Dream.
"So this is Dispute Peak?" The dragon-man clone gazed at the mountain peak floating in the sky, his expression tinged with mild surprise. "It's not a real peak at all — more like a phantom."
"Yes, Brother. I was startled the first time I saw it too." The dragon-man Gu Immortal Huang Wei walked alongside him.
The dream had advanced another two scenes by now.
Currently, it was the blessed land of the Gu Immortal Wen Xiu. It had suffered devastating damage, creating breaches that connected it to the outside world, and had been discovered.
Wen Xiu had been an extraordinary woman of her generation, a mighty master of the Path of Information, long since passed away. She had started as an independent cultivator, scarce in resources. Rumor had it that the reason she had been able to reach the Eighth Transformation was that she had gained control of a miraculous location — Dispute Peak.
A Central Continent Gu Immortal studied it closely for a moment before exclaiming in awe: "Wen Xiu truly was formidable! Dispute Peak was actually crafted by human hands, containing an incredibly rich concentration of Path of Information Dao Marks — it's practically half a minor Secret Realm!"
Alongside Fang Yuan's clone were numerous other Central Continent Gu Immortals — quite a sizeable number.
Every gaze was fixed on Dispute Peak. Without question, this was the most precious and most valuable resource in the entire blessed land.
Everyone wanted it!
Huang Wei secretly transmitted his voice: "Brother, when the fight breaks out, please go all out. I'll cover for you and buy you time."
"Good." Fang Yuan's clone had barely replied when suddenly all the surrounding Gu Immortals attacked him at once.
"Strike first to gain the upper hand!"
"Of everyone here, Wu Shuai is the strongest. In a one-on-one fight, none of us can match him."
"How can the mighty Dispute Peak fall into the hands of dragon-men?"
It turned out that while Huang Wei and Fang Yuan's clone had been conferring, the surrounding human Gu Immortals had also secretly reached an agreement among themselves.
In an instant, both Fang Yuan's clone and Huang Wei were surrounded and besieged.
From every direction, lethal attacks came crashing in.
"Audacious!" Fang Yuan's clone roared, and a towering aura erupted from his dragon-man body.
A massive swarm of ants surged forth, swirling and converging into a golden river that shielded both Fang Yuan and Huang Wei.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The human Gu Immortals struck with full force, and soon, Fang Yuan's carefully cultivated army ants suffered devastating losses.
Fang Yuan counterattacked fiercely, his techniques superb and refined, quickly turning the tide. After several exchanges, he broke through the encirclement and locked the other immortals in a stalemate.
After a dozen or so exchanges, the very Gu Immortals who had besieged him were now being driven back under his assault.
A Gu Immortal of the Path of Servitude had always excelled at facing many opponents at once, and the dragon-man Gu Immortal Wu Shuai that Fang Yuan was impersonating was even more exceptionally talented. In the end, he drove the Central Continent Gu Immortals into a fighting retreat.
Of course, Fang Yuan's clone had also paid a heavy price, and Huang Wei was even more gravely wounded.
"What a pyrrhic victory — but at least we've obtained Dispute Peak." Huang Wei couldn't help but laugh bitterly.
But just as Fang Yuan's clone was about to claim the peak, an obstacle appeared.
"What happened?" The two quickly discovered the cause — someone had taken advantage of their fierce battle to slip in and seize Dispute Peak for themselves.
And that someone was none other than Fan Ji, who had been having a secret affair with Wu Shuai's wife, Shu Jiuling!
Fan Ji lay unconscious on the scene. Refining Dispute Peak with his soul foundation had been far too taxing for him.
"This bastard!" The dragon-man clone gritted his teeth, rage blazing in his heart. He nearly struck out and killed Fan Ji on the spot.
"You can't kill him!" The dragon-man Gu Immortal Huang Wei beside him immediately cried out.
"Why can't I?" Fang Yuan's clone whipped his head around, eyes blazing red, his face a mask of killing intent.
Huang Wei pleaded earnestly: "Brother, I understand your pain, but you know this man's identity better than anyone. If you kill him, it will certainly draw out his grandfather. His grandfather is a member of Heavenly Court — he simply keeps to himself most of the time. If his beloved grandson is killed, he will definitely come to investigate the truth and take his revenge on you."
Fang Yuan's clone froze, his expression savage and vicious, his gaze utterly dark and brooding.
After a long moment, he let out a deep sigh: "Brother, your counsel is wise. This man cannot be killed. If I killed him and it implicated me, that would be one thing. What I fear more is that many people would seize upon this incident as leverage, seeking to harm our entire dragon-man race. How could I, Wu Shuai, bring ruin upon all the dragon-men for the sake of a personal grudge?"
Meanwhile, in the Ancient Daytime.
"It should be right here." Shen Congsheng frowned slightly, hovering in a stretch of blank sky for a moment before his expression cleared and he spoke with certainty.
Standing beside him was Song Qiyuan, who smiled upon hearing this: "Brother Shen, I truly admire your investigative abilities. In that case, let us strike together."
Shen Congsheng nodded: "Naturally. I want to see for myself why the Pine Crane Pavilion of the Central Continent's Immortal Crane Sect has been sneaking around our Eastern Sea, only to vanish here in secret."
These two were no ordinary Gu Immortals. One was the Grand Elder of the Shen Family, the other the Grand Elder of the Song Family — both possessed Eighth Transformation cultivation.
The two had originally been on a covert mission when they had stumbled upon the Pine Crane Pavilion by chance.
It turned out that at the time, it was Fang Zheng who had been piloting this Immortal Gu House toward the Eastern Sea.
Both Gu Immortals held high positions and wielded great authority, with broad horizons. They immediately recognized the origins of the Pine Crane Pavilion, and deep puzzlement arose in their hearts: An Immortal Gu House from one of the ten great ancient sects of the Central Continent — what business could it have in our Eastern Sea?
Shen Congsheng also detected that there seemed to be a powerful Gu Immortal hidden near the Pine Crane Pavilion.
The two Gu Immortals hung back at a distance and tailed them covertly. Using Shen Congsheng's tracking abilities, they never lost the trail.
However, out of fear of alerting their quarry, they had kept too great a distance. As a result, when Fang Yuan successfully sprang his ambush and swallowed Duke Long and the Pine Crane Pavilion, they did not witness it.
By the time they arrived, Fang Yuan had already succeeded — he had swallowed both Duke Long and the Pine Crane Pavilion into his Qi Path Battlefield.
However, Shen Congsheng's methods were exceptional. After conducting his investigation, he gathered numerous clues and deduced that an Immortal Battlefield was hidden here.
The two Gu Immortals immediately launched their assault!
"What's going on? Shen Congsheng and Song Qiyuan have been drawn here? Could they have reached some agreement with Heavenly Court?" Fang Yuan's heart sank.
The two Eastern Sea immortals' attack immediately placed him in the dire predicament of being besieged from both inside and out.
Facing Duke Long, he already had to maintain absolute vigilance, unable to relax for even a moment. Now he also had to split his attention to deal with the trouble posed by Shen Congsheng and Song Qiyuan. The crux of the matter was that this trouble was truly formidable — Fang Yuan simply had no means to extricate himself.
Rumble.