Demonic mist curled and swirled, toxic blood steamed and rose, having already corroded and destroyed all three layers of Gu formations. The surrounding ground had been reduced to a shallow expanse of poisonous mud and rotting swamp.
Fang Yuan's face was grave.
"Next comes the most difficult immortal material to handle — Earth Extreme Sky Gale."
He produced a portion of the immortal material and held it in his hand.
This refining ingredient was remarkably peculiar. It was composed of mud and qi, the mud and qi spontaneously binding together into a single mass.
On top was pale green gale qi, and beneath it was black mud.
The gale qi was the atmosphere of the Nine Heavens. Beyond the Nine Heavens of the Primordial Era, there existed a thick wall of gale qi. When Immortal Gu Masters ventured into the Nine Heavens to explore, they typically had to break through this gale qi barrier.
The black mud, meanwhile, was the essence of concentrated subterranean earth qi condensed from the depths of the Ten Lands.
The two types of qi — heavenly and terrestrial — were inherently difficult to coexist, yet within this Earth Extreme Sky Gale, both had achieved a harmonious union. Not only did they peacefully coexist, but they continuously transformed into one another. The black mud constantly became gale qi, and gale qi constantly became black mud.
When Fang Yuan swayed his palm, the mass of Earth Extreme Sky Gale immediately turned murky — the black mud and gale qi mixed together, forming a swirling mass of gray mist.
But if left still, after a dozen breaths or so, the black mud would settle to the bottom while the gale qi rose to the top. The strange spectacle of stark black and white, each cycling subtly into the other, would reappear.
"Handling this kind of immortal material is the most troublesome. Ordinary refinement-path killer moves cannot process it perfectly. Only the four universally acknowledged most powerful immortal-level refinement-path killer moves for processing immortal materials — Silent Sleep Electric Python, Snow Reflection, Muffled Thunder Stone Drum, and Wind Mill — can accomplish it in one go. Unfortunately, I possess none of these four. To handle the Earth Extreme Sky Gale, I have no choice but to put in brute effort and grueling labor."
A thought flashed through Fang Yuan's mind, and he kicked off the ground. His powerful body soared upward, and with a light leap, he jumped straight into the turtle shell, into the pool of toxic blood.
Swish!
Fang Yuan extended his sharp nails and carved wounds into each of his six monstrous arms. He also pierced wounds into his chest, back, and other areas.
Blood refinement killer move — Blood Thread Drift.
From these wounds, thin threads of blood seeped out.
The blood threads quickly blended into the deep purple toxic blood. Almost immediately, the toxic blood in the turtle-shell cauldron seemed to be drawn by some invisible force, flowing back into Fang Yuan through his wounds.
Excruciating pain radiated through him. Fang Yuan let out a muffled grunt.
An Immortal Zombie had no sense of pain. The fact that Fang Yuan could feel pain was naturally the result of using a Gu worm's ability. He needed to perceive the pain in order to gauge how far the immortal material processing had progressed.
Fang Yuan's blood and the toxic blood in the turtle-shell cauldron constantly mingled, forming a cycle that flowed in and out of Fang Yuan's body without cease.
Once this process stabilized, Fang Yuan took the Earth Extreme Sky Gale he had prepared earlier and swallowed it whole.
Gulp — the Earth Extreme Sky Gale descended into his stomach.
This was his own invention from his previous life, a bizarre method of the Blood Path refinement technique. He had named it the Physical Body Blood Refinement Method.
The Earth Extreme Sky Gale entered his body and was continuously washed by his blood, slowly dissolving into it.
This blood then flowed out of Fang Yuan's body through the countless wounds covering him, merging into the turtle-shell cauldron and sinking to the bottom.
Simultaneously, the other toxic blood within the cauldron flowed through the wounds and into Fang Yuan's body, washing over the Earth Extreme Sky Gale in turn.
Through this cycle, the Earth Extreme Sky Gale dissolved and shrank at an extremely slow pace.
