224 RI

After he was done resting and making sufficient preparation, Fang Yuan entered Thieving Heaven's dream realm.

There was the clamoring of people around the pool where a market gathering was being held.

Western Desert actually had a lot of resources, more than Northern Plains. There were large amounts of resources hidden in the desert, including Gu worms and wild beasts. They only had scarce amounts of plants which was their biggest shortcoming.

So this market mainly sold food products like milk and wine; Gu materials like beast skins, bones; and only three stalls were selling Gu worms.

Young Thieving Heaven was roaming around in the crowd, he observed the transactions in the surrounding while moving closer to the pool at the center of the clan.

"Stop! Unauthorized people are not allowed entry here."

"Kid, get lost."

When young Thieving Heaven got near to the pool, two guards guarding the area immediately responded and stopped him.

Young Thieving Heaven could do nothing other than to pretend to have received a shock and leave.

He sighed inwardly: "That pool is the only water source in the oasis, it is strictly guarded and even though they opened a market gathering, the guards are quite alert, I simply cannot get in."

At the same time, Sha Xiao's sinister voice resounded in his mind: "Hmph, think of whatever ways you can to get in. Don't forget, there is only a month or so left from our agreed time limit. If by then, you have not made any progress, that will be the time of your death."

Young Thieving Heaven's pupils shrunk as he replied inwardly: "Aren't you powerful? Why don't you directly charge in or sneak in? Why let a weak guy like me gather information?"

"Hmph, you want to goad me? How could I fall for your plan? Moreover, you don't understand anything, heh, I also don't have the patience to explain to you. Grandson! Quick, do as grandpa says, talk less and do more work, then you can live a bit longer."

Young Thieving Heaven could only let himself be manipulated, the enemy was strong while he was weak, he did not speak anymore, except that sharp light flickered in his eyes.

Previously in the well, to survive and for the hope of returning to his home, he was forced to give in to Sha Xiao. But inwardly, he had never accepted this fate.

"I know when to yield and when not to, there will be a day when I will find a chance to not only escape the shackles of this old demon Sha Xiao, but also reciprocate all my sufferings."

"But right now, I need to endure, I need to put on a show and wait for my chance."

Over the next few days, young Thieving Heaven thought of every way possible and exhausted all his strength to gather intel and try to get near the oasis' pool.

But all his attempts failed.

The pool was the most important area in the clan, it was guarded extremely tightly.

Young Thieving Heaven had only just advanced to rank one, his means were truly lacking.

Just as he was unable to find a way, news spread among his peers.

"What, half a month later, the clan is holding a small scale competition, and the winner can choose a Gu worm from the pool as a reward?" Young Thieving Heaven also heard of this news.

He immediately realized his opportunity was here.

Moreover, this was probably the best opportunity for him to complete Sha Xiao's task!

"I need to participate in this small competition and also obtain victory!" Young Thieving Heaven said to Sha Xiao in his mind.

Sha Xiao snickered: "Silly kid, don't think I don't know what plot you are scheming inside. You want to use this to raise your strength to overturn my control?"

Young Thieving Heaven sneered, admitting frankly: "So what? Who doesn't thirst for freedom?"

"Good!" Sha Xiao was unfazed, instead praising: "You are quite straightforward, haha, if you call me grandpa, I can help you seize this victory."

"You!" Young Thieving Heaven stiffened, his eyes revealing anger.

"What, you don't want to? Think properly, without my help, with your strength and aptitude, how can you win this competition?" Sha Xiao sneered.

Young Thieving Heaven's expression darkened.

"I was born as a noble, my life was filled with glory, but I have to bend my back and beg for mercy! This is a humiliation to my ancestry, I am ruining the reputation of my Sun clan."

"But..."

"If I don't do this, I truly won't have any hope."

"I am too weak, returning home is an uncertainty. If I can't even get through this juncture, there is no need to talk about the future."

"Damn it!"

Young Thieving Heaven clenched his fists, falling into extreme hesitation.

Although he had called Sha Xiao 'grandpa' before, that was during the moment of life and death. Right now, he and Sha Xiao were separated, and there was also not much external pressure which made young Thieving Heaven waver, the choice became extremely heavy and painful.

"Grandpa..." Finally, he chose to yield, squeezing out this word through clenched teeth.

"Hahaha." Sha Xiao's crazed laughter filled young Thieving Heaven's mind: "My good grandson, since you called me grandpa, grandpa won't let you fail. Grandpa is giving you this method to succeed, accept it and turn it to your strength, you shall definitely win this competition."

Right as Sha Xiao finished speaking, a huge amount of information charged into young Thieving Heaven's brain.

Young Thieving Heaven immediately gave a low gasp, his expression distorted and he subconsciously held his head. The huge amount of information continued to strike his brain, he felt so much pain that his head felt like it would burst.

The information attack only lasted for a short nine breaths of time, but young Thieving Heaven felt like a year had passed.

He endured it with difficulty, his whole body was covered in sweat, his face was deathly pale like paper, and he was shaking, looking extremely miserable.

Sha Xiao's method was violent, but the transferred information were all authentic and of great value.

Most of the contents were about fighting techniques, they were exquisite and concise. A portion was about Gu recipes and usage method of Gu worms, and there was even a killer move.

Mortal killer move — Blurred Grey Eyes.

This move was formed by using sandpit Gu, chimney smoke Gu, and clear water Gu. There were eight steps to it, and once it was activated successfully, it could puff out white smoke.

When this smoke landed in someone's eyes, it would cover their eyes in white ash, making them lose their sight.

The person who was struck absolutely should not use water to clean their eyes, if water was used, the white ash would produce high heat that would burn the target's eyes and make them go blind.

"This move is so insidious, it is not my style." Young Thieving Heaven's heart sank, he did not look happy.

Before his transmigration, he had been born in a noble family, receiving good education since childhood. He was upright and honest, he abhorred evil.

Because of this, when he transmigrated and became a poor orphan, he still abided by rules and maintained his morals, even when he had an adult's wisdom and things were unsatisfactory.

"Blurred grey eyes needs three Gu worms, and they just happen to be all the Gu I have."

"Looks like Sha Xiao had already planned to increase my strength. Hmph!"

Young Thieving Heaven did not want to practice blurred grey eyes, he put his whole concentration in the fighting techniques.

He had been a warrior in his previous life as well, although he did not specialize in close-combat, he had some foundation. His true battle attainment was deep enough.

Thus, he was able to smoothly progress with these fighting techniques.

After a few days of practicing, young Thieving Heaven felt his battle strength had soared!

"This world's fighting techniques are not simple, but a complete set of moves involving Gu worms."

"Different kind of moves for different kind of Gu worms."

"I had no one to instruct me before, so I was too weak to do anything. Now that I have obtained this skill and have practiced it diligently, I have a sixty percent chance of winning the clan's competition."

"Even if I don't use blurred grey eyes, I can take care of most competitors."

Young Thieving Heaven had an aversion to this unscrupulous move and did not want to use it.

He was confident in himself, and soon welcomed the clan's small competition.

When he first stepped on the stage, the audience did not think highly of him.

There were even some who ridiculed him.

And his opponent had an expression of arrogance as he pointed towards young Thieving Heaven's nose: "So it is you, trash, surrender now and I won't break your leg."

Young Thieving Heaven was dazed, standing on the spot without moving.

The audience started laughing loudly.

"He is afraid, he can't even move."

"Look at him, how did he pass the clan's exile test?"

"Probably luck. I heard that at the crucial moment, he was rescued from the wolves' mouths by the clan's Gu Master."

Under this atmosphere, young Thieving Heaven's opponent seemed to be even more disdainful.

But at the next moment, young Thieving Heaven clenched his fists, feeling the strength in his fingers.

"I finally have control again." Fang Yuan was inwardly happy.

It turned out that young Thieving Heaven's dazed expression was because Fang Yuan had just gained control and had not reacted.

Now that he came to his senses, he immediately attacked.

Mortal killer move — Blurred Grey Eyes!

Whoosh, a large clump of white ash was puffed out at his opponent's face.

The opponent could not defend in time, quickly retreating three steps before crying out: "Ahhh! I can't see anything, what is this thing!"

"Get lost!" Fang Yuan took a few large strides before giving a fierce kick to his opponent's face.

His opponent was directly kicked out of the stage.

Victory!

