Chapter 1766 One Step Back, Sea and Sky Expands The sky was pure and blue, white clouds resembled snow. A strong breeze was blowing over the autumn grassland. Under the sunlight, golden waves could be seen as the grass moved in synchronization. And amidst these waves, there was a huge black city. From a bird’s eye view, this city was large but has a strict structure. The outer city walls resembled huge rock monoliths, they were black like ink. The surface of the rocks had undergone weathering, the vicissitudes of time were carved on them. The entire city was a hexagon, it was situated on the grassland. The city walls were more than two hundred li long, they were a hundred feet tall and tens of feet thick, it was a grand sight. If a person stood on the grassland, they would see a huge black beast sprawling. If they got closer, they would need to raise their heads to look up at the huge city gate and walls. Every edge of the city had defensive towers that were filled with countless holes that could shoot out arrows. Every few li apart, there would be a wide path for horse carriages to move on. There were even very secretive armories within the city walls. For mortals, just the city wall was impenetrable. During the Northern Plains Imperial Court Contest, this grand wall had resisted Gu Master armies tens of times without falling. Passing the city walls, one would arrive at the vibrant world within. This city had over eight hundred thousand people, there were Gu Masters of all sorts. The city had many streets and shops, there were great numbers of houses and palaces. People and carriages were bustling, there was an endless flow of activity. Loud noises could be heard constantly, this was truly a lively city. And the most special trait, this city was most populous in inkmen. Walking on all the streets and alleys, one could see few humans, but inkmen could be seen anywhere. This was a city for the inkmen. This was a unique city in Northern Plains, it was special even in the five regions! This was Inkman City! Rumble... Intense rumbling noises could be heard, earthquakes resounded as the peace and order of the city was disrupted. “What happened?” “Did the earth crack? There had been rumors for the last few years that the earth would crack and form Earth Trenches that extend deep into the earth core!” “Save me!” “Mother...” At once, the city went into chaos, countless mortals were running around in panic, there was complete chaos. Dust rumbled, the whole of Inkman City’s houses and city walls started to shine in a halo of light. Next, Inkman City floated up, it was soaring into the sky. “Oh my lord! Inkman City is flying, it’s flying?!” “Were the rumors true? Inkman City is really a mortal Gu House?” “Oh my heaven! This mortal Gu House is so huge, this is unheard of!” The mortals were incredibly shocked, they shouted in disbelief. Right at this time, an immortal killer move flew over, spreading a huge green light that enveloped the whole of Inkman City. “Sleep, go ahead and sleep for a while.” Fang Yuan smiled lightly as he floated among the clouds. A male inkman immortal was standing beside him. He was the Inkman City Lord, King of the Northern Plains inkmen, rank six Gu Immortal Mo Tan Sang. He was one of the two remaining Gu Immortals of Inkman City. Due to Fang Yuan’s wisdom path immortal killer move, Inkman City’s mortals fell into deep sleep, the entire city became silent all of a sudden. Inkman City shrunk and became smaller, a moment later, it entered Fang Yuan’s sovereign immortal aperture successfully. “This Inkman City has eight hundred thousand people, in the past, the legendary inkman Gu Immortal Yi Yan created it and it has developed until today.” “Central Continent has the number one human city, Emperor City, my Inkman City can be considered half an Emperor City.” Fang Yuan recruited the inkman Gu Immortals, he would naturally not give up their greatest asset. “From now on, you will continue to be the Inkman City Lord. Develop it, nurture more inkman Gu Immortals. My sovereign immortal aperture has sufficient space for you to display your skills.” Fang Yuan smiled as he said to Mo Tan Sang. Mo Tan Sang had an excited expression, he quickly knelt down and paid respects to Fang Yuan: “I, Mo Tan Sang, am willing to assist Lord Fang Yuan, I will do my best to develop Inkman City.” “Mm, go inside too.” Fang Yuan smiled plainly. Mo Tan Sang obediently entered Fang Yuan’s sovereign immortal aperture. He followed Inkman City and landed in Mini Western Desert. Fang Yuan had chosen the location long ago. Once Inkman City landed, the dust clouds dispersed, the sleeping mortals started to wake up. Mo Tan Sang gave out orders meticulously, he controlled the situation and maintained Inkman City’s stability. Mo Tan Sang was feeling very complex now, when facing Fang Yuan, he did not dare to show any impoliteness. Mo Tan Sang had interacted with Fang Yuan long ago when he was still rank six. Mo Tan Sang had even sold Tai Bai Yun Sheng the nine clouds ring mortal killer move as a favor to befriend them. Right now, Tai Bai Yun Sheng was dead while Fang Yuan had rank eight cultivation level, his terrifying battle strength and incredible battle records eliminated any sense of rebellion in his heart. Fang Yuan came to retrieve Inkman City, Mo Tan Sang had learned about it in advance, he cooperated fully during the process. Fang Yuan smiled internally. “Mo Tan Sang is indeed a talented person.” “I remember that in the five hundred years of my previous life, this person led Inkman City and nurtured many inkman Gu Immortals, he cooperated with Ma Hong Yun on equal status. During the five regions chaotic war, not only did he raise his cultivation level, he even expanded Inkman City to hundreds of cities all over Northern Plains!” “With him governing Inkman City and without any rival forces in Mini Western Desert, his future prospects are very bright.” Mo Tan Sang was a talented leader. Not only did he have unique foresight and courage to take resolute actions, he could also bow and submit when necessary, he was not someone who could be belittled. As long as he had a chance, he would turn around the situation and create miracles for himself. In this aspect, he was like a weaker Wu Yong. But because of