Chapter 816

Fang Yuan watches more than ten hairy men die or suffer injury refining Gu. Losses are becoming a bigger problem as production grows. Hairy man slaves cost more than human Gu Masters since the human mind is too fickle, while simpler-minded hairy men can work Gu refinement all day. Pushed this hard, humans would grow angry and rebel, certainly sabotaging past the stone nest’s simple defenses, which is why Fang Yuan buys hairy men instead. ^{ch. 816}

Fairy Li Shan wants Miniscule Mountain partly for its miniman tribe, whose control benefits her, why Dong Fang Chang Fan struck an agreement with the tribe. Hei Lou Lan, tied to the guts Gu trade, flags that he loses at least a hundred hairy men a month. Fang Yuan names two fixes. He can split the Gu recipe’s steps further to lower the risk, or raise his own hairy men. ^{ch. 816}

Hei Lou Lan rejects the first option. Unknown to her, Fang Yuan’s wisdom Gu gives unlimited inspiration unactivated, so his difficulty is only spending enough thought. He hides this and calls the second method just as hard: he has no way to raise hairy men, and the market sells mostly males, very few females or children. ^{ch. 816}

Fang Yuan’s rockman tribe survives only because guts Gu boosts their soul foundation. Raised normally, they would die out within two or three years. Raising hairy men is much harder than raising beasts or plants, and with his foundation Fang Yuan would certainly lose everything invested. ^{ch. 816}

Buying that knowledge from other Gu Immortals would cost an immense price, years of profit away. He holds about twenty to thirty immortal essence stones. He gained the dragonfish, regretful spiders and eerie fire dragon pythons, and from Chang Fan’s soul the methods to raise them, but the structures cost more. Even built, he cannot sell the resources into treasure yellow heaven, needing other avenues since he cannot stand in the limelight. ^{ch. 816}

Fang Yuan tells Hei Lou Lan he has arranged things with Little Hu Immortal. She should stay in the stone nest, helping with airsac Gu until called for the earthly calamity. She senses something amiss, as though treated like a laborer. ^{ch. 816}

Fang Yuan returns to Dang Hun palace and enters the secret room. Chang Fan’s soul, sealed and deliberately weakened, is extremely weak and immobile. To search it again he must first replenish it, so he breaks open airsac Gu and uses guts Gu on it, half healing it in a blink. He grips the soul and searches it again; already searched thoroughly, Chang Fan has no secret left and offers no resistance. Fang Yuan stays vigilant, checking every Gu worm in the room, and Chang Fan’s soul keeps no hope, only a chill and a strange admiration at seeing himself in Fang Yuan. ^{ch. 816}

Fang Yuan leaves the secret room and returns to the main hall to think. Chang Fan has no secrets left, but Fang Yuan keeps him as a possible card for a scheme to take Fairy Li Shan’s Miniscule Mountain. The Snowy Mountain Alliance blocks seizure, though Fairy Li Shan’s time path killer move can delay the damage of breaking its agreement, and the alliance has a time limit. Chang Fan revealed the Dong Fang tribe’s agreement with the miniman tribe was sealed with mountain pledge Gu. Since Fairy Li Shan will certainly use that tribe, Chang Fan’s soul stays useful as a weapon, unusable for now and perhaps never. ^{ch. 816}

He turns to the white lotus giant silkworm Gu, searching Chang Fan’s soul for what it knows. Cleanse soul Immortal Gu needs the flesh of more than ten thousand at each feeding. What Fang Yuan holds falls short. Chang Fan’s silkworm Gu were only an unexpected find, a cave that suited them; all captured, mostly spent in his phantom formation, the rest sits in Fang Yuan’s hands. He faces two choices: experiment with the limited stock toward an unceasing source, risking cleanse soul Immortal Gu’s starvation if it fails, or feed it, easing hunger without solving it. Hoping Chang Fan knew another source, the search ends that hope, and Fang Yuan opens his eyes, mind made up. ^{ch. 816}