-x-X-x-

"Despicable, too despicable, he is actually sneak attacking!"

"This guy is too nasty, he is truly hateful."

"According to both sides' strength, he was clearly slightly weaker."

The surrounding people started denouncing young Thieving Heaven.

"You, you, you!" That opponent climbed up from the ground, and stuttered due to anger while pointing towards the air: "You're shameless! If... if you have guts... then... let's compete again!"

However, his sight was blurry because of the killer move, and he did not know where Fang Yuan was at all, so his finger was pointing at a completely wrong direction, making for a hilarious situation.

Fang Yuan sneered: "Winner takes all, what is there to compete about. Eh..."

Fang Yuan could not speak anymore, because he once again turned into an observer, losing control over this body.

Thieving Heaven's dream realm continued once more.

Young Thieving Heaven gazed at the surrounding crowd and at the raving opponent below the stage, his face was pale and his whole body was shaking!

He slowly raised his hands in shock.

"Why? Why did I directly use that killer move blurred grey eyes?"

"I clearly have strength to compete with him fairly, then throw him off the stage. But why, why did I choose to sneak attack?!"

Young Thieving Heaven abhorred actions like sneak attacking, he felt this was a shameful thing.

Why did he sneak attack?

He liked fighting openly, and would not resort to such insidious schemes.

He did not like, or more accurately, he disdained this kind of action.

But then why did he do so!

Sha Xiao's mad laughter resounded in his mind: "Hahaha! Too funny, too entertaining, my good grandson, you indeed resemble your grandpa me. You clearly had not trained blurred grey eyes killer move, but you were still able to use it so smoothly, the sneak attack timing was also quite good, clinching victory at once. Good, very good!"

Sha Xiao repeatedly praised.

Young Thieving Heaven was stunned.

That's right, he had not practised this killer move, so why did he use it? And why was his usage so skillful?!

"This is ridiculous!" Young Thieving Heaven roared inwardly.

"Hahaha, my good grandson, let grandpa tell you the reason. You were originally such a person, your nature is like this, don't restrain yourself, let out your true nature." Sha Xiao laughed loudly, adding insult to the injury.

Young Thieving Heaven was deeply shocked, but soon his eyes flashed brightly: "No, this is not my doing. It is you right? You controlled my body!"

"Hehe, although I can do that, I did not do it. This was your own choice, you should be clear of it."

"No, it was definitely you, how could I do such a thing!" Young Thieving Heaven clung to his own view.

"Bullshit!" Sha Xiao scolded loudly.

But young Thieving Heaven's expression looked quite firm on the surface, as he walked off the stage while quarreling inwardly.

However, in the audience's view, his behavior looked quite arrogant and seemed like he did not regard their criticisms, thus they started scolding even louder.

It was the observer Fang Yuan's turn to feel shaken.

He had been the one in control during the fight, but the outcome had directly influenced the following event of the dream realm.

Young Thieving Heaven's shock and the change in the audience's attitude would no doubt influence the way the dream realm would play out and progress.

This was a situation Fang Yuan had never encountered before while exploring dream realms.

In his past explorations, although his participation rate was higher than in Thieving Heaven's dream realm, the dream realm as a whole did not change.

The dream realm's outcome was set, and the passing standard was also fixed.

"But this dream realm of Thieving Heaven gives me a feeling of living through it! This is not ordinary!"

According to its categorization, this kind of dream realm was a realistic dream realm, it restored Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable's life experiences. But following Fang Yuan's continuous participation, this dream realm might deviate and change. As these deviations accumulated, would the final outcome of the dream realm be different from the original?

Fang Yuan realized this and could not help but become more wary and cautious.

Soon, it was his turn to battle again.

"You don't look like a vile person. But in the previous round, why did you use despicable methods to plot against my younger cousin?" This time, young Thieving Heaven's opponent was a girl who looked to be full of heroic spirit.

Young Thieving Heaven frowned, he did not want to explain but still said: "There is a misunderstanding."

"Heh, misunderstanding?"

"Hmph, you clearly sneak attacked, you actually don't admit it?"

"So many people witnessed it, this guy actually wants to deny it!"

The crowd, outside of the stage, shouted in fury.

The young girl frowned: "I don't care whether it was a misunderstanding or not, I am going to avenge my cousin. So not only am I going to defeat you, I am going to make sure you suffer enough! Come!"

The young girl charged forward.

"Wait a moment." Young Thieving Heaven suddenly held out his hands: "I still have something to say, hear me out before you make a move."

"What is it, speak up, I will make you admit your defeat completely." The young girl snorted, stopping her footsteps.

But at this moment, young Thieving Heaven's eyes suddenly shone sinisterly as he raised his hand.

Mortal killer move — Blurred Grey Eyes!

The young girl had been on guard, but this white ash actually passed through her defensive methods and directly covered her eyes.

"Damn it, again!"

"This kid is playing dirty again!!"

"Careful, he is coming, quickly defend yourself!!"

The crowd started shouting with all their strength.

But by now, young Thieving Heaven had already neared the young girl and raised his right leg, about to kick this girl out.

The young girl actually had good battle experiences, although she could not see, her ears were moving as she listened to the wind to determine his position!

"I cannot see, if this match is dragged on, it will be unfavorable to me. I must finish this quickly." At this instant, the young girl made a wise choice.

She gave a soft cry and instead of retreating, she directly punched at young Thieving Heaven.

Whoosh.

The wind blew from the impact of her fist, moving young Thieving Heaven's hair.

This attack was fierce, it clearly used a Gu worm and was not something that could be produced by just a mortal body.

If young Thieving Heaven had really kicked at the previous moment, he would not have been able to restrain his momentum right now, he would have been heavily injured by these two punches.

But at this moment, young Thieving Heaven was not himself, but was controlled by Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan's thoughts were sinister, he looked like he was about to kick the girl, but it was in fact just a feint.

On one hand, he was probing the young girl, after all even if sight was blurred, there were other investigative methods, the Gu world was not lacking in all kinds of fantastic methods.

On the other hand, Fang Yuan was using the audience.

These people's shouts and reminders were actually misleading the girl.

The young girl's sight was blurred, and in the intense battle, she likely did not have time to think much and would subconsciously feel the surrounding people's reminders to be correct.

After all, there were a lot of people in the audience while the young girl was alone.

Humans had a herd mentality, when many people believe something was correct, the young girl would likely believe it to be true as well.

Sure enough like Fang Yuan expected, the young girl started punching and going on the offense.

Fang Yuan scoffed, calmly pulling back his right leg and easily dodging, then he smoothly caught the young girl's hand and pulled her to the side.

The young girl wanted to win immediately and had used too much strength which was instead used by Fang Yuan to counterattack.

Fang Yuan took this chance to strike the young girl's lower abdomen fiercely with his knee.

Bam.

A soft sound was heard, as the young girl was badly hurt! Her shut eyes opened in pain, her gorgeous fair face flushed red at that instant, and blue veins popped up on her forehead.

She felt her large intestine and internal organs were tangled together, the pain almost causing her to stop breathing.

But before she could experience this intense pain again, Fang Yuan landed a chop at the back of the young girl's neck.

In an instant, the young girl lost her consciousness.

Thud, she fell to the ground and did not move.

Fang Yuan won.

The surrounding crowd was silent for a moment before they erupted.

"Despicable, too despicable!"

"He actually won like this, this is so shameless."

"He is too shameless, a pity that his opponent was so innocent, she clearly had higher strength but actually fell for his trick!"

The audience was furious and contemptuous towards young Thieving Heaven, while feeling pity and regret for the young girl. Their loud shouts could be heard without end for a while.

"What have I done? Was it me again?!" Fang Yuan was once again an observer, while young Thieving Heaven was once again stunned.

"Hahaha, it is you, you did it all." Sha Xiao laughed freely: "I haven't done anything, you have understood it, right? The whole battle process was your own choice."

"No, this is not true. How could I be such a... scumbag?!" Young Thieving Heaven closed his eyes from the agony, even his eyelids were slightly twitching.

"You are indeed a scumbag, but grandpa appreciates that! You quickly and efficiently resolved the battle, victory was clean and fast. Your shamelessness and despicable nature is just like me back when I was young." Sha Xiao started laughing loudly once again.

"What the hell is going on? What's wrong with me?" Young Thieving Heaven almost cried, all his glory and values accumulated from his previous life received a huge impact.

