Chapter 673

Fang Yuan tells Tai Bai Yun Sheng that eastern sea’s air bubble sea has been poisoned by a Gu Immortal fight, and that its owners, Ni clan, Qiu clan and Ba clan, want it solved. Fixed Immortal Travel lets them ignore the regional walls between regions. Fang Yuan warns that central continent’s ten great sects keep pawns everywhere, and that the northern plains disturbance is already known abroad. He had meant to seize the Immortal Gu called Dark Limit before going to eastern sea himself, but Hei Lou Lan has made little progress. Tai Bai Yun Sheng, an experienced flyer with the formidable defensive killer move nine cloud ring, assures him he can protect himself. ^{ch. 673}

Fang Yuan tells him to visit Hai Shi blessed land first, the world’s second largest trading market after treasure yellow heaven, using its missions for saving air bubble sea as a pretext before approaching the three clans. He also lists foods to find there: underworld jellyfish, deepsea lightning eels, laughter stones, six headed snake blood and cloud dragon scales. Fang Yuan urges him to eat guts Gu at Dang Hun mountain first. Tai Bai Yun Sheng refuses the gift for a sixth time, so Fang Yuan sells it to him for one immortal essence stone instead. A day later, he leaves with Fang Yuan for eastern sea; Fang Yuan hands him moving perspective cup Gu and stargate Gu to keep contact, then activates Fixed Immortal Travel and vanishes. ^{ch. 673}

Fang Yuan instead arrives at western desert. Atop a tall sand dune, a short, twisted, extremely ugly tree casts an enormous illusory shadow of a flourishing tree in bloom. This is the thousand wish tree, an ancient desolate tree that grows three hundred years, flowers at six hundred, and bears exactly one thousand fruits at nine hundred. A successful wish made under the ripe tree with a Gu recipe yields a mortal or Immortal Gu, though winning an Immortal Gu reduces the fruit count. ^{ch. 673}

In Fang Yuan’s previous life, the tree’s ripening caused a huge battle among western desert’s Gu Immortals. Several super forces agreed to partition the tree. On the day the fruits fell, forces of every size broke their blockade. A lone rank five Gu Master named Han Li arrived first and wished his way to Phantom Heaven, a space path Immortal Gu. Fang Yuan, then only rank four, fought through great danger to win a rare rank four Gu from among the last fifty or sixty fruits, a tremendous boost to his strength. ^{ch. 673}

After the chaos, Xi clan’s rank eight ancestor Xi Jian Ping left seclusion, suppressed the great desert’s experts, and took the tree to Xi clan’s blessed land, where Fang Yuan never saw it again. The fruits still need over two hundred years to ripen, and the tree has astonishing defense, standing even against Immortal Gu attacks. Fang Yuan cannot transplant it anyway: it needs an extreme desert environment, and Hu Immortal blessed land is grassland. He walks away on foot. Only after half a day is he truly clear of the tree’s range. Its illusion hides a huge radius and can be left only on foot, repeatedly circling anyone who tries to approach, which is how forces once fished for benefits nearby; Fixed Immortal Travel lets Fang Yuan ignore it. ^{ch. 673}

Fang Yuan’s true goal was never the tree, but Han Li, who gained enormous benefit from a thousand wish fruit and later became a Gu Immortal expert. Han Li starts as a mortal behind Fang Yuan’s rank three, but repeated fortuitous encounters carry him to peak rank seven, a famous western desert powerhouse who makes central continent’s ten great sects suffer losses before Fang Yuan’s self-detonation. Per the Biography of Han Li, he is only a child in a mortal hamlet near Huang clan. Fang Yuan wants him for connect luck Immortal Gu, planning to offset Spring Autumn Cicada’s drain on his own luck by using someone whose future luck runs high. He ruled out Hunting King Sun Gan, stuck at rank five, Little Immortal Xing Luo, whose poor luck caps her at small fame, and Shi Chao Yu, whose luck is definitely not good despite a future rank seven. Only Han Li and Ma Hong Yun have lucky paths, and since Ma Hong Yun’s whereabouts are unknown while Fairy Li Shan investigates, Han Li becomes Fang Yuan’s first target. Fang Yuan then disguises himself and flies toward Huang clan. ^{ch. 673}