Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing were getting information on various wishes that they could grant through Information Path gu worms that they were carrying that had been handed to them by the land spirit.
It was late at night and they considered resting, but Fang Yuan's eyes suddenly lit up.
An extremely high-value request had arrived!
Fang Yuan followed it to a small house.
A young boy opened the door, eyes red from crying and shiners beneath them.
"I am an Immortal... are you the one who requested this wish?" Fang Yuan asked.
"Immortals… my mother died last evening. She was working so hard, and today was my birthday. She was tired but still wanted to make my favorite beef stew and so kept working despite how tired she was and then... and then... she collapsed! Please, Immortals, bring my mother back to life! I can't bear to live without her!"
Bai Ning Bing frowned. That was a tall order indeed, no wonder this wish had such a high prize attached to it. When Fate Gu was intact, it heavily restricted resurrection methods to the point they were borderline impossible. Now that it had been damaged the difficulty had been reduced, but it was far from a walk in the park.
Even most Immortals could not bring a person back to life. Those that could wouldn't simply because the cost was prohibitive or other reasons. Since this had happened last evening and more than twenty-four hours had passed, it made a tricky problem all the trickier.
Genesis Lotus Immortal Venerable had been asked with reviving a boy's mother in a similar situation, but had refused as it would go against Fate.
"Well, if you promise to be a good boy and not cause any trouble for her in the future, I'll bring her back," Fang Yuan said gently.
"Yes! I promise to be good!" the boy said, as Fang Yuan gently wiped the tears off of his face with a handkerchief.
Fang Yuan said, "Take me to her."
The body had not yet been buried given how recently she had passed away.
Bai Ning Bing pulled Fang Yuan aside. "Can you really bring her back?"
"Sure, why not?" Fang Yuan said. "I just have to use the Yang Rotation Gu on her."
Bai Ning Bing looked like she wanted to murder Fang Yuan that very instant.
"What is Yang Rotation Gu?" the boy asked, curious and confused.
"Nothing, it was simply a joke," Fang Yuan said.
Fang Yuan examined the woman's body briefly. The difficulty in bringing her back mainly depended on two things - how many dao marks the woman had in question, and exactly how much time had passed since she had died.
The woman was ordinary and had low dao marks, and she had recently passed away a bit more than a day ago. That made this entire issue far easier especially for someone like him.
There was a gu worm that could bring people back to life which had become famous in the future - that was Man as Before Gu. Although Fang Yuan had not witnessed its effects for himself, just knowing about it had given him some clear insight with his stronger Human Path foundation. He already had a Time Path Immortal Gu - that being the Spring Autumn Cicada itself, even if he couldn't directly use it for now. But that could theoretically provide the 'Time Path' part of a killer move that could directly mimic that gu worm's effect.
Right now though, Fang Yuan had a simpler solution. That was the Human Path killer move he had developed based off of Paradise Earth's Rain of Mercy - he called it Humanity's Mercy!
A large amount of Human Qi would be needed for such a move, but Fang Yuan could simply use large amounts of Ambition Gu to substitute for this. Grape Green Immortal Essence was fed to Rank 6 Ambition Gu as the killer move activated.
The air shifted as white light emanated from Fang Yuan's hand and landed upon the woman's body. The woman's body trembled.
Then - she breathed as her eyes fluttered open.
The boy staggered back. "Is… is she really alive? Or is she some kind of ghost or zombie?"
"She is truly alive," Fang Yuan said simply.
Bai Ning Bing raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
Moments later, another notification appeared in their information-type gu worms that were keeping track of the contest.
Fang Yuan glanced at it, then at the woman.
"It looks like you filled out a wish slip before dying too," he said. "And look at that! Your wish has been chosen. It seems that you want us to... get your husband back."
The woman nodded. "He left years ago… and I've been supporting this boy on my own ever since. He refused to get a job and lounges around all the time so I've had to work extra hard. If the two of you could find him..."
Fang Yuan pricked her son's finger, drawing a drop of blood. "Relax, this is for finding his father," Fang Yuan explained, not wanting the land spirit to manifest while thinking that Fang Yuan had 'harmed' someone.
