238 RI

An approximate outline of the truth had manifested in the Southern Border immortals' minds.

"Among these year beasts, there are likely to be immemorial year beasts and not in a small number too. Fang Yuan indeed has the ability to battle the pursuing team with these year beasts. Moreover, this demon Fang Yuan has inherited Shadow Sect, he has countless true inheritances, constructing a time path formation that can trap our clansmen is within his capabilities."

Chi Qu You paused here before continuing with a frown: "It is just that I still don't understand some things. If it was an immortal aperture which had been placed and hidden into one spot, it is normal for others to be unable to sense it. But can a time path formation be hidden so well? Both Xia Cha and Lu Wei Yin were unable to sense it?"

Time path formations were not that good at concealment unlike phantom path, space path, or theft path.

Xia Cha and the rest were trapped in the formation, and had to battle with immemorial year beasts before finally being taken captive because of the dream realms. This could be understood.

However!

The most unusual thing was at the very start. They actually did not discover and even directly rushed into Fang Yuan's trap.

Even Chi Qu You, a formation path great grandmaster, was bewildered.

It was not that time path formations could not be concealed, it was just extremely difficult to conceal them to this degree, it would be much more difficult than space path, theft path, phantom path or other paths.

Chi Qu You had never heard of such a time path immortal formation that could be concealed to such a degree that even two rank eight Gu Immortals could not sense it.

"The dream realm has dissipated, wait a second, there is a person inside!" Someone exclaimed.

Right at this time, the dream realm's transformation broke the Southern Border immortals' thoughts. This small dream realm that was left in the battlefield actually contained a person?

Soon, this person's appearance was revealed, he was Lu Wei Yin.

He was holding his arms across his chest, his eyes were shut as if he was in a deep sleep, unmoving like a statue.

But following the dream realm's dissipation, he soon opened his eyes and regained clarity.

"You..." Lu Wei Yin's expression changed slightly when he saw Wu Yong and the rest, he then looked at his surroundings and blurted out: "Oh no!"

"Lord Lu Wei Yin, please explain what in the world happened to all of you."

"Right! Did my clan's Gu Immortals really fall into Fang Yuan's hands?"

"Wait a second, we cannot be sure of his identity yet."

The situation instantly became noisy from the discussions between the Southern Border immortals.

"Let's first verify his identity. Fang Yuan has familiar face and also has methods to quickly escape from dream realms." Wu Yong said.

Chi Qu You was silent, but his body moved slightly, trapping Lu Wei Yin with Wu Yong in the front and him at the back.

Lu Wei Yin was slightly stunned before nodding: "Go ahead."

The Southern Border immortals had unique inspection methods. And for safety purposes, these methods were not limited to just one kind, they were complicated and varied.

After a while, the expressions of Wu Yong and the rest softened a little. Lu Wei Yin verified his identity, he was the real deal and not Fang Yuan's disguise.

Lu Wei Yin then quickly informed them of what he encountered.

After the Southern Border Gu Immortals learned of the information, their expressions became incomparably ashen, once again falling into deathly silence.

Lu Wei Yin shook his head and sighed: "I am ashamed, I don't have any offensive methods and could only watch the situation happen. If I did not possess special methods that can protect me in dream realms, I might also have fallen into Fang Yuan's hands."

"Forget it for now, let's return first." Wu Yong took a deep glance at Lu Wei Yin, then his sleeves waved as he entered Clear Jade Dripping Wind Tiny Bamboo Building.

Not long after the Southern Border Gu Immortals left, a strange light shot towards the area, turning into Heavenly Court's Jun Shen Guang.

Jun Shen Guang inspected the traces in the battlefield and frowned after a while, mumbling: "This time path formation is extremely mysterious, looking at the traces of the dao marks, there are no dao marks of phantom path, space path, or theft path. It is not a combined immortal formation, and is purely a time path immortal formation, but it actually concealed itself to the extent where Xia Cha and Lu Wei Yin could not sense it."

Rank eight Gu Immortals had deep foundation.

Xia Cha had plentiful methods as the first supreme elder of the super force Xia clan. And Lu Wei Yin was an inheritor of Paradise Earth Immortal Venerable. Neither of them actually sensed this grand formation, causing the group of Southern Border Gu Immortals to fall into the trap.

Jun Shen Guang checked several times, confirming there were indeed no other clues, he then turned into a strange light that quickly disappeared.

Sovereign blessed land.

A large castle-like formation that was letting out silver radiance suddenly floated in Mini Green Heaven.

Fang Yuan's time path clone as well as Shadow Sect immortals were surrounding this immortal formation, paying close attention to the captives inside.

Most of these captives were the Southern Border immortals whom Fang Yuan had ambushed and captured. Shang Hu Zhang, Tie Qu Zhong, Yang Ku, and so on were experts of rank seven, right now, they were firmly locked up, their eyes were closed as they were trapped in dream realms.

The strongest captive was the rank eight Gu Immortal Xia Cha who was given utmost attention by Fang Yuan. An extremely dense dream realm surrounded and fluctuated around her.

Pure will would be worn down when they fell into dream realms, but they would immediately recover if they escaped the dream realm. But the soul was different, even if they were taken out of the dream realm, they would still be trapped in the dream for a certain period of time, it would be as if they were struck by the killer move lead soul into dream.

It was because of this crucial point that Fang Yuan could capture these Southern Border Gu Immortals and move them into his sovereign immortal aperture.

In this present time, the old immortal killer moves had no effect on dream realms. Even Immortal Gu Houses like Bay Pavilion and Heaven Overseeing Tower started disintegrating when they fell into dream realms.

To be in a dream realm for Gu Immortals was to be in dire straits.

But Fang Yuan had an extraordinary method, that was the Pure Dream Reality Seeker Physique!

Fang Yuan had the immortal killer move pure dream reality seeker transformation which he used to transform the dream realms in his sovereign immortal aperture into Pure Dream Reality Seeker Physique bodies. He then used these temporary dream path clones to enter the dream realms and take out the Southern Border Gu Immortals, locking them up inside the sovereign immortal aperture.

He then turned the dream realms in the battlefield to Pure Dream Reality Seeker Physique bodies and successfully retrieved them.

Finally, he hurriedly cleaned the battlefield, not leaving behind any clues before he left.

So when Jun Shen Guang and Southern Border's immortals arrived, they saw such a scene.

The time path clone's brows slightly furrowed: "Although we are using the dream realm to imprison these Gu Immortals, there is a huge risk. If any one of them wakes up and causes havoc in my sovereign immortal aperture, it will really be a great loss."

To Gu Immortals, the immortal aperture was an important resource area as well as the foundation of their cultivation. The hidden risk in imprisoning these Gu Immortals here was really huge.

"One skill to dominate the world, most Gu Immortals are helpless against dream realms currently. Even rank eight Gu Immortals can meet their calamity in dream realm. But just in case, I need to grab this time to take out these Gu Immortals' Gu worms and resources. Then, I will use soul path methods to separate their souls and bodies, only then will the situation be safe."

Fang Yuan thought of Lu Wei Yin.

This person was trapped in a dream realm, but when a Pure Dream Reality Seeker Physique body went to take him out, it actually lost its way and was unable to approach him!

Being able to show effect in a dream realm, this was clearly a dream path method!

Recalling a past event, Fang Yuan had been ambushed by Lu Wei Yin and had gone through three lifetimes, that was also a dream path method.

Lu Wei Yin was not only an inheritor of Paradise Earth, he was also moving forward with the era, and held at least two dream path methods, almost similar to Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan's dream path methods were only unravel dream, lead soul into dream, and switch soul in dream.

It was because of this that Fang Yuan gave up on capturing Lu Wei Yin. Even if he could take him away, Fang Yuan did not dare to take the risk. Who knew if he had some other dream path methods. In case he woke up in the sovereign immortal aperture, that would truly be an example of luring a wolf into one's house, without any way of expelling it!

"Sigh, I really did not expect there to be a day where these high and mighty Gu Immortals would become our prisoners!" Fairy Miao Yin sighed with emotions.

Although she was one of the famous fairies of Southern Border, she was a lone cultivator and had suffered a lot at the hands of Southern Border's righteous path. She had deep resentment towards these famed experts of Southern Border's righteous path.

"Such a pity that sister White Rabbit died. Sigh..." Fairy Miao Yin's expression was truly mournful.

When she joined Shadow Sect, she had become very close with Lady White Rabbit, because she liked the latter's straightforwardness.

Lady White Rabbit had inherited the Black Tigress true inheritance and would turn into Black Tigress when faced with life-threatening danger, her cultivation would also soar to rank seven. Regretfully, she faced Xia Cha's direct attack using immortal killer move Summer Fan, she simply did not have time to react and died immediately.

Fang Yuan was powerless to help, Man as Before was only a rank six Immortal Gu and had no hope for success against such an injury.

Even Fang Yuan's main body was heavily injured at the moment.

It was Bai Ning Bing instead who had no injuries.

At the crucial moment, she turned into Bai Xiang, although it was shattered into pieces, Bai Xiang could resurrect with just a small fragment.

This move had once shaken Southern Border, renowned as the White Terror that had shrouded the whole of Southern Border's Gu Immortal world. Its profundity was that it could remove all harmful dao marks along with most of the body, then revive with just a tiny fragment.

However, Bai Ning Bing's current expression did not look good.

She looked at the trapped Southern Border immortals, thinking to herself: "Even if I use Bai Xiang, I will still be trapped in the dream realm with no strength to resist. Strange, Fang Yuan actually did not use such a method to deal with me. He already has methods to resolve the alliance agreement on him, if I were him..."

