330 RI

Western Desert.

The silent desert suddenly exploded as sand flew in the air, a huge mountain-like beast appeared from underground.

This beast had the shape of a python, it had a crocodile head and six sharp eagle-like claws.

Dragon crocodile!

An immemorial dragon crocodile.

The dragon crocodile roared, the sound waves spread widely, but there was a trace of fear and panic in its voice.

The dragon crocodile had the ability to climb clouds and soar to the sky, after leaving the desert, it flew straight up.

But midway, the dragon crocodile's body shook suddenly as it spewed out a torrent of flames from its huge mouth.

The dragon crocodile growled in pain as it fell to the ground, creating a huge sand wave as a result.

After it struggled for a while, it gradually quietened down and stopped moving entirely.

After a while, three Gu Immortals came out of its mouth.

Two males and one female.

They were from three super forces of Western Desert respectively, being Shi Kang, Zuo Qiu Yan Ming, and Tuoba Feng Yan.

Shi Kang cultivated earth path while the other two cultivated fire path.

It was a fact that the most common cultivation path among Western Desert's Gu Immortals was fire path.

"The final dragon crocodile is dead."

"According to our three clans' agreement, this dragon crocodile belongs to Sister Yan Ming."

The only female here, Zuo Qiu Yan Ming, nodded as she opened her immortal aperture's entrance, placing this immemorial dragon crocodile into it.

She observed within her immortal aperture and showed a smile on her face: "This immemorial dragon crocodile's corpse is good, many dao marks are preserved. It was all thanks to Brother Feng Yan's plan that we killed it like this."

"I'm flattered." Tuoba Feng Yan smiled: "If not for Brother Shi Kang's method, we would not have been able to enter the dragon crocodile's stomach and take this risk. The biggest credit goes to Brother Shi Kang."

"I'm flattered as well, this is our mutual effort." Shi Kang smiled as he replied modestly.

Dragon crocodiles lived in immemorial black heaven, but recently with the fusion of both heavens, their living habitat was badly affected, after a dragon crocodile group lost in a territorial fight, they had to escape from immemorial black heaven.

They wandered along a route, passing Zuo Qiu, Tuoba, and Shi clans territories.

These three clans negotiated and each sent a rank seven Gu Immortal expert to get rid of these dragon crocodiles that were in poor condition already.

Shi Kang, Zuo Qiu Yan Ming, and Tuoba Feng Yan worked together, spending three days and nights to wipe out this dragon crocodile group.

But right when they were about to return to their own clans, they received orders from their clans simultaneously.

"Oh? Wan clan wants to gather the clans and attack Fang clan together?"

"Hehe, so the first one that acts is Wan clan after all."

"Now it seems, because us three are the closest to Wan clan's territory, they sent us this order together."

The three immortals discussed for a while before deciding to travel together.

"Even though this is not far from Wan clan, we still need to rest and reorganize ourselves."

"Indeed, we need to treat our injuries first."

"The dragon crocodile corpses in the immortal apertures have to be dealt with too."

Shi Kang thought about it before smiling: "On this journey to Wan clan, we will pass by myriad ore desert. That resource point is guarded by my clan's Shi Zhong, we can go there and rest."

For resting, the environment of the wilderness was definitely worse than a resource point.

Every resource point had an immortal formation, it was safer too.

Zuo Qiu Yan Ming and Tuoba Feng Yan looked at each other before turning to Shi Kang and nodding, the latter said: "Then we will trouble you this time."

Shi Kang laughed heartily: "Gladly!"

Myriad ore desert was relatively flat and the surrounding view extended to the horizon, the ground was a cracked rocky terrain with no vegetation growing.

But below the desert, there was a different world all together, a large amount of ores were gathered here, a hundred thousand rockmen were living here as miners, excavating all sorts of materials for Gu Immortals.

But these rockmen were all mortals, they were Gu Masters at best. With limited strength, they could only excavate mortal ores.

Thus, Shi clan sent a Gu Immortal to guard this place while simultaneously excavating immortal ores.

This was a tough mission, normally speaking, a Gu Immortal sent here was someone who got ostracized by the clan.

Shi Zhong was such an example.

Shi Zhong's father betrayed the clan and caused huge losses to them, not just in resources but also Gu Immortals' lives.

In order to gain trust, Shi Zhong changed his name to Shi Zhong[1] to express his loyalty to the clan. But that did not change anything.

At this moment, Shi Zhong's divine sense was moving about in treasure yellow heaven.

In treasure yellow heaven, the most eye-catching thing now was that huge piece of Primordial Domain!

"This is the legendary secluded domain of heaven and earth! In the battle in Crazed Demon Cave, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable sold this to Heaven Refining Demon Venerable Fang Yuan. If I can get a piece, how good would that be?"

Shi Zhong felt incredibly envious.

The reason why he knew about the origin of this Primordial Domain was because Fang Yuan had spread the news.

The idea was simple, he wanted the world to know that even Giant Sun Immortal Venerable made a transaction with him, what was there to fear?

Of course, now that Giant Sun Immortal Venerable was exposed as the creator of blood path and had also started cultivating it, he was labeled as a Demon Venerable by Heavenly Court.

Above the Primordial Domain, there was a will.

This will had a human-shaped form, he wore a white robe and had black hair, his facial features were peerless, it was Fang Yuan's will.

"Heaven Refining Demon Venerable..."

"If I ask him to refine Gu, will I be able to obtain wealth Gu?"

"No, that is too risky."

"Wealth Gu is my hope of rising up, how can I give the Gu recipe to Fang Yuan. If he succeeds in the refinement but does not give the Gu to me, I will be making a stupid mistake. There is nothing I can do to a venerable!"

This thought only flashed in Shi Zhong's mind for a second.

Shi Zhong had obtained an incomplete Immortal Gu recipe of wealth Gu in his early days.

Wealth Gu was a legendary Immortal Gu, if Shi Zhong could refine it, he would soon become incredibly wealthy and accumulate lots of cultivation resources, breaking free from the clan's restraints.

In order to refine wealth Gu, Shi Zhong had secretly used humans to refine Gu. If such a demonic act was exposed, he would be in huge trouble.

Even though he took such a huge risk, he had tried to refine it for over a hundred times but all his attempts ended in failure. He was still far from success.

Shi Zhong had naturally heard Fang Yuan's declaration, but he did not dare to risk it.

Wealth Gu was all the hope he had!

"Oh? Gu Immortals are getting closer." Right at this time, the immortal formation suddenly alerted.

Shi Zhong's expression changed, he immediately went out of treasure yellow heaven and controlled the immortal formation.

At this time, Shi Kang was leading the other two immortals as they stayed in the sky, at the edge of the formation, without entering deeply as they waited.

After Shi Zhong contacted them and verified their identity, he learned of their intention.

"I am so glad that Brother Shi Kang came here. Please, everyone, come in!" Shi Zhong showed sufficient enthusiasm.

The three immortals entered the immortal formation and rested for a while, Shi Zhong held a small banquet and invited them to join.

He even specially gave the main seat to Shi Kang.

After Shi Kang rejected it a few times, he sat down on the main seat.

As the other two immortals saw this situation, they thought of a rumor and understood why.

Compared to Shi Zhong, Shi Kang was a popular person in Shi clan. Not long ago, he had defeated everyone else and obtained Sand Heap blessed land.

On this trip, after killing the dragon crocodiles, Shi Kang did not need to hand them over to the clan, he sold many of them in treasure yellow heaven directly.

Seeing such a treatment, Zuo Qiu Yan Ming and Tuoba Feng Yan felt very envious.

"This time, Wan clan is leading everyone and gathering Wan clan's forces to attack Fang clan, what do both of you think?" After some drinking, Shi Kang asked.

Zuo Qiu Yan Ming said: "Wan clan and Fang clan have deep grudges, it is not strange that they are leading this. Since they are using a proper reason, there is no issue with their action. But I think that Wan clan's decision now will cause problems in the future."

"That's right, I hold the same view." Tuoba Feng Yan put down his glass: "Firstly, with the disappearance of the five regional walls, Western Desert has several clans by the borders of the regions, it is difficult to get them to make a bold move."

"Secondly, Fang clan is not weak, their first supreme elder has rank eight cultivation level and they most excel in Immortal Gu Houses!"

"Thirdly, Fang clan has a good relationship with many clans. During the fate war, they had led everyone in the fight, causing their reputation to rise greatly!"

"And fourthly, which is the most important reason. The reason why we are targeting Fang clan is because of their trading with Fang Yuan, but this is also our fear. Who knows what their exact relationship with Fang Yuan is?"

Shi Kang nodded continuously, sighing: "Brother Tuoba's analysis is sound and clear, I agree completely."

Shi Zhong did not speak, he was in deep thought.

Tuoba Feng Yan's analysis was simple and Shi Kang knew it as well, but he had to ask this.

Because Shi Kang represented Shi clan, he had to talk with Zuo Qiu Yan Ming and Tuoba Feng Yan to see what their clan's intentions were as well.

Now that he knew their views were aligned with Shi clan, Shi Kang felt more relaxed.

"Come, drink wine, drink wine." Shi Kang raised his cup and smiled warmly.

After the meal, the three immortals thanked Shi Zhong before setting off for Wan clan.

