From its appearance, this was a unicorn beetle.
Fang Yuan held it in the center of his palm, feeling its weight as heavy as stone.
Its broad carapace and thick head both gave off an impression of robust strength. The high, forked horn jutting upward resembled a long spear thrust toward the sky.
A Law Path Seventh Transformation Immortal Gu — Dou!
This Immortal Gu was Fang Yuan's primary harvest from this expedition.
Thanks to his status as the new master of Shadow Sect, Fang Yuan had quickly refined this Gu and stored it within his immortal aperture.
There was another Immortal Gu as well.
Only Sixth Transformation, belonging to Earth Path, it was called Huangsha — Yellow Sand.
This Immortal Gu resembled a ladybug in shape, with six natural yellow star-like dots painted across its round, plump carapace.
Using the Seventh Transformation Immortal Gu Dou and the Sixth Transformation Immortal Gu Huangsha as cores, along with a host of mortal Gu, combined with the abundant earth energy in the underground cavern and the Earth Path Dao marks, the Western Desert Zombie Alliance branch had constructed a Gu formation for protection.
However, now that Fang Yuan had taken all these Gu insects into his possession, the formation crumbled apart, collapsing with a thunderous crash.
Fang Yuan then took a brief look at the storage within Corpse Land City.
Inside the mortal Gu houses, there were large quantities of immortal materials.
The rarest was Cold Moon Divine Essence — a Seventh Transformation immortal material formed from the condensation of moonlight essence at the very heart of the desert over tens of thousands of years.
Even in the Bao Huang Heaven, it was priceless and unavailable at any price.
The quantity was extremely scarce, and even those Eighth Transformation Gu Immortals possessed very little of it.
The most abundant material was a Sixth Transformation immortal material called Phosphorescent Wood. This wood grew within the Ghostly Desert, the very territory controlled by the Western Desert Zombie Alliance branch.
The quantity of Phosphorescent Wood was enormous — the accumulated result of many years by the Western Desert Zombie Alliance branch.
"From just this single glimpse, one can gauge the tremendous wealth that Shadow Sect once possessed!"
"What a pity — Shadow Sect invested far too much in refining the Supreme Immortal Zombie Gu. After the Battle of Yitian Mountain, the remaining remnants suffered suppression and pursuit from the Heavenly Will, Heavenly Court, and myself."
Fang Yuan sighed inwardly.
The Shadow Sect remnants — Ying Wuxie and the others — had already visited the Zombie Alliance branches in nearly every other region. The Zombie Alliance treasures in Central Continent, Northern Plains, and Southern Border had all been depleted.
The Zombie Alliance headquarters in the Eastern Sea had been captured and firmly controlled by the Eastern Sea Gu Immortal community.
Now the final Western Desert cache had also been taken by Fang Yuan.
This was the greatest fortune Shadow Sect had left in the world.
Beyond these, there were only scattered miscellaneous items. What else in the Western Desert caught Fang Yuan's attention were two resource points similar to Jade Pot Mountain — sites that Shadow Sect had secretly cultivated, and which appeared to have harbored wild Immortal Gu.
Within the underground cavern, Fang Yuan and Fairy Miaoyin waited for a short while.
A white-robed figure phased through the walls — it was none other than the dragon girl Bai Ningbing.
She was cold as an iceberg, her white robes pristine as snow, not a speck of dust upon her. In her hand she held a prisoner.
It was none other than the previous Fairy Cuibo!
At this moment, she had been frozen into an icicle, eyes tightly shut, her entire body coated in a thick layer of frost, completely motionless, utterly at Bai Ningbing's mercy.
Bai Ningbing had actually captured Fairy Cuibo alive.
This result drew effusive praise from Fairy Miaoyin, and even Fang Yuan's eyes lit up.
Though Bai Ningbing's cultivation was only at the Sixth Transformation, her combat strength was genuinely at the Seventh Transformation — and she was no mere average Seventh Transformation fighter either.
One of the Ten Absolute Bodies — the Northern Abyss Ice Soul Body — paired with the White Aspect True Inheritance, had produced effects several times greater than either alone!
More critically, Bai Ningbing herself was someone who feared neither death nor danger, a person of extraordinary talent.
Back in Southern Border, she had fought one against three, killing two and gravely wounding the third — a truly formidable record. Now she had single-handedly captured a Seventh Transformation Gu Immortal alive. In terms of combat strength among Fang Yuan's allies, she was unquestionably the second strongest, behind only Fang Yuan himself.
"Now that you've captured Fairy Cuibo, there's no rush to kill her and devour her immortal aperture," Fang Yuan mused silently.
First, this location was saturated with earth energy, devoid of heavenly energy — it was inherently unsuitable for dropping an immortal aperture.
The Sixth Transformation Gu Immortal Insect Yao who had died defending the formation earlier had seen both her aperture and corpse dissolve into sand and mud, entirely without value.
Fang Yuan himself was not hungry — he had not yet reached the point where he needed to consume an aperture.
The critical point was that Fairy Cuibo was connected to the Eighth Transformation Gu Immortal Ancestor Qianbian. Perhaps she could be used to alleviate some of the Heavenly Will's schemes.
"Since you've captured her, keep her imprisoned in your immortal aperture for now," Fang Yuan said to Bai Ningbing.
Bai Ningbing nodded.
She had no path of retreat either. Hunted by Heavenly Court and Southern Border, and needing Shadow Sect's assistance to refine Immortal Gu, she could only continue cooperating with Fang Yuan.
Hei Loulan also returned.
There was a trace of blood on her body: "I burned that boy to ash. His immortal aperture is finished as well. Additionally, the commotion of battle attracted a group of Western Desert Gu Immortals. I didn't engage — I retreated first. Judging from their auras, they shouldn't be ordinary."
Fang Yuan nodded.
Though Hei Loulan had not ascended to immortality long ago, her perspective had been raised considerably.
If she judged them as not ordinary, these Western Desert Gu Immortals were likely powerful figures among the Seventh Transformation.
But then again, this was to be expected.
The Western Desert Zombie Alliance branch had been a superpower. It was only natural that its hidden treasures would attract numerous Western Desert Gu Immortals to explore. Superpowers would take notice — and one mustn't forget that the Heavenly Will was secretly pulling strings from the shadows, fanning the flames.
"We leave now," Fang Yuan began to say, but before his words had even fallen, three figures drilled into the cavern from the left, the right, and above.
"Fellow Immortal, you think you can simply take the Zombie Alliance's treasures and walk right out? That's a bit too optimistic, isn't it?" To his left stood a slender young Gu Immortal draped in feathers of every color, laughing in a shrill voice.