The Western Desert.
This was a stretch of gobi — flat terrain stretching endlessly in all directions.
Everywhere, the stony ground was cracked and fractured, utterly devoid of vegetation.
But deep beneath the surface, a different world awaited. Vast mineral veins threaded through the earth, and fully constructed mining operations sprawled in the depths.
Over a hundred thousand stone people lived here, serving as miners and extracting all manner of minerals for the Gu Immortals.
This was the Western Desert's famed Myriad Mine Gobi, controlled by the Stone Family — one of the region's great superpowers.
The minerals here came in staggering variety and boasted enormous reserves.
Beyond the common-grade minerals mined by the stone people, there were numerous immortal-grade ores that required a Gu Immortal's personal effort to extract.
For instance, Undercurrent Gold Steel — the hardest material among all Sixth Transformation immortal-grade resources. Or the Seventh Transformation immortal material, Dark Inkstone — even the claws of an ancient sword dragon couldn't leave a mark upon it.
And deep beneath the Myriad Mine Gobi flowed a magnificent river of gold fragments.
The Gold Fragment River was a metallic river originating from the Primordial Yellow Heaven. This desert of ten thousand mines had been formed when an enormous fragment of the Primordial Yellow Heaven crashed down upon this very land.
The Primordial Yellow Heaven fragment had once become a treasure trove explored by Gu Masters and Gu Immortals alike. But through the long ages and shifting eras, the fragment shrank ever smaller until it finally dissipated entirely.
During that process of dissipation, the Dao Marks it shed gradually transformed the surrounding gobi into the Myriad Mine Gobi. And this river of gold fragments was a product of the Primordial Yellow Heaven fragment that persisted through all the ages to the present day, never running dry.
Fang Yuan's own Small Yellow Heaven contained a gold fragment river as well, but its scale was minuscule — a mere candle compared to the blazing sun when measured against the river flowing beneath the Myriad Mine Gobi.
Right in the middle of this magnificent gold fragment river, an Immortal-level Gu Formation had been constructed.
The formation operated in perpetual slow rotation, monitoring the entirety of the Myriad Mine Gobi and, moreover, commanding the countless stone people who served as miners.
Boom!
Suddenly, a tremendous crash rang out. The Immortal-level Gu Formation blazed with blinding light and color, then a crack split through it, opening a gateway.
A thick plume of smoke drifted lazily out through the portal.
"Cough, cough, cough." Emerging from the multicolored smoke was a stone-skinned Gu Immortal.
But as he took a few steps outward, the stone skin covering his entire body sloughed off piece by piece, eventually revealing his true form.
He was a pure human Gu Immortal.
Middle-aged in appearance, his gaze weathered and his features entirely ordinary — he gave the impression of an honest, simple man.
At this moment, however, he was covered in dust and grime, coughing incessantly.
"The eighty-ninth attempt at refining the Gu — and still a failure!" The middle-aged Gu Immortal sighed, continuously spitting out blood.
The blood he spat was peculiar indeed. Upon hitting the ground, it congealed into all manner of gems, pearls, agate, jade, and even gold, silver, and bronze.
Even Fang Yuan, with his vast experience and keen insight, would have been astonished to witness such a sight.
What could have possibly caused this middle-aged Gu Immortal to suffer such a strange wound?
Yet the Gu Immortal himself, looking at the jewels scattered around his feet, remained perfectly calm — not showing the slightest hint of surprise.
Because he knew exactly what he was doing — refining the Wealth Gu!
The Wealth Gu — a legendary Gu Insect explicitly recorded in the Legend of Human Ancestor.
According to the text, it was forged through the involvement of Blue Sea seawater, the Human Ancestor's own hands, the Worry Gu, the Hardship Gu, the Grief Gu, the Zhi Hui Gu, and the Foolishness Gu.
But for a Gu Immortal to truly replicate the method described in the book was essentially impossible.
This was not only because the Legend of Human Ancestor was fundamentally a story, with much of its content bearing metaphorical rather than literal meaning. More practically, the required Gu materials could never be gathered under present-day conditions.
Fang Yuan did possess the Ninth Transformation Zhi Hui Gu, but he had yet to refine it.
And the Blue Sea had long since vanished from the world — where could anyone find its waters?