With their idle chatter done, they started talking about more business-related matters, namely the transaction of materials.
Fang Yuan stayed with the Tian Clan for two more days, talking with Tian Wu and Tian Shan. Tian Wu truly seemed to have no other thoughts in his head other than how to use his sword. He had not gotten around to showing Fang Yuan the killer move he had in question, but he always seemed to be mentioning it. Tian Shan seemed to be a bit more shrewd than his younger cousin, though he was still wet behind the ears by Gu Immortal standards. Fang Yuan assumed that the two of them had probably only become Rank 6 just a few years in the past.
It turned out that he was correct in his assumption regarding Tian Wu; he was the Clan Head's grandson, explaining why he was so carefree.
The Tian clan quickly gave him a few tokens that he could use while wandering around the Western Desert to show that he was affiliated with them. "So long as the people know that you have the protection of the Tian Clan," Tian Shan said, "no one is going to attack you - not without risking offending us first. With that said, Brother Fang Yuan, I would advise you not to stray too far from our territory. There are wild beasts wandering in some areas, and they will not care who you are affiliated with or not. But so long as you avoid their territories they should not come after you."
"Thank you," Fang Yuan said. "I will be careful. Don't worry."
With that, Fang Yuan set off towards the location where he knew Thieving Heaven Demonic Venerable's first inheritance was.
He almost felt a bit apprehensive given how very little resistance he met while traveling along the route towards this place in question. No beasts attacked him. No other Immortals seemed to want to strike him or find trouble with him for whatever reason. Knowing how his luck had been up until now, he had been expecting to find difficulty along the way. Yet, his journey was surprisingly smooth.
At least, that is what he thought, before he was just five li away from the location in question and the air shimmered around him, revealing that the scenery he was looking at was actually fake.
'Hmm? What is this?' Fang Yuan wondered as he delved further and further. And when he happened upon the spot, suddenly nearly half a dozen Gu Immortals appeared around him.
Feng Yuan's eyes shrunk. He realized what he had just done: he had just walked into a massive formation made of gu worms, which is how these Gu Immortals had hidden their aura! All of them glanced towards Feng Yuan, a bit surprised by his sudden appearance.
'Could it be that they've already found Thieving Heaven Demonic Venerable's inheritance?' Feng Yuan thought, his mind racing.
It also struck him right then and there at the moment that these Gu Immortals, if they were guarding this place in such large numbers, would not appreciate a foreigner just walking in. His life could very well be in danger. 'Is this actually a plot by Thieving Heaven Demonic Venerable? Did he intend for me to fall into this trap?' Fang Yuan thought, his mind racing. Some of these Gu Immortals were Rank 7, and he could not fight them all off, nor could he reliably flee.
"You there, halt," one of them said.
"A Gu Immortal from the Southern Border. What is he doing here?"
"Relax, I'm with the Tian Clan!" Feng Yuan yelled out. When he said these words, one of the members suddenly turned towards him as Feng Yuan produced the required gu worm tokens to show that he was affiliated with the Tian Clan.
"Oh, I see. I've never met you before, but my name is Tian Hai. Please wait a moment while we verify your identity," a Rank 7 Gu Immortal said.
Feng Yuan waited there amongst the Gu Immortals in the formation while two more people wandered in an hour later. Feng Yuan glanced towards them, recognizing Tian Wu as well as Tian Shan.
"Ah, yes, Father," Tian Shan said, heading towards Tian Hai. "This is without a doubt Fang Yuan, the emissary from the Shang clan I had told you about."
"Oh, I see," Tian Hai said, going towards Feng Yuan with a light smile on his face. "My apologies for holding you like this, but you have to understand, with what is going on, we must be vigilant."
"Oh," Fang Yuan said. "It is no matter. Though, if you don't mind me asking, why are so many of you here?"
His words seemed to shock the Gu Immortals around them.
"I'm sorry, did you not come here willingly?" Tian Hai asked, confused.
"No, I was simply looking for certain refinement materials, and I detected that they might be here in this corner of the desert, so I wandered in," Fang Yuan said.
Tian Hai began laughing, a loud, sonorous sound which echoed throughout the valley they were in. "Ah, so you happened upon this place by accident! Here I thought that you had happened to deduce the location of our formation. Were that the case, we might have been in trouble, and I would have had a word with our Formation Path expert in our clan. But if this was entirely through blind luck..." He shook his head.
Feng Yuan glanced around at the Gu Immortals who were around him. Not all of them were from the Tian Clan. Some of them seemed to be from other large forces within the Western Desert, and even one or two seemed to be lone cultivators.
"Well, now that you've actually found your way here," Tian Wu said, "why don't we actually show you what's going on down there?"
"Hmm? Do you really think that's a good idea, Tian Wu?" Tian Shan asked.
"Who knows," Tian Hai said, waving his hand. "There's no problem in trying to show it to junior Fang Yuan here. Perhaps he might be able to find a solution towards it."
Fang Yuan was still a bit confused as they led him deeper towards the center of the formation, whereupon his eyes widened. Down below was a boulder at the bottom of a hill. It looked quite ordinary; however, that was only true if one was only using one's eyes. To a Gu Immortal, they could sense the density of dao marks down below and knew it was anything but.
The boulder lying at the bottom of a hill... it was strangely familiar.
"Is that..." Fang Yuan asked.
"Indeed, it looks like junior Feng Yuan has realized what it is," Tian Hai said. "That is the Impossible Boulder."
"The same Impossible Boulder from The Legends of Ren Zu?" Fang Yuan asked.
The Impossible Boulder had been an object that the Rockmen had been trying to push towards the top of the hill, but it had been successfully done so only by the many forces of the Rockmen, Miniman and Boundless Forest Samsara. Moreover, Feng Yuan realized based on the location he had been given from Thieving Heaven Demonic Venerable that his inheritance seemed to be exactly at the position of the Impossible Boulder.
"Indeed, the Impossible Boulder was said to be here somewhere in the Western Desert for some time," Tian Hai explained. "It was said that Reckless Savage Demonic Venerable was able to move the boulder to the top simply on his own. He did not require any help, though we have not been as lucky."
Fang Yuan realized what Tian Hai was hinting at. Boundless Force Samsara had to enlist the help of many other people in order to push the Impossible Boulder to the top of the hill. However, Reckless Savage Demon Venerable was Rank 9; he was invincible in this world. If there was someone who could push the boulder to the top just using their own strength, it would without a doubt be him.
"Does it work like it did within The Legends of Ren Zu?" Fang Yuan asked.
Tian Hai pointed towards the boulder and simply said, "Fang Yuan, why don't you try to push it towards the top?"
Fang Yuan was a bit surprised by the offer, but this seemed to be quite genuine coming from Tian Hai. The other Immortals who were surrounding the formation came towards the location in question, chatting amongst themselves as they glanced down at Feng Yuan, some of them wondering whether or not he could do it.
Fang Yuan realized that given Thieving Heaven Demonic Venerable's inheritance was here, there was probably more to this situation than met the eye. Had Thieving Heaven Demonic Venerable and Reckless Savage Demonic Venerable come to some kind of agreement?
And so, Fang Yuan descended and approached the Impossible Boulder.