Bai Ning Bing felt a huge pressure.

After all, she was not a Shadow Sect member, and moreover, she was currently in Fang Yuan's sovereign immortal aperture which was the same as being in someone else's headquarters.

The stronger Fang Yuan's strength and methods, the greater the pressure on Bai Ning Bing.

"Alright, Ying Wu Xie, you shall remain here, I have lent you the Gu worms. In the next few days, you will be in charge of guarding this place, if anything abnormal occurs, use a Pure Dream Reality Seeker Physique body to activate lead soul into dream to continue putting these Southern Border Gu Immortals to sleep."

"Formation Spirit, guard this place properly. If the dream realm moves and endangers the formation, inform me immediately."

Fang Yuan's time path clone issued two commands.

"Yes, sect leader."

"Understood, master."

Supervision should be sufficient enough with Ying Wu Xie and the Formation Spirit, Fang Yuan was able to put his heart at ease slightly.

-x-X-x-

In the sovereign immortal aperture's time, several days later.

Fang Yuan's time path clone once again went in front of the immortal formation in Mini Green Heaven.

"Be careful, I am going to start." The time path clone said solemnly.

"Okay." The Formation Spirit materialized, nodding its head.

There was a Gu Immortal standing to the side, he was Ying Wu Xie, looking tense at this moment.

A Pure Dream Reality Seeker Physique body entered the dream realm, not long later, it grabbed Xia Cha's foot and dragged her out.

The whole process was done cautiously.

Xia Cha was still in a deep sleep, she showed no abnormal movements.

Even though Fang Yuan was using a Pure Dream Reality Seeker Physique clone, he only dared to drag out half of this rank eight Gu Immortal's body.

Xia Cha's upper half was still inside the dream realm, while the lower half was exposed outside the dream realm.

The crucial immortal aperture was near her stomach area, so it was okay to do this.

Next, it was the turn of Fang Yuan's main body. He had already prepared for a while, activating immortal killer move great thief ghost hand immediately.

The eerie great thief ghost hand slowly flew towards Xia Cha's immortal aperture. However, before it could touch her, wisps of dao marks shined on her body.

This was a passive time path method, even if Xia Cha was deep in sleep, it could automatically activate.

This defensive method could show no effect in the dream realm. But Fang Yuan's great thief ghost hand also was useless in dream realms.

Only by dragging Xia Cha outside the dream realm could Fang Yuan steal her Immortal Gu.

Fang Yuan was not even the slightest bit surprised at seeing the great thief ghost hand being obstructed.

He had been making attempts since a few days back, and this was not the first time.

This time path defensive move was indeed troublesome, but with his time path attainment level and using the light of wisdom, Fang Yuan had already deduced a way to get rid of it.

Thereupon, Fang Yuan activated another killer move.

The killer move showed remarkable effect, the dao marks light on Xia Cha's body dimmed immediately, the great thief ghost hand successfully disappeared into her immortal aperture.

"Fortunately, Xia Cha's defensive method is not as remarkable as the people of Heavenly Court. It is probably a temporary arrangement to deal with my great thief ghost hand, which is why I was able to resolve this move within a short period of time."

This time path defensive move was only a rank seven move. Fang Yuan used his time path Immortal Gu along with many mortal Gu to form a killer move that could get rid of it.

"In the ambush against Southern Border's pursuing forces using the time path formation, the important time path Immortal Gu were not damaged, but almost all the mortal Gu as well as multiple rank six time path Immortal Gu were destroyed. This is rather damaging to my plan in the River of Time. Let's see what I can obtain from Xia Cha's body."

Fang Yuan was full of anticipation.

Soon after, his expression suddenly changed as the great thief ghost hand flew over unsteadily.

It was now clenched into a fist, there seemed to be something inside that was struggling to break free.

Fang Yuan was not surprised, but happy to see this.

Ying Wu Xie, who had a rough understanding of great thief ghost hand, blurted out in joy: "Awesome! Stealing a rank eight Immortal Gu at the very first attempt!"

At this time, however, the Formation Spirit spoke: "Master, there seems to be some disturbance in Xia Cha's soul."

Fang Yuan's time path clone immediately turned heavy, quickly controlling the Pure Dream Reality Seeker Physique body to drag Xia Cha back into the dream realm.

The Pure Dream Reality Seeker Physique body stopped beside Xia Cha and observed for a good while, it only returned after seeing Xia Cha stabilize and continue to be in deep sleep.

Ordinary Gu Immortals would become unstable if only half their body was in dream realm, they would show indications of waking up from the dream, but it would take a long while.

Seemingly because Xia Cha cultivated time path, this time period seemed to have greatly shortened for her. Fang Yuan had sensed this back when he moved her into the sovereign immortal aperture. Back then, Shadow Sect immortals had broken out in cold sweat.

Only after resolving Xia Cha's situation did Fang Yuan and the rest inspect what Immortal Gu the great thief ghost hand had stolen.

This Immortal Gu was struggling fiercely, but great thief ghost hand borrowed the power of rank nine killer move ghostly concealment. Previously, it had stolen Soul Beast Token, so stealing rank eight Immortal Gu was completely within its capability.

Adding on Fang Yuan's plentiful methods, refining it was a done deal with no surprise.

After taking a while, Fang Yuan successfully refined this Gu.

This Gu worm was a milky-white silkworm, the size of an adult's index finger. It only had the weight of a chicken egg, and was tender to the touch like an infant's cheeks. There was a small green leaf growing on its head, which looked like a mulberry leaf. Interestingly, when the silkworm curled up its body, the mulberry leaf wrapped around its whole body.

The dense aura of the Gu worm reflected its extraordinary identity at all times — rank eight time path Immortal Gu!

But as for what Immortal Gu it was, Fang Yuan was not certain.

He could only guess: "This is probably the rank eight time path Immortal Gu Spring."

If spring Gu was used alone, it could bring the season of spring to an area. Ice and snow would melt, warm wind would blow, and new sprouts would grow.

Gu Masters nurture, use, and refine Gu. Using Gu was a deep and profound topic. When one obtains an unknown Immortal Gu, it needed to be constantly probed and tested to deduce its ability, this aspect often had unmeasurable danger.

After Fang Yuan refined this Immortal Gu, he was not in a hurry to examine it, because he had more reliable ways to obtain the correct answer.

This answer was in Xia Cha's body.

As long as he searched her soul, Fang Yuan would not only obtain this Immortal Gu's status and its usage, he could even understand the spring scissors killer move which she had used.

Fang Yuan was not in a hurry to search her soul as well, Xia Cha's soul was protected by her body, and it would not be easy to search her soul with her rank eight cultivation. Fang Yuan had a strict plan, he planned to first extract Xia Cha's soul, separating it from her body before targeting the soul!

Extracting Xia Cha's soul was also a troublesome matter and would need Fang Yuan to prepare for some time.

Moreover, before this, Fang Yuan needed to first steal all the Gu worms in Xia Cha's immortal aperture.

Fang Yuan continued to deal with Xia Cha the same way.

The second time, great thief ghost hand only stole a rank five mortal Gu, a huge contrast with the first time.

"Looks like unlucky year's effect has already disappeared, the difference between my luck and Xia Cha's luck has been reduced by a lot." Fang Yuan quickly understood the reason.

For rank eight Gu Immortals to have their accomplishments, they themselves represented extraordinary luck, and might also have methods to increase their luck.

Fang Yuan relied on his incomplete luck path true inheritance to possess luck that was higher than ordinary rank eight Gu Immortals. But this could not possess a great threat to a person like Feng Jiu Ge, let alone Feng Jin Huang.

After Fang Yuan was clear of the reason, he continued to use unlucky year on Xia Cha while frequently using great thief ghost hand to steal her Immortal Gu.

Over ten days passed by in the sovereign immortal aperture's time.

Fang Yuan had obtained a large amount of mortal Gu as well as Xia Cha's four Immortal Gu.

These four Immortal Gu formed a complete set, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.

Spring Gu was like a white silkworm with a mulberry leaf on its head.

Summer Gu was like a black mosquito the size of a palm, but it had three pairs of thin wings, and shined with multi-colored lights when it flew.

Autumn Gu was like a dark red cricket carved from precious and ancient wood. Its cry was extremely loud and resounding.

Winter Gu was a gray pupa that emitted bursts of cold air.

Spring Gu and summer Gu were rank eight, while autumn Gu and winter Gu were rank seven.

After Fang Yuan stole these four Immortal Gu, he repeatedly used great thief ghost hand but could only steal mortal Gu. Thus, he conjectured Xia Cha likely only had these four Immortal Gu!

This was similar to Hei Fan's situation. Hei Fan also had few Immortal Gu, back then, Fang Yuan had only obtained rank eight Years Flow Like Water along with rank seven year Gu and after Gu.

Although Xia Cha had two rank eight Immortal Gu, Hei Fan's years flow like water Gu brought enormous benefits. Possessing it meant becoming the number one giant of year Gu business in the whole world!

All of a sudden, Fang Yuan gained four more Immortal Gu, they were all of time path, two rank eight and two rank seven. This addition greatly filled the huge demand Fang Yuan had in this aspect.

But he still had to soul search Xia Cha to know how to use them.

The moment he obtained these Immortal Gu, the pressure on him greatly dissipated. Without Immortal Gu, even if Xia Cha accidentally woke up, she would be like a tiger without claws, with extremely low strength.

The primary task was to take out the Immortal Gu of all the Gu Immortal captives.

