"This is the place." Fang Yuan looked around and nodded in satisfaction.
"Where is this?" Hei Lou Lan emerged from Fang Yuan's immortal aperture.
The two of them used Fixed Immortal Travel to retreat from the Starry Sky Grotto-Heaven and came directly to this place.
Hei Lou Lan looked around and found that it seemed to be an underground karst cave, or the hollow interior of a mountain. The light was scarce and the place was dark, with jagged rocks everywhere and extremely high humidity. Still, the space was quite vast.
"This is the Earth Abyss," Fang Yuan replied calmly.
"Earth Abyss?" Hei Lou Lan cast a surprised look at Fang Yuan.
She was not unfamiliar with the Central Continent. She knew that the Earth Abyss was located at the extreme west of the Central Continent and was a vast, boundless underground world.
The Earth Abyss was divided into dozens of layers, each at least hundreds of millions of mu in area. The space was extremely vast, and the depths of the underground were profound, with various karst caves and tunnels; some were like mazes, some formed into huge underground lakes, and some were as empty as plains.
It was teeming with thousands of species of life, full of vitality, with a unique ecosystem clearly distinct from the surface.
"It truly is a good place. The earth qi in the Earth Abyss is dense, which will greatly shorten the time for the blessed land to land." Hei Lou Lan nodded, but then changed her tone: "However, right above this Earth Abyss is the headquarters of Ancient Soul Sect. Ancient Soul Sect is one of the Ten Great Ancient Sects, like a behemoth dominating the extreme western lands for thousands of years. They occupy the Earth Abyss and have long treated it as their forbidden territory. For you to land your blessed land here, it's like planting flowers in someone else's courtyard. Aren't you afraid of being discovered?"
Fang Yuan laughed heartily: "Don't worry, the Earth Abyss is unfathomably deep. Ancient Soul Sect has spent thousands of years and only managed to thoroughly explore eighteen layers, with a slight exploration of the twenty-seventh layer. From the twenty-eighth layer to the thirty-sixth layer, only Gu Immortals from Ancient Soul Sect enter or exit occasionally. As long as we plant it below the fortieth layer, no matter how much commotion we make, there is no fear of being discovered."
"Forty layers? As far as I remember, the Earth Abyss that Ancient Soul Sect has explored is only thirty-six layers." Hei Lou Lan looked astonished.
Fang Yuan gave a sly smile: "That is because they are incompetent. The Earth Abyss is deep and profound, far beyond the imagination of the world. It's nowhere near just thirty-six layers."
Saying this, he couldn't help but think of his previous life.
In his previous life, when Fang Yuan was at Rank Five, an endless beast tide erupted from the Earth Abyss. It counterattacked the surface and wreaked havoc across the Central Continent.
Ancient Soul Sect bore the brunt of it, suffering heavy losses, and was severely weakened.
After the beast tide rushed out of the Earth Abyss, it continuously drove away the beast groups on the surface of the Central Continent. Gradually, it grew into a horrifying beast tide of unprecedented scale that spread across the entire Central Continent.
In those years, the Central Continent was devastated. Countless small sects were like stones thrown into a flood; they splashed a few ripples and then vanished without a trace.
The Ten Great Ancient Sects led the masses, extinguishing the beast tides everywhere, but were overwhelmed with work.
After spending several years, they finally cleared the beast tide from the surface of the Central Continent. Afterwards, they widely invited Gu Masters from both the righteous and demonic paths to venture deep into the Earth Abyss together.
Fang Yuan also managed to sneak into the Earth Abyss, killing wild beasts, obtaining resources, and supporting his cultivation.
Layer after layer was cleared, going deeper and deeper. After reaching the thirty-sixth layer, the Gu Masters discovered new passages.
Going further down was an even larger underground world, filled with countless beast groups, desolate beasts, ancient desolate beasts, and various dangerous places densely packed.
Until Fang Yuan self-destructed, the exploration of the Earth Abyss had never truly ended. The layers that had been discovered were already one hundred and seven.
The thirty-six layers currently occupied by Ancient Soul Sect were nothing more than a small portion closest to the surface.
Fang Yuan naturally wouldn't explain the details of this to Hei Lou Lan. He only said: "Just follow me."
Seeing Fang Yuan so confident, as if he was sure of himself, Hei Lou Lan followed him deeper into the Earth Abyss.
The location they entered was on the eighth layer. Going down all the way, the two saw many Gu Masters from Ancient Soul Sect. These Gu Masters were mostly in groups, some hunting wild beasts, some gathering underground moss.
The deeper they went, the sparser the populace became, and their cultivation levels correspondingly increased.
From the initial Rank Two Gu Masters, to Rank Three, then to Rank Four.
What ability did these mortals have to detect the traces of Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan? Even when they brushed past some Gu Masters on narrow paths, these mortals were completely oblivious.
When they descended to the thirtieth layer, mortal Gu Masters could no longer be seen. The surroundings were gloomy, greatly limiting their vision, but fortunately, both Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan were at the Gu Immortal realm and possessed various investigative Gu worms.
At the thirty-fifth layer, there was a Rank Six Gu Immortal from Ancient Soul Sect being chased by one ancient desolate beast and four desolate beasts. He was in quite a wretched state.
However, this Gu Immortal actually did Fang Yuan a favor. Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan smoothly passed through the desolate beasts' territory and arrived at the thirty-sixth layer.
Afterwards, following the memories of his previous life, Fang Yuan arrived at the crucial location.
After setting up six Gu formations, Fang Yuan pointed at the ground beneath his feet and said to Hei Lou Lan: "My attack power is insufficient. You need to make a move and activate your Immortal Gu to strike this patch of mud."
Hei Lou Lan did as she was told. She barely transformed into a giant phantom of strength and fiercely punched the mud three times.
Mud and rocks flew everywhere, but never splashed outside the Gu formations. The sound was like thunder, but outside the Gu formations, there was dead silence without a single sound.
The mud was not pierced through. It only became a deep pit, about seven or eight zhang deep.
"Continue, hurry up!" Fang Yuan urged as he jumped down first.
Hei Lou Lan took a deep breath, then abruptly jumped down as her fist shadows flew.
And so they continued pounding. The giant pit became deeper and deeper. After several hundred zhang, it was finally breached, forming a leak.