Successfully completing the deal with the Langya Earth Spirit, Fang Yuan felt genuinely relieved.
This deal had come at an absolutely critical time. The profits gained would help him break through his current predicament.
Although in his previous life's memories, Fang Yuan knew of many ways to obtain Immortal Essence Stones, most of these methods required time to plan or carried considerable risk.
Trading with the Langya Earth Spirit was the only option with low risk and high returns.
After thinking for a moment, Fang Yuan left the Cloud Path Immortal Gu, Soaring Ascension, in the Langya Blessed Land as collateral for the deal.
Soaring Ascension was a movement Immortal Gu. Fang Yuan was not short on movement Immortal Gu — he already possessed Wandering the World. The latter was suited for Water Path Immortal Gu Masters, with its effects enhanced in river, lake, and sea environments. Soaring Ascension, on the other hand, excelled at ascending and descending, but in terms of ordinary horizontal speed, it fell slightly behind Wandering the World.
Fang Yuan was a pragmatist. For him, the Wandering the World Gu was undoubtedly more practical.
That night in the Northern Plains, Fang Yuan returned alone to the Fox Immortal Blessed Land, while Tai Bai Yun Sheng remained behind in the Langya Blessed Land.
Fang Yuan was thoroughly satisfied with this expedition.
Though he had consumed one Green Grape Immortal Essence, in that situation — not knowing the true state of the Langya Blessed Land — the priority had been to quickly defeat the Mud Swamp Crab and seize control.
Immortal Essence was indeed precious, but when it needed to be used, it had to be used. Immortal Essence that sat unused held no value whatsoever!
Forget about one Green Grape Immortal Essence — even if it were eight or ten, Fang Yuan would use them without hesitation when the time called for it.
He reviewed the exchange. His expenditure had been minimal, yet the gains were substantial.
First, he had recovered Fixed Immortal Travel.
The recovery of Fixed Immortal Travel was a genuine surprise. With Fixed Immortal Travel in hand, Fang Yuan could now traverse across dimensional boundaries, setting foot throughout the Five Regions. He could fully leverage his advantage of rebirth, laying plans everywhere to extract maximum benefit.
At the very worst, even if the Crane Sect breached the Fox Immortal Blessed Land, Fang Yuan and Tai Bai Yun Sheng could still retreat, carrying Soul Stirring Mountain and the Wisdom Gu with them.
On offense, he could advance; on defense, he could retreat.
Though Fixed Immortal Travel was only a Sixth Transformation movement Immortal Gu, it granted Fang Yuan an enormous strategic advantage.
This was something that even Soaring Ascension and Wandering the World combined could never achieve.
Fang Yuan's pressure decreased dramatically as a result.
Second, he had formed the Snow Mountain Alliance with Hei Lou Lan and Fairy Li Shan.
Hei Lou Lan possessed the Great Strength True Martial Body — one of the Ten Extremes. Her potential was immense, and once she ascended to immortality, her combat power would be extraordinary.
Fairy Li Shan was a prominent figure in the Northern Plains. On one hand, she was the third brain of the Great Snow Mountain Blessed Land. On the other, she had an extensive network, maintaining close ties with many Righteous Path Immortal Gu Masters of the Northern Plains.
There were scoundrels and eccentrics among the Righteous Path, and the Demonic Path had every sort of character imaginable. All conflicts stemmed from self-interest — the Righteous and Demonic Paths did not always fight each other. Between them, there were transactions and even secret collaborations.
Fairy Li Shan possessed the Mountain Alliance Immortal Gu, and this was precisely the key reason for her wide popularity.
When Dong Fang Chang Fan negotiated alliance-building with the various Righteous Path forces, he needed the Mountain Alliance Gu. Immortal Gu Masters on the Demonic Path were even more suspicious and distrustful of one another, so establishing a massive organization like the Great Snow Mountain Blessed Land required the Mountain Alliance Gu all the more.
The Mountain Alliance Gu established unbreakable watchtower pacts. It was the main cornerstone of trust among Demonic Path Immortal Gu Masters.
By allying with the two of them, Fang Yuan would gain powerful support. At the same time, it solved his biggest shortcoming — the lack of real-time intelligence.
With Fairy Li Shan's extensive network, gathering intelligence would be far easier for her than for Fang Yuan.
Third, Fang Yuan had obtained detailed intelligence on four Immortal Gu.
The ones he had obtained by breaking the Formless Fist and seizing them were Soul Cleansing, Soaring Ascension, Woman's Heart, and Linked Clouds.
Ranked from lowest to highest in value, Soaring Ascension came first. For Fang Yuan, this Gu held the least practical value, and having been pledged to the Langya Earth Spirit, it had been put to optimal use.
The Woman's Heart Gu was a Poison Path Immortal Gu — a single-use consumable Gu, with refining and raising combined into one. Its practical value was somewhat higher. Generally speaking, these single-use consumable Gu wielded tremendous power, much like the Immortal Gu Mud and Slime.
Above Woman's Heart was the Soul Cleansing Immortal Gu. Soul Cleansing could refine the soul, and its effects far surpassed Fang Yuan's previous Wolf Soul Gu. With the Courage Gu in his possession, strengthening his soul came easily. Before entering Lost Spirit Valley, the Soul Cleansing Immortal Gu was the best substitute.
Beyond that, Soul Cleansing was also the core Gu of the killer move Myriad Self. This made its value even greater.
Fang Yuan compared the two. Without using the killer move Myriad Self, his combat power was weaker than an ordinary Sixth Transformation Immortal Gu Master. But once he employed this move, his combat power skyrocketed to the first tier among Sixth Transformation Immortal Gu Masters.
Of course, this was still a notch below his Blood Path combat power from five hundred years ago in his previous life.
Five hundred years ago, Fang Yuan had been a Demonic Path Colossus at the Sixth Transformation Peak Stage, only a single step away from the Seventh Transformation. His combat power was nothing short of terrifying — firmly occupying the top tier of the Sixth Transformation, with the shocking record of twice defeating ordinary Seventh Transformation Immortal Gu Masters in battle.
Lastly, there was the Linked Fortune Immortal Gu.
This Fortune Path Immortal Gu was the收获 that exceeded Fang Yuan's expectations the most! Its value even surpassed that of Soul Cleansing by a slight margin.