Second was to extract their souls, separating their soul and body. Besides the soul, the body could also be controlled by wills. Several wills left casually in the immortal aperture could temporarily substitute the soul to control the body.

Only then would Fang Yuan make a move on their immortal apertures.

However, Fang Yuan had to slow down the task of stealing Immortal Gu.

His immortal essence was running out!

It was already showing signs of depletion before, and in recent times, he had set up an immortal formation, fought a huge battle, then set up another immortal formation after returning to the sovereign immortal aperture, while also repeatedly using pure dream reality seeker transformation, great thief ghost hand, and other killer moves.

Fang Yuan's immortal essence reserves had already fallen to a dangerous level.

The year Gu business was doing dismally in treasure yellow heaven, even his dragonfish business was unable to support his enormous expenditure. Dang Hun Mountain was still recovering.

However, this did not go beyond Fang Yuan's control.

He sneered: "Hehe, it is time for those Southern Border forces to bleed."

It was definitely going to be a fun time ahead.

Not only was he going to extort immortal essence stones, Fang Yuan was going to extort large amounts of resources to raise and feed his newly obtained Immortal Gu.

Without cultivation resources, how could he get stronger?

Get stronger my ass!

There was a good saying — Kill and rob to earn wealth. Killing, extorting, pillaging and burning were the hallmarks of the demonic path!

-x-X-x-

Southern Border.

Yan Shou Mountain.

Xia clan's headquarters, Jian Wen blessed land.

Inside the blessed land, there were many mortal Gu Houses forming into a magnificent scene of an unbroken range of palace halls.

In the central hall, Xia Fei Kuai was moving on the ground in a hurry.

He was a rank seven Gu Immortal who cultivated light path, he had extraordinary battle strength, only slightly weaker than Wu clan's Wu Yu Bo. Because of cultivating a certain immortal killer move, his nature became impatient.

Fang Yuan had once fought him and set an agreement of five years in the disguise of Wu Yi Hai. Now that Fang Yuan's identity was revealed and had rank eight battle strength, Xia Fei Kuai had naturally thrown this five years agreement to the back of his mind.

"Where did this news come from?" Xia Fei Kuai quickly moved while asking.

Beside him was a featherman maid with rank five cultivation.

Xia clan raised a large group of featherman slaves, feathermen were the highest in quantity in Jian Wen blessed land.

This featherman maid was not an ordinary slave, she was one of the stewardesses of this hall and knew a lot of information.

Xia Fei Kuai was aware he would know everything when he entered the central hall, but he could not wait, impatiently asking this featherman maid.

The featherman maid quickly replied: "It came half a day ago from treasure yellow heaven. That demon Fang Yuan took the initiative to contact us. He sent an information path Gu worm to my purple spiritual light stall in treasure yellow heaven. The Gu worm had a ransom note."

Purple spiritual light was a rank seven immortal material, it was not gathered from white heaven, but originated from deep underground ores.

This was Xia clan's number one source of revenue. Xia clan possessed the most amount of purple spiritual stone lodes in the five regions, so they firmly held dominance over this business.

Although any Gu Immortals could casually change their identities for transactions in treasure yellow heaven to prevent others from discovering them, it was more profitable for a force like Xia clan to maintain their identity, establishing their reputation and creating their signature products.

So Xia clan's stall had an explicit identity and Fang Yuan found it easily.

"Hmph! His guts are greater than heaven, to think he would actually dare to extort my grand Xia clan!" Xia Fei Kuai was extremely furious.

The featherman maid did not dare to say anything, obsequiously accompanying him to the hall entrance, before stopping. She did not have the qualifications to enter.

The hall entrance was already open, the main seat was empty; it was usually occupied by Xia Cha or her will.

And in the top seat in the left row was Xia clan's second supreme elder Xia Zhao.

He was slightly fat, he had a steady temperament, he cultivated earth path, and was currently Xia clan's main backbone.

Sitting opposite Xia Zhao, in the top seat in the right row was Xia clan's third supreme elder, Xia Chen Yuan. He was similarly an earth path Gu Immortal.

Besides them, the other seats were already occupied by the main bodies or wills of Xia Liu Pei, Xia Qing Cang, Xia Zhuo Mo, Xia Fan and other Gu Immortals, only Xia Fei Kuai was missing.

"No need to stand on ceremony, take your seat." Xia Zhao said in a deep voice.

Xia Fei Kuai restrained his temperament, nodding his head before quietly taking his seat.

An information path mortal Gu was handed to Xia Fei Kuai from the left seat.

Xia Zhao looked at everyone: "Since everyone is here, let's begin the discussion."

Xia Fei Kuai sent his divine sense into the Gu worm. This information path mortal Gu was the ransom note sent by Fang Yuan.

There were only a few words in the ransom note, but it was concise and comprehensive.

However, there was an image attached at the end that showed the scene of Xia Cha trapped in sovereign immortal aperture.

Xia Fei Kuai's anger flared up when he finished browsing the information, almost crushing this information path mortal Gu in anger.

"This scoundrel Fang Yuan is a heinous criminal, he should be damned to death! We have to kill him!" Xia Fei Kuai shouted with a fierce expression.

Xia clan's other Gu Immortals did not respond, they looked ashen and had unsightly expressions as they maintained their silence.

The hall was filled with a heavy and stifling atmosphere.

Besides anger, these people felt incredulous.

The grand Xia clan, a super force, actually had a day where they were blackmailed by one demonic path Gu Immortal!

What shocked them the most was Xia Cha, the grand first supreme elder, the authoritative figure of Xia clan and a rank eight existence, she not only failed to capture Fang Yuan, but was instead taken captive alive by him!!

Yes, Fang Yuan indeed had outstanding battle strength that could rival rank eight.

The Xia clan Gu Immortals had viewed the video where he had pummeled Thunder Ghost True Monarch. But so what?

Defeating a rank eight Gu Immortal and capturing a rank eight were two different concepts. The difficulty level was as massive as the gap between heaven and earth.

Xia clan immortals had never expected such a result!

Even now, most of them still felt dazed as if they were dreaming, the truth was really unimaginable.

Fang Yuan, a rank seven Gu Immortal, had captured a rank eight along with a dozen rank seven Gu Immortal experts!

Almost all these rank seven Gu Immortals were the trump card battle strengths of their respective clans.

Each of them possessed unique methods, and in the absence of rank eight, they were major factors that could influence the whole of Southern Border's situation and dominate an area.

Southern Border's righteous path had been resolute in capturing Fang Yuan, so they had established such a powerful team.

But now, these people were all taken captive by Fang Yuan.

Compared to other clans, Xia clan's situation was the most pressing. Because what they had lost was not a rank seven Gu Immortal, but their clan's only rank eight!

This was no longer just a matter of a decrease in their prestige, but something that directly shook their foundation.

In this world where the strong were respected, a person's safety could affect the whole situation. Xia Cha played an irreplaceable role in Xia clan.

"I did not convene you all to make you stare anxiously. This is a critical juncture for the clan, we are in an extremely dangerous situation. At this time, we need to unite and get through this difficulty." Xia Zhao spoke while looking at the silent immortals.

When the situation had occurred, every Xia clan Gu Immortal was stupefied, Xia Zhao was not an exception.

Over these days, as the second supreme elder, he had been facing the greatest pressure.

When the ransom note finally came, his heart instead eased slightly.

"You have all seen that mortal Gu, Fang Yuan is demanding one million immortal essence stones. What are your thoughts on this?" Xia Zhao said.

After a while of silence, Xia clan's third supreme elder intentionally coughed before saying: "One million immortal essence stones is not a small amount, but it is not big either, our Xia clan can afford it. But what I am concerned about is this message only mentioned his demand, and did not mention anything about handing over Lady Xia Cha!"

The other immortals nodded at this.

Xia Fei Kuai's brows rose up in agitation, blurting out: "How about we inform the other clans? We are being extorted, they are probably facing the same situation as well."

Xia Liu Pei glanced at Xia Fei Kuai with a sneer, not speaking.

Xia Fei Kuai was furious, glaring at him: "What do you want to say? Just say it."

Xia Liu Pei was a rank seven Gu Immortal who cultivated wisdom path, moreover he had a powerful wisdom path attainment, and was a top expert at deductions in the present Southern Border.

He sneered: "How can we rely on outsiders? Right now, they are eager to see us lose our first supreme elder. Since you realize that demon Fang Yuan is not extorting just us, then have you heard the other clans' responses? Have you seen them trying to contact us?"

Xia Fei Kuai was silent.

Xia clan had suddenly lost its rank eight pillar, which immediately made it seem like it occupied an excessive number of territories and resources.

This situation was much more dangerous than that of Wu clan before.

Back then, Wu clan still had Wu Yong, a rank eight Gu Immortal, but under repeated schemes of Shadow Sect, he had been trapped in a difficult situation, besieged from all sides, almost unable to make a turnaround.

Southern Border was filled with many individual forces, there were always internal conflicts and contradictions between righteous path forces. Wu clan had occupied the throne of the number one force for a long time, but still did not have the ability to lead the whole situation.

So as far as Xia clan was concerned, they absolutely could not lose Xia Cha!

When Fang Yuan's will once again went up to the purple spiritual light stall, he received one million immortal essence stones from Xia clan.

"We need to talk." Xia Zhao personally received Fang Yuan, his divine sense fluctuating constantly.

Fang Yuan laughed heartily, not refusing: "Alright. But I am in a hurry right now. Whatever you want to say, use an information path Gu worm to send it to this stall."

