The Supreme Immortal Aperture, within the Little Purple Heaven.
A faint purple glow suffused the air, everything shrouded in haze.
In the vast sky above, an eagle nest floated in midair.
The eagle nest resembled a three-story pavilion — doorless, windowless, like an enormous cluster of crystal. Semi-transparent, each piece as long and thick as a grown man's two arms, the crystals crowded together in uniform color, forming this dense eagle nest without a single gap.
This crystal was extraordinary in origin.
Fang Yuan had already identified it — this was Sky Crystal, an ancient immortal material of the Eighth Transformation!
Sky Crystal came from the heavens. It was naturally light and could float in the air, never falling unless acted upon by an external force.
Let alone whatever lay inside the eagle nest — the nest itself contained over a thousand jin of Sky Crystal! That quantity of Sky Crystal alone held a tremendously vast value.
Clearly, this eagle nest was none other than the thirteenth eagle nest within the Iron Eagle Blessed Land.
Its intrinsic value alone far surpassed all the other eagle nests in the Iron Eagle Blessed Land, placing it firmly at the top.
After Fang Yuan and Chu Du formed their alliance, Chu Du ventured into the Iron Eagle Blessed Land. In the final moments of the great battle against the Black Family, he displayed formidable combat strength and seized this eagle nest.
However, before Chu Du could withdraw from the battlefield, the Black Family's Supreme Grand Elder let out a howl, ensuring that every immortal present learned that this thirteenth eagle nest was no ordinary prize — it contained clues to Hei Fan's True Inheritance!
These words caused Fang Yuan no small amount of trouble.
Once Chu Du learned of this, he reopened negotiations with Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan knew he had no choice but to concede.
The Flying Sword Immortal Gu, the Eastern Sea Information Path True Inheritance, this thirteenth eagle nest, and Hei Fan's True Inheritance — combined, their value was immense!
Though Chu Du was devoted to the Strength Path unto death, that did not mean he would not sell these things for a good price.
Fortunately, Chu Du was single-mindedly set on obtaining Fang Yuan's method of enduring tribulations.
Fang Yuan ruthlessly exploited this greatest weakness of his. He chose to deepen his cooperation with Chu Du, expending enormous effort and energy before the two sides finally reached a tentative agreement.
Chu Du would use Calamity Calling to obtain Savage Madness True Meaning from Fang Yuan. In the future, he would also receive thirty percent of the gains Fang Yuan harvested from these two True Inheritances.
"Chu Du is an ordinary Gu Immortal. He doesn't want to rashly cultivate both the Information Path and the Time Path, so his interest in these two True Inheritances isn't particularly strong."
"Unlike me, who can cultivate across all paths — any True Inheritance can be used for my own cultivation!"
"Even so, I admire his decisiveness — his ability to let go and sacrifice. The Northern Plains' Tyrant Immortal truly lives up to his reputation; a great name is never without merit!"
As Fang Yuan examined the eagle nest, his thoughts began to drift and overflow.
The bond between him and Chu Du was the most standard of alliances of convenience. Their relationship was shallow in the extreme — pure mutual exploitation.
Deep down, Fang Yuan remained wary of Chu Du.
He knew that Chu Du would never be content, that he still desired the Immortal Tribulation Aperture Tempering Method.
Chu Du was both brave and cunning — he was by no means the "mindless" Tyrant Immortal some took him for.
His bravery was such that he could single-handedly humiliate the great power of the Golden Family Liu Family. In the great battle against the Black Family, he left all other heroes powerless.
His cunning was equally not to be underestimated. After the battle with the Liu Family, he had rarely shown himself, quietly nurturing his disciples — helping them become immortals and drawing out Savage Madness True Meaning. In his negotiations with Fang Yuan, his eloquence had truly shown Fang Yuan the depth of this man's shrewdness and intelligence.
The Tyrant Immortal harbored boundless ambition. How could he ever be satisfied with just Calamity Calling in his hands?
What worried Fang Yuan even more was that Chu Du seemed to have partially guessed his true identity.
After the third Earth Calamice — their first cooperation — Chu Du had recited a poem, and its final two lines went: "Green clouds carry me to survey the land below; heaven and earth, the square and round, all laid bare before me."
*Fangyuan* — *Fang Yuan*.
There was a subtle implication pointing toward Fang Yuan's true identity.
Of course, this might have been Fang Yuan overthinking things.
But when it came to many matters, Fang Yuan would rather think one layer too deep than one layer too shallow.
Chu Du's appearance had also been suspicious — during the very first Earth Calamity, he had nearly taken Fang Yuan's life!
Fang Yuan strongly suspected that Chu Du had been influenced by Heavenly Will — a "Human Calamity" arranged specifically to target him.
To ally with such a person, there seemed to be a particularly apt idiom: "negotiating with a tiger for its skin."
So after their first alliance carried them through the third Earth Calamity, Fang Yuan and Chu Du didn't exchange many words before quickly parting ways.
Chu Du let Fang Yuan leave.
First, he had the Calamity Calling Immortal Gu in his possession. Second, he and Fang Yuan had already forged a pact — the Information Path Immortal Gu used for the oath had been borrowed from another Gu Immortal. Third, he couldn't catch Fang Yuan!
Given Chu Du's strength and acumen, to say he had a wide network of contacts was well deserved.
One thing Fang Yuan had taken into account: to guard against Heavenly Will, he had given Chu Du a considerable number of Self-Will Gu. At the very least, Fang Yuan no longer had to worry too much about Heavenly Will exerting any negative influence on Chu Du.
"The cooperation with Chu Du must be handled with extreme caution. The slightest misstep, and I could face eternal damnation!" Fang Yuan warned himself silently, then shifted his main focus to the Strength Path Immortal Zombie.
He maneuvered a Strength Path Immortal Zombie, slowly approaching the Sky Crystal Eagle Nest.
Over these past days, he had been continuously scouting and speculating, gathering every manner of clue, relentlessly mining Hei Cheng's memories, and then running calculations.