An Immortal Gu hovered before Fang Yuan, radiating an aura of the Eighth Transformation.
This Immortal Gu resembled a silkworm cocoon, though instead of being white, its entire body was pitch-black like iron. Holding it in one's hand, it carried a cold, hard, and heavy metallic feel.
This was an Eighth Transformation Rule Path Immortal Gu — Addition!
Its food source was Pearl Thread Water.
Pearl Thread Water was an Eighth Transformation Water Path immortal material. On the surface, it appeared to be nothing more than a mass of clear, pristine water — utterly unremarkable. But if one reached into the water and gently pinched, one could grasp a strand of water and draw it out of the surface.
The strand was continuous, with beads of water condensed along its length, tightly aligned side by side. The entire string of water beads resembled a necklace — exquisitely beautiful.
If one kept pulling the strand upward, the mass of Pearl Thread Water would gradually shrink, until the entirety of it was transformed into a single, remarkably long string of water beads.
The Immortal Gu Addition was an oval, pitch-black silkworm cocoon. Though it possessed no mouth, tongue, or seams, all it required was to be soaked in Pearl Thread Water for eight days and eight nights to be fully fed, after which it could sustain itself for eighty years.
"Thirty-six years remain until the next feeding. Inside Ba Shiba's immortal orifice, there is already more than half a mass of Pearl Thread Water. The remainder can be traded with Eastern Sea Gu Immortals."
Fang Yuan knew all of this perfectly, every last detail at his fingertips.
He had long since stripped Ba Shiba of all his Immortal Gu and his soul.
Ba Shiba had maintained a lake within his own immortal orifice — quite an expansive one, housing a large population of Antiquity Water Spiders, along with a pair of Primordial Water Spiders, one male and one female.
Pearl Thread Water was the essence that gradually condensed from the saliva of Primordial Water Spiders in the water they long inhabited.
Drop by drop, the accumulation was painfully slow. If not collected in time, the Pearl Thread Water would be devoured by the Antiquity Water Spiders, bolstering their own strength.
As a Rule Path Gu Immortal, Ba Shiba's immortal orifice was predominantly composed of Rule Path environments. Creating such a lake had required tremendous effort on his part.
Feeding Immortal Gu could be quite troublesome at times.
Take Ba Shiba, for example. Although Addition Gu was a Rule Path Gu, its food source was Pearl Thread Water.
For Ba Shiba to feed it himself, he would need to develop a self-sustaining Water Path resource point within his immortal orifice that produced Pearl Thread Water — a highly inconvenient requirement for a Rule Path Gu Immortal.
For Fang Yuan, this was no issue whatsoever.
His Little Eastern Sea was vast beyond measure. Once the Water Spiders were let in, it was like going from a small village into a great city.
Fang Yuan could even carve out an entire sea region specifically for this colony of Water Spiders. With ample space and a superior Water Path environment, these Water Spiders would multiply splendidly.
Possessing the Supreme Immortal Orifice gave Fang Yuan the ability to perfectly cultivate multiple Paths simultaneously — a tremendous advantage when it came to Gu Raising as well.
Ba Shiba's Immortal Gu had been fully stripped away.
Addition Gu was his only Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu.
Beyond that, there were Seventh and Sixth Transformation Immortal Gu, including two Seventh Transformation Number Gu — One and Three, respectively.
Number Gu was an enormously vast series among Rule Path Gu insects. One, two, three, four, five... one could say there was no end to it.
Though Fang Yuan possessed so many Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu, in truth, a normal Eighth Transformation Gu Immortal having even a single Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu would already be considered quite impressive.
Ba Shiba had one, Xia Cha had two — primarily because both were leaders of Righteous Path superpowers, with deep reserves and inheritances to draw upon.
Ordinary rogue Eighth Transformation cultivators would desperately seek a single Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu and still fail to obtain one. For instance — Old Ancestor Snow Beard of the Northern Plains. His combat strength was formidable, making him the foremost Demonic Path Gu Immortal in the Northern Plains today, yet he did not possess a single Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu.
Even within the Heavenly Court, Eighth Transformation Gu Immortals far outnumbered Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu — a staggering disparity. In his previous life, when Eternal Heaven launched its assault, the Heavenly Court faced an extremely awkward situation: many Eighth Transformation Gu Immortals had awakened, but there were insufficient Immortal Gu for them to use.
Ba Shiba's most valuable killer move was the Chain Combo Battle Method.
If he could chain up to eighteen consecutive strikes, Ba Shiba could easily slay Gu Immortals of the same level. In his previous life, during his great battle with Qing Ye, this member of the Heavenly Court had been extremely wary of the technique, doing everything possible to disrupt the chain and prevent Ba Shiba from building up too many consecutive hits.
In all honesty, Fang Yuan felt a twinge of disappointment.
He had originally assumed that since Ba Shiba specialized in the Chain Combo Battle Method, the Eighth Transformation Rule Path Immortal Gu in his possession was most likely Chain Gu. He hadn't expected it to be Addition Gu.
Chain Gu was far more renowned than Addition Gu, and seemed more practical as well.
With an Eighth Transformation Chain Gu, Fang Yuan could harness its power to link various different killer moves together, forming the effect of a chain combo.
Chain combos were one of the techniques for employing killer moves. Using two or more killer moves in succession could unleash far greater power. Typically, only the elite among Gu Immortals could master this.
The Burning Heaven Demoness had once possessed such a technique.
She had combined the Angry Bird and Fire Prisoner killer moves into a chain combo of extraordinary power.
A Gu Immortal capable of devising chain combos needed at minimum a Grandmaster-level realm of comprehension.
It could be seen that the Burning Heaven Demoness's chain combo pairing consisted entirely of Fire Path killer moves. But by using Chain Gu, one could combine killer moves from entirely different Paths into a chain combo! This distinction was enormously significant.
For example, Fang Yuan's Ten Thousand Sword Ghost Dragon and Great Thief Ghost Hand, or his Azure Flowing Bead and Strength Path Great Hand Seal — the possible combinations were numerous, and could elevate one's combat power to unimaginable heights.
Ba Shiba's Immortal Gu, killer moves, and soul had all been claimed by Fang Yuan, leaving behind only his physical body and immortal orifice.
Though Fang Yuan was capable of Orifice Devouring, and possessed sufficient realm to do so,
he nonetheless chose to postpone the act for the time being.
Because of one thing — after Orifice Devouring, the countdown for the next Calamity would reset to zero and begin anew.
This detail was small, but immensely important.
With the matter of Orifice Devouring temporarily concluded, Bai Ningbing and the others found themselves plunged into a flurry of busywork.
During this period, Fang Yuan had seized and devoured a truly staggering number of immortal orifices — the sheer count would terrify anyone who heard it.