain peak, some clear, some crisp, some long and some hoarse.

Wind surged, the endless specks of starlight suddenly converged on top of a mountain.

After a dazzling blue radiance was sent out, the star specks dispersed and a resplendent giant hall, exquisite and gorgeous, appeared on the mountain peak.

"This hall...." Fang Yuan's pupils enlarged, as he felt a great sense of familiarity with the structure of the hall. It clearly resembled the ruins that had been left behind in the shattered worlds of the grotto-heaven, which had spread everywhere during his previous life.

It was only that the former ruins now showed no trace of damage.

Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan glanced at each other, Hei Lou Lan guessed: "Did the astronomical change occur due to some specific timing and result in the appearance of the hall?"

"Or did the heavenly spirit intentionally set up a trap to lure us in?" Fang Yuan eyes flashed with bright light.

The two only hesitated for a moment before deciding to go in the star hall.

At the same time, in another area of Starry Sky grotto-heaven.

An intense battle was nearing its climax.

"Foul beast, take this king's fist!" A rockman that was as tall as a hill shouted as it smashed down its fist, wind surged and even the air burst.

The desolate beast flying bear could not dodge in time, its head was struck by the giant stone fist and with a loud sound, it crashed down on the ground, smashing a large crater. Stones and soil flew all around, dust surged up and the earth shook for a while.

The rocky giant did not stop, it spread open its two fists then smashed down from high up.

Bam. The two palms heavily smashed at the flying bear's thick, snow-white body.

The flying bear tried to budge but it was not able to let out even a cry. It was already filled with injuries, the punch just before had cracked its skull and caused it to be on the brink of losing consciousness.

Immortal killer move — Earth's Root!

From the center of his two palms, earth qi bubbled, and countless thick and sharp earth spikes protruded out from the ground like spears.

Plop...

The desolate beast flying bear was pierced through instantly by hundreds of earth spikes.

In its last burst of energy, it raised its head, opened its eyes and let out a mournful cry before its energy was completely spent, its body stiffened and its head fell back down to the ground.

Dong. A sound like that of a drum being struck resounded, with dust rising and falling.

An intense scent of hot blood erupted, as it flowed down the stone pillar and quickly dyed the ground red.

The flying bear was dead.

The rocky giant snorted, it suddenly emitted a piercing light. After the light dispersed, a Gu Immortal proudly stood in the air while crossing his arms.

He had short white hair, a pair of golden pupils, broad shoulders and a thin waist. He wore a tight fitting combat uniform and a valiant aura was emitted from him.

A ray of starlight shot over, transforming into a middle-aged man. He was wearing a long robe with wide sleeves and a high hat on his head. He clapped his hands and praised: "As expected of Lord Immortal Monkey King, killing the desolate beast flying bear in just three minutes."

The white haired man with golden pupils was a rank seven Gu Immortal of Combat Immortal Sect, Immortal Monkey King Shi Lei.

Shi Lei looked at the middle-aged man with an indifferent gaze: "Seven star halls have already appeared, Star Lord Wan Xiang, the eighth star hall you spoke of, why has it still not opened?"

This middle-aged man was Star Lord Wan Xiang, who had traded with Fang Yuan several times.

Star Lord Wan Xiang gave a bright smile: "Immortal Monkey King, there's no need to worry. We can only make the eighth star hall appear when we have killed enough desolate beasts and let their blood seep into the ground. We have already killed six desolate beasts but the amount of blood is still not enough."

"How much more desolate beasts should we kill exactly?" Shi Lei asked impatiently.

Star Lord Wan Xiang revealed a thoughtful expression and said after a pause: "According to my annual explorations over the past twenty years and my own speculations, we probably only need to kill one more desolate beast."

"Hmph! You better not deceive me." Shi Lei replied in an overbearing manner.

Star Lord Wan Xiang lowered his head: "I am just a lone cultivator, even if I had ten times the guts, I would not dare to deceive Lord Immortal Monkey King. Based on Central Continent's time, I can only forcibly break into this star path Grotto-Heaven during this point of the year. Moreover, the duration we can stay is only two days, after these two days, the small opening leading to the grotto-heaven will close up and we won't be able to exit. Why would I deceive you when time is so limited? I also want to plunder more resources, but several years ago, I accidentally saw the eighth star hall, that hall was covered in a foreboding atmosphere. The guards of the star hall were all ancient desolate beasts, it definitely is the central control point of this grotto-heaven and it is very likely for the heavenly spirit to be there."

Shi Lei nodded, he believed Star Lord Wan Xiang's words.

He has known Star Lord Wan Xiang for some time and was familiar with the latter's nature.

"Sigh, if not because I had a huge battle with Song Zi Xing and spent large numbers of immortal essence, and that I urgently require large amounts of immortal essence stones to covert into immortal essence due to my blessed land's approaching tribulation, I would not have told such a huge secret to you." Star Lord Wan Xiang sighed.

Shi Lei's tone softened: "Don't worry, I will abide by the agreement, eighty percent of this exploration's battle spoils will go to you while I take twenty percent. Also, I will not tell anyone else about this secret. Later, we will come to explore this grotto-heaven every year."

Right now, only Star Lord Wan Xiang had the special method to enter Starry Sky grotto-heaven, Shi Lei still had not grasped the method.

"Lord Shi Lei has an outstanding reputation, I can be at ease. According to my past explorations, there is a star demon bat not far away and it is rather easy to kill."

"Alright, let's go there. Old rules; when fighting, you stand to the side, don't interfere." Shi Lei was very decisive and immediately started flying rapidly towards the destination.

Star Lord Wan Xiang laughed bitterly while hurriedly following behind.

Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan cautiously entered the star hall.

This star hall had no defenses, there was no one inside, only six large wells in the center of the main hall.

Water was surging inside these six large wells.

The water in the wells were of different colors; red, brown, yellow, blue, purple and white. The well water was glittering and translucent, and emitted slight radiance.

Hei Lou Lan and Fang Yuan used investigative Gu worms to completely check them.

Their discovery was that the well water, the star hall, everything was as normal as they could be. This was naturally impossible. How could an ordinary hall appear out of thin air? How could ordinary well water be of different colors and emit light?

