Chapter 824

An elder praises the refinement hall elder for nurturing Cao Yu, Xie Lan and Lu Wen. The refinement hall elder then praises Hong Yi, the principal’s son. Hong Yi reached the finals with little practice. ^{ch. 824}

The principal snaps that they only praise Hong Yi as his son, calling his run dogshit luck from a boy who masters nothing, and orders him into seven days of seclusion. Hong Yi, the principal’s most capable son, was born to a concubine. He entered this competition without telling his father. ^{ch. 824}

Hong Yi watches Cao Yu, Xie Lan and Lu Wen’s flames shrink to wicks. He judges he cannot win. He actually holds greater talent than all three, but refinement path is not his main cultivation path, and with no financial backing he can only train his true path. ^{ch. 824}

He rages that his father would never let his mother’s memorial tablet enter the ancestral hall, an injustice he feels bound to set right. He decides to gamble, since a master could finish this fire-control step instantly but he cannot, hoping only to beat the others’ careful pace. Onlookers and elders shake their heads, certain the risk can only end badly. ^{ch. 824}

His flame flickers, cracks and spirals out of control, and he cries out that he has failed. Worn down by nights of practice and a cold from the strain, he sneezes, blowing the flame out at once. A finished red face Gu drops onto the stage with a loud sound. Everyone freezes, and the principal rises stunned, saying the sneeze finished the last step the way a refinement master’s method would, and calling it his son’s dogshit luck. ^{ch. 824}

At Hu Immortal blessed land, Fang Yuan, Tai Bai Yun Sheng, the land spirit and Hei Lou Lan wait for the earthly calamity to begin. Fang Yuan reassures Little Hu Immortal. With three Gu Immortals present, Dang Hun mountain and most of their wealth moved out, and his own luck raised, he holds eighty percent confidence of surviving it, though a twenty percent chance of failure remains since a far harder calamity could have appeared. ^{ch. 824}

Earth qi rumbles as the calamity begins, and stalks of huge red flowers, each the size of a face, burst up within moments. Fang Yuan identifies them at once as blood poison kerria. These flowers bud and wilt within only ten breaths, and once wilted, their petals and roots turn into pools of poison. Only wood path can safely handle them; other destruction turns them to poison too. Even three Gu Immortals cannot stop so many flowers, and the group can only watch helplessly. ^{ch. 824}

The flowers wilt into poisonous blood, ankle-deep across the blessed land. The eastern lake is completely polluted, and the western fox and wolf packs die in great numbers. Blood poison kerria growing on the sleeping rockmen in the south wakes many in pain, though few die. Hei Lou Lan notes the earth qi has settled and the calamity is over. Little Hu Immortal worries over the years needed for the soil to recover and the heavy losses among their rabbits, wolves and foxes. ^{ch. 824}

Fang Yuan siphons the poisonous blood with pulling water Immortal Gu into his immortal aperture, a dead land the poison cannot harm. But the area is too vast for the Gu worm to work efficiently. He regrets fusing pulling mountain Immortal Gu into myriad self first, wishing he had fused pulling water Immortal Gu. Working through a day and a night, and spending a large sum of green grape immortal essence, he clears every drop from the blessed land. ^{ch. 824}

Even with the blood gone, the exposed soil stays entirely poisoned, turning to bloody mush, and left alone would completely rot within days. Fang Yuan decides to strip the layer away rather than let Tai Bai Yun Sheng restore it with Landscape as Before. Hei Lou Lan joins them, and the three spend several days removing the soil, leaving even Fang Yuan’s immortal zombie body extremely exhausted. Removing the blessed land’s northern area earlier, it turns out, eases this cleanup. ^{ch. 824}