Wu Ji's expression darkened. "If Kong Ritian didn't carry Kong Shengtian's bloodline, I would never have lost this contest!"
Wu Zhanping shook his head. "It's not really a defeat. Kong Ritian may possess an Immortal Gu, but he's still a mere mortal. He managed to escape by luck for the moment, but so what? He won't last long — quite a few Righteous Path Gu Immortals have already begun moving. If our Wu family's Gu Immortals seize it, then this True Inheritance will be worth even more, and far more suitable for you, Wu Ji."
But Wu Ji shook her head again. "These three True Inheritances — one in the Slave Path, one in the Soul Path, and one in the Qi Path — are all excellent methods. Unfortunately, none of them suit me. I'll continue cultivating the Strength Path."
"Oh?" Wu Zhanping frowned deeply.
Wu Zhenzhu also tried to persuade her. "Wu Ji, I know you once obtained a Strength Path True Inheritance, but that one was of inferior grade — its original owner was only a Sixth Transformation Gu Immortal. It can't even begin to compare with these three great True Inheritances."
Seeing that Wu Ji's expression remained unchanged, Wu Zhenzhu pressed on. "The most important thing is that the Strength Path has been declining for ages and simply can't compare with the Slave Path or the Soul Path. Although the Qi Path was also once in decline, with the unification of the Five Regions and the surging of Qi Tides, the Qi Path has begun to recover its former glory. Choosing the Qi Path would be far wiser than choosing the Strength Path."
But Wu Ji shook her head yet again. "I choose the Strength Path! Selecting someone else's True Inheritance can indeed save effort and worry, but if a Strength Path True Inheritance exists, I will absolutely choose it. In this life, I will walk the Strength Path. If there is no foundation left by predecessors, then I will build it myself from scratch!"
Wu Zhanping said unhappily, "Wu Ji, you are not yet a Gu Immortal and don't understand the dilemmas they face. The benefits these three True Inheritances would bring you are beyond what can be explained in a moment, and you can't appreciate them yet. Take my advice — pick one of these three. In the long years of your future Gu Immortal cultivation, you will be grateful every single day for the decision you made today."
Wu Ji's face had never been so solemn. She bowed deeply to the two Immortals before her. "Honored Immortals, your concern and guidance for Wu Ji are deeply felt and will be forever etched in my heart. But if I do not choose the Strength Path, I will regret it in the very next moment. My mind is made on this matter, and I will not change it. Even if I am defeated and killed because of this choice in the future, I will accept it willingly!"
"You!"
"Sigh..."
Wu Zhenzhu and Wu Zhanping both shook their heads, greatly lamenting that Wu Ji was squandering such a peerless opportunity.
The Dream True Immortal Aperture.
The sky here was filled with ever-shifting pink auroras.
In the central region of the aperture, a vast "Pink Grassland" had already taken shape. It was composed of several patches of Earth Dream Embryo Fur that Fang Yuan's true body had painstakingly scrounged from beneath the Southern Border.
There was also a slightly smaller sea of flowers, located at the northern end of the aperture.
The flowers here were all Nine-Bend Dream Flowers. Each bloom had only a single petal, but it spiraled around the stem in a nine-layered helix — a truly unique shape.
Meanwhile, in the southeastern part of the aperture, Meng Qiuzhen had deliberately carved out a lake.
The water was rather sparse, falling short of the banks by several zhang. The entire lake resembled an enormous bowl, with only a small patch of water left at the very bottom.
This water was pure Dream Essence Water, and living within it was a peculiar species of fish shaped like a tongue, bright crimson in color and extremely nimble in movement — the Tongue-Tip Dream Fish.
Finally, at the northern end of the aperture lay a field of barren bone.
Hundreds of massive bones lay half-buried in the earth, with some portions exposed above the surface.
These bones were also Dream Path Gu materials, harvested from the corpses of several ancient Dream Path wild beasts. Meng Qiuzhen had placed them here and set up a Gu formation, creating this Bone Dream Sand Field.
The sand field used the marrow within the bones to enrich the soil, gradually transforming it into Dream Sand.
Earth Dream Embryo Fur, Nine-Bend Dream Flowers, Dream Essence Water, Tongue-Tip Dream Fish, and Dream Sand — these constituted all the Dream Path Gu materials Fang Yuan had gathered during this period.
At the current stage, Dream Path Gu materials were still exceedingly rare.
Fang Yuan had practically strip-mined the entire underground of the Southern Border just to collect this much.
"However, within the Dream True Immortal Aperture, these materials will certainly undergo tremendous development. It won't be long before Immortal-grade Gu materials are being produced in an endless stream."
On this point, Meng Qiuzhen was thoroughly confident.
The original locations of these Dream Path materials did possess Dream Path Dao Marks, but they had been suppressed by the surrounding marks of other Paths — primarily Earth Path — making their growth extremely difficult. Their living space was little more than the crack between two stones.
But now, having been relocated into the Dream True Immortal Aperture, it was like a dragon entering the rivers and lakes, a tiger ascending the deep mountains — like fish leaping freely across vast skies and boundless seas.
In such a spacious environment dominated primarily by Dream Path Dao Marks, these Dream Path materials would all develop splendidly.
Not to mention that Fang Yuan, having returned through rebirth, possessed excellent cultivation techniques — as well as the time differential between the Dream True Immortal Aperture and the outside world.
"With this, the Dream Path is finally on the right track. As long as I continue developing methodically, the results will surely keep coming in the future." Fang Yuan assessed privately.
His investment in the Dream Path would end here.
In areas like mortal Dream Path Gu recipe refinement and Dream exploration experience, Fang Yuan still held the advantage with five hundred years of past-life knowledge.
As for Immortal Dream Path Gu, Fang Yuan commanded four Immortal Gu — making him incomparably wealthy, and absolutely the foremost of his era.