268 RI

As their field of vision changed, Bai Ning Bing focused and looked around, thinking: "This is Five Xiangs grotto-heaven?"

As she thought about that, an unknown source of information appeared in her heart, she understood the arrangements of the Five Xiangs immediately.

"This is a public grotto-heaven, the Heaven Surveying Five Xiangs had once donated a portion of their grotto-heavens each to form this place. The entire grotto-heaven has five segments, they are not directly connected to each other, only the most central mountain range is shared among the five. The treasure of this bet is at the center of the grotto-heaven, as long as a Gu Immortal is acknowledged by the gatehouse and is teleported inside here, they can go after the treasure. Along the way, the Heaven Surveying Five Xiangs have also set up some resources, stronger experts can try to take them away, but it is recommended that they do not take everything, so as to allow the resources to grow again in the future."

Bai Ning Bing looked towards Fang Yuan, hesitating for a moment before deciding to inform him.

But Fang Yuan looked ahead as he waved his hand: "I've already gotten the information, no need to tell me."

Bai Ning Bing nodded as she stopped talking.

In the previous life, Fang Yuan faced a hurdle at the gatehouse, not only was familiar face seen through, causing him to be pushed outside, he even had to use the light of wisdom to deduce a killer move that succeeded in allowing him to enter the Five Xiangs grotto-heaven under disguise.

After entering Five Xiangs grotto-heaven, the information was not provided to him. He had only learned about it after Bai Ning Bing told him.

But this time, after Fang Yuan's modifications and deductions, he conceptualized an immortal killer move that could not only be used on himself, but also other people.

So now, once he stepped into Five Xiangs grotto-heaven, the information immediately appeared in his mind, telling him of the situation.

"Let's go to the peak at the center!" Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing traveled together.

In the previous life, he had to rush against time because Qi clan's Gu Immortals were also here, he needed to compete with them over heaven form.

But now, Fang Yuan chose to act in advance and kick his competitors out of the competition, this entire Five Xiangs grotto-heaven was his.

Even though the situation was calm now and he could relax and collect resources along the way, slowly taking it down, Fang Yuan knew that at the center of the mountain range, the Immortal Gu House that contained heaven form might seem rough but it was the control area of this grotto-heaven, once he gains control over the Immortal Gu House, it would help with the movement of resources later on.

While flying, Bai Ning Bing was shocked to realize that Five Xiangs grotto-heaven had a lot of resource points.

Ice mirror snow lotus, hundred years profound ice, thousand years profound ice, mystical frost water, heaven craft divine jade, jade frost antelopes...

"Even though there are no large or giant resource points, and all of these are just small or mid sized ones, these resource points are so closely packed and each have a huge amount stored up, since this place only opens up once a hundred years, it has naturally accumulated many resources."

Bai Ning Bing felt envious internally.

There was no question about it, these resources would all end up in Fang Yuan's sovereign immortal aperture.

If she obtained them, she could expand her foundation rapidly, her assets would increase by multiple times, she would become rich instantly! But for Fang Yuan, this was just icing on the cake.

The journey was very smooth, Fang and Bai safely arrived at the central mountain range.

In the previous life, Qi clan's Gu Immortals made arrangements here and created a beast tide, they lured two immemorial desolate beasts to stop Fang and Bai, obstructing them and creating trouble for their advancement.

But now, they were all captured in advance, trapped inside Myriad Year Flying Warship, they were already unable to decide their own life and death.

There was nothing special about the Immortal Gu House palace at the top of the mountain range, Fang Yuan lost his interest quickly.

In front of the palace, there were many Gu Immortals gathered already, they were all Fang Yuan's subordinates, they had entered before him.

After paying respects to Fang Yuan, the Gu Immortals reported what they saw along the way.

Fang Yuan looked around, there was no surprise or anything amiss, he nodded as he led the immortals into the hall.

Heaven form was at the center of this hall.

It was shaped like a one-legged white crane, it was covered in pure snow-white feathers that had no dust or dirt on it. Its long beak was red in color, it was craning its neck and hanging its head, its wings were tucked in as its eyes were shut tight, as if it was sleeping.

"Rank nine aura..." Bing Yuan and the rest gasped and breathed in deeply as surprise and joy showed on their faces.

Fang Yuan led the immortals as they sat around the heaven form flying crane, instilling their wills into it.

The gatehouse was the bloodline inspector for the Five Xiangs, but they did not do anything to this heaven form killer move, thus, anyone could instill their will into it.

All sorts of wills gushed in as they obtained the information left by Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable the moment they entered.

Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable told them that he had once found a natural heavenly spirit in immemorial white heaven, after spending a lot of effort, he captured it but found that heaven form held deep mysteries, he could not refine it immediately even with his great strength.

Thus, he designed the killer move heaven form and left this half-inheritance to a lucky person in the future.

After the Five Xiangs found this inheritance, they did not back off, the ancient bet was thus created.

The immortals understood the origin of this killer move, they gasped and sighed in admiration.

Fang Yuan had heard this in his previous life, he felt no emotions, but he gained a new understanding of the existence of heaven form.

"Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable has killer moves like ghostly concealment, divine concealment, heaven form, and others, they are able to exist indefinitely and would not break apart."

"In my previous life, I thought that this was the style of Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable, but after the battle of fate Gu's restoration, I noticed that all the Immortal and Demon Venerables had similar methods. This was true for Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable, and Limitless Demon Venerable."

"These killer moves and methods all have vast power, they are able to exist for a long time. Normally, they stay hidden without making any waves, but once they are used, the effects are simply shocking."

"If only one or two venerables have such methods, that could be considered their specialty. But if all the venerables were like this, then it is not something regarding a path or a person, it is about attainment level."

Every venerable had supreme grandmaster attainment level, this was a publicly recognized fact.

"Then this means..."

"Master attainment level generates intuition."

"Grandmaster attainment level allows mimicking of other paths."

"Great grandmaster attainment level allows the use of natural dao marks."

"Supreme grandmaster attainment level allows killer moves to last indefinitely and operate on their own?"

Fang Yuan's thoughts moved quickly, even though he was just guessing, he felt like his hypothesis was likely to be true.

Even though there was no description of this in the true inheritance that he obtained, with Fang Yuan having two paths at quasi-supreme attainment, he had the ability to take a peek at the heights of a supreme grandmaster.

Hours later, Fang Yuan successfully took down the last bit of heaven's will inside heaven form.

This lump of heaven's will had used a tactic of showing weakness in the previous life to deceive the Qi clan Gu Immortals, they suffered a huge loss while Fang Yuan benefited from it overall.

This time, Fang Yuan controlled even more wills here, he exterminated this stubborn heaven's will.

No unexpected mishaps happened during this process.

In the previous life, Fang Yuan was afraid that Bai Ning Bing would betray him, but this time, he had more subordinates here, those variant human Gu Immortals were very loyal to Fang Yuan.

This was Fang Yuan's leadership talent, he was skilled at politics, after defeating Heavenly Court multiple times, his personal charm and grand aura surged overwhelmingly, he did not need to use any enslavement path methods to achieve this.

The variant human Gu Immortals were very obedient, while Shadow Sect's immortals did not dare to defy Fang Yuan.

Even though they were just refining heaven form and had to exterminate the remaining heaven's will, there was also a large number of sturdy Gu Immortal wills that were inside the killer move.

These wills were accumulated in the last thousands of years by the wills of the descendants of the Five Xiangs.

Without exterminating these wills, Fang Yuan would not be able to use heaven form.

Thankfully, Fang Yuan was prepared for it, he modified several killer moves, including the one that used wisdom sword Immortal Gu as the core which had become his main method here.

"In my previous life, I used wisdom sword Immortal Gu alone, the effect was ordinary. Now that I have a killer move, I will gain control of heaven form rapidly!"

Fang Yuan stored away heaven form but he did not keep the Immortal Gu House, he directed the Gu Immortals to control the Immortal Gu House and relocate all of the resources here.

Five Xiangs grotto-heaven had once devoured a nine heavens fragment, it no longer faced any calamities and tribulations, but Fang Yuan could also not annex it now.

After making the arrangements, Fang Yuan led the remaining immortals out of the grotto-heaven, they went towards the direction of Qi Sea grotto-heaven.

