Chapter 1104

Hei Lou Lan and Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s joy fades: she needs strength path and he needs time path, and neither appears among the dozen-odd Immortal Gu on offer. Most are soul path. Shi Nu, an earth path Gu Immortal, finds two earth path Gu among them, though his own remain intact. Ying Wu Xie knows these Gu were destroyed at Yi Tian Mountain and re-refined only in the last days. Regret Pool’s time path refinements failed, and none came back strength path, since Da Li, one of the rare few to cultivate both wisdom path and strength path, left no insignia before the house was built. ^{ch. 1104}

Ying Wu Xie then offers a method letting them cultivate a second path without its dao marks clashing against their own. Hei Lou Lan suspects Ying Wu Xie means to tighten his hold over them. She presses him: a thing this good must carry a severe drawback. Ying Wu Xie assures her there are no side effects. ^{ch. 1104}

Ying Wu Xie is privately thinking of Fang Yuan. What he offers is only an early version of a method Shadow Sect built for cultivating two paths without conflict. Its final form became sovereign immortal fetus Gu, letting dao marks of every path coexist freely. Spectral Soul had devoured countless Gu Immortal souls inside the door of life and death, and refining the Gu took a hundred thousand years, Shadow Sect’s and Zombie Alliance’s foundations, and Spectral Soul’s own main body. At the final moment Fang Yuan took it instead. ^{ch. 1104}

It is a one time consumable Gu, already spent. Refining another would cost and risk too much, so it will not reappear short of capturing Fang Yuan to reverse refine one. Ying Wu Xie puts his own strength first, then gathering Shadow Sect’s remnant forces in Eastern Sea and saving his main body. ^{ch. 1104}

In Northern Plains, at Lang Ya blessed land, more than a month has passed since Fang Yuan’s second earthly calamity. Treasure yellow heaven has still not reopened. He spends the time cultivating and deducing. The third calamity, due within the month, should be more dangerous than the second, and his strength has grown little since then. ^{ch. 1104}

Obtaining the Hei Fan true inheritance, he reasons, could slow time inside his aperture and give him a great advantage against the calamities to come, making him owner of Hei Fan’s grotto-heaven with its time path Immortal Gu besides. Hei Cheng has told him why it matters. Hei Fan, a rank eight time path great expert, left Immortal Gu inside his own aperture. ^{ch. 1104}

Hei tribe’s resources, in southeast Northern Plains, draw righteous, demonic, and lone immortals alike. Guan Shen Zhao, outnumbered two to one, loses the golden wheat field to the Traveling Two Elites. Demonic path Gu Immortals such as the Traveling Three Elites, Old Lu, Half Moon Brutemaster, and Zhuo Zhan then compete over Hei tribe’s resources, and Gushing Spring Forest is plundered to ruin. The righteous path grows alert and coordinates, and the demonic path loses momentum. But once over half of Hei tribe’s resources are split, rank seven Gu Immortals such as Unfettered Scholar and Pi Shui Han appear, and the demonic path pushes the righteous path back for the first time. Hei tribe’s own Gu Immortals, worn down, withdraw into their headquarters, emboldening the demonic path further. ^{ch. 1104}

Fang Yuan reflects that destroying Eighty-Eight True Yang Building and Imperial Court blessed land has remade Northern Plains within a few years. Only Northern Plains has cost him most of his rebirth advantage this way, and he has grown suspicious of that advantage too, ever since learning of heaven’s will. He waits, tempted by Hei tribe’s resources. He stays focused on the Hei Fan true inheritance. ^{ch. 1104}

Some days later he learns Northern Plains Gu Immortals are attacking Hei tribe’s headquarters directly. He leaves Lang Ya blessed land at once by transportation formation. Lang Ya land spirit backs him but dares not send its own hairy man Gu Immortals, so Fang Yuan goes instead. He conceals himself with Dark Limit and familiar face, and travels fast by sword escape Immortal Gu and blood torrent, meeting no trouble, since most of the region’s Gu Immortals are already gathered at Hei tribe’s headquarters. ^{ch. 1104}

As the headquarters comes into view and Fang Yuan resolves to claim the Hei Fan true inheritance, treasure yellow heaven reopens without warning, and every Gu Immortal who had been waiting on it bursts into sudden activity. He stops in place, torn between pressing on and turning back. He opens a piece of information reaching him through it. It comes from Chu Du. ^{ch. 1104}