First entry into King Quan Inheritance
The instant he passes through the light pillar Fang Yuan feels a rush of weightlessness, and when his vision clears he is standing alone in a wilderness of only three colors: a greyish white sky, hard grey earth broken by short stone mounds like gravestones, and sparse yellow grass in the cracks. There is no wind, no birdsong, nothing, and the silence alone would plant loneliness and fear in an ordinary visitor, though Fang Yuan stays entirely calm. Though he entered with Bai Ning Bing, the small world’s own law of space has already separated them; Fang Yuan expects they will meet again if she keeps advancing through the inheritance. ch. 346
This is King Quan’s inheritance, built inside a Gu Immortal blessed land originally left behind by an ancient Gu Immortal, which the three kings discovered by chance long ago; failing to advance to rank six, the three each founded a legacy there before their deaths, unlike an ordinary rank five inheritance, which sits in the main world. Time inside runs three times as fast as outside, and Fang Yuan knows every day spent here costs three outside, so he means to move quickly. The pace also feeds his slumbering Spring Autumn Cicada, which draws on the flow of the river of time to recover and now recovers three times as fast as it would outside; this is not good news, since the pressure the cicada gives off at full strength is more than a rank four aperture can contain. ch. 346
King Quan’s version of the blessed land lets an entering Gu Master use only a rank one dog enslavement Gu, with every other Gu sealed away. Fang Yuan recalls that King Xin’s and King Bao’s inheritances hold to the same restriction, built around a rank one Gu of their own, paper crane Gu and exploding egg Gu, though which belongs to which is not stated. The one exception in any of the three is the Spring Autumn Cicada itself, a rank six Immortal Gu and, being the only one of its rank to exist at all, free to be used even inside the blessed land. ch. 346
A starving wild dog, thin to the bone with yellow teeth and only knee height, catches Fang Yuan’s scent and charges; he stands still and lets it come, then spends a single drop of light golden primeval essence on dog enslavement Gu. The Gu enters the dog’s soul rather than harming its body. The dog collapses as if struck, then rises again, docile, and obeys Fang Yuan’s command to stand. ch. 346
A force from the small world’s own heaven and earth immobilizes Fang Yuan, and a second dog enslavement Gu appears before him as the inheritance’s reward, which he refines at once. The moment he does, he is carried elsewhere in the same wasteland, atop a mound surrounded by three more wild dogs, all thin as twigs; two had been scavenging and the third, older, lying motionless, but all three go wild and charge at once when they sense him. Fang Yuan sets his tamed dog on the first attacker, tames the second with his new dog enslavement Gu, and, when the third pounces, splits his attention to command both enslaved dogs together. Drawing on five hundred years of experience commanding beast groups, the blade wing blood bats of the blood sea inheritance among them, and months spent training with dog packs in this life, Fang Yuan holds his composure where an unfamiliar Gu Master would lose his bearings. Noticing his first dog is faring badly, he pulls both dogs back while still fighting and merges their two separate fights into one, trading a heavier burden on his own commands for a real advantage over enemies now fighting alone. The battle ends with both wild attackers dead and his own two dogs standing wounded, the first worse hurt than the second. ch. 346
Heavenly power sweeps Fang Yuan and his two dogs onward again, this time onto a mound ringed by six wild dogs, and his pulse quickens: three times the force he commands, against two dogs already hurt. He spots a nearby pit and drops into it, setting his two dogs in front of him with the pit wall guarding his back. Only the two healthiest of the six close in first, the other four trailing well behind with their own injuries. Fang Yuan knows six healthy dogs would leave him no chance at all, but between the terrain and his own skill at the reins, he is confident of clearing this round too. ch. 346