Within Qi Sea grotto-heaven, there was a rank six Qi clan Gu Immortal guarding it.

But even the first supreme elder, second supreme elder, and third supreme elder had surrendered, this Qi clan Gu Immortal became stunned before he let Fang Yuan inside.

After the Qi clan Gu Immortals saw Fang Yuan's heaven form killer move, they no longer had hope, their expressions turned pale.

In the previous life, Fang Yuan ordered Bai Ning Bing to attack Qi Sea grotto-heaven, she was even attacked by unlimited qi sea.

But this time, the heavenly spirit in Qi Sea grotto-heaven had not woken up yet, it was still sleeping.

"Lord Fang Yuan, how do you want us to move these resources?" The variant human Gu Immortals asked.

Qi clan's Gu Immortals looked at each other as someone said anxiously: "We are willing to defend this place for Lord Fang Yuan!"

Fang Yuan laughed heartily: "No need, watch as I annex it!"

His qi path attainment level was grandmaster long ago. After the second battle in the River of Time, he repaired Myriad Year Flying Battleship and entered the River of Time, he captured his required immemorial year beasts.

In this long process of searching, he stayed inside the ship as he explored dream realms, letting his subordinates handle the matters outside.

He only took action when it was time to fight.

Thus, he saved a lot of time, he could succeed in many dream realm explorations!

Fang Yuan's attainment level in many paths had risen, especially qi path, it rose to great grandmaster.

With this attainment level, he could annex Qi Sea grotto-heaven!

During the process of annexing, the heavenly spirit of Qi Sea heavenly spirit was rudely awakened, but Fang Yuan was prepared and quickly suppressed it.

The heavenly spirit scolded the Qi clan descendants for being unfilial, while Qi clan's Gu Immortals had defeated expressions, they were in deep despair.

Eventually, they watched as their homeland was devoured by Fang Yuan, fused into the sovereign immortal aperture.

He gained a vast amount of qi path resources that could not be calculated at the moment.

His greatest gain was unlimited qi sea, this killer move was the trump card of Qi Sea grotto-heaven, it was the key that allowed them to defend against tribulations.

Unlimited qi sea used rank eight Immortal Gu Big Qi, rank seven Immortal Gu Big Family Qi and others, there were countless qi path immortal materials, like metal qi, water qi, fire qi, and others, and also special ones like luck qi, divine qi, there was a variety of different types of qi.

In the previous life, Fang Yuan dismantled this killer move, but now that he had great grandmaster attainment level in qi path, his foundation was deep enough, he decided not to destroy it.

And worth mentioning was that Qi Sea grotto-heaven gave Fang Yuan a million qi path dao marks!

Fang Yuan's qi path foundation grew immensely, it was truly reaching the heavens in one step!

-x-X-x-

Inside the sovereign immortal aperture.

Mini White Heaven.

The dragonman clone smiled as he stretched out his hand.

Before him stood a fawn.

The fawn lowered its head before the dragonman clone, stretching out its tiny pink tongue and licking the dragonman clone's palm.

"Master." The fawn spoke in human language.

It was not an ordinary fawn of course, it was created from the obsession of Qi Xiang fusing with the heavenly power of the grotto-heaven, resulting in this Qi Sea heavenly spirit.

Qi Sea heavenly spirit had the appearance of a snow-white fawn, its eyes were golden in color, extremely dazzling.

But on the fawn's back, near the right side, there was a deep wound that exposed the bones, it extended towards its stomach, leaving behind a dense amount of dao marks.

Dragonman clone sighed: "Your injuries are severe, my methods might not work."

This was the injury the fawn sustained when it used unlimited qi sea against Qi Sea grotto-heaven's myriad tribulation.

In the previous life, when Bai Ning Bing attacked Qi Sea grotto-heaven, the heavenly spirit had fallen asleep due to its injuries, it was rudely awakened.

The fawn was a heavenly spirit, it was a special existence created from the fusion of obsession and heavenly power.

To heal the fawn, wisdom path methods were the most appropriate.

Thus, Fang Yuan tried but had no success.

Even though Fang Yuan's refinement path methods were stronger, he did not dare to use them rashly.

It was not that he was helpless against one wound, but these methods were too powerful and uncontrollable, they were harmful to the heavenly spirit fawn. Very likely, the treatment might kill this Qi Sea heavenly spirit.

If the treatment kills Qi Sea heavenly spirit, what was the point of wasting effort in trying to save it?

For now, Fang Yuan could not heal this fawn.

But this heavenly spirit did not mind that, it was in fact quite happy. After Qi Sea grotto-heaven got annexed, it did not die, it still existed.

Every life form would have basic survival instincts, heavenly spirits were the same, they were inclined to finding a master and preserving the grotto-heaven.

Of course, they would only submit to masters who fulfilled their conditions. Or if methods like blood light spirit suppression were used.

Fang Yuan was thinking about the mystery of land spirits and heavenly spirits.

The Gu world had countless mysteries, the more Fang Yuan interacted with them, the more he realized how little he knew.

When ordinary Gu Immortals annex apertures, even if land spirits existed, they would die when the annexation is completed. But the sovereign immortal aperture broke this rule, there had to be a reason for it.

But Shadow Sect had no records of it.

Maybe Spectral Soul Demon Venerable hid the details, or maybe Shadow Sect's true inheritance was not everything that Spectral Soul had.

Or maybe even Spectral Soul Demon Venerable had no idea that the sovereign immortal aperture would end up like this.

It was like how Fang Yuan could only understand the general concept behind an unknown Immortal Gu that he just refined, even though he had such strong refinement path attainment, he could not comprehend it entirely. A newly created and unprecedented Gu was especially so, only by using it could the Gu Immortal learn more things about it.

Right now, Fang Yuan's sovereign immortal aperture had many land spirits and heavenly spirits.

Land spirits were more abundant, among them, Lang Ya land spirit was the most unique, he was made from two obsessions.

There were also a snake, star core, black hound, land spirits in all sorts of forms were scattered in different locations over the sovereign immortal aperture.

They were all useful assistants in managing the sovereign immortal aperture, they were in charge of their own territories.

Fang Yuan did not kill these heavenly spirits and land spirits, he preserved them.

Now was not the time, in the future, he was going to understand the logic behind their existence.

This was also why he wanted to save Qi Sea heavenly spirit.

After Qi Sea grotto-heaven was assimilated, Fang Yuan placed it in Mini White Heaven.

There were evident changes to the sovereign immortal aperture now.

All sorts of qi were growing and interacting, Mini White Heaven had the most evident signs, countless white clouds were forming and spreading.

The other eight mini heavens were the same, they all had their own colors.

These clouds were still like thin fog, they had not grown into cloud soil of their respective colors.

But this was just the start.

According to Fang Yuan's deductions, for the following period of time, different qi would appear in all parts of the sovereign immortal aperture.

These qi were of different types of varieties, most were mortal Gu materials.

But after a while, after enough mortal level qi are accumulated, they would start producing qi path immortal materials.

And after an even longer time, these qi path immortal materials would stabilize and create a special connection with the environment, that would be the initial formation of a resource point.

If it develops well, these tiny resource points might grow into small, mid, and large sized resource points.

Of course, without human interference, the chances of the sovereign immortal aperture generating a large sized resource point was simply too small, it was negligible.

All these changes were due to the addition of a million qi path dao marks.

These qi path dao marks were the accumulation of Qi Sea grotto-heaven, now that Fang Yuan annexed it, these qi path dao marks spread out and became distributed all over the mini five regions and nine heavens.

Each time he annexed an immortal aperture, he would gain dao marks, the environment of the immortal aperture would change slightly.

Like in the previous life, Fang Yuan annexed Beast Calamity grotto-heaven, gaining transformation path dao marks, this caused the entire sovereign immortal aperture to produce a larger variety of living beings. For example, the ordinary foxes in Mini Northern Plains would reproduce and have a greater chance of becoming red foxes, grey foxes, wind foxes, cloud foxes, or others, even becoming mutated beasts like autumn water fox or flowing light fox...

After annexing Xia Cha grotto-heaven, he gained a bunch of time path dao marks, the tributary of the River of Time became wider. Fang Yuan could control the upper and lower limit of the rate of time to a greater extent as a result.