"I once heard a saying, some people possess innate battle talent. When they enter battle state, they would often have creative thoughts as well as keen intuition, all kinds of factors could let them dig out their deepest self, and make the most natural choice, striving for victory with all their strength."

Young Thieving Heaven: "..."

Like this, young Thieving Heaven continued to win in the small competition.

Every battle, Fang Yuan would replace young Thieving Heaven and take control of the whole battle.

Although the opponents were vigilant, what kind of person was Fang Yuan? His battle experiences could be said to be as vast as the sea, these small fry opponents, even just a shift in their gaze would let Fang Yuan see through their schemes and thoughts.

As far as Fang Yuan was concerned, these victories were without any difficulty.

But to young Thieving Heaven, it was an extremely painful journey.

"Could it be that deep down inside, I am really such a person?"

"In my previous life, because I was protected in a mecha, I did not receive enough stimulation? So in this world, now that I am personally fighting, my true nature has emerged?"

"I have such a nature... I have shamed my clan, shamed my teacher's teachings, and shamed my family name!"

-x-X-x-

Inside the dream realm.

On the stage, Fang Yuan was controlling young Thieving Heaven, fighting a rather difficult battle.

This time, his opponent was a tall and sturdy youngster. The youngster's hands were in a knife-hand pose and with each chop, his hands would let out a flash of lightning that shot towards Fang Yuan.

This youngster was one of the most popular candidates to win the contest.

If he were fighting an ordinary boy, they might already be struck by the lightning and piss themselves, losing the match immediately.

But he was facing Fang Yuan.

Young Thieving Heaven's methods were simply not enough to dodge the lightning attacks. But Fang Yuan's experienced eyes were paying close attention to every movement of his opponent.

When his opponent raised his hand, Fang Yuan could deduce the direction of the attack by observing the change in his shoulder movement, the direction of his sight, and the center of his body weight.

As a result, Fang Yuan was able to dodge every lightning attack, making strange dodging movements in others' eyes.

"Do you only know how to dodge?" His opponent shouted impatiently.

"Hehe, catch me if you can! Come, beat me!" Fang Yuan mocked his opponent.

Sure enough, the immature opponent got furious, charging towards Fang Yuan: "Fight me if you have guts, you rascal!"

Bit Fang Yuan still kept on dodging.

Even the audience could not endure this, as they hooted and criticized Fang Yuan's actions as cowardly.

Someone even shouted: "The strength difference is so big, just surrender! You despicable guy!"

However, Fang Yuan just kept on continuing his way like he had heard nothing.

Although he was dodging, he was in fact controlling the tempo of the battle.

His opponent did not have rich battle experience, after all, he was too young, and fell into Fang Yuan's rhythm without even being aware of it.

The youngster fought for long, his primeval essence was mostly consumed as he gasped for breath from exhaustion.

"Nice, time to counterattack." Fang Yuan finally got the opportunity he was waiting for, and immediately went on the offensive.

"What?!" His opponent reacted too late, and was soon receiving a beating from Fang Yuan.

But the youngster still had some primeval essence, he was able to resist with difficulty.

Fang Yuan inwardly realized the situation was bad. Young Thieving Heaven's aptitude was too low, only having D grade aptitude, so he had small primeval essence reserve.

After this long, the amount of primeval essence Fang Yuan had was even lower than his opponent who had been fiercely attacking since the start!

"I must finish this quickly!" At this thought, Fang Yuan immediately shouted: "Come, you stupid kid, have a taste of my spit!"

He then opened his mouth, spitting out his phlegm directly at his opponent's face.

His opponent's eyes immediately opened wide.

If this landed on his face, it would be too disgusting!

The youngster quickly dodged.

But this was what Fang Yuan wanted.

He wanted to force his opponent to dodge in this direction.

"Time to go down." Fang Yuan suddenly moved forward like a nimble cat and appeared in front of the opponent before he threw a powerful high kick.

That youngster already brought up his arms like a shield to block Fang Yuan's kick.

But Fang Yuan was too powerful and directly sent him flying out of the stage.

Fang Yuan won.

"This kid actually won!"

"How can this possibly happen?"

"Disgusting, he actually spat, this is too uncouth."

"Right, even though he won, I also despise him. He doesn't even have a little demeanor, he is simply not qualified to be a Gu Master!"

The audience engaged in heated discussions.

Sneers and criticisms gathered into sounds that entered Fang Yuan's ears wave after wave.

Fang Yuan, however, had already lost control of the body, and it was the reappearance of the true young Thieving Heaven.

Young Thieving Heaven experienced this battle personally, victory had truly not been easy.

After all, young Thieving Heaven was alone, while his opponent had some background, probably having Gu Master parents, or at least one of them being a Gu Master.

Those who could participate in this small competition were all youngsters who had just become Gu Masters. They had almost non-existent foundation and were only rank one, so they could easily use external force to raise their battle strength.

Thus, those born with golden spoons or silver spoons had more or less received support and guidance from their seniors who raised their battle strength.

This was the reason Fang Yuan faced difficulty in the battle, there was also another reason: Fang Yuan's fighting style was already widely known, his opponents were very vigilant and would make meticulous preparations for the battle, making it hard for Fang Yuan to fight properly.

"I, how could I have spat?" Young Thieving Heaven stood at the center of the stage, almost crying from shame.

In the previous life, he had all along paid heavy attention to his bearing, he absolutely would not do an uncivilized thing like spitting everywhere.

But in this battle, not only did he do it, but also did it so grandly and brazenly in front of so many people.

What was young Thieving Heaven supposed to feel now!

"How could I be this kind of person? Is this really me in the depths of my heart?" Young Thieving Heaven fell into a profound self-doubt and denial.

The audience was still ridiculing.

"This kid must be feeling thrilled, right!?"

"This kind of garbage is actually entering the top eight."

"Hmph, social morals are degrading day by day, this kind of person should be thrown out of the competition!"

"But top eight is the limit, I really don't want to see him continue to win."

Young Thieving Heaven: "..."

He really wanted to clarify the situation and tell everyone that he was not that kind of person. But he could not say anything, because even he was shaken and doubting himself.

His values and the sense of glory ingrained in him in his previous life were being struck time and again, right now, they were already distorted beyond recognition.

"This is good too, I also don't want to continue. With this win, I am now in top eight and can enter the pool." Young Thieving Heaven was tired, mentally tired!

He did not want to continue fighting any longer.

Bu Fang Yuan had another thought on this.

"Top eight, top four, top two, and the winner; they are clearly structured and will obtain different rewards from the clan."

"Although this is a dream realm and not reality, if I help young Thieving Heaven obtain a better ranking, I can no doubt obtain a better reward."

"And these rewards will probably continue on to the next events, making this dream realm's young Thieving Heaven stronger."

This dream realm of Thieving Heaven was extraordinary, it was very flexible and did not have a fixed endpoint.

Thus, the stronger the young Thieving Heaven got, the bigger his influence in the dream realm, and the more convenient Fang Yuan's exploration of this dream realm will be.

Unravel dream did not have good effect in exploring Thieving Heaven's dream realm, which was akin to handicapping Fang Yuan!

So Fang Yuan wanted to increase the chances to raise his success in exploring the dream realm.

"This second stage is much lengthier than the first stage, I should attempt to fight for first place. This is also a test towards this dream realm."

Fang Yuan pondered for a while and made up his mind.

But although his idea was good, the opportunity and time to control young Thieving Heaven were limited.

Fang Yuan could only patiently wait for the opportunity.

The dream realm continued.

Young Thieving Heaven had obtained victory, but what he gained were a bad reputation and huge external pressure.

Other youngsters were actively preparing for the competition, gathering information on their opponents, but young Thieving Heaven was immersed in self-reflection.

In fact, he was afraid to face himself, this self-doubt was torturous.

This caused young Thieving Heaven to become thinner day by day, slowly becoming depressed.

Sha Xiao's voice was transmitted: "Grandson, you should refine Gu. Without a new Gu worm, it will be difficult for you to deal with your upcoming opponents, your chances of defeat will be higher."

Refining mortal Gu and refining Immortal Gu were two completely different concepts.

Especially when refining a rank one Gu worm, the success rate was rather high.

"I can't directly supply you with any physical materials, I cannot give you Gu worms as well. You need to refine it yourself to deceive the others and not let them discover me." Sha Xiao added.