The only explanation was that the six well waters in this star hall were related to the grotto-heaven's astronomical transformations. If so, the mortal investigative Gu of Hei Lou Lan and Fang Yuan were not of high enough level to investigate anything.

The two were unable to distinguish the mysteries of the six wells, and fell into a predicament for a while.

"This color..." Hei Lou Lan observed again and could not help mumbling.

Fang Yuan knew what she was thinking. He remembered when they had just arrived in Starry Sky grotto-heaven, he had looked at the sky. He saw the shadows of six stars in the sky, they were as large as the full moon and were easy to notice.

These six star shadows were the colors of red, brown, yellow, blue, purple and white, the same as these six waters in the wells.

"What connection do they have?" Fang Yuan mumbled and sent a mortal storage Gu inside a well to take out some of the water to study.

However, when the mortal Gu entered the well water, the tranquil and calm well water suddenly moved and formed a whirlpool, swallowing the mortal Gu.

-x-X-x-

The well water quickly settled down, there were no ripples, it was shining brightly.

But the mortal Gu that Fang Yuan tossed in had completely vanished into the water.

Fang Yuan knew that his mortal Gu had not been destroyed yet, because he could still sense its existence.

But this connection was very weak now.

The connection between a Gu Master and Gu worm had much to do with distance. The further the Gu worm is from the Gu Master, the weaker their connection. In that case, when a Gu Master uses the Gu, their mind would send orders, if they gave ten orders, nine might be missed and the Gu worm would only execute one.

Of course, this was in ordinary cases.

A small portion of Gu worms could maintain a strong connection over a huge distance, they could be easily activated even if they were far away. Some Gu worms were even more peculiar, the closer they were to the Gu Master, the weaker their connection, creating distance between them could improve their connection instead.

Fang Yuan originally had a close connection to the mortal Gu, but now the feeling was much weaker, it was like the two were very far apart.

Fang Yuan followed the connection in his mind, slowly deducing the direction and raising his head.

All he saw was the top of the walls in the star hall.

Fang Yuan activated his investigative Gu, in his field of vision, the roof of the star hall became translucent. Fang Yuan's gaze pierced through the roof of the star hall, seeing the six huge circular star shadows in the green sky.

He felt a sensation in his mind, his gaze remained on one of the star shadows. According to the remaining connection he had, he knew that the mortal Gu was on top of that star shadow!

...

Swoosh swoosh swoosh!

The star demon bat's huge wings whipped up fierce winds as countless arrows shot out at the same time.

These arrows were all made of starlight, they flew very quickly, piercing the air. Their numbers were high, flying towards Immortal Monkey King Shi Lei like a storm.

Seeing the large scale attack, Shi Lei scoffed in disdain: "Merely rank two star arrow Gu, except the numbers are a bit high."

Mortal killer move — Fallen Grey Cloak.

Shi Lei's body shook, as a thin layer of yellow-white smoke and dust covered him.

He did not dodge, he allowed the arrows to land on his body.

No matter how many star arrows came, they dissipated after coming into contact with the mortal killer move fallen grey cloak, vanishing in an instant.

The star demon bat lacked intelligence, it could not use killer moves. Although the scale of the wild Gu on its body was large, it could not use Gu in great quantity.

How could such an attack compare to a killer move that a human cultivator came up with painstakingly?

"This time, look at my eagle transformation!" Shi Lei shouted, his body shining in a bright golden light.

As the light dissipated, Shi Lei had vanished, in his place was a desolate beast iron crown eagle.

The iron crown eagle spread its wings, flying in the air, its sharp claws that resembled steel gave off an imposing aura. The size of its body was not any smaller than the star demon bat.

Far away, Star Lord Wan Xiang quietly observed the battle, seeing this, he sighed helplessly.

Immortal Monkey King Shi Lei was a battle maniac, he refused to fight together in each of these battles. Up to this point, Shi Lei had already killed eleven desolate beasts. Every time he fought a desolate beast, he would use a different type of transformation path killer move, to fight using the body of different desolate beasts.

Star Lord Wan Xiang was anxious about the time, he had urged Shi Lei to use his strongest methods. But Shi Lei rejected him, saying that he wanted to use this opportunity to accumulate transformation path battle experience, he did not want to waste any chance he had. By accumulating his foundations, he would eventually trigger a qualitative change, elevating his transformation path realm.

The iron crown eagle flew for a while, before screeching and pouncing towards the star demon bat.

The star demon bat was also screeching, its ruthless nature was awakened as it did not evade, it flapped its wings and collided with the iron crown eagle.

Two huge winged figures were clashing in the sky violently. The star demon bat bit with its mouth, while the iron crown eagle attacked with its beak. The star demon bat scratched with its claws, but the iron crown eagle's talons were just as sharp, they were evenly matched.

The two had exchanged many blows within a moment, they left many injures on each other's body. After a while, they pulled some distance between them.

The star demon bat shrieked loudly in a self-satisfied manner.

The iron crown eagle that Shi Lei had transformed into had lost most of its feathers, it flapped its wings and after much effort, it stabilized its body.

In the battle earlier, the iron crown eagle had suffered a loss, while the star demon bat had the upper hand.

Not only were most of its feathers gone, there was an injury on its stomach, filled with star path dao marks, it bled continuously and prevented the iron crown eagle's body from healing naturally.

Desolate beasts were different from Gu Immortals.

Gu Immortals had weak bodies, their strength rested in Gu worms. Even if strength path Gu Immortals made their bodies extremely strong, it was still from the effects of Gu worms.

Meanwhile, the strength of desolate beasts was in their own bodies. Desolate beasts have strength, defense, and other attributes from birth, this was something humans could only dream of. Especially when a desolate beast gets closer to nature during their growth, and develops more dao marks on their bodies. When they fight in battle, the injuries that desolate beasts cause will have dao marks lingering. Injuries involving dao marks were very hard to get rid of, not only did they resist the body's self healing, they also hindered the use and effect of healing Gu.

Of course, if the desolate beast had an Immortal Gu, the situation would be completely different.

The iron crown eagle shrieked, ignoring its injures and pouncing towards the star demon bat.

The two met in the sky again, after several attacks, the star demon bat found an opening and flapped its wings quickly, slamming on the iron crown eagle's head.

