Hei Fan

Hei Cheng, groveling before Blazing Heaven Demoness and Fairy Li Shan, names Hei Fan as Hei tribe’s rank eight ancestor and offers up that ancestor’s time path inheritance in exchange for his own life. During Hei Fan’s generation Hei tribe fielded a rank eight Gu Immortal and ranked among Northern Plains’ stronger super forces. His lifespan ran out. After he died, Hei tribe weakened while rival super forces rose. ^{ch. 943}

Blazing Heaven Demoness says Attitude Gu was once in his hands. Hei Feng Yue was the granddaughter he indulged, and he handed the Immortal Gu to her. As a mortal she took it onto the icy plain, a mysterious Gu Immortal targeted her, and both she and Attitude Gu vanished from view. ^{ch. 948}

Fang Yuan’s intel from Hei Cheng names the Hei Fan true inheritance inside Hei tribe. While Hei Fan lived he slowed the passage of time inside the immortal apertures of many Hei tribe Gu Immortals, so those Gu Immortals could face their calamities and tribulations more easily, with a greater chance of success. Hei tribe Gu Immortals then exceeded other super forces in number. ^{ch. 1101}

Hei Cheng’s memories record that Hei Fan once grew musical trees in his grotto-heaven and became famous selling them in treasure yellow heaven. The forest filling the grotto-heaven today is that same tree. The narration calls the forest’s scale shockingly big. ^{ch. 1119}

Hei Feng Yue vanished along with Attitude Gu, and with his own lifespan nearly spent, Hei Fan could only place down his immortal aperture and absorb a fragment of the immemorial azure heaven, losing his freedom. He locked the tribesmen who had failed to protect her inside the grotto-heaven. Their immortal apertures were fused into it too, enlarging the grotto-heaven further. ^{ch. 1121}

Before his death, he added a rule to his true inheritance: if nobody from the main tribe claimed it within several hundred years, the locked descendants could roam Immortal Succession Mountain to seek inheritances of their own. Hei Fan believed Hei tribe’s own strength would recover Hei Feng Yue and Attitude Gu without him. That belief was his own error. ^{ch. 1121}

The true inheritance held lifespan Gu worth seven hundred and twenty years in total. Old Immortal Chen Chi, one of the criminal descendants confined in the grotto-heaven, expected at least three hundred years worth; the grotto-heaven held over twice that amount, so he had underestimated it. ^{ch. 1128}

Fang Yuan judges Hei Fan an expert even among rank eight Gu Immortals. Hei Fan used time path Gu to mimic other paths’ mystical effects: Unlucky Year copies luck path’s fall in fortune, and Years Grant Strength copies strength path’s raw power. Bountiful year is not his own work; it came to him in a trade with a person called Pill Immortal, and he set high praise for it in the record. Even a figure like him needed two or three days of preparation to activate it. Fang Yuan compares his level to Heaven Overseeing Tower Lord, a rank eight wisdom path Gu Immortal of Heavenly Court who used wisdom path methods to fix Heaven Overseeing Tower. Despite holding only three Immortal Gu, Hei Fan built killer moves that could meet any situation, matching the saying that there is no strongest Immortal Gu, only the strongest Gu Immortal. ^{ch. 1130}

Hei Fan lacked any of the ten extreme physiques, so his immortal aperture was limited in potential and in the resources it could grow; he kept a small number of Immortal Gu and worked out many killer moves to go with them, a choice the text calls very wise. He never considered leaving Hei tribe. Its relationships, friendships, and kinship held him from his own upbringing, and at his level he was the one giving the tribe benefits rather than drawing on them. ^{ch. 1131}

To refine Years Flow Like Water he emptied Hei tribe’s treasury, spent favors, and paid two refinement path great experts for help, and still finished in debt. He failed nine times. More than once he nearly gave up, and he did not recoup his losses for years afterward. He recorded every failure for his inheritor without shame and warned that a future rank eight Immortal Gu deserved the same care. ^{ch. 1131}

Fang Yuan praises the true inheritance as a time path great expert’s work. Hei Fan’s own records suspect that a time path Gu Immortal had taken Red Lotus’ true inheritance, and Fang Yuan reads a strong desire for it in them. Once Hei Fan had refined the rank eight Immortal Gu Years Flow Like Water he began selling mortal year Gu, and within a few months no vendor in the world sold more year Gu than he did, at huge profit. ^{ch. 1132} Once Years Flow Like Water’s seal was removed, its Immortal Gu aura would leak and lure year beasts to attack. ^{ch. 1129} Immemorial level year beasts with rank eight battle strength once got into his own immortal aperture, and killing them cost him immense losses that pained him for a long time. He then invented ways to seal Years Flow Like Water and hide its aura. ^{ch. 1132}

Defending Hei Fan grotto-heaven against Heavenly Lord Bai Zu, Fang Yuan kept Years Flow Like Water sealed against its year beast risk and fell back on a weaker defensive killer move built around ordinary year Gu instead. Hei Fan had used the same method early in his life. He stopped once he reached rank seven. ^{ch. 1179}

In Fang Yuan’s estimation, Demon Immortal Qi Jue stands on the same level as Sword Immortal Bo Qing, and Hei Fan pales in comparison to him. ^{ch. 1319}

Fang Yuan’s time path attainment stays ordinary, since he has never encountered a time path dream realm, but he has Hei Fan’s true inheritance and wisdom path deduction methods to make up for some of that weakness. ^{ch. 1347}

Northern Plains Gu Immortals walk out of a phantom River of Time above Calamity Luck Altar. Hei Fan is among them. He calls himself fortunate that the move has carried him forward in time into so large a battle. He names himself, notes that he and Gu Liu Ru both cultivate time path, and takes the fight. ^{ch. 1717}

The summoned Hei Fan dies after fighting Gu Liu Ru too intensely. He lacked good defensive killer moves, and several Heavenly Court Gu Immortals attacked him at once. These Northern Plains Gu Immortals were not summoned with their true bodies. ^{ch. 1719}