Chapter 561

Fang Yuan reasons through an obvious question: why would this mysterious Gu Immortal risk such danger to tamper with Giant Sun Immortal Venerable’s arrangement, rather than simply build an inheritance of their own. He concludes the inheritance itself required exactly this arrangement. He recalls studying the Lang Ya land spirit’s information hundreds of times, still poring over it the night before the Imperial Court contest’s great battle. ^{ch. 561}

Long ago, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable asked Long Hair Ancestor to refine an everlasting inheritance treasure for his descendants. The demand was too great, and Long Hair Ancestor spent a hundred-odd days before an alternate method came to him. He divided the treasure into countless small towers, sub-bodies that drew in wild Gu worms for ten years apiece. The towers then sank and sacrificed those worms. Resonating with the blizzard outside, the sacrifice condensed heavenly power into a floor of Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, layer by layer, until the whole structure formed. ^{ch. 561}

The chapter names Long Hair Ancestor the number one refinement path immortal of all time, past the normal limits of Gu refinement. Even so, the refinement did not fully succeed. A complete Eighty-Eight True Yang Building would need to stand at rank nine, and no rank nine Immortal Gu house had ever existed. Rank nine Gu Immortals, given the title Venerable, numbered only ten across the boundless history. Long Hair Ancestor warned Giant Sun Immortal Venerable of this, but the venerable refused to give up the request. Fearing an Immortal Venerable’s might, Long Hair Ancestor agreed anyway, and settled for a rank nine Immortal Gu house that could only exist for a short period, which left Eighty-Eight True Yang Building at rank eight. ^{ch. 561}

Giant Sun Immortal Venerable was displeased at first, but changed his attitude after inspecting the result, calling Eighty-Eight True Yang Building’s design the secret of a mortal becoming a Gu Immortal. The Building draws on the three elements a mortal must cross to become an immortal: heaven, earth and man. The Imperial Court contest spreads the element of man, the ten-year blizzard supplies the element of heaven, and the small towers sinking into the blessed land borrow the element of earth. Together, the three elements turn a mortal into an immortal. This combination gave rise to Huang Jin family’s super tribes by plundering northern plains’ resources, and kept Giant Sun Immortal Venerable’s influence alive for countless years. ^{ch. 561}

Fang Yuan realizes the mysterious Gu Immortal broke one small tower to create a hole where the Di Qiu inheritance now sits. By the Building’s own principle, such a hole should trigger a backflow of heavenly power to condense a new small tower and repair it. The small towers, unlike the Building, were easily destroyed. Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had shielded the towers using the strength of Imperial Court blessed land, and every ten years Long Hair Ancestor’s design sent the condensing power to repair them first. Fang Yuan concludes that Di Qiu’s tower has never been repaired because the mysterious Gu Immortal sealed the gap to deceive the Building, siphoning the condensing heavenly power for their own use. He had guessed the secret phrase was a Gu refinement method before, without proof, and testing now makes him far more confident. ^{ch. 561}

Hei Lou Lan’s group, defeated by the golden-white tiger phantom guardian and sent out of the tower, appears at its first floor entrance. Fang Yuan slips out too, using a glass owner token to avoid suspicion. Guards of Hei tribe’s direct line greet the returning lords, and although the group is battered, it made real progress, pushing past ten rounds. Some in the group study Fang Yuan with open curiosity and doubt. Hei Lou Lan praises everyone loudly, names Wolf King the top contributor of the expedition, and orders a three-day banquet, patting Fang Yuan’s shoulder to show their closeness. The high praise raises Fang Yuan’s opinion of his own worth. ^{ch. 561}

Fang Yuan declines the celebration, telling Hei Lou Lan he needs closed cultivation to consolidate what he gained from the trip. Hei Lou Lan’s smile freezes for a moment. He recovers at once and agrees, playing the magnanimous leader, though Fang Yuan does not care how furious he is inwardly or how envious the others feel. Fang Yuan wants only to return and study the Di Qiu inheritance’s secrets in full. Six days later, he pushes open his window, looks down at the sacred palace, and has fully solved the secret of the Di Qiu inheritance. The cipher is a recipe for refining an Immortal Gu, one even a mortal Gu Master can complete successfully by following the phrase step by step, since the power is borrowed from Eighty-Eight True Yang Building rather than drawn from the caster’s own strength. ^{ch. 561}

Fang Yuan does not know what the Immortal Gu itself is, and can only guess from the phrase’s style that its maker came from central continent. He suspects this inheritance forms a chain. Combined with a memory from his previous life, he judges what he obtained is likely only one part of it. In that previous life, central continent Gu Immortals had planned to use this same loophole to breach Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, having found only an earlier clue to the inheritance. Reasoning that they would never have wasted the chance at an Immortal Gu, Fang Yuan concludes they never held the later part of the phrase he now has. Many Gu Masters build an inheritance step by step for exactly this reason, so a fated heir with enough ability inherits everything while a lesser one receives only a part. Without his intel on Eighty-Eight True Yang Building and his previous life’s memories, he would not have solved the phrase however long he had. ^{ch. 561}