In Northern Plains, deep within Lang Ya Blessed Land.
From the hands of the Lang Ya Earth Spirit, Yuan Fang obtained another Rank Six Transformation Path immortal gu called Giant Transformation Immortal Gu. It was specifically refined to strengthen Yuan Fang's Beastman Gu Immortal Clone, Eastern Orc.
Yuan Fang had long since planned that when the time was right in the future, he would make Eastern Orc his ultimate "shield," blocking all attacks for him and ensuring his own safety.
After handing over the Giant Transformation Immortal Gu, the Lang Ya Earth Spirit suddenly spoke, his tone carrying a hint of urgency and solemnity, reflecting his sense of identity as a Great Hairy Man:
"My Lang Ya Sect must keep up with the currents of the era and fully utilize the advantages of our Lang Ya Sect!"
"Yuan Fang, my boy, from now on, whether it is Mao Da and the other formal Grand Elders, or you Guest Elders, you can all use contribution points to exchange for a chance for me to personally perform Gu Refining!"
As his voice fell, the Lang Ya Earth Spirit threw out two more missions, his voice sonorous and powerful:
"I have two missions here. The first is to teach the Hairy People Gu Immortals how to fight;"
"The second is to go to the Northern Ice Plain and ally with the local Stone Men and Snowmen."
"For every time you teach the Hairy People Gu Immortals to fight, you will receive twenty contribution points; if you successfully ally with the Stone Men and Snowmen, you will receive one hundred contribution points."
Yuan Fang thought for a moment, quickly weighing the pros and cons in his heart. He immediately made up his mind and accepted the mission to teach the Hairy People Gu Immortals how to fight.
However, before agreeing, he naturally wanted to manifest his own value and make the Lang Ya Earth Spirit value his role more, so he immediately said:
"Supreme Grand Elder, our Lang Ya Sect possesses a profound foundation of three hundred thousand years, with mountains of immortal gu, immortal materials, and Gu recipes. This is the greatest advantage of our Lang Ya Sect. Looking at the entire Northern Plains, few forces can compare!"
The Lang Ya Earth Spirit nodded slowly, a flash of pride appearing in his cloudy eyes, clearly agreeing deeply with this.
Yuan Fang's tone shifted as he precisely pointed out the fatal flaw of the Lang Ya Sect, his voice carrying a hint of regret:
"What a pity, what a pity. No matter how many resources one has, without absolute combat power to support it, it is like an infant carrying a huge sum of money walking through a dangerous land in chaotic times. It will only attract endless greed and eventually end up being snatched away!"
"Our Lang Ya Sect's Hairy People Gu Immortals are naturally skilled at Gu Refining, but their combat power is low. How are they to protect themselves?"
"Supreme Grand Elder, I dare say that although Mao Da has Rank Seven cultivation, he is absolutely unable to defeat Step Success, the Hairy People Gu Immortal I nurtured in my blessed land!"
The Lang Ya Earth Spirit's eyebrows twitched, and he immediately showed displeasure.
Mao Da was a core Hairy People Gu Immortal he had nurtured personally. How could he tolerate such contempt? He immediately ordered Mao Da and Step Success to have a sparring match.
Although Step Success was a Gu Immortal with relatively low combat experience in Yuan Fang's blessed land, when he acted now, he could still easily activate Immortal Path Killer Moves. His Moves were skillful and every strike was sharp;
In contrast, Mao Da failed repeatedly every time he tried to activate a Killer Move. The operation of his immortal gu was sluggish, and in the end, he could only rely purely on individual immortal gu to fight, without any coordination to speak of. This was completely the lowest level of method in Gu Immortal combat.
But how could the scattered power of individual immortal gu compare to a complete and smooth Immortal Path Killer Move where the Gu worms were perfectly synchronized?
The gap between the two was beyond measure.
In just over ten minutes, Mao Da was completely defeated by Step Success, retreating to the side in a pathetic state, his expression embarrassed.
