"Master, you're finally back!" The little fox fairy had been waiting by the star gate for some time. The moment she spotted Fang Yuan's figure, she leaped in front of him, grabbed his thigh with both arms, and nuzzled her adorable apple-cheeked face against him again and again.
"Heh heh, you've worked hard these days while I was away." A gentle smile surfaced on Fang Yuan's face as he reached out and softly patted the little fox fairy's head.
A pair of fox ears on her head trembled slightly, and a look of bliss spread across her features. A snow-white fox tail behind her plump little bottom began to sway gently.
"A land spirit? Then this place must be a blessed land!" Tai Bai Yun Sheng followed right behind, stepping through the star gate, and upon seeing the little fox fairy, he couldn't help but be startled.
He had clearly heard the little fox fairy call Fang Yuan "Master."
Fang Yuan was merely a mortal, yet he already possessed a blessed land! There had been figures throughout history who shared a similar fortune. The most famous among them was Giant Sun Immortal Venerable. Even while still a mortal, he had luckily inherited the Royal Court Blessed Land. From then on, throughout his cultivation, the Royal Court Blessed Land had provided Giant Sun Immortal Venerable tremendous assistance.
"Ha ha, this Central Continent blessed land is called the Fox Immortal's Blessed Land. I accepted my master's order and seized it by force from several Central Continent sects," Fang Yuan replied, his bearing proud and lofty.
Instantly, Tai Bai Yun Sheng's gaze shifted once more.
There had always been a vast divide between immortals and mortals, yet now he truly regarded Fang Yuan with an equal's eye. He couldn't help but ask, "I imagine the process of seizing this blessed land was quite harrowing?"
"Of course. Looking back on it now, I still feel a bit of lingering fear." Fang Yuan laughed heartily. "But then again, the victor takes all, the loser perishes — it's all quite simple. I obtained the blessed land and emerged the final winner. The greater the risk, the greater the reward!"
Tai Bai Yun Sheng nodded, inwardly marveling: The reward is far beyond enormous!
A blessed land with a land spirit was nothing less than the immortal orifice of a fallen Gu Immortal. To possess such a blessed land meant inheriting the fallen immortal's legacy and continuing the path of cultivation!
At the same time, Tai Bai Yun Sheng's impression of Fang Yuan's penchant for bold risk-taking deepened yet another layer.
"Master, who is he? His aura is so powerful." The little fox fairy caught sight of Tai Bai Yun Sheng and sensed the immortal Gu aura radiating from him. Her little hands tightened involuntarily, clutching Fang Yuan's trousers, her expression turning somewhat tense and wary.
"Relax, he's one of us. He's come to help us revive Soul-Swaying Mountain," Fang Yuan reassured the little fox fairy. "Now take us to Soul-Swaying Mountain."
At these words, the little fox fairy's eyes lit up. She believed every word her master said without reservation.
She immediately dropped her guard, led Fang Yuan and Tai Bai Yun Sheng along, and the three vanished from where they stood.
In the next instant, Fang Yuan and Tai Bai Yun Sheng were transported to the center of the blessed land, where they beheld Soul-Swaying Mountain.
Soul-Swaying Mountain had been ravaged by Harmony Mud, corroded beyond recognition. The towering, majestic mountain that once stood here had been reduced to a small earthen mound.
The Soul-Swaying Palace, which had been carved out from within the mountain in days past, had of course long since been destroyed.
"Master, if you'd come any later, you would never have seen Soul-Swaying Mountain again," the little fox fairy said, her voice sorrowful.
Fang Yuan gently stroked her little head, then turned to face Tai Bai Yun Sheng.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng was a perceptive man. Observing this scene and piecing together Fang Yuan's earlier words, he quickly deduced why Fang Yuan had brought him here.
He gave Fang Yuan a slow nod, then withdrew the Rivers and Mountains As Before Gu from his Empty Orifice.
Instantly, the overwhelming aura of an immortal Gu flooded the surrounding space.
"What is this?" The little fox fairy widened her sparkling eyes — this was her first time seeing the Rivers and Mountains As Before Gu.
The Gu resembled a ladybug, about the size of a fist, its entire body the color of jade.
Its round, plump shell bore natural patterns. Half of the patterns wound and intertwined, depicting rivers, lakes, and seas. The other half rose in steep, layered strokes, depicting hills, ridges, and peaks.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng let out a soft cry, and a green grape immortal essence transformed into a streak of light, pouring into the Rivers and Mountains As Before Gu in the blink of an eye.
The immortal Gu erupted with an earth-rushing jade-green radiance, its brilliance reaching ten thousand zhang, blinding to behold.
