Development of the Rockmen Tribe
He Feng Yang reads through Fang Yuan’s detailed list: primeval stones, Gu worms, and materials. Five million primeval stones draws only a grin. At the Gu Immortal realm, attention turns to immortal essence, and primeval stones barely register; ten or even fifty million would be no trouble. ch. 421
Five spring egg Gu gives him pause. Spring egg Gu is a rank five Gu shaped like a white goose egg, taken by killing eggmen. Buried deep underground, it opens a spirit spring eye that grows into a small scale spirit spring. Every small scale spring can produce at least a hundred million primeval stones over its life. Yet the Gu itself costs far more than that: Gu Immortals plant it to thicken a blessed land’s primeval energy and ease the burden that would otherwise fall on immortal essence alone. Surprised a mere mortal knows the Gu’s worth, He Feng Yang decides to send three instead of five, reasoning that the blessed land Fang Yuan manages will become the sect’s property sooner or later regardless. ch. 421
Most of the requested Gu worms are rank two and three, with only a handful of rank four and none of the rare rank five kind. He Feng Yang works out why: Fang Yuan fears tampered Gu would ruin a refinement’s delicate process, so he means to refine his own from clean materials rather than risk gifted Gu worms. The realization irritates him, since it undoes a tampering scheme he had been considering. It leaves him wondering, too, how a boy this age already knows so many refinement recipes, suspecting his background is not as simple as it looks. He talks himself back down, telling himself refinement takes resources and experience no amount of talent alone can replace. He does not know that Fang Yuan personally refined fixed immortal travel Gu, or he would not be laughing. ch. 421
A yellow gold relic Gu and three purple crystal relic Gu complete the request, and He Feng Yang reads the plan at once. With the yellow gold relic Gu, Fang Yuan, already known across the ten sects as rank four upper stage, would reach rank four peak stage. The three purple crystal relic Gu, used one after another once he advances to rank five, would then carry him straight to rank five peak stage. Immortal Crane Sect has plenty of such relic Gu on hand from yearly disciple and elder contributions, but He Feng Yang balks at letting him climb that fast. He settles on sending only one purple crystal relic Gu now, enough to whet his appetite, while the rest becomes leverage to trade for guts Gu later. ch. 421
The material list is mostly ordinary, but a few entries, star heron bile, toad stones and ascension wine among them, are rare enough that even He Feng Yang would need effort to source them. He decides to send only one vat of ascension wine now, to keep Fang Yuan anxious and probe his real intent rather than hand over everything at once. That ascension wine is a top vintage brewed by Immortal Crane Sect’s supreme third elder, part of three vats He Feng Yang was given over a hundred years ago, on formally pledging himself to the elder. The elder loves wine, but He Feng Yang does not drink, so the gift has always been worthless to him personally. ch. 421
The listed desolate beast parts, an existence comparable to Gu Immortals in his eyes, make him lick his lips. From a corpse this complete, he guesses the calamity itself was a desolate beast calamity, that Fang Yuan used Dang Hun Mountain to destroy its soul, and that his luck in obtaining an intact corpse was considerable. He wonders why Fang Yuan has not asked for rockmen at all, whether from ignorance of them or because an earlier migrated group survives there still. He admits he simply does not have enough information: not on the blessed land’s true state, how Fang Yuan came by fixed immortal travel Gu, or who stands behind him. Central continent, southern border, northern plains, western desert and eastern sea sit independent of each other behind their own barriers, each vast enough that Immortal Crane Sect has not even finished mapping central continent, let alone southern border. It has already sent elders south to investigate, though, since Fang Yuan took the inheritance. ch. 421
Days later, Fang Yuan stops on the grassland and tells Little Hu Immortal to plant a spirit spring on the spot. She releases a spring egg Gu from her palm, and it drills underground. The ground shakes, and a fountain of milky spring water bursts twenty to thirty meters into the air, thickening the primeval energy around them within a few breaths. Denser primeval energy means richer land, he notes: more vegetation, stronger beast groups, and benefits for the rockmen too. ch. 421
The trade with Immortal Crane Sect has gone through. Fang Yuan sold the whole swamp crab corpse for most of what he asked, three spring egg Gu among it. Spring egg Gu is rank five and one time only, and activating it takes so much primeval essence that even a rank five upper stage Gu Master would exhaust their reserves doing it. Fang Yuan, only rank four upper stage, cannot activate it himself, and relies on the land spirit instead. ch. 421
He buries all three spring egg Gu near the rockmen tribes. The sixth earthly calamity has left only a handful of pitiful fox groups, not worth the effort of rebuilding, so Fang Yuan turns his attention fully to the rockmen instead. Their few hundred survivors, far fewer than the foxes ever were, now have both Dang Hun Mountain and three new springs to grow on. ch. 421
Little Hu Immortal is delighted that the three springs will cut deeply into their green grape immortal essence spending. Fang Yuan reckons the three together can produce at least three hundred million primeval stones over fifty to sixty years. That is still far short of what the whole blessed land needs, though, not even enough for its southern area alone. Small scale springs like these last fifty to sixty years, mid scale ones about a century or more, and large scale ones for centuries. This one’s mouth will fully form in four to five days, with the first primeval stones condensing within a few months after. ch. 421
Back at Dang Hun Mountain, rockmen cheer over gutstones set one every five steps. The wreckage draws comment too that a huge battle was fought here, and flat speculation that Fang Yuan might already be dead in it. They hail tribe leader Yan Yong and dream aloud of building the world’s largest rockmen tribe, striking the stones in a frenzy that lets even young rockmen’s newborn souls grow strong enough to command more rock. Their numbers, only a few hundred to start, grow tenfold in a single day, pass ten thousand by the second morning, and reach three hundred thousand by the third evening, stripping every gutstone on the mountain bare. On the fourth day the mountain’s rising pressure finally drives them home, triumphant, to find the three new spirit springs waiting as an unlooked for gift. ch. 421
