"Unfortunately, Black Moon Fairy always wore a mask and kept her identity shrouded in mystery. I never learned who she truly was. In my previous life, she rose like the morning sun, blazing with a brilliance too dazzling to look upon directly, so no biographies were written about her. Perhaps right now, she's still just an ordinary minor disciple at Spirit Affinity House — or perhaps she's the descendant of an Immortal Gu Master. In short, I know too little about the inside details. There's essentially nothing to find."
Since Black Moon Fairy couldn't be located, that left only those secondary targets.
These figures were all influential in their own right.
However, they possessed only temporary bursts of strong fortune — their robust luck lacked staying power and was not meant to last. Among them, some experienced wild rises and devastating falls, and a few suffered catastrophic disasters immediately after great blessings, resulting in their deaths.
"If I were to link fortunes with them, my luck would indeed surge dramatically in the short term, and that would certainly help me refine the Star Thought Immortal Gu. But without Sever Luck, when they suffer misfortune, I'll suffer along with them. Trading long-term prospects for immediate gain — is that worth it?" Fang Yuan felt a twinge of hesitation.
If he had the Sever Luck Immortal Gu, this question wouldn't even need considering.
But as for whether he could obtain Sever Luck, Fang Yuan had absolutely no confidence whatsoever.
And for things he had absolutely no confidence in, he had always chosen not to act if he could avoid it.
Placing hope for success on luck — Fang Yuan would never do such a thing.
He could indeed take risks, and he did possess a gambler's instinct, but in truth, he was far more careful and meticulous than people assumed. Had it not been so, he would never have made it this far.
Several days later, the Burning Sky Demoness's side did indeed deliver a sufficient quantity of Immortal Gu refinement materials as promised.
But Fang Yuan had lost all interest in continuing the refinement.
An explosive piece of news had reached his ears.
Not long ago, the Northern Plains branch of the Zombie Alliance had been infiltrated by Snow Blade Old Ancestor. The latter had ventured deep into the Earth Trench, secretly plundering numerous extremely precious Immortal Gu and refinement materials.
Had Snow Blade Old Ancestor gone undetected, the Zombie Alliance would have had no choice but to swallow the loss with a grimace.
But the problem was that intense combat fluctuations had exposed Snow Blade Old Ancestor's whereabouts. This meant the Zombie Alliance was now compelled to respond.
The Zombie Alliance was a massive organization spanning the Five Domains. For someone to infiltrate their own backyard and plunder its fruits and buds at will — how could that be tolerated?
If they failed to severely punish such a villain, the Zombie Alliance's reputation would inevitably suffer. Their prestige would be gravely wounded, and they would be looked down upon by all parties. How could they maintain a foothold in the Immortal Gu Master world going forward? How could they compete with the other great powers?
For any organization, face represented a certain degree of real benefit.
Moreover, this time Snow Blade Old Ancestor had been discovered in the Immortal Zombie Graveyard.
This particular detail struck a nerve with the Immortal Zombies within the Alliance, driving them to a fury beyond ordinary anger.
The bodies of Immortal Zombies were indeed rich in Dao Marks and made for excellent refinement materials. But the Immortal Apertures of Immortal Zombies were already dead — they valued their physical bodies above all else, for that was the only pride an Immortal Zombie had left.
As a result, Immortal Zombies cared far more about their own bodies than ordinary Gu Immortals did.
The Immortal Zombie Graveyard was the inviolable holy ground of the Zombie Alliance.
And now their sacred ground had been ransacked by Snow Blade Old Ancestor — how could that possibly stand?
"Snow Blade Old Ancestor has gone too far. This is a serious violation of the Zombie Alliance's bottom line. It seems that in order to re-refine the Fortune Immortal Gu, he's gone all in. He's willing to personally act as a thief and steal Immortal Zombie bodies." Fang Yuan silently estimated.
He then recalled his previous life.