Very evidently, randomly annexing apertures was not a good thing.

Because the increase in dao marks would cause the environment to change dramatically, without wisdom path methods to absorb these changes, the Gu Immortal's development inside the immortal aperture would be ruined, they would lose all their assets.

The living habitat of the immortal aperture world was always a tight chain. If one small species of grass became extinct, it could lead to a crisis for countless species higher up in the food chain. In comparison, the annexing of immortal apertures would cause huge environmental shifts!

The reason why Fang Yuan gained from it was because the sovereign immortal aperture was too big and vast, it made these influences negligible when spread out.

Most Gu Immortals had tiny immortal apertures compared to this sovereign immortal aperture.

When the same volume of water is stored in a bottle and a vat, the bottle would be full while the vat is only filled to a negligible amount.

Other than that, fang yuan had deep wisdom path attainment, along with other paths that allowed him to easily deal with all the changes that happened.

"It was still okay when I annexed Xia Cha grotto-heaven, but after annexing Qi Sea grotto-heaven, the gain of a million qi path dao marks has made an evident change to the sovereign immortal aperture!"

Xia Cha did not pass any myriad tribulations, she only had seventy thousand time path dao marks.

In the previous life, Fang Yuan annexed Beast Calamity grotto-heaven, which had over a hundred thousand transformation path dao marks. And this was because Beast Calamity Immortal had gone through one myriad tribulation before dying, the Beast Calamity grotto-heaven that he left behind did not pass a second myriad tribulation.

Qi Xiang was very strong in the past.

After all, the Five Xiangs were united and dominated the two heavens, their reputation was high in the five regions, they were incredibly famous.

After Qi Xiang died, Qi Sea grotto-heaven was left behind, it did not devour any fragment of the nine heavens, it still had to face endless calamities and tribulations.

Difficulties led to wealth!

After thousands of years, Qi Sea grotto-heaven had gone through more than ten myriad tribulations, each one gave around a hundred thousand dao marks.

Along with Qi Xiang's accumulations in his life, there were over a million qi path dao marks.

This was a shocking achievement.

It was not easy!

Myriad tribulations were terrifying, even rank eight Gu Immortals were fearful of them, they could only pass with great difficulty.

But Qi Sea grotto-heaven had survived for such a long time.

Mainly by relying on unlimited qi sea! The heavenly spirit controlled this move and with sufficient rank eight immortal essence, Qi Sea grotto-heaven managed to pass each time.

"Of course, this move is incredible, it not only consumes immortal essence but also different types of qi. By expending qi, the immortal essence expenditure could be reduced, while also increasing this move's power!"

"For the last thousands of years, Qi clan's Gu Immortals had been going all over the world collecting these types of qi."

Compared to it, Beast Calamity grotto-heaven was just a child.

Even though Lang Ya blessed land had an even longer history, it had purposely fallen to a blessed land, it did not have to face myriad tribulations, the strongest tribulations it faced were grand tribulations, so it gained much fewer dao marks.

Other than that, Lang Ya blessed land also used killer moves to influence the contents of the calamities and tribulations, allowing it to gain a large number of water path dao marks.

These water path dao marks worked with the refinement path dao marks, creating refinement water.

In order to create a man-made secluded domain of heaven and earth, Lang Ya blessed land had expended a vast number of refinement path and water path dao marks.

"If I did not annex this Qi Sea grotto-heaven, with the heavenly spirit fawn's injuries, it would not be able to survive much longer. With a few more myriad tribulations, this grotto-heaven would be destroyed."

Thus, one could not say that Lang Ya land spirit's decision was wrong. If Lang Ya blessed land was kept as a grotto-heaven, even if it obtained ten times the number of refinement path dao marks, it would not exist until today.

Fang Yuan continued to cultivate.

On one hand, he was trying his best to assimilate Qi Sea grotto-heaven entirely, on the other hand, he started practising qi path killer moves.

The consecutive hit method that Ba Shi Ba possessed was given up after Fang Yuan tried it.

The most important thing now were qi path killer moves, especially unlimited qi sea!

The power of unlimited qi sea was truly tremendous, it helped Qi Sea grotto-heaven pass so many myriad tribulations.

In the previous life, Fang Yuan lacked foundation and time, he also needed resources so he dismantled the killer move unlimited qi sea.

But now, as a qi path great grandmaster who annexed Qi Sea grotto-heaven, this unlimited qi sea killer move was usable by him.

The sovereign immortal aperture's time flow was much faster than in the previous life as well!

This gave Fang Yuan even more time to practise his killer moves.

Fang Yuan's qi path foundation soared to a peak, after he turns it into battle strength, he would definitely gain a huge amount of strength that would surpass his current state!

"If my qi path battle strength is formed, it will surpass time path and become my main offensive method."

"A million qi path dao marks, hehe, it is truly not a joke."

"By then, I can try to subdue Dragon Palace, I will be able to fight for it against multiple rank eight Gu Immortals, forcefully taking away this Immortal Gu House."

Fang Yuan's gaze was eerie, he had made his plans long ago.

-x-X-x-

Inside the sovereign immortal aperture.

Fang Yuan practised his qi path killer moves.

Several Immortal Gu moved in the sky, while a large number of mortal Gu flew around them like a tornado in the sky.

Large amounts of astral winds were mixing into them.

As rank eight immortal essence was injected, these Gu worms' auras started to merge.

But after a long time, the killer move was not activated.

Sweat appeared on Fang Yuan's forehead, after more than ten breaths of time, Fang Yuan barely controlled the situation, the killer move finally succeeded, it was unleashed.

Qi path immortal killer move — Heavenly Astral Cloth Robe!

A grey-white cloth robe appeared on the dragonman clone's body.

It looked like normal clothing but upon closer inspection, one could see that every thread on this cloth was made of astral qi.

This was a rank seven killer move, but after the amplification of Fang Yuan's one million qi path dao marks, its power had risen by a thousand times!

After inspecting it, Fang Yuan saw that while this robe was thin, it had incredibly shocking defense.

"It has rank eight power without doubt, it is even stronger than winter coat." Fang Yuan sighed internally.

Of course, it could not compare to reverse flow protection seal.

A million qi path dao marks was truly not a joke.

Even through mere amplification, a rank seven killer move could have the power of rank eight, and most importantly, the expended immortal essence is at the level of rank seven!

"After one myriad tribulation, a Gu Immortal will gain eighty-thousand dao marks on average. The stronger the tribulation, the larger the number of dao marks obtained."

"Theoretically, after three myriad tribulations, a Gu Immortal can become venerable, they would have at least three hundred thousand dao marks!"

"A million qi path dao marks is on the level of something only rank nines can possess."

"The core Immortal Gu of heavenly astral cloth robe is only rank seven, after the qi path dao mark amplification, it has reached the level of rank eight peak. If the core Immortal Gu is rank eight, after the qi path dao mark amplification, would it have rank nine power?"

Fang Yuan had a thought as bright light shined in his eyes.

He recalled the battle in his previous life, and all the methods left by the venerables. At the same time, his main body also made deductions.

Soon, Fang Yuan's dragonman clone shook his head.

The possibility was small.

"Most likely, rank nine killer moves need rank nine Immortal Gu. Dao mark amplification cannot reach this extent."

"Or more accurately, I cannot breakthrough to that level using just a million qi path dao marks."

"Maybe if I have ten times the dao marks, the quantity will induce a qualitative change, and reach rank nine perhaps?"

Fang Yuan was not certain.

Even though he was a rank eight Gu Immortal, when he looked up towards the level of a rank nine, it was still shrouded in complete mystery.

In a purely theoretical situation, each venerable would start with at least three hundred thousand dao marks.

But from what Fang Yuan learned from Lang Ya land spirit as well as his own experiences, each venerable was an absolute monster, they could not be looked at with logic or common sense.

Just Limitless Demon Venerable alone, when he was a Gu Master, he already possessed Gu Immortal level dao marks. At that rate, when he became venerable, how many dao marks would he have?

Fang Yuan could not imagine it.

As for the other venerables?

When they just became a venerable, would they have merely three hundred thousand dao marks?

Fang Yuan smiled, the possibility was close to zero!

In this world, there were no invincible Gu worms, only invincible Gu Immortal.

