Chapter 735

Fang Yuan still lacks the immortal essence stones he needs for the coming auction and Refinement Path Convention, since refining Gu and tempering his bat wings have kept his savings thin. He wishes he could simply swallow one of Lang Ya’s captured blessed lands himself. His own aperture is dead, though, and a dead aperture can only decay, never swallow another. Even revived, it could only take a blessed land of a compatible path and no higher than his own rank, though Gu Immortals still prize any blessed land they can swallow. ^{ch. 735}

Fang Yuan refines group strength Gu and small family qi Gu next. He also uses the light of wisdom to try to improve unfamiliar face, and keeps selling desolate beast corpses in treasure yellow heaven. After half a month, he finally sells his last rank seven corpse, the astral wind flying heavenly boar, and gains in return the wisdom path inheritance he had long wanted. ^{ch. 735}

From the inheritance’s recipe, Fang Yuan refines malicious thought Gu, a rank five mortal Gu the size of a washing basin, spider shaped, with needle sharp legs and prickly hairs only his zombie body can safely touch. Injecting primeval essence fills his mind with spiked, bubble like malicious thoughts that collide, destroying each other or fusing into larger ones. For scheming, one malicious thought matches tens of joyful, star or empty thoughts. ^{ch. 735}

Fang Yuan realizes he had wasted resources before, using delight in water and mountain Immortal Gu to make joyful will for his thinking work. It was the wrong tool. Wills, he now sees, are meant to act independently once split off, not to think with. With recipes now for both malicious thought Gu and malicious will Gu, and unlimited primeval essence as an immortal, he can mass produce cheap mortal Gu instead of relying on costly Immortal Gu for thought. He regrets the inheritance came a little late, after he had already moved on to the next stage of his deal with Lang Ya land spirit. Even incomplete, the recipes plus a bonus killer move, harboring malicious heart, make it a rare and fortunate find; the seller, it seems, badly needed the boar corpse and was short on funds. ^{ch. 735}

Fang Yuan spends the following days refining malicious thought Gu without pause. Even a non consumable Gu wears down with heavy use, so he will keep needing malicious thought Gu, and since refining takes longer the higher the rank, he decides to invest in more hairy men. Each batch of guts Gu now earns him forty-eight immortal essence stones of profit; he keeps only fifty for himself and spends the rest buying hairy men. ^{ch. 735}

He wants Lang Ya blessed land’s own high quality hairy men most, but land spirit refuses him outright and scolds him for being a poor friend. The scolding pleases Fang Yuan, since it means land spirit already counts him a friend, even if less closely than land spirit’s own bond with Inkman King Mo Tan Sang. Mo Tan Sang cannot serve as land spirit’s public face either, restrained by inkman city and by the hostility a variant human selling human Gu Immortals’ land would provoke. That leaves Fang Yuan as land spirit’s only real candidate. It is not land spirit’s fault: a land spirit cannot leave his own land, and staying aloof from Gu Immortals is simply self preservation. ^{ch. 735}

Fang Yuan reasons that land spirit, newly free and holding many completed recipes, will certainly want to refine Immortal Gu, costly even for rich Lang Ya blessed land. Land spirit cannot sell the captured blessed lands himself. Gu Immortals have no way to enter treasure yellow heaven physically, so this auction is his last chance to sell them. He is privately anxious to move the sale forward, which leaves Fang Yuan far less worried about the deal. ^{ch. 735}

Over the next two months, Fang Yuan builds a second stone nest in Hu Immortal blessed land and fills both with hairy men. The added capacity lets him raise more airsac Gu, boosting guts Gu production and sales, but he keeps the second nest for a different purpose. It is dedicated to refining malicious thought Gu. ^{ch. 735}