The radiance enveloped the ruined Soul-Swaying Mountain.
The Harmony Mud coating the mountain's surface immediately ceased its activity under the jade light. The power of the Harmony Mud Immortal Gu was rapidly neutralized, vanishing entirely.
As the jade light gradually dimmed, Tai Bai Yun Sheng fed in a second green grape immortal essence.
The jade light rallied, washing over the wretched remains of Soul-Swaying Mountain in a ceaseless torrent.
The small hillock that was Soul-Swaying Mountain grew taller under the radiance's infusion, swelling before their very eyes at a visible pace.
"Soul-Swaying Mountain is coming back!" The little fox fairy clapped her little hands, leaping with joy and laughing happily.
But the good fortune didn't last. Soul-Swaying Mountain had only recovered twenty percent of its former glory when the jade light weakened once more.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng's expression shifted slightly. "What kind of mountain is this? It's consuming green grape immortal essence at this rate!"
When he had ascended to immortality, he had generated thirty-six green grape immortal essences. But afterward, he had expended one while furiously activating his movement Gu to continuously dodge within the Chaotic Lightning Spheres. He had also burned three more to fend off the heavenly tribulation and earthly disaster that brewed after his immortal Gu formed, using the Rivers and Mountains As Before Gu to restore his immortal orifice to its former state.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng knew full well how precious immortal essence was. He had barely begun restoring Soul-Swaying Mountain, and he had already spent two immortal essence.
If this rate kept up, it would take at least five or six green grape immortal essences!
Fang Yuan smiled. "Soul-Swaying Mountain."
"Soul-Swaying Mountain?" Tai Bai Yun Sheng finally heard clearly, and this time his expression changed drastically. His eyes widened as he exclaimed in shock, "Could it be?"
"Could there be a second Soul-Swaying Mountain in the world?" Fang Yuan's smile deepened.
"I never imagined I'd actually lay eyes on the legendary Soul-Swaying Mountain! This is the very soul cultivation sanctuary that Dark Phantom Demon Venerable himself praised endlessly." Tai Bai Yun Sheng sighed with boundless emotion, his admiration unceasing.
Even for him, this was his first time seeing such a legendary artifact.
He glanced at Fang Yuan, and Tai Bai Yun Sheng's gaze underwent yet another subtle shift.
He said nothing. In silence, he deployed a third immortal essence and continued channeling the Rivers and Mountains As Before Gu.
This time, Soul-Swaying Mountain recovered to forty percent of its former state before the jade light failed again.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng used his fourth and fifth green grape immortal essences, then his sixth, and only then was Soul-Swaying Mountain finally restored to its full glory.
"Truly worthy of being Soul-Swaying Mountain — it consumed a full six of my green grape immortal essences to complete the restoration." Tai Bai Yun Sheng gazed up at the towering mountain before him, murmuring to himself.
Soul-Swaying Mountain was breathtakingly beautiful, utterly beyond comparison with any ordinary stone or mundane peak.
It was a crystalline mountain, its entire body a soft pink, emanating an ethereal, dreamlike glow that once seen could never be forgotten.
"M-Master, Soul-Swaying Mountain's illness is finally healed." The little fox fairy's eyes reddened, and she began to sob. "Wuu wuu wuu..."
Tears of joy streamed down her face. She lowered her head and kept wiping her tears with the backs of her delicate, pink-white little hands.
Fang Yuan gazed at Soul-Swaying Mountain and released a long, turbid breath.
With this, his objective in infiltrating the Northern Plains had finally been achieved!
Countless days and nights of effort, the dangers of battlefield maneuvers, meticulous disguises, and painstaking scheming — none of it had been in vain.
Now, a towering inferno of ambition burned within Fang Yuan's heart.
This raging fire had a name, and that name was ambition.
A fully restored Soul-Swaying Mountain could no longer satisfy his appetite. Within the Royal Court Blessed Land, there remained another opportunity!
Especially now, with Giant Sun's will shut out of the building, the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building was essentially unclaimed territory.
Empty Feelings and False Intentions Gu might be an immortal Gu, difficult to capture, but Fang Yuan had deployed his silver tongue and successfully earned Tai Bai Yun Sheng's trust. He had secured a crucial combatant who could tip the scales.
When the time came, leveraging an immortal's will to forcibly refine the Empty Feelings and False Intentions Gu — it was not an impossible feat.
"Let's go. Back to the Northern Plains." Fang Yuan came and went swiftly, departing the Fox Immortal's Blessed Land with Tai Bai Yun Sheng.
Before leaving, he entrusted the Soul-Devouring Toad to the little fox fairy.