If these people only had three hundred thousand dao marks when they became venerable, how could they dominate the world and gain the reputation of invincibility?

Right now, Fang Yuan was already one of the greatest experts in the world! He was at the peak, he could look down on most of the people in this world. There were few who could fight him evenly in a one-on-one battle.

However, whenever he looked up, he could still see those ten giant mountains above his head, concealed within the clouds!

They were the ten strongest people in history, each was a legend of legends, throughout the long history of humanity, they were the ten most dazzling suns.

Other than them, no matter who it was! Even the extremely talented individuals who were dazzling like the stars paled in comparison to them, their tiny light was forever shrouded by these ten's shadows.

Fang Yuan was no exception.

He was able to reach this stage because he had relied on these predecessors, especially the venerables.

Just looking at the sovereign immortal aperture alone.

This belonged to Spectral Soul Demon Venerable.

Even today, when cultivating, Fang Yuan would often sigh in admiration towards the heaven defying advantage that the sovereign immortal aperture gave him.

For example, the annexing of Qi Sea grotto-heaven, under normal situations, who could annex it?

Almost nobody!

Unless Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable was alive now.

Because immortal apertures could only annex smaller ones, the 'big and small' here referred to foundation.

In this world, only Primordial Origin Immortal Venerable had the qi path foundation to annex Qi Sea grotto-heaven, which had a million qi path dao marks.

And if the grotto-heaven was dissected and annexed piece by piece, the losses would be severe.

Each time a grotto-heaven was cut apart, it would suffer immense damage, the qi path dao marks that were weaved like a web would suffer huge losses!

And because of conflicting dao marks, Gu Immortals could not truly gain many of these dao marks.

If Qi Sea grotto-heaven was dissected to a certain extent, the winds of assimilation would start blowing due to its severe damage. The remaining portions of the grotto-heaven would be destroyed in this case.

But the sovereign immortal aperture could devour "larger" apertures.

Originally, Fang Yuan had no foundation in qi path, but he was able to annex Qi Sea grotto-heaven, this was not like a snake devouring an elephant, it was an ant devouring an elephant!

The most scary was that with non-conflicting dao marks, Fang Yuan could perfectly absorb his gains, he could assimilate every single dao mark without any bit of wastage.

It was too heaven defying!

No wonder the Heavenly Dao could not condone its existence, in order to stop Spectral Soul, it nurtured the otherworldly demon Fang Yuan, plotting endlessly and sending him back five hundred years to stop Shadow Sect's plan.

The more heaven defying the sovereign immortal aperture was, the more it showed how scary Spectral Soul Demon Venerable was.

Every time Fang Yuan used Spring Autumn Cicada to rebirth, he could gain a deeper understanding of Red Lotus Demon Venerable's terrifying power.

Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable, Genesis Lotus Immortal Venerable...

Using the foundation of these venerables, Fang Yuan became the current generation demon overlord, but with every step he took, he increasingly felt the difference between him and a venerable, it was too vast to calculate!

Fang Yuan felt no dejection whenever he looked up at them, all he felt was admiration.

He had never been arrogant nor proud, he respected each of these predecessors.

One could only learn from capable people!

Mixed in with his admiration were traces of indescribable excitement.

"Even as strong as these ten venerables, none of them could attain eternal life, they died one by one."

"Then, can I truly succeed?"

The possibility was as slim as none!

In fact, as long as fate Gu still existed, it would not allow any life form to gain eternal life.

This was already confirmed within u003cu003cThe Legends of Ren Zuu003eu003e!

"That is why it is interesting to pursue it." Fang Yuan smiled.

After collecting his thoughts, Fang Yuan's main body continued to train his qi path killer moves.

As for the dragonman clone, after testing heavenly astral cloth robe, he flew away and looked into treasure yellow heaven.

He wanted to purchase many qi path immortal materials in treasure yellow heaven.

Many qi path killer moves needed to use these qi path immortal materials.

For example, the heavenly astral cloth robe earlier needed a large amount of astral qi.

Using the dao marks inside immortal materials to unleash killer moves was not a rare thing. Grandmaster formation path Gu Immortals were able to use immortal materials to set up formations.

Long ago, water path killer moves also used a large number of water path immortal materials in huge quantities. But afterwards, due to the absurd cost involved, Gu Immortals chose to use Gu worms instead, they abandoned this method.

This trait was most evident in qi path.

No matter how low their qi path attainment level was, a Gu Master (Gu Immortal) would always be able to use Gu materials in place of Gu worms to unleash killer moves.

The reason was that qi path materials were the most mobile and simple to use. Water path materials were slightly less useful, while the dao marks of earth and rocks were much harder to use.

Fang Yuan did not care about this, he was very rich now and had abundant wealth, he searched and bought qi path immortal materials in treasure yellow heaven.

He did not ask for qi path immortal materials from Southern Border's Gu Immortals.

In terms of his qi path battle strength, he wanted to keep it a secret for now.

"Profound yin qi, minor sun qi, astral qi, domination qi... I'll buy all of them! Hmm, blood qi?"

The dragonman clone looked as he pondered.

Even though blood path was detested greatly, would any righteous path force not research it secretly? Thus, in treasure yellow heaven, blood path Gu materials were very popular.

These blood qi were just mortal materials, but the quantity was huge.

If it were any other type of qi, Fang Yuan would not want these mortal materials, his sovereign immortal aperture could produce it! But blood qi was different.

Not only did this qi contain qi path dao marks, it also had blood path dao marks. Therefore, it was considered a blood path mortal material.

And blood path had a terrifying advantage, if the quantity was high enough, it could be treated as an immortal material.

"Such a huge quantity sold, this can be seen as an immortal material." The dragonman clone thought of this as he hesitated no more, immediately buying it.

Central Continent.

"What, there is no more blood qi?" Gu Yue Fang Zheng looked into treasure yellow heaven with disbelief: "You had such a huge quantity last time."

The Gu Immortal's will who sold the blood qi in treasure yellow heaven shook his head: "A few hours ago, an incredibly affluent Gu Immortal swept the entirety of treasure yellow heaven's market, buying all of the qi path immortal materials available. You also know that these blood qi can be accumulated and used together, that is why this happened."

Gu Yue Fang Zheng was stunned!

Sweeping the whole of treasure yellow heaven's market and buying all of the available qi path immortal materials, what sort of wealth could allow one to do that?

Gu Yue Fang Zheng had already become an immortal for some time.

He knew deeply that wealth was a form of representation of strength.

If a Gu Immortal had immense wealth, it would mean that they own a large amount of resources, with such a foundation, it would help them advance smoothly in their cultivation journey!

"Maybe it is not a person, but a super force's action." Gu Yue Fang Zheng muttered to himself.

His divine sense went to many more stalls, but there were no gains as expected.

There was no blood qi left in the market.

But Gu Yue Fang Zheng cultivated blood path, he needed blood qi.

After his divine sense left treasure yellow heaven, Gu Yue Fang Zheng started to think: "Do I ask the sect for blood qi?"

He quickly dispelled that thought.

He decided to collect it himself.

-x-X-x-

Blood qi was very easy to obtain! One could get a bunch from killing mortal beasts and using blood path methods to extract them. By raising desolate beasts in the immortal aperture, there would be an endless supply of immortal material blood qi.

Precisely because blood path resources were easily obtainable, blood path was incredibly threatening, the righteous path of the five regions prohibited it.

If it were other immortal materials, Fang Zheng might get help from the sect, but this was just blood qi, and Fang Zheng did not need a lot.

In Fang Zheng's case, it was just a little troublesome to obtain the blood qi that he needed, he only had to spend some time.

Thinking about this, Fang Zheng informed Fan Xi Liu of his plan, because of his unique identity, he could not leave Fei He Mountain casually.

After Fan Xi Liu learned about it, he gave Fang Zheng a mission: "Perfect timing! There is a golden mountain ox at the northwest area wreaking havoc, go and settle that issue. Kill or enslave it, if you can capture it alive, you will get double the sect contribution points."

Fang Zheng's heart shook, the golden mountain ox was a desolate beast, he had never fought against a desolate beast before.

But soon, he felt a little excitement in his heart as he agreed.

Fang Zheng was no longer the young lad from before, he had gone through many hurdles in Lang Ya blessed land, after thinking about it, he made up his mind.

