As a Wisdom Path powerhouse who controlled the Star Chessboard, Fairy Zi Wei could very likely use it to deduce Fang Yuan's movements on the Fang family's side, and then intervene and sabotage his plans.
There had been similar situations before.
Fang Yuan cultivated the Qi Path and wanted to collect Qi Path immortal materials, yet he had not extorted the Righteous Path factions of the Southern Border.
But once he reached the Eastern Sea, Elder Long took one look and immediately pointed out the connection between Qi Sea Ancestor and Fang Yuan — catching Fang Yuan by surprise at the time.
Had Fang Yuan previously extorted Qi Path immortal materials from the Southern Border Righteous Path, then when the battle for the Dragon Palace erupted in the Eastern Sea, Elder Long would likely have seen through his true identity at a single glance.
Being able to keep his secret from Elder Long had actually been extremely perilous — a single step was all that separated success from failure.
In life, one must often resist the temptation of convenience and keep one's eyes on the long term. Had Fang Yuan taken the convenient route and directly extorted Qi Path immortal materials from the Southern Border Righteous Path, Heavenly Court might well have identified Qi Sea Ancestor's true identity.
And then Fang Yuan would never have obtained a portion of Primordial Venerable's true Qi Path transmission.
Fang Yuan was cautious by nature.
Nearly all of his gambles were meticulously planned before execution — unless circumstances left him absolutely no choice.
He had struggled for hundreds of years, walked countless paths, endured life-and-death perils, and scraped by in the narrow gaps between Venerables and the will of Heaven, until he had finally reached this point today.
Hardship and setback were the wealth of life; with such experiences behind him, Fang Yuan was even less likely to become arrogant and lose his composure.
Stability — everything was about stability!
During the battle for the Eastern Sea Dragon Palace, Fang Yuan had also obtained intelligence on Fang Zheng, learning that his brother had interfered with him twice, and had also learned of Qin Dingling's existence.
Qin Dingling was a figure from the era of Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, the Immortal Queen of the Central Continent. She had originally cultivated the Metal Path, then switched exclusively to the Luck Path, and had slumbered for over three hundred thousand years.
According to Fang Yuan's calculations, Qin Dingling's attainment in the Luck Path was at minimum that of a Grandmaster, and reaching quasi-Supreme Grandmaster was not impossible either.
With such mastery of the Luck Path, even if she refined only two or three Luck Path Immortal Gu, it would be more than enough to improve her killer moves and form a comprehensive, versatile arsenal of Luck Path techniques.
Under these circumstances, the tactical significance of rushing to refine Luck Path Immortal Gu was actually already minimal.
Previously, Fang Yuan had invested heavily in the Luck Path because Heavenly Court's foundation in that dao was weak — a single point of investment from him could yield ten points of return.
Now, however, any investment he made would yield dubious returns at best.
Just as before, when Fang Yuan had obtained the Shadow Sect's true transmission, he had chosen not to invest heavily in the Soul Path. With Spectral Soul Demon Venerable captured by Heavenly Court, the value of that Soul Path true transmission was greatly diminished. Devoting himself to building Soul Path strength would very likely only be countered and dismantled by Heavenly Court!
Having weighed all of these factors, Fang Yuan chose to suspend Luck Path Gu refinement and redirect his efforts toward the Wood Path.
The Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu House, the Bean God Palace — an existence that could greatly enhance Fang Yuan's combat strength!
Heavenly Court had always been Fang Yuan's greatest obstacle.
Stopping Heavenly Court from repairing the Fate Gu was not merely a battle—it involved intelligence, disguise, misdirection, Gu refinement, resources, and competition across every conceivable front.
Only by assessing what cards the opponent held could one respond with precision and composure.
This was why intelligence was so critically important. Throughout history, many famous battles had ended in victories that appeared effortless on the surface, but behind the scenes, countless rounds of covert struggle, preliminary preparation, and painstaking deliberation had already taken place!
