The Two Heavens were confounded, casting the sea surface in flickering light and dark.
Sun and moon shining together, all things thrown into chaos, three sovereigns coexisting — this was an upheaval unlike any before.
Tides rose and fell, sea breezes swept in gusts, and Fang Yuan, sitting cross-legged in the clouds, slowly opened his eyes.
He had been refining the Refinement Path dao marks over the Eastern Sea for some time now. In this regard, he had gained considerable insight.
By now, the Refinement Path dao marks he had refined covered the greater part of the Song Family's territory, extending to the Poetic Sea in the northwest and encompassing the Sky-Ascending Wilds in the southeast.
Within this range, every Refinement Path dao mark belonged to Fang Yuan.
Right now, he didn't even need to close his eyes to sense the myriad things related to the Refinement Path.
He had a crystal-clear understanding of the quantity and distribution of Refinement Path dao marks throughout this entire area.
The various Refinement Path Gu materials hidden deep beneath the seabed, as well as the approximate locations of fish, shrimp, and aquatic plants that harbored Refinement Path dao marks — all of these he could vaguely perceive.
At this moment, countless ideas churned through Fang Yuan's mind, urgently needing verification.
With a flicker of thought, he temporarily halted the refinement of dao marks and activated an investigative killing move.
In the next instant, his gaze pierced through the sea surface, penetrating thousands of li down to the ocean floor, where he spotted a massive fish.
This fish was enormous — comparable to a five- or six-story building. Its body was narrow at both ends and swollen in the middle, resembling an enormous spindle. Its scales were dark gray, not smooth to the touch but rather rough, as if running your hand over sand and gravel.
This was a Sinking Fish — a creature harboring both Rule Path and Refinement Path dao marks.
A Sinking Fish's strength was at minimum that of an Ancient Desolate Beast, though some could reach the Primordial Desolate Beast level.
The one Fang Yuan had spotted was a Primordial Desolate Beast-level Sinking Fish.
Sinking Fish had peculiar habits. Every few years, they would flick their tails and swim to the surface to breathe air, which meant they often drifted with the currents. And because of their enormous weight, they would continuously sink while drifting.
Whenever a Sinking Fish began to swing its tail and swim toward the surface under its own power, all the scales on its body would rapidly shed in the process. Once it had breathed enough fresh air, new scales would grow over its body, and it would once again lie motionless, drifting with the currents, continuing its descent.
These shed scales looked heavy but were actually remarkably light — most would float on the water's surface, and after long ages, they would wash up on sandy beaches where Gu Masters would pick them up, regarding them as treasures.
Sinking Fish scales were a crucial Gu material for refining Beauty Gu and similar items, possessing considerable value.
In this regard, they were similar to the feathers of the Falling Goose.
"But to refine a Beauty Immortal Gu, I'd need to use both Immortal-grade Sinking Fish scales and Falling Goose feathers simultaneously." The moment Fang Yuan laid eyes on this Sinking Fish, a faint smile curled at the corner of his lips.
This was entirely consistent with his earlier Refinement Path perception.
"What would happen if I refined the Refinement Path dao marks on this Sinking Fish's body?"
The Refinement Path dao marks Fang Yuan had been refining were natural dao marks found between heaven and earth — they did not include the related dao marks on living creatures like the Sinking Fish.
No sooner had the thought arisen than Fang Yuan acted. He selected a Refinement Path killing move and modified it slightly, enabling him to force-refine this Sinking Fish from a great distance.
The forced refinement had barely begun when the previously languid Sinking Fish convulsed as though struck by lightning. It flicked its massive tail and shot away in a flash.
It burst forth with speed completely disproportionate to its enormous frame, and because of its sheer size, it immediately churned up a massive undersea current.
"Nowhere to run."
Fang Yuan snorted coldly and immediately activated another method.
The Sinking Fish froze in place, its Refinement Path dao marks forcibly refined by Fang Yuan.
Once the refinement was complete, Fang Yuan's perception of the Sinking Fish instantly grew several times clearer!
Fang Yuan released his hold, and the Sinking Fish regained its freedom — but its mood was deeply despondent, mixed with fear, anger, numbness, and bitterness, as if it had suffered the most devastating setback of its entire life and could no longer face the existence that lay ahead.
"What's going on?"
Through subsequent observation, Fang Yuan discovered that this Sinking Fish had actually begun to refuse food.
A Sinking Fish's diet consisted not of seaweed or smaller fish and shrimp, but of seabed mud.
Every few years, when its scales degraded into ordinary Gu materials, or when most of its scales had fallen away and could no longer adequately protect it, it would sink to the ocean floor and swallow massive quantities of mud.
This Primordial Sinking Fish that Fang Yuan had tormented had lost most of its scales. By all logic, it should have descended to the seabed to consume mud.
"Could it be that my brutal treatment has robbed it of the will to live?" Fang Yuan shook his head, then employed a Wisdom Path method.
After a brief calculation, he understood.
The Sinking Fish swallowed mud partly for sustenance, but also to produce new scales.
And the root cause of its scale production lay in the Refinement Path dao marks on its body.
It was precisely these Refinement Path dao marks that allowed it to digest the seabed mud, extract nutrients from it, and transform them into thick, Immortal-grade scales.
But now, with all its Refinement Path dao marks refined away by Fang Yuan, it had lost this ability.
Despite the obvious lack of scales, it no longer felt the urge to swallow mud.
To verify his calculations, Fang Yuan employed a Food Path killing move on the Primordial Sinking Fish.
The Primordial Sinking Fish quickly grew hungry.
This time, it began to actively swallow mud.
But the good times didn't last — the mud accumulated in its stomach far too quickly, unable to be digested in time. If Fang Yuan hadn't timely withdrawn the Food Path killing move, the Primordial Sinking Fish would have died from overeating mud, its digestive system overwhelmed.
With a few effortless techniques, Fang Yuan had rendered a Primordial Desolate Beast completely useless.