The iron crown eagle went into a daze, falling towards the ground.

The star demon bat flew in the air, flapping its wings thrice at the iron crown eagle.

The first one caused an intense wind to blow, as thousands of wind blades shot out.

The second caused a burst of starlight, over ten thousand star arrows flew out.

The third caused darkness to gather, forming a giant specter that charged towards the iron crown eagle.

The iron crown eagle first crashed onto the ground, causing rocks to fly and a crater to form. Next, after it raised its head, it was cut by the wind blades.

The iron crown eagle shrieked, it endured the attacks and did not retreat, after enduring the wind blade attacks, it had hundreds of light wounds on its body.

It wanted to flap its wings, but the star arrows flew over. These arrows had extraordinary strength, they pierced into the iron crown eagle's body and caused many wounds, but those were not deep.

Next, that specter which had no solid body drilled into the iron crown eagle's mind.

If it was any ordinary desolate beast, they would have been in trouble, but this iron crown eagle was Shi Lei's transformation.

Shi Lei snorted coldly, thoughts and wills moved in his head, destroying the specter in the blink of an eye.

Although he was an earth path Gu Immortal who also cultivated transformation path, he was an established expert, he was a veteran Gu Immortal, he learned a lot about many other paths and had a set of complete defensive measures against Gu worms of other paths.

"Lord Immortal Monkey King..." At the side, Star Lord Wan Xiang shouted in concern.

The iron crown eagle spoke human words, laughing loudly: "Don't interfere, stay at the side, this is my battle!"

Intense fire seemed to be burning in the eagle's eyes, with much determination, Shi Lei flapped his wings and flew up, towards the star demon bat, but was sent flying.

Bang, with a loud sound, the eagle crashed on the ground again.

"Good, interesting!" Shi Lei shouted, he got more excited as he fought, ignoring his injuries, he rushed up again.

He was fighting with something he was not familiar with, in terms of close combat, how could he be the star demon bat's match. In their fight, he quickly fell into a disadvantage.

But every time Shi Lei lost, he would battle again, the eagle's head would rise up highly, and the eagle eyes would always stare at its opponent.

"This maniac..." Star Lord Wan Xiang watched with a grimacing expression.

Shi Lei obviously had defensive moves like fallen grey cloak, but after transforming into the iron crown eagle, he did not use any of them in battle.

This had happened many times in his previous battles as well.

Star Lord Wan Xiang had asked earlier, but Shi Lei's answer was that he was purposely not using them, it was to experience the joy of battle with his own body, this would be the most effective way to raise his battle foundation.

Shi Lei was a battle-addict, he was a fierce man who derived pleasure from fighting.

"Again!" Shi Lei shouted, flapping his wings towards the star demon bat.

The two sides got closer rapidly, seeing that they were about to collide, the star demon bat suddenly flapped its wings, displaying an incredible flying ability, passing the iron crown eagle narrowly.

Whoosh!

The star demon bat suddenly breathed out a shooting star, hitting the iron crown eagle's back.

The iron crown eagle spat out some blood, its body shook as it had to flap its wings to stabilize itself. Next, Star Lord Wan Xiang heard Shi Lei laughing: "Interesting, bullying my flying attainment which is only master level?"

Saying so, he flapped his wings and rushed up.

The star demon bat did not take the attack directly, it retreated while using star path, wind path, or dark path Gu worms to attack its enemy from far away.

The two had fought for a long time, unknowingly, the star demon bat's body was filled with injuries. These injuries all had metal path dao marks, they could not heal any time soon.

Of course, the injuries on the iron crown eagle were at least twice as severe as the star demon bat.

But Shi Lei fought crazily, it struck fear in the star demon bat, this dominating desolate beast that ruled over a mountain felt some apprehension and did not dare to fight directly.

The star demon bat's intelligence was low, what it was doing was giving on its advantage and fighting with its weakness.

It had mortal Gu on it, although they could disturb Shi Lei, they were not as dangerous to him as fighting at close range.

The iron crown eagle did not use any defensive methods as usual, but its aura was surging as it dodged left and right, finally getting close to the star demon bat.

After shrieking loudly, the eagle claw grasped downwards at it.

The star demon bat dodged agilely, but Shi Lei found an opening.

In terms of flying attainment, the star demon bat which had been flying its entire life was at least a flying grandmaster.

The star demon bat pulled some distance, using Gu worms to attack at a range, while the iron crown eagle tried to get close to engage in close combat with it. In this fashion, the two fought for a while, the star demon bat was bound to mess up at some point, finally, the iron crown eagle found a flaw and used its eagle claws to tear the bat wings.

With a hole in the bat wings, the star demon bat's flying ability fell drastically. Before it could adapt to the injury, the iron crown eagle found even more flaws.

Shi Lei pursued it during this prime opportunity, after enduring the star demon bat's final struggle, he killed it.

The star demon bat landed on the ground, its blood was pouring like a river.

The ground absorbed the blood, just like what Star Lord Wan Xiang said, a formless energy had been activated.

In the sky, starlight appeared again.

-x-X-x-

The specks of starlight coiled around and fluttered for a while before gathering high up in the air and forming a completely new star hall.

Different from the previous star halls, this star hall was floating in the air, its design was exquisite, giving off a majestic beauty that was far above those star halls on the mountains.

"The eighth star hall has finally appeared. My speculation was indeed correct!" Star Lord Wan Xiang spoke with excitement.

Shi Lei canceled the iron crown eagle transformation and returned to his human form. The injuries on his body were still recovering, the blood flow had yet to stop. He indifferently glanced at the sky with his golden pupils: "No wonder you guessed that this was the grotto-heaven's central control point, looking at its appearance, it is very likely to be that."

He grimaced in pain and sat down, healing the wounds.

His healing was in no way simple, he first used large numbers of Gu worms to eliminate the dao marks of star path, wind path, dark path and other paths that had filled the wounds, only then did he use healing Gu worms which showed visible effects.

Star Lord Wan Xiang waited for a little while and when he saw Shi Lei's injuries were roughly treated, he finally could not endure and urged him: "Your healing is almost done right? Time is limited, Lord Immortal Monkey King. The prerequisite for the eighth star hall to appear is that the other seven star halls should be formed first. Every time the seven star halls appear, they will only exist for fifteen minutes. When the seven star halls disappear, the eighth star hall will also disappear."