He did not head to the golden mountain ox immediately, he went to the information tower of Immortal Crane Sect.

White Crane Information Tower was an Immortal Gu House with nine floors, it was situated at a secluded area on the mountainside of Fei He Mountain.

It was covered in deep fog and lush greenery.

Fang Zheng flew over on a crane.

Even though he cultivated blood path, he had been tutored in Immortal Crane Sect and was the disciple of Lord Sky Crane, he was familiar with the manipulation of flying cranes.

When he was in Lang Ya blessed land, he had participated in the huge war of three continents, he did not have a chance to subdue cranes, but he still retained his interest in them.

But due to a twist of fate, he was saved by Feng Jiu Ge and returned to Immortal Crane Sect, because Heavenly Court decided to nurture him, he became an immortal.

With Gu Immortal cultivation level, he even became a supreme elder of Immortal Crane Sect, Fang Zheng easily obtained a crane for himself as a movement tool.

Before White Crane Information Tower, there were no guards, only two desolate beast cranes were resting here. If anything happened, these cranes would appear and act as guardians.

Fang Zheng rode on his crane as he got near White Crane Information Tower, the flying crane below him started shivering as its vocalizations became jittery.

Fang Zheng could not help but sigh: "This flying crane is a rank five mutated beast, when I was in Immortal Crane Sect in the past, I felt that it was incredibly powerful, but now, it is nothing special."

"The difference between immortal and mortal is truly too great."

After Fang Zheng landed in front of White Crane Information Tower, his crane almost fell down from fear.

Fang Zheng sighed as he kept it in his immortal aperture.

He had the status of a supreme elder, White Crane Information Tower was open to him without question, Fang Zheng stepped in.

Every floor of the information tower had a large number of information path mortal Gu.

If Fang Zheng wanted to obtain information from them, he would need to exchange for it using sect contribution points.

The information tower itself could store information, but Immortal Crane Sect would not do that. Because if the tower got destroyed, the information would also be ruined. This information tower was an Immortal Gu House that only managed one aspect, it was like Heavenly Court's Immortal Gu Houses, it only had the power of information path.

If it were a complete Immortal Gu House, having both offense and defense, it would not need two desolate beast white cranes to defend it.

Fang Zheng had no foundation in information path, he could not see the mysteries of this tower. But he could guess that this tower had some sort of arrangement towards preserving, transporting, and destroying these Gu worms.

White Crane Information Tower had the ability to collect and update information, most types of intelligence could be found in it.

Of course, true secrets could only be obtained by the higher-ups.

Even though Fang Zheng was a supreme elder, he could not become a higher-up of Immortal Crane Sect. Because of his special identity, he was excluded by the rest of them.

In the past, Fang Zheng was still ignorant and innocent, but after these years, he had understood these politics.

He did not feel proud for having this understanding, instead he only had a bitter smile.

He could now understand the circumstances that Fang Yuan faced back in Qing Mao Mountain. With Fang Yuan's situation back then, he was not welcomed by the higher-ups, in order to get stronger, he could only use schemes and robbery.

"The truth is, since the creation of Immortal Crane Sect, haven't they been doing this all along? They occupy lots of resources, many of these resource points were once owned by demonic path or lone immortals."

"And even though Heavenly Court is known for righteousness, that is not entirely true. Looking at history, all of its territory was snatched away from variant humans."

"Heavenly Court only represents the righteousness of humanity." Fang Zheng thought to himself.

Other Central Continent righteous path Gu Immortals would not think like this normally, it was a heretical idea.

But Fang Zheng had lived with the hairy men. Even though he was ostracized, he had truly felt the culture and living habits of the hairy men, he understood them.

How could other Gu Immortals live and grow in an environment dominated by variant humans?

His unique experience gave Fang Zheng a unique perspective. All his hardship in the past had now become his wealth, even though his vision was not broad, it was unique.

"But one's position determines one's views and behavior, I still prefer the righteousness of Heavenly Court." Fang Zheng smiled bitterly as he inspected the information.

"Desolate beast golden mountain ox, hmm, this is the one." He went up several floors as he found the corresponding information path mortal Gu.

After his divine sense looked into it, he gained waves of information.

The golden mountain ox was large as a mountain, it was a female-only species and liked to eat metal essence. After eating several hundred kilograms of metal essence, it would enter a cave and sleep.

"Eat and sleep, sleep and eat?" That's a good life." Fang Zheng laughed.

He continued to look: "The horn is the most valuable part of the golden mountain ox's body. Every hundred years, the horn grows by ten feet, it will continue to grow and extend, curving until it coils around the entire head, neck, and stomach. After it reaches the stomach, the sharp horns will turn into thick leather skin. As long as the ox moves its head, it would pull forward and cut the skin of its womb, the descendants that are called golden calves will jump out of this wound and become born."

Fang Zheng's eyes flickered as he muttered: "This reproduction method is quite like rockmen."

Fang Zheng continued to look.

After the golden mountain ox gives birth, because the wound is huge, it would be in great pain, it would cry out loudly as it bleeds profusely.

If newly born golden calves choose to lick the wound of the mother, the dao marks on their tongue would heal the golden mountain ox rapidly, until they fully recover.

But if they choose not to, the mother would die. The calves can drink the blood of their mother and become stronger rapidly, passing the weak period of being a calf quickly.

"Very interesting!" Fang Zheng sighed to himself.

The life of a golden mountain ox was to eat and sleep. This meant that after giving birth, if the calves choose to save the mother, she would not take care of them, after ingesting lots of food, she would hibernate.

For the calves' own survival, it was more beneficial to not save the mother.

Thus, most calves would watch as their mothers die, only a small portion would lick the wound and save her.

"When an ox gives birth, it often means a tragedy. But for survival, this is necessary, but I still like those calves who save their mothers more."

Fang Zheng watched as he decided on his plan.

He left the information tower, his confidence in this sect mission was completely different from before he saw the information.

He decided to target the golden mountain ox's habits.

Didn't it like to eat metal essence?

Then he would make some metal essence, like how people used fish bait to fish, he would use metal essence to bait the ox!

Fang Zheng had above average strength, having familiarized himself with many blood path immortal killer moves during this period of time inside his immortal aperture, he was able to fight against the golden mountain ox now.

But if he could use half his strength, why would he go all out?

The best way was to fight the enemy with wisdom, using all the advantages that he could find, to preserve his remaining strength for possible accidents.

This was the habit that Fang Zheng had gained after the countless battles in his mortal life.

Days later, Fang Zheng arrived at his destination.

He entered the valley stealthily, leaving behind a large amount of metal essence at the area where the golden mountain ox often roamed around.

When the golden mountain ox came nearby, it sniffed as brilliance shined in its eyes, it quickly discovered the deeply buried metal essence.

The golden mountain ox started to use its hooves and horns to dig.

Rocks were tossed as dust clouds rose, the metal essence was quickly excavated, the joyful golden mountain ox started to devour it.

"I did it!" Fang Zheng watched personally, he was secretly overjoyed.

He waited patiently for the golden mountain ox that had eaten its fill to go back to the cave and sleep.

Three days later, the golden mountain ox's cries could be heard from within the cave.

Fang Zheng who was sleeping woke up in shock, after reacting, he cheered: "The poison has finally spread, it is working now."

But he did not enter the cave, he waited outside patiently.

The intense pain of the poison made the golden mountain ox go berserk, it rampaged in the cave, causing the entire mountain to shake, the surrounding forest went into chaos as a large number of living creatures scattered.

After a long while, the commotion in the cave gradually calmed down.

Fang Zheng entered the cave now and fought intensely against the half crippled golden mountain ox.

After some time, seeing that the golden mountain ox was completely agitated, Fang Zheng left the cave.

Fighting against the golden mountain ox in the cave was too dangerous, if it caved in, even as a rank six Gu Immortal, Fang Zheng would be in trouble.

And Fang Zheng was here to capture the golden mountain ox alive, he did not want to destroy the area and cause all the living creatures to lose their homes.

Fang Zheng left the cave, the golden mountain ox followed.

The two fought in the valley, eventually, Fang Zheng used the killer move blood turns cold to freeze the golden mountain ox and captured it alive.

