Over a month had passed since Ge Yao's death, and her family finally discovered it.
When news reached them, many members of the Ge family wept. Though Ge Yao had been difficult at times, she was kind-hearted at heart — the flower of the Ge clan, loved by all. She had numerous admirers within the family.
"My daughter… it was your father who害了你…' — The old Ge Patriarch was so grief-stricken that he fell gravely ill.
Ge Guang took over the patriarch's duties in his stead, with the other Elders assisting. While the entire Ge clan was cloaked in mourning, their mood was even heavier than simple grief.
Ge Yao's death carried enormous consequences. The second son of the Man Family Patriarch, Man Duo, had fallen in love with Ge Yao at first sight and had been demanding her hand from the Ge family for some time. Now that Ge Yao was dead, how could the Ge family produce her?
The Man Family was a large tribe that had been expanding aggressively in recent years, swallowing up numerous smaller families one after another. Several victorious battles had inflated the morale of the Man clan to bursting, and they looked upon the declining Ge family with even greater arrogance. In multiple rounds of negotiation, they pressured Ge Guang relentlessly.
The Ge family was a clan that had migrated here — they had never been as large as the Man tribe to begin with, and having lost their homeland, they were trying to shelter under another's roof, depending on Red Flame Valley during the great blizzard. Ge Guang was in an agonizingly被动 position, truly at his wit's end.
…
In the room, Fang Yuan sat cross-legged on the bed, his eyes slightly open.
In his right palm rested a Wolf Soul Gu.
This Gu was only about the size of a thumb, resembling a small grey cloth doll in the shape of a wolf, silently emanating a faint blue glow.
"This is the ninth Wolf Soul Gu." Fang Yuan immediately channeled his True Essence into it, and the Wolf Soul Gu swelled at once. In just a few breaths, it transformed into a grey-white wolf spirit.
The wolf spirit opened its mouth and let out a silent howl, then charged toward Fang Yuan's body.
The collision was utterly silent, yet to Fang Yuan it felt as though both body and soul shook. His vision blurred with dizziness.
The wolf spirit crashed directly into his soul. His original human-shaped Hundred-Person Soul churned violently, losing its human form. It tangled with the wolf spirit, forming a rolling cloud of soul mist.
The soul mist did not dissipate outward; it roiled ceaselessly within Fang Yuan's body. At times a wolf's head or tail emerged from it, and at other times it took on Fang Yuan's own shape.
Half a cup of tea later, the soul mist settled and reformed into a human soul.
But this human soul had changed.
Fang Yuan's original Hundred-Person Soul had been modeled entirely on his former appearance — ears, nose, and eyes all identical to the real thing. But after being refined nine times with the Wolf Soul Gu, the Hundred-Person Soul, while still broadly human in shape, now sported a pair of wolf ears atop its head. Its hair, longer than in reality, cascaded down to the waist, and its eyes had become wild, feral wolf pupils. The entire frame was leaner, the nose sharper and more prominent.
His original Hundred-Person Soul had been massive, nearly bursting out of his skin. Now it was far more condensed. The soul's color had shifted from its original pallor to a deeper grey-white.
Fang Yuan estimated that once he had used up all the remaining Wolf Soul Gu, the refinement of his Hundred-Person Soul would be roughly at its limit.
At that point, his entire soul would take on a half-human, half-wolf form — commonly known as a Werewolf Soul.
A Werewolf Soul was several times more powerful than the original Hundred-Person Soul.
With a Werewolf Soul, Fang Yuan could further expand his soul capacity, upgrading from a Hundred-Person Soul to a Thousand-Person Soul, or even a Ten-Thousand-Person Soul.
Of course, a Ten-Thousand-Person Soul was by no means the endpoint. Above that lay Hundred-Million-Person Souls and beyond.
"Theoretically, the soul can grow infinitely stronger. The Phantom Soul Demon Venerable, who founded the Soul Path in ancient times, possessed a soul that absolutely surpassed a Hundred-Million-Person Soul! His Demon Venerable soul had a thousand arms, a thousand hands, and three heads. The front-facing head bore dragon horns, a lion's mane, serpentine eyes, and ivory tusks. The left head had a peach-shaped forehead, grass-like hair, and three eyes blossoming like flowers. The right head featured cloud-like temples, lightning-bright eyes, flaming ears, and a golden mouth. Its power was beyond imagination, its might boundless. To this day, this image is still venerated and worshiped by countless people. In the Southern Border alone, many mortals sculpt clay effigies in its likeness to pay homage and make offerings."
The Phantom Soul Demon Venerable's soul was, without question, the greatest that had ever existed. Fang Yuan's current Werewolf Soul was nothing more than an ant beneath a giant's foot by comparison — it still needed to grow and grow.
After resting briefly, Fang Yuan took out a Ten Jun Strength Gu.
This Gu resembled an iron counterweight, remarkably heavy in the hand.
Fang Yuan had purchased a total of five Ten Jun Strength Gu. He had now used the third one, bringing his physical strength up to twenty Jun — equivalent to six hundred jin of force.
The Fourth Transformation Ten Jun Strength Gu was somewhat weaker in effect compared to a Beast Strength Gu of the same transformation level, but its advantage lay in its stackability.
Previously, Fang Yuan had used one Kunlun Ox Strength Gu, which granted him the beast-force phantom of a Kunlun Ox. However, when he used a second Kunlun Ox Strength Gu, it had no effect — it would not produce an identical second beast-force phantom.
The Jun Strength Gu, on the other hand, had no such limitation. It could be stacked continuously until it reached the body's physical limit.
Of course, though Fang Yuan possessed six hundred jin of strength, he naturally did not unleash his full power in daily life.
The common drawback of the Strength Path still applied to the Jun Strength Gu. Otherwise, the Overlord Immortal Chu Du would not have been called "the last glow of the Strength Path" but rather "the rise of the Strength Path."
That said, identical Beast Strength Gu could also be stacked to amplify force — they simply required an additional Beast Embryo Gu to do so.
There were quite a few inherited recipes for the Beast Embryo Gu. Even so, the refining materials were scarce in the current era. The cost of refining was too high, and the success rate could not compare to that of the Jun Strength Gu, so it had gradually fallen out of use.