When he finished speaking, he transferred a huge amount of information to young Thieving Heaven's brain.

Young Thieving Heaven's expression, however, changed to agitation when he looked at the contents: "No, this Gu worm is too sinister, it actually needs me to kill an infant and use their soul as a Gu material. I won't commit such an heinous act!"

-x-X-x-

Sha Xiao gave a Gu recipe to young Thieving Heaven, but the latter's expression changed and refused to refine the Gu.

Sha Xiao's gloomy voice transmitted: "Grandson, you don't want to listen to grandpa? Do you want to live or not?"

Young Thieving Heaven, however, persisted: "Who doesn't want to live? But I have my bottom line. This Gu recipe is too vicious, I refuse to follow it. Sha Xiao, didn't you want me to get near that pool? Now that I am in top eight, I have the qualifications to enter it, don't you think it is a pity if you kill me now?"

"Hahaha." Sha Xiao laughed, "Yeah, it is a pity."

The words had just landed when young Thieving Heaven's pupils shrunk rapidly as he felt an intense pain attacking his body.

Pain, pain, pain!

At that instant, he almost collapsed on the ground.

But he endured with all his strength and rushed to a dark corner. He then leaned his back to the wall and endured with clenched teeth.

Sha Xiao's voice once more transmitted: "You are just a small pawn, you really think you can talk terms with me after entering top eight? You think you have such a high value? Hmph, there are countless people who want to be my grandson! It is your honor to be able to call me grandpa, do you understand?"

Sha Xiao paused before continuing: "Let me hear you call me grandpa."

Young Thieving Heaven's face had a distorted expression, he clenched his fists so tightly that his nails had dug into his flesh.

He was trembling and sweating all over; this was caused by the pain, but also by the sense of humiliation and fury which he count not vent.

"Gran, grandpa..." After a long while, young Thieving Heaven squeezed out this word.

"Yes, my good grandson. Your voice is too soft, grandpa is old and did not hear you clearly." Sha Xiao laughed sinisterly.

Young Thieving Heaven immediately felt his pain lightening by a lot.

Sha Xiao had reduced the effect of his method.

Young Thieving Heaven's brows tensed as the resolve to die flashed past his eyes, but he then recalled his family and his beloved woman, he took a huge breath and called out: "Hello, grandpa!"

"Hahaha, as long as grandson is obedient, grandpa will be satisfied." Sha Xiao's laughter was filled with smugness.

"Now, grandpa wants you to refine Gu, can you do it?"

"Can... not!" Young Thieving Heaven's face was deathly pale from the pain, but he still persisted in his bottom line.

"Scumbag!" Sha Xiao was furious, intensifying his method.

Young Thieving Heaven cried out and fell to the ground.

Even after torturing him for a while, Sha Xiao felt a headache when he saw young Thieving Heaven refusing to compromise: "You brat, you have quite the sense of justice. A pity, a pity, I thought you were raw talent when I saw you fight so efficiently. I did not think you don't even understand the logic of 'every man for himself'. So what if you have to kill an infant? If they do not die, then you will die. If you die, then any wealth or desire will fade out of existence. Think carefully."

Young Thieving Heaven was slumped to the ground, curled up like a shrimp, his whole body was soaked with sweat, and he had almost lost consciousness; he did not have any energy right now.

But, the corners of his lips still rose slightly: "Sha Xiao, you can forget about it. I am different from you, I won't build my happiness and bliss on others' suffering."

"Laughable persistence! A lot of things in this world need to be fought for, if you don't fight or kill, how can you continue to live? What are you thinking in that head of yours?" Sha Xiao's voice was icy and disdainful: "Just think of why you were banished by the clan? Hehe, wasn't it because there were too little resources in the clan, and they felt raising you was a waste, so they used clan rules to openly try to kill you."

Young Thieving Heaven's eyes shone brightly: "I understand this logic now, but what others do is their issue. If I do it, then it would become my issue, and I won't do this!"

"Ignorant! Then let me send you to your death!!" Sha Xiao's fury had reached its limit, but just as he was about to attack, he suddenly paused.

"Ahhh, my poor son, how could you pass away like this!" Young Thieving Heaven who was slumped near the wall, suddenly heard a woman's cry from inside the house.

Then, there was a clamor inside the house.

Someone also started crying, and someone was furiously cursing the doctor for being incompetent.

Young Thieving Heaven and Sha Xiao listened attentively before understanding the reason.

It turned out the owners of this house had a baby, but the baby was congenitally deficient and was barely hanging on to life. The house lord spent a heavy price to invite a rank three Gu Master, but the Gu Master was also unable to save the baby who finally died today.

"Hehe, kid, your luck seems to be pretty good. This baby is enough to refine Gu, he has already died, you can collect his corpse and use it to refine the Gu." Sha Xiao laughed, but it was filled with killing intent: "If you don't agree, you can go die. At worst, I will just change to another pawn."

Young Thieving Heaven was silent for a long while before replying: "Okay."

"Hmph, that's good." Sha Xiao did not speak anymore.

Young Thieving Heaven rested for a good while before standing up with difficulty.

Through this event, young Thieving Heaven thoroughly realized Sha Xiao's nature was extremely forceful, he meant what he said and did not allow for any disobedience.

To return to his home, young Thieving Heaven decided to swallow this humiliation.

According to the clan's common practice, the small competition would halt for a few days.

Almost all the remaining competitors would remain in their house in this brief period, training and receiving guidance from their seniors.

Over the next few days, young Thieving Heaven began to gather the Gu materials recorded in the Gu recipe.

Although the gathering process was filled with obstacles, he managed to find them all.

After that baby's corpse was buried, young Thieving Heaven dug it out in the middle of the night.

There were two more days before the competition resumed.

This night, in a remote hut, young Thieving Heaven started refining Gu.

"This Gu recipe was already clear and concise, but grandpa thought of your tiny primeval essence storage and added in many steps. Grandpa is so considerate, grandson, you need to succeed in this Gu refinement!" Sha Xiao's voice transmitted, he was going to guide young Thieving Heaven throughout the whole process.

The Gu refinement officially began.

Under Sha Xiao's guidance, young Thieving Heaven followed the steps and began to process the Gu materials one by one.

Because it was his first time refining Gu, young Thieving Heaven's performance was extremely bad at the start, he repeatedly made mistakes even in the most simple procedure like using fire to process the materials. Were it not for Sha Xiao's timely guidance in correcting young Thieving Heaven, this Gu refinement would have already failed.

Sha Xiao was hurling all kinds of abuse in anger.

But as the Gu refinement progressed, Sha Xiao's curses became fewer and fewer.

"So this is the talent of a Demon Venerable?!" Fang Yuan who had been observing all along from the side was also shaken.

Young Thieving Heaven displayed an extremely powerful Gu refinement talent, adapting very quickly, from the stumbling around at the beginning, to gaining his footing, and then becoming stable, and in the later stage of the Gu refinement, he even looked to be at ease.

"There are final four steps remaining to refine this Gu worm." Sha Xiao actually encouraged young Thieving Heaven: "My good grandson, do well, refine this Gu worm and give your grandpa face in the competition!"

Young Thieving Heaven took a deep breath and gazed at the baby's corpse in front of him.

A resolute light flashed past his eyes.

"Although this baby did not die by my hands, if I use it to refine Gu, how can I bear it in my heart? Anyway, Gu refinement can easily fail, if I fail here, Sha Xiao also won't blame it on me."

"Child, forgive me, even after death, you could not rest in peace. But I had no choice, this is all I can do. I hope your soul can ascend to heaven through this fire."

"If you can reincarnate, please don't return. This world... is too cruel!"

While murmuring this inwardly, young Thieving Heaven made a mistake, the fire immediately burned fiercely and engulfed the baby's corpse.

"The intensity of the fire is too high, lower it quick." Sha Xiao said in a startled tone.

"I am trying!" Young Thieving Heaven pretended to panic, immediately controlling the fire, but the fire instead burned even hotter!

"Such audacity! You purposely failed, you are going against me!!" Sha Xiao's gaze turned furious as he realized young Thieving Heaven's intention.

-x-X-x-

"No, grandpa, you misunderstood me! I truly cannot control this fire's intensity." Young Thieving Heaven was still continuing with the act.

