Testing Xue Er
Fang Yuan looks down at Xue Er, unmoved by her beauty, and calls the marriage gift too small for help worth a rank eight’s strength. Xue Er, shamed and angered but bound by her tribe’s mission, asks him to state whatever he wants changed so she can carry it back to the elders. Fang Yuan sends her a list of demands. Her eyes go wide at his extreme greed. He adds that the list is not everything: her own sincerity is also under test, and her qualification to become his wife depends on it. He orders her to go to Tai Qiu and collect souls for him, and Xue Er agrees under her tribe’s mission. ch. 1463
After she leaves, Fang Yuan ponders deeply. The arrangement lets him use her battle strength while another person helps him cultivate faster. But his real aim is to test the snowmen’s bottom line, since accepting the second gift while showing displeasure lets him probe their determination. He is not anxious, since a marriage connection cannot be settled quickly and both sides are probing each other, but he is sure there are benefits to be gained regardless. ch. 1463
Fang Yuan turns to modifying killer moves. Since reverse flow protection seal would take too long to modify and he faces no immediate danger, he chooses instead Purple Mountain True Monarch’s wisdom path methods. He picks them because they are very powerful, because his own wisdom path attainment already reaches grandmaster, and because he still holds a batch of Purple Mountain True Monarch’s wisdom path Immortal Gu. The batch includes single thought flower blossom, purple blood river formation, directional confusion fog, and purple thought light shield. It also includes ignited thought flying rock, thought body defense, purple thought perception starlight, and single thought myriad flow elimination, and Purple Mountain True Monarch used the whole batch against Duke Long when not at his peak. Duke Long, master of Red Lotus, has a huge background and unparalleled battle strength at the peak of rank eight. ch. 1463
While Fang Yuan trains, Ying Wu Xie, wearing Fairy Cui Bo’s body, approaches Xue Er and tells her to call him brother Wu Xie instead of sister. That body has grown uncomfortable, and he has asked Fang Yuan to change it, even for a rank six body, so long as he can cultivate soul path. She finds Ying Wu Xie really weird, so beautiful yet acting like a rash lad. He leads her to Tai Qiu through the teleportation Gu formation for the sect leader’s test: whichever of them gathers higher quality souls in the same time. Very nervous in a place famous for its danger, Xue Er finds no beast troubles them, since Lang Ya Sect has already cleared the ground nearby. Deeply shocked, she reports to the snowmen that Lang Ya Sect surpasses their estimations. Ying Wu Xie nags her constantly to keep cultivating every moment, the effect of his immortal killer move soaring fighting spirit. ch. 1463
Xue Er spots a group of dragon-elephants first, since Ying Wu Xie’s investigative methods, though Shadow Sect’s are normally superior, are restricted in his current body. He lands and uses a soul path immortal killer move whose soul howl knocks the whole group unconscious. Watching the technique, Xue Er is slightly shocked and wonders why an immortal with water path aura fights with a soul path method. Fang Yuan holds the Gu worms for lead soul into dream, Ying Wu Xie’s best move, leaving him only a few soul path Immortal Gu. He keeps the dragon-elephants for Fang Yuan and continues on with Xue Er. They meet Hei Lou Lan, and Xue Er, comparing her with Ying Wu Xie, notes only rank six cultivation, the same as her own, and feels a private sigh of relief. ch. 1463