"Please wait a second, listen to me..." Xia Zhao wanted to press Fang Yuan to stay, but Fang Yuan's will directly left. Xia Zhao was furious but also helpless.

He could only look as Fang Yuan's will left, his heart feeling extremely heavy.

-x-X-x-

It was obvious what Fang Yuan was busy with.

Having the Southern Border immortals in his hands, Fang Yuan had firm hold of the initiative and occupied huge dominance.

He had such invaluable hostages in hand, he could extort however he wanted.

But Fang Yuan was cautious and did not overdo it. He only extorted three clans at first.

Xia clan was undeniably the main target. First supreme elder Xia Cha was Xia clan's only rank eight Gu Immortal, she was Xia clan's foundational pillar, an extremely important person. Xia clan simply could not lose her, or else the whole clan's force would shrink by seventy to eighty percent!

Yi clan was the second.

Because the Yi clan Gu Immortal Fang Yuan had taken captive was Yi Yang.

This space path Gu Immortal was the strongest rank seven expert of Yi clan, and everyone was optimistic of him having the qualifications to enter rank eight. More importantly, he was blood related to Yi clan's first supreme elder, and was a successor of the clan being nurtured by the first supreme elder.

In Fang Yuan's first life of five hundred years, during the five regions chaotic war, there were endless internal conflicts in Southern Border. Yi Yang was schemed against and fell into Shang clan's hands, Yi clan's first supreme elder had not hesitated to pay an enormous price to bring back Yi Yang.

So Fang Yuan was rather expectant of Yi clan's ransom.

Finally, the third was Chi clan.

Fang Yuan's Chi clan Gu Immortal captive was Chi clan's second supreme elder, which was a very important position! Adding on that Chi Qu You had transacted with Fang Yuan previously, obtaining dream path research gains, it was natural for Chi clan to compromise.

Fang Yuan was deeply aware of the human mindset, his first extortion targets was not Wu clan, who hated him deeply, nor Tie clan, who deeply detested the demonic path.

As long as these three clans gave in, it would be much easier for Fang Yuan to extort other Southern Border righteous path forces.

After all, with these precedents, the righteous path would not be so tough in their stance anymore.

Inside the sovereign immortal aperture.

Mini Green Heaven, at the immortal formation.

Immortal killer move — Great Thief Ghost Hand!

The ghost hand entered Yi Yang's immortal aperture and returned with a rank seven Immortal Gu.

Ying Wu Xie and the Formation Spirit looked on quietly from the side with impassive expressions.

They were no longer surprised by this sight.

Because in this period of time, Fang Yuan had already looted a huge amount of Immortal Gu! Moreover, he had even looted Xia Cha's two rank eight Immortal Gu, Spring and Summer. With such sensational gains, the remaining loot looked mild in comparison.

Fang Yuan had constructed another immortal formation to refine these Immortal Gu.

This immortal formation used wisdom refinement formation as the foundation along with many wisdom path Immortal Gu to form a completely new version.

Wisdom refinement formation was constructed by using the light of wisdom along with Woman's Heart and Unravel Mystery to refine other Immortal Gu. If there was the other person's will, the effect would become even more outstanding. Fang Yuan had used Mo Yao's fake will to help him refine the Immortal Gu he had obtained from Bo Qing's immortal zombie body, including change soul Immortal Gu, which had been of the utmost significance in the Battle of Yi Tian Mountain.

At present, Fang Yuan still used the light of wisdom as the core, the brand new wisdom refinement formation was even more powerful.

Wisdom Gu was a rank nine Gu, so it was truly easy to suppress those rank seven Immortal Gu.

Moreover, with the large improvement in Fang Yuan's formation path and wisdom path methods, the wisdom refinement formation's effect became even more remarkable.

After a while, Fang Yuan finished refining the newly stolen Immortal Gu.

This was a space path Immortal Gu that looked like a blue jade sphere with a pair of snow-white wings.

Fang Yuan recognized this Gu, it was called Space Travel and had a remarkable movement ability. Shadow Sect's true inheritances had relevant records, for instance, this Gu was initially captured from the body of an immemorial desolate beast level pegasus.

Fang Yuan stored this space travel Gu.

He did not cultivate space path and had ordinary attainment in it, moreover, he did not have many space path dao marks.

However, he had too many true inheritances, countless immortal killer moves and Immortal Gu recipes, he did not lack methods to make use of Immortal Gu.

By now, he had already stolen most of the Immortal Gu of the Southern Border Gu Immortal captives.

As for the issue of the shortage of immortal essence, it was already solved.

Xia clan's one million immortal essence stones were like a waterfall descending from a heavenly river and pouring on this parched land.

One million immortal essence stones meant one million beads of green grape immortal essence, which was equivalent to ten thousand beads of red date immortal essence. This amount had already far surpassed Fang Yuan's highest record of red date immortal essence.

Fang Yuan continued to use great thief ghost hand but he was not able to take out any more Immortal Gu from Yi Yang's body.

Thereupon, he threw this person back into dream realm, and dragged out another person. It was Chi clan's second supreme elder, an earth path rank seven Gu Immortal.

Fang Yuan made a move on him without hesitation.

He was going to take out Immortal Gu of all these Southern Border Gu Immortals and store them in his pockets.

As for the people, he would have to release some of them.

Extortion or blackmailing could be seen as a form of transaction, where as long as the seller was powerful enough, the buyer could only remain helpless. And in a transaction, buyers and sellers needed to pay attention to reputation, if he did not release some hostages, why would Southern Border's righteous path believe Fang Yuan, how could he continue his extortion plan to gain huge benefits?

Fang Yuan intended to first release Chi clan's second supreme elder and Yi clan's Yi Yang.

He had done transactions with Chi clan previously after all, and he also intended to support Chi clan in the future, to resist Heavenly Court. Naturally, he was definitely going to extort these two clans to the limit.

Despite it being difficult to raise a Gu Immortal, a hostage's price was fixed and limited.

These righteous path forces could stay in power until now, they were not fools.

If Fang Yuan's demands were too much and exceeded the value of these Gu Immortals, or the acceptable price that these clansmen were willing to pay, they would not do this unreasonable transaction.

All in all, extortion was a skill.

Several days later, another batch of immortal essence stones was obtained.

That was Yi clan's first ransom, one million and two hundred thousand immortal essence stones.

Comparing value, Yi Yang could not compare to Xia Cha, but Yi clan had a lot of wealth, at least richer than Xia clan. So they had much more immortal essence stones reserved in their hands.

A super force's immortal essence stones reserve was more or less around one million immortal essence stones.

So Fang Yuan first extorted immortal essence stones, not only because he himself was in shortage of it, the more important reason was that other forces could totally take that sum out. Although it was not without a level of difficulty, the difficulty was small.

First make them give in, then continue to extort them more harshly, making them bleed little by little. Fang Yuan was well versed in the ways of extortion.

"It is just that although I captured Southern Border immortals, I did not receive any response from Heavenly Court. What did Heavenly Court prepare in the River of Time?"

Fang Yuan could not help but think.

He constructed years flow execution formation mainly to deal with the Southern Border immortals, but it was also to lure Heavenly Court into making a move.

If Heavenly Court had laid an ambush and saw the commotion there, they could have followed the tributary of the River of Time to pincer-attack Fang Yuan.

But from the start to finish, Fang Yuan did not see Heavenly Court's ambush.

Fang Yuan's scheme was fruitless in this regard, leaving him with even more wariness and suspicion.

-x-X-x-

Inside the sovereign immortal aperture.

Mini Red Heaven.

Fang Yuan's time path clone immediately attracted the attention of countless year beasts the moment he appeared.

Howl! Roar! Growl!

Countless year beasts roared and snarled as they pounced upon Fang Yuan. Large numbers of ancient desolate beasts shoved the desolate level year beasts to the side as they looked at Fang Yuan with a thirsty expression.

But a moment later, an immemorial year rooster flew over gallantly and spiritedly; the desolate level year beasts and ancient desolate beasts in its path quickly and chaotically moved aside.

The immemorial year rooster arrived before Fang Yuan's time path clone and lowered its head, displaying a tamed look.

Fang Yuan smiled as he stroked the immemorial year rooster's bright red crown, then he waved his sleeve, scattering countless mortal year Gu.

The immemorial year rooster squawked as it opened its beak wide, creating a powerful attractive force that absorbed most of the year Gu into its stomach. Only a few year Gu scattered in the surroundings which was immediately fought over by the surrounding ancient year beasts.

The immemorial year rooster had a great meal but was still not satisfied, it looked at Fang Yuan's time path clone with shining eyes.

Fang Yuan repeatedly waved his sleeve, countless year Gu were scattered like the crushed pebbles on a beach, forming a rain of year Gu.

This time, there was a portion for everyone, the year beasts immediately fell into frenzied joy.

After a good while, every year beast including the immemorial year rooster had their fill. Their impatience because of hunger had disappeared, resuming a lethargic state as they lay down on white clouds to rest.

Fang Yuan's time path clone gazed around, nodded and flew away.

In Mini Red Heaven, there were seven year beast communities like this one, this was already the third community Fang Yuan fed.

There were already a lot of year beasts being raised in sovereign immortal aperture, and not long ago, Fang Yuan had used years flow execution formation to ruthlessly plot against Southern Border righteous path, besides capturing the group of Southern Border immortals, his greatest battle spoils were the year beasts he had subdued in the battle.

These year beasts were of high quality, they were at least of desolate level year, there was a large amount of ancient year beasts, as well as seven immemorial year beasts.

