Chapter 757

Fang Yuan reflects that without Chu Du’s letter he might not have caught Swordmaster You Lan’s flaw, nor connected it without his previous life’s memories. But Fang Yuan comes out marginally ahead, for three reasons. Chu Du hid that letter from Feng Jiu Ge to protect his own reputation, believing Feng Jiu Ge only wanted the true heaven silver. Feng Jiu Ge, unlike Fang Yuan with Tai Bai Yun Sheng, has no accomplice. And Fang Yuan alone is reborn, able to deduce secrets from past events even without the truth. ^{ch. 757}

Fang Yuan keeps bidding against Tai Bai Yun Sheng while he thinks it through. He was in the dark earlier, but now grasps Swordmaster You Lan’s motive without knowing her true identity, while Feng Jiu Ge remains unaware he has been seen through. He weighs three options for delight in water and mountain Immortal Gu: keep it to ruin Spirit Affinity House’s plan, trade it for cauldron strength Immortal Gu, or sell it to Swordmaster You Lan outright. He is unwilling only to give up so rare a strength path Gu. ^{ch. 757}

A voice from a single room offers a wisdom path Immortal Gu called kindness thought Gu, an incomplete inheritance, and double the immortal materials for cauldron strength Immortal Gu. The bidder is Yao Huang, one of Northern Plains’ five rank eight experts, a refinement path Gu Immortal. Beside him sits Yin Liu Gong, a Northern Plains Zombie Alliance leader. Yao Huang tells him he needs a formless vessel for his new Resurrection From The Dead, a Gu meant to return the dead to life. Yin Liu Gong identifies the cauldron strength Gu as that vessel, free of the five elements, light, and darkness yet still able to defend. Yao Huang has long used the Alliance’s immortal zombies as test subjects to research the law of life and death. ^{ch. 757}

He claims thirty percent confidence of success, a figure Yin Liu Gong calls extremely high, and says the Alliance itself would benefit most, letting immortal zombies shed that status, though he admits he would use it on his own failing lifespan too. He then presses Yin Liu Gong for at least ten immortal zombies as refining material, from the Alliance’s graveyard in Earth Trench, since such bodies suit the life and death dao marks best. Yin Liu Gong refuses, unwilling to enrage the Alliance by digging up its own dead, and stalls, saying not even the three leaders can decide and Leader Blazing Heaven must rule, with a reply promised in a few months. He holds two Zombie Alliance traitors sealed by stone casket on the discussion hall doors, which once ruined a disguised Yao Huang’s attempt to steal immortal zombie bodies. Yao Huang, unhappy, vents his frustration into the auction, bidding again. Fang Yuan withdraws, and Tai Bai Yun Sheng follows, unwilling to compete with a rank eight expert. ^{ch. 757}

Yao Huang wins cauldron strength Immortal Gu, giving up part of his wisdom path inheritance and an Immortal Gu to close it. Holding it, he sighs that it is still rank six, and that raising it to rank seven would improve his odds of a successful refinement. Yin Liu Gong’s heart jumps: the words are meant for him. It is the will of a rank eight great expert, and left unanswered, it risks his rage and an all out war between Yao tribe and Zombie Alliance. ^{ch. 757}

Feng Jiu Ge sighs in relief when Fang Yuan backs out. Had Fang Yuan won, Feng Jiu Ge would have had much greater difficulty obtaining delight in water and mountain Immortal Gu himself. He still cannot find the cauldron strength seller to negotiate directly, since that seller has never exposed a location or identity, working entirely through Qin Bai Sheng, which suggests a weak, cautious, low ranked Gu Immortal. ^{ch. 757}

The auction turns to a third luck path Immortal Gu. Northern Plains favors luck path because of Giant Sun Immortal Venerable; a second such Gu, Peach Blossom Luck, already sold at a high price. This one, Good Luck, is a storage Immortal Gu that gathers ownerless good luck dissipating from heaven and earth. The seller wants a fire path Immortal Gu, and the Gu Immortals settle the deal at a high price. ^{ch. 757}