Chapter 383: Profound Concept of the Universe, Demon Venerable Hong Lian Translator: ChibiGeneral Editor: ChibiGeneral "Young man, the primeval essence expenditure had deviated from the plans, you should stop now." The land spirit noticed this error, and suggested. Fang Yuan’s expression turned cold, retorting immediately: "That won’t do, eighty-three percent is not part of my plans, my plan is to reach ninety percent!" "Most things in life do not happen according to one’s wishes. How can we get everything we want? Young man, you have been blinded by greed, you are starting to lose your rationality." The land spirit spoke calmly. Fang Yuan cursed in his heart, without the land spirit’s help, he could not use the immortal essence. Land spirit was already thinking of stopping, Fang Yuan had to convince it. "Ba Gui." Fang Yuan breathed out some turbid air, relaxing his tone: "The primeval essence expenditure exceeding by a bit is no big deal. In my plan, we had some spare essence." Fang Yuan planned the immortal essence into sixteen portions. Among that, eight was for Gu refinement, four was to sustain the three kings inheritance and three portions and a bit more for killing Gu Masters. The final bit would be kept as spare in case anything happened. Fang Yuan had a meticulous nature, he had planned this for so long, how could he not have a back up plan? But the land spirit was not convinced, although it was created from lingering thoughts, it had intelligence and could think. "Young man, your calculation is incorrect. Have you ever considered that the Gu refinement process might fail? There is no way you won’t have issues, once you fail you will waste immortal essence. Eight portions to refine Gu, that was the minimum requirement, that last bit of immortal essence is to allow you to waste when you make multiple attempts. Now that you want to use up this bit, if you fail the refinement even a little bit more, the second aperture Gu’s refinement will not succeed." Land spirit retorted. Fang Yuan was anxious secretly, he had not passed the test and was not the blessed land’s owner, he could not directly command the land spirit. If land spirit refused to cooperate, there was nothing he could do. There was still a rank five Gu Master and many rank four experts left in the blessed land now, these will all be obstacles for him when he refines the Immortal Gu later. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶 Fang Yuan killing these people now was to eliminate his future enemies, to protect himself. But the immortal essence left in the blessed land was simply too little, Fang Yuan had to carefully think and plan his usage properly. At the same time, he had to face the blessed land’s inspections. "Young man, stop taking risks. If you continue being adamant, I will not cooperate with you, I will even take away your examination chance, and leave the opportunity for others." Land spirit was firm in its tone. Fang Yuan sighed deeply hearing this. Land spirits were very rigid, in this situation, it was nearly impossible to convince the land spirit. "We can keep the others, but that rank five Gu Master has to die. He is one of the four great doctors of southern border, he has a great network and relationship, we have to eliminate him to be safe." Fang Yuan urged. "For your safety during refinement, you have already planned to use that young girl, together with the beast groups, she can block them for a while. At the same time, I will risk my life to protect you. The most important thing is the success or failure of your Gu refinement." Land spirit denied Fang Yuan’s suggestion. Fang Yuan’s expression sank. The final rank five Gu Master Chou Jiu, known as ’killer ghost doctor’, although his battle strength was not outstanding, he had great influence. In his previous life’s memories, he went to Yi Tian mountain and joined the demonic faction. Next, he obtained the third-in-control position. With a wave of his hand, countless Gu Masters gathered. With his healing, the demonic faction faced less deaths and injuries, their morale surged and that caused great problems for the righteous path. Only until Shang Yan Fei invited Doctor Su Shou, together with Divine Doctor Sheng Shou, did they manage to suppress Chou Jiu’s glamor. The battle of Yi Tian mountain made everyone see the ability of Chou Jiu. The ’killer ghost doctor’ also became publicly recognised as the head of the four great doctors. After Yi Tian mountain was subdued by the righteous path, Chou Jiu was captured, and Wu clan leader valued his talent and wanted to recruit him. But Chou Jiu refused to submit, scolding Shang Yan Fei and Doctor Su Shou, exposing some of their ancient history, causing the furious and ashamed Shang Yan Fei to kill him on the spot. Any rank five Gu Master was a genius, they cannot be underestimated. These Gu Masters could emerge from the commoners, and ascend to the peak of the mortal realm in such a cruel environment, surviving many rounds of elimination, they were all heroes or champions. Once he thought about how a person like Chou Jiu might attack during the final step of the Gu refinement, Fang Yuan could not rest easy. "Although my cultivation is rank four upper stage, and my cultivation speed is stunning, on this huge stage, I am still too weak, I cannot contend with these rank five Gu Masters. If I had my rank six cultivation back in my previous life, no matter how many rank fives come, I can kill them all like livestock!" Fang Yuan sighed internally. "You still want to kill someone? Impossible, I will not allow it! Immortal essence cannot be wasted like this, we have to preserve most of it for the Gu refinement." Land spirit heard Fang Yuan’s request and immediately rejected him: "Demonic Gu Masters are all like this, they like to take risks. Sigh, young man, do not be so extreme. In this world, why do you think the righteous path is blooming and suppressing the demonic path? It is because demonic path is too extreme, too greedy, and likes to place themselves in danger. The righteous path pursues stability, slow and steady, unmovable like the mountain." "Ba Gui, you are wrong. Demonic path members have a tough life, they are forced to take extreme means, if they did not fight for the greatest benefits at every given opportunity, and did not take risks, how could they cultivate, how could they compete with the righteous path? Greed, selfishness, extremity, and risk-taking; these are all laws of survival of the