Originally, Fang Yuan's soul foundation was only enough for him to enslave one or two immemorial year beasts. But now, his soul cultivation had made rapid breakthroughs, although it was decreasing recently, the remaining soul foundation was enough to enslave seven immemorial year beasts without a problem.

A noteworthy thing was there were three immemorial year roosters among these seven immemorial year beasts. The other four immemorial year beasts were tiger, dragon, rabbit, and horse.

In the River of Time, at every set interval of time, a certain kind of immemorial year beast would be more common than others. This recent period of time was clearly a prosperous time for immemorial year roosters.

However, even though Fang Yuan had seven immemorial year beasts, when comparing individual strength, they were all weaker than his immemorial year monkey. Unfortunately, that immemorial year monkey had already died in battle.

Of course, if all the seven immemorial year beasts combined their strength, they were much fiercer than one immemorial year monkey.

There was a clear difference between the strength of different immemorial year beasts. This was like the difference between rank eight Gu Immortals.

Fang Yuan fed these year beasts while thinking: "The food expenditure has soared by dozens of times with the addition of these year beasts! If not for the immortal essence stones extorted this time, I might not have been able to feed them."

The higher the rank of the year beasts, the larger their appetite. And the food of year beasts was year Gu.

Fang Yuan used rank eight Immortal Gu Years Flow Like Water to refine countless mortal year Gu, barely filling the bellies of these year beasts.

And activating years flow like water Immortal Gu spent Fang Yuan's red date immortal essence.

Fang Yuan's immortal essence expenditure in feeding year beasts was not small even before. Now, with the addition of so many year beasts and seven immemorial year beasts, feeding them had already taken the largest share of Fang Yuan's expenditures.

"Currently, Dang Hun Mountain has already been restored by eighty percent, guts Gu's production is no longer a terrible sight, it has become just passable."

"When Dang Hun Mountain is completely restored, the year beasts will become the new burden."

Fang Yuan had to feed year beasts every set interval of time. Refining year Gu through Years Flow Like Water was already the most economical method, but it still amounted to a huge expenditure.

Moreover, Fang Yuan needed to raise these year beasts to deal with the future battle in the River of Time, so he had to resolve the issue of feeding them.

Actually this issue was not only regarding the year beasts, but also eagle groups.

Fang Yuan had previously enslaved the upper extreme heavenly eagle, purchasing a large amount of eagle beasts. The feeding of these eagle beasts was also a burden.

If he wanted to make them self-sufficient and truly integrate them into sovereign immortal aperture's world, he would have to spend a huge amount of energy and capital to build a complete food-chain.

Big fish eats small fish, and small fish eats shrimps.

Creating a proper food chain was also a form of deep research and understanding of the Heavenly Dao by the Gu Immortal.

But compared to eagle groups, year beast's scale was much larger so its feeding issue needed to be prioritized.

And because of the year beasts' characteristics, building a complete food chain for them was much easier.

Fang Yuan, who had Spectral Soul's true inheritance, Lang Ya's true inheritance, and so on, had methods to solve it.

Currently, he could select from three plans.

The first plan was to construct a year essence pool.

This was a resource point, and could also be seen as a mini River of Time. Its effect was to imitate the environment of the River of Time, providing a place for year beasts to survive, reside, and procreate.

The year essence pool's size could be large or small, and was classified into rank six, rank seven, rank eight, and rank nine levels.

The advantage of this plan was it saved space, at the same time, as the year beasts lived here, it would produce a certain amount of year Gu. When managed for a long time, it could even produce other wild time path Gu worms, even giving birth to day Gu, month Gu and so on, finally forming a micro River of Time.

Its disadvantage was the cost was absurdly high. Just the creation of a rank six year essence pool was an enormous sum. In terms of immortal essence stones, it was in the millions!

And a rank seven year essence pool was even more exaggerated, requiring many rare immortal materials which had no supply in the market. Rank six level year essence pool could still be constructed if one was wealthy enough, but the rank seven year essence pool was not something that could be solved with just immortal essence stones.

As for Fang Yuan, he needed a rank eight year essence pool to contain the seven immemorial year beasts!

The second plan was Golden Age Platform.

This was a rather special rank seven time path Immortal Gu House, because it was fixed in place and could not move freely like most of the other Immortal Gu Houses. Once it was constructed, Golden Age Platform would transform into a bright moon that would float to the sky of the blessed land, constantly rising and setting.

Golden Age Platform could store a large amount of year beasts and even put them into deep sleep. Like this, their food requirement would fall sharply.

This plan's advantage was that Golden Age Platform could extract year beasts' strength for its use, and did not require Fang Yuan to expend his immortal essence. In peaceful times, this meant Fang Yuan was fully using year beasts and not just freely feeding them.

This plan's disadvantages were very obvious.

First, constructing this rank seven Immortal Gu House required a lot of time path Immortal Gu. But Fang Yuan needed these time path Immortal Gu to protect himself.

Secondly, Golden Age Platform's position had to be fixed so it could automatically operate on its own inside the immortal aperture. So even if it was constructed, it would be of no help to Fang Yuan when fighting in River of Time. It itself was also not proficient in offensive methods.

Thirdly, this Immortal Gu House spent the year beasts' strength, if it wantonly extracted their strength, the year beasts could die and their time path dao marks would also be destroyed, making their corpses be of no value.

Finally, when the year beasts are awakened, they would need far more food than normal to fill their appetite.

The third plan was Twelve Zodiac battle formation.

Twelve Zodiac battle formation was constructed by using twelve different species of immemorial year beasts as cores.

This formation was specialized in offense, completely different from Golden Age Platform. And although it was a large formation, it could be moved.

Because its cores were twelve immemorial year beasts, during inactive times, these immemorial year beasts could be sealed, becoming like statues, unmoving and not requiring food. But during battle, the seal would be released, they would form into the battle formation and attack the enemy.

Evidently, this large formation that used immemorial year beasts as cores was not a present age Gu formation, but an ancient battle formation. Like Green City Rampage or Heavenly Giant Solor, the difference was that these two used Gu Immortals as the cores, while this Twelve Zodiac battle formation used immemorial year beasts as the cores.

This plan's advantage was that it truly saved feeding expenditure.

But the disadvantage was it only used immemorial year beasts. Fang Yuan would be unable to construct Twelve Zodiac battle formation if he used ancient year beasts or desolate level year beasts.

However, to do this, Fang Yuan needed to search for even more immemorial year beasts, moreover these immemorial year beasts had to be of different species.

This gathering task not only looked at strength but also luck, its difficulty was high and also took a very long time.

Fang Yuan considered it deeply before deciding to choose the first plan.

Although the first plan needed the highest investment, it brought the largest benefits as well.

"With my capital, if I want to construct a rank eight level year essence pool, my finance will probably fall into a dangerous state before I can construct even thirty percent of it."

Fang Yuan was actually very affluent, but most of his resources like Reverse Flow River could not be sold. Moreover, he still needed to deal with external pressure from forces like Heavenly Court. He needed to look at all aspects, and could not just spend all his assets on a year essence pool, without regard for anything else.

"But now is the best time for me to construct a year essence pool."

"Xia clan, you want to negotiate with me? First, send three portions of spiral dawn light." Fang Yuan threw an information path mortal Gu to Xia clan's stall.

Soon, Xia clan's response came: "Fang Yuan, my clan does produce spiral dawn light, but the production ground is inside first supreme elder's immortal aperture. There is none left in the clan's storage."

Fang Yuan was slightly dazed, this reply was beyond his expectations, but he sent a reply with a cold smile: "How could I not know this? Send three portions, no, send ten portions of spiral dawn light and I will take it as your clan's sincerity, then we can talk. Or else..."

"But spiral dawn light are extremely rare, there is no supply even in treasure yellow heaven. Three portions is okay, but ten, where would we find that much?"

"I don't care. That is your issue, not mine." Fang Yuan left a cruel reply.

-x-X-x-

Shang clan.

"One hundred and fifty kilograms of eight-parts jade, I want it within three days at the latest." Fang Yuan demanded strongly.

Shang clan's immortal looked quite unsightly: "Eight-parts jade is a rank eight immortal material, treasure yellow heaven usually has transactions of only up to five kilograms. It is difficult for my clan to bring out so many at once."

"Hehehe, I believe in your great clan's strength. Who does not know that Shang clan is the richest force of Southern Border?" Fang Yuan sneered, no matter how Shang clan negotiated, the conditions did not change.

Ba clan.

"Where is my seven treasures water?" Fang Yuan urged.

Ba clan's immortal quickly responded: "We have already gathered the seven treasures water, we can trade the goods for person at the same time."

"Hahaha." Fang Yuan laughed heartily, "Good, good! To express my sincerity, I might as well hand over a batch first."

"This, what is this?" Ba clan's Gu Immortal was shocked and furious.

"You don't recognize it? This is the arm of your clan's Gu Immortal." Fang Yuan's voice was slow and unperturbed.

"Fang Yuan! What is the meaning of this?"

"Hmph! You want to take back your clan's Gu Immortal with just some seven treasures water? It won't be that easy, right? Or are you taking me for a fool? If you don't satisfy me, I will simply kill him. Oh, that's right, I will be sure to record the process of killing him and display it in treasure yellow heaven. Or maybe I can sell this person to Wu clan? Hehehe, hahahaha!" Fang Yuan laughed loudly.

Ba clan's Gu Immortal almost grinded his teeth into pieces. After a good while, Ba clan Gu Immortal squeezed out his words through clenched teeth: "Fang Yuan... we can talk this through."