Seeing the Lang Ya Earth Spirit's eyes wide with shock, clearly not expecting such a vast difference, Yuan Fang spoke calmly, his tone full of confidence:
"Do you believe that with just Little Lang Ya, Step Success, and Mao Qing Feng, they would be enough to defeat all the Hairy People Gu Immortals present?"
The Lang Ya Earth Spirit shook his head helplessly and sighed deeply, having recognized the reality in his heart:
"I believe you, there's no need to test further. Therefore, I need you to teach these boys how to fight and make up for the combat power deficiency of my Lang Ya Sect."
"Oh, right, I have a sword letter immortal gu here." As Yuan Fang spoke, with a thought, he took out an ancient-looking precious sword from his immortal aperture. The blade was engraved with fine inscriptions; it was indeed the sword letter immortal gu.
He pointed at the sword letter immortal gu and said to the Lang Ya Earth Spirit:
"This sword letter immortal gu of mine can fundamentally activate an Immortal Path Killer Move called Flying Sword Letter. It can ensure that information transmission is secret and will never be intercepted."
"Supreme Grand Elder, our Lang Ya Sect first needs a commander, someone to direct the Gu Immortals in battle. This sword letter immortal gu is perfectly suited for that."
The Lang Ya Earth Spirit nodded in deep agreement. Such an immortal gu for secret communication was an indispensable treasure for a force's coordinated operations.
Yuan Fang then used the sword letter immortal gu to exchange with the Lang Ya Earth Spirit for a Rank Six Blood Source Immortal Gu.
After the exchange was completed, the Lang Ya Earth Spirit looked at Yuan Fang and spoke solemnly, officially granting him authority and responsibility:
"Yuan Fang, my boy, I now appoint you as the Second Supreme Elder, to guide Mao Da for me."
"I intend to nurture Mao Da into a Sword Path Gu Immortal. I will temporarily lend this sword letter immortal gu to Mao Da. You first teach Mao Da how to use the Flying Sword Letter Killer Move, and I will deduct twenty contribution points from him to give to you."
Yuan Fang nodded and agreed. He immediately took the Rank Seven Gu Immortal Mao Da to a remote corner of Cloud Cover Continent. Casting aside external interference, he painstakingly taught Mao Da how to activate the Flying Sword Letter Killer Move, explaining everything in detail from the operation of the Killer Move to the mobilization of immortal essence.
On the other side, Fang Yuan, just like in his previous life, relied on his profound Metal Path foundation and rich Gu Refining experience to successfully refine the Rank Six Metal Path immortal gu, Gold Devouring Insect.
In this life, he was no longer deceived by the unscrupulous merchants of Treasure Yellow Heaven; all the Metal Path immortal materials he purchased were of top quality and genuine.
Furthermore, with the addition of his Gu Refining experience from his previous life, he avoided almost all Gu Refining risks.
This Rank Six Gold Devouring Insect immortal gu was successfully refined in just one attempt and was safely stored within Fang Yuan's immortal aperture.
In his previous life, although Fang Yuan obtained the Gold Devouring Insect immortal gu, because time was tight and he was burdened with many matters, he failed to create any related Immortal Path Killer Moves, preventing the full power of this immortal gu from being unleashed.
But in this life, he had the accumulation of inspiration from his previous life, and with the help of the wisdom gu, creating a new Killer Move was not a difficult task for him.
Fang Yuan immediately decided to enter secluded cultivation to wholeheartedly create a Metal Path Killer Move that complemented the Gold Devouring Insect immortal gu.
While Fang Yuan was in seclusion, Yuan Fang also used his memories of the previous life to precisely guide Fang Zheng to find the Blood Idiot Blessed Land, taking all the various immortal gu in the blessed land and the rank seven immortal gu house, Rain Listening Blood Tower, for his own use. Fang Zheng's strength also received a leap-forward improvement.
After fully inheriting the Blood Idiot Legacy, Fang Zheng began preparing to undergo his Heavenly Tribulation to charge into the Rank Seven Gu Immortal Realm.
Preparing to undergo tribulation along with him were Lin Hong, Eastern Orc, Scarless White, and Gu Yue Qing Shu. All four were only one final Heavenly Tribulation away from their dao marks reaching Perfection, allowing them to become Rank Seven from being Rank Six Gu Immortals.
