Chapter 744

Fairy Li Shan accepts the Immortal Gu and calls the matter settled. They agree to meet again in half a month, the date set for the auction at Qin Bai Sheng’s Bai Sheng blessed land inside Crimson Reed Marsh. They part in different directions, Fairy Li Shan reaching Fang Yuan by moving perspective cup Gu. ^{ch. 744}

Once they are gone, another Gu Immortal appears in the entrance hall: Feng Jiu Ge, only rank seven by his aura, yet treated by Prince Feng Xian as an equal. Feng Jiu Ge confirms he means to take the prince’s place at the auction. Discovery would be disastrous, Prince Feng Xian warns, since Feng Jiu Ge is from Central Continent and every furious Gu Immortal in Northern Plains is hunting whoever destroyed Imperial Court blessed land. The culprit came from outside Northern Plains, Dong Fang Chang Fan had deduced before his death. ^{ch. 744}

Feng Jiu Ge laughs, and light remakes him into an exact copy of Swordmaster You Lan, leaving both attendants stunned. The move, vaguely familiar face, comes from Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable and is hard to see through once cast. Poor acting alone could still betray it by tone. He chose You Lan for the part since she barely speaks. ^{ch. 744}

Prince Feng Xian marvels, recalling a spar where even he would not risk taking the hit from Feng Jiu Ge’s own move. Feng Jiu Ge, addressing him as senior brother and the two attendants as junior sisters, calls it nothing beside their feat: ascending in Northern Plains for Spirit Affinity House’s task and staying hidden for centuries. Prince Feng Xian’s face darkens. Someone in the ten ancient sects, he says, stole their plan’s fruit first. He is himself, one of Northern Plains’ few rank eight experts, a spy for Spirit Affinity House. ^{ch. 744}

Spirit Affinity House had given up much in Central Continent to place him, since one more rank eight there would have won it more ground against the other nine sects. The posting served its plan to topple Eighty-Eight True Yang Building. In Fang Yuan’s previous life that plan succeeded. In this one it lies in ruins already, and the immortal zombie Fang Yuan, now at Lang Ya blessed land, is the reason. ^{ch. 744}

Fang Yuan had borrowed the mountain pledge Immortal Gu for a fee, paying Fairy Li Shan three immortal essence stones, good only for their bond. Anyone else would not get it for ten. Lending an Immortal Gu carries risk: Blazing Heaven Demoness, the alliance’s leader, once lent one to Yuan tribe, and away in Eastern Sea, still has not got it back. ^{ch. 744}

Using that pledge, Fang Yuan strikes his own bargain with Lang Ya land spirit, and at his cry more than ten coffins rise from the cloud soil, pure white and marked by an immortal killer move. Opened, each holds a sleeping captive, thirteen coffins in all. Fang Yuan notes only twelve desolate beasts guard the surface, too few against three waves of attackers, so the land spirit’s real strength must lie in his Immortal Gu. At least one of them, he guesses, can capture a Gu Immortal. ^{ch. 744}

Fang Yuan reviews the coffins, recognizing the Hua Hai three immortals, Loner Hong Yu, and Gui Wang. Lang Ya land spirit names five more: metal path Tie Jia Zi, enslavement path Great Immortal Xue Xiong, wood path Mu Dian Cang, lone cultivator Carefree Four Sages, and rank seven Wu Hao. Never in either life has Fang Yuan seen so many strong captives gathered. ^{ch. 744}

His excitement turns to worry: a hidden force struck Lang Ya blessed land more than once. Selling its captives will make him a target too. Fang Yuan decides to sell them anyway, since for a demonic path cultivator a risk declined only means the reward was too small. Fang Yuan asks whether interrogation turned up anything. It did not, Lang Ya land spirit says: only three attackers had organized the assault and supplied information on his blessed land, and all three died fighting despite his care, their souls vanishing afterward without a fragment left to find. He frowns, and Fang Yuan falls silent too. ^{ch. 744}