However, when he was about to send the golden mountain ox into his immortal aperture, a strong aura surged from the body of this golden mountain ox.

At the same time, a bronze-gold cauldron forced its way out of the golden mountain ox's body.

"This is?!" Fang Zheng was deeply shocked.

At the next moment, a rank eight Gu Immortal flew out of the golden cauldron.

"Spirituality hides within the metal essence, divine light slumbers for three hundred thousand years."

"Owing to great fortune I see the light of day, with thanks to the martyr of righteous blood."

This female rank eight immortal sang slowly as she landed in front of Fang Zheng, smiling at him: "Little friend, you are the one who awakened me?"

Fang Zheng was dumbfounded, he had not anticipated such a situation!

-x-X-x-

Immortal killer move — Golden Thread Sword!

Fang Yuan shouted loudly as he used the killer move.

Instantly, countless golden threads burst out of his body, stabbing towards his surroundings like a porcupine, piercing everything in their path.

Crack crack crack...

The three Gu Immortals around him were pale and shocked, they wanted to dodge but it was too late, their bodies and souls were completely penetrated by countless golden threads.

Plop, plop, plop, the three Gu Immortals fell onto the ground, lifeless.

Fang Yuan breathed roughly, this was a tough battle, after finally killing the enemy, he was extremely tired.

The world he was in started to vanish until it was completely gone, only Fang Yuan's desolate soul was left inside the sovereign immortal aperture's Mini Green Heaven with heavy injuries.

"I finally passed the final scene."

"It was really difficult."

"If I did not use unravel dream at the most crucial moment, to find that tiny loophole, I would have failed for sure!"

After Fang Yuan's soul returned to his body, he still felt some emotions from earlier.

This was a sword path dream realm.

Inside this dream realm, Fang Yuan's strength was low, especially in the final scene, every Gu Immortal enemy was stronger than him.

He had to keep trying and making use of the conflicts between these enemies to disrupt them, creating chances for himself so that he could remain standing.

Eventually, after a hundred tries and incredible luck, he managed to kill the last three Gu Immortal enemies.

"But I passed after all."

"Not bad, my sword path attainment level has reached grandmaster."

Fang Yuan inspected himself, he became quite happy.

He had quite a number of sword path Immortal Gu, he only lacked sword path attainment level.

This weakness was finally removed, in the future, his sword path battle strength would also rise greatly.

After resting, Fang Yuan recovered fully and continued exploring dream realms.

"This is likely a human path dream realm."

Fang Yuan's desolate soul arrived in the next dream realm as he looked with anticipation.

Extorting Southern Border's righteous path was a correct choice. This gave Fang Yuan a large number of dream realms to explore.

The value of these dream realms were extremely high to him.

Because Fang Yuan did not lack resources, Immortal Gu, killer moves, or Immortal Gu recipes, he only lacked attainment level and actual experience.

His desolate soul entered the dream realm.

The world that he was seeing changed immediately.

This was a battlefield.

It was filled with smoke and dust, shouting and killing were all around him.

"Clan leader, be careful!" Fang Yuan had just taken a look when someone shouted at him.

Fang Yuan sensed something amiss, he quickly dodged.

However, his body could not move as fast as his thoughts, an intense pain assaulted him.

Fang Yuan fell onto the ground, looking at the hole on his chest, only half his heart was left.

"This..." Fang Yuan was speechless, he shouted loudly: "Where is the healing Gu Master?"

But no answer came.

The world started to spin, it turned dark rapidly.

At the next moment, Fang Yuan's desolate soul suffered heavy injuries as he was pushed out of the dream realm.

Using guts Gu, Fang Yuan's desolate soul recovered quickly, after resting, he entered the dream realm again.

"Dodge!" Fang Yuan entered and immediately dodged.

"Clan leader, be careful!" The Gu Master beside him shouted.

Fang Yuan's movements suddenly froze as he suffered a fatal hit again.

The moment he fell to the ground, he realized: "The Gu Master who called out to me earlier is a spy. He used an information path method that pretends to alert me but is actually a mortal killer move that restrains my actions!"

"There are no healing Gu Masters around me, with this spy around, I can only try to pass this using my own strength."

In the dream realm, Fang Yuan's strength was greatly restricted, he could only use the abilities of the character within the dream.

Originally, Fang Yuan did not want to do this, because he had too little time to react, he could not check the Gu worms that he had.

Before he inspected them, he would definitely get killed.

Fang Yuan could only accept his loss and try a third time.

Plop!

He died again.

Back to reality, Fang Yuan was troubled: "How can this be? I can't check my own aperture? How can I do anything without even knowing what Gu worms I have?"

The dream realm restricted him, he could not inspect what Gu worms he had.

Guess? That was unrealistic.

Fang Yuan tried for a fourth time.

Different from the previous two explorations, Fang Yuan used unravel dream this time.

"Clan leader, be careful!" The Gu Master beside him shouted.

Plop!

Fang Yuan suffered a fatal blow, he fell on the ground.

"Clan leader!"

"Impossible, lord clan leader has justice Gu on him, how could he be defeated so easily?!"

The traitor shouted beside him.

After the exploration failed, Fang Yuan's desolate soul was thrown out of the dream realm again.

"Immortal killer move unravel dream only gave me one hint."

"The traitor spoke an extra sentence, pointing out that I have justice Gu."

"Then let's use it."

During Fang Yuan's fifth exploration, at the crucial moment, he used justice Gu.

"Clan leader, be careful!" The traitor screamed.

Fang Yuan's dodging movement froze again.

Justice Gu!

Piercing white light burst out of Fang Yuan's body, his speed went back to normal as he dodged the fatal blow.

"Huff! I succeeded." Fang Yuan rolled on the battlefield as he quickly looked around, assessing the area.

This was a village.

Everywhere, there was rubble and corpses lying on the ground.

"The conflict between two clans? This is already at the step of exterminating a clan."

But Fang Yuan found that he was not the victim, he was the invader, his side had the absolute advantage.

"This is a mortal level fight and I am the clan leader, by just leading these Gu Masters, we can win." Fang Yuan had a calm and composed mood.

"But is the condition for clearing this dream realm winning the battle? Let's try."

After that, Fang Yuan was joyful to find out that his aperture could be inspected again.

The dream realm character had rank five cultivation level and many mortal Gu, there were five to six rank four Gu, and one rank five Gu which was justice Gu.

Fang Yuan immediately understood as he smiled: "With these Gu worms, I can settle this myself."

Be it leading the troops or fighting personally to obtain victory, it was extremely easy for Fang Yuan.

"Lord clan leader!" At this time, the traitor appeared, showing a concerned expression.

Fang Yuan smiled coldly: "I will kill this traitor first!"

He attacked immediately, killing the traitor with one killer move.

"Clan leader, what are you doing?"

"The vice clan leader is dead, the clan leader killed him!"

"I was right after all, Chen clan is trying to take down our Shan clan."

"Rebel! Rebel! Let's take revenge for Lord Shan!"

Fang Yuan was shocked, he killed the traitor but half of the Gu Masters started to rebel and attack.

The scene fell into chaos, a three-way battle started.

Fang Yuan noticed that this was bad: "I have rank five justice Gu, it can give me great strength. With my strength, I can still win and kill all opposition. But... this traitor should not have been dealt with this casually."

As expected, even though Fang Yuan won, there were only a few Gu Masters left standing on the battlefield.

Corpses and broken body parts were everywhere, blood flowed like a river.

The world dissipated as Fang Yuan's desolate soul was thrown out again.

But this time, he did not suffer much injuries.

This result made Fang Yuan gain a deeper guess: "This means that victory is indeed the condition to pass the first scene. However, the type of victory is crucial. If the losses are too high, I will not be able to pass it."

Fang Yuan entered the dream realm again with newfound knowledge.

This time, he tolerated the existence of the traitor, he went as the vanguard and used justice Gu along with many killer moves to slaughter the enemies, obtaining a perfect victory!

"Lord clan leader is so courageous!"

"We have won, we are victorious!"

"Nie clan has finally been exterminated. Hahaha."

Amidst a wave of fun and laughter, the dream realm entered the second scene.

Within the hall, bright lights were shining. There were delicious food and wine on the table, dozens of Gu Masters were gathered here as they enjoyed a luxurious feast.

