Northern Plains.
Golden light drifted through the sky like countless threads, weaving into a vast canopy of golden radiance that also seeped into the earth below, stretching endlessly in a display of magnificent grandeur.
This was Giant Sun Immortal Venerable refining the Fortune Dao Marks across the Northern Plains.
But now, the golden light that filled heaven and earth was slowly fading.
A moment later, the heartland of the Northern Plains returned to its usual appearance.
Halfway through the air, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable slowly opened his eyes. His features were handsome, with sharp, well-defined lines along his mouth, nose, eyes, and brows. His expression was calm and distant, revealing a faint trace of helplessness.
Ever since the three Venerables' attempt to ambush Ghostly Soul Demon Venerable had failed due to Fang Yuan's interference, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had returned to the Northern Plains to diligently refine the Fortune Dao Marks here.
Over this period of time, the results had been remarkable.
He had now completed his plan — the Fortune Dao Marks throughout the heartland of the Northern Plains had all been refined by him, and the coverage of Fortune Dao Marks overlapped the Wisdom Dao Marks that Star Constellation Immortal Venerable had previously refined, neutralizing the advantage she had established in this region.
Although there was nothing Giant Sun Immortal Venerable could do about the Wisdom Dao Marks Star Constellation Immortal Venerable had already refined, at least from now on when fighting here, Star Constellation would receive a boost from the Wisdom Dao Marks, and so would he. He would not lose home-field advantage.
"But my Immortal Essence is running low," Giant Sun Immortal Venerable sighed inwardly.
The act of refining natural Dao Marks itself consumed Ninth Transformation Immortal Essence at an alarming rate.
When he had first begun, he was only refining the Fortune Dao Marks in his immediate surroundings — like weaving a spherical, three-dimensional web. Starting from a single point, it expanded into a small sphere, then grew into a large one.
As the sphere of his web expanded, it contacted more and more Dao Marks, and the amount of Immortal Essence required to refine these Fortune Dao Marks grew proportionally more terrifying.
Now, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had only a little over a hundred Yellow Apricot Immortal Essence left. This forced him to halt — his reserves had hit the warning line, and he needed to keep some on hand for emergencies.
Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's current Ninth Transformation Immortal Aperture could produce Yellow Apricot Immortal Essence, and this was his only source for replenishing his supply.
Longevity Heaven would not work.
Although Longevity Heaven had not absorbed any fragments of the Nine Heavens and had not been corrupted by Heavenly Will, after Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's death, it had been unable to produce Giant Sun Immortal Essence.
Now that Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had revived, his true Venerable-grade Immortal Aperture was the one on his person — it had not yet endured even a single Chaos Tribulation.
Moreover, this second Immortal Aperture of Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had only just been established and developed. It was not particularly prosperous, and the amount of Immortal Essence its origin could produce was not all that impressive.
Unless Giant Sun Immortal Venerable absorbed Longevity Heaven back into his body right now, but doing so would cause the Fortune Dao Marks on him to surge violently, directly eliminating any possibility of cultivating the Blood Path alongside it.
"I must develop the Blood Path to a certain scale first before I can reclaim the foundations of my previous life. This is the growing pain of development, and I must endure it. Cultivating the Blood Path alongside my primary path is of tremendous help in the clashes between Venerables."
"Fortunately, if my Immortal Essence is lacking, the other two Venerables must be in an even worse state." Giant Sun Immortal Venerable smiled.
He had always felt that he held an advantage when it came to Immortal Essence.
Although he could not continue refining Fortune Dao Marks for the time being, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable was far from idle. While waiting for his Immortal Essence to regenerate, he began contemplating the Blood Path.
Blood Sea Ancestor's true identity was that of Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's clone.
Blood Sea Ancestor had pioneered the Blood Path. After his death, he left behind countless Blood Path legacies. The vast majority were merely mortal Gu or mortal-level killer moves, but there were also nine true inheritances at the Immortal Gu level — these were essentially the pinnacle of the Blood Path at that time.
The nine inheritances were: Blood Skull Gu, Blood Handprint Gu, Blood Breath Gu, Blood Sweat Gu, Essence Blood Gu, Blood Shadow Gu, Blood Battle Gu, Blood God Child Gu, and the methods for taming and enslaving the primordial ancient beast, the Wrathful Blood Dragon Bat.
Unfortunately, Blood Sea Ancestor had been targeted by the Heavenly Court during his lifetime, and his posthumous legacies suffered the same fate — heavily damaged and scattered.
Thankfully, Blood Sea Ancestor had left behind countless mortal-grade legacies, and more than half of the nine true inheritances had still served their purpose.
The person who obtained the most true inheritances was Shang Yanfei, a Southern Border Gu Immortal.
In his youth, he had discovered the Blood Handprint Immortal Gu in the Blood Tide Sinkhole of the Southern Border, and later had indirectly obtained the Blood Shadow Gu true inheritance.
The Northern Plains' Essence Blood Immortal Gu true inheritance had been obtained by Dongfang Changfan.
The Western Desert's Blood Breath Immortal Gu true inheritance had been obtained by Qi Jue Demon Immortal.
The true inheritance concerning the primordial ancient beast Wrathful Blood Dragon Bat had been obtained by the Shadow Sect, ultimately falling into Song Zixing's hands.
The Central Continent's Blood God Child Immortal Gu true inheritance had been fought over by the Ten Great Ancient Sects and heavily damaged. The remnant recipe for Blood God Child Immortal Gu ultimately ended up in the hands of the Myriad Dragon Dock, one of the Ten Great Ancient Sects.
Of the remaining three true inheritances, the Blood Skull Immortal Gu inheritance had been destroyed due to the shifts of heaven and earth and a volcanic eruption. The Blood Sweat Gu had been mysteriously taken and had never resurfaced — perhaps the person who took it had met with an accident. And the Blood Battle Gu true inheritance had been accidentally destroyed by an ancient primordial beast.
After Giant Sun Immortal Venerable revived, he immediately confiscated all the Blood Path achievements from the major golden tribes of the Northern Plains. Longevity Heaven itself also possessed some results.
Then, he immediately ordered Di Ji Zi Gan Ni to fully devote himself to refining Immortal Gu, and obtained several Blood Path Immortal Gu.
However, only the Blood Battle Immortal Gu was among them.
Of the remaining seven Immortal Gu, all except the Blood God Child Immortal Gu had been attempted. The results only confirmed that these Immortal Gu did indeed exist in the world.
Having no other choice, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had been forced to use the Counterfeit Gu, temporarily transforming it into Bloodline Gu. Only then was he barely able to set up the Blood Path grand formation, which ultimately helped him successfully revive in the struggle of the Mad Demon Lair.
"The realm of the Blood Path has been completely digested by me, and my Blood Path attainment has now reached Supreme Grandmaster! But…"
There were far too few Blood Path Immortal Gu!