"Pfft—!" Gu Immortal Tang Miao's slender body shuddered violently. She opened her eyes and spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Failed again." Tang Miao's face was pale as paper. More than the injuries she had sustained, it was the failure of this dream exploration that plunged her into despair.
Tang Miao's soul had suffered severe damage. Her head spun, her body felt impossibly heavy, and grief filled her heart: "Brother, your little sister is useless—I can't save you! Even in this dream exploration, I couldn't find you."
She slowly closed her eyes, and bitter tears slid down her cheeks, leaving two wet trails.
After a moment, the Tang family Gu Immortals who had hurried over upon hearing the news arrived at the secret chamber and stood before Tang Miao.
Grand Supreme Elder Tang Yang of the Tang family furrowed his brow. Looking at Tang Miao, who sat cross-legged on the bed, his tone was heavy: "I never imagined that despite all the effort to borrow the Seventh Transformation Emotion Gu from the Xiao family, the dream exploration would still end in crushing defeat."
"Sigh, the dreamscape itself is wondrous and bizarre. What's more, Miao was exploring the dream of the Heaven Stealing Demon Venerable," Gu Immortal Tang Lanke sighed.
The Three Venerables Scripture had long since spread throughout the world. It concerned the Great Dream Immortal Venerable, and not just in the Central Continent—most of the superpowers in the other four regions were also exploring dreams, accumulating experience, and developing related Gu.
As one of the Western Desert's superpowers, the Tang family had, many years ago, accidentally discovered the dream of the Heaven Stealing Demon Venerable.
This discovery had greatly fueled the Tang family's passion for studying the Dream Path.
To explore this dream, the Tang family's Gu Immortal Tang Fangming—who bore the reputation of being the Tang family's foremost genius—voluntarily took on this family burden. The result was repeated failure, and worse still, he became lost within the dream itself.
His own younger sister, Tang Miao, had attempted to rescue him time and again, only to meet with failure each time.
This particular failure was especially devastating.
For this dream exploration, the Tang family had spent enormous resources to borrow the Emotion Path Immortal Gu, placing great hope in it. Who could have guessed the result would feel so cold.
"The Immortal Gu did have its effect—it could suppress my emotions so the dream couldn't easily stir them. But because of that, it was as if I had become an outsider. I seemed to be excluded from the core of the evolving dream. This time, I didn't even discover my brother's identity," Tang Miao said in a heavy tone, still sitting cross-legged on the bed, silently tending to her injuries.
"Sigh, it seems that exploring dreams really does require Dream Path Gu. It's a pity that our Tang family has been exploring dreams for over sixty years, yet has only created a dozen or so Dream Path mortal Gu. Moreover, they're all below the Third Transformation. Over half of those have extremely limited effects. When you add it all up, only four or five are truly applicable to dream exploration."
Everything is hardest at the beginning, and the early stages are especially grueling. Pioneers are often lost in the dark, so even the tiniest step forward is a tremendous success.
When it came to the Dream Path, everyone was inexperienced—a blank slate. Once they weathered this difficult early period and gradually accumulated precious experience, their advantages would snowball.
By the middle and late stages, the advantage would grow ever more pronounced, and the difficulty of Dream Path exploration would decrease dramatically. In Fang Yuan's memories from his previous life, there had been such a period—nearly every day, new Dream Path Gu were created, their varieties as numerous as stars in the night sky. It was a golden age of the Dream Path, blazing with fervor and blooming with glory.
In the history of humanity, every such golden age had invariably produced a peerless powerhouse destined to emerge.
According to the Three Venerables Scripture, this powerhouse should have been the Great Dream Immortal Venerable. Unfortunately, Fang Yuan had not lived to see the Great Dream Immortal Venerable's appearance.
Speaking of which, in this current early period, the Tang family was already at the forefront of the era. Even among the Ten Ancient Sects of the Central Continent, they ranked among the best.
However, the limitations of the era still firmly shackled them. It was like blind men touching an elephant—unable to grasp the whole picture, they could only grope forward step by step, straining their hearts and minds, to achieve meager results: a dozen or so Dream Path mortal Gu.
Yet among these results, the ones that were truly practical and cost-effective were exceedingly rare.
To use an analogy from Earth, they were like laboratory prototypes—still some distance from military application, and an even greater distance from civilian use.
Moreover, this kind of innovation and exploration was not something just any Gu Immortal could handle—it required talent and inspiration.
In this regard, rule-following Gu Immortals were nothing more than mediocrities, lacking any spirit of innovation. They were sometimes even inferior to certain mortal Gu Masters.
The Tang family had no shortage of Gu Immortals, but only Tang Fangming was suited for this kind of work. The majority of those dozen or more Dream Path mortal Gu had been created by him. One could say he was the Tang family's main force in dream exploration!
Tragically, the current Tang Fangming was trapped within the dream, unable to extricate himself. As a result, the Tang family's exploration progress had nearly ground to a halt.
Tang Fangming's physical body was protected by the family Gu Immortals' methods. But his soul within the dream had already separated from his flesh and vanished without a trace. As long as one remained trapped in the dream, the soul would suffer continuous weakening, ultimately deteriorating until it perished completely.
The Tang family Gu Immortals, especially Tang Miao, burned with anxiety over this—yet they were powerless to help.
"What is my brother's current condition?" Tang Miao asked after stabilizing her injuries.
Several Grand Elders exchanged glances, and one of them said with difficulty: "His body is under our protection, but there are almost no Courage Gu on the market. We... can no longer buy any."
Tang Miao immediately furrowed her brow and asked urgently, "What happened?"
The same Gu Immortal who had spoken before answered again: "You know that the only seller of Courage Gu is a single entity—they hold a monopoly. But not long ago, this seller suddenly ran out of stock for unknown reasons. Although some Courage Gu still circulate on the market, with the source no longer selling, it's like water without a spring. Now the well has run dry, and demand on the market far exceeds the supply—far more than just our needs alone."