Shi Zhong stored away the cups, he had a heavy mood.

Shi Kang's treatment by the clan was too good, it was simply the opposite of him.

Earlier, when Shi Kang was in closed cultivation, the clan provided him all the resources he needed. After Shi Kang took Sand Heap blessed land, the clan rewarded him immediately! The dragon crocodiles he killed were all kept as his property, it was a lucrative job. As for the journey to Wan clan, there were no risks and the outcome was basically decided, he would be welcomed by Wan clan. Instead of a mission, it was like a reward.

"Sigh, my hope still lies in wealth Gu. When can I refine this Gu successfully."

"Heaven Refining Demon Venerable... no, I will not ask for anyone's help. The risk is too big."

Even though Shi Zhong set such a determined goal, after a hundred failures in refining the Gu, he had already started to feel dejected.

His intuition vaguely told him that with his strength alone, the chance of refining wealth Gu was slim!

Thus, unknowingly, he entered yellow heaven again with his divine sense.

Within treasure yellow heaven, Fang Yuan's will suddenly opened his eyes as he spoke in a grand tone: "This rank seven movement Immortal Gu, capture wind Gu, has been refined as per the request of Southern Border's Wu Yong, we will make the transaction now."

"What?" Shi Zhong was shocked.

At this moment, every Gu Immortal who was inside treasure yellow heaven gasped.

Under everyone's gaze, Wu Yong's will got close to Fang Yuan's will, the latter tossed rank seven capture wind Gu to Wu Yong's will.

Wu Yong's will nodded and said nothing, he left treasure yellow heaven with the new Immortal Gu.

"Someone actually made a transaction with Fang Yuan! And it is actually Southern Border's Wu Yong." Shi Zhong had a dazed expression.

[1] Zhong means loyalty

-x-X-x-

Southern Border.

Wu Yi Mountain.

Wu clan's blessed land headquarters.

Wu clan's Gu Immortals were gathered, Wu Yong sat at the main seat. Most of the Gu Immortals here were present, only a few individuals had no way of coming and sent their wills instead.

"These last days, we have received letters from Ba clan, Tie clan, Luo clan, Hou clan, and the others. Take a look at them." Wu Yong waved his hand, more than ten information path Gu worms flew out.

As Wu clan's Gu Immortals looked through them, their expressions turned grim and dark.

The contents of these information path Gu worms, to put it mildly, were empty of value. They were merely using a righteous tone to condemn and question Wu Yong as to why he would make a deal with a demon like Fang Yuan! Some of them even threatened to withdraw from the Southern Alliance, arguing that Wu Yong was not qualified to take up the role of the alliance leader, they demanded that the alliance leader should be replaced by a more capable person.

"These fellows..."

"Hmph, they are shameless!"

"I can't stand this, there are many super clans involved here, most of them have once worked together with Lu Wei Yin right? Back then, Lu Wei Yin and Fang Yuan cooperated to kill Spectral Soul and escaped from Heavenly Court's pursuit. Now, they have the nerve to come and reprimand us?"

"They want to change the alliance leader? Hehe, in the whole of Southern Border's Gu Immortal world, is there anyone more suitable than Lord Wu Yong?!"

Wu clan's Gu Immortals discussed among themselves, speaking in an angry tone.

Wu Yong did not speak, he drank tea calmly as he listened to the immortals' conversations.

The immortals got louder and more riled up, their tone became agitated and they wanted to exact revenge on those clans.

Wu Yong put down his cup at this point, raising his hand slightly.

The immortals saw this and immediately kept quiet, many of the Wu clan Gu Immortals who had stood up uncontrollably in anger quickly sat down.

Wu Yong's gaze swept across everyone as the hall fell into silence.

"This is my Wu clan." Wu clan was expressionless but he was incredibly pleased internally.

Ever since he took charge of Wu clan, he had been leading them through crises, they experienced many battles and even chased after Fang Yuan. Most importantly, Wu Yong had incredible political skills, he gained the loyalty of the whole of Wu clan.

Among them, there were not just the original Wu clan Gu Immortals, but also the new lone immortal external elders, and the newly advanced rank six Gu Immortals of recent times.

In the earlier discussion, these people did not raise any objection or suggestion towards Wu Yong's decision and method.

This showed how much prestige Wu Yong had in his clan!

"Supreme elder Ba Chong, explain the situation to everyone." Wu Yong said plainly.

"Yes." As the second supreme elder, Wu Ba Chong stood up and said to the present Gu Immortals: "Days ago, Heaven Refining Demon Venerable, no, I mean Great Love Immortal Venerable, personally sent us a message, he contacted first supreme elder and insisted for him to undergo a public transaction. Thinking of Wu clan, which cannot block Fang Yuan's rage, first supreme elder had to endure the humiliation and agree to Fang Yuan's request."

Wu clan's immortals looked at each other.

Some had a change of expression, some clenched their fists, while some gritted their teeth, they could feel the immense pressure from Fang Yuan just by hearing this account.

Fang Yuan acted in an unrestrained manner, in this situation, it was logical for Wu Yong to be forced into such a transaction.

But at the next moment, Wu Yong laughed loudly: "Oh Ba Chong, no need to say this to them. We are all one family, I will tell you the straightforward truth."

The immortals tensed up and focused.

Bright light shined in Wu Yong's eyes: "This is not my first transaction with Fang Yuan. Before this, we have already done several secret transactions, Fang Yuan's evidence is not fake."

Saying so, Wu Yong paused for a second.

Seeing that the hall was silent and that every Gu Immortal still looked at him with a heated gaze, Wu Yong nodded in satisfaction, continuing: "The reason for this is very simple. Firstly, be it the previous Fang Yuan or the current venerable Fang Yuan, he is an existence that we cannot provoke. Secondly, making transactions with Fang Yuan benefited us greatly!"

"Our Wu clan gained several new Immortal Gu recently, they were all Fang Yuan's creations. If we had to refine them ourselves, we would have spent many times the immortal materials without any success."

Wu clan's immortals were silent.

Wu Yong looked around and went past Wu Ba Chong, his gaze ending up on Wu Qiao.

Wu Qiao shuddered and instantly stood up, speaking in a shivering voice: "But, but... now that these super forces are reprimanding us, how should we deal with it?"

Wu Yong smiled as he nodded at Wu Qiao: "Good question."

Saying so, he extended his hand, all of the information path mortal Gu flew back to him.

Wu Yong blew lightly, a slight breeze went in the air, destroying all of the information path mortal Gu immediately.

"These so-called accusations are completely useless." Wu Yong snickered coldly: "Will they dare to attack us?"

The immortals were stunned.

Wu Yong leaned back on his chair, he was high and mighty as his gaze swept down on everyone: "Do you still not understand? Everyone — times have changed!"

"The fate war, the pursuit battle against Fang Yuan, and the battle in Crazed Demon Cave, after all these, Heavenly Court's foundation has already been expended. Even though Star Constellation Immortal Venerable revived, she had no choice but to announce that the other two venerables were of the demonic path!"

"But both Giant Sun and Fang Yuan are also claiming themselves to be Immortal Venerables, they do not agree with the Demon Venerable title."

"What is immortal? What is demonic?"

"What is righteous path? What is demonic path?"

The immortals were all shaken.

Wu Yong laughed: "With the conflict of three venerables now, the five regions and two heavens will enter an unprecedented great era! If we still use our former judgment to differentiate righteous and demonic, we will only be devoured by the terrifying tides of the new era!"

"Didn't you see how Fang Yuan spent no effort to recruit the entire Righteous Qi Alliance? Our Southern Alliance, against these venerables, is completely useless and powerless. It is impossible to lead a group of sheep to defeat a fierce tiger. Furthermore, against these venerables, we are not even considered sheep."

"The only thing that can fight a venerable is a venerable!"

"Us pitiful worms need to survive between the cracks of the venerables. We need to work hard and absorb more nutrients to strengthen ourselves, if we can gain the pity of destiny, we might have a chance of survival."

"Give up the so-called pride of the righteous path, break free from the restraints of cheap morals and virtues, abandon your superiority complex as a Gu Immortal, these are all superficial and worthless things. Like the information path mortal Gu I destroyed earlier, a venerable can kill all of us Gu Immortals with just a simple breath as well."

Finally, Wu Yong raised his volume and said solemnly: "Work your very best, spend every minute and second of your life to fight for survival in this terrifying great era!"

"Yes, we have learned much from first supreme elder's wise words!" Wu Ba Chong, Wu Qiao, and the other Wu clan Gu Immortals stood up and replied solemnly.

Western Desert.

Wan clan headquarters.

A banquet had just ended, in the main hall with many used cups, there were only several Wan clan Gu Immortals left.

Rank six Gu Immortal Wan Zhui Qing smashed the cup in his hand on the ground in anger.

"These hypocritical and vicious clans, they are a disgrace to Western Desert! Don't they have the glory and resolution of the righteous path?!" Wan Zhui Qing shouted in anger, his face was flushed red.

"Zhui Qing." Wan Xiao frowned slightly.

"Am I wrong?" Wan Zhui Qing was still furious: "These last days, we held a small banquet every three days and a large banquet every five days, but what about these Gu Immortals? They are all giving vague replies and refuse to give definite answers!"

"Zhui Qing!" Wan Xiao shouted.

