Lightning crackled and popped.
Ma Hongyun's eyes rolled back almost immediately, and foam bubbled from his mouth. He had completely lost consciousness, but his entire body was still convulsing violently.
The lightning went from blazing bright to fading, and finally dissipated into nothing.
Patriarch Snow Beard's expression darkened.
The lightning refinement of Ma Hongyun had failed!
If it had succeeded, Ma Hongyun's physical body wouldn't have remained at all. He would have been directly transformed by the lightning — flesh, skin, and bones gone — refined into a single mass of golden luck essence.
Lady Wanshou let out a muffled groan, and a shade of paleness suddenly crept across her beautiful face.
She had been overseeing the lightning refinement of Ma Hongyun. It was a crucial step in refining the Heaven Equalizing Fortune Immortal Gu. Now that it had failed, Lady Wanshou naturally suffered the backlash and bore the damage.
"My lady." Patriarch Snow Beard's tone was tense, and worry shone in his eyes.
Lady Wanshou gave him a faint smile and said gently, "Don't worry. This small injury is nothing I can't handle. I just need half a day of rest to recover completely."
Patriarch Snow Beard exhaled a turbid breath: "That's good."
After a pause, he continued, "This failure doesn't matter. It was only the first attempt! We still have plenty of Gu materials prepared."
"Indeed," Lady Wanshou agreed. "Although we failed this time and have to start over, this Refinement Path Gu Formation has preserved many key results. The second attempt will surely go smoothly. Let me rest for half a day, and once I've recovered, we'll continue."
How could a Gu Immortal succeed in refining Gu on the first try?
The success rate for Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu was frighteningly low.
Back in the day, Black Fan had tried to refine the Flowing Time Like Water Immortal Gu. He failed repeatedly until he nearly lost confidence entirely.
So neither Patriarch Snow Beard nor Lady Wanshou took this failure to heart.
The two were brimming with confidence.
"There's no need to rush, my lady. Resting for two or three days would be fine. You may not know this yet, but the Northern Plains is stirring again. Heavenly Lord Hundred Feet and Chu Du are clashing with each other over the ownership of Black Fan's Grotto-Heaven. Both sides are currently in a stalemate, but I reckon Chu Du surely has follow-up moves — it's just a matter of when he'll strike." Patriarch Snow Beard smiled as he laid out the situation in detail.
"Oh?" Lady Wanshou's face lit up with a flash of delight when she heard this.
The risks of Patriarch Snow Beard refining the Heaven Equalizing Fortune Immortal Gu went far beyond the difficulty of creating an Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu.
The other Eighth Transformation Gu Immortals in the Northern Plains certainly didn't want to see Patriarch Snow Beard obtain an Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu and become even more powerful.
So Patriarch Snow Beard had to keep a careful watch on all of these Eighth Transformation existences.
With Heavenly Lord Hundred Feet locked in conflict with Chu Du, this was naturally a rare stroke of good fortune for Patriarch Snow Beard.
But after listening, Lady Wanshou firmly shook her head and declined his kind offer: "I can only rest for half a day. This Refinement Path Gu Formation was built by Sun Minglu in imitation of the Pool of Regret. It possesses some of the Pool's remarkable properties. But its time limit is only one day. Half a day of rest is already the maximum — I must use the remaining half day for the Gu refinement."
"I see." Patriarch Snow Beard suddenly understood, and said with a pained heart, "You've worked hard, my lady."
"It's nothing. Being able to refine an Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu is an incredibly thrilling experience for me." Lady Wanshou's eyes sparkled with a dazzling light.
That night.
Moonlight blanketed the entire grassland. Several figures silently approached Iron Eagle Blessed Land.
It was none other than Fang Yuan, Hao Zhen, Chou Laowu, Li Sichun, and Wang Daxian — five in all.
Iron Eagle Blessed Land had originally been the Black Family's headquarters, but after the Black Family's downfall, it had been taken over by Heavenly Lord Hundred Feet and repurposed as the Hundred Feet Family's primary base.
At this moment, Iron Eagle Blessed Land was nestled in the void, without the slightest trace visible.
Fang Yuan gazed out and saw nothing but verdant grass, fresh and lovely beneath the silky moonlight. The night breeze brushed gently against his cheeks, soft as a lover's hands.
The scene was one of harmony, but Fang Yuan and the Gu Immortals beside him burned with fighting spirit, blazing like flames in their chests.
Chu Du's battle plan this time had earned even Fang Yuan's genuine admiration.
Chu Du had endured and bided his time for nearly half a month — no small stretch. He had secretly made his preparations and accumulated his strength. When he finally struck, he went straight for the enemy's headquarters.
If Iron Eagle Blessed Land fell this time, the impact on the Hundred Feet Family would be enormous. Heavenly Lord Hundred Feet might actually have to return to defend it and give up on assaulting Black Fan's Grotto-Heaven.
"Chu Du really does have brains. He's targeted the internal discord within the Hundred Feet Family this time," Hao Zhen chimed in with a laugh.
"Heh heh. The Hundred Feet Family swallowed up the Black Family and absorbed their Gu Immortals. The Black Family Gu Immortals changed their surnames to Hundred Feet, but their golden bloodlines are the genuine article — and they've suffered plenty of exclusion and bullying. This time, nearly all the Black Family Gu Immortals were sent out to guard major resource locations across the region. Meanwhile, the Hundred Feet Family's own Gu Immortals huddled together, staying put inside Iron Eagle Blessed Land," Chou Laowu added.
Since the Chu Sect's Gu Immortals were operating in the shadows and could strike at any time, the Hundred Feet Family couldn't help but split their forces to guard their external resources. The danger of such guard duty far exceeded that of remaining inside Iron Eagle Blessed Land.
After all, the Gu formations protecting the resource locations had only recently been rebuilt after being destroyed in the previous wave. The locations were scattered far apart from each other. A Gu Immortal stationed alone at one location was extremely vulnerable to being besieged by multiple enemy Gu Immortals.
"Master Chu is brilliant and mighty! I was just guessing before — if we were to act on Master Chu's behalf, we'd probably pick an important Hundred Feet Family resource location and launch a fierce raid. I never imagined Master Chu would have us attack Iron Eagle Blessed Land directly. Ah, just thinking about Master Chu makes my heart race! He's truly incredible!" Li Sichun raised a thick, stubby finger in a delicate gesture, pressing his other hand to his chest with an expression of intoxicated rapture.
Hao Zhen and Chou Laowu standing beside him felt their hair stand on end, and they subtly sidled a few steps further away.
"Enough. Speed is the key in warfare! Whoever can break open Iron Eagle Blessed Land, do it now!" Fang Yuan said coldly.
Li Sichun's eyes lit up: "Liu Lang's cold demeanor is so heart-fluttering too~"
Fang Yuan's expression didn't change: "Get away from me."
Li Sichun let out an "Ah!", clutched his chest, stumbled several steps backward, and shook his head endlessly: "My heart is so broken! I could just die!"