Chapter 976

Lang Ya land spirit eyes the rank eight materials in Fang Yuan’s hands, anxious, and Fang Yuan senses he holds a grip on his weakness. The land spirit recovers and accuses him of never acting without benefit, demanding to know his angle. Fang Yuan asks instead whether the land spirit holds the immortal killer move familiar face. Stunned, the land spirit asks how he knew of Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable’s signature move, which confirms he has it. Fang Yuan is secretly delighted, since his guess just proved correct. ^{ch. 976}

He recalls that the land spirit once said Fang Yuan could not use familiar face even if given it; since land spirits never lie, Fang Yuan had guessed the immortal move existed. Fang Yuan now holds attitude Gu, familiar face’s core. The land spirit recalls that his main body spent twenty-one years helping Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable refine space escape Gu, and every attempt failed. Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable had to bring out his own resources to buy immortal materials from the main body, unfamiliar face, vaguely familiar face and familiar face among them. That is why Shadow Sect and even Heavenly Court have targeted Lang Ya blessed land. ^{ch. 976}

Fang Yuan offers one rank eight material for familiar face. The land spirit’s laughter turns to anger, demanding ten instead; Fang Yuan protests he could not possibly hold so many, and the land spirit drops to eight. Fang Yuan argues that without attitude Gu, familiar face is useless to him and worth only a reference. In his previous life he had run caravans and stores for a huge fortune, destroyed in one day, which taught him this world answers only to strength. The price settles at five materials, below which the land spirit would not sell. Fang Yuan pays and takes possession of familiar face. ^{ch. 976}

Deducing familiar face himself would have been extremely difficult, since his wisdom path attainment sits at grandmaster level but his transformation path attainment merely at master level. Even success would not match the original he now holds, complete and without flaw. Attitude Gu, rank eight, is its one core; besides it, familiar face carries over twenty supplementary Gu, including two Immortal Gu, one of them change form Immortal Gu. Fang Yuan has already failed to refine change form Immortal Gu and lacks the second recipe, the one flaw in an otherwise perfect find. ^{ch. 976}

Fang Yuan enters the underground cavern and uses the light of wisdom to modify familiar face. Several days later he succeeds. He removes the two supplementary Immortal Gu and adds about a thousand mortal Gu in their place, barely replacing their effect, so the result now activates over ten times slower than the original. Testing shows sixty percent of the original’s capability, already extremely exceptional, though activation is very slow, taking about an hour. In his previous life he had built a modified vaguely familiar face around change form Immortal Gu; this one is over a hundred times better, enough to completely deceive rank seven Gu Immortals, while rank eight needs case-by-case judgment. ^{ch. 976}

The move is exquisite beyond compare: attitude Gu at its core makes the transformation act on other minds rather than on surface appearance. So even disguised as a stranger, an affected enemy feels him a long lost friend, or warmly familiar, or intensely so. Fang Yuan practices daily afterward. Attitude Gu is rank eight, yet its activation needs only mental energy and no immortal essence, so practice costs little, and with time the move falls to half the original hour. With preparations done, Fang Yuan settles in Hu Immortal blessed land to await Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s tribulation. He continually refines dream path mortal Gu, gathering spring dream fruit at the village tree, and as his injuries heal, at last the day of the tribulation arrives. ^{ch. 976}