"Time is still too short — not enough to drill Past Momentum to proficiency." Fang Yuan sighed.
If he were to activate Past Momentum alone, the probability of success would be eight or nine out of ten.
But putting it into actual combat was a different matter entirely.
Take Fang Yuan for instance. He had to continuously maintain Blood-Stained Battle Garb, Meeting the Familiar Once, Appear After Three Breaths, and other immortal killer moves. These moves encompassed a vast number of Gu Insects and demanded enormous mental effort.
On top of this foundation, activating an immortal killer move like "Past Momentum" that he hadn't yet drilled to proficiency — only failing on the third attempt — that alone showed Fang Yuan's luck was quite good.
The effects of immortal killer moves were excellent, but the mental consumption was far too great. Moreover, in the midst of a life-and-death battle, one also had to constantly observe the opponent, consider tactics, react in time, and so on.
Therefore, in battle, it wasn't the case that the more immortal killer moves one activated, the better.
If one's mental focus was spread too thin and one failed to properly handle the enemy's surprise attack, or reacted too late, leading to defeat and death — that would be nothing short of a joke.
In fact, such jokes had been endlessly popping up throughout the history of Gu Immortals.
There were quite a few cases where extremely powerful killer moves, due to activation failure, directly caused the Gu Immortal's death on the spot.
"If I can solve this problem, I can raise my combat power by another level!"
"Apart from more practice, and refining the immortal killer moves to make them more streamlined, the solution lies in the Wisdom Path."
At its core, an immortal killer move was an arrangement of countless Gu Insects.
To mobilize each Gu Insect required at least one thought from the Gu Immortal. Successfully activating a single immortal killer move often consumed thousands upon thousands of thoughts!
The Wisdom Path was the very school that specifically addressed this problem.
Wisdom Path Gu Immortals were often able to wield more numerous, or more complex, immortal killer moves compared to Gu Immortals of other paths.
"The Wisdom Path inheritance I obtained — the most important of it is still Dongfang Changfan's Wisdom Star True Inheritance. It excels at calculation, but isn't suited for directing Gu Insects or assembling killer moves. However, I am now a Wisdom Path Grandmaster, and I can fully use this foundation to develop in that direction, with the aim of making a breakthrough."
After driving off the ancient hawk dogs, Fang Yuan reflected on himself during the return journey and settled on the next direction for his Wisdom Path development.
Landing on the ground, Fang Yuan patted his lower abdomen, opening the gate to his Immortal Aperture.
The gates swung wide, revealing a portion of the scenery within his Supreme Immortal Aperture.
Mao Liu stared intently, but looking from outside the gates, what could one really discern?
He could only see a frozen wasteland of ice and snow, completely barren.
That was the Small Northern Plains within the Supreme Blessed Land.
Mao Liu finally let out a small sigh of relief.
"It seems he's been focusing on boosting his combat power and neglected the management of his Immortal Aperture. Can't blame him, either — after all, this Supreme Immortal Aperture undergoes tribulation once every two months."
Mao Liu had no idea that Fang Yuan had already completely plundered the Black Heaven Grotto-World. He thought Fang Yuan was still a pauper, never suspecting that elsewhere in the Supreme Blessed Land, the scenery was lush with green mountains and clear waters, dense forests stretching far — the resources were staggeringly abundant.
"Even so, this is genuine Seventh Transformation combat power." Mao Liu watched the Chicken Year Beast, the corner of his eye twitching. "Fang Yuan may only be at the Sixth Transformation, but he already commands Seventh Transformation power. Adding yet another Seventh Transformation force… I must report this to Lord Ying Wu Xie and let him know!"
The Chicken Year Beast crowed merrily, looking quite pleased.
Fang Yuan had fed it a large quantity of Year Gu, which greatly satisfied it.
Finally, it spread its wings, leaped into the River of Time, and its form gradually faded from sight.
After stuffing the hawk dogs one by one into his Immortal Aperture (the Falling Star Dog included), and having successfully sent off the Chicken Year Beast, Fang Yuan turned around to face the Furman Gu Immortals present.
"This mission — it should count as my success, right?" Fang Yuan smiled faintly, asking the Furmen in an inquiring tone.
The Furman Gu Immortals nodded, their faces showing varying degrees of reluctance, helplessness, and embarrassment.
The facts spoke for themselves.
Without Fang Yuan's intervention, their very lives would have been in danger.
Mao Shi'er opened his mouth to speak, but his lips moved several times without any words coming out.
Thinking back on his earlier behavior — how utterly shallow it had been, how blissfully unaware of his own limitations — he couldn't help but feel a pang of shame.
Mao Liu, ever perceptive of others' expressions, let out a sly laugh and spoke up: "Elder Fang Yuan, you truly are impressive — you single-handedly drove off a whole pack of hawk dogs! If we hadn't seen it with our own eyes, we never would have believed it. If only you had acted sooner, the Falling Star Dog would have been no trouble at all."
Hearing this, the Furman Gu Immortals' expressions shifted subtly, their feelings growing even more complicated.
"I have my own difficulties, and I have no desire to explain them to you. The Supreme Grand Elder knows the ins and outs of the matter." Fang Yuan smiled faintly, gave everyone a once-over, then looked at Mao Shi'er. "Alright. The matter is settled — let's head back."
Through the teleportation Gu formation, the immortals conveniently returned to the Lang Ya Blessed Land.
After hearing everyone's report, the Lang Ya Earth Spirit's attitude softened considerably.
He wasn't particularly surprised by Fang Yuan's combat power.
Because he knew that Fang Yuan had once possessed the Spring Autumn Cicada — he was a reborn person. Sixth Transformation cultivation with Seventh Transformation combat power — though exceedingly rare, when it came to Fang Yuan, it wasn't hard to understand.
With this softened attitude, and the over-thousand contribution points rewarded for completing the Falling Star Dog mission, Fang Yuan successfully borrowed the Gu Insects he needed to use the Immortal Tribulation to temper his aperture once more.
In the days that followed, Fang Yuan settled into peaceful cultivation.
His main focus was using Dang Hun Mountain and Luo Po Valley to cultivate his soul. On the other hand, he privately drilled new killer moves such as Past Momentum. In his spare time, he would tend to the recently acquired Falling Star Dog pup and the pack of hawk dogs.
For these desolate beasts and the one ancient hawk dog, the environment had simply changed. After a brief period of adaptation, they settled contentedly into their new home.
Wherever one lived, was it not still living?
That was what lacking intelligence looked like — somewhat carefree and oblivious.
As for the countless resources relocated from the Black Heaven Grotto-World, Fang Yuan placed the majority of them into the Small Southern Border.
The environment of the Small Southern Border was the closest match to the Black Heaven Grotto-World.
Nevertheless, because the Dao Marks couldn't compare to those of the Black Heaven Grotto-World, countless resources still saw reduced production. Some were even on the verge of extinction.
So Fang Yuan had another headache — he needed to quickly sell off all the resources he couldn't sustain.
Apart from trading with the Lang Ya Earth Spirit, his main focus was on Treasure Yellow Heaven.
In a very short time, Fang Yuan had amassed a massive stockpile of Immortal Essence Stones. After using a portion, the previously insufficient reserves of Immortal Essence were no longer a liability — they had instead become one of Fang Yuan's strengths.