Within the Immortal Dao Gu formation, Fang Yuan sat cross-legged in midair with his eyes closed, deep in cultivation.
Hei Loulan and the others, along with Tang Fangming, controlled the Immortal formation.
Fang Yuan silently tallied his gains and losses.
"First exploration of the Dream Realm of the Steal of Heaven — massive gains. Not only did I test the Heaven Vanishing, Intent Dispersing killer move with complete success, but my Theft Path realm also surged to the Grandmaster level!"
"However, I paid a steep price. My soul originally had the capacity of ten million human souls, but it's now dropped to a million — a huge loss."
"I originally expected the Dream-Deciphering killer move to see heavy use, but as it turns out, within this dream realm it didn't do me much good."
From this exploration, Fang Yuan came to understand one thing.
Even though he commanded the Dream-Deciphering killer move, this method wasn't invincible.
"Although I used the Dream-Deciphering killer move very little and saved on Immortal Essence consumption, my Guts Gu expenditure skyrocketed!"
At this thought, Fang Yuan slowly opened his eyes and took out Guts Gu one after another, using them without hesitation.
"That's a mountain of Guts Gu!" Tang Fangming's eyes went wide, envy and longing plain on his face.
He had explored dream realms many times and knew exactly how valuable Guts Gu were. He'd gone to great lengths trying to buy them but could never get enough — yet here was Fang Yuan burning through them as casually as snacking on broadbeans.
"So he really is the Guts Gu supplier," Tang Fangming thought with a sigh of admiration.
At the same time, his gaze drifted back to the Dream Realm of the Steal of Heaven.
The dream realm was massive as a mountain, still radiating a deep blue glow, but a large section at its base had abruptly vanished.
This was the result of Fang Yuan's earlier exploration — successfully breaking through the first act.
Tang Fangming sighed.
He had explored and studied this dream realm hundreds, even thousands of times, yet the results he'd accumulated couldn't match even a fraction of Fang Yuan's single attempt.
Tang Fangming was the Tang family's recognized pioneer in dream exploration, having achieved notable results and even self-created numerous Dream Path mortal Gu. But compared to Fang Yuan's accomplishments, his own achievements paled in shame.
On top of feeling inadequate, Tang Fangming found his admiration for Fang Yuan growing ever stronger.
A moment later, Fang Yuan opened his eyes.
A flash of sharp light flickered in the depths of his dark pupils and vanished in an instant.
With the lavish use of Guts Gu, his soul foundation surged back to the ten-million human-soul level.
He had originally been at nine million human souls. After the dream realm eroded it and it rose again, he vaguely felt his soul had become more solid than before.
"It seems that the dream realm dissolving one's soul does offer a minor supplementary effect for soul cultivation. But examined closely, the benefit is negligible — far inferior to Soul Falling Valley."
Soul Quaking Mountain and Soul Falling Valley were the two great soul cultivation holy lands praised by the Phantom Soul Demon Venerable himself — not something ordinary places could hope to replace.
But it didn't matter. This time, Fang Yuan had brought Soul Falling Valley with him to the Western Desert!
He had planned this trip meticulously — first the Eastern Sea, then the Western Desert. Given his calculating nature, how could he possibly fail to prepare thoroughly?
"As for Soul Quaking Mountain — Bao Huang Tian can transport Guts Gu anyway, so whether it's with me or not makes no real difference."
Actually, it wasn't that Fang Yuan didn't want to bring it.
The problem was that the consumption of Heaven and Earth qi within his Immortal Orifice was simply too severe.
Right now, within his Supreme Immortal Orifice, the Reverse Flow River, Soul Falling Valley, and the Marketplace devoured enormous quantities of external Heaven and Earth qi roughly every three days to compensate for their own losses.
If he failed to replenish in time, the Supreme Immortal Orifice's foundation would weaken, causing reduced output of all resources — including the Universe's two paths. In the worst case, it could even cause the Supreme Immortal Orifice to crack apart.
"The Dream Realm of the Steal of Heaven is extraordinarily difficult. The first act was already so hard — the second will surely be far worse." With this understanding, Fang Yuan decided to raise his soul foundation to a higher tier before attempting the dream realm again. That would be the safer approach.
Thus, for the time being, he devoted himself entirely to cultivating the Soul Path.
With the uninterrupted supply of Guts Gu, his soul foundation soared once more.
Just as Fang Yuan immersed himself in soul cultivation to prepare for his second exploration —
In the Eastern Sea, Qingyue Zhicheng had already found the Qingyue Family's Supreme Grand Elder, seeking help.