Chapter 586

When Fang Yuan asks for the flying bear phantom Gu in front of everyone, Hei Lou Lan’s first instinct is to refuse him outright. Hei Lou Lan thinks it an absurd request: this is an Immortal Gu that even an ordinary Gu Immortal would not obtain easily, and Fang Yuan is only a mortal. The Gu itself is stated to be simple to use. A single thought and a toss turns the worm into the flying bear phantom, ready to fight. Its battle strength falls short of the real desolate beast flying bear, but it still fights at half-immortal strength, enough to dominate the mortal realm. Hei Lou Lan reflects that such a Gu in his own hands during the Imperial Court contest would leave Fang Yuan no room to shine. He finds the open request rude, yet also unsurprising, since only Chang Shan Yin would have the nerve to make it in public. ^{ch. 586}

Hei Lou Lan calms down as he looks at the flying bear phantom Gu in his hand. He notes it was half beaten to death in the fight and is in poor condition, needing time to recover before it can be used. An injured Immortal Gu can be healed by another Immortal Gu or left to recover on its own, but self-recovery demands a steady supply of food. He recalls, though not with full certainty, that this Gu feeds on the desolate beast flying bear’s flesh and blood, a problem he expects will need his tribe’s immortals to solve. The more he thinks it through, the calmer he grows. ^{ch. 586}

Hei Lou Lan is one of the ten extreme physiques, carrying the Great Strength True Martial Physique, and needs a strength path Immortal Gu to ascend to the Gu Immortal realm and escape death. The flying bear phantom Gu is not what he needs. He tells the group his priority now is finding a strength path Immortal Gu, usually given only at a floor’s final round, and that he will need everyone’s strength to complete it. He reasons that forcibly keeping the Gu would turn Chang Shan Yin into an enemy and cost him the Wolf King’s strength going forward, so giving it up in exchange for continued help serves him better. This choice also protects his own reputation, since no one could then say he broke his word. ^{ch. 586}

Sun Shi Han objects, insisting the tribe leader promised only half the rewards and not the Immortal Gu itself. Fang Yuan answers coldly that an earlier lesson apparently was not enough, and his gaze turns to ice as killing intent rolls off him toward Sun Shi Han. Sun Shi Han pales and edges closer to Hei Lou Lan. No one in the group doubts that Fang Yuan would carry out the killing blow himself. ^{ch. 586}

Hei Lou Lan laughs and walks over, patting his own chest as he insists a true man never breaks his word. He raises his earlier promise of fifty percent to sixty, crediting Fang Yuan’s plan for getting them through the round, but argues the Immortal Gu is priceless and asks how Fang Yuan will cover the remaining forty percent. Others chime in, citing their own effort and injuries, and one even invokes Water Demon Hao Ji Liu’s death as proof of what the fight cost them. Everyone present envies the Immortal Gu. They push that resentment onto Fang Yuan, who frowns deeper under the pressure. Hei Lou Lan privately gloats that for all his fearsome reputation and strength, Wolf King will still end up caught by him. ^{ch. 586}

Seven days later, on the ninetieth round of Eighty-Eight True Yang Building’s seventh layer, the flying bear phantom roars inside a maze. Its body is covered in wounds. Several teeth are broken, and its right eye is blinded and hangs from the socket. It faces only one enemy: Fang Yuan, floating with six arms on his back, far smaller than the hill-sized bear yet treated by it as a serious threat after fifteen minutes of fighting. Fang Yuan judges the flying bear phantom Gu a true Immortal Gu, since it keeps much of its wisdom and cunning even in phantom form, and thinks it could later save him effort against strong enemies. ^{ch. 586}

Seven days earlier, Hei Lou Lan’s group cleared the floor’s final round and won the flying bear phantom Immortal Gu. Fang Yuan bluntly asked for it at once. The other Gu Masters were jealous and reached for excuses to deny him, but Fang Yuan offered to pay the Gu’s remaining half in value and held firm, and Hei Lou Lan eventually gave it to him. That night Fang Yuan went to Hei Lou Lan, borrowed resources from him, and sealed a secret contract. He then used Hu Immortal blessed land to reach treasure yellow heaven, trading for the Gu’s food and the worms it needed, and by the sixth day the Gu was healthy again. On the seventh day Fang Yuan secretly entered the seventh floor alone to test the Gu against his finished killer move, six arm heavenly zombie king. ^{ch. 586}

He orders the flying bear phantom Gu to attack him without holding back while he fights it in six arm heavenly zombie king form, and the Gu, despite its Immortal Gu strength, proves no match for him. Fang Yuan is satisfied with the result. He reflects that the killer move draws on borrow strength Gu at its core, pulling a steady, endless flow of natural strength from heaven, earth, fire, water and other sources. Most strikingly, it turns his body into a zombie’s body for a time, leaving him half dead, with faster recovery, dulled pain, and strength that feels almost limitless. An ordinary body would tire from constant exertion, but a heavenly zombie’s body does not carry that weakness. The strength is intoxicating, which only sharpens his caution. ^{ch. 586}

Fang Yuan knows the form only lasts briefly. Intense combat makes him lose track of time inside it, and forgetting its limit would bring severe consequences. Exceeding the time limit of six arm heavenly zombie king risks turning him into a genuine zombie, a danger the text ranks above even the ten extreme physique’s own disaster, one that not even the yin-yang rotation Gu could undo. Fang Yuan wants to remove this weakness, but Mo Yao’s conditions for testing it are too strict, and he cannot find a suitable person to test on. ^{ch. 586}

Mo Yao’s will then speaks inside Fang Yuan’s mind, saying he has not yet unleashed the Gu’s true power. Fang Yuan asks what he means. Mo Yao explains that phantom path Gu Masters from rank one to five rely on phantom form mainly to dodge attacks, which leaves them strong on defense but weak on offense. From rank six on, phantom path Gu Immortals gain both, switching between a phantom form that nullifies attacks and a solid form that strikes when least expected. ^{ch. 586}

Mo Yao states that flying bear phantom Gu itself is a phantom path Immortal Gu, refined by killing the desolate beast flying bear and using all of its skin, bones, flesh, blood and soul. Alone it carries half the real bear’s strength, but paired with Gu worms such as battle space Gu, grand chaotic dance Gu, and five element bear skin Gu, its battle strength would surge far higher. Fang Yuan recalls the earlier fight. Those very Gu worms let the flying bear phantom stall the whole group then. Battle space Gu went to Hei Lou Lan afterward and the rest were taken by others, so the flying bear phantom Gu Fang Yuan now fights carries none of them, leaving him the advantage. He sees that adding other Gu worms to it is really the same as using several Gu worms together, which is what a killer move is. ^{ch. 586}

Mo Yao agrees with his reasoning but adds that only phantom path Gu worms truly complement it, and that a single turn phantom Gu alone would let flying bear phantom Gu shift between solid and phantom form to dodge attacks. The idea of turn phantom Gu shakes Fang Yuan, who pictures how troublesome the combination would make it and takes it as a way to change how he uses the Gu entirely. Mo Yao then offers a trade: return Water Pavilion to Spirit Affinity House properly, and he will share the details of three phantom path inheritances, one of them likely for a phantom path Gu Immortal. Fang Yuan puts it off, answering only that they will talk about it later. He has never let his guard down around Mo Yao, sensing danger in him despite no open hostility. ^{ch. 586}