Chapter 554

The tower that has formed is tall and slender, its shape blurred under shifting, gorgeous colors. Standing at his residence’s entrance and looking toward the dome, Fang Yuan judges this only the building’s initial appearance: each layer will stabilize, and only then open, once snow covers Northern Plains and the blessed land’s smaller towers sink into the ground. Around him, Gu Masters cheer. Mortals kneel, praising Giant Sun’s might. ^{ch. 554}

Fang Yuan reasons that even once the building fully forms, he cannot enter it himself, since he is not Giant Sun’s descendant and carries none of his bloodline. Entering would need Hei Lou Lan to grant him a guest token. He is in no hurry, reasoning that Hei Lou Lan will need outside help like his sooner or later. ^{ch. 554}

He returns to his room, and the cheers outside soften as the door closes. Fang Yuan enters a secret room kept for cultivation and sits upright on a cushion. Both his apertures now sit at rank five peak stage: azure wolf group for enslavement path, and four arm wind king for strength path, and combined with his battle experience he judges himself at the peak among mortals. Against a Gu Immortal, though, his brow furrows: he knows an immortal outclasses a mortal by an enormous gap. ^{ch. 554}

His best hope would be for Tai Bai Yun Sheng to already hold the recipe for landscape as before Gu. Acting against him openly in Northern Plains would not go well, but doing it inside Eighty-Eight True Yang Building would be convenient. The plan: use a Gu to plunder river as before Gu and mountain as before Gu from Tai Bai Yun Sheng, then plunder the Immortal Gu recipe from his mind. With such an opening, Fang Yuan could kill Tai Bai Yun Sheng before he becomes an immortal, then use his third refinement opportunity to have Lang Ya Land Spirit refine landscape as before Gu. But the odds a mortal holds that recipe are next to nothing. ^{ch. 554}

Vague rumors from his previous life held that when Tai Bai Yun Sheng becomes a Gu Immortal, heaven and earth react and Dao marks draw together, merging his two rank five Gu spontaneously into a rank six Immortal Gu, landscape as before Gu. Fang Yuan’s prudent nature keeps him from betting everything on so indistinct a future. ^{ch. 554}

If matters go wrong, Fang Yuan knows he must face Gu Immortal Tai Bai Yun Sheng alone, and that azure wolf group and four arm wind king will not be enough. His own strength already sits at the peak among mortals, among the first class of rank five experts despite the unresolved dual cultivation of enslavement and strength paths. Measured against Southern Border, he is on the same level as Shang Clan leader Shang Yan Fei and Wu Clan leader Empress Wu Ji. Through the advantage of rebirth, his past lives’ experience, and repeated near-death risks, he achieved shockingly rapid growth. That still falls short of a Gu Immortal, even a newly advanced one. ^{ch. 554}

Fang Yuan settles on three ways to close the gap. First, search Eighty-Eight True Yang Building for its strongest Gu worms and unique methods. Second, arrange secretly against Tai Bai Yun Sheng so he is ready when he must truly act. Third, resolve the dual cultivation problem between enslavement and strength paths to raise his battle strength further. ^{ch. 554}

He reflects that he has already exhausted almost all his previous life’s foundation creating four arm wind king, since in that life he specialized in blood path and only dabbled in enslavement and strength. He judges plots and traps against Gu Immortals too unreliable to matter much: from his own previous advancement, he knows a mortal becoming a Gu Immortal changes head to toe, inside and out, even in appearance. The only thing he can truly bank on is Eighty-Eight True Yang Building. ^{ch. 554}

Days pass, golden and silver light alternating in the sky as Eighty-Eight True Yang Building continues forming, its glow spreading over most of the sacred palace. Inside, the wind is cool, birds sing and flowers scent the air. Outside in Northern Plains, snow has already fallen for over a month, a blizzard spreading in force with bone-chilling wind, whiting out both sky and ground and fogging every view. Trees freeze into pillars of ice, snow piles thick over hills and valleys, beast groups die in large numbers, and even hardy weeds freeze solid; spit turns to ice the instant it leaves the mouth. ^{ch. 554}

Across Northern Plains, remnant tribes survive the blizzard by holding ground with a natural advantage, such as a valley warmed by hot springs. Man Tribe, which holds Hong Yan Valley, is one of them. ^{ch. 554}

In the hall of affairs, elders line two rows with Man Tu, the tribe leader, seated at the head. Rank three external elder Shi Wu kneels to beg forgiveness: the spirit spring he oversees, spring D, froze and dried up the day before and is now ruined. Man Tu, smiling, says it is no matter: he already knew. ^{ch. 554}

He tells Shi Wu to stand, since any spirit spring can freeze or dry during the ten-year disaster and the fault is not his. Shi Wu, moved, is quietly ashamed and grateful. Half an outsider who married into Man Tribe and had been pushed aside since, he had expected the loss of a spring in his charge to cost him, but this tribe leader is open-minded and lets it go. ^{ch. 554}

Man Tu turns serious and asks Man Duo, his third son and the shrewd, physically slight administrator of the tribe’s internal affairs, how many spirit springs remain. Man Duo reports seven, marked A, B, C, E, F, G and H, with G and H nearly dry and less than a month from failing. That leaves five in a month, he says, asking the elders’ views. ^{ch. 554}

The elders judge the natural disaster nearly impossible to reverse and suggest cutting the primeval stones given to Gu Masters instead, noting that their eight springs, built up over ten years, already leave Man Tribe better off than most other tribes this year. Even losing every spring would not be fatal, they say, since new springs will emerge once the ten-year disaster passes. Man Tu agrees spirit springs matter, since a Gu Master’s cultivation depends on primeval stones and the coming blizzard will need Gu Masters to defend Hong Yan Valley against snow monsters. He orders a spring egg Gu taken from the tribe warehouse and planted as a new spring. It is a rank five Gu, and he names the new spring D. ^{ch. 554}

An elder objects that a spring egg Gu is rank five and costly to spend this way. Man Tu overrules him: so long as the tribe does not lose many Gu Masters, it keeps its strength, and once the blizzard passes and spring comes, it will be time to realize their ambitions. The elders’ eyes brighten at the word. Man Tu has spent years building Man Tribe, which has swallowed many smaller tribes to become ruler of a region around Hong Yan Valley, yet his words show even this does not satisfy him. ^{ch. 554}

The objecting elder apologizes and pledges his life to Man Tu’s command, and the other elders echo the same pledge. Man Tu, pleased, puts Shi Wu in charge of the new spring D, and the rest of the hall envies him the lucrative post. Shi Wu, moved, vows to repay the tribe’s trust. ^{ch. 554}

After the meeting disperses, Shi Wu follows Man Duo to the tribe warehouse and takes the spring egg Gu. Holding it, he asks Man Duo, addressed as third young master, to teach him how to activate it. Man Duo explains that the Gu demands so much primeval essence that even a rank five middle stage Gu Master cannot activate it in one try. At rank three, Shi Wu will need lasting Gu and continuing Gu instead, a process that will take close to a month to plant the spring. Man Duo offers to help him through it. Shi Wu thanks him. ^{ch. 554}