Western Desert.
Fang Yuan opened his eyes to a sight of lush green palm trees.
A lake stretched before him, blue to the core, like a sapphire set in the midst of yellow sand — exquisite and captivating.
This was a small oasis, home to a naturally formed Yuan Spring.
Oases of this size were typically the foundation of an ordinary clan. If a Gu Master lived here and took careful maintenance of the Yuan Spring, it was even possible for the oasis to grow into a medium-sized or even large one, given enough time and effort.
People chose suitable natural environments to live in, while the natural environment was reshaped in turn.
That was the coexistence between humans and nature in the Western Desert.
But this small oasis, newly formed as it was, was destined for total destruction.
Because every time Fang Yuan and his group relocated, they would completely erase all traces and clues left behind.
Though they carried the True Transmission killing moves of Heavenly Court, this precaution could still fend off some of the Western Desert's enemies. Especially since the Heavenly Will was constantly scheming.
"This round of deduction has finally borne fruit." Fang Yuan exhaled a breath of turbid air, a quiet joy stirring in his heart.
Ever since witnessing the terrifying power of the Indestructible Star Mark, Fang Yuan had set himself to solving this problem.
The Immortal killing move Keep Clean could be activated repeatedly, with each use lasting a fixed duration, but Fang Yuan could completely improve upon it, making its effects last longer.
He had the foundation to achieve this.
Because he possessed the realm of a Grandmaster of Wisdom Dao, and the Immortal killing move Keep Clean itself was a Wisdom Dao technique — meaning he could refine and improve it.
There was one more point: he possessed a crucial Immortal Gu.
It was precisely the existence of this Immortal Gu that gave Fang Yuan his confidence.
This Immortal Gu was called Persistence.
The Seventh Transformation Persistence Immortal Gu's function was fundamentally supportive — it could extend the duration of other Immortal Gu or killing moves. For example, when Fang Yuan transformed into an ancient sword dragon, the sword-light dragon's breath was expelled in bursts. But with the Persistence Gu, the sword-light dragon's breath could be sustained continuously, right up until Fang Yuan's throat reached its limit of endurance.
Persistence Immortal Gu was perfectly suited to modifying the Keep Clean killing move.
Over the past several days, as Fang Yuan kept relocating and performing repeated deductions, he had finally arrived at his result at this very moment.
He had successfully incorporated the Persistence Immortal Gu as a second core into Keep Clean.
With this modification, the Keep Clean killing move could now be sustained in continuous activation, ceaselessly stripping away the Dao marks on Fang Yuan's body that worked against him.
"Even so, this achievement is still not enough to fully clear away the Dao marks." Fang Yuan's gaze grew heavy, and he did not relax.
He was well aware that another difficulty still lay before him.
Even if the Keep Clean killing move could be maintained indefinitely, Fang Yuan did not have the time.
He was being hunted at every moment. Though the Heavenly Court Gu Immortals had not shown themselves, there was no guarantee they hadn't already begun covertly trailing him.
At every second, Fang Yuan and his companions faced the possibility of a surprise attack or pursuit catching up to them.
And to use Keep Clean to completely purge the Indestructible Star Mark from his body would take at least one full month.
During that entire month, the killing move would have to be kept active without a single moment of interruption.
The Indestructible Star Mark was incredibly tenacious — the more Dao marks were erased from it, the faster it recovered on its own.
Fang Yuan had already pushed himself to the absolute limit, achieving everything he could. There was simply no way to raise Keep Clean's power any further.