"Forget it, forget it." At this time, Wan clan's first supreme elder left his seat with a solemn expression, but his back seemed to be bent and weak.

The remaining Wan clan Gu Immortals fell into deep silence.

Outside Wan clan's headquarters, Tang Fang Ming and Tang Miao flew in the sky while looking at the stars, they were very relaxed.

"Occasionally coming out to relax is a good decision, brother." Tang Miao smiled.

Tang Fang Ming nodded, having the same feeling.

He was the rank seven Gu Immortal expert in Tang clan who received the most support, but different from Shi Kang, the reason why Tang Fang Ming was supported and placed great importance upon was because he had extraordinary talent and aptitude in dream path exploration.

This time, they went to Wan clan because Tang Fang Ming's beloved sister Tang Miao wanted to go sightseeing.

"Brother, Wan clan attended to us really nicely, they are very determined to deal with Fang clan as well. After negotiating with the various clans these days, Wan clan has already relented multiple times. When do you think the alliance army will be formed?" Tang Miao asked.

Tang Fang Ming smiled coldly: "The alliance army against Fang clan is not going to be created."

"What, why?"

"Let's take an example." Tang Fang Ming sighed, "Currently, the five regions and two heavens is like a forest with three fierce tigers that are exceptionally scary."

Tang Miao's eyes lit up: "Brother, you mean the three venerables?"

Tang Fang Ming nodded: "Other than these three fierce beasts, there are many birds, rabbits, and fish. Right now, a small bird called Wan wants to deal with a small rabbit called Fang. The bird knows it cannot win alone so it gathered other birds and rabbits to try to pay a high price, in order to bully the individual."

"However, the rabbit named Fang is currently leaning on a fierce beast. Nobody knows if the fierce beast will get angered if they touch this rabbit. If the fierce beast moves, no matter how many animals the bird named Wan gathers, they will all become food for the fierce beast."

Tang Miao was somewhat surprised: "Brother, you mean to say that this is the reason why these super forces cannot form an alliance army?"

Tang Fang Ming nodded again with a solemn expression: "No matter how harmonious the banquet is, or how intense the negotiation between Wan clan and the others get, they are all superficial in nature. The truth is that these animals are shivering in fear and deeply alert regarding the beasts. If any of them move in the forest, none of the animals can stop them."

Tang Miao took in a deep breath: "Thankfully, our Tang clan has been in contact with Lord Fang Yuan since long ago, we have undergone countless transactions. In my opinion, since Southern Border's alliance leader Wu Yong made a transaction with Fang Yuan publicly, our Tang clan can also..."

"Absolutely not!" Tang Fang Ming said: "Every action by Lord Fang Yuan contains deep meaning. The reason why he exposed evidence earlier and showed the transactions with many forces and Gu Immortals, without mentioning our Tang clan, is because he is protecting us!"

"Our Tang clan cannot compare with Southern Border's Wu clan, or even Fang clan, we are a weak force in Western Desert, because of our territorial location, we would be easily ganged up on and attacked."

"At this time, we cannot cause any commotion or raise attention to ourselves. We should only continue to work with Lord Fang Yuan in secret, we cannot waste his efforts."

"Of course, the information of Wan clan gathering the forces can be sold to Fang clan as a favor from us."

"Fang clan and Lord Fang Yuan have many transactions, from this angle, they are our natural ally."

Tang Fang Ming spoke frankly, but he had a clear view of the situation, Tang Miao listened with shining eyes, gaining realization as well.

But at this time, Tang Fang Ming's expression changed slightly.

"Brother, what's wrong?"

"Gu Immortals are transacting with Fang Yuan again in treasure yellow heaven, there are three people this time! Among which, two are from Northern Plains and Central Continent." Tang Fang Ming replied quickly with a flash of excitement in his eyes.

-x-X-x-

A lump of fire was burning quietly in Fang Yuan's hand.

The fire was only the size of an infant's fist, its color changed constantly. If a refinement path expert saw it, they would shout out in shock.

Because the change in the color of the flame was only the superficial appearance, the essence was something different.

For example, red flame meant fire refinement. When it was white, that was light refinement. When it was icy blue, that was ice refinement...

Fang Yuan clenched his fist lightly, the flame disappeared instantly.

Fang Yuan kept silent as he fell into deep contemplation.

A long while later, he blinked his eyes and retracted all of his scattered thoughts.

During this period of time, he had been personally refining Immortal Gu and did not activate Four Elements Square Regret Blood Refinement Pool at all. He refined more than ten Immortal Gu that were mostly rank six and seven, it was not an accomplishment for someone like Fang Yuan.

But in this process, Fang Yuan gained a considerable harvest.

His current refinement path attainment level was at supreme grandmaster! Any Gu refinement method was very easily discerned by him, he could understand their full profundity. No Gu recipes had hidden secrets in the eyes of Fang Yuan.

Right now, Fang Yuan could modify most recipes with a single attempt. Even for the more profound Immortal Gu recipes that needed some time to modify and expended a lot of effort to deduce appropriate immortal materials, by simply using Fang Yuan's refinement path intuition, he could just take a look to understand the exact direction that the Immortal Gu recipe should go in.

Fang Yuan tried many times, his attempts confirmed that this intuition gave correct answers with certainty!

This was the same for modifying refinement path killer moves and Gu refinement methods. Once, when Fang Yuan was refining Gu, he had an inspiration and thought of a new Gu refinement method, he succeeded on the first try!

When he personally refined Gu, Fang Yuan could feel a sense of control.

This sense of control greatly raised the success rate of refining Immortal Gu. When he refined the various Immortal Gu, when he got to a certain point of the refinement process, Fang Yuan would have a feeling that success was guaranteed.

Even if the Gu refinement was going to fail, Fang Yuan still had the sense of control. He could predict the failure of the Gu refinement in advance.

After all, even a refinement path venerable could fail when refining Immortal Gu.

On one hand, it was the refinement method. If any human error occurred, failure was guaranteed.

On the other hand, the various paths still had their own constraints. For example, refining fire path Immortal Gu would need a large amount of fire path immortal materials. Fang Yuan's control over the fire path immortal material would be much lower naturally since his fire path attainment level was way inferior to refinement path.

"But when I try to refine refinement path Immortal Gu, the success rate is basically a hundred percent. Of course, I have not tried to refine rank nine refinement path Immortal Gu yet."

Fang Yuan had already confirmed this point.

Refinement path Immortal Gu would use a large amount of refinement path immortal materials, Fang Yuan's control over these refinement path immortal materials was a hundred percent!

On this point, be they Old Eccentric Tian Nan, Old Immortal Kong Jue, or Long Hair Ancestor, they could not compare to Fang Yuan.

Because Fang Yuan was a refinement path venerable, he could refine the natural refinement path dao marks of the outside world.

Refinement path immortal materials contained refinement path dao marks, they were also subjected to this. Thus, Fang Yuan had perfect control over these immortal materials.

Thus, as long as there were no errors in the refinement method, with few immortal materials from other paths, the refinement path Immortal Gu's refinement would have a success rate that was infinitely close to a hundred percent!

In terms of Gu refinement success rate, Fang Yuan had already surpassed Four Elements Square Regret Blood Refinement Pool.

This was under the condition that he had little practice and was not proficient in many refinement path methods and killer moves yet.

Even though Fang Yuan was a refinement path venerable now, he still had a long way to improve in terms of refinement path.

"Other than practicing more and gaining experience, in the future, when my other paths' attainment levels rise, my success rate in refining Immortal Gu of those paths will also rise rapidly as well!"

"It is a pity that I cannot retrieve the Primordial Domain in treasure yellow heaven yet."

Fang Yuan did not have a way to retrieve the Primordial Domain, thus, he kept the Primordial Domain that he obtained from Giant Sun Immortal Venerable in treasure yellow heaven, he continued to pay the fee for storing it there.

Thinking of treasure yellow heaven, Fang Yuan recalled the three Gu Immortals that transacted with him earlier.

These three came from Southern Border, Central Continent, and Northern Plains.

They had open transactions that used their real names, thus the five regions' Gu Immortals learned of the details.

The Southern Border Gu Immortal was a member from Qiao clan, which was Wu clan's vassal, the open transaction between Qiao clan's Gu Immortal and Fang Yuan was likely instructed by Wu Yong to alleviate the political pressure on Wu clan.

Other than that, there was the lone immortal from Northern Plains and demonic immortal from Central Continent.

The truth was, after Wu Yong's transaction, there were many Gu Immortals who wanted to secretly contact Fang Yuan for Immortal Gu refinement.

But Fang Yuan's rule was that the transaction had to be openly done, thus, many Gu Immortals hesitated.

Only a few Gu Immortals, because of their own nature or external pressure, accepted Fang Yuan's rule of an open transaction.

Afterwards, Fang Yuan chose these two people.

They did not have high cultivation level, they were rank six Gu Immortals that were at the bottom of the Gu Immortal world.

Maybe it was because of their identity at the bottom, these two were more inclined to take risks and try to change their current situation.

It was like how poor people often disregarded their lives, while rich people were cautious and scared of dying.

Of course, these two people were no longer in Northern Plains and Central Continent.

