That purpose was to heal the Dang Hun Mountain.
And to heal the Dang Hun Mountain, he needed the Jiang Shan Ru Gu Gu.
Obtaining this Gu was fraught with difficulty, and the key to it all rested on a single person. That person was Tai Bai Yun Sheng.
Ever since Tai Bai Yun Sheng joined the Hei Clan army, Fang Yuan had been keeping an eye on him.
A few months prior, Fang Yuan had uncovered a piece of intelligence:
After Hei Lou Lan obtained the Single-Corner Building Lord Token, which allowed her to check the rewards for every stage, Tai Bai Yun Sheng immediately went to her and inquired about the existence of a longevity Gu.
But at that time, there was no longevity Gu stored within the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.
It wasn't until the fifty-fifth floor took shape that Hei Lou Lan informed Tai Bai Yun Sheng that she had discovered a fifteen-year longevity Gu.
After the fifty-fifth floor was fully formed, Hei Lou Lan further pinpointed the location of the longevity Gu. It was the reward for the eighty-fifth trial on that floor.
From then on, Tai Bai Yun Sheng devoted all his energy to clearing the fifty-fifth floor. He repeatedly rallied Gu Masters, formed huge teams, and forced his way through the difficult obstacles. Relying on his prestige, generous spending, and frequent pleas for help from strong individuals like Hei Lou Lan, he actually made considerable progress.
Hard work pays off. Tai Bai Yun Sheng had exhausted his family fortune, but he finally managed to reach the eighty-fifth trial.
Of course, Fang Yuan did not want to see Tai Bai Yun Sheng get what he wanted.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng was old, with little time left to live. Wanting to use a longevity Gu to extend his life was only natural.
But if he really did get his hands on that longevity Gu, he would absolutely not risk Ascension. If he didn't risk Ascension, then the Resonance of Heaven and Earth wouldn't occur during his Ascension, and the immortal Gu Jiang Shan Ru Gu wouldn't be formed.
Without the Jiang Shan Ru Gu Gu, what could Fang Yuan use to heal the Dang Hun Mountain, which was on the verge of completely vanishing?
Especially in the past few days, more intelligence had surfaced: Tai Bai Yun Sheng's attempts to clear the trial were finally showing promise. He spared no expense, even borrowing from Hei Lou Lan and agreeing to her condition of joining the Hei Clan as a foreign elder.
Thus, Tai Bai Yun Sheng utilized this capital from the Hei Clan. He recruited a large number of skilled fighters, assembled a formidable force, and stormed the fifty-fifth floor for a final push.
Although in his memories, Tai Bai Yun Sheng had risked Ascension in his previous life, Fang Yuan was cautious and dared not take the risk. He decided to personally intervene and stop him.
Time waits for no man.
Fang Yuan had originally planned to deal with Mo Yao's will first—to stabilize the interior before tackling external threats. But this matter had made no progress. Now, he had no choice but to use the Building Lord Token and sneak into the fifty-fifth floor.
The situation on the fifty-fifth floor had already been completely figured out by Tai Bai Yun Sheng.
A magnificent river of blood flowed through this place. Deep within the river stood a grand and majestic Blood Path palace.
The Blood Path palace was divided into three main halls and sixty-nine auxiliary halls.
Each hall was filled with a massive number of Blood Path Gu worms and blood beast guards.
The Blood Path Gu worms traveled in vast swarms, an awe-inspiring sight, but given enough time to slowly whittle them down, they could eventually all be wiped out.
The troublesome part was the blood beasts.
Once these blood beasts were killed, they would absorb the blood energy and resurrect after a very short time. They truly could not be fully killed, nor completely eliminated.
Several of Tai Bai Yun Sheng's attempts to clear the trial had been thwarted by these blood beasts.
But during his last attempt, he accidentally and joyfully discovered that if you charged straight into the deepest part of the hall and tore down the token hanging from the main beam, the blood beasts in that hall would disperse on their own.
This discovery filled Tai Bai Yun Sheng with intense confidence. Penniless, he didn't hesitate to indebt himself to the Hei Clan, borrow funds, raise a team of Gu Masters, and assault this trial.
When Fang Yuan secretly entered this floor, the team that Tai Bai Yun Sheng had raised had already breached thirty-three auxiliary halls and was engaged in fierce combat within the towering main hall.
Fang Yuan took out the Six-Corner Building Lord Token. With a thought, this entire floor fell completely under his control.
The Six-Corner Building Lord Token allowed Fang Yuan to control six floors of the True Yang Building.
Fang Yuan had previously used one opportunity to take control of the seventh floor. Now, he used his second opportunity to take control of this fifty-fifth floor.
Hei Lou Lan held a Single-Corner Building Lord Token, which gave her control over the fifth floor.
