Chapter 425

Fang Yuan crushes a gutstone and yellow mud flows out instead of the usual guts Gu; a second rock in his hand slowly dissolves the same way, and after ten minutes it is gone entirely. Little Hu Immortal, in tears, reports that six of every ten gutstones below the mountain’s waist are already turning to mud, and most of Dang Hun Mountain is affected. She blames herself for not noticing sooner; Fang Yuan tells her the fault is the swamp crab’s, not hers. ^{ch. 425}

He works out the cause: the crab carried a hidden expenditure-type Immortal Gu, likely the rank six gruel mud Gu, whose power sits harmlessly against flesh but turns mountain rock to mud on contact. The crab’s own swamp was itself gruel mud Gu’s product, and after the calamity’s battlefield was cleared, mud from that swamp seeped deep into the mountain undetected, only surfacing once rockmen crushing gutstones stumbled onto it. Even early warning would not have stopped it during the calamity itself. Clearing the visible mud slows the damage, but the corrosion already inside the mountain needs an Immortal Gu’s own power to cure. ^{ch. 425}

Fang Yuan narrows more than ten possible fixes down to three. The rank six earth path Turn Rock Gu belongs to the righteous, kindhearted Gu Immortal Sun Cu in western desert, and Fang Yuan judges that taking his beloved granddaughter hostage would certainly bring him to comply. A second rank six earth path Gu, Rebuilding Mount Dongshan, sits already refined inside Hai Shi blessed land in eastern sea, tradeable for an Immortal Gu of his own. The third, a rank six time path Gu called A Mountain Like Before, has not been made yet; its eventual owner, still only rank five, is Tai Bai Yun Sheng of northern plains. ^{ch. 425}

Weighing regions, Fang Yuan rules out southern border outright, since refining fixed immortal travel Gu openly at San Cha mountain has surely drawn every Gu Immortal there to hunt him. Eastern sea is next to go: central continent will need at least two to three years to hear of his Immortal Gu, but the Yi clan’s ties to a mysterious organization there could carry the word faster. Western desert falls too, since Sun Cu is already a Gu Immortal and its dense, fast-moving caravan trade would mark a southern border Gu Master the moment he entered a city. Northern plains wins out: its chaotic, ever-shifting tribes are easy to blend into, and even killing the rank five Tai Bai Yun Sheng there would stir only a few months of mild commotion. ^{ch. 425}

Fang Yuan reflects that his plans have shifted twice already since his rebirth, once at Qing Mao mountain and once at San Cha mountain, and that he has never shied from loneliness or risk, only from courting trouble he does not need. Immortal Crane Sect remains trouble, but he still holds the initiative against it. ^{ch. 425}

For the following months he refines Gu: rank four gold and silver cup Gu, another perspective Gu, and moving form Gu combine into a rank five moving perspective cup Gu, and he adds dusty Gu, bright pearl Gu, dark toss Gu and earth treasury flower king Gu to his stores. He leaves the land spirit with instructions before departing; she answers reluctantly, then feeds green grape immortal essence into fixed immortal travel Gu, and Fang Yuan vanishes in a burst of jade-green light. ^{ch. 425}