The seventh earthly calamity of the Fox Immortal Blessed Land had finally been weathered.
Looking back at this earthly calamity…
If you wanted to call it thrilling, it really wasn't. But this calamity had struck directly at the weak point of Fang Yuan's side, which was truly irksome.
Fang Yuan's side had three Gu Immortals, yet they could only watch helplessly as the calamity unfolded, then try to make up for the damage afterward.
With the calamity over, Black Loulan continued to stay in the Fox Immortal Blessed Land—for her, this place was currently the safest.
Under Fang Yuan's arrangement, she continued to activate the Strength Immortal Gu, assisting the Maomen slaves in the stone nests to mass-produce Air Sac Gu.
Now, in the warehouse, Air Sac Gu were piled up like mountains.
Air Sac Gu were essentially single-use storage Gu, specifically designed to be paired with a single Valor Gu and then sold off.
Before undergoing the tribulation, Fang Yuan had squeezed every bit of value from Black Loulan, running all three stone nests in a frenzy to refine Gu and churn out a massive quantity of Air Sac Gu.
Now that there was a surplus of Air Sac Gu, Valor Gu had actually become the bottleneck.
So Fang Yuan changed the production plan, assigning only one stone nest to refine Air Sac Gu while the other two switched to refining Star Thought Mortal Gu.
This made Black Loulan grind her teeth in frustration.
Because their previous agreement had stipulated: before the tribulation, Black Loulan would contribute her labor to help the Maomen refine Air Sac Gu. The future profits from selling these Air Sac Gu loaded with Valor Gu would belong entirely to Fang Yuan.
Now that the Fox Immortal Blessed Land had successfully survived the tribulation, Black Loulan would be entitled to a share of the future Valor Gu profits.
Black Loulan needed money too.
To be precise, almost every newly-advanced Gu Immortal like her was strapped for cash.
Especially now, when Li Shan Immortal's finances were gradually drying up and could no longer sustain Black Loulan's cultivation. Black Loulan's craving for Immortal Yuan Stone had only grown more intense.
But just as she was gearing up to build her foundations, Fang Yuan had scaled back Air Sac Gu production.
Black Loulan was helpless.
All three stone nests belonged to Fang Yuan. He could refine whatever he wanted without having to care about outsiders' opinions.
But would Black Loulan give up so easily? She sought out Fang Yuan, negotiating personally, hoping he would at least assign two stone nests to refine Air Sac Gu, thus driving the Valor Gu trade forward.
Fang Yuan received her warmly, then passionately explained his difficulties: "Immortal Loulan, it's not that I don't want to expand production. It's genuinely giving me a headache. You saw it yourself—in the process of refining Air Sac Gu, we lost a great many Maomen. To replenish them, costs would go up. Star Thought Gu, on the other hand, are relatively gentle to refine, with far fewer Maomen losses. I've already lost at least thirty percent of my Maomen. Any more losses and I'd have to purchase new Maomen slaves. But as you can see, my Fox Immortal Blessed Land just survived a tribulation. The losses were enormous, and I have to cut corners everywhere."
Hearing this, Black Loulan's brow furrowed deeply. She was so disgusted that the words "bullshit" nearly escaped her lips.
Even without knowing all of Fang Yuan's secrets, Black Loulan knew this much: before the tribulation, Fang Yuan had transferred all his important and precious resources into Tai Bai Yun Sheng's immortal orifice. He had suffered virtually no significant losses.
Moreover, he had plundered a huge amount of resources from the Jade Pool Blessed Land and even obtained Dongfang Changfan's soul. One could say he was among the biggest winners of the Battle of Tai Qiu.
The Valor Gu trade had always been booming. The lion's share of the profits had ended up in Fang Yuan's pockets.
No matter how broke Fang Yuan might be, he could still afford to buy a small group of Maomen slaves.
Fang Yuan continued to plead poverty before Black Loulan. Seeing her displeased expression, the smile on his face never wavered as he said: "Actually, in my opinion, the plan I proposed before is still viable. The four of us pool together a large sum to purchase knowledge and experience in Maomen husbandry, then acquire a large number of Maomen and raise them ourselves. A century-long plan like this is the most cost-effective in the long run."
As Fang Yuan brought up the old proposal once more, Black Loulan sighed inwardly.
Fang Yuan's plan actually benefited all four of them. So why had Li Shan Immortal rejected it outright the first time?
Because once the plan was completed, Fang Yuan would be the one who benefited most! The help it would bring him was simply too great.
Of the four, Fang Yuan was the one who needed Maomen the most. He had stone nests and could put them to far better use. In Fang Yuan's cultivation plans, there were a great number of mortal Gu that needed refining. But for Black Loulan, Li Shan Immortal, and Tai Bai Yun Sheng, there was no such need.
If the plan succeeded, Black Loulan and the others would need to invest time and energy into raising Maomen slaves. The greatest use for that would be selling Maomen slaves. But their immortal orifices were never suited for raising Maomen—the Fox Immortal Blessed Land was actually better at it than all three of them.
Fang Yuan could not only purchase Maomen slaves and had the greatest advantage in raising them, but could also use the Maomen to refine Gu and sell large quantities of mortal Gu.