Chapter 826

Fang Yuan moves the starlight fireflies and part of the star fragment grass into Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s immortal aperture, restoring them to their original scale. The poisonous blood contaminates only the ground, leaving the sky-borne star fragment grass untouched. In the east, he digs dragon scale lake and jade root lake facing each other, ringed by smaller lakes needing no special soil. Surviving water wolves and shark fin wolves, including the shark fin wolf desolate beast he subdued, live there among blue jade carp hardy enough to survive the poison, some of which mutate into blood jade carp worth several times as much. ^{ch. 826}

In the west, he lines a lake’s bed with charcoal stones instead of water, so hot air rises and the stones glow red in the wind. He names it charcoal lake, the second-best breeding ground for eerie fire dragon pythons. The optimal method, used in Dong Fang tribe’s Jade Pool blessed land, costs more than his wealth supports. He releases the pythons into charcoal lake. Moving on, he digs hundreds of smaller lakes across the west and fills them with the poisonous blood he collected, sealed under isolating Gu formations so each will only seep a little poison into the soil every year. ^{ch. 826}

Good fortune hides within bad, bad within good: the deeper a blessed land’s foundation, the greater its fortune and the stronger the calamity it draws, though heaven’s balancing weakness holds only as a likelihood, not an absolute. The swamp crab calamity targeted Dang Hun mountain until Fang Yuan barely saved it. It still left enslavement path dao marks as the largest gain, the blessed land’s core strength since its original owner, Hu Immortal, was herself an enslavement path Gu Immortal. ^{ch. 826}

Fang Yuan guesses this latest calamity, the blood poison kerria flowers, was sent because of his own attainment of blood path grandmaster. Passing it brought another large batch of dao marks, again mostly enslavement path but now with many blood path marks. Their appearance visibly changes the blessed land. The mutation of blue jade carp into blood jade carp is only one sign of it. ^{ch. 826}

Beneath the poisoned topsoil he clears, tender grass and delicate flower buds already grow. Poison turned part of the blessed land’s older flowers and grasses into seeds of blood sickle grass and red axe flowers, since the new blood path marks remade the environment to support them. Neither is an immortal material, but both make excellent materials for rank three mortal Gu, a real source of wealth this calamity provided. ^{ch. 826}

Every improving calamity also costs losses that test its Gu Immortal’s management. Hu Immortal weakened calamity by calamity until the blue charm lightning shadow killed her at her fifth. After Fang Yuan inherited the blessed land, he barely survived its sixth calamity, the desolate beast swamp crab. He has now passed a seventh. ^{ch. 826}

With the new blood path marks, Fang Yuan considers raising blood stripe foxes too. They reproduce faster than any fox group raised in the blessed land before, and with the right knowledge and luck could become a small source of income. But they sit partway up the food chain, so he would need blood stripe rabbits to feed them and blood sickle grass to feed the rabbits in turn. This is why he dug so many poisonous blood lakes: their seepage nourishes the blood sickle grass and red axe flowers. He also plans to buy a small number of poison beard wolves, unsuited to the blessed land before contamination but viable now, enough for healthy competition with the foxes. ^{ch. 826}

Fang Yuan stays constantly busy. More than half a month passes almost before he notices. When his renovation finishes, Hu Immortal blessed land is changed beyond recognition, its eastern lakes now also home to dragonfish and air bubble fish, earth skin pigs beside them, its western poisonous blood lakes now outnumbering the east’s own. Small numbers of blood stripe rabbits, poison beard wolves and blood stripe foxes live in the west, the foxes drawn in from outside in growing numbers. The desolate beast giant horned sheep is placed in the west too, kept apart from the eastern part’s desolate beast shark fin wolf. ^{ch. 826}