"Sure we can talk, that is not a problem. First, hand over the seven treasures water to display your Ba clan's sincerity. With all due respect, your clan wants to overthrow Wu clan to become the number one force of Southern Border, how could you be so petty? Wu clan is not hesitating to pay any price for an external supreme elder. Meanwhile, your Ba clan's Gu Immortal is your own bloodline descendant, can you watch him die? What does your first supreme elder think? Can you truly be so cold and unfeeling?"

Fang Yuan's each word was piercing, causing the Ba clan Gu Immortal to be pale and furious, but also helpless.

Luo clan clan, Hou clan, Chai clan... these were Fang Yuan's second wave of extortion targets. As for Tie clan, Wu clan and others, he did not make a move on them yet.

Fang Yuan mentioned all kinds of demands to these clans, he naturally encountered resistance during the extortion, but Fang Yuan had hostages in his hands, and with his location being extremely secretive, unable to be deduced, he firmly held the initiative.

Southern Border's righteous path was helpless, and could only bitterly satisfy Fang Yuan's demands.

Among them, Xia clan's sincerity was the highest, those ten portions of spiral dawn light were the first to end up in Fang Yuan's hands.

Despite Xia clan's Gu Immortal shouting about how difficult it had been to gather these spiral dawn light, Fang Yuan knew how robust these super forces' foundation was. Satisfying his demands were within their capabilities, it was just that the difficulty was a little high.

Spiral dawn light, eight-parts jade, seven treasures water....

These immortal materials were either rank eight materials or rank seven but with high quantity, all these materials were successively sent to Fang Yuan.

Soon, Fang Yuan had most of the required immortal materials to construct year essence pool.

This efficiency was truly shocking!

If Fang Yuan had to gather these himself, he would need to spend at least a dozen years under the situation that he was lucky.

Fang Yuan's foundation was deep, but in terms of accumulating immortal materials, he was completely unable to compare to these super forces that had thousands and even tens of thousands of years of history.

Naturally, the immortal materials Fang Yuan requested were not just for constructing year essence pool.

Many of the immortal materials were in the preparation for Immortal Gu refinement.

At this moment, the time path clone arrived in front of an immortal formation.

"This is the last time, after this plunder, none of these Southern Border Gu Immortals will have any Immortal Gu left."

Southern Border's righteous path had thirteen super clans; Wu clan, Ba clan, Shang clan, Tie clan, Hou clan, Luo clan, Qiao clan, Chai clan, Xia clan, Yi clan, Chi clan, Yang clan, and Yao clan.

Fang Yuan could battle rank eight, if they could kill Fang Yuan, every clan would profit. So each clan had mobilized one of their Gu Immortal experts with at least rank seven cultivation and peak battle strength. Xia clan's first supreme elder had personally set to the task of leading these experts to prevent any internal conflicts.

Each of these Gu Immortal experts had at least two to three Immortal Gu, some had four or five Immortal Gu like Xia Cha. On average, each had three.

Fang Yuan had not finished looting but the total amount of Immortal Gu he had accumulated from them already broke the count of one hundred!

Immortal killer move — Great Thief Ghost Hand!

Looking at a Pure Dream Reality Seeker Physique body drag out Yang Ku from the dream realm, Fang Yuan immediately got to work.

A rank seven Immortal Gu was looted, Fang Yuan was immediately exulted, it was soul search Immortal Gu!

This soul search Immortal Gu was a rank seven Gu which would be helpful to Fang Yuan in searching their souls.

"But this Gu can only be considered icing on the cake."

"Even without soul search Immortal Gu, I can use other soul path Immortal Gu to create a soul search immortal killer move. Just that, this process will be much more convenient with this Immortal Gu."

"It would be better if I had gotten devour soul Immortal Gu instead of this Soul Search."

Shadow Sect had once possessed devour soul Immortal Gu, if Fang Yuan had it at this moment, it would be much easier for him to extract these Southern Border Gu Immortals' souls out of their body. His current methods required him to go through a lot of trouble for this.

Yang Ku had three soul path Immortal Gu altogether, there was no devour soul Gu among the next two Gu, regretfully.

The final person was Wu clan's Liu Hao.

"This person had a method to restrain my Fixed Immortal Travel, let me take a good look at you." Fang Yuan repeatedly activated his killer move, finally stealing an Immortal Gu after a while.

"Eh!" Fang Yuan was stunned.

This Immortal Gu directly self-destructed the moment it was taken out of the immortal aperture.

"What is this situation?" Cold light flickered within Fang Yuan's eyes.

He continued to steal, but he could only take out remnant parts of Gu worms. Be it Immortal Gu or mortal Gu, they had self-detonated following the first Immortal Gu.

Fang Yuan carefully distinguished these Gu worms' parts, and soon discovered this was a clever refinement path method. As long as one of these Gu worms left the immortal aperture, every Gu would self-detonate simultaneously.

"There is actually such a method? This refinement path method is nothing ordinary, it is absolutely at the level of Long Hair Ancestor. Looks like this Gu Immortal being recruited by Wu clan is not simple, he is very likely to be a person of Heavenly Court!"

Fang Yuan immediately deduced the truth.

There were three great experts of refinement path in the Gu Immortal history, they were all supreme grandmasters. Besides Long Hair Ancestor from the Medieval Antiquity Era, there were Old Eccentric Tian Nan from Remote Antiquity Era, and Old Immortal Kong Jue from Olden Antiquity Era. And these two were humans, most of their true inheritances were collected by Heavenly Court. Fang Yuan had once disguised as Wu Yi Hai and infiltrated Wu clan, so he was extremely clear about Wu clan's foundation. Wu clan did not have such a refinement path method!

Fang Yuan's expression was slightly dark.

This method was beyond his expectation, catching him off-guard and causing him slight losses.

At the same time, he also realized: "I had intended to use years flow execution formation to lure and expose Heavenly Court's arrangement in the River of Time. But I had not expected Heavenly Court to infiltrate into Southern Border's team to hunt me down."

"Dangerous... based on Fairy Zi Wei's methods, she would not have just sent this person, she definitely arranged more backup plans. Fortunately, I left quickly back then and did not waste time on Lu Wei Yin."

"Wu clan is Southern Border's number one righteous path force, but it was actually so easily infiltrated by Heavenly Court? This is not so simple, mostly likely, Wu Yong brought in Heavenly Court to deal with me. Hmph, he is indeed a formidable character, unafraid of this matter being exposed and violating a taboo of Southern Border's Gu Immortal world."

Thinking of this, Fang Yuan's thoughts turned as he once again casted his gaze at the Immortal Gu carcasses in his hand.

"Gu as Before..." He softly mumbled.

Gu as Before was a concept he had envisioned before. He had thought about it because of Man as Before and Landscape as Before.

When a Gu worm was injured or destroyed, using Gu as Before could restore them to their previous state.

However, although this concept sounded good, the deeper one researched into it, the more they realized how impractical it was.

Mortal Gu had dao marks, Immortal Gu were the fragments of the Great Dao, to restore them, Gu as Before's might and level had to far surpass the target. This alone signified that Gu as Before would not be as practical as Man as Before and Landscape as Before. Not to mention the tremendous difficulty in using it.

But now, Fang Yuan could almost see a trace of Gu as Before in these Gu worm carcasses.

"These Gu worms are clearly of space path, but refinement path dao marks have been added, which when activated, would destroy them."

Since refinement path was specialized in refining Gu, it was naturally also proficient in destroying Gu worms.

"Maybe these Gu worm carcasses have more value to me than the stolen Immortal Gu." A sharp light flashed past Fang Yuan's eyes.

In the ambush before, Liu Hao had used fixed space Immortal Gu to restrain Fang Yuan's Fixed Immortal Travel.

Heavenly Court adopted such a contingency measure not just because they did not want fixed space Immortal Gu to land in Fang Yuan's hand. In fact, there were many methods other than fixed space Immortal Gu to restrain Fixed Immortal Travel.

"On the contrary, I might be able to find clues from these Gu worm carcasses to refine Gu as before Immortal Gu!"

Fang Yuan carefully stored these Gu worm carcasses.

In this case, there was a lot to learn and research upon.

Naturally, the better method was to directly refer to Heavenly Court's methods and inheritance.

But this possibility was practically impossible for Fang Yuan.

"I have absorbed the Long Hair true meaning, my refinement path attainment has reached quasi-supreme grandmaster. But in the history of refinement path, there are still two other monumental figures equal to Long Hair Ancestor, Old Eccentric Tian Nan and Old Immortal Kong Jue. Most of these two's inheritances have definitely been pocketed by Heavenly Court." Fang Yuan sighed inwardly.

He could clearly see the opportunity to refine Gu as Before, but Heavenly Court was like a heavenly moat obstructing Fang Yuan's path.

-x-X-x-

Heavenly Court.

Countless halls shined with splendor.

Inside a hall, as Fairy Zi Wei slowly opened her eyes, a purple light flashed past her beautiful eyes.

She frowned slightly, her tone was free and natural as she mumbled: "Fixed space Immortal Gu has self-detonated."

After Fairy Zi Wei grasped Star Constellation Chessboard, she had become one of the top three wisdom path great experts of the present Gu Immortal world. This time, she sent Liu Hao and Jun Shen Guang to deal with Fang Yuan, how could she not have prepared for Fang Yuan's great thief ghost hand?

Becoming wiser through learning from mistakes, because Fang Yuan had stolen Fixed Immortal Travel from Feng Jiu Ge right under Fairy Zi Wei's eyes, she was not going to commit the same mistake twice.

