Chapter 837

Western Desert’s impassable dunes, one of its seven most famous natural wonders, move along a fixed curved path with no oases, beasts or rocks, and not even rank eight Gu Immortals can halt them. Fang Yuan flies toward them unseen. He passes above a battle on the ground below. ^{ch. 837}

Below, several Xiao clan Gu Immortals fight three enormous hidden sand spider queens, desolate beasts spawning more spiders as they move through the sandstorm. Xiao Hu Chi leads the charge while deputy Xiao Shi Rang calls for retreat, their training goal already met. Before they can withdraw, a giant hand reaches from the storm and seizes a queen just as Xiao clan’s fighters force it back. Furious, Hu Chi accuses the intruder of theft, and seven more giant hands emerge, routing five rank six Gu Immortals of Xiao clan while only the rank sevens Hu Chi and Shi Rang fight two of the hands to a standstill. No one recognizes this strength path killer move. ^{ch. 837}

Fang Yuan reveals himself, saying he means no harm. His ease owes to timing, since the queen was already greatly weakened, and to merging a second Immortal Gu, Pulling Mountain, into myriad self giant hand, greatly increasing its power against such desolate beasts. He approaches the Xiao clan Gu Immortals, and Hu Chi, sensing good intent, asks who he is. Fang Yuan calls himself a nameless lone cultivator recently forced into becoming an immortal zombie, and proposes a long term trade in regretful spider groups, a proposal Xiao clan greets with joy. ^{ch. 837}

Xiao clan owns Ten Thousand Li Silk Corridor, an Immortal Gu House spread across Western Desert that resembles a giant spider web from above and moves goods at extreme speed over its silk smooth floor. It makes the clan one of the region’s richest super forces. Any Immortal Gu House unifies defense, attack, movement, healing and investigative functions, and houses of that class count as war fortresses. Maintaining the corridor consumes very large numbers of mortal spider Gu every year, more than the clan can refine from the queen blood and flesh it harvests at headquarters. Fang Yuan and Xiao Hu Chi agree on a monthly trade of regretful spiders through a node of the corridor, the spiders coming from Dong Fang tribe, a Northern Plains super force. They complete a first transaction on the spot, Hu Chi paying on the clan’s behalf and Fang Yuan receiving a node token before he departs. ^{ch. 837}

Hu Chi reports to Xiao clan’s first supreme elder. The elder approves and doubles the mission’s contribution points. Asked about the stranger’s origins, a rank six immortal zombie with rank seven battle strength, the elder says Western Desert holds many secluded Gu Immortals he cannot fully track, and that immortal zombies unable to produce their own essence are often forced from seclusion. He orders a light investigation, since a long-term supplier must hold other blessed lands, but says the priority stays the contest with Dong clan over the northwest market. ^{ch. 837}

Some days later, at Central Continent’s Hearing Wave Pavilion, a round of the Refinement Path Convention’s seventh stage ends. Fang Yuan walks off the stage unhurried. His name now sits first on the rankings, having taken first place seven times running. Onlookers call the record proof of at least master level attainment, grounds to expect he can pass the notoriously difficult eighth round. ^{ch. 837}

Among the crowd, Hong Yi, a disciple of the righteous Universal Life Academy, watches Fang Yuan with yearning rather than the dislike others feel for the demonic cultivator. Hong Yi had great luck and huge potential but spread his skills too thin and was eliminated at the second round. Bystanders debate whether Fang Yuan can reach the finals. Older voices call it far too early, since the seven rounds so far were only the Convention’s opening portion. ^{ch. 837}