The Supreme Immortal Aperture.
Little Central Continent.
Fang Yuan's Time Path clone drifted slowly through the air, planting the last flower bud in his hands.
The terrain here had been transformed by him into shallows, with large quantities of high-quality silt transplanted in—extremely fertile. Above the silt, clear river water reached knee height.
The clone dusted off his hands, gave the flower buds one final inspection, and then leisurely flew up high into the sky.
Standing at a different height and looking down, the entire artificial marsh came into view. It was vast—so vast that even Fang Yuan's Time Path clone found it stretching beyond the horizon, unable to take it all in at once.
Every few li, a flower bud stood erect, as large as a house. These were no ordinary flower buds—they were the buds of the Desolate Plant, the Tai Ze Flower.
A small portion of the Tai Ze Flowers had come from the immortal aperture of the Azure Dragon Whale, while the rest he had purchased over the past few days from the Precious Yellow Heaven.
Next, Fang Yuan's Time Path clone took a deep breath and activated the Summer Gu.
The Summer Gu had originated from Xia Cha, an Eighth Transformation Gu Master of the Southern Border, and was itself of the Eighth Transformation rank. Fang Yuan's Time Path clone only possessed Sixth Transformation cultivation, far too weak to use the Summer Gu on his own. However, Fang Yuan's true body possessed White Lychee Immortal Essence, and he had lent the Summer Gu to his Time Path clone.
Lending to himself—this allowed Fang Yuan's Time Path clone to utilize nearly all of his true body's Immortal Gu.
Once the Summer Gu was activated, the auxiliary Gu followed, and in moments, an Immortal Killer Move erupted forth.
Xia Cha had developed a set of Time Path Killer Moves specifically for managing immortal apertures: Spring Planting, Summer Cultivation, Autumn Harvest, and Winter Storage.
The Killer Move that Fang Yuan's Time Path clone activated was none of these, but rather a modified version derived from Summer Cultivation, specifically designed to cultivate Tai Ze Flowers.
Tai Ze Flowers bloomed in the height of summer and bore fruit in autumn.
Fang Yuan's Time Path attainment had already reached quasi-supreme—the pinnacle of the world. Combined with his Wisdom Halo, deducing and refining Time Path Killer Moves was trivially easy, requiring no effort at all.
As the Killer Move continued to activate, an area of ten thousand li entered the height of summer—the light grew ever brighter, the temperature rose dramatically, and the air simultaneously became increasingly dry.
Midsummer arrived. The Tai Ze Flowers, brimming with extraordinarily vigorous life force, sensed it all—they drew in water and nutrients from the soil, growing at a speed visible to the naked eye, then slowly blooming.
Each Tai Ze Flower was enormous, its petals fused together in the shape of a trumpet, predominantly white, with only a few tinged with faint streaks of pink.
The river water, once knee-deep on an adult, had already run dry, and the muddy soil had turned parched—the rich nutrients of the earth consumed at an alarming rate.
Fang Yuan's Time Path clone remained calm. All of this was within his expectations.
The cultivation methods for Tai Ze Flowers were recorded in detail in both the Red Lotus True Inheritance and the Shadow Sect True Inheritance, and all these changes were within Fang Yuan's arrangements.
Before long, wisps of white mist began to emanate from the hearts of the Tai Ze Flowers.
The mist gradually spread, eventually merging into a continuous expanse. Fang Yuan's Time Path clone ceased the Killer Move, and the air immediately became extremely humid.
The mist nourished the soil in return, gradually transforming this artificial marshland.
"Let us name this marsh Flower Mist Tai Ze. The first step is complete." Fang Yuan's Time Path clone gazed upon it with satisfaction.
"With Tai Ze Flower mist of this scale, feeding the Regret Gu will be no problem."
The Eighth Transformation Regret Gu had an enormous appetite—its food was the mist produced by the Tai Ze Flowers. The troublesome part was that this mist had to be kept fresh at all times, making external procurement impractical and highly unreliable.
"The next step is to wait until the mist thickens to a sufficient degree and accumulates a layer of water at the bottom. Then, aquatic plants and small creatures will be introduced—ducks, and even flying fish."
"After that, the scale of Tai Ze Flowers will continue to expand, their numbers steadily increasing. By the time the Regret Gu grows hungry, the Tai Ze Flower mist accumulated in the immortal aperture will be enough to give it a hearty meal."
Feeding any Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu was always an enormous undertaking.
"Including this Flower Mist Tai Ze, the development of the Supreme Immortal Aperture has reached eighteen percent." Currently, the flow of time within the aperture had been slowed considerably, which in turn reduced the output of various resources and the efficiency of White Lychee Immortal Essence accumulation.
Fang Yuan calculated silently.
This time, the slowing of time flow within the immortal aperture had not relied on a Time Path Immortal Killer Move, but had been achieved by directly adjusting the Pool of Years—extremely convenient. It cost no Immortal Essence, while also eliminating certain drawbacks of Time Path Killer Moves. Fang Yuan could adjust the aperture's time flow at any moment, extremely flexibly.
"Although Immortal Essence needs to be accumulated, I cannot simply keep accelerating time—otherwise the calamities will arrive all the sooner."
So far, Fang Yuan had reached the Eighth Transformation, but his actual combat power had not increased by much. During his previous encounter in the River of Time, he had fallen into Heavenly Court's ambush, and nearly all his trump cards had been exposed.
Therefore, undergoing the tribulation now would be extremely unwise. Once he descended to manifest his immortal aperture for the tribulation, Fang Yuan would become a stationary target. At that moment, his aperture would be wide open and detected by Heavenly Will, making it far easier for forces like Heavenly Court to pinpoint his location and launch a joint assault to annihilate him.
"The flow of time has been slowed, but I can still develop the immortal aperture—strengthen its foundations, bolster its origin, and thereby produce more White Lychee Immortal Essence."