Nobody knew what Heavenly Court's and Longevity Heaven's reactions would be after they made a transaction with Fang Yuan. These two Gu Immortals were not stupid, they escaped to another region immediately.

In the past, this action would have many drawbacks.

But with the dissipation of the regional walls and the unification of the five regions, as well as the movement of qi tides, the heaven and earth qi of the five regions became the same, there were no longer differences.

Thus, no matter which region a Gu Immortal went to, they would not be restricted by heaven and earth qi.

"The following period is crucial." Fang Yuan did not know what the reactions of Giant Sun Immortal Venerable and Star Constellation Immortal Venerable would be, he was anticipating them with alertness and wariness.

According to his deductions, there were four possible reactions from the two venerables.

First, they could send subordinates to kill these two rank six Gu Immortals. This was easy, Fang Yuan purposely chose them back then because they were weak.

If these two died at the hands of Longevity Heaven and Heavenly Court, Fang Yuan would be very happy.

Second, the two venerables cooperate to attack Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan was very wary against this situation, but he wanted to see this as well.

Third, the two venerables target treasure yellow heaven instead.

This situation would be the same as crippling the foundation of Fang Yuan's Great Love Gu refinement plan.

But the possibility was too slim, ever since treasure yellow heaven appeared, it had existed until now. During this time, Heavenly Court, Longevity Heaven, Shadow Sect, and other geniuses and outstanding experts wanted to find treasure yellow heaven, but they all failed.

Even now, Fang Yuan did not know where treasure yellow heaven was.

It was truly an extremely mysterious existence.

Fourth, which was the most likely situation that the two venerables would choose, was to ignore Fang Yuan's Gu refinement business since they could not stop it anyway. They would target other aspects, like elevating their cultivation and forces, to try and use other advantages against Fang Yuan's Great Love Gu refinement plan.

"The truth is, ever since we left Crazed Demon Cave, the contest between me, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, and Star Constellation Immortal Venerable had already begun. Whoever can develop the best will have the greatest advantage in our upcoming fights."

"Advantages may not become victory in the end, but as advantages accumulate, the eventual outcome will be affected for sure."

Fang Yuan had a clear recognition of his standing among the three venerables.

Recalling the battle in Crazed Demon Cave, Fang Yuan was aware that he could win because he had the most accurate combat tactics.

Because Fang Yuan only showed pseudo venerable battle strength, and because the venerables had been using him as a pawn all along, they did not think much of him subconsciously.

Be they Giant Sun Immortal Venerable or Star Constellation Immortal Venerable, they treated each other as the greatest threat.

This gave Fang Yuan a lot of room to maneuver.

But venerables were not so easily deceived.

Thus, Fang Yuan purposely exposed his ambition in refinement path, causing the two venerables to find out that he was trying to become venerable through refinement path.

After that, when he had sufficient accumulation in refinement path attainment level, he purposely gave up the fight over Primordial Domain in front of the two venerables.

With the refinement path portion of Primordial Domain destroyed, both venerables knew that Fang Yuan could not become venerable in the short term, they let their guard down against him.

On this basis, Fang Yuan continued to expose his weakness.

For example, Zhan Bu Du had been extremely high-profile in the few fights he was in, it caused a huge headache for Star Constellation Immortal Venerable.

Thus, Fang Yuan purposely let him die at Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's hands.

Or for example, reverse flow protection seal, Peaceful Soil Heavy Mountain Fortress, and other methods that the venerables knew about.

Fang Yuan purposely used up these methods so that the venerables would be even less on guard against him.

Fang Yuan had even planned to sacrifice the Qi Sea clone purposely.

But even at that extent, the two venerables were still not assured about Fang Yuan, at certain times, they worked together to try to eliminate him first.

That was the most dangerous moment for Fang Yuan.

He had both internal and external threats, his life was hanging on a thread in many situations. After all, Spring Autumn Cicada could not be used.

Thankfully, Fang Yuan got through those ordeals and finally saw the light of day at the end of the tunnel.

The two venerables consumed each other's strength, while Limitless Demon Venerable's appearance and Paradise Earth's venerable ascension attempt caused the two venerables' attention to be shifted to them.

Eventually, Fang Yuan took a chance to kill Paradise Earth and repel the two venerables, becoming the greatest winner in this battle in Crazed Demon Cave.

Other than the proper combat tactics, the most important criteria for victory was that Fang Yuan had made all sorts of preparations before the battle started.

Fang Yuan obtained ability Gu and fortitude Gu, they were extremely useful in Crazed Demon Cave.

Fang Yuan raised the cultivation level of his subordinates, allowing White Rabbit and Miao Yin to fight against Duke Mei and Duke Tong.

Fang Yuan deduced and modified many killer moves like Dang Hun Luo Po Seal, road of life, several hundred totem killer moves, heaven envies heroic geniuses, and countless compound killer moves.

Fang Yuan even created the artificial earth vein and defensive food path methods, he also prepared dream path killer moves.

Most of them were used in Crazed Demon Cave, if he had not made ample preparation, even if Fang Yuan had the proper tactics, he could not last until the end.

"I became a refinement path venerable and gained the most benefits in the battle in Crazed Demon Cave, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable and Star Constellation Immortal Venerable are placing a huge focus on me now."

"I need to do everything to raise my strength and develop further, that is how I can accumulate my advantage in the contest of three venerables."

The results of development now would be the crucial factors affecting the victory of the contest of three venerables in the future!

-x-X-x-

Longevity Heaven.

Giant Sun Immortal Venerable held onto an information path mortal Gu as he thought to himself and sighed with a calm expression: "To think that as a venerable, I will actually be unable to do anything against a mere Northern Plains rank six lone immortal."

With Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's temper and nature, Gu Immortals publicly transacting with Fang Yuan were simply provoking him!

In the past, such a Gu Immortal would have already died countless times.

The pride of a venerable was not to be trampled.

But now...

Giant Sun Immortal Venerable summoned one of the Eight Extremities and said: "Go, secretly transmit to the Huang Jin tribes to try to recruit this person. Whoever succeeds will receive my special reward."

"Yes." The member of the Eight Extremities answered and left respectfully.

At this time, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable could not make any statements personally, it would be disadvantageous to him and Longevity Heaven.

But he could let the Huang Jin tribes take action.

This was the political skill of an experienced ruler.

Giant Sun Immortal Venerable knew that Fang Yuan's Great Love Gu refinement plan could not be stopped. It was an open scheme that everyone could see, but the desires of Gu Immortals could not be suppressed.

If Giant Sun Immortal Venerable tried to stop it, or if he ordered people to kill this Northern Plains lone immortal, he would lose the hearts of the people in Longevity Heaven.

He might be able to suppress it for a while, but the more he stifled it, the deeper this discontent would accumulate, and when it erupts in the future, a huge problem would occur in Longevity Heaven.

Eventually, the result would be simple —

Northern Plains' lone immortals and demonic cultivators would find Fang Yuan for public transactions. After that, they would leave and escape to the other regions. Most likely, they would go to Eastern Sea, which was under Fang Yuan's control.

That was the same as Fang Yuan using Immortal Gu to lure these lone immortals and demonic cultivators of Northern Plains to Eastern Sea, strengthening his own Heaven and Earth Great Love Alliance.

Giant Sun Immortal Venerable would not fall for such an open scheme.

"Fang Yuan is too arrogant, he does not have enough immortal essence but he dares to publicly provoke us, hmph, we need to retaliate!"

If the battle in Crazed Demon Cave let Giant Sun Immortal Venerable learn of Fang Yuan's battle strength, then currently, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable learned of Fang Yuan's shrewd and ruthless political skills.

Thinking about it, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable took out an information path Immortal Gu from his immortal aperture.

The information path Immortal Gu quickly flew towards Central Continent.

Central Continent, Heavenly Court.

Star Constellation Immortal Venerable was also thinking of a way to deal with Fang Yuan's method.

She called for He Feng Yang and personally talked to him before giving him a mission.

When He Feng Yang left Heavenly Court, he was still in a confused state.

The mission that Star Constellation Immortal Venerable gave him was to publicly transact with Fang Yuan and refine a new Immortal Gu!

Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's countermeasure was even more simple than Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's.

Since Fang Yuan declared that he would show his great love to the world, refining Gu for enemies and allies alike, Heavenly Court would use this to their advantage. It was a fact that they could not stop his scheme, thus, making use of it to gain benefits was a wise choice.

Of course, Heavenly Court and Star Constellation Immortal Venerable would not make transactions with Fang Yuan openly, this was still not acceptable. After all, they had denounced Fang Yuan as a Demon Venerable earlier.

As for the transaction between Fang Yuan and He Feng Yang, be it success or failure, Heavenly Court would stay indifferent towards it, showing a political attitude that they would not care about the actions of the ten great ancient sects in this aspect.

This way, the ten great ancient sects would get involved and obtain many Immortal Gu, that would raise the strength of Central Continent as a whole.

If Fang Yuan were to reject them or state an absurd price, it would go against his earlier declaration, causing him to lose his credibility.

Weakening Fang Yuan's credibility was also a sort of victory for Heavenly Court.

Qin Ding Ling appeared with two information path Immortal Gu.

"Oh?" After Star Constellation Immortal Venerable took a look at them, she fell into contemplation.

The first one came from Southern Border's Wu clan.

