Supreme Immortal Gu aperture.
Little Red Heaven.
The moment Fang Yuan's Time Path clone appeared, countless year beasts immediately detected its presence.
Awooo! Kukuku! Roarr!
Countless year beasts roared, lunging toward Fang Yuan in droves. A massive number of Desolate realm ancient beasts shoved aside the Desolate realm year beasts, their eyes gleaming with desire.
But soon, a grand and imposing Prehistoric year chicken strutted over, flapping its wings. Along the way, both Desolate year beasts and ancient beasts hastily scrambled out of its path, throwing the area into chaos.
The Prehistoric year chicken ran up to Fang Yuan's Time Path clone and immediately lowered its head, adopting a docile posture.
Fang Yuan smiled faintly and reached out to stroke the chicken's crown of vivid red atop its head, then waved his wide sleeve, scattering a countless number of mortal-grade year Gu.
The Prehistoric year chicken let out a cluck, opened its beak, and released a powerful burst of suction that drew in the vast majority of the year Gu. Only a small number scattered on the ground around them, sparking a frantic scramble among the nearby ancient beasts.
The Prehistoric year chicken had feasted generously, but it was still unsatisfied, staring intently at Fang Yuan's Time Path clone, its eyes gleaming brightly.
Fang Yuan waved his sleeve repeatedly, and a torrential flood of year Gu sprayed out like countless pebbles on a riverbank, forming a sky-wide downpour.
This time everyone got a share, and the year beasts plunged into a frenzy of delight.
After a long while, every single year beast — the Prehistoric year chicken included — had eaten its fill. The faint restlessness born of hunger had dissipated completely, replaced once again by a languid lethargy. They sprawled across their fluffy white clouds, settling into rest, moving no more.
Fang Yuan's Time Path clone swept its gaze across the scene, gave a slight nod, and then shot away at high speed.
In this Little Red Heaven, there were seven year beast colonies of this nature, and this was already the third one Fang Yuan had fed.
Inside the Supreme Immortal Gu aperture, the number of captive year beasts had always been considerable. Not long ago, Fang Yuan had used the Year Flow Slaying Formation to deal a devastating blow to the Southern Border Righteous Path, capturing a host of Southern Border Immortals — but the greatest prize of all was the year beasts he had subdued during the battle.
These year beasts were of exceptionally high quality: at minimum Desolate realm year beasts, with a large number of ancient beasts, and seven Prehistoric year beasts among them.
Previously, the depth of Fang Yuan's soul had only been enough to enslave one or two Prehistoric year beasts. However, having recently made tremendous breakthroughs in his Soul Path cultivation, even though he had been declining lately, the foundation he had established still remained largely intact — controlling seven Prehistoric year beasts was well within his capability.
It was worth noting that among these seven Prehistoric year beasts, the year chicken was the most numerous, with three of them. The other four were a Prehistoric year tiger, a Prehistoric year dragon, a Prehistoric year rabbit, and a Prehistoric year horse.
Within the River of Time, every so often one species of Prehistoric year beast would appear in greater numbers. Clearly, the current period was one of proliferation for Prehistoric year chickens.
Nevertheless, although Fang Yuan now controlled seven Prehistoric year beasts, any single one of them, if judged strictly on combat power, fell short of the Prehistoric year monkey he had previously commanded. Unfortunately, that Prehistoric year monkey had already perished on the battlefield.
Of course, the combined combat strength of all seven Prehistoric year beasts far surpassed that of a single Prehistoric year monkey.
Significant differences in combat power existed between Prehistoric year beasts. It was much like how discrepancies existed among Eighth Transformation Gu Immortals as well.
As Fang Yuan fed the year beasts, he mulled over the situation: "With so many new year beasts added, the cost of feeding them has skyrocketed dozens of times over! If I hadn't managed to extort a batch of Immortal Essence Stones, I probably couldn't have sustained them at all."
The higher the tier of a year beast, the more its appetite exploded. And the feed used for year beasts was none other than year Gu.
Through the Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu Like Flowing Water and Time, Fang Yuan refined enormous quantities of mortal-grade year Gu, which barely managed to keep these beasts' bellies full.
And what drove the Like Flowing Water and Time Immortal Gu was Fang Yuan's red date Immortal Essence.
Previously, the Immortal Essence consumed in feeding year beasts had already been considerable. Now, with so many additional beasts — seven Prehistoric year beasts among them — the cost of feeding them had become Fang Yuan's single largest expenditure.
"Right now, Danghun Mountain has been restored to roughly eighty percent. The production of Courage Gu is no longer pathetic — it's become passable, barely acceptable."
"But once Danghun Mountain is fully restored, it'll be the year beasts that become the new bottleneck."
Every so often, Fang Yuan had to feed the year beasts. Using Like Flowing Water and Time to produce year Gu was already the most economical and cost-effective method available, yet it remained an enormous burden.
And Fang Yuan needed to maintain this herd of year beasts to prepare for the coming battle within the River of Time, so the matter of year beast feeding had to be resolved properly.
In truth, the problem wasn't limited to the year beasts alone — there was also the eagle flock.
Previously, in order to enslave the Upper Extremity Sky Eagles, Fang Yuan had purchased a large number of eagle beasts. The cost of feeding these eagle beasts had likewise been a persistent burden.
To make them self-sufficient and truly integrate them into the world of the Supreme Immortal Gu aperture, Fang Yuan would need to invest a vast amount of energy and capital to construct an entire food chain.
Big fish eat small fish; small fish eat shrimp.
Completing a food chain was itself a profound exploration and understanding of the Heavenly Dao by a Gu Immortal.
However, compared to the eagle flock, the year beast population was far larger, and the most pressing issue to resolve was the feeding of the year beasts.
Moreover, given the unique nature of year beasts themselves, constructing a complete food chain for them was actually considerably easier.