Chapter 463

Heavenly Essence Treasure Imperial Lotus is a rank six Immortal Gu invented, not found in nature, by Genesis Lotus Immortal Venerable. Its lower ranked forms, the Treasure Lotus, the Treasure Monarch Lotus and the Treasure King Lotus, produce primeval essence, but rank six and above it produces immortal essence, and on this Gu Genesis Lotus Immortal Venerable held more immortal essence than any other rank nine Gu Immortal in history. After his death the Lotus was heavily guarded until a daring rank seven Gu Immortal stole it, decades later becoming the venerable who took the name Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable. The stolen Lotus was destroyed with him. Long Hair Ancestor, who had dealings with Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable, later refined his own rank six Heavenly Essence Treasure Imperial Lotus and advanced it to rank eight, a name Immortal Gu keep past rank six. After Long Hair Ancestor died, his obsession fused with heavenly power into the land spirit occupying Lang Ya blessed land, and this rank eight Lotus remains there with him. ^{ch. 463}

Fang Yuan offers an Immortal Gu recipe for the Lotus itself, and the land spirit refuses outright: he needs its immortal essence both to withstand tribulations and to fuel his own refining. He offers an alternative instead, other Immortal Gu, graded to the rank of the recipe traded, rank seven for rank six, rank eight for rank seven or six. ^{ch. 463}

Fang Yuan thinks of the land spirit’s rank seven beast enslavement Gu, capable of subduing any wild beast, including mutated beasts, the myriad beast emperor, and even desolate and ancient desolate beasts, which Long Hair Ancestor once used to subdue several ancient desolate beasts and bury them beneath the twelve cloud buildings. Judging it too valuable to be offered, he tries the second aperture Gu’s recipe instead, only for the land spirit to recognize it at once from among his own thousands of Immortal Gu recipes. He then tries the rank six Blood Deity recipe, but the land spirit rejects it as an incomplete, patched together remnant, too unreliable to exchange for an Immortal Gu. Fang Yuan does not press the point: this same flaw is why he abandoned Blood Deity in his previous life once he later obtained an accurate recipe for Spring Autumn Cicada, a secret tied to his own rebirth that he refuses to expose here even though the land spirit lacks it. Of his handful of Immortal Gu recipes, most are damaged remnants, and the only two he holds intact, second aperture Gu and Spring Autumn Cicada, are respectively already known to the land spirit and too dangerous to reveal. ^{ch. 463}

Fang Yuan asks once more to trade a rank five recipe directly for a finished stargate Gu, and the land spirit again refuses: exchange is only for Gu he currently holds. Pressed on why he would not simply want the wholly new Gu, the land spirit admits he could refine and sell it later in treasure yellow heaven, then proposes something else: as Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable’s inheritor, Fang Yuan has three chances to have him refine Gu. An attempted Immortal Gu refinement uses one chance whether it succeeds or fails, a mortal Gu refinement is guaranteed to succeed, and stargate Gu specifically he can guarantee. ^{ch. 463}

Fang Yuan recalls that Ma Hong Yun, trapped here as a mortal unable to use Immortal Gu, once spent all three chances on rank five Gu instead, strengthening himself enough to turn defeat into victory outside, and only recognized as a Gu Immortal later how much he had wasted. Fang Yuan is in the same bind: still mortal, he could not use an Immortal Gu even if he won one, and none of Hu Immortal blessed land’s Gu can carry one there for Little Hu Immortal to use in his place. Every attempt also depends on a correct recipe, since an Immortal Gu already owned by someone else cannot be refined again, and a failed attempt still costs a chance. ^{ch. 463}

He weighs the common wisdom, that the three chances should go to Immortal Gu as Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable once did, against his own shortage of recipes and his mortal body’s inability to use what he would win. Even a rank five Gu is more than his current situation calls for, since rank four suits him best in northern plains for now. His strength path holds only thirty jun, his wolf group can grow no larger than around thirty thousand without a tribe’s support, and the region’s suppression still bars him from breaking through to rank five, leaving him, he thinks, like a chess player whose every piece is stuck in place. ^{ch. 463}