Southern Border.
A fine rain drifted through the air, and green mountains stretched endlessly into the distance.
Fang Yuan, dressed in blue robes, stood atop a rocky outcrop, gazing out across the vast and beautiful landscape. In the end, his eyes settled on a particular mountain among them.
This mountain was very different.
The surrounding peaks were all of varying heights, some steep, some gentle.
But this mountain was perfectly round and symmetrical.
This was Luomu Mountain.
Or rather, the Mountain Snail Mother.
It was itself an ancient primordial beast — an enormous snail whose spiral shell rose like a towering pagoda, layer upon layer winding upward, blanketed in green moss.
When it lay still, its soft limbs retracted entirely within its shell, and it looked for all the world like a mountain standing tall and proud.
Now it had awakened and was slowly making its way forward.
Rumble... rumble... rumble...
As it moved, the earth trembled for a hundred li in every direction, and every bird and beast in its path scattered in panic.
Fang Yuan stood on another mountain peak, watching the ancient beast's migration with a placid expression.
Its speed was very slow.
Though the Mountain Snail Mother was a primordial beast, its temperament was docile and mild. It was nearly impossible to provoke, and could be considered entirely harmless.
Not only harmless, but beneficial.
The Mountain Snail Mother's body was rich in enslavement Dao marks and earth Dao marks, which created a unique environment around it that nourished vast quantities of enslavement and earth-path resources.
The question of who owned the Mountain Snail Mother had long been an unresolved matter.
Very few Gu Immortals could control one — even an Eighth Transformation enslavement-path Gu Immortal would struggle.
After all, the Mountain Snail Mother itself already possessed an extraordinarily rich collection of enslavement-path Dao marks.
In the Southern Border, seven Mountain Snail Mothers were known to exist. Long, long ago, the great powers of the Southern Border had come to an agreement: as long as these Mountain Snail Mothers were not under anyone's control — that is, as long as they remained wild — whichever territory they resided in would belong to that faction.
This particular Mountain Snail Mother had originally been within the Wu Family's territory, so naturally it belonged to the Wu Family.
That much was beyond dispute.
But now, at the time of its migration, it was moving away from the Wu Family's domain, heading outward.
The Mountain Snail Mother's starting position had been right on the Wu Family's border.
In fact, this was something the Wu Family had deliberately arranged back in the era of Wu Duxiu, expanding their territory to encompass the Mountain Snail Mother.
Now, as it migrated away from the Wu Family's lands, the territory it was heading toward did not belong to any other righteous-path great power.
This meant the Mountain Snail Mother would become wild and unclaimed.
Wu Yong naturally did not wish to see this happen, but he was short on manpower at the moment, so he had no choice but to hand the task over to his younger brother, Wu Yihai.
"Are you Wu Yihai? My name is Qin Jingsheng, and I go by the alias Mount-driving Eccentric." A Gu Immortal flew over from a peak on the opposite side.
Fang Yuan looked toward the newcomer.
The elderly Gu Immortal wore a suit of grey-green stone armor, his hair a messy tangle of black and white strands, wild as a heap of straw. His clothes were tattered at the edges, giving him a thoroughly disheveled appearance.
Yet his aura unmistakably marked him as a Seventh Transformation cultivator, his presence overwhelming. His eyes, in particular, gleamed with an intense, penetrating light as he sized Fang Yuan up and down — carrying the air of an elder scrutinizing a junior.
"That is I. Wu Yihai pays his respects to Senior Mount-driving." Fang Yuan offered a slight bow, carrying himself with the propriety expected of the righteous path.
This Mount-driving Eccentric had the word "old" in his title, and he was indeed a veteran of great seniority, well over two thousand years old.
He possessed lifespan Gu and unique methods for extending his life.
His combat strength was formidable as well — a renowned expert among rogue cultivators, roughly on the same level as Bade the Tree Elder and Wu Yubo of the Wu Family.
Someone like Xia Feikuai, also a Seventh Transformation Gu Immortal, could not compare to the Mount-driving Eccentric.
Because of this, the Mount-driving Eccentric looked at Fang Yuan with a less than courteous attitude, conducting himself as a senior master regardless of the fact that Fang Yuan came from the Wu Family.
"Heh heh heh. Considering the time, your Wu Family should have sent someone by now. Why don't we sit and chat?" The Mount-driving Eccentric chuckled, landing on the rocky ground and simply plopping himself down.
Fang Yuan smiled faintly and sat down as well.
The Mount-driving Eccentric noticed that Fang Yuan didn't show the slightest aversion and dropped any pretense of immortal dignity, following suit without hesitation. His fondness for Fang Yuan grew, and he said, "I almost forgot — you, Wu Yihai, started as a rogue cultivator. Even though you've joined the Wu Family, you haven't picked up that self-righteous airs of the righteous path."
Fang Yuan shook his head slightly. "The righteous path has its own bearing. As for me, I spent most of my time in seclusion in the Eastern Sea. That root is hard to change."
"Ha ha ha." The Mount-driving Eccentric laughed heartily. "I heard that even though you drove off those two Xia Family Gu Immortals, you also helped yourself to everything in Guanghan Peak."
Fang Yuan looked genuinely surprised. "Senior, that's nothing but baseless rumors. I've never admitted to any such thing."