Fang Yuan returned to the Eastern Sea.
Beneath the setting sun, the sea surface blazed crimson. Seabirds cried out, and a gentle sea breeze blew.
He was still some distance from the Xia family's main base in the Eastern Sea, but not too far.
"Here will do." Fang Yuan descended swiftly, landing on a small, uninhabited island of modest size.
He immediately deployed several investigative killer moves, and within moments he had complete knowledge of the entire island. He found no threats or mysteries.
Fang Yuan tossed out the Five Regions Limit Formation without hesitation.
Soon, multicolored smoke of five hues blended together, enveloping the entire island before rapidly spreading outward across the sky, the sea surface, and the seabed.
If he had still been at the Eighth Transformation and escaping from the Crazed Demon Cave, he would have inevitably chosen the Xia family's main base in the Eastern Sea, or perhaps secretly traveled to somewhere like the Ancient Daytime Heavens to hide and recuperate in secret.
But now Fang Yuan possessed Ninth Transformation cultivation, having achieved the status of a Venerable. He could afford to be open and brazen.
If Star Constellation Immortal Venerable or Giant Sun Immortal Venerable chose to chase after him right now, that was actually something Fang Yuan would be happy to see.
Fang Yuan slowly closed his eyes, his divine sense surging as he probed into his Supreme Immortal Aperture.
He had accumulated several strands of Ninth Transformation immortal essence.
Eighth Transformation immortal essence was commonly known as white lychee immortal essence. Ninth Transformation immortal essence was somewhat larger, resembling apricots, its entire body a deep orange-yellow.
Yellow apricot immortal essence!
Fang Yuan was already familiar with the appearance of Ninth Transformation immortal essence, having obtained some left behind by Giant Sun Immortal Venerable and Spectral Soul Demon Venerable long ago.
But even now, his heart still trembled with faint excitement.
After all, this was yellow apricot immortal essence that belonged to him alone!
Drawing upon the yellow apricot immortal essence, Fang Yuan slowly activated a technique.
Refinement Path killer move — Refine Self!
A pale yellow glow, no larger than a fist, flowed out from Fang Yuan's dantian. Then, the pale yellow radiance slowly circulated, flowing throughout Fang Yuan's entire body.
The focus was on the wounds covering his body.
There were over a hundred wounds on Fang Yuan, most of which had only been crudely treated before his return journey.
Even now, many of the wounds still bled, with specks of starlight or golden luminescence shimmering against bone or within blurred flesh and blood.
Where the pale yellow radiance passed, the starlight vanished and the golden glow dissipated. This represented the Dao marks left upon Fang Yuan's body by Star Constellation Immortal Venerable and Giant Sun Immortal Venerable — all of them refined by Fang Yuan.
But the process of refinement was far from pleasant. Intense pain constantly lanced through him.
Fang Yuan's body trembled slightly, his face went pale, and soon his forehead was drenched in cold sweat.
Finally, the pale yellow radiance came to rest upon Fang Yuan's severed arm. It lingered there for half an hour before the glow finally faded.
Fang Yuan exhaled a turbid breath and slowly relaxed.
After catching his breath for a moment, he immediately activated the Restore As Before composite killer move.
In the next instant, all injuries on his body vanished, and his severed arm was completely restored.
Yet when Fang Yuan clenched his newly formed hand, he still felt a faint sense of weakness.
But this already satisfied him greatly.
Fang Yuan's injuries had been severe, but Star Constellation Immortal Venerable and Giant Sun Immortal Venerable were hardly in better shape.
Fang Yuan was almost certain that their healing efficiency was definitely lower than his own.
Because Fang Yuan possessed the Refine Self killer move, a technique capable of rapidly refining all the Dao marks on a Gu Master's body and converting them for his own use. At its root, this technique had originated from his former killer move — Keep Clean.
It was by this means that, during the battle for the Crazed Demon Cave, Fang Yuan had refined every last trace of the Dao marks left by the Flying Star killer move, directly dismantling Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's Flying Star combination.
With his physical injuries gone and his soul at Peak Stage condition, Fang Yuan turned his attention to his Supreme Immortal Aperture.
The Supreme Immortal Aperture had first been struck by a disaster triggered by Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's killer move. Almost simultaneously, under Fang Yuan's covert manipulation, it had assaulted the Heavenly Dao's blockade and endured the Calamity of Chaos.
The Supreme Immortal Aperture had suffered devastating losses, its foundations plummeting. Compared to before the Crazed Demon Cave, less than twenty percent of its reserves remained.
It was an utterly wretched sight, too painful to look at.
"However, long before the battle of the Crazed Demon Cave, I had foreseen this situation and made preparations!"
Fang Yuan rallied his spirit, thoughts surging, and in the next moment he activated the Immortal Path composite killer move — Landscape As Before.
The Flowing Time Pool within the Supreme Immortal Aperture, along with the distributed Flowing Time sub-pools scattered throughout, all fully opened their gates.
The accumulated river water of Time, under the Landscape As Before killer move, formed a vast and surging phantom river that rapidly swept across the entire Small Five Regions, spreading to all the Small Nine Heavens.
The illusory river water of Time soon receded entirely, but what it left behind were numerous resource nodes, peaks, and waterways all restored to their original state.
The Gu Immortals within the Supreme Immortal Aperture witnessed this spectacle and erupted in cheers, their morale soaring.
Fang Yuan exhaled a turbid breath.
Back when he had established the Flowing Time sub-pools and set up Time Path divisions, he had already planned to use them in conjunction with the Landscape As Before killer move.
With this technique deployed, the river water of Time in the Flowing Time Pools had been nearly depleted, most of the Time Path divisions rendered nominal at best, and the discrepancy in time flow between the Supreme Immortal Aperture and the outside world had been drastically reduced.
It would take a considerable amount of time before the Flowing Time Pools could accumulate a sufficient volume of Time river water to raise the Supreme Immortal Aperture's time flow rate once more.
Nevertheless, the Supreme Immortal Aperture had recovered forty percent of its foundations.
This meant that the Supreme Immortal Aperture's total losses stood at just over forty percent, significantly reducing the time, effort, and resources Fang Yuan would need for reconstruction.
The forty percent in losses was caused entirely by the Calamity of Chaos.
Even the Landscape As Before killer move had been ineffective against it. Gu Immortals who perished in the Calamity of Chaos could not be resurrected through the Sea of Resurrection either.