Chapter 679

Fang Yuan picks poison breath and the ancient group strength Gu recipe for four immortal essence stones, a fair price since poison breath is uncommon and the Gu, though only rank five, has gone extinct. He tries to haggle, since he is low on cash, but Fairy Li Shan explains she is selling the recipe now only because its rarest material, stone monkey fur, has just reappeared, produced by Immortal Monkey King Shi Lei after ages of extinction. Hei Lou Lan cuts the haggling off, pointing to his immortal killer move myriad self and insisting the Gu is worth much more to him than to others. Fang Yuan yields. He judges the price fair rather than insult two allies who already see through him. ^{ch. 679}

The trade closes, netting Fang Yuan four immortal essence stones on top of poison breath and the recipe, after the eight he received for the rescue. He passes on Kong Sheng Tian, since opening every pore for its speed would gut his defense and conflicts with hair armor, which seals every pore shut. Leaving, he takes a plain stargate rather than spend on Fixed Immortal Travel. ^{ch. 679}

Before he goes, Fang Yuan checks Hei Lou Lan’s luck with his rank five luck inspection Gu, matching her rank five peak stage. It has recovered from an extremely low point after her clash with Ma Hong Yun, now a giant pillar the color of an azure sky with a long lasting feel, on par with Han Li’s and Hong Yi’s. He reads this as good odds for her ascension, though luck alone settles nothing. It does not explain why she died so suddenly in his previous life, and he wonders whether Hei Cheng had a hand in it. The Snowy Mountain Alliance’s oath bars allies from intentionally harming each other, and connecting his own disastrous luck to hers would count as harm, so he leaves her luck untouched, choosing his targets with care. ^{ch. 679}

Back at Hu Immortal blessed land, Fang Yuan converts eight immortal essence stones into green grape immortal essence, taking his beads from eleven to nineteen after recent travel and Worldly Wave Trace spent six. Reviewing the fight, he feels satisfied either way. He weighs only gains against losses, not pride or shame, and finds a clear profit, four green grape beads spent against deeper trust from Hei Lou Lan and Fairy Li Shan, four immortal essence stones, poison breath and the recipe. ^{ch. 679}

His one loss is the Immortal Gu Worldly Wave Trace, its aura unstable and glow dull, since it went unfed at Imperial Court blessed land and was activated several times more during the wind veil of assimilation. It has reached a limit and needs feeding or risks dying of hunger, the first of Fang Yuan’s Immortal Gu to reach that point, and its food is tens of thousands of underworld jellyfish and thousands of deepsea lightning eels. The requests he posts in treasure yellow heaven draw few replies. Tai Bai Yun Sheng, now at Hai Shi blessed land, finds a jellyfish seller there. Deepsea lightning eels stay scarce, held by Eastern Sea Zombie Alliance, which houses the Zombie Alliance headquarters for all five regions, stands stronger than eastern sea’s own super forces, and blockades whole sea regions for itself. ^{ch. 679}

Tai Bai Yun Sheng suggests joining Eastern Sea Zombie Alliance to buy eels cheaply, but Fang Yuan refuses. His aperture carries northern plains qi, easily told apart by a simple test, and his larger, high-yield plan needs Northern Plains Zombie Alliance instead, worth the higher price patience will cost. After resting, he returns by Fixed Immortal Travel to Universal Life Academy. Hong Yi finishes his aperture practice, excited that he has placed in the top ten without showing his true strength, and plans to use a certain Gu to break his opponent’s defense in the decisive match two days off. He takes out Rewind, an extremely rare rank two time path Gu that can attack or defend by returning an enemy’s activated Gu worm to its state before activation, undoing an effect such as a formed fireball. Rewind demands so much primeval essence that even Hong Yi, with an A grade aperture holding over ninety percent primeval essence, can only activate it once. ^{ch. 679}