Successfully Constructing the Year Essence Pool
Fang Yuan’s time path clone holds spiral dawn light while Ying Wu Xie and the other Shadow Sect immortals wait ready. The rank eight material, extremely stretchable, explodes over a hundred li, the immortals confine it, and a second portion follows. Fang Yuan then takes out seven treasures water. Because the clone is only rank six, his main body takes the primary role, purifying away its solid bumps and freezing it into an ice block whose cold air covers exactly one hundred li. Ying Wu Xie and the others throw eight-parts jade into the dense fog. Several days later an enormous pool one hundred li long forms completely, and Fang Yuan has built the rank eight year essence pool on his first try thanks to preparation and luck. ch. 1612
Fang Yuan draws in a tributary of the River of Time, which every immortal aperture with passing time definitely has. It leaves the pool thin as a brook while the water rises slowly and the aperture’s time flow slows, until a completely filled pool restores the tributary and the time flow. The pool and tributary dim until they completely vanish, deeply concealed. Integrated with the tributary, the pool works as a dam, and draining or filling it changes the aperture’s rate of time. Moves like days pass like years cost immortal essence and lose their hold on the tributary for an interval after each use, while the pool makes this far easier. Its cost is enormous, requiring huge investments. It is essentially an immortal Gu formation, and Fang Yuan’s grandmaster attainment in formation path lets him set it up with dao marks from immortal materials. ch. 1612
A few desolate level year beasts dive joyfully into the still shallow pool. Once completely filled, it will expand to a terrifying ten thousand li. Deeply concealed like an illusion, it takes no space in the aperture and is an independent small world where Fang Yuan can build a food chain. It restrains year beasts to itself, so he can hold even more of them, including completely wild ones like wild immemorial year beasts. He controls only seven immemorial year beasts and cannot replace any killed in battle, but if wild ones live in the pool he can temporarily enslave them, which is extremely helpful for his River of Time plan. ch. 1612
Fang Yuan’s main body is completely healed, and he says it is time to separate the captive Gu Immortals’ souls from their bodies and soul search them one by one. Southern Border’s righteous path, already bled by earlier extortions, resists his new demands together, because the year essence pool’s cost was too high. Several days later a Shang clan Gu Immortal, chosen as representative, says no more resources will come until Fang Yuan shows sincerity, and that they will not compromise even if he kills those Gu Immortals. Fang Yuan sneers and asks whether a portion of the hostages should be released. ch. 1612
The Shang clan Gu Immortal replies that they can move step by step. They can begin with Fang Yuan returning Immortal Gu in exchange for cultivation resources. They avoid asking for hostages first because clans that got their immortals back might put less effort into later bargaining. So they plan to bargain from Immortal Gu to immortal aperture resources, Gu Immortal bodies and finally souls. ch. 1612