"Hehehe. You dare to deceive me, you are truly looking down on me. Alright, I won't take your life. Let this fire devour you as well. You think Gu refinement is so simple and safe? You are seeking your own doom by intentionally failing the Gu refinement! Die, die, this is the result of your persistence, this is your own doing." Sha Xiao snickered.

Before he finished his words, that fire immediately soared and covered young Thieving Heaven.

"Why did this happen?" Young Thieving Heaven wanted to charge out, but the fire was emitting an enormous attractive force that kept him on the spot.

Looking as he was about to be buried in the fire, Fang Yuan discovered he could control young Thieving Heaven's body once again.

"Why do I feel like I am cleaning up young Thieving Heaven's mess?" Fang Yuan felt frustrated.

But he did not panic.

Fang Yuan had already come across the Gu recipe Sha Xiao had given to young Thieving Heaven.

This was a rank one Gu recipe, while Fang Yuan was a refinement path quasi-grandmaster, so the principles of the Gu recipe were clear to him.

Although young Thieving Heaven had already made a mistake, in Fang Yuan's view, it was not irrecoverable.

Sandpit Gu.

Fang Yuan controlled young Thieving Heaven's body to throw sandpit Gu to a certain position in the fire.

He did not activate this Gu worm, instead throwing it in as a Gu material.

The delicate Gu immediately attracted the fire and was soon burnt into a pile of powder.

The fire's attraction force decreased sharply, Fang Yuan took this chance to jump out.

He rolled on the ground for a few times to extinguish the remaining fire on him.

His injuries were severe.

Young Thieving Heaven's face, neck, arms and other areas were burnt to a miserable degree.

But Fang Yuan ignored the injuries, and put all his attention on that fire.

Young Thieving Heaven was still not out of danger, because the Gu refinement process had yet to truly stop.

If this fire continued to burn, it would definitely engulf young Thieving Heaven again.

So Fang Yuan activated chimney smoke Gu, smoke came out and covered the basin sized fire.

Layers of smoke shrouded this fire.

As the danger decreased gradually, Fang Yuan felt his connection with the fire was rapidly weakening.

"Like this, the smoke can extinguish the fire and stop this Gu refinement. Although there will be some backlash, this body's life will be preserved."

In this state, Fang Yuan had done all he could.

After all, young Thieving Heaven was too reckless, actually trying to intentionally fail the Gu refinement.

This Gu refinement had instead lowered his strength because he now lost the precious sandpit Gu.

However, a change occurred right at this moment.

The smoke was suddenly absorbed into the fire.

"What's going on?" Even Fang Yuan had not expected this.

But shortly, when he saw that baby's phantom in the fire, he realized: "There is an issue with this baby, their constitution is probably not ordinary, it is quite bizarre!"

The baby had been added to the fire as a Gu material.

Fang Yuan had been observing from the side and had not carefully inspected the baby, so he did not know if there was anything strange with it.

This anomaly had surpassed Fang Yuan's expectation.

The fire soared once again, the baby's phantom jumped about in the fire and pounced towards young Thieving Heaven.

"Damn, this is dangerous." Fang Yuan sighed, if young Thieving Heaven died, his dream realm exploration would also fail subsequently.

Looking at the fire about to pounce at young Thieving Heaven's body, Fang Yuan suddenly had an inspiration.

"Got it!"

He first threw the chimney smoke Gu.

The chimney smoke Gu immediately attracted the baby phantom in the fire, it made babbling noise as it charged at the chimney smoke Gu and started eating it.

Taking this chance, Fang Yuan quickly retreated a few steps, pulling apart some distance from the fire.

But soon, the baby had finished eating chimney smoke Gu and charged towards Fang Yuan again.

Fang Yuan laughed: "Come, there is also clear water Gu!"

Clear water Gu was thrown out, and was also devoured by the baby.

The fire suddenly dimmed, the clear water Gu turned into a lump of emerald green water that could not be evaporated by the fire.

And the red fire turned into orange-yellow, shrouded in light. It was no longer fiery as before, and was deeply concealed instead.

The emerald green water and orange-yellow fire circulated around each other in the air.

Fang Yuan moved young Thieving Heaven's body to advance instead of retreating, and went in front of this strange water and fire.

"Sandpit turned into powder, consolidating the body. Chimney smoke shrouded and restrained the fire. Clear water toppled the world. Using blood to integrate yin and yang. Wonderful!"

Fang Yuan bit his tongue and spat out his blood into the strange water and fire.

"Eeeek." After the strange water and fire was touched by the blood, it suddenly turned into a blue baby phantom that screamed and pounced at Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan did not dodge, letting it attack.

The blue baby phantom directly entered young Thieving Heaven's aperture, turning into a rank two Gu worm.

"What is this?" Young Thieving Heaven came back to his senses and was stumped.

"What the, again?!" Fang Yuan was speechless, the moment young Thieving Heaven was safe, he was thrown to the side and turned into an observer.

"You actually refined a completely new Gu worm under a series of coincidences?!" Sha Xiao also shouted out in surprise.

"No, that's wrong." Shortly, he came to a realization, "Brat, you seem to have a hidden nature which only takes control when you encounter fatal danger, and then makes you intuitively make the best choice. It was like this in the competition, it seems to be the same in Gu refinement as well."

"You are naive and stubborn, as well as hopelessly stupid, but this hidden nature of yours is quite pragmatic and extremely cunning, having talents that you can't reach! I quite admire this nature, very impressive!!"

Sha Xiao started laughing.

"I refined a... new Gu?" Young Thieving Heaven still had not completely reacted to this situation and was dazed.

"That's right, give it a try. This new Gu is a rank two Gu, it seems to be a new innovation, even I can't make out its effect."

Activating an unknown Gu worm was a dangerous thing.

For instance, Spring Autumn Cicada was the best example.

But young Thieving Heaven had just started cultivating and was ignorant, and Sha Xiao, who knew about the risks, did not have any concern for young Thieving Heaven's safety.

So young Thieving Heaven dumbly activated this Gu worm.

The moment it was activated, this Gu worm turned back into a blue baby phantom that gave a strange scream before exiting young Thieving Heaven's aperture and charging ahead.

There was a stone stool ahead, the blue baby phantom directly entered the stone stool, then exited and returned to young Thieving Heaven's aperture, turning back into its Gu appearance.

The stone stool looked undamaged.

Young Thieving Heaven walked to the stool and touched it.

Bam.

A crisp sound echoed as the stone stool turned into crushed stone pieces.

Young Thieving Heaven was taken aback and took a step back, looking at the pile of pebbles on the ground in shock.

"Wonderful!" Sha Xiao praised: "This Gu worm has extremely high power, it is a top tier rank two Gu worm. More importantly, it seems to be able to pass through defenses, take a look, the stone stool crumbled from the inside."

Sha Xiao was astute, seeing many of its profundities in an instant.

Young Thieving Heaven was still somewhat muddled.

Sha Xiao looked at his aperture and praised again: "Amazing! Look at your aperture, only ten percent primeval essence has been expended in activating this Gu worm, this is unimaginable. This is a rank two Gu worm with so much power, but it only needs ten percent of rank one green copper primeval essence!"

"But I only have D grade aptitude, my primeval essence is just a bit more than twenty percent. I can only use this Gu worm twice." Young Thieving Heaven was worried.

"You know nothing. With this Gu worm, the first position in the competition is yours. No one can defend against your Gu worm." Sha Xiao scoffed.

"I can be first with this Gu?" Young Thieving Heaven's eyes opened wide.

"Once this Gu worm is activated, it will turn into a blue baby phantom that will attack the enemy. You have seen its speed, it is extremely fast. Rank three Gu Masters might be able to dodge it with difficulty, but against rank one and rank two Gu Masters, as long as you close some distance, they will be struck and have no time to dodge."

Sha Xiao continued to analyze, mumbling: "Hmm... looking at this Gu worm's power and effect, we might as well call it sneak attack Gu."

The Gu worm was created by young Thieving Heaven, but Sha Xiao took the liberty to name this Gu worm.

"Sneak attack Gu..." Young Thieving Heaven immediately frowned and wanted to object.

"Yes, call it sneak attack Gu, my naming sense is still good. Hahaha!" Sha Xiao said domineeringly, young Thieving Heaven could only roll his eyes helplessly.

-x-X-x-

Western Desert, Thieving Heaven's dream realm.

Young Thieving Heaven stepped on the stage once more.

His appearance startled the surrounding clansmen.