Fang Yuan found that he was sitting beside the main seat, towards his left was Chen clan leader, who was sitting at the main seat.

"What is going on?" Fang Yuan was shocked: "In the previous scene, I was in the role of Chen clan leader, but this time, I actually became the traitor vice clan leader?"

Fang Yuan was seeing this for the first time, he did not know whether to laugh or cry.

However, he soon thought: "No wonder I could not kill the traitor in the first scene. Because he is the next character that I should portray, now then, how do I pass this?"

Fang Yuan looked at the situation with cold eyes.

Chen clan leader drank a huge mouthful of wine as he placed down the empty wine cup, sighing: "We finally won! Brother, to speak the truth, I have finally relaxed only now. When I heard that Nie clan was planning to destroy the mountain, I could not sleep at all. They were unable to compete with the alliance of our two clans, so they created such a vicious plan, it was truly evil. Thankfully, heaven is not blind, they got what they deserved, these people died because of just deserts."

Fang Yuan did not know what to say.

This Chen clan leader was ignorant, he had not realized the ill intentions of this vice clan leader.

But it was not surprising.

During the first scene, even though the vice clan leader used an information path method, he disguised it as a warning of concern, there were no traces left behind, it was truly hard to notice.

Fang Yuan had a sharp sense because he was a Gu Immortal, he realized the vice clan leader's vicious scheme.

When he tried to kill the traitor in the first scene, a rebellion occurred.

"Wait, even if the vice clan leader's members see him getting killed, they would not act so united, right?"

"There has to be some people who are hesitant during the chaos."

"But these people rebelled in unity, after the vice clan leader was killed, they acted together and took revenge on the Chen clan members without holding back."

Fang Yuan suddenly had a flash of inspiration, he understood: "So that means that the vice clan leader's intentions to harm Chen clan leader is not his own plan, it is the collective plan of the entire Shan clan."

Fang Yuan thought of this as Chen clan leader's expression suddenly changed, he held his stomach as he stood up, taking several steps back: "This wine... is poisoned!"

-x-X-x-

"The wine is poisoned!" Chen clan leader's body shook as he looked at Fang Yuan angrily: "Vice clan leader Shan, this is your wine, what are you trying to do?!"

This was a sudden change of events, Fang Yuan was slightly dazed.

But before he said anything, the Gu Master beside him stood up and chuckled: "What are we doing? We are killing you, we are eliminating the Chen clan members. Throughout history, this mountain has belonged to Shan clan, be it Chen clan or Nie clan, you two were initially servants of my clan!"

"You are bullshitting! This was my Chen clan's mountain to begin with, our ancestors were kind and took in both of your clans after you were forced to vacate your destroyed mountain." Chen clan's Gu Master rebuked in a loud voice.

The Shan clan Gu Master who spoke continued in a cold voice: "Shameless servant, there is no point in talking. It is too late now, your clan leader has already drunk this poisoned wine, we created this using woman's heart Gu, it counters your clan leader's justice Gu. Without your clan leader, how can you Chen clan members resist our Shan clan?"

Chen clan's Gu Masters turned pale as they realized the problem now.

Fang Yuan was dazed again, he turned around and asked the Shan clan Gu Master beside him: "Who told you that woman's heart Gu can create a poisonous wine that counters justice Gu?"

The Shan clan Gu Master was the vice clan leader's aide, he was stunned as he asked in a stupefied tone: "What? Lord, didn't you tell me that yourself?"

"What?!" Fang Yuan was speechless.

Boom!

Chen clan leader burst out with a blinding white light, the paleness and anger vanished on his face as his expression turned solemn.

He stared with furious eyes towards Fang Yuan, he shouted in a heroic tone: "Shan Xing! You unscrupulous scoundrel! You dared to use this vile scheme on me, I was wrong about you, I had misjudged your personality, I had actually thought that you were willing to sacrifice yourself for the big picture and hand the role of clan leader to me. So you were always afraid of justice Gu and my strength, which was why you chose to conceal your ambitions."

Fang Yuan felt a sharp headache as he thought rapidly: "Chen clan's leader has rank five cultivation level, I am only rank four now, my Gu worms are also weaker than him, if we fought, I will not be Chen clan leader's match."

The aide beside him screamed in fear: "What, what is going on? He drank the poisoned wine but justice Gu is still working! Lord Shan Xing, didn't you say..."

Fang Yuan's eyes shined brightly instantly, he thought of the solution to this.

Indeed, as long as justice Gu stopped working, Chen clan's leader would be poisoned, his strength would fall, he would not be an impossible opponent.

"So that's it." Fang Yuan died from the attacks of Chen clan's leader but he carried a faint smile.

The second attempt at the dream realm.

Within the hall, bright lights were shining. There were delicious food and wine on the table, dozens of Gu Masters were gathered here as they enjoyed a luxurious feast.

Chen clan leader drank a huge mouthful of wine as he placed down the empty wine cup, sighing: "We finally won! Brother, to speak the truth, I have finally relaxed only now. When I heard that Nie clan was planning to destroy the mountain, I could not sleep at all. They were unable to compete with the alliance of our two clans, so they created such a vicious plan, it was truly evil. Thankfully, heaven is not blind, they got what they deserved, these people died because of just deserts."

Fang Yuan laughed coldly, saying lightly: "There is a reason behind this. Nie clan did not come up with such a vicious plan, I was the one who arranged it and deceived you. The people you killed were all innocent."

"What?!" Chen clan leader was completely shocked, he looked at Fang Yuan in disbelief: "Brother Shan, did you drink too much? What nonsense are you spouting!"

Fang Yuan looked at Chen clan leader with an eerie gaze: "You are too naive, you were kept in the dark all along. You are a cold blooded murderer, how many innocent people have you killed? Your hands are filled with blood, your justice is just a facade. You are a brute and a fool, also, you drank too much."

"What?! You poisoned the wine?" Chen clan's leader held his stomach in shock as he fell to the ground.

Chen clan's Gu Masters were shocked and fearful, while Shan clan's Gu Masters were ready and attacked immediately.

Chen clan's leader wanted to put up resistance but he could only watch helplessly.

Fang Yuan's aide shouted excitedly: "The wine was effective after all, Chen clan leader's justice Gu has been neutralized."

Fang Yuan wanted to roll his eyes.

To activate justice Gu, other than primeval essence, the Gu Master also needed to believe that they were on the side of justice.

Fang Yuan's words made Chen clan's leader enter a chaotic state, he suspected himself and felt incredibly ashamed, he could not activate justice Gu anymore.

The battle erupted and ended quickly.

Shan clan came prepared, all of the Chen clan members, from clan leader to clan members, were all dealt with.

When the hall returned to quietness, Chen clan's Gu Masters were either dead or injured, those who were alive were captured.

The second scene was passed.

During the third scene.

Fang Yuan was inside a cell, the only cell mate he had was that Chen clan leader.

He was covered in injuries, his vitality was weak, his face was pale, his eyes were dyed in a purple-dark color, he was deeply poisoned.

Fang Yuan looked at his injuries, he had obviously been interrogated and was on the verge of death.

Even so, the four limbs and neck of Chen clan's leader were chained up, he was lying on the ground, barely breathing.

"What is this situation?" Fang Yuan looked at himself, speechless. He was also chained up, his body was old and weak, he was thin like a twig, he was in about the same state as Chen clan's leader.

Even though he had a rank four aperture, it was already destroyed, he had no Gu worms either.

"What am I supposed to do? I am not the traitor vice clan leader but another person now. Hmm... right now, other than me, only this guy is in the cell. I guess I need to talk to him to find out." Fang Yuan laughed to himself and wanted to speak but Chen clan's leader spoke in advance: "No need to mock me, father."

"Father?!" Fang Yuan was surprised, he was acting as the father of Chen clan's leader? Then why was he locked up here? Looking at the situation, he had been kept here for a long time, he was not a new entrant like this Chen clan leader.

Chen clan's leader continued: "Father, I was the one who defeated you and locked you in here. But I have never regretted it! You were corrupt, the evidence was clear, you were neither impartial nor fair, you were not fit to be Chen clan's leader. According to the rules, you deserved this punishment."

"So you are the snitch." Fang Yuan quipped.

