Chapter 711

In a secret room on Fei He mountain, Fang Zheng lies ruined and unconscious. He lost control of his failed blood demon flower Gu during the attack on Hu Immortal blessed land, a plot by Lord Sky Crane, and his soul stands near collapse. Lord Sky Crane, speaking from inside a spirit incubating flea, tells He Feng Yang he gives up his chance to possess Fang Zheng’s body and asks that Fang Zheng be saved instead. He Feng Yang answers that the body’s injuries are minor next to the soul, worn to the edge of collapse by the forced blood sense. His extremely weak soul would let Sky Crane win possession without doubt, He Feng Yang notes, exactly the plan Sky Crane once wanted. Sky Crane refuses anyway, seeing his own younger self in Fang Zheng’s purity and hunger for revenge, and feeling guilt at harming a disciple who trusts him as master. ^{ch. 711}

He Feng Yang heals Fang Zheng’s body with a green light and stabilizes his soul, though he remains unconscious. As a reward for loyalty, he offers Sky Crane another chance to possess later instead of forcing a decision now. The possession technique itself is incomplete and originated in Northern Plains, he explains. Old Lord Can Yang, sent there with Feng Jiu Ge, is gathering information to improve it. When he returns, Sky Crane’s odds will be better, and by then he should have reflected thoroughly and be ready with an answer. He Feng Yang leaves without waiting for a reply. ^{ch. 711}

In Hu Immortal blessed land, Fang Yuan spits blood as thoughts collapse in his mind, the first injury the light of wisdom has ever caused him. He had pushed it too far trying to deduce the recipe behind Star Lord Wan Xiang’s star shoot Gu, the consumable Gu behind Spring Star Rain that he depends on to nourish his star fragment grass. He sits still until the tremors pass, though cracks remain in his mind and his thoughts come slower, and he judges wisdom path deduction as risky as strength path overexertion. His star path foundation is too low to reverse the tampered recipe; only master level realm would sharply reduce the possibilities enough. The attempt fails, and Fang Yuan is left injured for it. ^{ch. 711}

A wholly new starlight firefly Gu recipe would most likely take grandmaster realm, he estimates, and reworking Dou Min Jun’s star path inheritance into a new star Gu would take at least quasi-great grandmaster realm. Reverse refining the recipes for star shoot Gu and starlight firefly Gu would have freed him from Wan Xiang and fed his stargate use. But his refinement path stands at master level while his star path is merely ordinary, too wide a gap for either plan to work yet. He judges the plan not feasible yet. ^{ch. 711}

Fang Yuan assesses his own standing: blood path grandmaster, strength path grandmaster, flying quasi-grandmaster, refinement path master, enslavement path master, transformation path master. He rules out blood path first, since it draws hatred from every side and only flourishes again once a chaotic war breaks order down. He holds Blood Deity’s remnant recipe but will not deduce it yet, lacking the wealth to refine a blood deity Immortal Gu, and his own blood path inheritance has not matured enough to retrieve. Strength path goes next. It once flourished but has since declined heavily, its resources mostly gone extinct or grown extremely rare, leaving even an incredible genius like Chu Du unable to restore its old glory. He took up strength path only as a very convenient springboard, forced into it at Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, unlike Hei Lou Lan, whose several strength path Immortal Gu let her grow stronger through it. ^{ch. 711}

With blood path and strength path closed, flying merely part of his proficiency, and refinement weak in combat, only enslavement path and transformation path remain. Enslavement path needs beast groups, and at his level ordinary beasts are of little use, with a core beast group rising from mutated beast kings and emperors to desolate beasts. Fang Yuan turns the question over using the light of wisdom. Three days later, he finally breaks through in transformation path. ^{ch. 711}