"Yuan Qiong Du." Fairy Zi Wei contacted this newly recruited rank eight Gu Immortal.

"Lady Zi Wei." Yuan Qiong Du immediately responded.

"Go refine fixed space Gu." Fairy Zi Wei instructed lightly.

Yuan Qiong Du's expression immediately changed. It was him who had added the refinement path dao marks on fixed space Gu and the others, thus he knew the approximate situation.

Fairy Zi Wei's words no doubt meant that Liu Hao's situation was likely to be bad.

Liu Hao and Yuan Qiong Du came from the same ancient sect, Yuan Qiong Du hesitated a moment before asking: "Lady Zi Wei, Liu Hao..."

"He is most likely taken captive by Fang Yuan, but I would rather he was killed by Fang Yuan." Fairy Zi Wei's tone was indifferent, astonishingly similar to Fang Yuan's cruel extortion of Southern Border righteous path.

Yuan Qiong Du was stunned, before quickly realizing.

Fairy Zi Wei's words did not mean she hated Liu Hao and wanted Liu Hao to die, instead if Liu Hao was taken captive, it meant that other Southern Border immortals were also taken captive by Fang Yuan.

But if Fang Yuan killed Liu Hao, the other Southern Border immortals would likely not be an exception. With this, there would be a deep-seated hatred between Fang Yuan and the Southern Border righteous path, there would be no possibility for them to compromise or cooperate. Southern Border had suffered disastrous losses in the Battle of Yi Tian Mountain as well as the battle of dream realm, if their elite team was killed by Fang Yuan, their foundation would be truly damaged. Their overall strength would fall to the bottom among the five regions.

When the five regions chaotic war starts and regional walls disappear, Central Continent would be able to attack Southern Border first.

Southern Border could be devoured by Central Continent easily, and with two regions, Central Continent's originally high strength would immediately surpass the remaining three regions, gaining a huge dominance. The situation would also change, they would not be in an awkward situation of being besieged by four regions!

Compared to this grand situation, how significant was the sacrifice of a mere rank seven Gu Immortal like Liu Hao?

After realizing this, Yuan Qiong Du's shock vanished as he left: "I will go refine fixed space Gu."

Yuan Qiong Du had already made sufficient preparations, he was a rank eight Gu Immortal and with the help of Heavenly Court's grand refinement path formation, it was practically a certain matter for him to refine fixed space Immortal Gu and the other Gu.

However, there was still uneasiness in Fairy Zi Wei's heart.

For wisdom path Gu Immortals, such a feeling was like a premonition.

Wisdom path had three elements, thoughts, wills, and emotions.

To other Gu Immortals, the rise, change, and disappearance of emotions may be their own joy, anger, sorrow, or pleasure. But it had a different meaning for wisdom path Gu Immortals.

"Did I miscalculate? What is it that is making me feel this uneasy?" Fairy Zi Wei's mind was heavy, as she began to deduce while holding Star Constellation Chessboard.

After a good while, she slowly opened her eyes, revealing a trace of doubt.

The result of the deduction was the same as before.

"Fang Yuan could successfully ambush them because of the crucial starting step that let him lure Southern Border immortals into his time path formation."

"This is not his own accomplishment, it is a time path formation Shadow Sect had set up long ago near the tributary of the River of Time using natural dao marks."

Fang Yuan had formation path grandmaster attainment, he had to use immortal materials to set up immortal formations.

Only when one reaches formation path great grandmaster level, could they set up an immortal formation using just the natural dao marks in the outside world.

Shadow Sect naturally did not lack such experts, and had long ago set up a time path formation near the tributary of the River of Time, while heavily concealing this tributary of the River of Time.

Although such an immortal formation created from natural dao marks did not need to use Immortal Gu, it had its disadvantages.

The main disadvantage was that according to the composition and arrangement of the natural dao marks and other specific circumstances, the time path formations that could be set up were different.

When Gu Immortals set up this kind of immortal formation, not only did they need to have their own ideas, but also think according to the local condition. Time path dao marks of another area would not be able to set up such extremely concealed time path formation.

Thus, Fang Yuan could not replicate the terrifying success of ambushing the Southern Border immortals.

Fairy Zi Wei had paid a huge price along with crucial clues from Jun Shen Guang to make this deduction.

"Without the immortal formation's confinement, even if Fang Yuan detonated Pure Dream Reality Seeker Physique bodies, the dream realm's expansion speed is not fast, the Gu Immortals could easily escape."

"Were he to use an immortal battlefield, unless it is a dream path battlefield, battlefields of other paths would be the first to be corroded by the dream realm and crumble apart."

"So Fang Yuan's dream realm battle tactic does not possess much threat."

"So why am I feeling uneasy? Could it be Spectral Soul?"

Thinking of this, Fairy Zi Wei left the hall and moved towards a certain area of Heavenly Court.

Spectral Soul was here, Dang Hun Mountain's self-detonation had given him the opportunity to use the soul path dao marks to recover and resist.

But Heavenly Court had never lacked methods, when Fairy Zi Wei reached this place, a grand immortal formation had already been constructed and was operating while producing a buzzing noise.

This enormous immortal formation was like a huge mill that constantly destroyed the soul path dao marks here.

"Spectral Soul, you are still thinking of putting up a resistance? A pity for you, the soul path dao marks beside you are going to be completely ground down in another three days. Your action is only a brief dying struggle." Fairy Zi Wei entered the formation and sneered at Spectral Soul.

Spectral Soul was like a stone, giving no response.

Purple light erupted in Fairy Zi Wei's eyes and the Star Constellation Chessboard in her hands also let out a dense blue light that constantly scanned the whole immortal formation as well as Spectral Soul. After inspecting a few times, she was sure there was nothing odd about Spectral Soul and that he had no concealed methods to resist.

"There is no issue with Spectral Soul, looks like my unease did not come from here. Then where did it come from? Wait, could it be..."

Fairy Zi Wei's expression suddenly changed when she left the immortal formation, as she thought of a person.

She immediately set off with no hesitation, personally moving out of Heavenly Court and arriving in a certain nameless valley in Central Continent.

The valley was lush and green, and had a waterfall. Duke Long had built a cavern beside the waterfall, wholeheartedly teaching and guarding Feng Jin Huang.

Feng Jin Huang!

If someone could make Fairy Zi Wei feel unease, it was probably this Great Dream seed.

The waterfall crashed down, roaring and creating dense fog.

A dense dream realm could be seen before which young Feng Jin Huang was sitting with closed-eyes on a giant rock. Her skin was white as snow, her demeanor graceful and dignified.

A Gu Immortal whose aura was extremely constrained, with a pair of spiral dragon horns on his forehead and a well-built body, was quietly standing to the side like a giant pillar, observing Feng Jin Huang.

"Senior Duke Long." Fairy Zi Wei quietly approached and bowed in greeting.

Duke Long nodded, raising his hand slightly, signaling Fairy Zi Wei to maintain silence.

At the next moment, Feng Jin Huang suddenly opened her eyes, letting out a soft sound like the cry of a baby phoenix. She then lightly pointed her index finger at the dream realm and activated a killer move.

Whoosh.

A soft sound resonated, white light shot into the dream realm.

The dream realm suddenly froze, then with a shattering noise, like the breaking of a mirror, it completely crumbled apart, scattering everywhere.

"I have succeeded in learning break dream!" Feng Jin Huang raised her arms, exclaiming in joy.

Duke Long nodded with a satisfied expression.

Fairy Zi Wei's eyes involuntarily revealed her shock, Feng Jin Huang's progress in dream path was far beyond her expectation.

Any killer moves of old paths, even if they were of rank nine levels, or even if they were rank nine Immortal Gu Houses, were like stones thrown into a sea in a dream realm, unable to do anything to the dream realm.

But who could have thought Feng Jin Huang's mortal killer move, break dream, could actually be effective against the dream realm.

"Huang Er, you have trained for almost a day now, go take a rest." Duke Long looked at Feng Jin Huang amiably, there was no trace of his terrifying might when he had rampaged through the battlefield and captured Spectral Soul.

"Yes, master." Feng Jin Huang knew Fairy Zi Wei and Duke Long had things to discuss, so she obediently left.

After Feng Jin Huang had gone far, and when only he and Fairy Zi Wei remained, Duke Long spoke: "What is the reason for you to come here?"

"It is just that I have been feeling uneasy, but cannot find the reason." Fairy Zi Wei said, truthfully.

Duke Long immediately frowned: "With your wisdom path attainment, a feeling of unease is a huge matter, but you cannot find its cause?"

Fairy Zi Wei nodded: "I have deduced Fang Yuan and also checked Spectral Soul, but still could not let go of this unease, so I came here to take a look."

Duke Long smiled: "Since you're here, what do you think of this place?"

Fairy Zi Wei also smiled: "I was too anxious, with senior Duke Long's teachings, Feng Jin Huang's progress is really beyond imagination."

Duke Long shook his head: "I don't have any foundation in dream path, Huang Er was able to have such accomplishments all because of her own aptitude and intelligence. I am only looking after her, to prevent any accidents in her cultivation."

Fairy Zi Wei's eyes brightened, praising sincerely: "This child is truly the hope for Heavenly Court to unite the five regions."

Duke Long nodded his head as light flickered in his eyes: "I know where your unease is coming from."

"Oh? Please clear up my doubts, Lord Duke Long."

