Chapter 407

Inside the Immortal Crane Sect’s council, He Feng Yang only smiles at Lei Tan’s question and says nothing. Third elder answers in his place: naming Fang Yuan a sect disciple cost them only a shielding, since it eliminates the other nine sects from Hu Immortal blessed land and leaves the prize to Immortal Crane Sect alone. Lei Tan’s expression shifts, but he asks no further question. ^{ch. 407}

He Feng Yang stands, credits third elder as wise, and explains what happened: a mortal used fixed immortal travel Gu to appear on Dang Hun Mountain’s peak and inherit Hu Immortal blessed land in front of everyone. He lays out Tian Ti mountain’s standing. Though ruined and abandoned for years, it still represents the heavenly court’s might, so an attack on Hu Immortal blessed land is an attack on Tian Ti mountain, and on the heavenly court itself. Even now, with the blessed land freshly opened, the ten sects’ Gu Immortals only enlarged the passage together, with no intention of attacking it. ^{ch. 407}

He adds the defensive math. The land spirit alone would need at least three rank six Gu Immortals working together to fall, and even then might not; Dang Hun Mountain’s protection means climbing to the peak would take five or six Gu Immortals cooperating in earnest. He asks Lei Tan outright whether he could do it, and Lei Tan wants to retort but stays quiet. A land spirit can mobilize a blessed land’s full resources with a Gu Immortal’s own battle prowess, and suppresses every rank one to five worm inside it. Only Immortal Gu, which a land spirit cannot restrict, offer real leverage against one, and most Gu Immortals have none, or none suited to the attack. Immortal essence is precious, an attack still risks the land spirit self-destructing and burning the attackers’ gains to nothing, so unless the hatred runs deep, Gu Immortals rarely bother. ^{ch. 407}

He Feng Yang continues, explaining why he claimed Fang Yuan. Fang Yuan and Fang Zheng look nearly alike, the other nine sects suspected Immortal Crane Sect’s hidden hand and pressed him for an answer, and he judged that telling the truth would only reopen the fight over the inheritance among all ten sects. Claiming Fang Yuan, even at a cost, buys Immortal Crane Sect the chance to plan alone. ^{ch. 407}

Lei Tan objects: the blessed land is closed and unattacked, so how do they even get in? He Feng Yang has an answer ready. Blessed lands face calamities, Hu Immortal died in the fifth, and he has calculated that the sixth is a year and three months away. A mortal like Fang Yuan, without a sect’s backing, cannot resist it, and the blessed land will take heavy damage and open a loophole. Lei Tan presses again, since the inheritance sits on Tian Ti mountain itself: does he dare attack even then? He Feng Yang calls a forced attack a last resort. His real plan is patient: use Fang Zheng’s kinship to approach Fang Yuan, build trust through repeated transactions until his guard drops, and talk him into joining the sect. If he stays stubborn, slavery Gu and other secret methods remain open against a mortal in a way they never are against a land spirit, and if that also yields fixed immortal travel Gu, it is the perfect outcome. ^{ch. 407}

At the mention of fixed immortal travel Gu, the elders murmur with excitement. Lei Tan sits back down in anger, conceding only that he hopes it goes their way. ^{ch. 407}

Third elder raises two cautions. Fixed immortal travel Gu, like most Immortal Gu apart from ones such as dream wings Gu that run on soul instead, needs immortal essence to fire, and with the land spirit’s help Fang Yuan can draw on the blessed land’s own store to escape whenever he wants. A mortal holding an Immortal Gu at all argues for a deep background behind him. He Feng Yang says he already weighed this: when he claimed Fang Yuan, he checked the other nine sects’ reactions and found none of them backing him, so he guesses a Southern Border super clan, Wu, Shang, Tie, Yi or another, stands behind Fang Yuan instead, too far away to help him here, since their strength would be suppressed on entering Central Continent, ground Immortal Crane Sect holds against them. The elders nod and trade confident lines about the local dragon and the local snake. ^{ch. 407}

Third elder’s last doubt: fixed immortal travel Gu needs a vivid, precise memory of its destination, so how could a mortal from distant Southern Border know Hu Immortal blessed land’s terrain closely enough to land there at exactly the right moment? Had Hu Immortal set an inheritance in Southern Border, or is some demonic Gu Immortal on Tian Ti mountain behind it? He Feng Yang admits he does not know. He recounts the thread that led here: a defected disciple’s flight to Southern Border years ago, Lord Sky Crane sent after the resulting blood sea inheritance clue, and Lord Sky Crane’s failure, since it was Fang Yuan who claimed the inheritance instead and gained blood skull Gu. He Feng Yang’s account brands the boy ruthless and sinister for killing all his own clansmen on the spot to raise his aptitude with it. Unwilling to leave empty handed, Lord Sky Crane brought Fang Zheng back for a later chance at the Gu. He Feng Yang never expected a nobody to disrupt his plan so badly, and it has cost him more trouble than he ever thought someone so far beneath him could cause. ^{ch. 407}

The elders sour at the mention of the blood sea inheritance again. It traces to Blood Sea Ancestor, a demonic path figure infamous for killing without pause, who as a rank seven Gu Immortal seeded hundreds of thousands of inheritance sites across all five regions before his death, vowing the blood path would never be lonely. Countless mortals have since benefited, and no rival inheritance spreads wider. The elders trade examples. A mere butcher, Xue Tu, rose into a famous demonic cultivator on one. Myriad Dragon Dock’s Song Zi Xing took one and defected, humiliating the ten great sects, and now stands as a rank seven Gu Immortal titled Blood Dragon after Myriad Dragon Dock sent eight Gu Immortals, five rank six and three rank seven, to kill him and failed, losing four dead, three crippled, and one driven to retreat. They list the nine true inheritances by name: blood skull Gu, blood handprint Gu, blood qi Gu, blood sweat Gu, menses blood Gu, blood shadow Gu, blood battle Gu, the ancient desolate beast violent blood dragon bat, and the rank six Immortal Gu blood deity. By the elders’ count four have already surfaced, though their own talk only pins down three: blood skull Gu with Fang Yuan, blood handprint Gu with Southern Border’s current Shang clan leader, and the blood dragon bat with Song Zi Xing, while a rumor of a second inheritance held by that same Shang clan leader stays, in their own words, unconfirmed. ^{ch. 407}

Supreme Grand Elder cuts the talk short, calling it a hunt for a needle in a haystack, and turns the matter over to He Feng Yang as its author, promising a real reward if he seizes the blessed land. Lei Tan, denied the assignment, hides his resentment. Supreme Grand Elder then adds one more cost: since He Feng Yang now leads this, he is the one who must hand over his own Immortal Gu to meet Feng Jiu Ge’s earlier demand for one. Lei Tan brightens at once. He Feng Yang accepts the order with a bitter smile. ^{ch. 407}