"What is the meaning of this?"

"Why is this despicable kid covered in bandages?"

"It seems like he suffered a heavy injury!"

Nothing could be done about it, although young Thieving Heaven refined sneak attack Gu with Fang Yuan's help, his injuries from the Gu refinement process had not been healed. So even if young Thieving Heaven continued to participate in the competition, he was heavily injured.

Young Thieving Heaven bitterly laughed inwardly.

In fact, he did not want to continue to take part in the competition, but Sha Xiao forced him to continue.

With no other way, young Thieving Heaven could only enter the battle.

And his opponent this time was a clan elder's grandson. When he saw young Thieving Heaven's heavily injured appearance, he instead retreated several steps, looking at young Thieving Heaven with extreme cautiousness.

"What scheme are you plotting?" The elder's grandson shouted: "You think by disguising as heavily injured, I will be tricked by you? You are underestimating me too much."

"That's right. You need to be careful when dealing with him, don't be deceived."

"This method of appearing weak is too childish. But looking at his age, it can be understood."

"This kid is ignorant, he doesn't have much strength at all, completely relying on tricks to enter the top eight."

The surrounding crowd erupted in discussion.

Young Thieving Heaven rolled his eyes, speechless.

The Gu Master presiding over this match was also speechless. He had investigative Gu and had already ascertained that the heavy injuries on young Thieving Heaven were real.

But Fang Yuan's fraudulent performances before had left such a deep impression on others that even though young Thieving Heaven was injured currently, they did not dare to believe it. Young Thieving Heaven's opponent even retreated several steps, appearing extremely cautious!

"Since it is so..." Young Thieving Heaven smiled bitterly, the corners of his lips suddenly rose as his gaze and expression changed a little.

Fang Yuan had once again gained control over young Thieving Heaven's body.

"Come, let me test sneak attack Gu in a real fight." Fang Yuan willed and activated this rank two Gu worm.

A blue baby phantom jumped out of young Thieving Heaven's aperture.

"What the..." The elder's grandson gave a startled cry, he was not able to react in time and the blue baby phantom pounced at his body.

"Thankfully, I played safe and had immediately activated my defensive Gu worm earlier, not giving any chance to my opponent!" The blue baby phantom's speed was extremely fast, the elder's grandson could only squeeze out two words while his mind was filled with thoughts.

But this thought was the final thought before he fainted.

Guh.

At the next moment, the elder's grandson coughed out blood, and his eyes opened wide with an incredulous look.

Then, he fell down to the ground, immediately losing his consciousness.

Fang Yuan won!

Silence fell among the crowd.

Almost everyone's eyes were opened wide as they saw a blue baby figure drill in and out of the elder's grandson's body which then jumped up and down before entering back into young Thieving Heaven's aperture.

"Despicable! He used a dirty trick again."

"What did he use? The speed was too fast, I actually could not see it clearly."

"It seems to be a rank two Gu worm!"

"What exactly was that? I only saw a blue baby phantom."

"My intuition tells me this blue baby phantom is not simple!"

This time, not only the observing mortals, even those rank two Gu Masters were visibly moved.

Sneak attack Gu's first appearance had shocked everyone!

In the following matches, young Thieving Heaven repeatedly used sneak attack Gu.

His battles were clean and quick, they could be summarized in a few steps — step on the stage, activate sneak attack Gu, opponent faints, and victory comes.

Young Thieving Heaven's dominance was so big that he suppressed all the competitors instantly.

The crowd was overwhelmed.

There was no unexpected mishap, young Thieving Heaven smoothly grasped first place. This result raised many eyebrows.

"He was actually concealing this trump card!"

"This kid was actually pretending to be weak, he is too crafty and sinister."

"Yes, he clearly has such strength, but actually resorted to such tricks. Hmm... but this also shows his true nature!"

Young Thieving Heaven was first place in the competition, but the clansmen were dissatisfied.

With Fang Yuan causing disaster from the start, young Thieving Heaven had lost everyone's favor.

Ordinary people pointed at young Thieving Heaven and whispered to each other, but the clan's higher-ups had their attention on sneak attack Gu.

"This Gu is so powerful, what is its origin?"

"That kid is a commoner, a penniless brat, how could he get such a top tier Gu worm?"

"I have investigated it, he has been living in the clan since his birth. But earlier this year, he was exiled, and this Gu worm was very likely obtained by him during the exile."

"You are saying this kid has inherited some senior's inheritance?"

"Yes, that is very likely to be true!"

"This brat doesn't matter, the crucial thing is that this rank two Gu worm is really powerful. You have already seen its remarkable offensive power. It can be activated by a rank one Gu Master which means its primeval essence consumption is small, this is a top tier Gu worm. As long as our clan can arm ourselves with this Gu worm on a large scale, our strength will definitely soar. At that time, we can definitely expand our operations and seize larger oases." The clan leader excitedly spoke, a fire of ambition flickering in his eyes.

Sneak attack Gu was a rank two Gu, after its might was displayed, it immediately attracted the covetous gaze of the clan's higher-ups.

This was already expected by Fang Yuan.

With him controlling young Thieving Heaven, he could naturally avoid using sneak attack Gu in the competition, but he took the initiative to use it and openly at that. He had his own plan for this.

"I want to see what this dream realm will look like because of my decisions!"

"Sneak attack Gu has been exposed and attracted the clan's covetous gaze, the higher-ups will definitely want to mass produce this Gu and arm the clan's Gu Masters."

Sneak attack Gu was a rank two Gu, this rank was just perfect.

A rank one Gu was too low, it had weak strength and there was no meaning in using them on a large scale.

Rank three was too high, they were too valuable and were difficult to mass-produce, also there were few rank three Gu Masters in the clan.

Only rank two which was in the middle, was suitable to mass-produce and suitable to equip the clan's Gu Masters!

The clan's higher-ups could not help being moved.

"So they want the Gu recipe more than the Gu worm. After all, there is only one sneak attack Gu, they can only mass-produce it by obtaining the Gu recipe."

"The clan's higher-ups want to get the Gu recipe, so they will most likely try to appease young Thieving Heaven and try to recruit him, they will not try to obtain it by force or pressure."

This was a simple logic.

If pressured, it might instead lead to young Thieving Heaven rebounding and resisting.

If he died and did not hand over the recipe, the clan's plans would all be in vain. If he had grievance, he could hand over an incomplete or a tampered Gu recipe, the clan would then suffer huge losses."

So the best situation was for young Thieving Heaven to willingly and voluntarily hand over the Gu recipe.

Just like Fang Yuan expected, as the dream realm continued, the clan's higher-up forces extended offers to young Thieving Heaven. They were either trying to invite him to visit their homes, or offer money and goods to get closer to him. Furthermore, some even wanted to marry their daughter to young Thieving Heaven.

Young Thieving Heaven instantly became popular like a hot product.

"My good grandson, you have made it! You won't be able to hold on to this sneak attack Gu recipe, but you can use this to exchange for a large amount of benefits. Use it properly and you can even squeeze into the clan's higher-up circle. Hehehe!" Sha Xiao's voice echoed.

Young Thieving Heaven, however, was dead set on not handing over the Gu recipe.

"If I hand over the Gu recipe, a lot of babies will be implicated!"

Although young Thieving Heaven was upright and honest, he had his bottom line, he was an otherworldly demon, he had previous life's experiences and knew that behind the strength of an organization, there was often darkness and dirtiness.

"Then you can delay it for a while, after a few days, you will be going to the pool to select the reward of the competition winner. Don't forget grandpa's instructions." Sha Xiao contained his laughter, his voice turning cold and detached.

"Don't worry, I won't forget." Young Thieving Heaven promised.

After three days in the dream, he along with seven others were led by clan elders across the blockade and to the pool.

This was the most important resource area of the clan. There was also a natural spirit spring in the pool which produced primeval stones, and was the basis for survival of the clan.

Young Thieving Heaven's clan had not only planted a lot of Gu materials around the pool, they had also excavated underground caverns where they stored large amount of Gu worms.

Because young Thieving Heaven was the winner, he was brought to an underground cavern to choose a high quality Gu worm from inside.

He had just stepped inside when Sha Xiao's excited voice was heard: "It's here, it's here. I sense a dense Immortal Gu aura!"

"What Immortal Gu?" Young Thieving Heaven asked.

