Chapter 938

Fang Yuan reappears at a nook of the yaksha octopuses’ cave. He steps out of the space he opened with fixed immortal travel Immortal Gu. He had rigged the spot earlier with a simple mortal Gu formation, since his own formation path attainment is very low, and though it hides most of the disturbance it breaks apart at his arrival, leaking some aura. He erases every trace before the octopuses return. They search, find nothing, and leave. ^{ch. 938}

He returns to the mouth earthworm’s battlefield, with the octopuses mostly retreated and the immortal zombies nowhere in sight, and finds a huge gorge the earthworm dug in its flight. He had escaped its stomach with fixed immortal travel after it swallowed him. Having failed to finish its meal, he reasons, it would definitely rage and fight its pursuers, a fight it cannot win, since it has no wisdom, though its instinct for escape is very good and will let it flee once hurt enough. He had dared hide inside it because he already knew that Dragon Commander Ye Cha’s group had no way to pierce its earth path dao marks and detect it underground. Battle strength does not mean everything, he reflects. Even Old Ancestor Xue Hu, a rank eight great expert able to force back both Yao Huang and Heavenly Lord Bai Zu, still had to ask Sun Ming Lu seven times before he would build that Gu formation. ^{ch. 938}

The chase carried earthworm and pursuers through the territories of five fierce beasts, three of them ancient desolate beasts. The chaos helps Fang Yuan cover his own tracks as he follows the trail back. He finds the surviving immortal zombies badly hurt, mourning that Xing Xiang Zi died when the earthworm dissolved completely in an acid bog. One blames Xing Xiang Zi’s own carelessness for it. Their leader, Dragon Commander Ye Cha, says nothing, carrying the greatest share of blame and dreading having to face Blazing Heaven Demoness. ^{ch. 938}

Fang Yuan then turns back into Xing Xiang Zi and appears before them. Doctor Yin Xuan and even Landlord Lei Yu are glad to see the old man alive. Fang Yuan explains that flesh and teeth crushed him inside the earthworm, so he sealed himself in star ice, his strongest defensive move, and woke buried under rubble once it wore off. The zombies suppose he fell out through a tear the chaotic battle tore open. The others call it lucky, with nobody suspicious. ^{ch. 938}

Ye Cha asks whether he still needs star night mucus. Fang Yuan hesitates, and says to rest first. Worn down themselves, the group agrees, and returns to Dark Flow Giant City, leaving the rest of the mucus for later. ^{ch. 938}

Days later, in the secret room, Fang Yuan uses the refinement path Gu formation as cover. He is actually testing, from inside his dead aperture, the revival method he found in Earth Trench, wary of its dubious origin. The results prove it works. ^{ch. 938}

He has been collecting revival methods ever since Imperial Court blessed land’s destruction. The first, pairing man as before Immortal Gu with time anchor Immortal Gu, might hold great potential but remained only a conjecture needing Shark Demon’s cooperation and an immense investment. The second, a possession method drawn from Dong Fang Chang Fan’s soul, would end his zombie state, but risked a body unsuited to his soul and would cost him his hard-won second aperture. The third, a ten extreme physique immortal ascension method from Feng Jin Huang at the Refinement Path Convention, suited mortal Gu Masters rather than a zombie lacking the physique or any way to raise aptitude. Feng Jin Huang later named a fourth, in the Starry Sky grotto-heaven fragment world, pairing transformation path theory with everlasting Gu for a permanent transformation equal to revival, though Fang Yuan cannot refine everlasting Gu and does not excel greatly in transformation path. After all this turmoil, he has finally found the method best suited to himself, inside Northern Plains Zombie Alliance’s Earth Trench. ^{ch. 938}