"Why are you in a hurry? If you are in such a rush, you can enter it first." Shi Lei opened his eyes and coldly glanced at Star Lord Wan Xiang.

"Lord Shi Lei is jesting, my battle strength has fallen to the depths, I still need to rely on lord to break through the ancient desolate beasts' defenses." Star Lord Wan Xiang chuckled and did not speak any further.

However, his fists that were hidden inside his sleeves were tightly clenched, if not for his strength plummeting and the tribulation coming soon, why would he reveal this treasury on his own initiative? And why would he have to be forced to bottle up his frustration?

He knew Shi Lei's scheme and intentions.

Shi Lei was a battle-addict, unreasonable and unruly, but he was in no way stupid.

Everyone who reached a high position had their own outstanding points. The outstanding and famous Shi Lei did not lack shrewdness.

Shi Lei accepted Star Lord Wan Xiang's invitation to come to Starry Sky grotto-heaven to plunder resources. But he did not put in his full effort, he was interested in breaking through the eighth star hall, but he was not willing to see Star Lord Wan Xiang obtain large numbers of resources to pull through the difficulties and escape his grasp.

If Star Lord Wan Xiang does not obtain a fortune in this trip, he would have to request help from others when undergoing the tribulation. Shi Lei could help him then and also obtain a greater grasp on him.

When that happens, in their future visits to Starry Sky grotto-heaven, Shi Lei could obtain larger benefits which would absolutely not be in an eighty to twenty ratio like in this trip.

Every year, Starry Sky grotto-heaven would reveal a tiny gap which allowed Gu Immortals to enter it. Every time, the Gu Immortals could only stay inside for two days of Central Continent's time.

There were abundant desolate beasts and resources in Starry Sky grotto-heaven, it was clearly a small but steady source of resources. Star Lord Wan Xiang was a prime example of this, he was obviously a lone cultivator, but with each of his visits to Starry Sky grotto-heaven, he was able to strengthen himself to the extent that his peak battle strength did not lose out to the majority of Gu Immortals of the ten great ancient sects. Even when fighting Song Zi Xing, he had even been able to make a good record of himself.

After a while, Shi Lei's injuries healed completely with no traces of injuries anywhere on him.

Because of the previous oath, Shi Lei could not push it too far; he examined his body once then stood up: "Sorry to keep you waiting, we can now go in."

Star Lord Wan Xiang put on a smiling expression and shook his head: "It was me who was overly anxious, I have to ask Immortal Monkey King to not blame me. More preparations quicken the speed of the work, I will still have to rely on your strength a lot more."

Shi Lei bluntly nodded: "Naturally."

He stamped his foot and charged straight into the sky.

Star Lord Wan Xiang followed closely behind.

The two immortals moved towards the eighth star hall in the sky together.

At the same time, Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan also jumped out of a well.

"This is another star hall." Fang Yuan said as he scanned his surroundings.

Hei Lou Lan nodded: "We used many methods to test and we were not wrong, these six wells are passages."

The two gazed behind them.

The center of this star hall also had six wells.

But the colors were slightly different from the previous star hall.

In the previous star hall, the six well waters were of red, brown, yellow, blue, purple and white color. However, the six well waters here emitted the colors of red, brown, yellow, blue, green and white.

Purple was gone and green was added.

Hei Lou Lan and Fang Yuan looked at each other. Both were clever and shrewd, and they both obtained an understanding.

"What do you think of it?" Hei Lou Lan asked.

Fang Yuan grinned, showing his sharp, jagged canines as he replied with his hoarse voice: "If I am not wrong, this Starry Sky grotto-heaven has a special terrain, there are a total of seven spaces. These seven spaces are isolated and independent of each other, outsiders can only enter or exit them through the six wells in the star halls."

Hei Lou Lan nodded and picked up a Gu worm from the ground: "This is the mortal Gu you tossed earlier into the purple well water, it is the best proof. If my speculation is right, there is also another form of proof, that is the sky. When we go out of this star hall, this space's sky should also have six round shadows of stars. The difference should be that there instead of a purple star shadow, there should be a green star shadow."

Fang Yuan agreed with Hei Lou Lan's speculation.

Normal grotto-heavens and blessed lands would have integrated spaces. But Starry Sky grotto-heaven was special, it was actually divided into seven spaces, and every space had an independent sky, earth and ecology.

In his previous life, what Fang Yuan explored was only the fragment world of Starry Sky grotto-heaven and he did not know of this layer of mystery.

He and Hei Lou Lan finished discussing and they walked out of the door of the hall, gazing at the sky.

They saw six round star shadows like six full moons floating in the air, Hei Lou Lan clapped her hands and gave a bright smile: "Just like I guessed."

"Wait, someone is here!" Fang Yuan's pupils shrunk as he looked at the moving objects in the distance and happened to see Shi Lei and Star Lord Wan Xiang rapidly flying. Following the direction they were flying towards, Fang Yuan discovered the eighth star hall.

"This star hall seems to be of a higher standard, it is hovering in the air and is being coveted by others, it is very likely that it is the central control point of Starry Sky grotto-heaven." Hei Lou Lan guessed, her gaze stuck on the eighth star hall.

"There are actually others who are one step ahead of us!" Fang Yuan mumbled. He was shocked internally, according to his previous estimation, Starry Sky grotto-heaven was a place with no one but the heavenly spirit existing in it.

If not for this, Starry Sky grotto-heaven should not have fallen in his previous life.

However, the current situation was that he saw no signs of the heavenly spirit and instead saw two Gu Immortals.

As for the Gu Immortals' appearances and identities, the distance between them was very far so Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan were not able to see clearly.

However, the two felt that these neither of these two Gu Immortals were the owners of this grotto-heaven. If one of them was the owner of this grotto-heaven, they would have already sensed Hei Lou Lan and Fang Yuan, and would have acted by now.

"What's strange about it? You could obtain the secret intelligence about Starry Sky grotto-heaven from some source, does that mean other Gu Immortals cannot?" Hei Lou Lan was able to accept this fact much more easily than Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan laughed bitterly in his heart.

