Eastern Sea.
Deep in the pitch-black ocean floor.
Fang Yuan concealed his true body's traces and secretly infiltrated this location.
A massive, semi-transparent bubble gradually came into view.
"This should be it," Fang Yuan thought, stopping in his tracks to examine it carefully.
This bubble had a rather unique formation. Undersea volcanic eruptions, the surrounding seawater, and a qi tide that had swept through in the past—all these factors had combined to create this hidden undersea world.
Flame Path, Earth Path, Water Path, and Qi Path—these four types of Dao Marks had woven together here to form a hidden paradise.
The location was extremely secluded. Unless a Gu Immortal stumbled upon it by accident, it would be nearly impossible to discover.
"I'll call it the Four-Path Bubble for now." Fang Yuan activated his investigative methods once more to verify the surrounding environment, then opened a sliver of his Grotto-Heaven portal and released a Gu Immortal.
This Gu Immortal had long, wavy pink hair—none other than Fang Yuan's Dream Path avatar, Meng Qiu Zhen.
Meng Qiu Zhen's cultivation level was still relatively low, but he specialized in the Dream Path.
This time, because the mission was unique, Fang Yuan had specifically dispatched him. Otherwise, Meng Qiu Zhen remained hidden deep within the Supreme Immortal Grotto-Heaven, spending the vast majority of his time in secluded cultivation researching the Dream Path, with only occasional outings to help stabilize the situation inside the Grotto-Heaven.
Fang Yuan employed his methods, carefully assisting Meng Qiu Zhen in entering the bubble smoothly.
After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Meng Qiu Zhen returned to the Supreme Immortal Grotto-Heaven.
He had succeeded.
He brought back a wild Zhi Hui Gu!
Zhi Hui Gu had once been at the Ninth Transformation, arranged by Giant Sun Immortal Venerable and given to Fang Yuan.
During the Destiny Destruction War, in order to fulfill the Red Lotus Grand Plan, Fang Yuan had been forced to use Zhi Hui Gu as one of the Gu Refining materials.
The Ninth Transformation Zhi Hui Gu perished as a result.
But the heavens operate with perfect justice—creation and destruction mirror each other. Driven by Heavenly Will, a wild Sixth Transformation Zhi Hui Gu soon appeared across the Five Regions.
And this Zhi Hui Gu was hidden inside this very bubble.
After using Heavenly Secret Stealing, Fang Yuan had learned the locations of many wild Immortal Gu, and Zhi Hui Gu stood at the very top of his harvest.
That was why he had not hesitated to act personally this time—to prevent any accidents and ensure the Zhi Hui Gu fell into his hands.
Everything matched the intelligence from Heavenly Secret Stealing perfectly.
Meng Qiu Zhen employed his Dream Path methods and easily subdued the Sixth Transformation Zhi Hui Gu.
Inside the great bubble, although it contained an undersea volcano and schools of deep-sea fish, there was nothing that posed a threat to Meng Qiu Zhen.
As for Fang Yuan, he had far too many Dao Marks on his body. He suspected that merely extending a hand into the bubble would likely burst it.
So for this task, using an avatar was the most convenient approach.
The Sixth Transformation Zhi Hui Gu was quickly refined by Fang Yuan.
Despite being a Zhi Hui Gu, Fang Yuan was a bona fide Refinement Path Venerable. Refining a mere wild Sixth Transformation Immortal Gu was effortless work.
For a Venerable, using Ninth Transformation Immortal Essence to refine an Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu was essentially effortless.
The truly difficult feat was refining a Ninth Transformation Immortal Gu.
Whether it was Star Constellation Immortal Venerable refining a Ninth Transformation Zhi Hui Gu in her first life, or Giant Sun Immortal Venerable failing to refine Love Gu—both were examples of this.
"After the Battle of Destiny, I never expected Zhi Hui Gu would fall into my hands once more. And this time, there's no longer Giant Sun Immortal Venerable pulling strings from within."
"This is a Zhi Hui Gu that belongs solely to me!"
A faint layer of joy rose in Fang Yuan's heart.
As for refining Zhi Hui Gu further, raising it back up to the Ninth Transformation?
Fang Yuan felt that was not an urgent priority.
With the Heavenly Secret Stealing killer move, after stealing intelligence from the Heavenly Will, Fang Yuan had vastly improved his shortcomings in Wisdom Path deduction and refinement, as well as Information Path intelligence gathering.
Having obtained Zhi Hui Gu, Fang Yuan secretly returned to his original position and resumed the pretense of continuing to refine the Eastern Sea's Refinement Path Dao Marks. Moreover, he would frequently pause to give others the impression that he was running low on Immortal Essence and barely hanging on.
He sent his spiritual sense into the Supreme Immortal Grotto-Heaven.
Recently, another major construction project inside the Grotto-Heaven had been successfully completed!
For this project, Fang Yuan had depleted all of his subordinates' related immortal material reserves. Among them, the Eastern Sea's Hua Family had contributed the most prominently, earning a considerable amount of merit.
As for the method of constructing the Brocade Clouds, Fang Yuan had finally managed to perfect it only after using Heavenly Secret Stealing to probe the depths of Heavenly Will's designs.
This vast expanse of Brocade Clouds spanned a full ten li in area, slowly drifting through the Small Nine Heavens.
At regular intervals, they would traverse from one heaven into another.
Brocade Clouds were immortal materials ranging from the Sixth to the Ninth Transformation.
The Brocade Clouds Fang Yuan currently possessed could be understood as a gathering of the same type of material—the Sixth Transformation made up the overwhelming majority, the Seventh Transformation accounted for roughly thirty percent, the Eighth Transformation less than ten percent, and the Ninth Transformation was virtually nonexistent.
And the feeding requirements for the Ninth Transformation Heavenly Secret Gu demanded massive quantities of Ninth Transformation Brocade Clouds.
Fang Yuan was still far from meeting the standard for even a single feeding.
But that was fine.
The higher a Gu's Transformation level, the lower its feeding frequency. Given the current overall situation, there was still a long time before the next feeding was due.