Mindlessly charging forward would only get you killed—fools never lasted long.
Since the investment-to-return ratio in Luck Path had shifted dramatically, Fang Yuan's timely adjustment was simply a way to cut his losses.
After careful deliberation, Fang Yuan harbored no further hesitation and decisively committed to this course of action.
Time passed. The five Outer Realms appeared calm on the surface, yet undercurrents surged everywhere. Within the Supreme Immortal Aperture, where the flow of time was far accelerated, day-to-day transformation was constant.
The Supreme Immortal Aperture had undergone further development overall.
After previously absorbing the Qi Sea Cavern Heaven, the millions of Qi Path dao marks obtained had profoundly influenced every aspect of the Supreme Immortal Aperture.
Now, the Minor Nine Heavens were filled with drifting clouds of qi. These clouds bore distinct colors—the Minor Yellow Heaven held yellow qi clouds, the Minor White Heaven held white qi clouds…
Going forward, portions of these qi clouds would condense into clusters, forming true clouds.
Fang Yuan had originally planned to introduce clouds from outside, but the Supreme Immortal Aperture's natural development had already reached an exceptionally high standard on its own, saving him tremendous amounts of wealth and resources.
"Dao marks are the foundation of an immortal aperture's development."
"With these millions of dao marks, the aperture's own natural evolution alone can produce all manner of beneficial changes."
"Of course, there are risks involved. Throughout this process, I need to maintain constant vigilance and make timely adjustments to prevent these changes from threatening the existing ecology."
Fang Yuan's Supreme Immortal Aperture was vast enough that the sudden addition of millions of Qi Path dao marks was distributed across the whole, and the aperture could bear the load on its own.
Across the Minor Five Realms, air currents had begun forming in numerous locations. In the Minor Southern Border, several mountain ranges of legendary stature had gained mist drifting between their peaks. The Minor Northern Plains' sky was enveloped by a widespread layer of icy frost qi. The Minor Western Desert saw hot air rising in waves, while the Minor Central Continent had developed multiple swirling vortexes of air.
The truly massive growth, however, was in the most fundamental of the Two Qis—heavenly qi and earthly qi!
Fang Yuan could clearly sense that deep beneath the Supreme Immortal Aperture's boundless underground, a considerable amount of earthly qi had already accumulated.
Meanwhile, in the skies above, the vast quantities of heavenly qi had thinned out across the expanse, making it far less conspicuous than the concentrated mass of earthly qi.
If heavenly qi continued to grow, the Minor Nine Heavens would become increasingly shrouded in clouds and mist. At the same time, the earliest thin membranes of qi would begin forming between the Minor Nine Heavens. As these membranes developed further, they would eventually become the Heavenly Force Qi Walls.
Earthly qi, on the other hand, had two potential directions of development.
The first was for Fang Yuan to leave it alone and allow the earthly qi to concentrate into a dense mass. This mass would pile upon itself, and over time, it would push outward in the deep underground to form subterranean caverns. These caverns would be saturated with earthly qi, and any foreign object that entered would be permeated and petrified into stone statues. When the earthly qi grew too concentrated, it would spawn earthly qi sandstorms, making the environment even more treacherous. However, within those earthly qi sandstorms, large quantities of Earth Path immortal materials would continuously generate.
The second direction was for Fang Yuan to carefully channel this massive reservoir of earthly qi. He would construct and excavate a network of passages around it, allowing the earthly qi to flow and disperse in all directions.
By distributing the earthly qi throughout the immortal aperture, no earthly qi sandstorms would form. This approach would render the land across all five Minor Realms far more fertile, increasing the yields of crops, minerals, and more. Those narrow, elongated channels that drained the earthly qi would be scoured by its flow, gradually widening, becoming saturated with Earth Path dao marks, and ultimately forming—earth trenches.
Each of these two development directions had its own advantages and disadvantages.
Without hesitation, Fang Yuan directly chose the second plan.