When Fang Yuan opens his eyes inside Imperial Court blessed land, the scene has completely transformed: a light gold sky, spring-like land, green terraces, gentle streams and low mounds stretch across a boundless plain, serene against the blizzard outside. This is Northern Plains’ greatest utopia, a blessed land that opens once every ten years as a reward to the lord of Northern Plains. Fang Yuan finds himself alone. Everyone who entered through the same gate has been separated and scattered at random across the blessed land, which does not surprise him. By an earlier agreement he now heads for the center of the blessed land, toward Giant Sun Immortal Venerable’s former residence, Northern Plains Sacred Palace. He tells himself he is finally here, and reflects that the Imperial Court contest was only a prelude to what truly matters next. ch. 548
He activates eagle rise Gu, and with a burst of pain two broad, pitch-black eagle wings grow from his back. Mortal Gu go unrestricted inside Imperial Court blessed land, though no blessed land can restrain an Immortal Gu. The wings carry him into the air. Unhurried, he flies slowly, enjoying the wind and the land’s scent, which feels as peaceful as heaven compared to the outside world. ch. 548
The blessed land’s landscape resembles Northern Plains, a huge plain of mounds and slopes with elegant lines, but every eight li a tower stands on the ground. Each tower rises about twenty-five meters, gold and silver, studded with gems, and looks like a totem pillar holding countless barriers like a beehive. New Gu worms born to the blessed land’s wild groups detach and settle inside these towers, which Giant Sun built so any type of Gu worm could find food there. Each tower holds tens of thousands of Gu worms, most common, a few rare. In one tower Fang Yuan even spots about a thousand starlight firefly Gu, and feels the pull of the fortune every tower represents. ch. 548
He reflects that he cannot simply take these Gu. Early in the Imperial Court contest, daring Gu Masters who tried to steal from or attack the towers were destroyed by the blessed land’s own heavenly power, their bodies melted down to a pile of white bone. No mortal can resist that power, and even a Gu Immortal is left in a pathetic state contesting it. By now, after enough such lessons, no Gu Master tries to attack a tower. ch. 548
Fang Yuan recalls that the blessed land’s original creator was a space path Gu Immortal whose name is now lost. That is why it dwarfs every other blessed land. Giant Sun Immortal Venerable inherited the place by luck, before becoming an immortal, and became its new owner. After he became an Immortal Venerable with unparalleled power, he set the Imperial Court contest tradition in place, letting this ancient blessed land continue on. An Immortal Venerable’s methods are beyond Fang Yuan’s understanding, but the result is that Imperial Court blessed land no longer suffers heavenly tribulation or earthly calamity. ch. 548
After an hour of flying past numerous towers, Fang Yuan is provoked by a giant python in a small valley. It is bright red, at least a hundred meters long, its body thick as a tower, with a sharp horn on its head, blood-red eyes fixed on him, and a creepy purple tongue lit with eerie blue flames. Fang Yuan, slightly shocked, identifies it as a rarely seen eerie fire dragon python. It opens its mouth and shoots a carriage-sized blue-purple flame at him, so hot that even a few hundred steps away his hair and eyebrows begin to dry and singe. He flaps his eagle wings to a higher altitude and dodges the flame easily. ch. 548
Fang Yuan calls on his killer move, four arm wind king, activating more than ten Gu worms at once as two bronze arms grow from his body and his crystal purple primeval essence drains rapidly. He dives down like a comet and crashes into the python, and the two grapple fiercely as smoke rises, shockwaves burst out, flames shoot, and the valley shakes. The eerie fire dragon python is a mutated beast king, and a mutated beast king fights at the strength of a rank five Gu Master, though Fang Yuan, long past rank five peak stage, is stronger still once his killer move is active. The python provoked him on purpose rather than hiding. Fang Yuan wants to hunt it and use it as a training dummy to sharpen his killer move. ch. 548
