The mysterious Gu Immortal who arranged the inheritance of this earthen hill was absolutely a grandmaster of the Refinement Path. The entire Gu refinement process relied on the mighty power of the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, executed with both cleverness and boldness. Although Fang Yuan was overseeing the process, he was at best an assistant.
Refining Gu is difficult. Refining an Immortal Gu is even more difficult — as difficult as reaching the heavens!
But to use an analogy, this giant boulder had already been pushed to the mountaintop by the mysterious Gu Immortal. Fang Yuan merely needed to exert the final bit of strength, giving it a gentle push to send the boulder rolling down the peak, and the work would be done.
Wooh wooh wooh wooh...
The cave had turned into a vortex of black water. The vortex spun continuously, emitting strange sounds.
Then, first the tip of a pagoda slowly emerged, followed by the roof, the body, and finally the base. A brand new small pagoda, inside which seemed to contain countless wild Gu, was born from the vortex.
"Wonderful! The appearance of this small pagoda almost covers the last flaw. Even if someone comes here because of the commotion, they won't see anything suspicious." Fang Yuan clapped his hands in admiration.
However...
Although the pagoda was done, why hadn't the Immortal Gu appeared?
Fang Yuan's gaze slightly deepened as he noticed a bright light flickering within the small pagoda. There was also a faint connection in his heart linking him to it. He immediately understood that this was the prototype Immortal Gu.
He was about to use this connection to draw the Immortal Gu out.
Suddenly, the bright light shot out like an illusory shadow, speeding swiftly toward the southeast.
"What's going on?" Fang Yuan was startled. At this point, the four steps of Gu refinement — "Earth contains light, its radiance towering ten thousand zhang. A hundred-mile heavenly journey, plum blossoms praise the fragrance of snow" — had already been completed, and Fang Yuan had no knowledge of such a mutation.
"The Eighty-Eight True Yang Building has recondensed, and Hei Lou Lan is completely open. This is truly a masterful move. Logically, I should be heading into the building to break through the trials, that would only be natural..."
The prototype Immortal Gu had already flown far away. Fang Yuan looked at the Holy Palace and hesitated for a moment.
Although he was outside, he had already arranged his chess pieces. Both the Chang family and the Ge family were sending him real-time information.
The longer Fang Yuan stayed away from the Holy Palace, the more suspicion it would arouse. If someone came looking because they thought he was stuck and needed the Wolf King's power...
Transmitting messages also took time.
Fang Yuan didn't yet know that his enemy, Chang Biao, had indirectly done him a small favor.
At that moment, Tang Miao Ming, in a very close call, had successfully broken through her trial, sparking a cheer in the building.
In the end, the Immortal Gu was the priority. Fang Yuan only hesitated for a moment before making his decision, spreading his wings and chasing after the bright light.
This bright light was shaped like a cocoon, traveling close to the ground at an astonishing speed. Because it was blocked by grass and trees, it did not attract much attention.
Fang Yuan chased it from a high altitude, doing his best to conceal his trail, abandoning all his wolves to disappear without a trace.
As time passed, the light grew dimmer, but its speed increased by several degrees.
Although Fang Yuan was at the peak of rank five, his speed was not the absolute peak of the mortal world. He struggled to keep up, but he wasn't completely left behind.
At the root of it all was the fact that this prototype Immortal Gu was not solely crafted by Fang Yuan's own power.
Unlike when he had refined the Wandering Soul Gu, Fang Yuan was merely an assistant this time, relying on the backflow of the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building's power. As a mere mortal, just being able to maintain a connection with the prototype Immortal Gu was already a considerable achievement.
The bright light flew into a valley and suddenly entered a waterfall, vanishing from sight.
But through the connection in his heart, Fang Yuan sensed that the prototype Immortal Gu had come to a stop.
Fang Yuan plunged through the waterfall, but slammed into the slick, wet rocks, sending dirt and stones flying and water splashing everywhere.
"How strange!" Fang Yuan exclaimed in surprise. The connection in his heart still told him the bright light was right there in the water, but even after parting the waters and completely destroying the waterfall, he searched high and low without finding a trace of the prototype Immortal Gu.
"Could it be that I'm going to fail just short of success? No, this place is very suspicious!"
He soared upward to look down upon the area. The small waterfall had turned into a pool of water, completely ordinary. The valley was nameless and was not a place of concentrated spiritual energy.
Fang Yuan fixed his gaze on this pool of water. The connection in his heart told him the prototype Immortal Gu was clearly inside, but no matter how he searched through the water or directed the flow, he couldn't find it.
At times like this, the quality of the Gu Master's investigative Gu was put to the test.
Fang Yuan, naturally, was unwilling to give up. He tried many methods of investigation. Although he wasn't skilled in investigation, he remotely controlled his Fox Immortal Blessed Land and communicated with Treasure Yellow Heaven, so he was not lacking in rank five mortal Gu.
It was only after trying the fifty-seventh method and spending a considerable amount of Immortal Essence Stones that he finally discovered something.
He saw that in the pool of water, there was a faint, indistinct pavilion, like a flower in a mirror or the moon on the water's surface.
He entered the pool, but could not enter the pavilion.
After trying several times in vain, Fang Yuan cried out in realization, a flash of insight striking him as he finally recognized the origin of this structure.
"Could this be the long-lost Immortal Gu House — the Near Water Tower?"