his variant human identity, he did not have a good cultivation environment, he had always been troubled by his circumstances. As long as he had a chance, his development would not be restricted to this. Fang Yuan was not worried about his growth, he was happy to see it happen. This was the magnanimity of an expert, this was Fang Yuan’s confidence in himself. No matter how Mo Tan Sang grew, Fang Yuan was confident in controlling and manipulating him for his own use. There was actually some risk in relocating Inkman City. Heavenly Court might have tried to ambush him during this process. If Fairy Zi Wei deduced the origins of the participating inkman Gu Immortals, knowing that they were from Inkman City, she might realize that Fang Yuan would go after Inkman City. In this case, even if Heavenly Court did nothing, as long as Fairy Zi Wei told this news to Longevity Heaven, they would also cause Fang Yuan great problems. But the lucky thing was, even after Fang Yuan obtained Inkman City, there had been no problems, it was smooth sailing. Fang Yuan’s main body quickly left while his time path clone stayed with Lang Ya land spirit. The Long Hair refinement path formation was currently operating. Lang Ya land spirit controlled it personally and reported to Fang Yuan’s clone: “In about a month’s time, the seal of Lang Ya’s origin core will be fully removed.” Fang Yuan nodded lightly, observing the formation. Every immortal aperture, be it blessed land or grotto-heaven, would have an immortal aperture origin core. The immortal aperture origin core was the foundation of the immortal aperture, the base of it all. Developing the immortal aperture, annexing other immortal apertures, it would strengthen one’s own immortal aperture origin core. When the immortal aperture origin core is damaged or drawn out, the painstakingly developed immortal aperture would reverse its progression, the space would shrink and the primeval energy would dwindle, lifeforms within would die en masse. The immortal aperture origin core was like a spirit spring, Gu Immortals were drawing immortal essence from the origin core itself. Lang Ya immortal aperture was once a rank eight grotto-heaven, the immortal aperture origin core was a milky-white lump. After Long Hair Ancestor died, Lang Ya heavenly spirit could barely resist the rank eight calamities and tribulations, after spending countless years, he found a solution. The heavenly spirit used a refinement path killer move to seal the Lang Ya origin core, its rank fell and became a red colored rank seven origin core. Lang Ya heavenly spirit thus became Lang Ya land spirit. But precisely so, the future calamities and tribulations that Lang Ya immortal aperture faced were at rank seven. Fang Yuan was rank eight now, but it was a fake rank eight. He had enough dao marks but his immortal aperture origin core was still the red origin core. Only after Lang Ya’s origin core gets unsealed and returns to being the milky-white rank eight origin core would Fang Yuan become a true rank eight Gu Immortal. After annexing and fusing with it, his immortal aperture would become a grotto-heaven, it would start producing white litchi immortal essence. This method of sealing the origin core and lowering the grade of the immortal aperture was extremely amazing, it had a huge significance! During normal times, most Gu Immortals would die from calamities and tribulations, Hu Immortal was one of such cases, she died from the blue charm lightning shadow calamity, leaving behind Hu Immortal blessed land. If one could use this method to lower their rank by one, the Gu Immortal would be able to deal with calamities and tribulations more easily, they can even accumulate dao marks and not fear that they cannot match the strength of the calamities and tribulations. Fang Yuan obtained this method, he liked it a lot, he praised Lang Ya land spirit about it for a long time. But Lang Ya land spirit told him instead: “I am just mimicking, my main body obtained this method from Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable, while Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable obtained this from Limitless Demon Venerable’s inheritance. This killer move was originally a rule path killer move, named ‘one step back’. Afterwards, Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable modified it extensively, creating the space path killer move ‘sea and sky expands’. I am merely turning it into a refinement path version, it cannot be considered a modification or improvement, I am merely mimicking. Thus, I could not bring myself to give it a name, I fused the former two names together and called it — One Step Back, Sea and Sky Expands.” Fang Yuan heard this and sighed, to think that this method had such a long and impressive history. Immortal killer move — One Step Back, Sea and Sky Expands! Very evidently, this was a support move to manage the immortal aperture, it did not have any offensive power. But its value and worth was immeasurable! If this was leaked out, the entire Gu Immortal world would benefit, the number of Gu Immortals in this world would surge by many times, even tens of times! From this aspect, Fang Yuan could see the immense talent and strength of Limitless Demon Venerable and Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable. With this method, Limitless Demon Venerable and Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable could easily accumulate dao marks and pass tribulations without problems. This method broke the norm of the Gu Immortal cultivation world, it removed the Gu Immortal’s pressure from calamities and tribulations, they would not need to risk their lives, they could deal with this without any pressure. “This means that Limitless Demon Venerable and Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable could accumulate dao marks on par with rank nine before becoming venerable.” Fang Yuan said this sentence. But Lang Ya land spirit told him: “Master, you are underestimating the venerables. According to Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable, when Limitless Demon Venerable was a Gu Master, he already had Gu Immortal level dao marks. When he reached rank six and became a Gu Immortal, he had peak rank eight Gu Immortal dao marks.”