Supreme Immortal Aperture, Little Red Heaven.
A great formation was humming and rumbling. The variant human Gu Immortals, led by Bai Ningbing, stood in battle formation, ready and waiting.
Whoosh!
A tremendous tidal roar erupted, and then an Ancient Year Beast burst through the silver-white radiance emanating from the great formation.
"This is an Ancient Year Pig!" the white rabbit girl immediately exclaimed in an excited whisper.
"Excellent — the Pool of Years is exactly lacking this kind of Year Beast," Fairy Miaoyin said with enthusiasm from the side.
There was nothing more to say. The great battle began.
The immortals piloted the Ten Thousand Year Battle Flying Chariot, charging toward the Ancient Year Pig.
The Ancient Year Pig had thick hide and tough flesh, but the Ten Thousand Year Battle Flying Chariot was equally formidable and resilient. The two sides fought to a standstill.
The fierce battle stirred up wind and clouds, generating aftershocks. In an ordinary Immortal Aperture, the Gu Immortals would have suffered devastating losses. But Fang Yuan's Supreme Grotto-heaven was far too vast.
He had devoured the life's wealth of many Gu Immortals, and yet the Supreme Immortal Aperture had only been developed to about seventeen or eighteen percent.
Moreover, Little Red Heaven had been deliberately left empty by Fang Yuan to serve as a battlefield, with nothing cultivated inside it.
At present, the Little Five Regions were already flourishing, seven of the Little Nine Heavens had some resources, Little Red Heaven was completely empty, Little Green Heaven was used to store dreams, while in Little Yellow Heaven there was only a small section of the Shattered Gold River.
The Little Five Regions still had vast amounts of unused land. It could be foreseen that the barrenness of the Little Nine Heavens would persist for a long time.
Generally speaking, when a Gu Immortal advanced to the Eighth Transformation and obtained a Grotto-heaven, they would actively develop the sky regions, since there was no room left on the ground. But Fang Yuan was a special case and could not be measured by ordinary standards.
The battle between the Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu House and the Ancient Desolate Beast lasted several days, and finally ended with the latter's defeat and submission.
Fang Yuan's main body swept through all directions in the Green Ghost Desert, while within his Immortal Aperture, his subordinates used the Ten Thousand Year Battle Flying Chariot to conquer Ancient Year Beasts.
On one hand, Fang Yuan intended for these Seventh Transformation combat-capable Gu Immortals to familiarize themselves with the Ten Thousand Year Battle Flying Chariot, deepening their coordination, with the hope that at some future point they could participate in Eighth Transformation level battles.
On the other hand, Fang Yuan was also using the Ancient Year Beast lure formation to continuously draw in Ancient Year Beasts, attempting to assemble a complete Twelve Zodiac Battle Formation.
The idea of the Twelve Zodiac Battle Formation was one Fang Yuan had been contemplating since his previous life.
This was an ancient battle formation.
It required collecting twelve different species of Ancient Year Beasts, using them as the core, to form the grand formation.
The Twelve Zodiac Battle Formation excelled in offensive combat and, once assembled, could move freely. In peacetime, the twelve Ancient Year Beasts would all be sealed, motionless like stone statues, requiring no feeding. When battle came, they would be unsealed, form the battle formation, and take the field to slay the enemy.
This formation had many advantages, one of which was saving a great deal on feeding expenses.
In his previous life, Fang Yuan had been drawn to precisely this point, planning to use this method to alleviate the pressure of managing his Immortal Aperture.
But in this life, having been reborn, Fang Yuan was extremely wealthy. Saving on feeding expenses was secondary now — what Fang Yuan valued was this formation's formidable power.
Only Ancient Year Beasts were qualified to serve as the core of the Twelve Zodiac Battle Formation. If he used Antiquity Year Beasts or Desolate-grade Year Beasts, Fang Yuan would be unable to form the Twelve Zodiac Battle Formation.
From this alone, one could see that the Twelve Zodiac Battle Formation was certain to be a trump card that could overpower ordinary Eighth Transformation Gu Immortals.
However, collecting twelve different species of Ancient Year Beasts seemed easy but was actually quite difficult.
It depended not only on strength but also heavily on luck.
In Fang Yuan's previous life, firstly he did not have the energy and time to devote to this matter, and secondly his luck was poor. By the time of the Central Continent Gu Refinement Grand Battle, he had still not collected a complete set for the formation.
There were indeed many Year Beasts in the River of Time, but the species of these Year Beasts were not evenly distributed. Instead, at intervals, the numbers of one particular species of Ancient Year Beast would surge dramatically.
Fang Yuan was not entirely certain that he could succeed in collecting them all in this life.
However, the manpower, resources, time, and energy he had invested in this endeavor, along with the enhancements to his fortune, far exceeded what he had in his previous life.
This was a fact.
Time passed in a flash.
The Righteous Path of the Southern Border was being extorted by Fang Yuan. Behind the scenes, they had devised plenty of schemes to deal with him, but they held back, wary of the consequences.
The Righteous Paths of the Western Desert were locked in mutual confrontation. The debate between the Fang Family and Wan Family seemed as though it would continue endlessly, while the remaining Righteous Path factions held their tongues, undercurrents surging beneath the surface.
In the Northern Plains, Longevity Heaven had been working to consolidate the entire Northern Plains Gu Immortal world, but progress was not significant. In the previous life, Longevity Heaven had made an extravagant gesture — spending a fortune on dead horse's bones — to recruit and accept the Lang Ya Sect. This move had made the Northern Plains Gu Immortals recognize Longevity Heaven's sincerity, greatly reducing their resistance. But in this life, the Lang Ya Blessed Land had long since been completely devoured by Fang Yuan.
The Eastern Sea remained calm as ever. Occasionally there were minor skirmishes, but nothing of consequence. The most sensational event was still the dispute over the Ascending Heaven Plain, but that matter had long since been settled.
As for the Central Continent, Heavenly Court was licking its wounds after its defeat in the Lang Ya battle. Although Fairy Ziwei desperately wanted to cause trouble for Fang Yuan, Fang Yuan was devoted to secluded cultivation, and even when he did take action, he used disguises that made it difficult to distinguish the real from the fake.
The Gu Immortal worlds of all Five Regions had entered a brief period of calm.
Fang Yuan did not waste a single instant. He made full use of these rare peaceful days, continuously digesting his spoils of war and actively strengthening himself.
The Time Flying Blade killer move was refined one step further.
The Five Prohibition Mysterious Light Qi, after this period of diligent practice, had already reached the stage where all five colored streams of light could be released simultaneously, with only a short distance remaining until complete mastery.
The results of his Soul Path cultivation were also extremely encouraging.
Fang Yuan's soul had surpassed the ten-million Human Soul level, reaching one hundred million Human Soul!
This scale was already the limit of humanity.
Before the appearance of Dark Soul Demon Venerable, throughout the vast river of history, no matter how brilliantly talented a person was, the pinnacle of the soul was one hundred million Human Soul — there was nothing beyond that.
Humans were the spirit of all things, possessing the strongest spiritual nature of all races. But in terms of physical strength, sharpness of claws and fangs, and thickness of soul, they could not compare to many other forms of life.