Chapter 1503

Fang Yuan rides his spontaneous auspicious cloud. It does not follow his will and flies along the path of highest luck. Several days after leaving Tang clan, he reaches green ghost desert, a famous danger region of Western Desert. ^{ch. 1503}

A soul beast creeps up behind Fang Yuan and raises its sickle arms, but it stiffens in mid-air and falls dead. He draws the corpse to him with a formless force, and it dissipates as dark grey smoke, leaving only a glass-like soul core. The core is a rank six immortal material, and he throws it into his sovereign immortal aperture. There he already holds a small basin of soul cores, mostly rank six with some rank seven. Many desolate beasts and ancient desolate beasts, mostly soul beasts, attack him. His ghostly concealment hides him from soul beasts but not the cloud, so they target the cloud and fall to his scheme. ^{ch. 1503}

Soul beasts trace to two Demon Venerables. Red Lotus Demon Venerable damaged fate Gu, so many souls now linger in the world after death. Spectral Soul Demon Venerable created soul path, so souls manifest as soul beasts. Some soul beasts now form naturally where soul path dao marks are dense. Soul cores can completely substitute for souls fed to Dang Hun Mountain to produce guts Gu, though their quality at most matches the souls of other beasts and plants. Fang Yuan wishes for complete control of the desert, which would give him an endless supply of guts Gu. ^{ch. 1503}

A disc scorpion, an immemorial desolate beast that feeds on soul beasts, charges him. His concealment does not work on other beasts, and he jumps off the cloud and escapes. His goal is soul cores, not a long fight, and after a chase he throws the scorpion off. From then on he flees such existences where he can. ^{ch. 1503}

Over the next days Fang Yuan hunts soul beasts while cultivating soul path, and the Shadow Sect members hunt too. They give their soul cores to Lang Ya land spirit for guts Gu. In less than half a month his soul foundation is again in the range of ten million man soul. He then orders the Shadow Sect immortals to capture, subdue or enslave soul beasts instead of killing them. His Spectral Soul true inheritance gives him many methods, though he lacks soul path and enslavement path Immortal Gu. ^{ch. 1503}

Fang Yuan and the Shadow Sect soon control over sixty desolate level soul beasts and about twenty ancient soul beasts. Uncontrollable beasts are killed for cores, and dying ones are enslaved. A dozen or so days later the enslaved army has grown to three times its size. ^{ch. 1503}