Star Constellation Immortal Venerable looked into it, Southern Alliance Leader Wu Yong, the first supreme elder of Wu clan, wanted to have an open transaction with Heavenly Court.

Wu Yong seemed to have forgotten that he had led the Southern Alliance to oppose Heavenly Court during the fate war!

A hint of appreciation flashed past Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's eyes.

"This Wu Yong is truly remarkable."

"Earlier, he had transactions with Fang Yuan, now, he wants to transact with Heavenly Court too."

"His ambitions are not small..."

"But it is good too, agreeing to this will benefit Heavenly Court."

Star Constellation Immortal Venerable made a decision to hold transactions with Wu Yong immediately.

On one hand, she was showing her attitude that she was tolerant towards any transaction with Fang Yuan.

On the other hand, Star Constellation Immortal Venerable was also trying to pull Wu Yong to her side. Fang Yuan and Wu Yong were very close now, if she rejected him, he might likely join his side.

This was not something Star Constellation Immortal Venerable wanted to see.

As for the second information path Immortal Gu, it came from Giant Sun Immortal Venerable.

The content was simple, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable wanted to cooperate with Star Constellation Immortal Venerable to take action against Fang Yuan together.

Of course, they were not going to ally without any basis.

After all, during the battle in Crazed Demon Cave, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable and Star Constellation Immortal Venerable had cooperated to a certain extent against Fang Yuan, who became venerable.

The battle in Crazed Demon Cave had just ended, the venerables had not gotten much stronger since.

If the two venerables joined hands against Fang Yuan now, they would only be asking for humiliation, it would not end well.

Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's idea was to continuously use luck path methods to survey Eastern Sea and investigate Heaven Refining Demon Venerable. If Fang Yuan made any attempt to refine rank nine Immortal Gu, a huge fluctuation in his luck would be observable, by then, they would use the chance to deal with him!

Right now, Fang Yuan was very strong, both Giant Sun Immortal Venerable and Star Constellation Immortal Venerable would be repelled by him, but his advantage was not big enough, so the two venerables were still quite calm.

However, once he refines a rank nine Immortal Gu, he would have to expend a huge amount of immortal essence. Especially during the crucial moments of Gu refinement, if the two venerables find a chance to attack Fang Yuan's major flaw, he would be at his weakest.

If Fang Yuan fails the Gu refinement, he would suffer a terrifying backlash as well.

After all, the refinement of a rank nine Immortal Gu was extremely significant!

Regarding Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's suggestion, Star Constellation Immortal Venerable agreed without second thought.

The truth was, she had her own set of investigative methods to spy on Eastern Sea as well, she was guarded against Fang Yuan, who could be refining rank nine Immortal Gu at any time.

Star Constellation Immortal Venerable placed great focus on Fang Yuan's refinement path attainment.

The contest of three venerables was neck and neck, if either side gained a rank nine Immortal Gu, their strength would rise immensely. That would no longer be a contest of equal strength, even territories could be lost then.

The truth was, even if Giant Sun Immortal Venerable did not send a letter, Star Constellation Immortal Venerable would have sent one to him.

If Fang Yuan was truly given the chance to display his specialty and refine a rank nine Immortal Gu, he would gain the biggest advantage.

That was something neither of the two venerables wanted to see.

This secret plan to stop Fang Yuan from refining rank nine Immortal Gu started with the subtle cooperation of the two venerables.

"If Fang Yuan takes a risk to refine rank nine Immortal Gu, we will strike."

"But even if I cooperate with Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, I still need to mind my immortal essence expenditure."

Star Constellation Immortal Venerable understood that Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had more immortal essence than her, but if she expended too much immortal essence when targeting Fang Yuan, even if she spent the same amount as Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, it would not benefit her.

Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's biggest advantage was in immortal essence quantity after all.

If that situation occurred, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's advantage would be even bigger then.

That was also part of Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's secret scheme.

Eastern Sea.

"Oh?" Fang Yuan's expression changed slightly.

Currently, he was refining Immortal Gu while communicating in treasure yellow heaven, he also considered the arrangements and development of his immortal aperture with great ease.

Now, he had received He Feng Yang's request for a transaction in treasure yellow heaven.

"He Feng Yang is actually asking me for an open transaction, it seems that this is Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's idea." Fang Yuan immediately understood the truth.

Without Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's permission, how could He Feng Yang dare to do this?

"Worthy of Star Constellation Immortal Venerable." Fang Yuan praised.

It was a wise and logical countermeasure.

The contest of forces and the fight between experts had never been as simple as allies and enemies. But according to the specific situation, one needed to have the flexibility to change sides.

Sometimes, your enemies could become your allies, you could even work together with your enemies while simultaneously plotting against them.

But this reaction was within Fang Yuan's expectations.

Regarding He Feng Yang's request for a transaction, Fang Yuan's will agreed on the spot.

If he rejected this, it would weaken his credibility and reputation.

Furthermore, what reason was there to reject it?

This was beneficial to Heavenly Court and Central Continent, but it was even more useful for Fang Yuan!

After all, he was the seller who set the price.

It was natural that Heavenly Court and Central Continent were going to benefit.

This was a mutually beneficial transaction where both sides got what they wanted. The losing side was naturally Longevity Heaven.

When Fang Yuan and Star Constellation Immortal Venerable become stronger, Longevity Heaven would be left behind.

But once Longevity Heaven sees this situation, they would want to catch up, even if they were unwilling, they would make transactions with Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan would obviously not reject them, by then, he would be the party that benefits the most out of this.

"Since you want a rank seven Immortal Gu, hand me the nine central stone forest." Fang Yuan quoted his price to He Feng Yang.

Nine central stone forest was an earth path resource point, it could be used as an earth vein node.

The exact value when compared to a rank seven Immortal Gu was not clear. For the short term, the rank seven Immortal Gu was definitely more valuable. But for the long term, a nine central stone forest that could continuously produce earth path resources definitely surpassed just one rank seven Immortal Gu.

This quote was very expensive, far higher than Fang Yuan's earlier price for refining Gu. He Feng Yang could not make a decision, but he had Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's orders.

On the whole, this price was still in the acceptable range, so He Feng Yang agreed to it.

"In the future, when Heavenly Court and Longevity Heaven transact with me further, I will ask for more earth path resource points for fixing earth veins in my sovereign immortal aperture."

The sovereign immortal aperture had already started to prosper and develop.

The current plan was to construct a water vein.

Since the Righteous Qi Alliance joined Fang Yuan, they had to show their sincerity. Fang Yuan gave orders without holding back, he asked the clans to contribute a batch of water path resource points.

"I have tens of yellow apricot immortal essence beads now. I cannot take a risk in refining rank nine Immortal Gu yet, these immortal essence beads are insufficient."

"Let's refine those heaven path rank eight Immortal Gu first."

-x-X-x-

Southern Border.

A group of five Gu Masters were sprinting rapidly on the road.

The leader had rank four cultivation level, he had an ordinary face but was exceptionally capable.

It was Shang clan's Gu Master Xiao Yan.

Moving fire Gu.

He was activating a fire path Gu worm now to travel. Each step he took, flames would be ignited on the ground, causing a huge trail of fire to burn along his path.

Behind him, the four Gu Masters all had rank two cultivation level, they were gritting their teeth as they followed him.

"Lord Xiao Yan, let's rest for a while, we don't have enough primeval essence." While running, a rank two Gu Master suggested.

"Mm..." Xiao Yan slowed his speed but he was still running.

This was the wilderness, if Gu Masters did not have sufficient primeval essence, they would face great risks in surviving. A rank two Gu Master was also not qualified to explore the wild, they lacked the capability and strength.

But right now, Xiao Yan had a mission to do.

"According to the information, if I am any later, the fire in the village will be unstoppable. I need to hurry there now!"

"Last time, I was misled by the enemy's information and went out to search for fire path Gu materials, causing Lady Shang Xin Ci to face great danger."

"This time, I need to work hard and complete this mission to make up for my mistake!"

Thinking of this, Xiao Yan made up his mind, he ordered: "You four, go rest, I will head there first. After you are done resting, catch up to me."

"Yes!" The four Gu Masters answered.

Xiao Yan's speed rose to its limit, he quickly went into the forest.

A few hours later, he arrived at his destination, a small village that was under Shang clan's control.

"Lord, you finally came! The village has already prepared some wine..." The village head was a rank four Gu Master, he spoke to Xiao Yan politely.

But Xiao Yan waved his hand: "The fire is more important, we need to resolve this issue first."

The village head was overjoyed: "Lord is wise! Please come with me, to speak the truth, I have been very anxious these days!"

The village head brought Xiao Yan to the back of the mountain.

Xiao Yan saw that in a crevice at the back of the mountain, there was a white dazzling flame burning intensely.

"That's right, this is light fire!" Xiao Yan stared from afar as his pupils shrank: "This light fire is too big, it covers a range of at least two hundred paces, this is beyond my capabilities."

Light fire was a type of special fire, it was a rank five Gu material. From what Xiao Yan knew, this Gu material could be used to refine rank five light path or fire path Gu worms.

From the perspective of a Gu Immortal, the essence was clear. This light fire contained fire path and light path dao marks.

"To think that I could not find any special fire earlier no matter how I searched. But once I took this mission, I found such a large area of light fire."

