"I never would have imagined that one day, I would actually be able to obtain the Immortal Travel Gu again!" Fang Yuan sensed the Immortal Gu in the Great Thief Ghost Hand, and his heart was filled with a swirl of emotions.
"Oh? It's even been upgraded to the Seventh Transformation. Exactly as I predicted from the intelligence." Fang Yuan secretly rejoiced.
Although he possessed the ancient battle formation, Four Paths Connected, which could to some extent substitute for certain functions of Immortal Travel, this method came with considerable drawbacks. It required four Gu Immortals to execute, and its range was far inferior to Immortal Travel's vast scope, which could teleport to any location under heaven.
Immortal Travel had been upgraded to the Seventh Transformation, but its appearance remained unchanged—it still looked like a Sixth Transformation Gu.
This Gu struggled ceaselessly within the Great Thief Ghost Hand, but the Ghost Hand was utterly immovable, clutching Immortal Travel as it rocketed through the Immortal Aperture.
It flew all the way to Sealed Heaven Mountain in the Small Southern Border. The Great Thief Ghost Hand suddenly opened wide and hurled Immortal Travel into the Immortal Formation within the mountain.
This Immortal Formation was built around the Self-Love and Love Intent Immortal Gu as its core, supplemented by a variety of mortal Gu. Its primary function was to work in conjunction with the Great Thief Ghost Hand to rapidly refine the stolen Immortal Gu.
The Reverse Flow River could also serve this purpose, but in the midst of battle, it had already been employed as the core to power the Reverse Flow Body Protection Seal.
As for Fang Yuan's method of using Self-Love and Love Intent Immortal Gu to refine others' Immortal Gu—he had already successfully attempted it once before.
In his original plan, he had intended to fuse the Self-Love and Love Intent Immortal Gu into the Great Thief Ghost Hand, so that upon stealing an Immortal Gu, the Ghost Hand could refine it on the spot.
This step might seem redundant, but it was not.
If on-the-spot refinement were possible, the Great Thief Ghost Hand's power would not need to be spent suppressing the stolen Immortal Gu all the way back to Fang Yuan's Immortal Aperture. Instead, it could immediately move on to steal another.
Immortal Travel fell into Sealed Heaven Mountain and was instantly suppressed. The refinement process required absolutely no attention from Fang Yuan—he was confident results would come quickly.
Fang Yuan then turned his attention back to Feng Jiuge.
Feng Jiuge's face was filled with wariness and gravity, and deep in his eyes lingered a trace of disbelief!
"Fang Yuan actually has such methods—he can directly steal others' Immortal Gu? Even those hidden deep within their Immortal Apertures aren't safe?! Could he have obtained the Thief of Heaven's True Inheritance again?!"
This method made Feng Jiuge feel an intense threat!
The sound wave technique he had previously used to force the Great Thief Ghost Hand to reveal itself was now being activated continuously, without a moment's pause.
"This method is terrifying! If what he had just stolen was the core Immortal Gu of my Triple Absolute Sound, wouldn't my killer move fail and leave me suffering devastating backlash?!"
Feng Jiuge felt a wave of relief, followed by lingering dread.
Fang Yuan felt a twinge of regret as well, but the Great Thief Ghost Hand had no ability to choose its target. If it had happened to steal the key Immortal Gu underpinning Feng Jiuge's technique—just as it had with Meng Tu—the killer move would have failed immediately, and swiftly finishing off Feng Jiuge would have become entirely possible.
Though Fang Yuan had succeeded in this instance, Feng Jiuge had become completely alert. He constantly shifted positions using Yang Guan Melody, never staying in any one place for long. At the same time, he maintained the sound wave technique without hesitation, burning through Immortal Essence at a furious rate. As for the Triple Absolute Sound killer move, Feng Jiuge had abandoned it as well, not daring to use it any further, devoting all his attention to dodging the Yama Offspring's pursuit.
After being exposed, Fang Yuan once again used Familiar Face to disguise himself as one of the Yama Offspring, approaching Feng Jiuge.
This undoubtedly placed even greater psychological pressure on Feng Jiuge.
But Fang Yuan was not having an easy time either.
Feng Jiuge was far too slippery. He darted everywhere, the sound waves never ceasing, keeping Fang Yuan perpetually unable to find an opening.
"It seems I'll need to put serious effort into improving the Great Thief Ghost Hand's concealment." Feng Jiuge actually possessed a method to force the Ghost Hand to reveal itself—this was somewhat beyond Fang Yuan's expectations. At this moment, he couldn't help but think of the Formless Hand.
The Thief of Heaven Demonic Venerable's signature technique could shift between form and void. If it replaced the Great Thief Ghost Hand, there would be nothing to fear from sound waves. Moreover, the Formless Hand was extraordinarily fast—once deployed, the Thief of Heaven Demonic Venerable's opponents could only watch helplessly as it steadily closed in, snatching away the Immortal Gu from their very hands, frustrating them to the point of wanting to vomit blood!
Currently, Fang Yuan's Great Thief Ghost Hand possessed merely one-ten-thousandth of the Formless Hand's magnificence.
And yet, even so, it was enough to make the illustrious Feng Jiuge pale with shock, his heart in turmoil, fleeing in every direction.