Refining the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building sounded like a wild fantasy at first, but it was far from an impossible dream.
In fact, Fang Yuan was not the "first" person to refine the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.
Five hundred years ago in his previous life, when the Central Continent Gu Immortals had broken through the Royal Court Blessed Land, they had first sent Gu Masters to infiltrate the Treasured Archive Pavilion of the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.
After the operation succeeded, they stored the entire process within Gu Insects, then broadcast it to the world.
The Royal Court Blessed Land was the spiritual symbol of the Northern Plains Gu Masters, carrying extraordinary significance. The footage documenting the fall of the Royal Court Blessed Land circulated throughout the Five Regions — it not only showcased Central Continent's strength, but was also a vicious scheme designed to shatter the spiritual pillar of the Northern Plains Gu Masters!
More critically, this detailed footage served as irrefutable evidence that Immortal Venerable Giant Sun had plundered Northern Plains' Gu Insects for the benefit of his own descendants and bloodline!
Once the footage was released, the Northern Plains was shaken to its core, and public outrage surged.
Although the major golden tribes held the situation together, preventing the level of internal chaos the Central Continent Gu Immortals had anticipated, it had indeed created a Northern Plains rife with undercurrents and fractured loyalties.
Central Continent Gu Immortal Song Qiexing, after viewing this footage, had offered a penetrating assessment: "Once such footage spreads across the world, the fighting spirit of the Northern Plains will be freed from the cage of Immortal Venerable Giant Sun!"
Naturally, Fang Yuan had a deep impression of this footage.
After his rebirth, he had immediately recognized the tremendous value it held.
His trip to the Northern Plains was not solely for the purpose of healing Soul Wandering Mountain.
Fang Yuan's temperament was cautious — in all things, he considered defeat before contemplating victory.
"Where in this world is there such a thing as getting everything one wishes for? If Soul Wandering Mountain proves impossible to heal, then I can still find other means of compensation from within the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building."
The footage of the Central Continent Gu Immortals breaking through the Royal Court Blessed Land held immense reference value for Fang Yuan.
But this footage alone was not enough.
Fang Yuan could only see surface-level information from the footage. Fortunately, he had obtained first-hand intelligence from within the Lang Ya Blessed Land.
With theory now connected to practice, his confidence in refining the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building had increased substantially.
"With my current cultivation level, completely refining the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building is impossible. But I can refine a portion of it."
Fang Yuan saw his situation with perfect clarity.
He was merely a mortal Gu Master — to completely refine an Immortal Gu House, one needed to be at least an Eighth Transformation Gu Immortal.
Fang Yuan's plan was to refine only a part of the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.
Having endured countless ages, the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building had long since suffered wear and tear, riddled with hidden flaws. It was too grand, too vast — like an enormous wooden cage.
Compared to it, Fang Yuan was like a termite.
A single termite could not corrode an entire wooden cage. But it could gnaw away at the corners and edges. The difference in difficulty between the two was as vast as heaven and earth.
Before him, the "Visitors Go No Further" Stele glowed with a dim yellow light after Gu Insects were shot into it.
Fang Yuan seized the moment, extending both palms and channeling the True Essence from his Empty Orifices into it.
Simultaneously, his will followed the True Essence, infiltrating the interior of the stele.
A Gu Master's refinement of a Gu was the process of occupying the Gu's body with one's own will, and True Essence served as the ideal vehicle for this.
Fang Yuan's brows furrowed tightly as his mind plunged deep into concentration.
The "Visitors Go No Further" Stele was merely a component of the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.
The Eighty-Eight True Yang Building was an Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu — its scale was far too colossal.
The moment Fang Yuan's will entered it, it was as if he had been plunged into a vast darkness.
In this boundless expanse of darkness, there existed a presence like a sun. It emitted an extremely faint glow, its halo pulsing rhythmically like the rise and fall of breathing.
"Is this the will of Immortal Venerable Giant Sun?" Instantly, a hundred-and-twenty-thousand-fold sense of caution flooded Fang Yuan's heart.
The Eighty-Eight True Yang Building belonged to Immortal Venerable Giant Sun, and having been refined by him, it naturally contained his will within.
Though the true body of Immortal Venerable Giant Sun had long since perished, this remnant will had been lodged within the shell of the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, persisting through the ages.
"Such a will — truly vast and boundless. It makes me feel as though I'm facing a real sun. The power of an Immortal Venerable is beyond imagination, and this is only a small fraction of Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's will, one that has survived across such an immense span of time."
"Thankfully, this will has fallen into slumber. If I act carefully, I shouldn't disturb it. I absolutely must not wake it — otherwise, those two Gu Immortals from the Central Continent footage in my previous life, whose very souls were scattered, would become my fate."
The vast, limitless dark space represented the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building itself.
The remnant will of Immortal Venerable Giant Sun — enormous as a blazing sun — sat enthroned at the center, steeped in slumber, radiating a faint glow.
And Fang Yuan's will, compared to it, was no larger than a sesame seed. It too emitted a feeble light, lurking at the outermost edge of the darkness.
Fang Yuan ceaselessly channeled True Essence, cautious and deliberate.
As True Essence infiltrated the "Visitors Go No Further" Stele, the will he poured into the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building grew ever greater.
In the dark corner, the light representing Fang Yuan expanded steadily, gradually pushing back the surrounding darkness and claiming its own small territory.
Time dripped away, second by second.
Fang Yuan moved with painstaking care, beads of sweat slowly forming on his forehead.
"I never expected this stele to be so difficult to refine. My two Fifth Transformation Peak-stage Empty Orifices, with double ninety-percent True Essence, are barely enough. If not for the Heaven's Essence Treasure King Lotus I just obtained, this would have required considerably more effort."