Chapter 353

Inside the cave, Li Xian offers tea; Fang Yuan leaves it untouched and instead names the cup itself, Eastern Sea’s blue sky Gu, and explains that it is fused from rank three sky granary Gu at a low success rate that makes it rare even in Eastern Sea, and that advancing it to rank five needs sky well Gu, a natural Gu found only on Eastern Sea’s Tian Jing island. Only Yi clan, a top clan alongside Shang, Wu, and Tie with close ties to Eastern Sea and a flying blue whale caravan even Shang clan lacks, might hold sky well Gu in Southern Border. Li Xian is startled that someone so young and Southern Border born could know such Eastern Sea detail. ^{ch. 353}

A vague suspicion forms in Li Xian’s mind that some expert, perhaps Shang clan leader Shang Yan Fei himself, stands behind little beast king. He catches the thought almost as fast as it rises, reasoning that even with such backing behind him, he still has his own means; a demonic path elite, he settles his mind again within a few breaths and asks Fang Yuan plainly what transaction he wants. ^{ch. 353}

Fang Yuan lays out Gu worms looted from Gu Masters he killed inside King Quan Inheritance, rank three and four but useless to his own strength path. Li Xian reads at once that little beast king has some skill in the enslavement path to have taken live Gu from two kills inside the inheritance, and privately measures him against Mo Wu Tian, whom he had rated the demonic path’s top young talent for aptitude and temperament alone. He now judges little beast king’s talent no less, though his cultivation still lags, since Mo Wu Tian is older and already rank four peak stage. ^{ch. 353}

Li Xian offers what he calls a fair price for the loot: a ball of a hundred and twenty rank three gold eating flying ant Gu, which he says could collapse the iron cabinet Gu locking down a thousand feet around Bai Ning Bing. Fang Yuan waves it off and hands over a list instead, wanting everything written on it, all of it Gu and materials for the strength path. Li Xian wonders privately whether the list is meant to counter iron cabinet Gu, since little beast king shows no worry at all for his trapped partner, and warns that the full order will take time and cost more than the Gu being traded. Money is no problem, Fang Yuan tells him; hand over what is on hand now and take his time with the rest. Li Xian, unable to read him further, agrees. ^{ch. 353}

Alone afterward, Fang Yuan feeds a churning, fragrant, multicolored paste with primeval stones until it thins, then drops in a rank three thunderclap Gu; lightning flickers through it and the paste turns blue as the fragrance sharpens. He drives a boar phantom, carried on strength qi Gu, into the paste, and when the light clears the phantom has doubled in size, grown elephant-like tusks, and grown a coat of white fur over its whole body, thickest and longest along its spine, where it stands lightning-wreathed and rigid: a lightning boar phantom, thunder boar, which he judges equal to dragon-elephant, Biao, and mastiff. Next, he tells himself, is rock crocodile. ^{ch. 353}

A full night of cultivation passes. At dawn Fang Yuan walks out exhausted but pleased, having carried both his boar strength and his crocodile strength up to thunder boar and rock crocodile, raising his battle strength by at least thirty percent. Looking southeast, he finds Bai Ning Bing’s position marked by a dark purple qi barrier, tall as a tower, built from iron cabinet Gu locked together with qi flow Gu. ^{ch. 353}

Fang Yuan reasons through why Tie clan’s four elders, all rank four middle stage against her rank four initial stage, have not simply finished her off: partly to save their own strength for the three kings inheritance, partly because her purple thorn token holds them back, and partly to bait him, since a rash charge would let the four combine into a rank five search and lock Gu to trap them both. In a previous life, he recalls, Tie clan’s four elders used that same trap to capture Kong Ri Tian, only to be killed soon after by a mere rank three Gu Master once their essence for the rank five Gu ran dry. ^{ch. 353}