Chapter 975

The six-hour negotiation with Hei Lou Lan leaves both sides extremely exhausted. Fang Yuan then brings in Tai Bai Yun Sheng to form a new agreement with Hei Lou Lan and Fairy Li Shan. He hands over self strength Immortal Gu, trading it for her slavery Immortal Gu and a one year loan of attitude Gu. In return he gives her and Fairy Li Shan a chance to kill Hei Cheng, and both sides keep contesting Star Form blessed land fairly. Fang Yuan also wins her consent to connect their luck. ^{ch. 975}

The agreement binds tightly. Even Fairy Li Shan, an information path quasi-great grandmaster, would need several years to break it. It allows new allies who follow its terms and bars outside help against either side. Each side may once call for support the other must give, compensation settled afterwards. Fang Yuan uses Hei Lou Lan’s wariness of Purple Mountain True Monarch and his own previous-life memories to secure its extremely stringent, detailed terms. ^{ch. 975}

The agreement changes Fang Yuan’s situation greatly, in three ways. Connecting his luck to Hei Lou Lan’s, whose fortune as Fairy Black Moon runs strong, offsets a flaw in his own Spring Autumn Cicada. Borrowing the rank eight attitude Gu, core of Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable’s Familiar Face, gives him something countless times better than the change form Immortal Gu he lost, and sharpens his own vaguely familiar face killer move enough to deceive rank eight Gu Immortals. And the new agreement with Fairy Li Shan and the others can be taken as stopping early the scheme Blazing Heaven Demoness worked against him last time. ^{ch. 975}

Blazing Heaven Demoness’s guilt and affection toward Hei Lou Lan is her greatest weakness. Fang Yuan means to use Hei Lou Lan as his tool to control her. Fang Yuan judges Hei Lou Lan’s side no longer an obstacle, though shrewd enough to eventually see the enormous advantage he holds and grow definitely displeased. He does not hesitate giving up self strength Immortal Gu, since the Immortal Gu House would let him face even rank eights without fear. ^{ch. 975}

After obtaining attitude Gu, Fang Yuan moves to Lang Ya blessed land. The land spirit, extremely surprised at his speed, asks whether he already has the wanted material. Fang Yuan says no, and the land spirit turns cold, reminding him that Lang Ya blessed land grants no request without it. Fang Yuan asks what if he used his final free Gu refinement instead, owed to him since Long Hair Ancestor’s agreement with Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable, whose inheritor he once posed as here. He has already used two of the three refinements owed him, so only one opportunity remains. ^{ch. 975}

Pressed for what Gu he wants, Fang Yuan brushes it off, not truly wanting to spend the last opportunity yet. Leaving that opportunity unused lets him enter Lang Ya blessed land at will, a warning the land spirit resents. The land spirit tells him to leave if he will not use it. Fang Yuan says he did not get the requested material, but brought a rank eight immortal material picked up in the Earth Trench formation to show him instead. The land spirit’s eyes fly wide, naming it, stammering: a fragment of the immemorial desolate beast cloud phoenix’s body. He seizes it, muttering over its rarity. ^{ch. 975}

Rank eight immortal materials are very scarce even in Lang Ya blessed land. The cloud phoenix itself was extremely powerful, able to match rank eight Gu Immortals, so gathering such a fragment usually means killing one. ^{ch. 975}

Fang Yuan produces a second rank eight material. He asks the land spirit to trace its origin too. The land spirit lets out a shocked scream, naming it a tiger-striped honey bee’s wing, its dao marks so dense their light can be seen with the naked eye. He demands to know how Fang Yuan obtained something this rare, since he has searched for years and barely has over twenty, too precious to spend. Fang Yuan laughs and asks if he would believe he simply picked them up, then immediately takes the cloud phoenix fragment back from his hand. Caught unprepared, the land spirit lets out a miserable howl. Fang Yuan feigns bafflement, asking if the land spirit means to steal what already belongs to him, and the land spirit, stiff, can only glare. ^{ch. 975}