Yellow Spring Sea Area, Undying Kingdom
After eight doors labyrinth forces a retreat from Yu Lu blessed land, Fang Yuan and Tai Bai Yun Sheng follow Shark Demon and Su Bai Man to shark sea for a banquet. Shark Demon asks how much assurance Fang Yuan has for deciphering the labyrinth. Fang Yuan admits he has none. A certain wisdom path Immortal Gu would give him thirty percent, he says, but he remains far from able to refine one. ch. 906
Shark Demon already knows Fang Yuan lacks wisdom path immortal killer moves. From this trip he judges Lu Tan Xin, Ninth Ghost Finger and Bo Dan all weaker than Fang Yuan in wisdom path methods, with only Xie Shu Fang truly surpassing him. Her righteous path stance and outsized appetite still keep her from fitting his group. The trip nets his side nothing, while Xie Shu Fang alone walks off with an Immortal Gu. The loss stings Shark Demon badly, and he means to settle the score later. ch. 906
Fang Yuan says his wisdom path inheritance is whole, and that the missing Immortal Gu would close most of the gap with Xie Shu Fang. Shark Demon reads this as a hint to sponsor its refinement. He privately weighs the risk of a costly waste if it fails, and with his own reserves already strained from the costly, fruitless push against Yu Lu blessed land, he decides against it. Fang Yuan feels only slight regret, having expected the refusal, since joining Zombie Alliance remains his real goal regardless. ch. 906
Shark Demon wants Fang Yuan in the alliance too. Its restrictions would bind him to Shark Demon’s side for the next attempt on Yu Lu blessed land. After the banquet he brings Fang Yuan to Eastern Sea Zombie Alliance’s headquarters, two days’ journey away in yellow spring sea area, a sea empty of life near its center and reeking of decomposed coral among drifting zombie fish and skeletons. Impressed by the distance crossed, Fang Yuan learns that Eastern Sea’s branch, unlike the weaker branches elsewhere, is the true headquarters of Zombie Alliance across all five regions. ch. 906
Guided by Shark Demon, Fang Yuan enters Undying Kingdom, the alliance’s public blessed land at the sea’s center, full of birdsong and flowers rather than an immortal zombie’s usual dead land. Puzzled, he asks whether living members must give up land for it. Shark Demon says the alliance only rewards this, never forces it, and that most of Undying Kingdom instead comes from old Gu Immortals converting as their lifespan ends, merged by methods that preserve a blessed land’s vitality. Shark Demon adds that the alliance has already had some success at keeping an aperture alive without changing the zombie body. ch. 906
The news interests Fang Yuan, who has long sought to revive because a zombie’s aperture is dead land with no room to cultivate. Deathlessness is what lets him keep stepping into the wisdom light halo, while reviving would burn his lifespan under that light. He reasons that keeping his zombie form while restoring his aperture’s vitality would suit him better than reviving outright. He judges the method still far from complete. A finished version, he reasons, would already let the alliance dominate Eastern Sea. Shark Demon dangles the research as a future reward for contribution, and Fang Yuan plays along while privately reading it as a lure. ch. 906
Shark Demon leads him to Undying Kingdom’s center, a mountain range of skeletons carrying tens of halls. Inside one hall, Fang Yuan emerges with an identity token and an information path mortal Gu for the alliance’s communications. With Shark Demon’s guidance, he has become a member of Eastern Sea Zombie Alliance. ch. 906