demonic path. As long as the benefits are enough, so what if we have to walk on a tightrope? One wrong step leads to game over, making the impossible possible, that is the excitement of the demonic path! The life of a demonic path member is like wine, intense and alluring." Fang Yuan rebuked loudly. Land spirit heard such words and sighed endlessly: "Young man, the demonic nature is too entrenched in you, you can’t turn back anymore, in the future it will lead you to destruction. If heaven commits a sin, it can be forgiven, but if one commits a sin himself, he deserves to die ." Fang Yuan laughed loudly: "Hahahaha, Ba Gui, you are too naive. What is a sin? Commiting a sin means one deserves death, that is only the weaklings’ naive and helpless expectation, they spread such ideology, hoping people would abide by it so as to protect these weaklings. As for me, I want to be a person who commits a sin, yet is able to roam freely and travel the world, a demonic head who slaughters living beings and enjoys all that I can get. I not only want to slaughter Gu Masters, I also want to succeed in refining the second aperture Gu and become the greatest winner! Ba Gui, feel this, what do you think this is?" Saying so, Fang Yuan activated the Spring Autumn Cicada, and for the first time, leaked its aura out into the world. The land spirit was flabbergasted! "This, this is the aura of a rank six Immortal Gu! It seems... it seems to be the Spring Autumn Cicada... Spring Autumn Cicada is the seventh mysterious Gu in this world! You are a mere mortal, how can you possess such an Immortal Gu?" To convince the land spirit, Fang Yuan took a gamble and exposed the existence of the Spring Autumn Cicada. Spring Autumn Cicada was a rank six Gu, and the second aperture Gu was also an Immortal Gu, such benefits were enough for Fang Yuan to take this risk. "Why can’t a mortal own an Immortal Gu? I’ll tell you the truth, the Spring Autumn Cicada was refined by me." Fang Yuan said. "I understand, I get it. You were a Gu Immortal, but you used the Spring Autumn Cicada to rebirth and came back to the past to change history!" Land spirit gasped and sighed. "Oh? Ba Gui, you seem to know some information regarding the Spring Autumn Cicada, please enlighten me." Fang Yuan quickly inquired. "Since the immemorial era, there were two types of Gu Masters, space path and time path, forming the basis of heaven and earth. Space path represented up, down, left, and right, while time path represented past, present, and future. Take my blessed land for example, at its peak, there was 6000 km² of land, and the flow of time was six times the normal speed." Land spirit said. How much was 6000 km² ? On Earth, that is about the size of Brunei. As for six times the normal speed of time, it was measured according to the river of time. At its peak, the blessed land’s time was six times of the outside world. Six days inside the blessed land was one day outside. Of course, by now, the blessed land had severely weakened, not only were the territories mostly eroded, the flow of time was only three times as fast. In this world, there were many different blessed lands, and the size and flow of time were all different. Land spirit continued: "Spring Autumn Cicada is one of the Gu worms of the time path. Back then, it had a master who left his name in history, that is Demon Venerable Hong Lian! He resisted the Immortal Court, and broke the chains that bound fate, giving the people of the future hope, and allowed them to grasp their own fate in their hands." "Demon Venerable Hong Lian?! The most mysterious Demon Venerable in history?" Fang Yuan gasped. In the Gu world, rank nine was Venerable. Demon Venerable meant a rank nine demonic path Gu Master. Immortal Venerable is a rank nine righteous Gu Master. In the eons of history, Demon Venerable and Immortal Venerable were merely a handful of people, they represented a supreme legend. There was only one Venerable in each era, never did two appear at the same time. Thus, Venerables represented true invincibility! And among these rank nine Venerables, Demon Venerable Hong Lian was the most mysterious, and had the least records in history. Even Fang Yuan merely knew about his existence. Now, this was the first time he was hearing about Demon Venerable Hong Lian’s details. Land spirit continued: "This world, wide as one can imagine, is split into five regions, north, south, east, west, and central. They are close together, yet completely independent regions. With one river of time, flowing from the past, through the present, towards the future. That is the time and space of this main world." "If one says that history is a series of still images, then the river of time is a thin thread that connects these numerous images into a line, You used the Spring Autumn Cicada, forcing your way out of the images, and travelled along the line, moving in the reverse direction as you inject your will and memories into one of the images. That would cause this image’s events to change, and consequently affect the future images as well. "So that’s it." Fang Yuan benefited greatly from land spirit’s words. He had used the Spring Autumn Cicada twice, and each was a unique experience, causing Fang Yuan’s understanding of the Spring Autumn Cicada and the river of time to become clearer. Land spirit’s words gave Fang Yuan the inspiration for a new and unique understanding. "To think that you are a future Gu Immortal, and even refined the Spring Autumn Cicada. In this blessed land, you are truly the most appropriate candidate to refine this Gu. Nevermind, since you are so confident, I shall trust you once, who do you want to kill?" Land spirit gave in. Originally, it thought Fang Yuan was only a mortal, he would definitely waste a lot of immortal essence when refining Gu. But right now, it recognised Fang Yuan’s Gu Immortal identity, and reduced the estimated immortal essence that he would potentially waste, thus accepting Fang Yuan’s request. Fang Yuan smiled and promised: "Land spirit, it is right to trust me. I will not disappoint you, the Gu refinement will succeed. In the future, I have to rely on this second aperture Gu to ascend to Gu Immortal realm once again." Land spirit laughed too, having a sense of acknowledgement towards Fang Yuan: "That’s right, you are a Gu Immortal, you know the value of the second aperture Gu much more than mortals. When you become a Gu Immortal, the second aperture will give you unparalleled benefits!"