The defensive battle between the Lie Tribe and the Heavy Earth Hyena beast group ended in victory for the Lie Tribe.
The Lie Tribe suffered only minimal losses, while the beast group endured catastrophic damage. As a result, the ten-thousand beast king retreated after several rounds of fighting with the Lie Tribe leader without making any progress.
Although beasts were less intelligent than humans, beast kings possessed a certain degree of intelligence when it came to survival and leading their subordinates. Thus, the Lie Tribe leader was recognized as an opponent not to be provoked.
After the battle ended, the Lie Tribe did not pursue the beast group. Instead, they maintained their vigilance and allowed the beasts space to withdraw. Fang Tian also retreated due to his declining reserves of primeval essence. Using several rank five Gu worms was extremely costly—no matter how many beggar moths he possessed, it did not change the fact that his primeval essence had limits.
Thus, he found a place to rest and settled there to recover his primeval essence while observing the movements of the Lie Tribe and maintaining a general understanding of their direction. At the same time, he examined a certain issue in his cultivation.
"Cultivating strength path is completely unsuitable for me, even as a secondary path… The dao marks on my body are simply too abundant due to the Samsara Boundless Forest physique. Even my vital Gu is rank five Wood Origin Gu, which is purely of the wood path and shares no common ground with strength path… Even my physique itself is entirely incompatible with strength path!"
Fang Tian felt sorrow upon realizing this bitter truth. Originally, he had planned to cultivate strength path as a secondary path because he possessed the true inheritance of Strength Extraction Immortal, as well as the Old Strength Blessed Land filled with high-quality strength path resources. Most importantly, he had a strength path Immortal Gu!
The difference between having Immortal Gu and not having it was like heaven and earth! Most Gu Immortals never possess a single Immortal Gu in their entire lives, whether from their main path or other paths. Because of this, they are forced to rely on mortal Gu and mortal killer moves just to barely survive under the pressure of tribulations and calamities.
Yet Fang Tian, a mere mortal Gu Master, possessed a rank six Immortal Gu and a true inheritance of strength path! But heaven never leaves an easy path. The Heavenly Dao focuses on reducing surplus while compensating deficiency, whereas the Human Dao focuses on increasing surplus while reducing deficiency.
Fang Tian was granted the Samsara Boundless Forest physique by the heavens, which was an excessive surplus—thus it came with the danger of self-detonation. This was a classic manifestation of the Heavenly Dao. Likewise, when Fang Tian became the master of the Old Strength Blessed Land and obtained the true inheritance of strength path along with the Immortal Gu, it was another immense surplus granted to a single individual.
However, in return, he could not cultivate strength path as a secondary path due to conflicting dao marks. There was little connection between wood path and strength path, and the clash between their dao marks made it extremely difficult to cultivate them together.
"How unfortunate… Even as a mortal Gu Master, I can already feel the conflict of dao marks, forcing me to abandon strength path and focus on wood path… It's a pity I cannot fully realize my plan of cultivating wood path as my main path and strength path as a secondary path… But at least I can still proceed with the plan. If I can establish a good relationship with the Lang Ya Blessed Land spirit, I can request to borrow the killer move Tribulation Tempering Aperture to obtain Reckless Savage's true meaning in the icy plains!"
Even if Fang Tian's plan to cultivate strength path as a secondary path failed, so what?
He had never truly intended to cultivate strength path in the first place, except for the sake of the true inheritance of Strength Extraction Immortal, the Strength Extraction Immortal Gu, and the numerous Immortal killer moves recorded within it. Moreover, he knew a method to raise his attainment level in strength path at an explosive speed! Not only strength path, but also flying and transformation path!
He even believed that he could surpass his attainment in wood path, which was already increasing rapidly, yet still far from quasi-grandmaster—let alone grandmaster level.
"If my attainment in strength path and transformation path rises—even if I cannot cultivate those paths—it will provide a tremendous boost to my wood path cultivation and allow my wood path attainment to increase even faster!"
Fang Tian's eyes became moist with greed and ambition as he imagined such a scenario. However, he quickly calmed himself and focused on what truly mattered.
"As for the Lie Tribe… they are indeed quite capable, managing to defend against this beast group while maintaining minimal losses. But can they withstand larger and stronger beast groups without suffering heavy casualties?"
The Lie Tribe had managed to endure a sudden attack from the Heavy Earth Hyenas while preserving their foundation intact. This was undoubtedly an impressive achievement, but it was largely due to the nature of the Heavy Earth Hyenas themselves—they were slow beasts, which gave the Lie Tribe enough time to construct a defensive line and hastily devise a strategy.
"But if this had been a group of wolves, tigers, or birds, the Lie Tribe's losses would have been severe enough to damage their foundation… And now, as they travel along an exposed path while I remain hidden and move in the shadows, their journey will be filled with hardship and losses… This approach requires a long time, but the benefits I will reap are worth the wait."
The Lie Tribe descended from the lineage of Giant Sun Immortal Venerable. If Fang Tian could bring them under his control, he could use them to obtain tremendous profits within the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building. This information was not a secret—it was merely common knowledge. But for Fang Tian, it only deepened his desire to turn the Lie Tribe into his puppet.
"To turn the Lie Tribe into a puppet in my hands will require great effort and time… but it is not beyond reason. And it's not as if I cannot focus on other matters alongside it that would benefit my cultivation…"