Fang Yuan also had doubts, and was also somewhat shocked that the inheritance here actually involved Gu Immortals!

But right at this time, Fang Yuan's sight suddenly turned dark.

His soul was once again being rapidly corroded by the dream realm.

After waiting for a seemingly endless time, Fang Yuan's soul had unknowingly left the dream realm.

"Why am I out?" Fang Yuan felt a trace of surprise.

"This means I have passed the second stage?" Fang Yuan immediately came to a realization when he thought of this.

"Quasi-great grandmaster! My theft path attainment has actually soared to just a step before great grandmaster level!" Fang Yuan's soul entered his physical body, he opened his eyes, which shined brightly with surprise and joy.

Quasi-great grandmaster realm!

This was a new personal record for Fang Yuan.

Among Fang Yuan's various paths, some were at grandmaster realm, even in his first life of five hundred years, he had not achieved such an accomplishment in a path!

-x-X-x-

Western Desert, inside Tang clan's immortal formation.

Fang Yuan was sitting cross-legged with closed eyes.

He was inspecting his soul, his ten million man soul foundation level had now already fallen to million man soul, moreover, it was just a little over a million.

"When I passed the first stage, my soul foundation was over nine million man soul. But after passing the second stage, I actually only have just over one million man soul, almost falling down to hundred thousand man soul range."

Fang Yuan inwardly compared the differences between the two.

The second stage was longer than the first stage, and the soul corrosion rate was also much more severe.

An ordinary Gu Immortal with even a little less soul foundation would have no way to endure such a corrosion. Not to mention a whole stage, they would not even be able to pass half a stage of the dream realm.

This made it clear that the difficulty of this dream realm of Thieving Heaven was too high. No wonder Tang clan and Tang Fang Ming's many years of effort was like a newborn baby trying to gnaw on an iron-hard boulder.

"Tang Fang Ming was still able to create so many dream path mortal Gu, this person indeed has quite remarkable talents and aptitude."

Fang Yuan thought of his first life of five hundred years, Tang Fang Ming had created a dream path immortal killer move — Steal Dream.

Previously, Fang Yuan had thought this was because of Shadow Sect's help, but now that he had explored two stages of Thieving Heaven's dream realm, he felt steal dream was more likely to have been created by Tang Fang Ming himself.

The first stage of Thieving Heaven's dream realm had increased Fang Yuan's theft path to grandmaster level.

While the second stage had raised it to quasi-great grandmaster.

"I am just a step away from genuine great grandmaster level." Fang Yuan quietly comprehended and sensed that beautiful prospect that was close at hand.

"If I successfully pass one more stage of Thieving Heaven's dream realm, I definitely can reach great grandmaster attainment!" Even Fang Yuan, with his extraordinary calmness, felt traces of fiery anticipation.

There was a huge difference between grandmaster and great grandmaster.

Grandmaster level could understand about yin-yang and heaven and earth, they could learn about the profoundness of the universe, surpassing the mortal realm and become immortals among immortals, sages among sages.

At grandmaster level, a Gu Immortal could use their path to imitate the specialties of other paths. For instance, in Hei Fan's true inheritance, hundred years harmony, a time path killer move, had the effect of information path.

As for great grandmaster attainment, it meant that the Gu Immortal's understanding of a path was very close to being complete, their knowledge of the path had already reached the limits of the world. They could be considered to be approaching on digging out all the profundities of their path!

The dead Blazing Heaven Demoness was a fire path great grandmaster. The present day's rank eight Gu Immortal Old Ancestor Xue Hu was a snow path great grandmaster.

At this level, Blazing Heaven Demoness had an extreme sensitivity towards fire path dao marks. Previously, she had added a trace of fire path dao mark in every fire path immortal material and plotted against Fang Yuan.

Old Ancestor Xue Hu could casually disassemble all kinds of immortal killer moves. Previously, in the battle of Reverse Flow River, he had nimbly disassembled his trump card battlefield killer move to deal with Heavenly Court and other enemies, even gaining the upper hand.

And a formation path great grandmaster could directly use the natural dao marks in the world to set up formations. They often needed only some mortal Gu to set up immortal Gu formations in some specific areas.

As for above great grandmaster attainment, there was supreme grandmaster.

Great grandmaster was a level where the profundities of the path were being dug out, if Fang Yuan became a theft path great grandmaster, he would understand the profundities of theft path that existed in the world, and there would be almost nothing about theft path that he could not comprehend.

That was to say, great grandmaster was a level where one deciphered just about everything about a certain path.

Supreme grandmaster was to innovate beyond that, to obtain mysteries of the path that did not even exist in the world, to be one step ahead of heaven and earth!

Normally, grandmaster attainment required hundreds of years of accumulation, in Fang Yuan's first life, he had attained grandmaster in blood path.

Great grandmaster often required a thousand to several thousands of years, a number of rank eight Gu Immortals possessed this level of attainment.

As for supreme grandmaster, that was not just a matter of simply accumulation, but concerned talents and natural aptitude as well. Without having awe-inspiring talent and natural aptitude, even if the Gu Immortal lived for ten thousand years, they would not be able to reach supreme grandmaster attainment.

Therefore, supreme grandmasters were extremely rare since ancient times.

The ten venerables were all supreme grandmasters. There were also some legendary characters, like the three refinement path supreme grandmasters — Long Hair Ancestor, Old Eccentric Tian Nan and Old Immortal Kong Jue.

"Grandmaster and great grandmaster attainment level can be achieved through dream realms. But supreme grandmaster cannot be obtained with dream realms." Fang Yuan realized this.

This was obvious.

Supreme grandmasters needed to pioneer in creating something from nothing, while dream realms were legacies left by predecessors. So the highest attainment level that could be reached through dream realms was great grandmaster.

"Once I attain great grandmaster level in theft path, even if there are still more stages in Thieving Heaven's dream realm, I won't be able to increase my theft path attainment level through them."

This was also the foundation for collaboration between Fang Yuan and Tang clan.

Thieving Heaven's dream realm was too large, Fang Yuan's stomach had a limit. Once he was full, there would still be a large portion left for Tang clan.

Tang clan had only been willing to collaborate with Fang Yuan after he made this reason clear.

If Thieving Heaven's dream realm was small enough for Fang Yuan to devour alone, how could Tang clan collaborate with Fang Yuan?

In the coming days, Fang Yuan prepared for his third exploration of Thieving Heaven's dream realm.

He was mainly cultivating his soul.

But in his spare time, Fang Yuan taught the secrets of dream path to Tang Fang Ming.

Tang Fang Ming benefited a lot.

Despite Fang Yuan only imparting some superficial dream path knowledge, as far as Tang Fang Ming was concerned, what he lacked was this lighthouse to guide him.

The first step was always the most difficult. The creation of any path was the most difficult at the beginning.

Once the first step was taken, the following steps could be taken rapidly.

For Fang Yuan, guiding Tang Fang Ming, besides fulfilling the agreement to make it convenient for him to continue exploring the dream realm, was to make arrangements for the future. He was imitating Spectral Soul's strategy of fostering forces in four regions, to surround Central Continent and go against Heavenly Court.

Time flew by, over twenty days passed just like this.

Fang Yuan's soul foundation had once again reached ten million man soul level.

"The third stage of Thieving Heaven's dream realm is sure to be even more difficult. Ten million man soul level might not be safe enough." After Fang Yuan pondered, he decided to continue cultivating his soul to break through to hundred million man soul.

If his soul foundation was not sufficient and the soul was corroded completely in the dream realm, it would be akin to death. Even if there was still a physical body left, he would be just like a vegetable without a soul.

"Maybe I can deduce a dream path killer move to reduce the corrosion of the soul in the dream realm."

This idea only flashed past Fang Yuan's mind before he quickly denied it.

Fang Yuan's dream path attainment level was only ordinary, not even at quasi-master. Creating a dream path immortal killer move? Forget about it.

As such, there was only one path in front of Fang Yuan currently, to raise his soul foundation to hundred million man soul.

But this plan soon met an obstacle.

He was lacking guts Gu!

Fang Yuan had put Dang Hun Mountain in Lang Ya blessed land, Lang Ya land spirit personally took charge of using this secluded domain of heaven and earth to produce guts Gu.

But, guts Gu did not appear out of thin year, it required souls.

The higher the quality and the quantity of the souls, the more guts Gu that Dang Hun Mountain could produce.