He had concealed from Hei Lou Lan that the so-called information source was, in fact, his own self.

However, it seemed that the truth and his preconceptions were vastly different.

The first possible cause for this situation would be Fang Yuan's rebirth constantly influencing the various events in the world, causing a butterfly effect. The second possible reason was there was a lot of details behind the scenes regarding the fall of Starry Sky grotto-heaven in his previous life, it was just that he did not know about them and now in this life, he ran across one of the inside stories.

Fang Yuan's thoughts ebbed and flowed, inclining towards the second cause.

At this moment, sounds of fighting came from the eighth star hall.

"Looks like these two Gu Immortals are of similar status to us, they are also outsiders. But, they are a step ahead of us." Hei Lou Lan's gaze flickered.

Fang Yuan did not reply, he just snickered, his laughter was cold.

Hei Lou Lan also silently grinned.

These two were formidable characters and were also schemers. Right now, the enemy was in the open while they were in the dark and both felt they had a had huge advantage, they could even be said to be the oriole in the saying 'the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind'.

Immediately, Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan activated large numbers of mortal Gu to hide their bodies and restrain their auras, as well as using many kinds of investigative methods to scout.

The two quietly closed the star hall's door, got rid of all their traces and slowly moved outside.

After a while, Fang Yuan who was walking in front suddenly stopped and warned Hei Lou Lan: "Slow down, there is a rank five investigative Gu ahead."

Hei Lou Lan carefully probed, and saw an eye-like small Gu worm quietly hovering in the air. Its eyes were slowly moving around, constantly scanning its surroundings.

The two were not surprised.

With just one look, one could see this Gu worm was not a wild Gu and was clearly left behind by the two Gu Immortals from before.

This was expected.

Previously, when Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan had explored the space relating to the green star shadow, they had also left behind similar investigative Gu to keep watch on their paths.

After becoming a Gu Immortal, one no longer lacked mortal Gu.

These mortal Gu could let the Gu Immortal constantly scan their surroundings, mark the area, warn them and many other uses.

Hei Lou Lan was young, she had just advanced into a Gu Immortal, thus was not able to recognize this Gu's details, giving a suggestion of caution: "Let's detour."

Fang Yuan smiled: "No need. This Gu is starshine fake eye Gu, it has a long range sensing ability, Gu Immortals can observe the situation of the surroundings through it. Its scope is five li, it cannot detect stealth, and not only does using this Gu constantly consume primeval essence, it also burdens the soul. We can use methods to be invisible and boldly go past it."

At the same time, Fang Yuan added in his mind: 'This Gu worm is often used together with true sight Gu which can then detect stealth and invisibility. But that is the situation during the five regions chaotic war, the true sight Gu is still being held by some small sect right now and has not been wantonly spread."

Hei Lou Lan glanced at Fang Yuan, still not feeling relieved: "Are you sure you are not wrong? Gu Immortals research new Gu all the time, maybe this Gu worm is a newly researched Gu that can see through invisibility?"

Fang Yuan snickered: "You think I only looked at it with my eyes and did not use other Gu worms to check it? Don't worry, eight or nine out of ten Gu Immortals are flying masters, but having even two to three refinement path masters out of ten would be pretty good. Refinement path is considerably harder to advance compared to other paths."

-x-X-x-

Fang Yuan spoke with such certainty that Hei Lou Lan chose to believe him.

The two hid their bodies and swaggered into starshine fake eye Gu's range, and they indeed did not attract any Gu Immortal's attention.

Along the way, the two found similar types of investigative Gu like starshine fake eye Gu.

Some of these Gu worms were buried in the ground, some were disguised as tree leaves, and some were hidden in brooks, drifting with the water.

Fang Yuan used his methods one by one, sometimes invisibility, sometimes Gu worms directed at countering them, or tunneling under the ground or swimming through water, all kinds of methods to slip past these investigative Gu worms.

The two had wanted to move until they were below the eighth star hall, and the shortest way would be a straight line to the eighth star hall. If they got a chance, they could also quickly react and use the shortest amount of time to charge to the eighth star hall, and fish benefits from the messy situation.

However, as they walked through this straight line, a bloody odor assailed their noses from ahead.

Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan glanced at each other, the latter revealed a doubtful look as she used her divine sense to transmit: "Strange, both the amount of investigative Gu in this path and their types are increasing more and more."

"Let's take a look." Fang Yuan replied.

The two cautiously evaded or deceived the investigative Gu worms, and discovered further traces of battle.

After a while, they finally reached the area where there was the most intense odor of blood.

They saw a black leopard's corpse lying on the shattered and disordered pile of rocks.

The black leopard was as large as an elephant. Its fur was glossy and shiny, full of wild charm. The remaining aura showed the black leopard's identity, a genuine desolate beast.

"This desolate beast is a vanishing shadow leopard." Fang Yuan said in a low voice.

"It is that someone killed this vanishing shadow leopard and yet left behind its corpse here?" Hei Lou Lan revealed a trace of doubt.

Fang Yuan squatted down near the ground, and used his hand to feel the gully beside his legs.

He then took out a time path Gu worm and carefully activated it.

This Gu worm had the appearance of a crystal sphere, and was an extremely rare rank five Gu. Its name was backtrack Gu, an investigative Gu under time path, which could backtrack to the past events within a specific range.

Backtrack Gu was activated; it displayed a blurry and mute battle scene.

In the scene, two giant figures were in an intense battle while a small figure was standing far away to the side.

Backtrack Gu was only a rank five mortal Gu, and whether it was Shi Lei, the vanishing shadow leopard or Star Lord Wan Xiang, they were all rank six or above, immortal bodies and desolate beast bodies had dao marks, thus backtrack Gu's investigative ability was restrained greatly.

Hei Lou Lan came closer and watched the battle.

The mute battle scene was extremely blurry. But they could roughly guess that one of them was the vanishing shadow leopard from the approximate build.

And the one battling with the vanishing shadow leopard did not seem to be a human but a tiger desolate beast.

The one standing far away had a human shape and could be a Gu Immortal. But their appearance was blurry and they could not be sure.

Not only this, the battle scene broken off intermittently and was not coherent.

Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan observed the battle with all their attention, for a moment, other than the slight breeze in the mountains, there was no other sound.

After a dozen breaths of time, scorching smoke started to curl up from the backtrack Gu and the battle scene suddenly disappeared.

The backtrack Gu had died as a result of forcibly recreating the image of the Gu Immortal level battle.

Fang Yuan felt slight heartache, and put the scorched corpse of backtrack Gu back inside his immortal aperture to get rid of any traces.

He had been gathering this backtrack Gu from treasure yellow heaven recently but even then, he only had a total of fifty to sixty. This was still the case when the five regions were in peaceful times, during the chaotic war of the regions, backtrack Gu would be widely used and very hard to get, it would be a case where one would have to produce them for their own use, treasure yellow heaven would simply have none for sale.

Hei Lou Lan was very interested: "This Gu worm is quite ingenious, what is its name, did you buy it in treasure yellow heaven?"

The varieties of Gu worms in existence were as vast as the ocean. Moreover, Hei Lou Lan cultivated strength path, not time path, and her understanding of other paths was only at the basics, limited to the typically used Gu worms.

Gu worms like backtrack Gu were classified as rare Gu of another path, it was normal for her to not know of it.

Fang Yuan did not reply, instead he took out another Gu.

He had refined this Gu himself based to his memories. According to the course of history, this Gu should have only appeared three hundred years later, its name was thread trace Gu.

Its appearance was quite special, resembling a small horsewhip which children from Northern Plains played with as toys. Fang Yuan used his enormous, monstrous zombie claws to grab it, making its small size even more apparent.

Fang Yuan grabbed the handle of the horsewhip and softly whipped at the air in front of him.

Crack. The empty air suddenly showed traces of marks.

"What is this?" Hei Lou Lan gazed at the marks without blinking.

Crack crack crack.

Fang Yuan whipped the horsewhip like thread trace Gu repeatedly, the marks in the air continued to increase.

Hei Lou Lan watched the whole process and soon was able to sense that the space Fang Yuan was whipping at was the area where the fight in the battle scene had occurred, and also the area where that blurry Gu Immortal had been standing.

As various thoughts flashed past, Hei Lou Lan's pupils slightly enlarged, blurting: "Could these marks be dao marks?"

Fang Yuan gave a contented smile at this moment: "Right, they are dao marks. Whether it be Gu Immortals or desolate beasts, they are filled with dao marks, and any area they stop at will leave behind dao marks for a short period of time. It is just that these dao marks are extremely weak, that even Gu Immortals paying close attention won't be able to sense them, that is, unless they use this thread trace Gu that I researched. From observing these dao marks, I can infer some information on them."

Fang Yuan once again brazenly took on someone else's creation from his previous life as his own.

"Thread trace Gu...." Hei Lou Lan mumbled, her gaze towards Fang Yuan had changed a little.

Fang Yuan pointed towards the area where Star Lord Wan Xiang had stood previously: "Look, the dao marks have manifested and formed a human shape. The color is azure blue which means a star path Gu Immortal had been observing the battle. The greater portion of the dao marks had stayed there and although there are some dao marks in the surroundings, they are mostly tightly enclosed around the greater portion, this means that star path Gu Immortal had only been observing from the side during the whole battle. And looking at the concentration of the dao marks, it seems to be a rank six Gu Immortal."

Hei Lou Lan looked at the direction Fang Yuan pointed towards and listened to him, paying full attention.

Fang Yuan then pointed at the area where the vanishing shadow leopard died, there were remaining dao marks of black color for dark path and red color for fire path.

He continued: "The dark path dao marks clearly belong to the vanishing shadow leopard while the red colored dao marks belong to the existence that killed the vanishing shadow leopard. As for their identity, whether they are man or beast, that is still not certain. Look at how concentrated these dao marks are and how they are intertwined with each other, this shows that the battle was very intense. The dark path dao marks are sparse while the red colored dao marks are rather dense, we can deduce that the existence that killed the vanishing shadow leopard is also at least of rank six realm."

Hei Lou Lan's mouth widened slightly as she listened to Fang Yuan.

Her gaze towards the thread trace Gu in Fang Yuan's hand became slightly burning.

This thread trace Gu was only a rank five mortal Gu, but it was very useful. With just this Gu, one could infer so much useful information.

The key thing was the thoughts involved in refining it were very special, and it could even be said to have blazed an unexpected new trail that bypasses common logic.

Hei Lou Lan might have just recently advanced into a Gu Immortal, but she understood the importance of information and started to give more significance to Fang Yuan 'invention', thread trace Gu.

Had Shi Lei and Star Lord Wan Xiang been here, they would probably be soaked in cold sweat.

They had used mainstream investigative methods and counter-investigative methods, but thread trace Gu just happened to pierce through the gap in them. Fang Yuan's methods were from the time of the chaotic war of the five regions after all, the materialization of the intelligence of the whole five regions, it was like they were over half an era ahead of current Gu Immortals, naturally they had huge superiority!

Crack crack crack.

Fang Yuan lashed the horsewhip several times, many more dao marks appeared but also many more disappeared.

These dao marks were very weak and were gathered together by thread trace Gu, thus greatly shortening their already limited lifespan.

Dao marks entangled mutually, getting more disorderly. Fang Yuan finally stopped lashing the horsewhip and sighed: "This is more or less the ability of this thread trace Gu, the manifestation of dao marks lasts only for a period of time and requires the observer to have plenty of experience. Moreover, activating Immortal Gu also leaves behind responding dao marks. In an intense battle, many abilities and methods are used, causing the dao marks to entangle and become extremely chaotic with no way to infer anything. However, fortunately, few methods were used in this battle, so we are able to roughly understand the situation."

Hei Lou Lan's eyelids twitched.

Inferring so much useful information with a mere rank five mortal Gu and still not satisfied?

Her gaze firmly locked upon the thread trace Gu until Fang Yuan stored it back in his immortal aperture. She keenly discovered that the formerly intact thread trace Gu's whip-like body was full of cracks now. Clearly, there was a price to pay for manifesting the dao marks.

Hei Lou Lan inwardly estimated, this thread trace Gu could be used for two more times at the minimum. Immediately, her evaluation of thread trace Gu increased by another level.