With a thought, Fang Yuan's figure vanished from its spot. In the next instant, he appeared on the main beam of the main hall.
He sat leisurely and contentedly on the main beam. Not far beside him hung that crucial token.
Holding his breath and concentrating, Fang Yuan could clearly see the scene of the battle between Tai Bai Yun Sheng and his men within his mind.
The deeper they pushed into the main hall, the more blood beast guards there were. The battle was ferocious. Tai Bai Yun Sheng's team now had fewer than fifty people left.
They had pushed their way in, suffering heavy losses and leaving a trail of corpses in their wake.
Two powerful fifth-rank Gu Masters, Zhu Zai and Gao Yang, took turns acting as the vanguard for the team.
Meanwhile, Tai Bai Yun Sheng, the top healing Gu Master of this Northern Plains generation, was protected by the crowd in the center of the team. He continuously used the Ren Ru Gu Gu, shooting out beams of white light that fell upon the dead, reviving the Gu Masters, or upon the living, healing their wounds and instantly restoring their true essence.
But even Tai Bai Yun Sheng, a peak fifth-rank Gu Master, looked utterly disheveled and exhausted.
Members of the team kept falling. Despite his utmost efforts, he simply couldn't save everyone.
Endless waves of blood beasts surged out from the corridors and rooms of the main hall, densely packed, blocking the path ahead of the team.
The closer they got to the crucial token, the stronger the blood beasts became.
In particular, the blood beasts could absorb blood energy to quickly recover and continuously resurrect.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng and the others had pushed this far, but the blood beasts they had killed behind them had resurrected and were now chasing them from the rear. With enemies in front and pursuers behind, the team's situation became increasingly dire.
"No wonder Tai Bai Yun Sheng risked Ascension in his past life. This trial is extremely difficult, unless a Blood Path Gu Master steps in." Fang Yuan, who now controlled this floor, could see Tai Bai Yun Sheng's actions as clearly as looking at the lines on his own palm.
To a Blood Path Gu Master, this trial was practically a utopia. There were a large number of wild Blood Path Gu to tame and pure blood beasts to devour, all useful for increasing their Blood Path cultivation.
Unfortunately, the Blood Path was not tolerated in the world. Because of the Blood Sea Ancestor, once a Blood Path Gu Master appeared, they would immediately be relentlessly hunted by the Righteous Path.
Furthermore, the Blood Path allowed for rapid battle power growth. Even Demon Path Gu Masters were widely wary of it.
Often, once a Blood Path Gu Master was discovered, they not only had to endure persecution from the Righteous Path but also had to watch out for sneak attacks and ambushes from Demon Path Gu Masters.
There was not a single Blood Path Gu Master in the Hei Clan army. Even if there was, they kept themselves deeply hidden and wouldn't be of use to Tai Bai Yun Sheng.
Fang Yuan observed for a moment and clearly realized that Tai Bai Yun Sheng's hope of success was already very slim.
The worry in his heart immediately dissipated by more than half.
Fang Yuan lay down on the main beam, pulled out the *Legend of Ren Zu* from his bosom, and began to pass the time while keeping an eye on Tai Bai Yun Sheng's movements.
People died while venturing through the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.
Since Fang Yuan was scheming for the Jiang Shan Ru Gu Gu, of course, he couldn't let Tai Bai Yun Sheng die now.
"Fight through! We have to break out of this encirclement, or we'll all die!" Tai Bai Yun Sheng's face was covered in blood and gore as he screamed to raise the team's morale.
Wave after wave of blood beasts roared and howled, crashing down on the group like a tide of crimson.
…
The main hall was perfectly peaceful.
Fang Yuan leisurely turned the page of the book in his hand. He even adjusted his posture to make himself more comfortable lying down.
…
Roar!
A blood beast with the head of a tiger and the body of a horse charged into the Gu Masters, tearing at them wildly.
Of the two Gu Masters caught in the attack, one was dead and the other was injured.
"Ren Ru Gu!" Tai Bai Yun Sheng shouted. He raised his hand, and a white light shot out instantly, illuminating the injured one.
The injured Gu Master was immediately restored to his state from a moment before. The terrible wounds inflicted by the blood beast vanished without a trace.
The injured man panted heavily, still shaken, and temporarily retreated to the inner circle. The gap he left in the defense was immediately filled by someone else.
But the corpse of the fallen Gu Master was mobbed by the surrounding blood beasts and roughly dragged away.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng did not act.
Without becoming an immortal, even a fifth-rank Gu Master had a limited supply of true essence and had to use it sparingly.
Furthermore, the dead Gu Master had suffered severe losses to his own Gu worms, especially his defensive Gu, which had been pierced and destroyed. Even if he was revived, he would just be killed again.
