Chapter 1653

Fang Yuan’s investigation shows the island to be very ordinary, with few resources, a small fishing village and Gu Masters who top out at rank four. His mission is to gather black oil from the Earth Trench in the deep sea, and traces of it ooze out near the island’s fringe. Rather than collect it at once, he weighs Paradise Earth Immortal Venerable’s intentions. Concealed, he enters the village, where only five or six Gu Masters live; Gu Yue clan on Qing Mao Mountain once held about ten like it. He soul searches the old village head, its sole rank three. The old man’s secrets suggest that the village holds no trap, and the head feels only a moment of daze. Fang Yuan leaves secretly. ^{ch. 1653}

He flies toward the surrounding islands. The distance never shortens however he moves, and he returns helplessly. He judges that this control of distance is a signature move of Paradise Earth Immortal Venerable. That Venerable also left many paradises, and a paradise’s most distinct trait is a lack of calamities and tribulations. The village’s historical records, read from the head’s soul, mention none, which confirms that he made this dragon whale grotto-heaven a paradise. Fang Yuan enters the water, where the pressure is an insignificant problem for a rank eight Gu Immortal. ^{ch. 1653}

Below lies a vast Earth Trench with the island at its fringe. Earth Trenches produce black oil, an immortal material of food path, of very high quality, abundant and easy to excavate. It is extremely helpful to immortal zombies and a widely used refinement material with a huge market. Easy for Gu Immortals but quite difficult for mortals, it supports oil collecting Gu Masters, who use special Gu worms and enjoy abundant wealth and status. ^{ch. 1653}

In the five hundred years of his previous life, Fang Yuan was himself an oil collecting Gu Master in Eastern Sea. An old Gu Master taught him the method. He almost became that man’s son-in-law. That teacher polluted him with black oil on purpose so that he would be forced to marry the daughter. Without the method and the Gu worms he could not clear it, and in despair he relented. He was furious then, but now he smiles bitterly, understanding that a teacher with no son had to use that tactic to pass on his family’s methods. He swore then to change his situation, and now he could refine many Immortal Gu and a huge quantity of mortal Gu, yet he no longer needs them. ^{ch. 1653}

He reflects that getting things when most needed is called a fortuitous encounter. He says he almost died extracting black oil back then, but met Mo Er when about to die, so that teacher did something good after all. The white figure appears in his mind again, her name Xie Han Mo, which he has never forgotten. She was the person he loved most in his previous life. ^{ch. 1653}