Five hundred years ago, this incident had never occurred.
"In my previous life, Ma Hongyun lived on just fine. Snow Blade Old Ancestor couldn't get his hands on him, and naturally couldn't refine the Fortune Immortal Gu. It seems that in this life, the ripple effects of my rebirth are growing larger and larger — everything has changed. Snow Blade Old Ancestor has suffered this fate because of me."
Snow Blade Old Ancestor's misfortune, however, turned out to be an unexpectedly fortunate development for Fang Yuan.
The Yin Flow Giant City was garrisoned by three Seventh Transformation Immortal Zombies — Lord Yin Liu, Yaksha Dragon Commander, and Yellow Spring Elder. They were no match for Snow Blade Old Ancestor whatsoever. After the incident, all they could do was watch helplessly as he flew away.
The matter simply could not be contained, so the three Immortal Zombies had no choice but to request reinforcements from Zombie Alliance headquarters.
The Eastern Sea Zombie Alliance headquarters was naturally furious and resolved to dispatch three Eighth Transformation Immortal Zombies and ten Seventh Transformation Immortal Zombies to severely punish Snow Blade Old Ancestor and uphold their prestige.
Among those three Eighth Transformation Immortal Zombies was the Burning Sky Demoness — she absolutely had to be one of them.
Why?
Because the Burning Sky Demoness was the head of the Northern Plains branch of the Zombie Alliance in the first place.
She should have been stationed at Yin Flow Giant City all along.
Now that this had happened, the Burning Sky Demoness — currently in the Eastern Sea — bore direct responsibility. With the Northern Plains branch in crisis, she had to return and fulfill her duties.
With the Burning Sky Demoness gone, the task of conquering the Jade Dew Blessed Land fell back upon Shark Demon and Su Baiman.
The strange and unpredictable workings of fate were truly enough to catch one off guard.
Shark Demon and Su Baiman had originally lost all hope, but after the Snow Blade Old Ancestor incident erupted, the Zombie Alliance shifted its focus to preserving its reputation. With the Burning Sky Demoness departing for the Northern Plains, the people in the Eastern Sea Zombie Alliance best suited for conquering the Jade Dew Blessed Land were none other than Shark Demon and Su Baiman.
After having the Jade Dew Blessed Land mission forcibly stripped away by the Burning Sky Demoness, Shark Demon and Su Baiman had been having a miserable time — their doors barren of visitors, everyone giving them a wide berth. Now the situation had completely reversed. After all, only the final layer of the Jade Dew Blessed Land remained, and Shark Demon and Su Baiman's rise was imminent. Many Gu Immortals now actively sought their company, eager to mend the rifts from before — a turn of events that left Shark Demon and Su Baiman quite emotional.
Their feelings of sentiment, however, were something Fang Yuan had no time to consider.
Shark Demon harbored quiet resentment over how cleanly Fang Yuan had defected to the Burning Sky Demoness — this time around, he wouldn't even be inviting Great Sky Blue to join the expedition.
Fang Yuan couldn't have cared less.
Conquering the Jade Dew Blessed Land would yield him no primary benefits anyway, making it far less important than refining the Star Thought Immortal Gu.
And refining the Star Thought Immortal Gu was merely the icing on the cake — it paled in comparison to the urgency of infiltrating the Northern Plains Zombie Alliance.
After all, for a very long time, Fang Yuan had been coveting a certain hidden trove within the Northern Plains Zombie Alliance. It was the legacy left behind by a powerful Immortal Zombie, and it would be of immense help to Fang Yuan in shedding his zombie body and obtaining a new life. In his previous life, the Northern Plains Zombie Alliance had acquired this legacy, and their overall strength had surged dramatically — they had even briefly surpassed the Eastern Sea headquarters!
Fang Yuan had achieved the disguise of the Immortal Zombie Sand Yellow, intending to infiltrate the Earth Trench and obtain the legacy.