It could be used for a total of three times!

A mere rank five Gu worm could be used three times to investigate into existences of rank six level and obtain so much information.

Just as Hei Lou Lan was unable to endure and was about to ask if Fang Yuan was selling thread trace Gu, Fang Yuan took out another investigative Gu worm.

This was only a qi path Gu worm which Fang Yuan used to draw in the surrounding scents.

Next, Fang Yuan stored this qi path Gu worm and took out another Gu worm.

He moved everywhere around the battlefield and activated Gu worms from time to time. Hei Lou Lan was only able to recognize a small portion of these Gu worms, but it was also not to the extent where she was certain. The remaining greater portion, Hei Lou Lan simply had no idea, unable to recognize any of them.

She subconsciously pursed her lips, as she for the first time felt that Fang Yuan had unfathomable depths.

During the journey in Northern Plains, she only felt that Fang Yuan was experienced and astute, and a major enemy. When cooperating with Fang Yuan, she had no choice but to do so, and was very aware that it was asking for favors from a tiger.

She got Fang Yuan's help to pass through her tribulation and become a Gu Immortal, she had thought she could suppress Fang Yuan a notch. But soon, Fang Yuan used her and Fairy Li Shan to scare even Immortal Crane Sect's Gu Immortals away. The whole thing was won before engaging in battle, which gave no chance for Hei Lou Lan to make a move. Since there was no loss in battle, Fang Yuan did not have to pay twice the compensation, it was akin to him obtaining his objective without losing anything.

In contrast, to coax Fang Yuan to make an effort, Hei Lou Lan had to give the precious true meaning infusion of Reckless Savage Demon Venerable to him. Fang Yuan was also truly ruthless, he swallowed it whole without leaving behind anything to Hei Lou Lan.

Later, Fang Yuan started the guts Gu business and took the initiative to share profits with Hei Lou Lan and Fairy Li Shan. Although he needed Hei Lou Lan's strength qi Immortal Gu in the process, Hei Lou Lan did not feel comfortable the whole time, it seemed as if she was being controlled.

Now, Hei Lou Lan felt a shiver in her heart as she looked at Fang Yuan using these methods.

These small methods all used mortal Gu and were seemingly unremarkable, but Hei Lou Lan was a discerning person, how could she not understand the profound significance represented by these small methods!

-x-X-x-

After Hei Lou Lan ascended to an immortal, she was taught by Fairy Li Shan, guided step by step, she was instructed in almost all aspects.

Thus, in terms of investigative methods, Hei Lou Lan was not inferior to ordinary Gu Immortals.

"But Fang Yuan's foundation is so deep, he is evidently miles ahead of most Gu Immortals now. Although I have several Immortal Gu, can I be like Fang Yuan and create new Gu independently, to modify and perfect my own killer moves?"

Hei Lou Lan shook her head internally.

Her strength path killer move was given to her by her mother.

To refine new Gu, one had to create new Gu recipes. This process not only required resources and ample foundation in that path, one also needed inspiration and luck!

Hei Lou Lan was indeed a Gu Immortal, but she was too young, she was not a refinement path master, and not even skilled in refinement path. Foundation could only be attained after a long period of trial and error, of exploring and accumulating experiences slowly.

At this point, Fang Yuan walked back, he hummed: "Summing up all of the clues, I mostly know the other party's identities already."

"Oh?"

"One is a rank six star path Gu Immortal, he has not made a move yet and is more mysterious. The other is an earth path Gu Immortal who cultivates transformation path as well, he has a powerful aura and using Gu worms, I caught a trace of his voice, this is likely Shi Lei from Combat Immortal Sect in Central Continent." Fang Yuan said.

"That Immortal Monkey King?" Hei Lou Lan and Fang Yuan had shared most of their information, she naturally knew who Shi Lei was.

She started to frown, finding it a little troublesome.

Shi Lei was a rank seven Gu Immortal, he had outstanding battle strength. Even though Hei Lou Lan had several strength path Immortal Gu, Shi Lei had earth path Immortal Gu and had even created his own unique immortal killer moves long ago. In addition, he even cultivated transformation path, his battle talent was exceedingly rare.

Hei Lou Lan had Immortal Gu Self Strength, using it to activate her former mortal killer move, forming a giant strength path phantom, that could barely be considered an immortal killer move.

Up to this point, Hei Lou Lan had been attempting to improve and modify it, but her progress was slow.

"Fang Yuan, if you use the myriad self killer move, and cooperate with me, we might be able to resist the Immortal Monkey King. But in that case, we will not be able to deal with the mysterious star path Gu Immortal." Hei Lou Lan muttered.

Fang Yuan laughed bitterly: "I have not told you yet, but because the core Immortal Gu is starving, myriad self cannot be used anymore. All I can use are mortal killer moves."

Hei Lou Lan looked at Fang Yuan deeply, squinting: "In other words, we should avoid fighting with the other party directly."

Roar roar roar—!

High in the air, there was loud growling noises.

Fang Yuan raised his head and looked: "There are bound to be injuries when two sides fight, we should just go with the flow and observe the situation now. Although our battle strength is lower than them, if we find the chance, it is not necessarily the case that we can't have them killed. In the worst case, I still have Fixed Immortal Travel, we can definitely resist them while we find the time to activate Fixed Immortal Travel."

Hei Lou Lan nodded in agreement, Fang Yuan's words were very similar to her own thoughts.

The two decided to devour the loot in front of them first.

The vanishing shadow leopard corpse was quite a fortune. Even though there were large numbers of investigative Gu around, they could not stop the old demon Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan had methods that were ahead by half of an era, he made his moves, sealing or deceiving the investigative Gu. A moment later, they obtained the vanishing shadow leopard's corpse without alerting Star Lord Wan Xiang.

"This vanishing shadow leopard's fur can be used to make many defensive Gu. The bones can be made into shadow attachment Gu, shadow tracing Gu and others, the eyes are top tier materials for making dark vision Gu and dark fog Gu. It is a pity its blood had already been lost completely. Otherwise, it would be even more valuable." Hei Lou Lan placed the vanishing shadow leopard corpse into her immortal aperture, her eyes shining with a joyful light.

