Chapter 409

Fang Yuan asks how many Gu the blessed land holds, and the Hu Immortal land spirit lists them by rank. There are over eight hundred and sixty thousand rank one Gu in about fifty-two types, over a hundred and thirty thousand rank two in forty-eight types, five thousand rank three in twelve types, and over sixty rank four in eight types. Only one rank five Gu exists, fox skin Gu. In some way the land spirit continues Hu Immortal’s life, and as new master Fang Yuan owns everything in the blessed land. He judges the Gu barely passable. They are ordinary, and liquor worm or breath concealment Gu would be worth much more, while fox skin Gu is an extremely common defensive Gu, effective against wind and water path Gu worms but hard to use in a complex battlefield. ^{ch. 409}

What really moves him is the time in the blessed land. It flows five times faster, so one outside day is five inside and he can cultivate five times as fast. The huge disadvantage is that his lifespan of about a hundred years is spent five times faster. The land spirit adds that about a thousand fox groups live here, among them red, golden, cloud, wind, autumn and flowing light foxes. The foxes total about four million and seven hundred thousand, the three largest groups holding about eight hundred thousand each. ^{ch. 409}

Three groups of myriad foxes mean three myriad beast kings, but no beast emperor has developed. The foxes are common and not mutated beasts. Raising a nine-tailed fox of the immemorial desolate beasts here is a dream, and an ancient desolate beast like Song Zi Xing’s violent blood dragon bat, one of Ancestor Blood Sea’s nine true inheritances, is impossible. Ordinary desolate beasts such as hurricane fox or phoenix wings fox could be raised, but it would greatly depend on luck. ^{ch. 409}

Fang Yuan revises his plans. He cannot join the Jia clan’s internal strife or the great battle of Yi Tian mountain, and will cultivate to Gu Immortal while resisting earthly calamities and managing the land. ^{ch. 409}

The land spirit says there were once at least three times more fox groups. The second earthly calamity was a meteor fire rain that smashed the east into ruins and burned hundreds of thousands of foxes to death, and its dark flames still burn. The fourth was a huge flood that submerged most of the northern grassland and killed many more foxes. Fang Yuan names them the dark flame meteor and clouded white sea calamities. Of the 4000km2 land, over 1300km2 is lost, and settling the flames and flood will take a lot of immortal essence. ^{ch. 409}

The land spirit then shows the remnant of the fifth calamity, a human figure of blue lightning on scorched prairie. Fang Yuan names it the blue charm lightning shadow, extremely strong and able to match a rank six Gu Immortal. It was probably the killer of Hu Immortal, an enslavement path Gu Master whose fox groups could not obstruct it, so she fought it in close combat and lost her life. It roams the blessed land at random but dares not approach Dang Hun Mountain. Fang Yuan reasons that as a living thing with a soul, it would be turned to ashes by the mountain’s shockwaves, and wonders how to lure it. The buzzing in his ears returns, so he stops thinking. ^{ch. 409}

He asks for all the bad news at once. The blessed land is in imminent crisis, with internal worries and external aggression both very grave. Feng Jin Huang, backed by Gu Immortal parents and Spirit Affinity House, need not worry, but Fang Yuan is a lone force. The land spirit says the rest is good news. A tribe of rockmen, variant humans who live underground and eat ore, lives in the south, an unexpected surprise. She leads him to the palace in Dang Hun Mountain, where an enormous golden bowl holds green immortal essence, most of it congealed into green grape immortal essence, which only rank six Gu Immortals have. Each pearl holds much more than the three kings blessed land, and Fang Yuan breathes in relief, saying there is still quite a bit of hope. ^{ch. 409}