On a mountain peak within the True Yang Mountain Range, great winds swept and howled.
The Mao citizen Immortal Gu Master Yu Muchun suddenly pointed a finger.
In the direction he pointed, five or six tornadoes began slowly converging. When they drew close enough, they suddenly merged into one, forming a colossal tornado that roared and spun.
Yu Muchun flipped his palm and produced a stone-bead-like immortal material. He flicked his finger, shooting the stone bead into the massive tornado.
Though the stone bead was small and inconspicuous, once it entered the tornado, it emitted a cacophonous, ear-piercing noise.
The tornado's howling weakened considerably, and it spun much slower, as if a strong man had eaten far too much.
However, as time passed, the tornado spun faster and faster, rapidly "digesting" the bead.
Half an incense stick's time later, the tornado had fully digested the bead. The entire wind pillar had been stained black and white, flickering between the two colors.
"An Earth Extreme Sky Gale bead?" Upon seeing this, Ben Duo Yi suddenly had a flash of insight and blurted out the words.
Yu Muchun looked somewhat surprised, but didn't hold back his praise: "Hmm, you've got quite a bit of knowledge. To process an Earth Extreme Sky Gale bead, those small tornadoes from before won't cut it. Only a large tornado has the capability."
Ben Duo Yi struggled to suppress the shock churning within him.
Earth Extreme Sky Gale was already an exceptionally difficult immortal material to handle. Ben Duo Yi knew full well that even if he gave it his all, it would take him several years of painstaking effort to slowly corrode a single mass of Earth Extreme Sky Gale for refinement purposes.
He was a Mortal Path Gu Master. Processing immortal materials typically required a timescale measured in years.
And the Earth Extreme Sky Gale bead?
That was the essence formed by vast quantities of Earth Extreme Sky Gale compressing and condensing together. A single bead was equivalent to at least a hundred portions of Earth Extreme Sky Gale.
Earth Extreme Sky Gale beads were the hardest and most difficult to process. Even Immortal Gu Masters would need months or even a year or two to grind down a single bead.
But Master Yu Muchun had processed an Earth Extreme Sky Gale bead in such a short amount of time?
A thought suddenly struck Ben Duo Yi, and his voice trembled: "Could it be — could it be that the refinement-path killer move Master Yu is using is the legendary Wind Mill? It must be! Only the legendary four great immortal-level refinement-path killer moves could process immortal materials to this degree!"
"That's right — it is the Wind Mill," Yu Muchun confirmed.
Ben Duo Yi's eyes burned with fervor. This was one of the finest methods for processing immortal materials. Even though he was not an Immortal Gu Master and could never hope to wield an immortal-path killer move, his heart was filled with envy, fantasizing about a day when he might use the Wind Mill to perfectly process immortal materials — how wonderful that would be!
With the Earth Extreme Sky Gale bead processed, Yu Muchun began hurling Immortal Yuan Stones into the countless tornadoes before him.
One Immortal Yuan Stone after another was thrown into the tornado pillars. Immortal Yuan Stones were not as hard as Earth Extreme Sky Gale beads, and were immediately sliced apart and ground to powder by the wind blades, bursting with blinding flashes of blue-green radiance.
At this moment, heaven and earth resonated. The surrounding mountains began to tremble faintly, dark clouds blanketed the sky, and rumbling peals of muffled thunder sounded.
"What's happening?" Ben Duo Yi panicked. He looked up and looked around, only to discover that the hill he was standing on had space around it that was manifesting strand after strand of light.
These strands of light were, of course, Dao Marks.
Some were red Flame Path Dao Marks, others were blue Water Path Dao Marks. Most of these two types were incomplete. More numerous were Earth Path and Wood Path Dao Marks, which were relatively complete. But the most plentiful of all were strands of Dao Marks that glimmered with silver light.
These were Rule Path Dao Marks!
The Dao Marks were densely packed, yet their arrangement was far from uniform. Some were entangled and layered atop one another, appearing quite concentrated. Others were scattered and sparse, with gaps between them.