"My wisdom path attainment is immeasurably lower than yours, but there are only a few possible sources of unease after all. Since it is not Fang Yuan, Spectral Soul, or Feng Jin Huang, then that only leaves Red Lotus."

Red Lotus Demon Venerable!

Fairy Zi Wei's eyes immediately brightened: "You are talking about Red Lotus' true inheritance?"

Three Demon Venerables attacked Heavenly Court, but only Red Lotus Demon Venerable almost destroyed fate Immortal Gu. Even outsiders could realize the unresigned nature of Red Lotus, possibly, through the true inheritance left behind by Red Lotus Demon Venerable, he wanted the inheritor to completely destroy fate Immortal Gu!

"How is the progress in searching for Red Lotus' true inheritance?" Duke Long asked.

Fairy Zi Wei said: "Present and Past Pavilion has been in the River of Time all along, as long as Fang Yuan enters, we will definitely know. Eternal Yacht is almost completed and will enter the River of Time after a few days to search for Red Lotus true inheritance together with Present and Past Pavilion. I still plan to construct Three Autumn Yellow Crane Platform and Shark Flow Lever. With these four time path Immortal Gu Houses, no matter how much Fang Yuan has grown, he will completely fail in front of this impassable barrier!"

-x-X-x-

A dreamlike wisp of dawn rays, bright and fresh, was constantly rotating above the palm of Fang Yuan's time path clone.

In Fang Yuan's surroundings, Ying Wu Xie and the rest were already prepared and ready.

"Let's start." Fang Yuan said. Auras of Gu worms suddenly rose from his body as his immortal essence expended rapidly, the rank eight immortal material spiral dawn light suddenly exploded, covering the surrounding hundred li.

Almost at the same time, Ying Wu Xie and the rest set to work, confining this spiral dawn light and not letting it spread farther.

Spiral dawn light was extremely stretchable, it expanded over the surroundings. Although its luster was no longer as transparent as a water wave, Fang Yuan could still feel the slight wind from the spirals at the central area.

Fang Yuan saw that the Shadow Sect immortals had already stabilized the situation, and took out the second portion of spiral dawn light, using it similarly.

Lumps of spiral dawn light erupted, dying the surrounding hundred li with illusory shadows that constantly flickered.

At this time, Fang Yuan took out seven treasures water.

This water was a plain grey color. All kinds of solid bumps that were like gold, silver, pearls, gems, jades, and agates formed naturally in the water. But the moment these solid bumps were extracted from the seven treasures water, they would turn into seven treasures water and splash down.

The time path clone lifted a portion of seven treasures water above his head.

The time path clone could only act as support in this next step, Fang Yuan's main body had to take the primary role. The reason being that Fang Yuan's time path clone was only rank six, thus unable to bear this responsibility.

The divine sense of Fang Yuan's main body had already covered this place, and could immediately sense if there was anything wrong.

At this moment, Fang Yuan activated his methods, immortal essence expending rapidly.

A white light landed on the seven treasures water, the seven treasures water quickly started burbling and boiling, with countless bubbles rising up to the surface.

The solid bumps in the seven treasures water were like snow encountering hot sun, they melted rapidly at a visible rate.

The seven treasures water's volume continued to expand, and soon, all those solid bumps disappeared.

After purifying the seven treasures water, another strange light shot into the seven treasures water.

The seven treasures water quickly turned into an ice block; cold air spread out from it, rapidly engulfing Fang Yuan's time path clone before spreading to the surroundings, covering one hundred li precisely.

When Ying Wu Xie and the rest saw this, they quickly threw the eight-parts jade in their hands into the dense fog.

Everything progressed smoothly...

Several days later in sovereign immortal aperture, a rumbling sound resonated within this area as an enormous one hundred li long pool formed completely.

"This is my rank eight year essence pool!"

Because of sufficient preparation and the advantage of his luck, Fang Yuan successfully constructed this year essence pool on his first try.

Fang Yuan carefully examined it repeatedly and confirmed there were no flaws before he activated time path methods to draw in a tributary of the River of Time.

In every immortal aperture world, as long as time passes inside, there would definitely be a tributary of the River of Time.

The tributary of the River of Time was usually invisible, it could only be targeted using special time path methods.

Bubble bubble...

The tributary of the River of Time in sovereign immortal aperture was much wider and rapid than in ordinary immortal apertures.

The tributary poured into year essence pool smoothly and flowed out from the other end of the year essence pool.

However, the tributary of the River of Time that flowed out was thin as a brook, no longer torrential as before.

The water surface of the year essence pool started to rise slowly.

In the following period of time, the whole sovereign immortal aperture's time flow would continue to slow down. The tributary of the River of Time that flowed out would be restored to its previous state when the year essence pool was completely filled; the flow of time in sovereign immortal aperture would also be restored subsequently.

The year essence pool was successfully constructed, Fang Yuan's time path clone and Shadow Sect's immortals were exhausted. They had been pouring all their energy and concentration into this task, without any rest for several days. They had also expended a lot of immortal essence.

Fang Yuan's main body's divine sense was still staying to observe it while the others left to rest.

Fang Yuan's time path methods gradually lost their effects, the year essence pool and the tributary of the River of Time also became increasingly dimmer till they completely disappeared after a while, deeply concealed inside sovereign immortal aperture.

The year essence pool was rather special, it had integrated with the tributary of the River of Time thus it was also concealed.

It was not just a resource point, but also had the effect of a dam.

For instance, draining the year essence pool's water or accumulating water in it could cause a change in the sovereign immortal aperture's rate of time.

Although Fang Yuan had immortal killer moves like days pass like years and so on, these moves expended immortal essence and every time they were used, they would have no more influence on the tributary of the River of Time for a set interval of time.

But with the year essence pool, this became much easier.

Many Gu Immortals, even if they did not cultivate time path, would construct this kind of essence pool in their immortal aperture to change their immortal aperture's rate of time.

Naturally, they mainly constructed rank six or rank seven year essence pools, and not a rank eight year essence pool like Fang Yuan.

The cost of a rank eight year essence pool was enormous, requiring huge investments, and also required formation path methods.

It was essentially an immortal Gu formation.

It was fortunate that Fang Yuan's formation path attainment level was at grandmaster, and could use the dao marks in the immortal materials to set up immortal formations.

Year beasts began to howl in joy.

The water level of the year essence pool was still low, only a small number of desolate level year beasts sensed it and dived in.

They were born in the River of Time, growing and also dying in it. The most suitable environment for them was also the River of Time. And the year essence pool imitated the environment of the River of Time, it was no wonder these year beasts were joyous.

Following the continuous pouring of the tributary of the River of Time, the year essence pool was slowly expanding.

Be it spiral dawn light, seven treasures water, or eight-parts jade, they all had excellent stretchability and were also merged into one, so they would not self-disintegrate.

When the year essence pool gets completely filled, this rank eight year essence pool would expand to a terrifying ten thousand li length.

What was even more amazing was that it was concealed deeply and was like an illusion, not occupying any space in the sovereign immortal aperture.

The year essence pool was like an independent small world where Fang Yuan could build a food chain, it had no relation to the sovereign immortal aperture.

What made Fang Yuan most satisfied was that the year essence pool could restrain year beasts, making them move around only in the essence pool and not escape outside.

With this characteristic, Fang Yuan could accommodate even more year beasts, and those year beasts could be completely wild, like wild immemorial year beasts.

Fang Yuan could only control seven immemorial year beasts currently, if any of these immemorial year beasts were killed in battles, Fang Yuan was unable to replenish them.

But if the year essence pool had other wild immemorial year beasts, the moment Fang Yuan lost one or two immemorial year beasts, he could temporarily enslave the wild immemorial year beasts to replenish his troops.

This would be extremely helpful in his plan in the River of Time!

After this period of recuperation, Fang Yuan's main body's injuries were completely healed.

"It is time to separate these Gu Immortals' souls and bodies, then soul search them one by one."

At the same time, Fang Yuan did not stop extorting Southern Border's righteous path forces.

However, he met with strong resistance this time.

Southern Border's righteous path forces had united to resist Fang Yuan.

The year essence pool's cost was too high, Fang Yuan's previous extortions had already made these forces bleed. Fang Yuan kept on asking Southern Border's righteous path to show their sincerity, while he himself did not show any sincerity. Southern Border's righteous path secretly ruminated over this, deciding to unite and jointly put pressure on Fang Yuan to force him to give in.

Several days later.

"If you don't show your sincerity, our Southern Border's righteous path will not give you any more resources!" A Shang clan Gu Immortal was chosen to represent the whole of Southern Border's righteous path to negotiate with Fang Yuan.

His words quickly shifted: "All our clans of Southern Border have already shown our sincerity, now it is your turn to show us yours. Only then can we discuss further, otherwise, even if you kill those Gu Immortals, we won't compromise!"

Fang Yuan sneered: "What sincerity do you want from me? Release a portion of the hostages?"

The Shang clan Gu Immortal quickly responded: "We won't make excessive demands of asking for the hostages immediately, we can move step by step, for instance, Immortal Gu. You don't need many of the Immortal Gu, you can first return these Immortal Gu to us, and as the price, we will give you the cultivation resources you need."

Southern Border's righteous path were not idiots. If they asked Fang Yuan to release a portion of the hostages, then the righteous path clans who got back their immortals might not put much effort in the next negotiations. So they would rather start bargaining with Fang Yuan starting from Immortal Gu, then immortal aperture resources, Gu Immortal physical bodies, finally the Gu Immortals' souls.

Like this, Southern Border's righteous path could unite, advancing and retreating together.