Hei Lou Lan's tribulation gave Fang Yuan a vague premonition that a great battle was brewing.
Hei Cheng was a veteran Seventh Transformation Gu Immortal whose combat strength far exceeded Fang Yuan's. Xue Song Zi, who held dominion over the seventh branch peak of the Great Snowy Mountain, was no pushover either.
Even without Hei Cheng and Xue Song Zi stirring up trouble, the tribulation for the Great Strength True Martial Body would have been far more devastating than what ordinary people faced.
After returning to the Fox Immortal's Blessed Land, Fang Yuan immediately set to work, preparing for war with everything he had.
If he wanted to boost his combat power as much as possible in a short time, he needed to focus on four areas: immortal essence, killer moves, immortal Gu, and personal combat expertise.
Fang Yuan's personal combat expertise was already formidable, and it would be difficult to improve it in a short time.
To increase his combat power, he could only work on the other three aspects.
First, Fang Yuan took stock of his assets.
Because of his Fortune Transfer with Ye Fan, Fang Yuan had made the round trip to the Southern Border, consuming two Green Grape Immortal Essences in the process and leaving him with seventeen.
Clearly, this number was far from enough for a major battle. According to Fang Yuan's memories from his previous life, consuming dozens of immortal essences in a single battle was routine — sometimes even over a hundred.
Fang Yuan also possessed a great many immortal Gu, so replenishing his Green Grape Immortal Essences was urgent.
And for Fang Yuan, there was only one method to replenish Green Grape Immortal Essences — refining Immortal Yuan Stones. He had only eleven and a half Immortal Yuan Stones left.
Fang Yuan descended into the underground cavern and once again came face to face with Zhi Hui Gu.
"Zhi Hui Gu, I've brought you something fun this time," he greeted.
In the Record of the Human Ancestor, Zhi Hui Gu could communicate normally with the Human Ancestor. But legendary tales were not without their hyperbole.
Fang Yuan couldn't be sure either.
Regardless, Zhi Hui Gu remained silent, though its Wisdom Halo flickered a few times.
Fang Yuan smiled faintly.
Based on his prior experience dealing with Zhi Hui Gu, seeing the Wisdom Halo flicker told him that it had agreed.
And so, he planted the King Spirit Mushroom Heart he had pilfered right then and there.
In just a few breaths, the ground split open as mushroom-shaped spirit fungi sprouted and grew at a pace visible to the naked eye, eventually reaching the height of stools and chairs.
It couldn't be helped. The soil of the Fox Immortal's Blessed Land was different from the valley of the Academy of Myriad Saints, and was not suited for the growth of a mushroom forest.
This was already the limit of the mushroom forest's growth.
Fang Yuan didn't mind. It had only been a casual gesture to begin with, and he settled himself onto one of the spirit fungi.
The spirit fungus trembled violently several times but actually managed to bear the enormous weight of Fang Yuan's Immortal Zombie body. The cavern had been completely bare before, but now it was no longer so monotonous. Zhi Hui Gu was like a curious infant, spiraling and fluttering among the low mushroom grove. At first it was cautious, but before long, the trajectory of its flight revealed a joyful emotion, much like a child who had discovered a new toy.
"Zhi Hui Gu, it's time to get to work," Fang Yuan said after watching for a while.
Zhi Hui Gu landed on top of a spirit fungus and once again expanded its Wisdom Halo, enveloping Fang Yuan within.
Fang Yuan silently activated his Joy of Mountains and Waters Gu and began calculating the incomplete immortal Gu recipes.
Seven days later, he had fully succeeded, perfecting three more incomplete immortal Gu recipes. Using the Star Gate, he completed the exchange with Lang Ya Earth Spirit and obtained forty Immortal Yuan Stones.
According to their prior pricing, perfecting a ninety-percent-complete recipe earned ten Immortal Yuan Stones, while perfecting an eighty-percent-complete recipe earned twenty.
Of the recipes Fang Yuan had completed this time, two were ninety percent complete and one was eighty-nine percent complete.
Not every incomplete immortal Gu recipe in Lang Ya Earth Spirit's possession was ninety percent complete — most had much lower completion rates.
Although Fang Yuan received more Immortal Yuan Stones each time, calculating recipes with lower completion rates consumed more Green Grape Immortal Essence as well. On the whole, each transaction with Lang Ya Earth Spirit yielded a net profit of around twenty-six Immortal Yuan Stones.
Back in the Fox Immortal's Blessed Land, the land spirit Little Fox Fairy delivered good news: it seemed a Gu Immortal in Treasure Yellow Heaven had unexpectedly stumbled upon the remains of a Six-Headed Giant Serpent. The remains had already been cleaned up, sorted by category, and put up for sale in Treasure Yellow Heaven.
Upon hearing this, Fang Yuan immediately activated his Divine Sense Gu to communicate with Treasure Yellow Heaven, contacting the selling Gu Immortal under his identity as the Eight-Armed Immortal.
The Calamity-attracting Immortal Gu in his possession needed the black blood of a desolate beast Six-Headed Giant Serpent for nourishment.
But after looking through the stall, Fang Yuan found that while there was skin, meat, bone, eyeballs, and serpent sinew, the black blood of the Six-Headed Giant Serpent was conspicuously absent.
"When I stumbled upon this desolate beast carcass, nearly a hundred years had already passed since the Six-Headed Giant Serpent's death. The serpent's black blood had all drained away. My apologies." That was the selling Gu Immortal's reply.
Fang Yuan examined the Six-Headed Giant Serpent's remains and confirmed that the Gu Immortal's words were truthful — it was exactly as he had said.
But Fang Yuan was not discouraged, and still decided to purchase the Six-Headed Giant Serpent's skeleton.
The Six-Headed Giant Serpent was a desolate beast whose combat strength rivaled a Sixth Transformation Gu Immortal. Its entire body was treasure, all usable for refining Gu.
Fang Yuan made a bold move and bought the entire skeleton outright, spending three Immortal Yuan Stones.
Hidden within the bones was marrow capable of producing blood. In his previous life, Fang Yuan had been a master of the Blood Path, and his greatest skill was extracting blood. With this skeleton, the food supply for his Calamity-attracting Immortal Gu was secured.