Meanwhile, within Fang Yuan's aperture, on Fang Yuan Continent, Wang Tian's condition still hovered in the line between life and death.
Over the past two days, he had felt like every single part of his body was on fire. Every single bone was aching. His throat burned, but he was too weak to drink, and the small amount of drops that they gave him were not enough. The medicine upset his stomach, and he had taking nothing save it and water. He felt nauseous but couldn't vomit what was in there out.
A cold breeze comforted him, probably signifying that night had fallen. Then again, day or night, what difference did it make to him? His time was spent either sleeping, waking up and then going into a state of agony, and then going back to sleep once more.
That was all that he did. The hours and days merged together into a single unified mess in his mind.
However, maybe he was feeling just a tad bit better today. This could either be a sign of him recovering or of a candle being stoked just as the flame was about to go out.
He was able to sense more things around him than he normally would have, and he overheard some of the people within this tribe talking.
"Have you managed to do it yet?"
"You mean get to Rank 2?"
"Yeah. Any luck?"
"I've been trying for some time. But breaking through the crystal walls of my aperture is not easy. I only have 42% aptitude, and I've been trying for the last three years to break through. Somehow, I ended up running out of primeval stones just when I think I'm about to succeed, and it's not easy to find a primeval spring nearby."
"Yeah, it isn't," the other voice answered. "I mean, people destroy primeval springs just because they don't want more Gu Masters around."
"I know. And it's just too easy to ruin a primeval spring," another person said. "You just need to contaminate it a little. I saw one of those savages out there urinating into a primeval spring while giggle and laughing, completely destroying it."
"Even if I get to Rank 2, though, I don't know how I'll get to Rank 3. If getting to Rank 2 is so hard, I can't imagine how hard earning Rank 3 is."
"Well, no one in our tribe has even managed to get to Rank 3. At the strongest, we have someone who's Rank 2 Middle Stage."
Most of the rest of the conversation was lost on Wang Tian as he slumbered, but his mind did latch on to a piece of information.
By breaking the crystal walls of one's aperture, one could advance to Rank 2!
He had thought earlier when he was trying to break through the crystal walls of his aperture that he was doing something wrong. That he might damage his aperture if he broke the walls too much. But could it be that he was actually close to advancing instead?
The man who had been speaking earlier had an aptitude of only 42% and hadn't been able to do it. He, though, had an aptitude of 95%. Maybe he could do it with fewer primeval stones?
'Then again, I guess it doesn't really matter,' Wang Tian thought to himself. 'What can I do if I can't live to see tomorrow? What's even the point of thinking about such things?'
***
Fang Yuan's will was focused on his aperture, though not on Wang Tian.
He was a cautious person, and had prepared for various scenarios that might happen.
During the chaos that he had caused while using Familial Emotion Gu, he had collected blood sample from several clansmen. Though he didn't have any from Bai Ning Bing specifically, he had enough Bai Clansmen blood for use of his Blood Path methods.
Lord Sky Crane had to take first gen Gu Yue's infant sons and milk them for drops of blood for several years before he had enough to pursue the man, and even then the range of his detection was limited.
But Lord Sky Crane was but an amateur to the art. And he was only using a single Rank 5 gu worm, not applying it in the form of a killer move like Fang Yuan could.
In his old life, when Fang Yuan had only been Rank 4, he had been robbed by a stronger Gu Master at the time, with nothing but a knife with some of that person's blood on it. Once he became an Immortal, even though decades had passed, that small crumb of dried blood upon that knife had been more than enough to track that Gu Master down and tear his head off.
When Fang Yuan had established the Blood Wing Demon Sect, he had forced all members to give up a portion of their blood to him, the Supreme Elder. This had allowed him to hunt down any traitors or mutineers - unless you could hide in a Blessed Land or Grotto-Heaven, you were easy prey for his tracking methods.
A few drops of blood were suspended before his eyes as over forty Blood Path gu worms assembled themselves around him. When he activated the killer move in question, the strongest sense he got was from Bei Gu Mountain. That made sense, but this was a confounding piece of information.
One thing was different this time compared to the Fang Yuan in the past - his attainment in the Wisdom Path had deepened. Tracking someone down was something Wisdom Path cultivators were skilled in, particularly if they had a clue regarding the person in question. Fang Yuan had several when it came to Bai Ning Bing.
'Hmm... this certainly could also work,' he wondered. There were some Wisdom Path gu worms that he could add on to his own killer move that would improve its effectiveness. But working on that would take away more of his free time, and would not be all that useful.
Moreover, he saw another pattern - arranging his Blood Path gu worms to mimic a Wisdom Path effect instead. That seemed to hold more promise, but was also more likely to eventually end up with him getting caught. He wasn't sure how it was that the Demon Judgement Board found its targets; but there tended to be some absolutes when it came to detection. Generally going to another region was more than easy enough, and if not that, being inside a Blessed Land or Grotto-Heaven.
Certainly, the more often he used Blood Path methods or perhaps even more complicated ones, the higher the odds were that he would attract unwanted attention to himself. With this matter of Bai Ning Bing, however, it couldn't be helped.
After trying a few times, he finally succeeded. A single person, between here and Bei Gu Mountain. Though it was quite a distance off of the pathway back to Bei Gu Mountain. If Bai Ning Bing had wanted to go back, had she been waylaid during the trip? That seemed to be the only explanation as to how she had ended up so off-course.
Fang Yuan then turned his attention to the room where he was in. It was the same inn that he and Bai Ning Bing had rented earlier. Some of her things were still left behind - indicating that she had intended to come back at some point but had been unable to.
Wu Ran had been apprehended and was going to be put to the death. Wei Yang had approached him later on, handing over the Rank 3 All-Out Effort Gu. Fang Yuan chuckled while accepting his 'reward', as it was the thing was nearly useless to him now. He had managed to find recipes for Rank 5 All-Out Effort Gu on Yellow Treasure Heaven as well as the needed materials there. He considered sending it back, but on second thought, he may as well keep it.
The city was fast asleep right now. Although it maintained activity throughout the night, it was not like places back on Earth mainly because of the lack of widespread artificial lighting. What lighting was there tended to not be good enough to do most things like reading and writing or other aspects of business anyway.
He had just arrived at Shang Clan City, but it was already time to leave. He did leave an Information-Type Gu Worm behind this time, however, to let them know that he would soon be returning once he'd found Bai Ning Bing.