Chapter 748

In his secret room, Fang Yuan tests the mortal Gu that Qin Bai Sheng lends to whoever holds the room. The room’s illusory scenery shifts as he injects primeval essence. It can remake the space into mountain, river, ocean, lake, pavilion or terrace, all mere illusion; a true shift on this scale would need Immortal Gu and much immortal essence. ^{ch. 748}

Fang Yuan then browses the east window Gu. Its huge catalog of auction items briefly dazes him. Some items carry a second condition, a resource the owner wants in trade instead of immortal essence stones. Immortal Gu are unique and cannot be bought with immortal essence stones, a rule fixed even through the five regions chaotic war, so trading one Immortal Gu for another is the only way. ^{ch. 748}

Fang Yuan finds his own four listed there. They include Rising Azure Cloud and Worldly Wave Trace, movement Gu unsuited to his strength path, and Rising Azure Cloud suits Tai Bai Yun Sheng no better, since he cultivates cloud path but is a time path Gu Immortal. Calamity Beckoning, a rank seven luck path Gu that harms its own user, he judges better traded than kept. Delight in Water and Mountain produces huge amounts of joyful will, but malicious thought Gu can already serve that purpose, so he puts it up too and will reclaim it if nothing suitable comes. All four are listed through Fairy Li Shan’s channel, tied to no name of his own. ^{ch. 748}

Five more Immortal Gu he keeps off the list: Spring Autumn Cicada, Cleanse Soul, Connect Luck, Woman’s Heart, and, in a sense, wisdom Gu. Spring Autumn Cicada remains his greatest trump card and his chosen vital Gu for a future time path ascension. Cleanse Soul anchors the immortal killer move myriad self. Connect Luck makes up Spring Autumn Cicada’s own weakness. Wisdom Gu, if exposed, would cause a huge commotion and cost him his life. ^{ch. 748}

Woman’s Heart, once meant to be discarded, became the core of poison spit. Fang Yuan deduced that move by chance. It now sits at his chest like a beating heart, small, purple black, wrapped in poison and joined to his bloodstream, with traces of the wisdom path move harboring malicious heart in its working. Assisting mortal Gu run it in reverse refinement, drawing its poison out slowly so the normally single use Gu can be spent again and again; the move still needs improving, which Fang Yuan expects wisdom Gu to solve. ^{ch. 748}

Turning to the main hall, Fang Yuan watches more than twenty Gu Immortals talk. Qing Xuan Zi admits a weak foundation left his blessed land in Northern Plains’ outside world, where resources and a borrowed time path Immortal Gu slow its time flow, his cultivation still at one heavenly tribulation. Elsewhere, Wu Rong and Shi You Yan trade barbs over an old grudge, Wu Rong vowing revenge and Shi You Yan daring him to win the Gu at auction instead. ^{ch. 748}

A white robed old man’s laughter quiets the hall. He is Yuan tribe’s first supreme elder, a rank seven Gu Immortal of exemplary battle strength and wealth. Qin Bai Sheng hurries to pay respects, and the elder, Yuan Rang Zun, claps his back warmly, their friendship dating to a sparring match Qin Bai Sheng once won his respect in. Yuan Rang Zun asks for another spar after recent practice, but Qin Bai Sheng sidesteps to ask which room he wants, and he takes a single room. ^{ch. 748}

A handsome scholar, Unfettered Scholar, enters with a female Gu Immortal the hall identifies by her red dress as Fairy Hong Xiu, not Fairy Tian Xiang. Fang Yuan recalls his story: a Central Continent clan gone downhill, driven into Northern Plains, ostracized and weakened, until Unfettered Scholar’s own generation saw it thoroughly destroyed. He fled with his two attendants, never abandoned them, and became a Gu Immortal, later spending heavily to make both of them immortals too. Every Gu Immortal here, Fang Yuan reflects, carries a story just as vivid. The auction has not even begun. ^{ch. 748}