"Fixed Immortal Travel?" The Langya Earth Spirit sounded startled, its tone hesitant.
Fang Yuan understood its concerns perfectly. They all boiled down to one fact: Immortal Gu were one of a kind.
He calmly replied to the Earth Spirit, "Rest assured. I have seventy percent confidence that Fixed Immortal Travel no longer exists in this world."
When he had sought out the Mud Statue, the questions he asked were about Fixed Immortal Travel and other Immortal Gu.
Fang Yuan asked: Had Fixed Immortal Travel, Spring Autumn Cicada, and other Immortal Gu all been destroyed once before?
The contemporary Mud Statue answered: No.
With that, Fang Yuan immediately confirmed two pieces of intelligence.
First: among the Immortal Gu like Fixed Immortal Travel, some had survived while others had been destroyed.
Second: Ying Wuxie had very likely seen through the arrangements Fang Yuan had left in his original body.
The contemporary Mud Statue was already past fifty. Activating the Truth-Speaking Immortal Gu even once cost fifty years of lifespan. So after answering a single question for Fang Yuan, the Ni Family patriarch aged to death on the spot.
But his answer had already helped Fang Yuan tremendously.
"If I assume the worst-case scenario — since Ying Wuxie has seen through my arrangements, he must be hiding extremely well, making it impossible for me to find him. He may not even be in the Southern Border anymore."
"Hei Loulan and Tai Bai Yunsheng — I haven't been able to contact either of them. They've either been turned or killed."
"Among the Immortal Gu that were on my original body, I don't know exactly which ones were destroyed. But the probability of Fixed Immortal Travel being destroyed is the highest, because I specifically arranged for it to be the first to self-destruct."
Fang Yuan had made those arrangements for two reasons: first, because he feared the power of Fixed Immortal Travel; and second, as a precaution in case he recovered his original body but couldn't收回 all the special instructions in time. So he had ordered the Gu to self-destruct one after another.
"The most likely scenario is that after Fixed Immortal Travel was destroyed, Ying Wuxie sensed something wrong and took countermeasures — temporarily sealing off my remaining Immortal Gu."
"What happened between us was a soul swap. His situation is even worse than mine — he has no Gu he can freely manipulate. Yet he managed to seal my other Immortal Gu. That means he either deceived Hei Loulan and Tai Bai Yunsheng, or he leveraged the remnants of the Shadow Sect."
Since the Shadow Sect had been founded by the Dark Soul Demon Venerable and painstakingly built up over tens of thousands of years, having leftover forces was only natural. Fang Yuan had accounted for this long ago.
"The Shadow Sect spans all Five Regions. Even the Zombie Alliance is a subsidiary sect of the Shadow Sect. The great battle at Yitian Mountain occurred in the Southern Border, so the Shadow Sect's forces here probably suffered the heaviest losses. But in the other four regions, things would be relatively better."
"If Fixed Immortal Travel has been destroyed, then for Ying Wuxie to deal with me, Hei Loulan and Tai Bai Yunsheng alone would be far from enough. He would first need to consolidate the Shadow Sect's remaining forces and accumulate an advantage before coming to kill me. That means he likely wants to refine a new Fixed Immortal Travel as well."
This new body of Fang Yuan's was truly exceptional.
When he thought through matters, flashes of inspiration came one after another, flowing like a great river eastward without any obstruction.
And as for him, Fixed Immortal Travel was equally a pressing need.
Because of the existence of the regional barriers between the Five Regions, and because the Star Gate Gu could no longer work for this new body of his, Fixed Immortal Travel had become his best tool for traveling across the Five Regions.
"As long as I have Fixed Immortal Travel, I can return directly to the Langya Blessed Land and collect all the Immortal Gu into my hands."
"My previous cultivation resources can all be stored in the Nine-Five Supreme Immortal Orifice."
"I could also enter the Earth Abyss and directly swallow the Starlight Blessed Land!"
Every single one of these would dramatically increase Fang Yuan's strength.
But if he tried to use Treasure Yellow Heaven for transportation — setting aside the fact that it was far too public and would attract countless pursuers — just the transaction fees alone were staggering.
If Fang Yuan forcibly used Treasure Yellow Heaven, the cost of transporting just an Eighth Transformation Wisdom Sword Gu would wipe out all his painstakingly accumulated cultivation resources, and it still wouldn't be enough.
"Are you certain you want to refine Fixed Immortal Travel?" the Langya Earth Spirit asked again.
Fang Yuan sensed something was off and raised an eyebrow slightly. "What — has this exceeded your capabilities?"
The Langya Earth Spirit shook its head. "I have absolutely no intention of going back on my agreement with the Heavenly Dao Stealer Demon Venerable. But while I have the Spirit Travel Gu in my hands, along with other auxiliary materials, the one critical ingredient is missing. Can you guess what it is?"
Fang Yuan thought for a moment and frowned. "Could it be Primordial Light?"
"Correct," the Langya Earth Spirit replied. "No matter what Gu recipe you use to try to refine Fixed Immortal Travel, every single recipe requires one essential material — and that is Primordial Light. Light itself is already difficult to capture and store. And 'Primordial' goes beyond the Ancient and Remote Eras — it refers to the age when the Human Ancestor existed. In those times, the entire human race in the world consisted only of the Human Ancestor and his ten sons."
"None of the recipes work without it?" Although Fang Yuan knew the Langya Earth Spirit would not lie to him, he still felt reluctant to accept this.
"Of course not!" The Langya Earth Spirit's answer was firm and decisive. "I have two complete Fixed Immortal Travel recipes in my possession. On top of that, I've seen no fewer than ten partial recipes. In every single one, there's no way around Primordial Light. The only difference between them is the quantity of Primordial Light required."
"Fixed Immortal Travel is a supreme-grade Gu with enormous utility. If it were easy, it would have been refined by someone long ago — why would it wait for you?"
Only upon hearing this did Fang Yuan realize how incredibly lucky he had been to successfully refine Fixed Immortal Travel all those years ago.
Back then, the Primordial Light had been obtained by borrowing the Tai Guang Gu in Xiao Mang's possession.
But Xiao Mang was long dead.
Xiao Shan and Xiao Mang had been two pawns selected by the Xiao Family's Supreme Elder. They were living, breathing Gu Immortal seeds in the making. Tragically, as mortals, they could only serve as chess pieces. Even at the point of death, they probably never understood the truth behind Yitian Mountain.
With Xiao Mang's death, the Tai Guang Gu had naturally perished along with him.