Chapter 1296

Fang Yuan, Hua Die and Feng Jiang land with other Gu Immortals on a barren island for the trading convention. Miao Ming Shen explains that large conventions usually settle a site several days ahead, to keep out anyone with ill intent. He is an ordinary looking rank seven space path expert famous across Eastern Sea. After even a short time with him, Fang Yuan feels his looks are deceiving. Miao Ming Shen had agreed to the request without hesitation, naming Chu Ying a man who has helped him twice and the benefactor of Hua Die and Feng Jiang. He treats every guest with the same easy warmth despite his own standing. ^{ch. 1296}

On the island the group meets Tu Tou Tuo, a midget earth path grandmaster and old friend of Miao Ming Shen’s. He offers to dig them a waiting space underground. Miao Ming Shen accepts courteously, noting that he is the host of this trading convention. Fang Yuan plays the stiff, unpracticed secluded cultivator flawlessly. Tu Tou Tuo privately judges that Miao Ming Shen’s recommendation alone means this Chu Ying is no simple figure. ^{ch. 1296}

Tu Tou Tuo melts the tough ground into a wide path, and the six huge chairs facing the platform carry fluid carvings that show his incredible skill. He raises a seventh once he learns of the new arrival. Fang Yuan guesses the convention was meant for six. He also guesses that Hua Die and Feng Jiang are not part of it and will leave to guard the area once trading begins. ^{ch. 1296}

Two more arrive. Tong Hua is a child-like rank seven light path Gu Immortal famous across northern Eastern Sea. Wu Ma Yang is a rank seven dark path Gu Immortal whose killer move Dark Arrow Veil once beat three rank sevens together. Under Miao Ming Shen’s intentional guidance the group mingles. Then a third Gu Immortal, Gong Liang Bai, arrives: a wisdom and wood path cultivator holding a complete wisdom path true inheritance. Among lone immortals he has a huge network, and he is willing to deduce for payment, though he still falls short of the three a local saying names as Eastern Sea’s strongest wisdom path Gu Immortals: Jia Dan, Hua An and Dragon Head Tortoise. Song Jia Dan and Hua An are righteous path and rarely deduce for lone immortals, and Dragon Head Tortoise stays inside adversity sea, his traces hard to find. ^{ch. 1296}

Miao Ming Shen asks Gong Liang Bai for a deduction after the trading. Gong Liang Bai, expecting it concerns the famous Liu Guan Yi, learns it does not. He admits he has already tried and failed five times to deduce Liu Guan Yi. There are too few clues against a man with his own counter-deduction methods. Talk turns to how a rank seven could resist rank eights. Fang Yuan, outwardly unmoved though a little awkward, asks instead how Reverse Flow River itself could grant such power. He steers the group’s attention away from Liu Guan Yi and onto the river. ^{ch. 1296}

Two further Gu Immortals arrive. Night falls, and the trading convention formally opens. Tong Hua takes the platform first. She tells of a green fungus she found on deep sea corals, in a place blazing like a paradise of light. She presents it as a desolate plant, names it light shine fungus, and says it contains light path dao marks and can emit strong light. Fang Yuan is surprised to have found something he wants this early in the convention. ^{ch. 1296}