"Lady Shang Xin Ci purposely gave this mission to me, she is simply too kind and merciful."

"Sigh, this gratitude..."

Xiao Yan sighed internally, he gradually understood Shang Xin Ci's intention.

He slowly got closer to the light fire.

As the distance shortened, he felt deeper emotions internally, he became angry for no reason.

This was not strange.

This was the effect of the light fire, the closer one got to this Gu material, the angrier they would become.

Xiao Yan tried to use fire path methods and quickly kept away a lump of the light fire that was the size of a basin.

Xiao Yan nodded internally.

His earlier evaluation was right, such a large field of light fire could not be taken by him alone, but he could keep most of it. Afterwards, the four rank two Gu Masters would arrive and help him to complete this mission successfully.

But they had to be quick.

Gu materials like light fire would spread and grow rapidly in the day. But now was night time, the light fire's growth was suppressed.

This was also the reason why Xiao Yan rushed there at full speed while leaving his subordinates behind.

"Before they get here, I need to make arrangements in the surroundings in case of enemies." Xiao Yan immediately used his alert methods near the light fire.

Guarding against others was a necessity.

Furthermore, in order to retrieve this light fire, Xiao Yan had to use his full strength.

"Why are there still mortals in the surroundings?" While surveying the location, Xiao Yan found that there were many mortals praying within the mountain's forest, towards the fire.

The village head quickly guaranteed that he would chase these mortals away, for the following period, he would not let these mortals interrupt Xiao Yan and his subordinates.

Next, the village head explained the reason.

It turned out that because the sky had gotten strange recently without white heaven or black heaven, day and night could no longer be differentiated.

Thus, the Gu Masters of the five regions and even mortals were deeply shocked and fearful.

On a certain night, fire rain fell from the sky. Lumps of heaven flames landed in the range of ten thousand li around the village, these mortals were shocked by the phenomenon and thought that heaven was angry and punishing these mortals by burning them to death. Thus, they were all kneeling here and praying for forgiveness.

"Foolish." Xiao Yan snorted coldly but his expression became milder.

He could understand them.

When the sky first changed, he was also extremely fearful. but with the information from Shang Xin Ci, he learned that even though this was a huge event, it was not dangerous to them. Even if there were danger, it was not something that Gu Masters at Xiao Yan's level should care about.

At the same time.

Immemorial white heaven.

Or more accurately, in the fused black and white heavens.

A few tens of thousands of li away, Fang Yuan watched the huge sun from afar.

The sun seemed to be moving forward slowly, but it was traveling rapidly on a fixed route, going from east to west, before u-turning and going back from west to east, repeating the process endlessly.

Whenever the sun went to the extreme east of immemorial white heaven, or the extreme west, twelve hours would pass exactly.

With the swap of black heaven and white heaven, the five regions would be enveloped by the night sky.

And in white heaven that was above black heaven, the sun would go on the return route from west to east, spending twelve hours to reach the starting point.

By then, black heaven and white heaven would swap again.

Thus, in the view and perception of mortals, the sun had always appeared from the east of white heaven when the night sky fades. When it was dusk, the sun would vanish into the extreme west as the night emerges.

The sun was very large.

Among the eleven venerables, even Spectral Soul Demon Venerable, who had the largest body that resembled a mountain, was far inferior to the sun.

The size of the sun, in Fang Yuan's estimation, was about the size of giant hero sea area, and that was one of the largest sea areas in Eastern Sea.

Originally, in immemorial white heaven, the sun's travel route had absolutely nothing in its way.

But now, with the fusion of both heavens, the environment changed abruptly and chaotically.

While Fang Yuan was observing, a large area of black clouds blocked the sun's path. Whenever the sun moved forward by a little, a large portion of the black clouds would dissipate.

Of course, the sun was not completely unharmed, from time to time, sparks would fall off the surface of the sun.

These heaven flames would land on the black clouds or scatter elsewhere. An even smaller portion of them would land in the five regions.

From Fang Yuan's perspective, the collision of the black clouds and the sun was like the collision of two groups of dao marks. The former was dark path and cloud path, while the latter was light path and fire path.

"The black cloud is bound to lose but the sun's expenditure is also considerable. With such an intense change, it is no wonder that heaven form has turned chaotic, and is also at the brink of breaking apart."

Fang Yuan was originally refining heaven path Immortal Gu, the reason why he suddenly changed his plans and came up to the two heavens of Eastern Sea was because of heaven form.

Heaven form was left by Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable, it was considered half a Thieving Heaven true inheritance.

Back then, Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable had encountered a natural heavenly spirit in immemorial white heaven by chance.

This natural heavenly spirit could not be brought out of white heaven or placed into one's grotto-heaven. It was filled with heaven's will that was constantly replenished at all times. Even Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable could not use his human will to refine it forcefully.

After thinking long and hard, he found a solution. He forcefully condensed it and created an immortal killer move, calling it — Heaven Form!

The refinement of heaven form needed a long period of time and generations of wills to cleanse. One day, it would be truly refined by a Gu Immortal, by then, it would be usable.

Afterwards, this heaven form killer move was obtained by the Heaven Surveying Five Xiangs who made the thousand year bet, eventually ending up in Fang Yuan's hands.

Heaven form was a huge help to Fang Yuan, especially in terms of invading the two heavens' grotto-heavens, as well as displaying great use during the fate war.

Heaven form was like a one-legged crane that was covered in snow-white feathers which had no dust or dirt, it had a long beak that was red in color.

When activating it, it would spread its wings and fly elegantly. When it was inactive, it would shut its eyes and stand on one leg, its neck would coil up on its back as it rested silently.

Heaven form had been kept in immemorial white heaven all along, Fang Yuan could not take it away.

Because its foundation was in immemorial white heaven.

Now that immemorial white heaven and black heaven were fusing, heaven form's foundation was affected. Fang Yuan had to help it in time and stabilize its form, otherwise, without external aid, it would be destroyed!

-x-X-x-

The white crane-like heaven form cried out in front of Fang Yuan.

It was in great pain, its body twisted and curled up at times.

Fang Yuan's fingers were spread like blooming flowers as he activated his refinement path killer move, traces of green and fragrant wind moved around the white crane like chains coiling on its body, stabilizing its form.

Heaven form was originally declining in condition, but after using this method, its collapse was slowing down.

But that was not enough.

The white crane continued to cry out.

"Don't worry, I am around, I will protect you." Fang Yuan continued to console it.

This was a killer move from an information path Gu Immortal, because it was special and had refinement path effect, Lang Ya land spirit kept a copy of it.

After Fang Yuan's modification, he abandoned the original name and called it loving consolation, it seemed like information path but was actually a refinement path method, after returning to its roots, the effect was greatly elevated.

This move could allow the Gu Immortal to use words of consolation on an incomplete Immortal Gu to affect the refinement process.

For example, if on the brink of failure, Fang Yuan consoled it repeated as such:

"I know you can do it!"

"Work hard!"

"You can definitely succeed, believe in yourself."

If these words of consolation reached the incomplete Immortal Gu that was about to break apart, its condition would stop worsening, it could even recover and succeed in refinement in the end.

However, this move had certain restrictions.

Firstly, the effect was continuous, each sentence had little effect on the process, only through an accumulation of non-stop speech could there be an evident effect. Thus, during refinement, if there was a sudden accident and this move was not used in time, or maybe the effect of this move could not catch up with the speed of deterioration, then the refinement process could not be salvaged.

Secondly, this move could only be used on an incomplete Immortal Gu. That was to say, the refinement must reach a certain stage before this could be used. Otherwise, without an incomplete Immortal Gu formed, this move could not even be used. Many Gu recipes refined Immortal Gu immediately, there was no intermediate step of forming an incomplete Immortal Gu first, thus, this could not be used in such situations.

But Fang Yuan could use it now.

Because this situation was a little special.

Heaven form was originally intact, but with the fusion of black heaven and white heaven, it suffered major injuries and could be treated as an incomplete Immortal Gu.

Of course, the basis was that Fang Yuan was a refinement path venerable and had the attainment level and methods to treat the rank nine killer move, heaven form, as a Gu worm undergoing refinement.

"Don't worry, with me around, you can rest assured." Fang Yuan continued to speak gently.

But heaven form's cries were getting louder.

Suddenly, heaven form's snow-white feathers started to blaze up. It was originally an ember but the fire soon grew after a few breaths of time, becoming the size of a human palm.

Fang Yuan immediately took action, breathing in deeply and activating his killer move as two lumps of qi that were white and blue respectively blew out of his nose.

The two breaths first landed on the feathers and extinguished the flames before turning into frost and preventing the fire from starting again.

"Thankfully, I used this refinement path killer move before, I am considerably familiar with it." Fang Yuan was glad internally.

If not for that, he would not be able to handle it in time.

The larger the fire, the greater the cost Fang Yuan would have to bear when he dealt with it. If the fire spread throughout heaven form's body, then this killer move would be destroyed, even Fang Yuan could not save it then.

"You must pull through, your master believes in you!" Fang Yuan said lovingly.

The white crane's cries became louder and sharper.

"What's going on?" Bright light shined in Fang Yuan's eyes.

Soon, he realized the problem.

A wave of black poisonous liquid appeared in the white crane's body and started spreading rapidly, corroding everything and causing the killer move to be nearly destroyed internally.

