"This fortune..." Fang Yuan's brows furrowed slightly.
Over this period of development, his fortune had also grown, but it had originally been suppressed by the three Venerables, and now this trend had become even more pronounced.
"My advancement could be described as changing with each passing day, but the three Venerables truly are extraordinary — they've managed to stabilize the situation once more."
"If only my fortune had solidified, perhaps things would be different."
Fang Yuan sighed inwardly.
He now needed to stabilize his Supreme Immortal Aperture. The troubles within it were growing ever more numerous, not diminishing over time as he had previously estimated.
Left with no choice, Fang Yuan had let numerous Gu Immortals from the Foreign Clan Grand Alliance enter. Thanks to these Gu Immortals working tirelessly day and night, combined with his own frequent interventions, he had only just managed to stabilize the turbulent situation within the Supreme Immortal Aperture.
On the other hand, he still needed to consolidate a suitable combat system.
Most crucially, he needed to achieve mastery of the Refinement Path and become a Venerable!
Becoming a Venerable would bring about a qualitative transformation.
The Refinement Path could be broadly divided into two major Gu Refinement schools: the Flee Man Natural Flow and the Human Clan Isolation Flow. Fang Yuan had already reached the absolute peak of the Flee Man Natural Flow, with nowhere left to advance, and was now exploring the pinnacle of the Human Clan Isolation Flow.
He had witnessed Qing Chou's prowess, and possessed the refinement method for Accumulate Virtue Gu from the Le Tu True Inheritance of the Southern Border — this had greatly deepened his insights.
Furthermore, the bloodline of the Ni Family clan members could condense Immortal Gu, which had been possible because the Ni Family Gu Immortal Ni Ren had once employed the Human Path Gu Refinement method. In truth, this bore a striking resemblance to the method by which Red Lotus Demon Venerable had destroyed Fate Gu to prevent its reappearance!
"If I can observe and reverse-engineer Ni Ren's Gu Refinement method through the Ni Family, I will fill a tremendous gap in my Refinement Path. Perhaps I could even ascend to the rank of Supreme Grandmaster!"
The best-case scenario was for Fang Yuan to advance to Venerable before venturing into the Mad Demon Cave.
That would be the most reliable outcome.
If he couldn't achieve the rank of Gu Venerable in the Refinement Path, then the next best option was to push his strength to its absolute current limit.
First, eliminate the hidden dangers within the Supreme Immortal Aperture and fully devour both Heaven Blessed Lands, reaching the maximum possible foundation.
Second, establish his own combat system.
The Mad Demon Cave would be Fang Yuan's greatest challenge.
Because he wouldn't face just one Immortal Venerable, but several!
From what he could tell, there were Star Constellation, Phantom Soul, Giant Sun, as well as Le Tu and Wu Ji — five in total. But practically all the other Venerables had also entered the Mad Demon Cave to explore.
When the time came, who else might pop out was truly impossible to say.
Especially now that the River of Time was in chaos — even though his Spring Autumn Cicada had been refined up to Eighth Transformation, he currently couldn't activate it.
Fang Yuan would only have one chance!
Finally, he shifted his gaze to the surface of the silver light qi pillar.
The cloud formation from before represented the Heavenly Envy Immortal Gu — he already knew that.
But what about the blurry projection of that small protruding hill?
Fang Yuan couldn't figure it out for the moment.
Southern Border, Rotting Mud Mountain.
"Nature truly is wondrous. Even here in Rotting Mud Mountain, there are Qi Path Gu materials!" Feng Tianyu clicked his tongue in amazement.
These materials held no value whatsoever for Ni Jian.
Because Ni Jian needed to bolster his Earth Path Dao Marks in order to continuously restore his strength.
What Feng Tianyu didn't know was that this mud containing Qi Path energy was no natural formation. It was the byproduct of Kong Shengtian's will activating killer moves through Hu Di not long ago.
Kong Ritian, the Central Continent's Four Great Degenerates, and Wang Xiao'er had used this to escape successfully. Their current whereabouts were unknown.
"Something's odd — there's far too much of this Qi Path mud. Could there be some kind of Qi Path Immortal Material buried deep underground? Without any root or source, how could there be this much Qi Path mud?"
As Feng Tianyu trekked on, he grew increasingly suspicious.
He was, after all, a Refinement Path Grandmaster with considerable expertise.
He searched left and right, finally stopping at one spot and ordering Ni Jian to dig down with all his might.
Yet after spending two full days and two full nights digging deep underground, Feng Tianyu found nothing of value.
After the Wu Family Gu Immortal had secretly taken away Hu Di, they had naturally taken steps to cover their tracks. Relying solely on the Qi Path mud left at the scene, even a Gu Immortal wouldn't be able to trace anything.
After all, in the preceding period, the Qi Tide had swept across the world, causing Qi Path Gu materials to sprout up everywhere.
Western Desert.
The Sandbag Blessed Land had been revealed by the Qi Tide, and people had been continuously entering to explore.
However, the environment here was extremely hostile.
In the sky, violent winds howled, carrying sand that sliced at one's face like knives.
On the ground, undulating sand waves rose and fell. The slightest carelessness would result in being buried by sand waves several zhang high.
The only place to set foot was the sandbags that constantly churned to the surface among the waves.
The sandbags came in all sizes — even the smallest was comparable to a small hill.
Inside the interior spaces of these sandbags, not only was it perfectly calm, but there were also abundant cultivation resources.
At this moment, inside one sandbag, a group of Gu Masters surrounded a Fifth Transformation Gu material, the atmosphere tense.
"This Wisdom Pearl Grass — I saw it first."
"Bullshit! We clearly discovered it first."
"Everyone who sees it gets a share — what's the point of arguing about who found it first?"
The Gu Masters were arguing when suddenly one of them struck.