By this time, Yuan Fang had already been teaching Mao Da for two full weeks.
Although Mao Da lacked combat experience and had never systematically studied combat techniques before, his learning ability was quite impressive.
In two weeks, he went from a layman who knew nothing about Sword Path to being able to laboriously activate the Flying Sword Letter Killer Move, as well as the Life-Taking Flying Sword Killer Move. His progress could be described as rapid.
The Flying Sword Letter Killer Move has been introduced previously, so there is no need to say more.
As for this Life-Taking Flying Sword Killer Move, it also used the sword letter immortal gu as its core. It could condense sword light to shoot out Flying Swords to injure enemies, and its killing power was decent.
Of course, if it were activated using a Flying Sword Immortal Gu specialized for offense, the power would be even better.
However, as an immortal gu that served as both auxiliary offense and communication, the sword letter immortal gu activating this Killer Move was enough to handle general combat situations.
Regarding this, the Lang Ya Earth Spirit was very satisfied, showing a rare smile on his face. He specially rewarded Yuan Fang with an extra hundred contribution points and even waived the contribution points Mao Da owed, directly giving the sword letter immortal gu to Mao Da as recognition of Yuan Fang's teaching results.
Later, the Lang Ya Earth Spirit heard that Fang Zheng was going to undergo his Heavenly Tribulation, so he immediately ordered Mao Da to go and test his skills, accumulating experience through actual combat and verifying his learning results.
On the day of Fang Zheng's tribulation, Yuan Fang, Mao Da, Eastern Orc, Lin Hong, Scarless White, and Gu Yue Qing Shu all went to Fang Zheng's blessed land to set up a defensive formation and help Fang Zheng pass the Heavenly Tribulation.
Fang Zheng was originally a Transformation Path Gu Immortal, so what was drawn was naturally a Transformation Path Heavenly Tribulation. The dao marks added would naturally lean towards the Transformation Path school.
Thunder rolled and calamity clouds piled up. The thick calamity clouds obscured the entire sky, and an oppressive Aura permeated in all directions. From within the calamity clouds, Ancient Desolate Beasts descended one after another.
These Ancient Desolate Beasts had strange appearances; they were all mutated species bred by the Heavenly Tribulation:
For instance, that Star Desolate Hound had two Star Desolate Hound heads, the wings of an Iron Crown Eagle on its back, a Dragon Fish tail instead of a dog's tail behind its rump, limbs transformed into the four hooves of a Six-Winged Heavenly Horse, and sharp dragon horns growing from its dog heads; its entire Aura was fierce and malevolent, far surpassing ordinary desolate beasts.
Similarly, there were mutated Iron Crown Eagles, mutated Mud Swamp Crabs...
All sorts of strange desolate beasts appeared one after another in an endless stream.
Seeing this scene, Fang Zheng recognized it at a glance as the Transformation Path's unique Heavenly Tribulation, the Neither-Fish-Nor-Fowl Tribulation; instead of fear, a hint of joy welled up in his heart.
For a Transformation Path Gu Immortal like him, the bodies of these mutated desolate beasts were all top-grade immortal materials for refining Transformation Path Gu worms, and he immediately had the thought of capturing them alive.
"Immortal Path Killer Move — Life-Taking Flying Sword!"
Mao Da straightened the five fingers of his right hand into a sword-palm and pointed at the mutated Star Desolate Hound; boundless, sharp sword light bloomed from his palm as his immortal essence was rapidly consumed.
In the next moment, a Flying Sword covered in script was enveloped in brilliant sword light, shooting out like a bolt of lightning and piercing straight through the head of a mutated Flying Bear, killing it on the spot.
"Great! It hit!"
Mao Da danced with joy, completely forgetting Fang Zheng's intention to capture the desolate beasts alive.
Fang Zheng felt a pang in his heart and secretly groaned; he feared that Mao Da's single sword strike had cost him many precious immortal materials.