After half an hour the battle ends, and Fang Yuan stands charred black in a valley completely destroyed, coughing up blood. The python’s huge body lies half buried under broken rocks. His reworked killer move leaves a far lighter aftermath than before, partly because the python, lacking human wisdom, could never find his weakness mid-battle. Had the wind been restricted, he would have fared much worse, and the fight was not an easy one. The blessed land’s rich environment left the python carrying unusually many fire path wild Gu, some of them valuable. His killer move has little defense against fire, so dodging the flames cost him at least a third of the battle’s length. ch. 548
Fang Yuan collects his loot from the python’s body. Its blood is a top ingredient for feeding blood path Gu worms, and its skin and tendons would cause a stir if sold in the mortal market. Its eerie fire snake gall is especially valuable, sellable even in treasure yellow heaven. To save time he keeps only the valuable items in his Gu. He thinks of capturing any young pythons from the family’s den to raise in Hu Immortal blessed land as a future investment, and searches around. ch. 548
He soon finds not a baby python but a bright red rock shaped like a fire lotus, and recognizes at once that it is a Gu Master’s work. As he approaches, the rock opens in layers like a blooming lotus, revealing Gu worms inside and a stele carved with Northern Plains words. Reading it, he learns of Huo Zheng Jun, a righteous rank four fire path Gu Master who entered the valley by accident and was attacked by the eerie fire dragon python. Before dying of his injuries, Huo Zheng Jun left his Gu worms behind as an inheritance for whoever fate brought here. He left seven Gu worms; four have since died, leaving three. ch. 548
Only one of the three interests Fang Yuan: rank four fire pupil Gu. Used, it burns fire wherever the Gu Master looks, a convenient attack that catches opponents off guard, but prolonged use damages the user’s eyes and needs healing Gu and complementing Gu to offset it. Fire pupil Gu was Huo Zheng Jun’s own core Gu. The stele also records Gu recipes, which Fang Yuan reads three times and stores inside east window Gu. Though he does not cultivate fire path, the recipes, especially the high-value refinement recipe for fire pupil Gu, still serve as inspiration for his own Gu refinement and cultivation research. ch. 548
The recipe calls for rank four fire pupil Gu to be advanced from rank three fire eye Gu, together with sight blow Gu and other refinement materials. Fang Yuan already knows fire eye Gu, a one-time investigative Gu that lets the eyes see through fog but risks blindness if it fails. He also knows sight blow Gu, since Hao Ji Liu of Hei tribe’s army owns one and once paired it with rank four location swap Gu. Fang Yuan keeps fire pupil Gu but will not take up fire path. The attack is too restrictive, reliant on visual contact the world’s countless Gu could easily block. ch. 548
He reflects that there is no strongest Gu worm, only the strongest Gu Master. Gu worms are hosts of the great Dao and fundamentally tools, and when a Gu Master combines them well the effects multiply, with the strongest combinations, hard to counter, becoming killer moves. Fang Yuan notes with interest that this is the first Gu Master inheritance he has obtained inside Imperial Court blessed land. Imperial Court blessed land holds countless Gu Master inheritances. Its environment is uncommonly gentle, unlike the main world, where calamities and beasts often destroy an inheritance before its fated finder arrives. Every Gu Master who enters the blessed land has already survived tough battles and carries some superior quality, hero or grand conqueror alike, so inheritances here are abundant and any fated finder gains something. ch. 548
Fang Yuan keeps the three Gu worms and smashes the stele to bits. Searching further, he finds a cave and, about a hundred meters underground, six eerie fire dragon python eggs. He is troubled: baby pythons he could raise freely in Hu Immortal blessed land, but hatching the eggs needs daily baths in eerie fire and python blood, and the hatchling would then need the adult python itself to teach it how to hunt. Fang Yuan has neither the time nor the effort to spare for that. With no better choice, he quickly collects the eggs anyway, then leaves the hot cave and flies on without lingering. ch. 548