A Blood Path method activated. Fang Yuan located the man instantly.
Then he paused before turning around and leaving. "…I see."
"What is it?" Bai Ning Bing asked. Fang Yuan's expression turned cold.
"The man we read a bedtime story to earlier-"
"Don't tell me - that bum is the husband?"
"Indeed."
Bai Ning Bing scoffed. "Pathetic."
***
"You loser! If you had a wish why didn't you wish to do something with your life instead of a bedtime story!"
"And why don't you get a job so your wife doesn't have to work so hard!"
"Ah, who are you guys?" the man in question asked, wondering why these two had burst through the front door of his house. "And please don't use the 'j-word' around me, I'm job-o-phobic."
Fang Yuan proceeded to give the man quite the 'talking to' as well as emotional manipulation before going to invite his family to come live with him after the man promised to turn his life around.
The remaining wishes were mostly trivial.
A woman who had severe facial disfigurement from a fire accident some time ago. "Immortals, I can't find a husband because of this scarring, please do something for this!"
Another, a man who wanted a watch repaired. "My father gave this to me, and it's an important keepsake. I can't bear to throw it away! Please see if you can fix it."
A lady who wanted the weather altered of all things. "I've been planning this wedding for so long and it just has to be perfect - but I heard that it is going to rain tomorrow! Can you imagine - my outdoor wedding ruined? Please make it so that it is sunny tomorrow!"
Another person just wished for 10,000 primeval stones which Fang Yuan handed over.
One by one, they completed all of these wishes.
At last, the land spirit's voice resounded as it recalled all the teams back to the White Heaven above the blessed land.
With this, Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing were now in first place when it came to the rankings!
That said, Liu Nan was just a few points behind so they weren't set to win yet.
"Thank you for your participation. I hope you have enjoyed yourselves!" the land spirit said, clapping its hands in glee. "That is what I think is most important in a tournament like this - to have fun! At least, I had a lot of fun organizing it! But with that said, regardless of how fun it is, it does need to come to an end at one point. And so, we move on to our final event!"
The contestants grew serious. This would decide everything. The difference in cumulative scores between the top six contestants was marginal at best - they all had a shot at becoming the new masters of the Tian Ji blessed land.
For those at the very bottom, however, they still had a chance to accumulate more points and try and reap as many benefits as possible.
"The final round will be - a series of refinement contests!" the land spirit said.
Many people had been expecting this. Although there had already been a refinement-based category once, that had only been a single gu worm.
Who was Tian Ji? The nephew of Old Eccentric Tian Nan, naturally the major component of the tournament was refining. That was why many of the other Immortals had brought along Rank 5 Refinement Path mortals for this task.
This final round was structured quite similarly to the Refinement Path Convention held by the Heavenly Court every century - it was clear that the land spirit had taken great inspiration from it.
Unlike the Refinement Path Convention, however, since there were only twelve teams no one was knocked out in the first few rounds.
The first test was to refine ten batches of Rank 3 Mudflower Gu within a certain timeframe. The task by itself was not difficult, but to do ten of them at the same time was taxing since they were not allowed to use gu worms to assist them in the refinement. They may have had unlimited resources to make the Mudflower Gu, but they were still on a time limit.
It was here that Bai Ning Bing showed her prowess and contributed greatly to the team effort, being able to do far more things at once than Fang Yuan could. Bai Ning Bing could easily do five things at once. She was a natural born genius in that regard, outmaneuvering even an old monster like Fang Yuan, who, even after five hundred years, could do at most four tasks at the same time without gu worms assisting him.
Fang Yuan also suspected that her luck, being higher when compared to his, contributed to them succeeding far earlier than they would have otherwise.
They still ended up at third position, however, the contest was far from over.
The next round involved people being paired up one against the other. They were given a limited set of refinement ingredients, and one could take away up to three ingredients from the other person. Given how many sets they had, naturally, it was better to only use these tries when they were near the end.
"The first gu worm to refine is - Rank 5 Flying Vajra Centipede Gu!"