The crashing ocean current was like a starving tiger, but under Fang Yuan's arrangements, it had become a domestic cat guarding the five-island chain.
When Fang Yuan achieved this, the grand scheme was already decided.
What followed was some cleanup work.
This work was not difficult, but it was quite tedious, consuming time and energy.
Fang Yuan had no interest in it.
So, he negotiated with Miao Mingshen, leaving the Bee General and Fairy Flower Butterfly behind, while the rest returned with him.
A flash of white light, and Fang Yuan, Miao Mingshen, and Ghost Seventh Lord found themselves back on Reception Island.
Ren Xiuping was studying the tasks displayed on the Merit Stele's surface.
He was a Slave Path Gu Immortal who commanded many desolate beasts, as well as a small number of ancient desolate beasts. These creatures each had their own strengths, giving him a very diverse array of methods.
However, even so, Ren Xiuping still found medium-tier tasks difficult.
Fang Yuan and the others appeared beside him, making his heart skip a beat. He thought: Why did these three suddenly appear all at once? Is it a coincidence?
Fang Yuan nodded at Ren Xiuping and offered a slight smile.
Ren Xiuping was stunned. Fang Yuan's unexpected attitude left him at a loss for how to respond.
Fang Yuan walked to his side, and the text on the stele's surface shifted, revealing all of the large-tier tasks.
Fang Yuan glanced over them once, then quickly accepted one.
He then shared the task with Miao Mingshen and Ghost Seventh Lord.
In the next instant, another flash of white light, and the three of them vanished from the spot.
Ren Xiuping witnessed the entire process, and his expression darkened immediately: "The task Chu Ying took is completely different from mine, and it's an entire tier higher. So when his merit plummeted before, it must have been because he took on a new title that allowed him to accept higher-level tasks. That title is very likely — Great Good Person!"
The Good Person title allowed one to accept medium-tier tasks, and the Great Good Person title allowed one to accept large-tier tasks.
This simple relationship was something the Gu Immortals could easily infer from the names alone.
But the question was, even if they figured it out, what could they do about it?
"Medium-tier tasks are already this difficult — large-tier tasks must be even harder!" Ren Xiuping's mood was bleak. "Also, why can Miao Mingshen and Ghost Seventh Lord act together with Chu Ying? Can they take on the same task?"
This discovery made Ren Xiuping's heart race.
Some medium-tier tasks were extremely difficult, but with others to help, that difficulty could be mitigated.
"Even though the merit gets divided when multiple people complete a task together, if managed properly, the efficiency of completing tasks increases, and the overall gains actually go up significantly. Isn't that exactly what Chu Ying is doing?"
Ren Xiuping was very shrewd. After thinking for a moment, he understood Fang Yuan's intentions.
Fang Yuan had no intention of hiding it — in fact, he had deliberately let this slip.
If Miao Mingshen's group could be won over, why not Ren Xiuping as well?
Their past enmity?
Heh.
Could past enmity compare to the benefits right before his eyes?
Ren Xiuping was not a fool. Precisely because of his shrewdness, the possibility of cooperation was all the greater.
As for Ren Xiuping and the Shen family, there was certainly a covenant between them.
But that was no matter.
The Merit Stele had related rewards that could remove covenant bindings on Gu Immortals.
This was something Ren Xiuping had surely noticed on his own — Fang Yuan didn't need to point it out.
The second large-tier task was naturally much more difficult than a medium-tier task, but it still posed no real challenge to Fang Yuan.
After expending some effort, Fang Yuan opened up the situation and left Miao Mingshen and Ghost Seventh Lord to handle the cleanup.
When he returned to the Merit Stele, he waited a short while before Fairy Flower Butterfly and the Bee General teleported back.
The moment they returned, the first large-tier task was declared complete.
Fang Yuan gained over five hundred merit, while Miao Mingshen's group received varied amounts, all around eighty.
Fang Yuan observed the changes in the merit rankings, did a quick calculation, and found that this large-tier task had a total merit reward of nine hundred and seventy-three.
Fang Yuan and the five of them, including Miao Mingshen, split this nine-hundred-plus merit. Fang Yuan, who had played the leading role, naturally took the lion's share — his five hundred-plus merit was nearly the same as when he had completed a large-tier task alone before.
However, the time and energy Fang Yuan had spent were greatly reduced.
Fairy Flower Butterfly and the Bee General exchanged a glance, each seeing the pleasant surprise in the other's eyes.
In this task, they had first supported Fang Yuan against the waves, then handled various miscellaneous duties. All they had truly invested was some immortal essence, time, and effort, yet they had earned over eighty merit.
The Bee General thought back to the Beehive Island task he had completed alone. He had sacrificed an entire swarm, including the desolate beast Yellow Hump Bee, yet his final merit reward had also been only around eighty.
Comparing the two, cooperating with Fang Yuan on a large-tier task was naturally much easier and far more rewarding.
"You should go join up with Miao Mingshen and the others to complete the second task together. I suggest we first obtain a unified team title. With a matching team title, we'll be able to communicate with each other," Fang Yuan suggested.
A team title was not cheap — it cost one hundred merit.