Soul cores, each about the size of a chicken egg, deep blue in color and nearly black, rained down from the sky onto Soul Mountain.
A soul core was the essence of a Soul Beast. After a Soul Beast died, its corpse was useless and would disperse into smoke and ash, leaving behind only the soul core.
Soul cores contained a dense concentration of Soul Path dao marks, making them excellent gu materials.
Soul cores varied in size. Ordinary Soul Beasts produced soul cores no bigger than a grain of rice. At the Sixth Transformation, they reached the size of chicken eggs. Seventh Transformation ones were larger still, and those possessed by Ancient Soul Beasts of the Eighth Transformation were as big as carts and horses.
After deliberation, the Fang family ultimately agreed in secret to Fang Yuan's written demands, secretly delivering a large quantity of soul cores. These soul cores were mostly Sixth Transformation gu materials, with a small number being Seventh Transformation soul cores. Not a single Eighth Transformation soul core was included.
Fang Yuan himself possessed two Eighth Transformation soul cores, which he kept in storage and had no intention of using to produce Courage Gu on Soul Mountain.
Eighth Transformation immortal materials were generally used to refine Eighth Transformation immortal gu or to construct grand formations. Using them merely to produce Courage Gu would be far too great a waste.
On Soul Mountain, light flickered as the soul cores were shaken into powder, raining down countless essences that sank into the mountain's body. In the twinkling of an eye, one Courage Gu after another condensed and formed, their growth rate quite pleasing to see.
Witnessing this scene, Fang Yuan nodded inwardly: "With this, my Soul Path cultivation can get back on track and stride forward once more."
Soul Path foundation was of great importance to Fang Yuan.
Enslaving Ancient Year Beasts required it, and the deeper his foundation, the more Ancient Year Beasts Fang Yuan could enslave.
The Yan Emperor killer move consumed Soul Path foundation. Each time a Wisdom Path gu immortal used divination against Fang Yuan and the Yan Emperor killer move was activated to shield him, a portion of Fang Yuan's soul foundation was consumed.
Similarly, Burning Soul Exploding Fortune operated on the same principle. The same was true for the Drawing Soul into Dream killer move. Fang Yuan had already studied it thoroughly — while there was a possibility of failure when drawing another's soul into a dream, the deeper Fang Yuan's soul foundation was compared to his target's, the greater the killer move's success rate.
Fang Yuan had written the letter under his real name, discarding the disguise of Bu Suanjin. The Fang family's reaction was not unexpected.
For a supreme power, it was very difficult for a lone individual like Fang Yuan to encroach upon its territory. At most, he could seize some resources. But other supreme powers were different — they would occupy resources long-term or seize them entirely, dispatching forces to garrison them.
The Fang family's greatest threat lay in the other righteous path forces eyeing them covetously.
"Moreover, the Western Desert is a somewhat special place. Western Desert gu immortals are more prone to compromise than those of the other four regions."
This was not because Western Desert gu immortals had weaker resolve, but rather because the regional environment had shaped them.
The Western Desert differed from the other four regions. Oases dotted the vast desert like stars. When gu masters fought each other and damaged an oasis, they would lose their foundation for survival, making it easy to end in mutual destruction. On the other hand, different oases produced different things, and gu masters' cultivation required exchanging resources. So gu masters frequently formed merchant caravans, journeying through dust and hardship, overcoming difficult obstacles. This led to a great deal of cooperation between different gu masters and different factions.
Over the long term, this cultivated a habit among Western Desert gu masters of being skilled at compromise, willingly making concessions, and seeking survival together.
Any gu immortal had once cultivated step by step as a gu master. This habit was deeply ingrained, becoming part of the very temperament of Western Desert gu immortals.
In his previous life, Fang Yuan had lived as a wanderer in the Western Desert for a period and understood the temperament of Western Desert people intimately.
If Fang Yuan had captured a Western Desert gu immortal, the righteous path forces would compromise faster than in the Southern Border, and their attitude would be more pragmatic and earnest.
If Fang Yuan were to capture a Northern Plains gu immortal, that would be yet another matter. Northern Plains gu immortals were fierce and unafraid of death, and would even consider being ransomed back a humiliation. Capturing a gu immortal in the Northern Plains would give Fang Yuan quite a headache.
In the days that followed, Fang Yuan simultaneously resumed his Soul Path cultivation, extorted the Southern Border righteous path forces, and continued soul-searching Southern Border captives.
Fang Yuan focused his soul-searching efforts on Xia Cha.
Although searching her soul was a more difficult process, there was at least progress being made. Fang Yuan's immortal aperture had accelerated time, and with the accumulation of days, the results were substantial.
Before long, Xia Cha's various immortal killer moves were all extracted by Fang Yuan.
Xia Cha was truly worthy of being the Supreme Grand Elder of the Xia family. Centered around the four great immortal gu — Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter — she had developed two sets of killer moves, each containing four techniques.
The first set was primarily for offense, comprising four great techniques: Spring Scissors, Summer Fan, Autumn Detail, and Winter Fur.
Of these, Fang Yuan had already witnessed Spring Scissors and Summer Fan. Both moves were devastatingly powerful, fully displaying the might of the Eighth Transformation.
The subsequent Autumn Detail was a reconnaissance killer move, greatly compensating for Fang Yuan's shortcomings in intelligence-gathering.
The Winter Fur killer move was a defensive technique with equally impressive effects.
The second set of killer moves was designed for managing an immortal aperture, consisting of Spring Plowing, Summer Weeding, Autumn Harvest, and Winter Storage.
Each move was ingenious and wondrous. What made them even more formidable was that when the four were combined, their power doubled, making them exceptionally effective for managing an immortal aperture.
In addition, there were naturally other techniques for healing or evasive maneuvering, all quite refined, but none comparable to these two sets of killer moves.
In truth, conceiving immortal killer moves was an extremely difficult undertaking that tested a gu immortal's talent and ingenuity to the fullest.
The Central Continent gu immortal Xiong Lei E Ren had spent several years in seclusion before deducing the killer move Lei Shen Zi. And that was with the Xue Shen Zi immortal gu recipe as a reference.
Under normal circumstances, when a gu immortal deduced and conceived a killer move without the aid of Wisdom Path methods, it would take an average of five or six years.