The white crane vomited intensely as black liquid came out of its mouth.

Fang Yuan grunted and knew that he could not use a fire refinement method, otherwise, it would trigger the previous fire. Thus, he pointed.

Instantly, a hundred green light specks flew into the white crane's mouth like a swarm of insects.

The green light spread around the poisonous liquid and grew rapidly.

Stalks of green grass grew rapidly, absorbing all of the poison in the white crane's body.

Fang Yuan flicked his finger again as golden light flowed like water, entering the white crane's body and cutting all the grass away.

Powder also entered the white crane's body and helped to heal it at this time.

"Everything will be over soon, there is light at the end of the tunnel, don't give up!" Fang Yuan encouraged it again.

But the white crane screeched intensely, its body started to twitch like it was shocked by lightning.

Next, its long and elegant body started to inflate like a balloon, it got larger and larger, seemingly reaching its limit and about to explode.

Fang Yuan quickly stretched out his hand and grabbed with five fingers as a huge rod appeared in his palm.

"Just one refinement path killer move is not enough!"

Fang Yuan's thoughts flashed rapidly like sparks in his mind, he manipulated the Gu worms in his immortal aperture and prepared another killer move.

At the next moment, sharp icy spikes appeared on the huge rod.

Boom.

Fang Yuan exerted strength into his arm and slammed down on the white crane's body. It immediately cried out in pain and looked at its master in utter disbelief.

But Fang Yuan was still smiling gently: "You must believe in master, believe in yourself too."

Boom.

Fang Yuan waved the rod and slammed down again, the white crane's inflated body was forcefully deflated, powerful air currents gushed out of the holes on its body that were left by the spikes.

Boom.

Fang Yuan smiled gently: "White crane, be good, work harder."

Boom!

Fang Yuan smiled sincerely: "White crane, you are so cute, persevere on, we will succeed eventually."

Boom boom!

Fang Yuan smiled mercifully: "No matter what you experience, don't ever give up. With me around, I won't let you die."

The huge rod slammed down once more, while the white crane had already broken down mentally!

Boom!

After a loud impact, it nearly fainted.

There were no movements anymore.

However, its body returned to the original size, it no longer was inflated but was covered in injuries, it was barely still alive, no longer displaying the power of a rank nine killer move.

Fang Yuan stored away the huge rod with icy spikes.

He nodded in satisfaction and muttered to himself: "Although it is my first time trying these two moves together, my refinement path venerable intuition is not wrong, there are no mistakes at all. The effect is just as strong as I expected."

"This move is not like loving consolation, it has wide usage, I can practice it more in the future!"

"Next time, if such a situation happens, I will use this again."

As if the crane heard Fang Yuan's words, its 'corpse' shook intensely and its mouth was tightly shut.

With the fusion of white heaven and black heaven, heaven form fell into a deep predicament, Fang Yuan had to guard it at all times and use refinement path killer moves to stabilize it whenever an issue occurred.

"The difficulty is not high now, but the future is uncertain. By guarding heaven form, I am also restricted greatly, the more I try to save it, the more immortal essence I will waste."

Fang Yuan did not have much immortal essence to begin with, this made the problem even worse.

"But I cannot abandon heaven form!" Fang Yuan had to preserve this killer move, from his luck inspection through Cooking Luck Pot earlier, Fang Yuan analyzed and found that heaven path was his best choice in getting past his current predicament.

Like now, while guarding heaven form, he was also refining other heaven path Immortal Gu in the sovereign immortal aperture!

A new heaven path Immortal Gu was refined!

This heaven path Immortal Gu looked like a crystal spider, it was clear and transparent with no flaws on the body. The spider's eight legs were slim and long, its body was also small and raised high by the eight legs.

Rank eight heaven path Immortal Gu — Heavenly Web!

This Gu was the core of the heaven path killer move, heavenly web protection veil. Back then in Crazed Demon Cave, Paradise Earth used it multiple times, it had outstanding defensive properties, it was definitely on par with Fang Yuan's reverse flow protection seal.

After Fang Yuan killed Paradise Earth, he found that there were only two heaven path Immortal Gu in his immortal aperture.

One was heavenly web Gu, the other was heavenly birth Gu.

Heavenly birth Gu was used by Paradise Earth to revive, it was also his core Immortal Gu when converting from earth path to heaven path.

There were also many other Immortal Gu.

Like information path Immortal Gu Summary, it could allow a Gu Immortal to deduce the general summary of a complicated information.

Or for example, rule path Immortal Gu Normal, it could allow the target to recover to their normal condition.

By using these Immortal Gu, Paradise Earth formed many heaven path killer moves like heavenly web protection veil, emotionless heaven and earth, heavenly summary earthly norm, and others.

These Immortal Gu were all destroyed by Paradise Earth's will before his death.

Currently, heavenly web Gu was refined, Fang Yuan had to refine heavenly birth Gu next.

Heavenly birth Gu could heal Immortal Gu, when used with Fang Yuan's refinement path killer moves, it could have an effect on heaven form!

Fang Yuan had his own heaven path accumulation before this: Rank eight heavenly secret Gu, heaven's envy Gu, and the heaven envies heroic geniuses killer move that he used in Crazed Demon Cave, as well as the heaven form that he was saving now.

After making huge gains from looting Paradise Earth, Fang Yuan gained a large increase in heaven path foundation.

"Especially in Paradise Earth's heaven path research results, there is a method called obscured heavenly secret that can use the power of heaven path to conceal oneself, it is very useful to me!"

Fang Yuan's greatest objective was the killer move obscured heavenly secret. After that, it was to refine heavenly birth Gu and stabilize heaven form.

Obscured heavenly secret could be modified, in theory, the more heaven path Immortal Gu used in the move, the greater the concealment effect.

Fang Yuan had to resolve his predicament of insufficient immortal essence, he had two choices right now.

One was to develop his immortal aperture. But accelerating the time in sovereign immortal aperture was not a good idea, Fang Yuan could only expand his Great Love Gu refinement plan and try to get more resource points added into his immortal aperture to raise his immortal aperture origin core and produce more immortal essence.

The other solution was to advance Heavenly Essence Treasure Imperial Lotus!

Rank eight Heavenly Essence Treasure Imperial Lotus was extremely helpful to Fang Yuan, without it, Fang Yuan would have run out of immortal essence in Crazed Demon Cave.

It had such an incredible effect, whoever used it would understand why it was Genesis Lotus Immortal Venerable's vital Gu!

Fang Yuan was now a rank nine venerable, rank eight Heavenly Essence Treasure Imperial Lotus was not suitable for him. If he advanced it, rank nine Heavenly Essence Treasure Imperial Lotus would definitely allow Fang Yuan to break out of this predicament!

However, if he tried to advance it now, the information would no doubt be exposed.

Star Constellation Immortal Venerable and Giant Sun Immortal Venerable were watching him closely.

Fang Yuan knew this clearly.

He was now rank nine, rank eight Cooking Luck Pot could only barely help him. When he tries to refine rank nine Immortal Gu, his luck would fluctuate immensely, against Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, Cooking Luck Pot would not conceal the luck entirely.

Star Constellation Immortal Venerable was a wisdom path venerable, it was even harder to conceal the information from her.

"The moment I refine my rank nine Gu is also my weakest moment, the two of them will definitely cooperate to attack me. Thus, this obscured heavenly secret killer move is the crucial factor."

Cooking Luck Pot could not deceive Giant Sun Immortal Venerable because it was luck path.

But obscured heavenly secret was heaven path, it was like how Fang Yuan had little countermeasures against pill path and painting path.

Against heaven path, even Giant Sun Immortal Venerable and Star Constellation Immortal Venerable would be helpless.

"But this method has a hidden threat, Star Constellation Immortal Venerable had assimilated with the Dao three million years ago, while Heavenly Court has an immense foundation in heaven path research results. How long can obscured heavenly secret conceal the truth from her?"

-x-X-x-

Central Continent.

Three rank six Gu Immortals were surrounding an ancient cloud beast and attacking it.

"Be careful!"

The ancient cloud beast suddenly transformed and raised its speed, attacking the woman among the three immortals.

The female immortal was not fazed, her white blouse moved like a blooming flower, a vague silhouette blocking the cloud beast's attack.

But this ancient cloud beast also attacked more fiercely, even though it was blocked, it did not retreat, instead, it changed its form and enveloped the female immortal entirely.

From outside, it looked like the ancient cloud beast had devoured the female immortal.

"Fairy Lian Yun!" Shi Zheng Yi shouted and wanted to activate an information path killer move anxiously.

But beside him, Yu Yi Ye Zi stopped his action: "Wait! If you use this move and pierce the cloud beast, what if you injure Fairy Lian Yun?"

Shi Zheng Yi stopped and gritted his teeth: "Then what do we do?"

Yu Yi Ye Zi, who had the appearance of a young man, showed a solemn expression: "In this situation, I can only try to use that move."

"What move?" Shi Zheng Yi felt that it was too dangerous: "Don't tell me you are not familiar with it yet?"

But Yu Yi Ye Zi had already started preparing the move.

Sensing the aura of the killer move, the cloud beast enveloped Zhao Lian Yun and rushed towards them.

Shi Zheng Yi immediately used his method to try to stall the ancient cloud beast.

