Chapter 713

A wind wolf stalks a pink flower rabbit through Hu Immortal blessed land’s grassland until Fang Yuan’s shadow, passing overhead in flight, startles the rabbit into escaping. Watching this, Fang Yuan decides to manage the blessed land properly, since his funds are ample and his own blessed land stands a dead aperture. Its beast groups have grown very sparse since the Northern Plains journey, and guts Gu already sells well, so the old rockmen trade is unnecessary. Hu Immortal was an enslavement path Gu Immortal; this grassland suits fox groups best. Building its vitality now will pay off later, once he can fuse the land after his revival. ^{ch. 713}

Fang Yuan inspects the bat wings during their third flight test. Fully spread they do not reach half his arm’s length, unimpressive next to his old phantom wings. Still, they give him almost double the old speed boost and a much longer flight, since these are true flesh, bone and Gu worms rather than a phantom. He renames the move true solid bat wings. He rates it above even his new lion fur armor, worth an estimated six immortal essence stones or more. The move can hold up to three pairs of desolate beast wings at once, and all three would make him at least three times faster. It still falls short of movement Immortal Gu like Worldly Wave Trace, but it would let him catch Plump Lady, whose light sand escape could no longer outrun him. ^{ch. 713}

He kept the wings’ sense of pain and touch on purpose. Numbed, zombified wings could not give him the fine control his quasi-grandmaster flying needs. ^{ch. 713}

Desolate beast corpses are rare, so to gather two more pairs of wings Fang Yuan decides to go looking himself, toward Starry Sky grotto-heaven. A rank eight or nine immortal aperture is called a grotto-heaven, and Starry Sky’s owner was Seven Star Child, a rank eight Gu Immortal of seventeen hundred years ago who has long since died. In Fang Yuan’s previous life it eventually fell and broke apart; he explored one fragment through Blood Wing Demon Sect subordinates, which is how he came to know its scenery. In this life it has not yet fallen. Its memory should let him reach it early with Fixed Immortal Travel to claim a star demon bat’s wings, and perhaps catch a desolate beast alive for the Lang Ya land spirit. ^{ch. 713}

Entering now, with the grotto-heaven’s heavenly spirit still alive to call up its full defenses, is a risk only his standing as an immortal zombie allows. He can only reason from what came after. In his previous life, a rank eight immortal zombie rose from this same opportunity and dealt the ten great ancient sects a loss. That zombie then beat the Central Continent Zombie Alliance branch leader, ruling under the name Star Constellation immortal zombie through the five regions chaotic war. He never saw the true Starry Sky heavenly spirit, and does not know what would make the grotto-heaven accept a new owner. ^{ch. 713}

A few days later Hei Lou Lan arrives in Hu Immortal blessed land, joins Fang Yuan refining the eighth batch of airsac Gu, then stays to hear his account of Starry Sky grotto-heaven. Going in alone would be too dangerous, so he seeks allies. Fairy Li Shan is unavailable, using her mountain pledge Gu to help Qin Bai Sheng gather his forces before an unprecedented Northern Plains auction. Qin Bai Sheng pays her an Immortal Gu for that help, and she gives up working with Fang Yuan this time. Tai Bai Yun Sheng is equally unavailable, exploring Yu Lu blessed land with Shark Demon and bound by his death sentence awaits Immortal Gu. ^{ch. 713}

Only Hei Lou Lan is free, and she agrees to explore with him. Under Snowy Mountain Alliance terms, her losses will not cost him double compensation, and their gains split sixty percent to him, forty to her. After resting a few days she enters his immortal aperture, and Fang Yuan tries to activate Fixed Immortal Travel from a memory image of the place. He fails three or four times, since that image comes from after the grotto-heaven had already fallen and changed. Trying a different memory and spending more than ten beads of green grape immortal essence, he finally succeeds. A flash of jade green light, and he appears inside Starry Sky grotto-heaven. ^{ch. 713}