"The other party seems to be letting it bleed on purpose, it seems that the star hall in the air is truly an important place. They even ignored the desolate beast corpse for now." Fang Yuan showed an interested expression as he pondered.

His immortal aperture was filled with death energy, it was not good for keeping corpses fresh, thus he placed the vanishing shadow leopard in Hei Lou Lan's hands.

The two were fearless and unscrupulous people.

Even if the other party was strong, they dared to continue plotting against them.

Next, they followed their original plan and secretly advanced, trying to get close to the eighth star hall in the air.

But along the way, they quickly made a new discovery.

"The number of investigative Gu ahead have increased, does that mean..." Hei Lou Lan's gaze shone with anticipation.

After a while, the two avoided all of the investigative Gu, passing a mountain ridge and into a valley.

In the valley, there was a desolate beast corpse, resembling a small hill.

It was like a colt, it had a huge, bright red body with thick legs, dark as steel, its body was strong, muscular and bulky.

Its mane and tail were vibrant and golden in color.

Blood was dripping from the holes all over its body. The blood was scalding hot, and the heat spread to the surrounding trees and plants, causing them to wilt.

Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan gradually got closer, feeling a heat that was like a blisteringly hot summer day.

"This is the desolate beast blazing divine stallion, it has many fire path wild Gu on it and can walk on fire. Its blood is extremely hot and is a top tier material in refining fire path Gu worms, it is very rare even in treasure yellow heaven."

Hei Lou Lan's heart bled as she looked at the horse blood flowing out.

The two worked for a while, getting their hands on the blazing divine stallion, while Star Lord Wan Xiang still had absolutely no idea.

After leaving this valley, the two moved stealthily, but Fang Yuan slowed his footsteps.

"Our destination is up ahead. But towards the left, there are large numbers of investigative Gu, should we go take a look?" Fang Yuan looked at Hei Lou Lan, transmitting.

"Of course." Hei Lou Lan's reply was very curt.

The two came to the area that was filled with investigative Gu, they found a desolate beast corpse as expected.

This was a yellow jade lion.

Its body was like an elephant, lying on the ground with its eyes mostly closed, only opened by a slit. Large amounts of yellow blood flowed along the wound on its stomach, pouring out.

Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan stealthily moved closer, but this yellow jade lion's body shook, it tried to open its eyes as its bloody mouth opened slightly, emitting a barely discernible growl, as if it wanted to continue battling.

"This yellow jade lion truly has a courageous nature. To be able to hurt the yellow jade lion to this extent, this Shi Lei's transformation path battle strength is greater than I thought." Hei Lou Lan praised.

Fang Yuan was overjoyed.

He quickly made his move, after deceiving many of the surrounding investigative methods, he stole the yellow jade lion.

He patted with his hand, as large numbers of healing Gu flew out of his aperture, landing on the yellow jade lion, rapidly stabilizing its injuries and keeping it alive.

"You intend to save it?" Hei Lou Lan was slightly surprised.

Fang Yuan nodded: "Saving it is a hundred times easier than capturing another desolate beast alive, why shouldn't we? You can keep this desolate beast in your immortal aperture for now, be careful and keep it safe, this will be part of my share."

This way, as long as things progressed well, the mission that Fang Yuan agreed upon with Lang Ya land spirit would be completed.

Hei Lou Lan placed the yellow jade lion into her immortal aperture, her gaze was shining as she seemed to have made up her mind, saying: "The three desolate beasts we had encountered had their blood drained for some reason. Very likely, Shi Lei's group is trying to complete some procedure. Maybe this was the reason why the star hall in the sky appeared. After all, when we first appeared in this place, the sky was still empty. How many desolate beast corpses do you think are around here now?"

Fang Yuan laughed upon hearing this: "Even if you did not mention this, I was going to talk about it. Indeed, looking at this situation, there are definitely many desolate beast corpses around. One desolate beast corpse can be sold for around forty immortal essence stones optimally. It is truly an effortless profit for us to pick up these desolate beast corpses. The benefits are huge, yet we are paying zero costs. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, moreover, we might not have the opportunity again. We should secure these profits first, that is the safest measure."

The two had the same plot in mind, they changed their tactics and started scouring for desolate beast corpses.

They could not use investigative Gu openly, but the clues were very obvious.

Star Lord Wan Xiang's original plan was to keep these desolate beast corpses around first, and deal with them after taking down the eighth star hall.

The aura of these desolate beasts was still around, with that to induce fear, he was not afraid of wild beasts devouring them.

Shi Lei was in charge of fighting, while Star Lord Wan Xiang was in charge of setting up investigative Gu worms. Naturally, he would place more investigative Gu around the corpses of the desolate beasts.

But he would never have guessed that putting all of these investigative Gu together was the biggest clue in itself, they were guides for Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan to find the corpses.

"This is the chestnut yak, its meat tastes like chestnut, it can be eaten raw. It has a mild nature and is a somewhat unusual desolate beast. Mm, let's keep it, keep it." Hei Lou Lan was laughing happily.

"Oh, there is a golden pangolin. It is a pity its armor is tattered, otherwise, it could be sold for a higher price." Fang Yuan said with some disappointment.

"Flying bear, there is a flying bear corpse. Great, excellent, I want this corpse!" Hei Lou Lan was overjoyed.

"Hmm? Star demon bat! I knew this rotten poisonous swamp was very familiar. It is a pity that the bat wings are in bad shape, it would greatly affect my movement speed if I transplant it like this. I wonder if I can fix it first." Fang Yuan also stole the corpse of the star demon bat.

He felt some regret, but he quickly got over it.

After all, he did not battle the bat himself, why would Shi Lei care about his plans. Obtaining the corpse without any cost, this was already a huge gain.

He had not felt such good luck in a long time.

The two obtained nearly ten desolate beast corpses, it was a windfall. After the two searched around and ensured that there was no lingering desolate beast corpses, they hurried towards the bottom of the eighth star hall.

But when they arrived, a figure like a small hill crashed onto the ground.

With a loud bang, it landed and caused the mountain rocks to shatter, dust and smoke was rising.

"This is the ancient desolate beast, astral wind flying heavenly boar!"

"It is dead! This is the corpse of an ancient desolate beast."

Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan made eye contact, after communicating through transmission, they were evidently moved!