However, he was also afraid of obstructing Yuan Fang's plans and offending the people of the Lang Ya Sect, so he could only force a smile and feign praise:
"This is all thanks to Lord Yuan Fang's excellent teaching. Mao Da, don't fire anymore... Mao Da!!!"
Mao Da, in his momentary excitement, lost his composure and actually mixed up the activation methods of the Flying Sword Letter Killer Move and the Life-Taking Flying Sword Killer Move; the Flying Sword he shot out had no killing power at all.
Worse still, that rank six immortal gu, Sword Letter, was actually crushed alive by the charging army of desolate beasts; the immortal gu died on the spot!
"Fang... Fang Zheng... I think... I've caused trouble." Mao Da's face was flushed red with shame as he stood there at a loss, his expression extremely embarrassed.
In the next moment, the corpse of the sword letter immortal gu self-detonated on the spot.
A violent shockwave swept out, blowing the ten surrounding mutated desolate beasts directly into fly ash, leaving not even a single scrap of residue.
This self-detonation function was originally designed to prevent information from being forcibly intercepted, which would lead to information leaks.
At this moment, by a strange stroke of luck, it had wiped out a wave of desolate beasts for Fang Zheng.
"It's... it's alright, Mao Da..."
Fang Zheng's heart was bleeding with distress, and the smile on his face was almost stiff, yet he still gritted his teeth and forced a smile to comfort Mao Da, not daring to show the slightest bit of his true feelings.
Under Fang Zheng's comfort, Mao Da finally calmed his emotions slightly.
Afterward, Fang Zheng activated his army of Blood Deity Clones, using the Enslavement and Blood Path convergence Killer Move, "Blood Net."
A giant blood-colored net covered the sky and earth, capturing all the surviving mutated desolate beasts and storing them into his immortal aperture.
All in all, the difficulty of Fang Zheng's Heavenly Tribulation was extremely low, without too many twists or dangers.
With everyone's assistance, he successfully passed the Heavenly Tribulation and achieved the position of a Rank Seven Gu Immortal; the Transformation Path dao marks throughout his body surged, and his Aura suddenly climbed.
Afterward, the group set up formations one after another to act as Protectors, helping Scarless White, Qing Shu, Lin Hong, and Eastern Orc pass their Heavenly Tribulations.
At this point, the Rank Seven Gu Immortals of the Great Love Sect numbered eight: Yuan Fang, Fang Zheng, Qing Shu, Lin Hong, Eastern Orc, Scarless White, Zheng Ling, and Little Person Gu Immortal;
The Rank Six Gu Immortals numbered twelve: Fang Yuan, Avatar, Xiao Lan, Yun Sheng, Lou Lan, Zhou Zhong, Clan Leader, Chang Fan, Ru Yan, Red Snake, Desolate Dust, and Tianyu. The lineup was already quite impressive.
If one added the four spies planted in the Shadow Sect—Jiang Yu, Black City, Wolf Wolf, and Wind Returning Child—the entire Great Love Sect had a total of twenty-four Gu Immortals.
Among the Gu Immortal forces in Northern Plains, they had already secured a place for themselves.
However, Eastern Orc's third Heavenly Tribulation was exceptionally unique and dangerous.
Because Eastern Orc had begun to cultivate Transformation Path as a secondary path, a massive amount of Transformation Path dao marks surged within his immortal aperture, causing the type of Heavenly Tribulation to mutate.
What descended in the third Heavenly Tribulation was not an ordinary desolate beast, but a powerful Ancient Desolate Beast, and this beast had also undergone a bizarre mutation.
This mutated Ancient Desolate Beast was extremely formidable, with a strange innate ability: it could actually devour Killer Moves activated by Gu Immortals, using its stomach sac to completely digest the dao marks and immortal essence of the Killer Moves, rendering many offensive methods entirely useless.
Initially, everyone's Killer Moves were completely useless against it, being swallowed into its belly one after another as they bombarded it; the situation once fell into a passive state.
It wasn't until later, when Yuan Fang combined the Sword Dragon Transformation and the Ten Thousand Me killer move to activate the peerless "Ten Thousand Dragons" Killer Move, that the battle situation was reversed.
