Supreme True Monarch Blessed Land.
Immortal Gu move — Soul Search!
A torrent of power slammed into Xia Cha's soul, but instantly, a cascade of Time Path Dao Marks blazed to life across her soul, completely blocking Fang Yuan's Soul Search technique.
But Fang Yuan did not give up. He continued to channel immortal essence without pause.
After what felt like an eternity, as though using bare hands to pry open the corner of a steel plate, the Time Path Dao Marks on Xia Cha's soul finally developed a gap, allowing Fang Yuan's Soul Search to take effect at last.
A flood of information poured into him, and Fang Yuan greedily devoured it. But the Time Path Dao Marks refused to admit defeat — surrounding the breach, they continued to close in with unwavering persistence.
In the end, as time wore on, the gap that Fang Yuan had fought so hard to create was sealed once more by the Time Path Dao Marks. Moreover, the defenses here were now far stricter than before!
Fang Yuan's Soul Search had no choice but to halt.
"As expected of an Eighth Transformation Gu Immortal — Xia Cha's foundations run deep. Even her soul carries Time Path defensive measures capable of resisting a Seventh Transformation Soul Search."
"This defensive technique not only self-repairs but can even launch counterattacks. Truly remarkable."
After capturing the Southern Border Gu Immortals and stealing all of their Immortal Gu, Fang Yuan had extracted their souls and completely separated them from their bodies.
By going this far, the risk of detaining these Southern Border Gu Immortals had been reduced to virtually nothing. What remained was to perform Soul Search on these defenseless souls.
Tie Quzhong, Shang Huzhang, and the others had not posed much difficulty. Fang Yuan had harvested all of their intelligence without exception.
But when he reached Yang Ku, some trouble emerged. Yang Ku was a Seventh Transformation powerhouse who specialized in the Soul Path — naturally, he possessed strong resistance against Soul Search techniques.
Yang Ku was only a minor inconvenience. Greater trouble came in the form of Liu Hao.
Liu Hao's Fixing Space Immortal Gu and other techniques had been arranged by Heavenly Court, preventing Fang Yuan from obtaining them. As for his soul, Heavenly Court had naturally not neglected it either, layering it with equally formidable defensive measures.
But in the end, both of them also fell before Fang Yuan's methods, their souls fully searched.
If Danghun Mountain and Luopo Valley were the two great holy sites of soul cultivators, then Fang Yuan, who possessed the Phantom Soul's True Inheritance, undoubtedly held the most supreme soul cultivation scripture under heaven!
Through this, Fang Yuan learned Liu Hao's true identity — he was actually a spy planted by Heavenly Court.
But among all of them, the most troublesome was Xia Cha's soul.
Xia Cha's soul was saturated with Time Path Dao Marks, forming a dense barrier that blocked any form of external assault. Fang Yuan's Soul Search was naturally no exception.
Fang Yuan exhausted every means at his disposal, ultimately relying on an Immortal formation for suppression and refining his Soul Search technique to its absolute peak of power, only then managing to perform Soul Search on Xia Cha's soul.
Even so, the process was excruciatingly slow, progressing with great difficulty.
Fang Yuan often had to exert tremendous effort just to tear open a tiny breach. And this breach did not last — before long, it would be covered over once more by Time Path Dao Marks.
Fang Yuan could only seize the brief window when the breach existed to conduct his search. After that window closed, the surface of the breach would be surrounded by even more Time Path Dao Marks than before, making the defense a tier stronger.
Fortunately, the Time Path Dao Marks on Xia Cha's soul did not multiply. If more marks gathered at the breach, it meant the marks elsewhere had grown sparser — and that gave Fang Yuan a better opportunity for his next assault.
All other souls had been fully searched. Only Xia Cha's remained.
While working through Xia Cha's soul, Fang Yuan simultaneously utilized his Time Path Clone, wielding Fixing Immortal Travel to visit the blessed lands of various Gu Immortals.
Thanks to the intelligence gathered from Soul Search, Fang Yuan had complete knowledge of the landscape within each Gu Immortal's blessed land. Entering with Fixing Immortal Travel was trivially easy.
Moreover, Fang Yuan knew exactly what treasures lay hidden within.
For Gu Immortals, their own blessed lands were paramount to their cultivation. Every single one of these Southern Border Gu Immortals was a formidable figure with deep reserves — their blessed lands had naturally been cultivated to a superb standard, brimming with valuable treasures.
These Gu Immortals were all slated to be released by Fang Yuan.
Because absorbing their blessed lands and gaining the Dao Marks from them would yield far less than what Fang Yuan could extort from the great powers.
An increase in Dao Marks brought deeper reserves and a brighter future.
But no matter how brilliant that future might be, if he could not survive the present, it was all meaningless.
The immediate obstacle was, of course, the Fate Gu — or more precisely, preventing Heavenly Court from fully restoring the Fate Gu.
But Fang Yuan had no leads on that front. He could now evade Heavenly Court's pursuit and arrest, but the Fate Gu was stored deep within Heavenly Court. How to prevent them from repairing it was far beyond his current capabilities.
That was precisely why Fang Yuan was desperate to enter the River of Time and inherit the Red Lotus True Inheritance.
Throughout human history, three Demon Venerables had assaulted Heavenly Court in succession. Only the Red Lotus Demon Venerable had actually damaged the Fate Gu — not destroyed it entirely, but damaged it nonetheless. After the Red Lotus Demon Venerable's death, he had left behind a True Inheritance that very likely contained follow-up plans for the Fate Gu's destruction.
And to successfully inherit the Red Lotus True Inheritance without being annihilated by Heavenly Court, Fang Yuan needed to strengthen his own Time Path capabilities. Techniques from other paths would be severely suppressed on the battlefield within the River of Time — they would be essentially useless.
The Pool of Years, the Time Path Immortal Gu House, and more — all of these required transactions with the Southern Border Righteous Path. And Fang Yuan's bargaining chips were, of course, these captive Gu Immortals.