The remaining Gu Masters cursed angrily, forced to watch helplessly as the corpse of their comrade was frenziedly devoured by over a dozen blood beasts.
Blood beasts had an extremely acute sense of blood energy. Even a hint of the scent of blood would drive them mad. They grew stronger by devouring the blood of powerful beings.
Soon, all the blood of the fallen Gu Master had been drained, and his whole body turned into a mutilated, tattered, and gruesome dry corpse.
The blood beasts that had absorbed his blood began to grow human features. Some had pupils that turned human; some grew several human ears; others developed dexterous human arms.
But, thanks to the time the beasts wasted devouring the corpse, the pressure on Tai Bai Yun Sheng and his men was suddenly reduced. They took the opportunity to advance several dozen steps forward.
…
Fang Yuan turned the *Legend of Ren Zu* in his hands to Chapter Three, Section Fourteen.
Bei Ming Bing Po woke his second sister, Gu Yue Yin Huang, and the two once again sought advice from the Thought Gu on how to bring their father back to life.
The Thought Gu said, "O man, the Mountain of Success and Failure has disappeared. No one knows when or where it will reform. I do not know of any other way to revive your father. But do not lose heart. You can go and ask the Wisdom Gu. I am its mother, for wisdom is the crystallization of thought."
The student surpasses the master. What the Thought Gu did not know, the Wisdom Gu very well might.
Following the Thought Gu's guidance, Bei Ming Bing Po and Gu Yue Yin Huang found the Wisdom Gu.
The Wisdom Gu had a grudge against Ren Zu. In the past, Ren Zu had used the Gu of Regulations to capture the Wisdom Gu, but the Wisdom Gu had ultimately escaped.
At first, the Wisdom Gu was unwilling to help Bei Ming Bing Po and Gu Yue Yin Huang.
But since their mother, the Thought Gu, had sent them, the Wisdom Gu reluctantly said, "O man, I can guide you. But I require payment. One of you must give me your middle age."
"I will give you my middle age," Gu Yue Yin Huang immediately replied without hesitation.
She had been awakened by her younger brother, and the meaning of her life was now to revive their father, Ren Zu. Therefore, she spoke up without shirking the responsibility.
Bei Ming Bing Po could not argue with his sister, so he let her sacrifice her middle age.
This meant that once Gu Yue Yin Huang's youth passed, she would skip middle age entirely and step directly into old age.
But to save her father, she could not afford to worry about that.
Having obtained Gu Yue Yin Huang's middle age, the Wisdom Gu instructed her, "In the center of the Golden Desert to the west lies a still, sapphire ocean, free from waves and smooth as a mirror. It is the source of all things. All life in the world originates from there. Deep within the Blue Ocean are countless Life Gu, reflecting all the things in the world. You must dive into the sea, and if you find a human-shaped Life Gu, bring it ashore. This human-shaped Life Gu can bestow new life upon your father. But you must pay attention to the time. You cannot stay for longer than a quarter of an hour, or the Blue Ocean will assimilate you."
Finally, the Wisdom Gu added another sentence, "Finding a human-shaped Life Gu is extremely difficult. Only someone who truly understands the essence of life can do it. If you fail, do not blame my method."
Gu Yue Yin Huang wanted to ask something else, but the Wisdom Gu flew away as soon as it finished speaking, not giving the brother and sister any chance.
…
The cacophony of roaring and screaming flooded into his ears.
The blood beasts surged forward like a tidal wave. Tai Bai Yun Sheng and his men were like a reef, withstanding the attacks of the blood beasts time and time again, all while trudging forward step by step.
"Almost there! We're only three hundred steps from the main hall gate!" someone shouted, trying to boost morale.
"Watch out!" Suddenly, a Gu Master nearby called out a warning.
The Gu Master who had been boosting morale was caught off guard and was violently smashed by a blood beast with the body of a bear and the head of a dragon.
Bang.
The Gu Master's chest was shattered in an instant, and he spat out a gush of blood mixed with fragments of his internal organs.
His body was sent flying. The Gu Masters behind him desperately tried to stop the momentum, and the formation was thrown into chaos, on the verge of total collapse!
"Hold the line! Hold the line, I said!!" Tai Bai Yun Sheng's eyes were bloodshot as he roared in extreme anxiety.
In such a battle situation, once the Gu Masters scattered, they would immediately be torn to shreds by the countless surrounding blood beasts. Only by tightly clustering together did they stand a chance of survival!
But the Gu Masters were beaten back step by step. A large number of blood beasts broke through the defensive line, ferociously pouncing forward.
For a moment, a chorus of screams rose up.
Many Gu Masters, who were trying their best to recover their true essence, were caught off guard and torn to pieces by the blood beasts.
A blood beast like a mantis, swinging its scythe-like arms, charged at the very front.