Yuan Fang transformed into ten thousand imposing Sword Dragons that occupied the horizon, simultaneously breathing out scorching dragon breath; a flood of dragon breath swept down, covering the sky and earth.
That Ancient Desolate Beast was not covered in mouths, so it was simply unable to devour such a massive amount of dragon breath attacks; its defense was instantly broken.
In the end, that Ancient Desolate Beast died under the wild bombardment of ten thousand dragon breaths, its body crashing to the ground.
After this battle, as Eastern Orc gazed at the corpse of the desolate beast, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration and a plan in mind; he intended to use the body of this Ancient Desolate Beast to refine a Transformation Path immortal gu, naming it the "Stomach Sac Immortal Gu," to replicate its ability to devour Killer Moves.
In fact, Eastern Orc had previously drafted a Killer Move that could swallow an enemy's Killer Move and take it into the immortal aperture.
Unfortunately, the immortal aperture is the foundation of a Gu Immortal, and drawing an external Killer Move into the immortal aperture is akin to attacking one's own foundation; therefore, this Move was almost never used, had never been named, and had been shelved.
On the other side, Yuan Fang suddenly had a peculiar inspiration and thought to himself:
If the Rank Seven self immortal gu were to devour Heavenly Dao Gu worms, what would be the result? Would it obtain pure Heavenly Dao dao marks, or the profound Freedom Heavenly Marks?
Once this thought arose, it lingered in his mind, filling him with curiosity.
At this moment, Yuan Fang naturally did not have any rare Heavenly Dao immortal gu, but he had Heavenly Dao mortal Gu in his hands—the longevity gu which contained Heavenly Dao vitality.
Thus, Yuan Fang intended to let his immortal gu take a bite of a longevity gu to test the effect.
He took out a ginseng-like longevity gu from his immortal aperture and carefully snipped off a single root hair from it.
But in the next moment, the quality of the longevity gu actually changed. This longevity gu was originally a fifty-year longevity gu, but with this snip, its Lifespan Origin was damaged, leaving it with only forty years.
Yuan Fang was slightly startled, but since it was already snipped, he couldn't reattach it; he fed that root hair to his self immortal gu, which was already wide-eyed and eager to try.
Evidently, the self immortal gu was extremely interested in the longevity gu, far exceeding its interest in ordinary mortal Gu like hope gu; its vigor while devouring was as if it could eat immortal gu.
After the self immortal gu wolfed down that root hair with ease, it raised its body and cast an expectant gaze at Yuan Fang, clearly not having had enough.
Yuan Fang immediately inspected himself and his immortal aperture, only to find that he had gained nothing for the time being; his Heavenly Dao Realm and dao marks remained unchanged.
Yuan Fang's brow furrowed slightly, and he simply hardened his heart, feeding the entire forty-year longevity gu directly to the self immortal gu.
The self immortal gu was overjoyed, and in two or three bites, it tore the entire longevity gu to shreds and swallowed it all into its belly.
At that moment, Yuan Fang suddenly had a profound and peculiar feeling:
His Heavenly Dao Realm had silently risen to an ordinary level, which could be considered officially stepping through the door of the Heavenly Dao, gaining a basic perception of Heavenly Dao dao marks.
Furthermore, within Yuan Fang's immortal aperture, an additional thin but profound Heavenly Dao dao mark appeared.
This Heavenly Dao dao mark was very peculiar; it did not trigger any calamities like ordinary dao marks, but instead floated stably within the immortal aperture, much like the Freedom Heavenly Marks.
But unlike the Freedom Heavenly Marks, this Heavenly Dao dao mark was growing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The dao marks spread and intertwined, eventually forming a miniature Small World deep within the immortal aperture, its Aura obscure and difficult to fathom.
Yuan Fang was extremely surprised and shocked in his heart; this couldn't help but remind him of the Crazed Demon Cave.
With a heart full of questions and intense curiosity, Yuan Fang restrained his Aura and slowly flew into this newly born Small World, wanting to explore its mysteries.
To be continued...