Star Form Blessed Land
Using Fixed Immortal Travel, Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan escape Starry Sky grotto-heaven into a dim, damp, spacious cavern that Fang Yuan names Earth Abyss. Hei Lou Lan knows of it: an incomparably large underground world in the far west of Central Continent. Fang Yuan likes the dense earth qi there, which will sharply cut the time a blessed land needs to fall. But Ancient Soul Sect’s headquarters sits here too, one of the ten great ancient sects, dominant over the far west for thousands of years and claiming the abyss as its own domain. Fang Yuan laughs off the risk. ch. 728
Even after thousands of years, he says, Ancient Soul Sect has fully explored no more than eighteen layers, with only brief forays to the twenty seventh and occasional wandering between the twenty eighth and thirty sixth. Below the fortieth they can make noise unnoticed. Fang Yuan calls them incompetent. He knows from his previous life that beast tides once erupted from Earth Abyss and devastated the sect and all of Central Continent, until Gu Masters pushed past the thirty sixth layer into a far larger world beneath it. By his self-detonation in that life, explorers had found a hundred and seven layers to Ancient Soul Sect’s thirty six. He shares none of this, telling Hei Lou Lan only to follow. ch. 728
They start at the eighth layer, passing groups of Ancient Soul Sect’s Gu Masters. These grow fewer and stronger in cultivation the deeper they go. By the thirtieth layer no mortal Gu Masters remain, and the pair rely on investigative Gu to see through the dark. At the thirty fifth layer, one of Ancient Soul Sect’s rank six Gu Immortals is being chased by desolate beasts, letting the pair slip unnoticed into the thirty sixth layer. ch. 728
There, Fang Yuan sets up six Gu formations at a remembered spot. He has Hei Lou Lan turn into a strength path phantom giant to punch the muddy ground, since his own attack power is not enough. The crater deepens slowly inside the formations, and after thousands of feet it breaks through into the thirty seventh layer, a spot nearly ten thousand feet thick even at its thinnest. Asked how he found it, Fang Yuan stays silent, since the Snowy Mountain Alliance forbids him to lie, not to stay quiet. They press through the raw thirty seventh layer and reach the fortieth, where the time-limited seal on Star Lord Wan Xiang’s corpse finally ends. ch. 728
Hundreds of mortal Gu fly out of the corpse into Fang Yuan’s immortal aperture, and freed of its seal the body releases starlight that brightens as the ground trembles. Earth qi rises, and the starlight erupts into a formless force that draws it all in as Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan retreat to safety. Gu Masters across the abyss flee in panic, calling it only another earthquake, since quakes are common there. Falling stones and stalactites sharp enough to pierce rank three defensive Gu crush or bury many of the abyss’s living beings. Placing this blessed land costs at least a hundred thousand lives. ch. 728
After five minutes the starlight settles into a square door, a plaque above it reading Star Form Blessed Land. Hei Lou Lan is relieved the huge commotion drew no attack. Inside, the sky is pitch black and filled with stars, the terrain a giant basin ringed by mountains. Star fragment grass covers the ground entirely, and though it normally needs cloud soil, here it grows straight from black mud, better than the same grass Fang Yuan planted in Hu Immortal blessed land. He credits the benefit to a star path blessed land’s affinity for related plants. ch. 728
Hei Lou Lan’s gaze is drawn instead to three spinefin star dragonfish, huge and carp shaped, drifting through the night sky. Both notice signs of a fierce battle: burnt grass trailing smoke, injuries on the dragonfish, and unnatural holes through the mountains. A boy then appears before them. Carved like jade, he hovers with small cheeks puffed in anger. He explains that hidden injuries to body and soul, inflicted by Song Zi Xing on his main body, are why his grand main body, Star Lord Wan Xiang, perished inside the eighth star hall. ch. 728
