Chapter 682

Fang Yuan faintly senses that Hei Lou Lan’s coming tribulation means a huge battle. Hei Cheng already outranks him in strength, and Xue Song Zi, holder of Snowy Mountain blessed land’s seventh peak, is no easy target either. Even without them interfering, a Great Strength True Martial Physique tribulation already outstrips an ordinary person’s. He starts preparing at once. ^{ch. 682}

Battle strength rests on four things: immortal essence, killer moves, Immortal Gu, and fighting attainment. His own attainment is already strong and slow to raise, so he focuses on the rest. His southern border trip for the luck connection cost two beads of green grape immortal essence, leaving seventeen. That falls short of what a huge battle can burn, sometimes over a hundred. Refining immortal essence stones is his only way to replenish it, and he holds just eleven and a half. ^{ch. 682}

Fang Yuan returns to wisdom Gu and tests whether it truly once spoke with Ren Zu, as the legends claim. It stays silent, only flickering its light, which he reads as agreement. He plants the lingzhi king’s heart, and small lingzhi mushrooms burst up within breaths, hardening to table height before the blessed land’s soil halts their growth. Fang Yuan sits on one without regret, and it bears his zombie weight. He calls wisdom Gu back to work, casts delight in water and mountain Gu, and spends seven days deducing three Immortal Gu remnant recipes. Traded to Lang Ya land spirit, two ninety percent recipes and one eighty-nine percent recipe earn forty immortal essence stones, a net profit near his usual twenty-six. ^{ch. 682}

Little Hu Immortal reports a six headed snake corpse being sold in pieces in treasure yellow heaven. Fang Yuan contacts the seller as Eight Arm Immortal, since calamity beckoning Gu feeds on the beast’s black blood. The snake died nearly a century ago, and its blood has already seeped out completely. Fang Yuan confirms this himself. He is not discouraged, and buys the whole skeleton for three immortal essence stones. The six headed snake is a desolate beast matching rank six Gu Immortals in strength, and every part of it serves Gu refinement. Bone marrow can still yield blood, a craft he mastered in his previous life, so the skeleton alone solves the feeding problem. ^{ch. 682}

At Immortal Monkey King Shi Lei’s store, a proud will manages trade in his absence. It prices stone monkey fur at one immortal essence stone per hundred pieces and refuses to haggle. Reproducing it, the will warns, needs at least a thousand strands. Fang Yuan buys five hundred pieces for five immortal essence stones despite the cost, since a great battle is coming. Shi Lei himself is rank seven, once dominated a territory in the five regions chaotic war, and grew strong enough after Feng Jiu Ge’s death that even the ten great sects cannot restrain him. ^{ch. 682}

With the fur, Fang Yuan sets his old hairy men, each a dying refinement expert, on the simple steps of group strength Gu while he handles the crucial ones himself. After three days and nights without rest, the whole batch of fur yields only forty-five rank five group strength Gu, a rate that already reflects an easy recipe. Group strength Gu, an extinct strength path Gu, converges a group’s strength into one, and fused with myriad self it greatly raises his own. He has no time or foundation to improve the recipe further. Instead he spends a day merging all forty-five into myriad self, and succeeds. ^{ch. 682}

Little Hu Immortal finishes a lake-sized blood pool in the west of Hu Immortal blessed land. The six headed snake’s skeleton bobs at its center, worked by Gu worms into black blood around a core of rank five Battle Bone Wheel. Hu Immortal blessed land’s time runs five times faster than outside. With five or six days left, Fang Yuan can still finish preparing in time. As that day nears, Tai Bai Yun Sheng returns through a stargate, bringing a pleasant surprise. ^{ch. 682}