He opened his mouth wide and his tongue could be seen.

The information path killer move activated as Shi Zheng Yi spoke rapidly without stopping.

The power of words affected the ancient cloud beast's body as a formless power accumulated and stalled its movement.

After more than ten breaths of time, Shi Zheng Yi finally heard Yu Yi Ye Zi's voice, he deactivated his killer move with joy and dodged to the side.

Yu Yi Ye Zi's palms aimed at the ancient cloud beast as two beams of light shot out of them.

The beams were pale blue, after landing on the ancient cloud beast, they started to dissolve.

Zhao Lian Yun, who was trapped inside the cloud beast, struggled intensely, she put in more effort and finally broke free from it, regaining freedom.

"Alright, my turn!" Shi Zheng Yi saw that Zhao Lian Yun had escaped and quickly made his move, cooperating with Yu Yi Ye Zi and using an offensive killer move.

Two killer moves landed on the ancient cloud beast, with a loud sound, this ancient cloud beast exploded on the spot.

The ancient cloud beast's corpse turned into lumps of clouds, most were immortal materials. After Zhao Lian Yun and the rest collected the materials, they rested on the spot.

"It was my fault, I got trapped by the cloud beast and caused our immortal materials to not be high in quality." Zhao Lian Yun apologized.

"This loss is nothing. We only have rank six cultivation level but fought against an ancient cloud beast, winning is already a huge achievement, we cannot ask for more." Yu Yi Ye Zi consoled.

Shi Zheng Yi talked loudly: "Ever since the battle of Reverse Flow River, we have not been able to meet up often. While the two heavens are fusing together, with beast groups escaping from the two heavens to Central Continent, we are able to meet again to stop the calamity. Why bother fussing over the small details?"

The friendship of the three immortals was built up during the Reverse Flow River battle.

Even though Fang Yuan was the biggest winner in that battle, the three of them had performed very well in the battle, they were saved by Wei Ling Yang who risked his life, and they managed to hair-raisingly escape with their lives under the reinforcements of Central Continent later.

After they returned to their sect, they received a lot of nurturing.

Zhao Lian Yun smiled and said after Shi Zheng Yi: "Since we do not mind the small details, I would like Shi to accept this gift."

Saying so, she landed an information path immortal material to Shi Zheng Yi.

Shi Zheng Yi was very happy: "Wait, this is trash talk petal flower? This is an immortal material that I need to refine my Immortal Gu!"

He did not stand on ceremony, he took this rank six immortal material and inspected it carefully.

Zhao Lian Yun turned to Yu Yi Ye Zi and smiled as she handed him a refinement path Gu Immortal true inheritance: "I got it."

Yu Yi Ye Zi was very happy: "The refinement path inheritance I cultivate is called eight refinement gates, to think that the rumors are true, a certain generation fairy of Spirit Affinity House actually created the ninth gate on the foundation of this inheritance. Ah ah ah, Fairy Lian Yun, how can I repay you?"

Zhao Lian Yun shook her head and smiled: "This is something within my abilities, it is also your good luck. Thankfully, I am the current generation fairy, otherwise, I cannot have such authority to take the true inheritance."

"As for thanking me, of course I need something too." Zhao Lian Yun said in a casual tone like she was joking: "When you become rank seven or eight Gu Immortals, try to take care of me."

Shi Zheng Yi and Yu Yi Ye Zi's expressions turned slightly dim.

They knew about Zhao Lian Yun's situation.

Zhao Lian Yun had Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable's rank nine killer move divine concealment, she was unable to undergo tribulations so her cultivation level could not advance.

In contrast, Shi Zheng Yi and Yu Yi Ye Zi's cultivation levels had increased significantly since the battle of Reverse Flow River.

Shi Zheng Yi gritted his teeth and said: "To speak the truth, I have been trying to find a way for you to break through this limitation. Gu Immortals go through tribulations because of the Heavenly Dao's balancing, heaven's will manipulate calamities and tribulations to form. Fairy, you cannot undergo tribulations because divine concealment hides you from heaven's will. The solution is simple, you just need to unravel divine concealment."

"Divine concealment is a rank nine killer move, the difficulty of breaking this killer move is too high. But with the reign of three venerables now, breaking a rank nine killer move is not impossible. But destroying the killer move is too wasteful. I think, maybe you can find Lady Star Constellation Immortal Venerable to help, she is a wisdom path venerable, I am sure she has a solution."

Zhao Lian Yun smiled bitterly: "Star Constellation Immortal Venerable is high and mighty, how can someone like myself even get to meet her?"

"Fairy Lian Yun, do not look down on yourself. The fact that you own rank nine love Immortal Gu means that you will not be ignored." Yu Yi Ye Zi urged: "But to get Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's help, according to the rules of the ten great ancient sects and Heavenly Court, you will need to pay a huge amount of contribution points. But now, you used your contribution points to exchange for this true inheritance that you gave me, thus... I hope you will take all these cloud beast immortal materials."

Shi Zheng Yi laughed heartily: "Then I will do the same, this is just a small token of my gratitude."

Zhao Lian Yun immediately shook her head: "I understand your concern. If I bring back these cloud beast corpses and hand them over, I will get more contribution points than what I spent for the true inheritance. Even so, the amount that I lack to get Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's help is still too much."

"It is better to invest in you two first and raise your strength to rank seven or eight before you come back and help me, wouldn't that be more efficient?"

Zhao Lian Yun made a lot of sense, after listening to her, Shi Zheng Yi and Yu Yi Ye Zi decided to keep the cloud beast corpses.

"Even so, Fairy Lian Yun, please accept these immortal essence stones."

"Yeah, in the following fights, a lot of immortal essence will be expended. At the crucial moment, you can replenish it using immortal essence stones to deal with dangerous situations."

Shi Zheng Yi and Yu Yi Ye Zi spoke again.

This time, Zhao Lian Yun did not reject them, she took both of their immortal essence stones.

"I do not have many immortal essence stones indeed."

"In fact, the sect is rarely giving out immortal essence stones now. Do you know what's going on?" Zhao Lian Yun asked.

Yu Yi Ye Zi and Shi Zheng Yi shook their heads, they were in the same situation.

Shi Zheng Yi was an information path cultivator after all, he had heard some vague rumors: "The ten great ancient sects are all lower sects of Heavenly Court, all of our immortal essence stones are distributed by them. Ever since the fate war, Heavenly Court has started to reduce the amount of immortal essence stones distributed. By now, they have basically stopped giving out any immortal essence stones. The ten great ancient sects have their own immortal essence stone storage, but to save for the future, they also stopped handing them out."

Yu Yi Ye Zi also said: "Recently, when transacting refinement path immortal materials in treasure yellow heaven, I also noticed this. There are increased transactions in treasure yellow heaven, but most of them are done through resource trading, the circulation of immortal essence stones has dwindled."

"Is Heavenly Court trying to influence the five regions' Gu Immortal world through immortal essence stones?" Zhao Lian Yun's eyes shined with bright light.

All along, the immortal essence stones in the market of the five regions and two heavens were from Heavenly Court.

If Heavenly Court had control of the source, their influence would be huge.

The group that was most heavily affected were the rank six Gu Immortals, and they also had the largest number in the Gu Immortal world.

As one's cultivation level rose to become rank seven or eight, their dependence on immortal essence stones would fall.

And this was very inconvenient for Zhao Lian Yun.

There were mainly two aspects. Firstly, having the transactions in treasure yellow heaven was inconvenient. Secondly, once Zhao Lian Yun had little immortal essence, she would not be able to replenish it quickly without immortal essence stones.

"Don't tell me that Heavenly Court is trying to reduce the number of transactions among the Gu Immortals of the five regions so that they can prevent the lower ranked Gu Immortals from fighting in advance?" Zhao Lian Yun thought to herself.

The phenomenon of reducing immortal essence stones became noticed by more Gu Immortals.

Because there was only one source, which was Heavenly Court, other forces could not do anything about it.

During normal times, immortal essence stones were used as currency for Gu Immortals to trade, but during war times, they were important tactical resources as Gu Immortals could replenish immortal essence with them!

After realizing this phenomenon, the various forces of the five regions started to buy immortal essence stones and stock up on them, this made the supply of immortal essence stones became even lower than before.

Naturally, Fang Yuan had noticed this himself.

"Heavenly Court is trying to weaken the strength of the other forces before war erupts, while raising the value of their own immortal essence stones?"

He was very interested in the secret behind Heavenly Court's immortal essence stones.

Be it Shadow Sect's true inheritance, or Paradise Earth's true inheritance, he had not found any clues. Even during the fate war when Fang Yuan attacked Heavenly Court and destroyed the immortal graveyard, he did not find out the secret of the immortal essence stones.

Heavenly Court limited the flow of immortal essence stones, it caused a huge headache to countless forces and Gu Immortals, but for Fang Yuan, the problem was small.

One immortal essence stone was equivalent to one green grape immortal essence bead, each of Fang Yuan's yellow apricot immortal essence beads were worth a million immortal essence stones!

Several days had passed since Fang Yuan arrived in the immemorial heavens and stabilized heaven form.

"Let's start."

He let out a breath of air and started to prepare an immortal killer move.

Heaven path killer move — Obscured Heavenly Secret!