Atop Danghun Mountain, Boldness Gu were scattered everywhere for the taking.
Fang Yuan gathered them as he went, constantly bolstering the foundation of his soul.
His soul foundation surged rapidly, and within moments, it had leapt from its original one million human souls all the way to the five million human souls level.
A sensation of extreme distension, as though he was about to burst at any second, flooded Fang Yuan's heart.
He knew he had reached his limit, so he stepped out of Danghun Mountain and arrived at Luopo Valley.
After a session of cultivation, his soul was tempered, as if raw steel being relentlessly fired and honed in a furnace — growing ever more refined.
This time, his soul foundation stabilized at one and a half million human souls.
"At the million human souls level, each cultivation session raises it by half a million human souls?"
"Factor in the time needed to pacify the soul between sessions, plus the time required for Boldness Gu production, and I'll need at least half a year to reach the ten million human souls level."
Fang Yuan made a rough calculation and furrowed his brow slightly.
He still considered this speed too slow.
Ten years. In ten years, Heavenly Court would finish repairing the Destiny Immortal Gu. By then, Heavenly Court would hold an absolute advantage, and Fang Yuan along with the entire Shadow Sect would have almost no hope whatsoever.
Spending half a year of those ten years just to reach ten million human souls — and after that, a hundred million human souls lay ahead, with even higher tiers beyond that.
Fang Yuan was far from satisfied with this pace.
"If I could increase the production of Boldness Gu, my progress in this area would accelerate dramatically."
The bottleneck limiting his soul foundation's growth was none other than the output of Boldness Gu.
Danghun Mountain was unquestionably a treasure trove, but it required vast quantities of high-quality souls to produce a steady stream of Boldness Gu.
Under their original agreement, a portion of those Boldness Gu belonged to the Langya Sect — the Langya Earth Spirit would sell them to generate profit. The remaining portion belonged to Fang Yuan.
Now, Fang Yuan had devoted his entire share of Boldness Gu to his own Soul Path cultivation, causing the economic pillar supporting his progress in this area to suddenly lose a major chunk.
Fortunately, his earlier Year Gu business had earned him a handsome windfall, and he still had considerable capital on hand.
Fang Yuan weighed his options and concluded that negotiating with the Langya Earth Spirit to change the split of Boldness Gu between them would not be wise. He still relied on the Langya Sect — not only for sheltering within the Langya blessed land to develop in peace, but also for their Gu refinement expertise to help him refine Gu.
The first batch of the Gu refinement plan had yielded three Immortal Gu, all of which had been of tremendous help to Fang Yuan. Now came the second batch — primarily consisting of large quantities of mortal Gu, of which the White Lotus Giant Silkworm Gu was one — with the focus on two Immortal Gu. One of them was called Heavenly Secrets, originally created by Paradise Earth Reverend. It had been obtained by Shadow Sect's Inkstone Old Man, who used it to develop an Immortal Gu killer move known as Stone Cave Heavenly Secrets.
This move's effect was exceedingly mysterious — it could actually foresee the specific content of the next calamity!
If the Langya Sect could refine the Heavenly Secrets Immortal Gu, it would mean Fang Yuan could activate Stone Cave Heavenly Secrets, which would be of tremendous help when facing tribulations.
However... posting missions for the Langya Sect to refine Immortal Gu had been burning through my sect contributions at an alarming rate. This was something I had to look into!
So once this round of soul path cultivation was complete, Fang Yuan activated a mortal communication Gu to check the Langya Sect's available missions.
It had to be said, the current Langya Earth Spirit was far better suited to managing the Langya Sect than his predecessor.
Under his series of policies, the entire Langya Sect had fully tapped into its potential, erupting with vibrant vitality.
At this moment, the Langya Sect had a great many missions available. The majority were refinement missions posted by Fang Yuan himself, and after those, the next largest category was all of one type — exploration of Tai Qiu.
Ever since the Langya Sect had constructed a teleportation Immortal formation, it had devoted itself to exploring Tai Qiu and extracting the vast natural resources within.
This was the Langya Sect's current grand development strategy.
But Tai Qiu was a dangerous place that even ordinary Gu Immortals had no wish to set foot in. Although it was rich in resources, ferocious beasts gathered there in droves and strange trees grew in wild profusion. To make matters worse, while the Langya Sect's Gu Immortals were all skilled at refining Gu, they were inherently lacking when it came to combat.
Despite recent efforts to improve, there were still very few true fighting experts among them.
As a result, when they encountered powerful beasts or dangerous flora, these hairy man Gu Immortals found themselves in deep trouble. Progress in exploring Tai Qiu had never been smooth.
Looking at these various missions, thoughts raced through Fang Yuan's mind, clashing and colliding.
In the span of a few breaths, he selected over a dozen missions with the highest cost-to-reward ratio.
The next moment, he accepted every single one of his chosen missions!
"Supreme Grand Elder," Fang Yuan communicated with the Langya Earth Spirit through his mortal communication Gu.
The Langya Earth Spirit had immediately become aware of Fang Yuan's actions, feeling both gratified and delighted. "Fang Yuan, with you on the job, solving these missions would be as easy as reaching out and grabbing something!"
But Fang Yuan shook his head. "That is precisely what I need to discuss with you. For these missions, I intend to dispatch subordinates to complete them on my behalf. I trust this doesn't violate any Langya Sect rules?"
The Langya Earth Spirit paused for a moment. When he had originally drafted the sect rules, he had indeed never considered this particular scenario.
On closer examination, though, it wasn't really a loophole in the rules. After all, what was wrong with a Gu Immortal who accepted a mission seeking out helpers of their own?
The Langya Earth Spirit could only say to Fang Yuan, "Then you must guarantee that these subordinates of yours won't do anything to harm the Langya Sect!"