Chen clan leader added: "Similarly, I do not regret my current situation, I deserved this! I killed so many innocent people, my hands are stained with the blood of Nie clan's members. I deserve death!"

"Hehehe." Chen clan's leader laughed pitifully: "Shan clan wants to force me to hand over justice Gu, but what can they do? Their screaming, the sound of their whipping, the sound of hot iron scalding my flesh, all these sounds are like the cries of anguish and injustice of Nie clan's members."

"I would rather they whip me more and let me suffer more pain! But this cannot atone for my sins! It cannot undo my mistakes! I want to die, just let me die! I deserve this."

"Ah!"

Chen clan's leader grunted as he shook, he had died.

His death alerted the guard, soon, Shan Xing who had taken his position arrived.

"Damn it! We can't get justice Gu now." Shan Xing was furious, he gritted his teeth.

Suddenly, he turned around and looked at Fang Yuan with rage: "Old timer, didn't we agree that you would urge your son to hand it over! What did you do? You are useless, go join your son!"

Crack.

Shan Xing said this as he acted, chopping off Fang Yuan's head.

The exploration failed, Fang Yuan's desolate soul was chased out of the dream realm again.

This time, Fang Yuan rested for a long time.

The third scene was the final scene, Fang Yuan's exploration failed, his desolate soul suffered huge injuries.

While recovering, he thought about it: "In the third scene, I am Chen clan leader's father but I am crippled, there is no hope in escaping with my strength."

"The key to this should be Chen clan's leader."

"Then, what is the condition for passing the third dream realm?"

Fang Yuan had a lot of experience in dream realms now, he was the number one person in the world. This question did not stump him for long, he soon understood.

"The first two dream realm scenes have different identities but the conditions were the same. That was to satisfy the needs of the character."

"In the first scene, I was the Chen clan leader, I needed to obtain victory with my clansmen, and it needed to be a beautiful victory without much losses."

"In the second scene, I was the vice clan leader Shan Xing, I needed to succeed in my scheme and suppress his justice Gu."

"And now in the third scene, I am Chen clan leader's father, my son locked me up in the prison cell for a long time, I want to regain freedom. Thus, I chose to work with Shan Xing to get my son to hand over justice Gu, so that I can be free."

Fang Yuan entered the dream again.

Fang Yuan laughed coldly.

Chen clan leader spoke in advance: "No need to mock me, father."

"You are my son, isn't mocking you like mocking myself for failing to raise you well? I simply regret it, I sacrificed myself for your sake, I wanted your justice to lead Chen clan towards glory and prosperity, but to think that you would become a prisoner that does not even believe himself. I was wrong about you, had I known this, I would not have created fake evidence of my corruption." Fang Yuan said.

Chen clan leader was dazed, he was curious: "Father, what do you mean?"

Fang Yuan laughed coldly but did not speak.

Chen clan leader shook his head: "No father, you were corrupt, the evidence was there, how could it be fake?"

Fang Yuan laughed coldly again: "You think it is real, so it has to be real? Then what about Nie clan's matter?"

Chen clan leader was lost for words.

Fang Yuan continued: "I pretended to not care for you but I was secretly nurturing you with great effort. To use justice Gu, the Gu Master needs to believe firmly in his own justice. Because you were too young, and your understanding of justice was too superficial, I had to do this and sacrifice myself so that you would understand your justice."

"Father, speak clearly, what was the truth back then?"

Fang Yuan chuckled: "Is the truth really that important?"

Chen clan's leader did not hesitate, he answered immediately: "Of course! Without the truth, how can there be justice?"

"That is why I said your understanding was too superficial. Is justice closely related to the truth?" Fang Yuan said slowly: "Let me ask you, when you slaughtered Nie clan, was it an act of justice? Even if they really had a plan to destroy our mountain, from their perspective: You are a murderer trying to slaughter their whole clan, by resisting you and defending their homes and family, wasn't that justice too?"

"This..." Chen clan's leader pondered.

"The enemy of an enemy is a friend. From their perspective, the so-called plan to destroy the mountain was just a form of deterrence, they were afraid that our Chen clan and Shan clan would ally. But in the end, even though you wiped them out, they did not destroy the mountain, right?" Fang Yuan asked.

Chen clan's leader was silent.

Fang Yuan smiled: "I see you realized their side of justice too. You triggered the battle, slaughtering the enemies and also causing deaths and injuries to our clansmen, you thought that it was an act of justice, was that wrong? You were afraid that they would destroy the mountain's foundation, in that case, it would collapse as the spirit spring vanishes, lives would be lost and homes would be destroyed, you were thinking for your clan, you eliminated the problem in advance, that was not wrong. It was also a form of justice."

"Now look, both sides had their own perspective of justice, right?"

Chen clan's leader fell into deep thought.

He had never considered this problem before.

Fang Yuan observed his expression as he said: "Let me ask you, is it justice that a sheep eats grass?"

"This... how can that be a form of justice?" Chen clan's leader was dazed.

"From the sheep's perspective, without grass, there would be no food, it would starve to death, it had to eat grass. But from the perspective of the grass, it had worked so hard to stay alive, getting out of the soil and growing larger to get more rain and sunlight. It worked so hard but the sheep decided to eat it, even uprooting and devouring everything the grass had, without any hope for survival. Isn't the grass an innocent victim? Isn't it pitiful?

Chen clan's leader shook his head: "Isn't sheep eating grass just a natural thing? I have never pitied the grass because this is how the world is meant to be."

"Precisely." Fang Yuan nodded: "The truth of this world is the law of the jungle, big fish eats small fish, and small fish eats shrimp, this is what nature entails. What crime can there be? There is no such thing as justice here. Sheep eats grass, humans eat sheep, that has nothing to do with justice, it is just for survival."

"There is no such thing as justice in heaven and earth, there is only justice made by humanity."

"Since time immemorial, humans had to unite to gain strength for the sake of survival, in order to live in this cruel world!"

"Then, how can humans become united?"

"Through organizations, through law, and through morals."

"We organize clans or sects, distributing work according to an individual's ability. We use laws to restrain people, to tell people what they cannot do. We use morals to provide direction, to encourage people to do certain things. Mothers are doting and children are filial, neighbors live in harmony, they all follow the rule of justice and morals. Be it intentionally or unintentionally, from the start of time, any organization would always promote this, because organizations follow their own survival instincts."

"Or rather, the organizations with comprehensive laws, realistic morals, and proper class systems find it easier to survive. After a long time passes, this becomes the norm of society for the future generations."

Chen clan leader was tongue-tied, he was completely stunned by Fang Yuan's words.

He had never considered this.

He knew that justice was good, but he did not know why.

He knew that morals were good, but he did not know why.

And now, Fang Yuan told him the answer, justice and morals were man-made creations. This could be either a conscious or a subconscious creation, people follow these guidelines and allow themselves to survive better in a hostile environment, they can stay united as a group for a long time.

Fang Yuan concluded: "When you understand the core meaning of justice, you will know — this so-called justice is like iron armor, it is a human tool. When you wear it, you need to use it like a tool. But look at you now, this iron armor has become your chain, it is binding you down."

Chen clan leader looked at Fang Yuan in a daze, he did not speak.

Fang Yuan smiled lightly: "The truth and justice, are they really related? What is the truth behind Nie clan, what is the truth behind my corruption? What does this have to do with justice? Son, you must understand, your justice is just a tool, you must make use of it, do not get restrained by it."

Chen clan's leader was silent for a long time, after a while, he said in a hoarse voice: "Father, I understand now."

Saying so, a white light burst out of his body, it was dazzling and bright, filling the entire surroundings.

This dream realm faded into nothingness amidst the sharp light.

Fang Yuan's desolate soul returned to reality.

The dream realm exploration succeeded.

"I guessed correctly."

"The father and son were both clan leaders of Chen clan, they hate Shan clan's action. If I help Shan Xing and Chen clan's leader hands over the Gu, even if I regain freedom, I would not pass the final scene. At most, I would be chased out without injuries."

"Only by teaching Chen clan's leader and resolving his guilt can I make him use justice Gu once more to break out of this prison. That is the condition to clearing the final scene."

"This dream realm is quite interesting."

"Oh? I advanced to human path grandmaster." Fang Yuan inspected himself and smiled plainly.

-x-X-x-