"Although Heavenly Will is extremely eager to eliminate me, this Outside Demon, and pushed the Seventh Transformation heavenly tribulation's power to its absolute limit, it still couldn't do anything to me."
This tribulation was not difficult for Fang Yuan to overcome.
He had made thorough preparations for it, and most of his contingency measures went unused.
Ying Wu Xie and the others essentially got to watch a solo display of Fang Yuan's personal might — tagging along for the ride. What they took away was a heart full of awe and deep envy toward the Supreme Immortal Aperture.
A Seventh Transformation Gu Immortal had to endure a total of twenty-four earthly calamities, three heavenly tribulations, and three great tribulations.
Fang Yuan patiently waited until the five great poisons were at their strongest before triggering the tribulation, probing out the heavenly tribulation's maximum power. A Seventh Transformation heavenly tribulation no longer posed any threat to him whatsoever — earthly calamities even less so. Only the great tribulations remained an unknown.
How powerful the great tribulations would be, Fang Yuan was still not entirely sure. After all, he had never endured one.
The vast majority of his Seventh Transformation cultivation had been obtained through devouring apertures — seizing it by force. This heavenly tribulation was the very first tribulation he had faced since reaching the Seventh Transformation.
Afterward, Fang Yuan used the Dao Ke Dao Immortal Gu to calculate and determined that this heavenly tribulation had granted him over one thousand Poison Path Dao marks.
From now on, whenever Fang Yuan used a Poison Path Immortal Gu, he would enjoy a twofold amplification.
The average heavenly tribulation yielded seven hundred and fifty Dao marks. The fact that Fang Yuan received over a thousand clearly indicated that Heavenly Will had boosted the tribulation's power to its limit.
However, these gains were not what Fang Yuan currently needed.
First, he had no Poison Path resources to cultivate. Second, his attainment in the Poison Path was extremely low. Third, his only Poison Path Immortal Gu was the Women's Heart Gu.
Clearly, this was the result of Heavenly Will deliberately choosing the Poison Path to trip Fang Yuan up.
"Next time I face a heavenly tribulation, I suspect Heavenly Will will choose to minimize its power instead."
Fang Yuan didn't need to guess — he could already see through to this layer.
This tribulation had made Heavenly Will realize that it simply could not do anything to him. After that, it would probably stop boosting the tribulation's power to the limit. After all, doing so only gave Fang Yuan more Dao marks — it created no trouble whatsoever, and only served to strengthen the enemy.
"Which means that from now on, my Dao mark gains from tribulations will be very meager. Only devouring apertures is the true path." Fang Yuan understood this clearly.
Aperture devouring was also an advantage of the Supreme Immortal Aperture, and he would certainly make extensive use of it in the future. For now, though, without the Upper Extreme Heavenly Eagle, and with Fang Yuan focused on secluded cultivation and development, there simply was no opportunity.
The River of Time flowed ceaselessly. Time passed in a flash — in the blink of an eye, a month had gone by.
During this period, Fang Yuan endured another earthly calamity and found that, just as he had predicted, the Dao mark yield was meager.
In other areas, however, Fang Yuan made rapid progress and reaped enormous gains.
In the Soul Path, his soul foundation had risen to the level of fifty million human souls! His soul had been refined to an extreme degree, and there were already faint signs of a return from the ethereal to the corporeal.
More importantly, the Immortal killer move Ghost Official Garment had grown even more substantial, providing Fang Yuan with powerful protective cover.
On Hei Loulan's side, the star refinement had been completed. Fang Yuan had tested the Star Eye Immortal Gu, and its scouting effectiveness was excellent. With this Immortal Gu, his reconnaissance capabilities had been greatly enhanced.
In terms of Immortal Aperture management, the foundational construction was complete.
He had consumed nearly all of his Immortal Essence Stone reserves, plus three batches of bride-price gifts from the Snow People tribe. Near the end, Fang Yuan had even borrowed a shipment of materials from the Langya Sect. With that, he had finally filled in the foundational portions.
As a result, although Fang Yuan hadn't actually fed a single Gu yet, the foundation was in place. It was like a table set with dish after dish of fine cuisine, with more cooking in the pot. As long as he continued developing this way, barring any unexpected incidents, success would follow.
The management of an Immortal Aperture had seven tiers.
The first tier: constructing Mortal-level resources.
The second tier: constructing Immortal material resources — enough to successfully feed Immortal Gu.
The third tier: raising and producing Immortal beasts and Immortal plants, forming a self-sustaining ecosystem.
The fourth tier: trading the various outputs of the Immortal Aperture, exchanging what was needed, and earning profit.
…
Fang Yuan had previously been in a state of lopsided prosperity — one foot had stepped all the way up to the fourth tier, while the other still lingered at the second.
Now that the second tier was complete, Fang Yuan's back foot had finally stepped up to the third.