Unexpected Joy
Fang Yuan is confused by what has happened. With the spirit snake’s cooperation he has successfully annexed Han Dong blessed land, and a shallow rock beach now appears inside Mini Northern Plains, part of the sovereign immortal aperture. Fish and prawns swim through its clear jade green water, and countless pinkish red spirit snakes move through it, one of desolate beast level sleeping on undisturbed through the whole transfer. ch. 1185
The assimilation is perfect, because Fang Yuan moved the entire environment over rather than relocating its resources by hand. Taking resources out of an aperture and replanting them, as he had to with Hei Fan grotto-heaven’s, made much of it wither and forced him to sell most of it off instead. Here nothing needs to adapt, since Han Dong blessed land’s fish, prawns and plants arrived inside their own unchanged habitat. Fang Yuan absorbs Han Dong’s lifetime of accumulation at once, with full efficiency. ch. 1185
Han Dong blessed land’s one valuable product is the spirit snakes, which can grow to desolate beast level and, at their ceiling, ancient desolate beast level. Fang Yuan can inherit Han Dong’s trade in them. He judges the rock beach’s profit will slightly exceed the star fragment grass fields in Mini Blue Heaven. ch. 1185
Two stranger matters remain. The pinkish red spirit snake, Han Dong blessed land’s land spirit, has not died, though common knowledge across the Gu Immortal world holds that a land spirit dies with its annexed blessed land. Fang Yuan had been prepared to sacrifice it, and his will, descending to the beach, tells the delighted snake this is his own secret art, used for the first time. Its control has not changed for its own territory, but it cannot extend to any other area or leave the rock beach at all. Fang Yuan feels a slight pity, since he had hoped for something like Little Hu Immortal to manage the vast sovereign immortal aperture, but decides the beach is enough for it to watch. ch. 1185
Ordinarily, annexing an aperture greatly reduces the dao marks gained, but Fang Yuan absorbed every one of Han Dong blessed land’s dao marks: about seven thousand transformation path marks, about a thousand each of water and earth, and smaller mixed amounts of other paths. He attributes this to the sovereign immortal body’s own trait, whose dao marks do not conflict and so admit any guest without a fight, land spirits included. Ordinary Gu Immortals meet conflicting dao marks when they annex an aperture, and even those with the ten extreme physiques are no exception. The sovereign immortal fetus Gu that shaped his body was Spectral Soul Demon Venerable’s own creation, refined through great danger, and Fang Yuan feels in this a trace of his fortitude. Fang Yuan praises Spectral Soul Demon Venerable internally: he reached his apex through killing and created soul path, and after death his soul broke the limits of his lifetime at the Door of Life and Death, becoming an all-encompassing being. Non-conflicting dao marks leave Fang Yuan’s body fragile, but the advantage greatly outweighs it. ch. 1185
Annexing Han Dong blessed land achieves what Fang Yuan wanted most: skipping calamities and tribulations. His sixth earthly calamity is skipped entirely, and he jumps forward four more calamities beyond it. He has passed nine earthly calamities now, with his first heavenly tribulation next. Passing tribulations is treated as heaven and earth’s own acknowledgment, and whoever annexes a predecessor’s aperture inherits a share of what that predecessor earned. The method carries huge restrictions and tough conditions, and its disadvantages are not small. ch. 1185
In Southern Border’s Jade Pot Mountain, at nearly the same moment, Hei Lou Lan has also annexed an immortal aperture. She has gained a great deal, she sighs, and traded away a great deal of future potential for those present gains. Her expression stays gloomy. ch. 1185
