Supreme Cavern Heaven.
In the Small Southern Border, a broken mountain stood silently upon the earth.
Though incomplete and battered, compared to the surrounding hills, it towered above them like a crane among chickens.
Completely unlike any ordinary mountain, it appeared as though forged from crystal, its entire body suffused with a pink hue, constantly radiating a dreamlike, ethereal glow.
This was one of the heavenly mysteries recorded in the Records of the Human Ancestor — the Soul Scattering Mountain!
Fang Yuan's divine sense lingered about the area, slowly dissipating. "The Soul Scattering Mountain has been restored to eighty percent. Far more progress than at the same stage in my previous life."
Compared to this, his previous life seemed far more wretched.
He hadn't absorbed the Langya Blessed Land. The defense of Langya had also consumed a massive portion of his Immortal Essence reserves. Afterward, he repeatedly launched attacks across the Southern Border to collect dreams, and only then traded with Chi Quyou, obtaining large numbers of Immortal Essence Stones to replenish his reserves.
In his previous life, when Fang Yuan repaired the Soul Scattering Mountain, he had used the River as Before Immortal Gu, which itself demanded a colossal and sustained drain of Immortal Essence!
The River as Before Gu was only at the Sixth Transformation, and Fang Yuan's Immortal Essence was merely at the Seventh Transformation level. On top of that, he had been under constant external pressure — both the Southern Border and Heavenly Court tried every means to cause trouble for him.
For a long period, Fang Yuan's Immortal Essence reserves hovered right around the warning line, unable to accumulate, hemorrhaging consumption.
But in this life, ever since Fang Yuan absorbed the Langya Blessed Land, everything was completely different.
He had become an Eighth Transformation Gu Immortal. In the same timeframe, a single Eighth Transformation White Lychee Immortal Essence condensed in his Supreme Immortal Orifice was equivalent to a hundred Red Date Immortal Essences. In other words, Fang Yuan's Immortal Essence yield was now a hundred times what it had been!
At the same time, he still possessed the Seventh Transformation Heavenly Origin Treasure Emperor Lotus, and the Langya Blessed Land itself held vast reserves of Immortal Essence Stones.
This enormous foundation supported Fang Yuan entirely — Immortal Essence reserves were no longer a problem.
With practically unlimited Immortal Essence pouring in, the speed of the Soul Scattering Mountain's restoration was naturally far, far greater than in his previous life!
At this same period in his previous life, the Soul Scattering Mountain had only recovered to thirty percent. But now, it had already reached seventy percent. Before long, the Soul Scattering Mountain would be fully restored.
If only the River as Before Immortal Gu's transformation rank were higher, Fang Yuan's speed would be even greater.
Currently, the River as Before Immortal Gu remained at only the Sixth Transformation. Using it to repair the Soul Scattering Mountain was like trying to chop down a towering tree with a pocket knife.
Although Fang Yuan possessed Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu ascension methods and the Long Hair Refinement Grand Formation, cautious as he was, he still wasn't willing to risk ascending the River as Before Immortal Gu.
Unless he could obtain the Regret Gu in the future and construct a Regret Pool.
The success rate of Gu refinement was simply too low. If the ascension failed and the Immortal Gu was destroyed, that would be truly awkward.
Fang Yuan had naturally thought about his Life Gu.
The ascension of a Life Gu — even if it failed countless times, the Life Gu would always be preserved. It would never be destroyed.
But Fang Yuan's Time Path clone's Life Gu was the Spring Autumn Cicada, while his Supreme Original Body was created from the Supreme Immortal Body Gu and itself had no concept of a Life Gu.
"If I could seize a Gu Immortal's body, split my soul into it, and create a clone. On that basis, I could swap out the clone's Life Gu and then ascend the River as Before Gu. That would be safe."
Unfortunately, this method that Fang Yuan had conceived could not be implemented at present.
It wasn't that he couldn't capture Gu Immortal prisoners — he already had a batch on hand.
His current problem was that his soul reserves were severely depleted and his foundation was dangerously thin, making soul-splitting extremely difficult.
Whenever a Wisdom Path Gu Immortal calculated Fang Yuan, the Yan Emperor Killer Move would activate, consuming his soul reserves.
Every time Fang Yuan created a Pure Dream True Body, it consumed his soul reserves as well.
The Myriad Self Killer Move had the same effect.
Dream exploration inflicted further damage on his soul.
...
All of this had nearly pushed Fang Yuan's soul past its limit.
Especially recently — after Fairy Zi Wei's defeat, she had come to calculate Fang Yuan time and again, causing the Yan Emperor Killer Move to trigger repeatedly. Fang Yuan was thoroughly vexed, and his Courage Gu stockpile had nearly run dry.
Since Fang Yuan's rebirth, the Ink Effect had brought many benefits, but also drawbacks.
In his previous life, his soul situation had been manageable. In this life, however, it was terrible. If things continued like this, once the Courage Gu ran out, it would be even worse, and Fang Yuan would have to resort to other Soul Path methods to save himself.
Each of these Soul Path methods came with its own side effects, and naturally none were as good as the Courage Gu.
"There's also another unfavorable development — Heavenly Court has intervened and encroached upon the Dragon Fish business."
"Heavenly Court is now selling massive quantities of Silver Dragon Fish and Iron Dragon Fish, and it seems they can even produce Golden Dragon Fish. This will deal a devastating blow to my Dragon Fish business!"
"This situation did occur in my previous life as well, but it happened later. I didn't expect it to come so much earlier this time."
Regarding this, there was nothing Fang Yuan could do.
Demon Venerable You Hun had been captured by Heavenly Court. Fairy Zi Wei — likely spurred by the defeat at the Langya Blessed Land — had intensified the soul-searching on Demon Venerable You Hun, and this had led to the unfavorable shifts in the Dragon Fish business.
"It seems Demon Venerable You Hun truly can't hold out any longer."
"Even when Longevity Heaven attacked Heavenly Court in my previous life, he never emerged. He remained imprisoned throughout."
Fang Yuan sighed, pressing his emotions deep into his heart.