The problem appeared in this aspect.

Fang Yuan required a huge amount of guts Gu, Lang Ya land spirit, however, did not have enough souls to produce them.

Previously, Fang Yuan had ordered Shadow Sect members and others to explore Tai Qiu and kill desolate beasts and ancient desolate beasts, so guts Gu could be repeatedly produced on a large scale.

But now, Shadow Sect's members were with Fang Yuan, and the souls stored in Lang Ya Sect had been completely used up these last few days.

Fang Yuan thought over it, right now, it was better for him to get materials from nearby than return to kill Tai Qiu's desolate beasts.

Western Desert was similar to Northern Plains in that it was similarly incomparably vast.

Western Desert had a place that was rather special and suited Fang Yuan.

"You Chan is dead, my dragonfish business is already dominating the whole of treasure yellow heaven's market. For the next few years, there should be no one that can compete with me."

Fang Yuan intended to use these profits to manage his immortal aperture and not to purchase souls.

It was a loss to use them to purchase souls, Fang Yuan recalled a famous saying — one's own hands can produce ample food and clothing.

Thereupon, Fang Yuan briefly informed Tang Fang Ming of the situation. Then, he left the immortal formation with the Shadow Sect members, towards that special desert.

-x-X-x-

Fang Yuan controlled the auspicious cloud to move through the sky.

His speed was not fast, but his surroundings were permeating with dense Immortal Gu aura.

The auspicious cloud below him was not ordinary. It originated from a luck path true inheritance in Hei Fan grotto-heaven, after Fang Yuan's modifications, its effect had improved sharply.

The auspicious cloud did not follow Fang Yuan's will, but moved according to the profundity of luck path.

Even Fang Yuan did not know when this auspicious cloud would change direction or where it was moving to, but Fang Yuan was clear that this 'spontaneous auspicious cloud' killer move flew along the path of highest luck.

After leaving Tang clan, Fang Yuan had spent several days to come here.

This was green ghost desert.

A famous danger region of Western Desert. For the last hundred thousand years, there were many Western Desert Gu Immortals who died here.

Green ghost desert's sky was covered with dense dark clouds all year round, with barely any sunlight, it was dark and gloomy.

The ground was covered with large amount of vegetation.

Ghost crying trees were the largest in number, this tree was not tall and had twisted branches that looked like they were demons and monsters brandishing their claws. Every time the gloomy wind blew on the tree, it would shake slightly and emit a shrill scream or a terrifying cry.

Moan moan moan...

The ghost crying tree wailed mournfully, a soul beast quietly moved out and approached Fang Yuan from behind while slowly raising its two sickle arms.

The front half of this soul beast resembled a cockroach with long sharp pincers, while its back half had a long tail like a python.

Fang Yuan seemingly failed to sense it, the soul beast's two sickle arms were raised up to its limit, it then rushed out towards Fang Yuan's back and slashed down its sickle arms!

Victory or defeat was already determined at that instant.

The soul beast's body stiffened in the air and fell down head-first to the ground.

But Fang Yuan acted in time, softly waving his sleeve which sent out a formless force that wrapped around this desolate beast level soul beast's corpse, and brought it before him.

The soul beast's corpse turned into whiffs of dark grey smoke and was constantly dissipating with the wind. Fang Yuan was unable to stop it, and after a while, only a glass-like soul core remained in his hand.

The soul core was heavy and was dark blue to the point of appearing black. As Fang Yuan held it, it was like holding a completely filled wine vat.

This was a rank six immortal material.

It was the essence of the soul beast.

Just like a mud monster only left behind its mud core after its death, soul beasts also had soul cores.

Soul beasts, mud monsters, blood beasts, shadow monsters and phantom beasts were all path beasts, their whole bodies contained plentiful and dense amounts of dao marks of their specific paths.

Fang Yuan inspected and confirmed that there was nothing wrong with the soul core, before throwing it inside his sovereign immortal aperture.

Inside his immortal aperture, there was already a small basin of soul cores.

Most were rank six soul cores, and a portion was rank seven. But there were no rank eight soul cores which came from immemorial soul beasts.

With Fang Yuan's battle strength, it was easy for him to kill these desolate level soul beasts and ancient soul beasts.

After he arrived in green ghost desert, many desolate beasts and ancient desolate beasts came to find trouble with him. Fang Yuan was charging through their territories, so he would naturally be attacked by them.

Most of these beasts were soul beasts.

Fang Yuan had ghostly concealment, auspicious cloud, however, was not concealed, the target of these soul beasts was the auspicious cloud while neglecting Fang Yuan, unfortunately they all fell to Fang Yuan's sinister scheme.

The emergence of soul beasts was related to two Demon Venerables.

One was Red Lotus Demon Venerable; he damaged fate Gu, creating a loophole in the Great Dao of the world which allowed many beings to escape from the restrictions of fate. After dying, not all souls were sucked into door of life and death, many souls stayed behind in the world.

The second was Spectral Soul Demon Venerable; he created soul path, causing souls to manifest and transform into soul beasts.

But at present, a portion of soul beasts were naturally formed in some places with dense soul path dao marks.

Times were constantly changing.

From Immemorial Antiquity to Remote Antiquity, Olden Antiquity to the present age, the world of five regions had already changed many times.

So these soul cores could completely substitute for souls to be fed to Dang Hun Mountain and produce large amounts of guts Gu.

But the quality of these soul cores could not be compared to Gu Immortal souls. At most, they could only match the souls of other beasts and plants.

"It hasn't even been long since I entered green ghost desert, and I have already obtained so many soul cores. How I wish I could have complete control over this place." Fang Yuan thought to himself.

If he could control this place, it was akin to having an endless supply of guts Gu.

It could completely push his soul foundation to the peak level, and even be used to help others.

Whoosh!

Just as Fang Yuan was immersed in thinking, a sharp ear-piercing sound came from behind him towards the left.

A giant scorpion was flying towards Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan's pupils immediately shrunk when he took a glance.

This scorpion was completely black and had a peculiar shape, its whole body resembled a huge round disc, its long tail was behind the disc and its two huge pincers flickered with eerie light. It was charging straight at Fang Yuan with terrifying momentum!

"This is an immemorial desolate beast disc scorpion, it is a wisdom path beast and its favorite food is soul beasts." A line of information instantly appeared in Fang Yuan's mind.

Fang Yuan's ghostly concealment could conceal him from the senses of soul beasts, but it had no effect on other beasts.

Fang Yuan jumped out of the auspicious cloud and escaped.

Fang Yuan had rank eight battle strength, he was not helpless against this immemorial desolate beast.

However, his goal in this trip was not to fight a drawn out battle with the disc scorpion, but to gather as many soul cores as possible.

Fang Yuan retreated, but the disc scorpion did not let go. However, after a while of being chased, Fang Yuan was able to successfully throw off the disc scorpion by using his ample methods.

Danger lurked everywhere in green ghost desert, even Fang Yuan was not safe here.

Over the next few days, Fang Yuan hunted soul beasts while cultivating soul path, increasing his soul foundation. If he ran into any existences like the disc scorpion, Fang Yuan would prioritize escaping as much as possible.

Fang Yuan was not the only one hunting, the Shadow Sect members were also doing the same.

The soul cores obtained by the immortals were given to Lang Ya land spirit to produce large amounts of guts Gu.

In less than half a month, Fang Yuan's soul foundation had reached the range of ten million man soul again.

"My soul foundation is enough, it is time to change battle tactics." Fang Yuan instructed the Shadow Sect immortals to stop killing soul beasts, instead, they would start capturing, subduing or enslaving them.

Fang Yuan had Spectral Soul's true inheritance, he possessed large amounts of methods to enslave soul beasts.

The only thing limiting him was that he lacked soul path and enslavement path Immortal Gu.

Under everyone's efforts, they soon controlled a large group of soul beasts, there were roughly over sixty desolate level soul beasts, and around twenty ancient soul beasts.

Soul beasts of all kinds of grotesque shapes formed a majestic army that rampaged around in green ghost desert.

When they encountered lone soul beasts or small groups of soul beasts, Fang Yuan would command the enslaved soul beasts to charge at them. Those that could not be controlled were killed for their soul cores, and those soul beasts that were on their last breaths would be enslaved by Fang Yuan and the rest.

A dozen or so days passed, the enslaved soul beast army expanded by three times the original size!