*Chi chi chi!*
Three consecutive Moon Blades, each the size of a washbasin, carved arcs of faint blue light through the air.
*Cha cha cha.*
In the blink of an eye, sixteen or seventeen Jade-Eyed Stone Monkeys lay dead on the spot.
The Stone Monkey swarm chasing Fang Yuan instantly lost nearly a third of its numbers.
Fang Yuan stood his ground, refusing to retreat. He raised his right palm once more and chopped through the air three times.
Another three Moon Blades shot straight into the swarm, toppling Stone Monkeys in heaps wherever they struck.
The monkeys' corpses crashed to the ground, shattering into jagged chunks of rock. The jade pearls their eyes had become rolled and bounced across the crimson earth.
Fang Yuan checked his Empty Orifice. More than half of his deep red True Essence still remained within.
A single Moon Blade from the Moonblade Gu required ten percent of his light red True Essence to activate. At the initial stage of the Second Transformation, Fang Yuan could only fire four consecutive strikes. At the middle stage, that rose to eight. At the High Stage, the number doubled again to sixteen.
Though Fang Yuan had not yet reached the High Stage of the Second Transformation, the Four Flavor Wine Worm had refined his True Essence to High Stage quality, effectively making him a pseudo-High-Stage cultivator. His combat power had surged as a result.
Previously, facing a pack of seventy or eighty Stone Monkeys, he had been forced to fight and retreat in tandem. But now, Moon Blade attacks alone were enough to annihilate the vast majority in short order. Only a dozen or so remained, and they invariably fled at the first sign of danger.
"It's only been two days, and I've already broken through three stone pillars. That's several times faster than before. At this rate, in a month and a half, I'll be able to break through to the center of the Stone Forest once more," Fang Yuan mused silently.
"Given Hua Jiu Xing Zhe's style, the cavern at the center of the Stone Forest is likely the next checkpoint. Before reaching it, there's a strong chance he planted Earth Treasure Flower Gu. But at this point, Hua Jiu Xing Zhe's inheritance is probably nearing its end. After all, he was gravely injured and in dire condition when he hastily set this up. Most likely, there will only be one or two more checkpoints at most."
Drawing on the rich experience of his previous life, Fang Yuan recalled the scene from the Shadow Wall — Hua Jiu Xing Zhe drenched in blood, barely clinging to life — and reached his judgment.
Hua Jiu Xing Zhe had only a short time to establish this inheritance, so he couldn't do more. But this was merely a special case among inheritances.
In truth, normal inheritances required years upon years of careful design and preparation. Some were grand in scope; others opened only once every decade or more. In some, the site was not confined to a single location but split across multiple venues scattered far and wide, potentially separated by vast distances.
Successors seeking to claim such legacies would need to spend years — sometimes decades — exploring and enduring countless trials.
Some inheritances might never be fully explored within a single Gu Master's lifetime, their unfinished work handed down to future generations.
"Hua Jiu Xing Zhe's inheritance is a micro-inheritance. It has the drawback of containing relatively few rewards. But it also has an advantage: the checkpoints were designed according to local conditions and are therefore comparatively simple. From this inheritance, I've already obtained the White Pig Gu, the Jade Skin Gu, and the Wine Worm. The Hidden Stone Gu could arguably count as well. What remains is probably just one or two Earth Treasure Flowers. I hope that among the remaining Gu, there will be a reconnaissance or mobility-assistance Gu!"
Time flew by. Autumn gave way to winter.
Early winter. The first snow.
The sky hung heavy and grey as snowflakes drifted down, blanketing Qing Mao Mountain.
Fang Yuan walked alone through the snow, having just emerged from the Secret Stone Crevice Cave and now heading back toward the Stockade.
"Two full months have passed, but my progress through the Stone Forest has been poor." A gloom lurked behind his eyes.
This wasn't because he hadn't tried hard enough. The prelude to the Wolf Tide had already begun.
In winter, food grew scarce in the bitter cold. The ever-expanding wolf packs, needing to gather provisions, had begun hunting on a massive scale.
The result was that the wild beast herds surrounding the wolf nests had been swept clean. Chaotic mini-beast tides erupted frequently, accompanied by remnant wolf packs.
These remnant wolves had all been cast out from the main wolf nests. To survive, they roamed in packs, appearing more and more often around the stockade.
They hadn't yet reached the brazenness of assaulting villages outright, but mortal hunters no longer dared venture into the mountains. Meanwhile, villagers were occasionally seized by wolves and never seen again.
In response, Guye Stockade had mobilized a large number of Gu Masters to carry out extermination sweeps. With so many people coming and going — many of them reconnaissance Gu Masters — Fang Yuan had no choice but to drastically reduce his trips to the Secret Stone Crevice Cave.
As a result, his rate of advance through the Stone Forest had plummeted.
The howling winter wind grew fiercer, and the snowfall intensified.
*Awoooo...*
Low, guttural growls, carried on the wind and snow, suddenly reached his ears.
Fang Yuan halted mid-step, scanning his surroundings with sharp, wary eyes.
A small pack of remnant wolves — roughly twenty-odd Lightning Wolves — soon appeared in his field of vision.
"Again, huh..." Fang Yuan murmured. This was the eighth encounter this month.
But this time was different.
"Wolf packs are roaming this close to the stockade now. That means the clan's Gu Masters will be dispatched more and more frequently. The Secret Stone Crevice Cave isn't far from here either." At this thought, his heart sank. "I probably can't go back there for quite some time."
The road is never easy. There will always be storms of wind and snow to bar one's path for a while.
The wolf pack quickly encircled Fang Yuan.
*Roar, roar, roar!*
They growled in deep, menacing tones and lunged at him from every direction.
"Moonblade Gu." With a flick of his thought, a Moon Blade shot outward with a whoosh.