Eastern Sea.
Fang Yuan exhaled a long breath of turbid qi.
"This time, I managed to keep it hidden once again."
Just moments ago, Star Constellation Immortal Venerable had activated a probing killer move to investigate Fang Yuan's true situation.
Heaven's Secret Confusion had proved its worth once more, helping Fang Yuan conceal the truth.
The Heavenly Dao…
Great Sun Immortal Venerable didn't understand the Heavenly Dao, and that was one thing. But Star Constellation Immortal Venerable had been fooled repeatedly — she was someone who had once merged with the Dao itself, influencing and even altering the Heavenly Will.
"She actually managed to be deceived by me. Is it because the Heavenly Dao is too profound, or because her resurrection carried hidden drawbacks — at the very least, she didn't inherit her previous life's mastery when it came to the Heavenly Dao?"
"The power behind Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's probe just now was stronger than anything before. The chances of her fully refining the Dao marks of Heavenly Court are quite high."
Fang Yuan merely speculated in silence. He didn't activate any detection methods of his own.
Instead, he examined his Supreme Immortal Grotto.
The Earth Dao veins had already reached the third ring.
The Wind Dao veins and the Flame Dao veins were also nearly complete — only a few more were needed to form the first complete ring.
Several rounds of Immortal Gu transactions in Treasure Yellow Heaven had yielded some resource points. The Fang family's contributions were the main factor; without them, progress wouldn't have been so significant.
The Western Desert's Flame Dao, Earth Dao, and Wind Dao marks were all outstanding, which meant the resource points for these three major Dao systems were plentiful.
The Fang family had been backed into a corner and was forced to cut its losses.
The Supreme Immortal Grotto had reaped great rewards, but this also kept it in a perpetually dangerous state.
Currently, Fang Yuan had already slowed the pace of acquiring Earth Dao resource points and shifted focus toward other Dao systems.
According to his calculations, he should first establish all the Dao veins to an initial stage — at least reaching the first ring. Once that was achieved, the effect on the overall stability of the Supreme Immortal Grotto would be immediate.
"The Supreme Immortal Grotto remains unstable. Anomalies occur frequently, and the Gu Immortals inside have already been pushed to their absolute limits. Even though I recently recruited six Mermaid Gu Immortals, it still isn't enough."
Over this period, several more Gu Immortals had burned through their vitality.
Fortunately, Fang Yuan had built the Healing Hall. Without it, the prolonged recovery time for injured Gu Immortals would have caused the situation inside the Supreme Immortal Grotto to collapse entirely — ultimately forcing Fang Yuan to intervene personally to suppress it.
"I need to bring in more Gu Immortal personnel."
It was true that a Venerable was invincible, but with three Venerables locked in a standoff, the situation was considerably more complex.
From the current outlook, the foremost task for all three Venerables was to refine the natural Dao marks.
But the scale of natural Dao marks across heaven and earth was terrifying. For the three Venerables to fully refine them all would take an enormously long time.
Great Sun Immortal Venerable, who had made the most progress so far, was still laboring over the Dao marks of the Northern Plains.
The three Venerables were nowhere near the stage of a decisive battle.
Because both Longevity Heaven and Heavenly Court had been refined, Great Sun Immortal Venerable and Star Constellation Immortal Venerable now possessed stable base camps. Even if the other Venerables joined forces, they wouldn't be able to form a sufficient advantage.
Before securing a sufficient advantage, rushing into a decisive battle would be extremely unwise.
The Venerables would not do such a thing.
Therefore, for the foreseeable future, all of the Venerables would need other Gu Immortals to assist them and handle tasks on their behalf.
Given this situation, ordinary Gu Immortals held considerable utility even for Venerables.
That value, during a standoff, was far from insignificant.
Fang Yuan was a Refinement Dao Venerable — any Immortal Gu of Eighth Transformation or below could be refined at will, and he could construct numerous Immortal Gu Houses. Yet even that couldn't replace Gu Immortals.
One need only look at the recent conflict against the Fang family to see that clearly.
What truly determined the outcome wasn't the Immortal Gu Houses, but Fang Gong and Wangu Chou.
For powerful Gu Immortals, once an Immortal Gu House's patterns were figured out, it became rigid and inflexible — easily countered.
Whether it was the Fang family's "Pull the Tiles" killer move or the Zuoqiu family's "Scattered Sand," both could neutralize Immortal Gu Houses.
So ultimately, it came down to people.
Gu were the true essence of heaven and earth, and humans were the spirit of all creation.
Having many Immortal Gu was certainly good, but the human factor was equally as important.
Fang Yuan needed a large number of Gu Immortal subordinates.
On one hand, during a standoff between Venerables, having a sufficient number of underlings would be extremely convenient — especially when refining natural Dao marks and unable to extricate himself.
On the other hand, managing the Supreme Immortal Grotto required a large number of Gu Immortals to suppress the anomalies.
Great Sun Immortal Venerable and Star Constellation Immortal Venerable also needed Gu Immortals.
On one hand, they could help the Venerables handle certain matters during the standoff. For instance, while Star Constellation Immortal Venerable was refining the Dao marks of Heavenly Court, Jun Shenguang had ventured deep into the two heavens to gather stars.
On the other hand, both Longevity Heaven and Heavenly Court were attempting to cultivate a second Venerable.
With Destiny Gu destroyed, it was entirely possible for a new Venerable to emerge. As for Great Sun Immortal Venerable and Star Constellation Immortal Venerable themselves, due to Dao mark repulsion, neither of them could possibly become the second Venerable.
But how could Fang Yuan increase his Gu Immortal manpower?
Recruiting Gu Immortals from the Five Regions would be the most convenient approach.
But this carried significant risks.
On one hand, these Gu Immortals might be sleeper agents carefully planted by other Venerables. Fang Yuan's earlier recruitment of six Mermaid Gu Immortals had already been a gamble.
If recruiting from the Five Regions, Fang Yuan would prefer non-human races.
After all, their natural stance was inherently opposed to Heavenly Court and Longevity Heaven.
Beyond recruiting external Gu Immortals, Fang Yuan's primary method was ascension.
He would cultivate his own Gu Immortals within the Supreme Immortal Grotto.
This approach had its pros and cons.
The advantage was that the loyalty of Gu Immortals could be more reliably ensured.
The disadvantage was that cultivating Gu Immortals took a long time. As the saying went, distant water cannot quench a nearby fire.