Chapter 858: Second Place Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios “Right now, I can confirm that He Feng Yang is expressing goodwill to me.” Fang Yuan had a realization. He Feng Yang invited Fang Yuan personally to take a look at Fei He mountain. What was Fei He mountain? It was the base of Immortal Crane Sect, even though it was somewhat symbolic, the meaning he was trying to express was clear. After returning to Hu Immortal blessed land, Fang Yuan thought about He Feng Yang’s change in attitude and smiled silently. The duel with Feng Jin Huang allowed Fang Yuan and Spirit Affinity House to establish contact for trade. The transactions of guts Gu with Spirit Affinity House were higher in priority than Immortal Crane Sect. But because it took advantage of the setup of Central Continent’s Refinement Path Convention everyone bore witness to it, Immortal Crane Sect could not make up any excuses or complaints to stop these important transactions. Hu Immortal blessed land and Spirit Affinity House had made contact, this made Immortal Crane Sect feel a strong sense of threat. In history, among the ten sects, Spirit Affinity House had the highest rate of recruiting demonic path Gu Immortals. Bo Qing and Feng Jiu Ge were examples that were etched into people’s hearts. Not long ago, they had failed to take back Hu Immortal blessed land, now that Fang Yuan was showing strong attainment in refinement path, Immortal Crane Sect finally decided to persuade Fang Yuan in a more gentle way. Thus, He Feng Yang’s attitude towards Fang Yuan changed drastically. The matter of Fang Zheng should be real. He Feng Yang’s action was a sign of goodwill to Fang Yuan. He even tried to entice Fang Yuan using the possession technique. To him, if Fang Yuan continued to keep Fang Zheng in captivity, Heavenly Court would take down Hu Immortal blessed land. Dang Hun mountain would definitely be taken by them in that case if Fang Yuan did not destroy it in advance. Hu Immortal blessed land could not be moved, and Heavenly Court was not interested in it anyway, one of the ten great ancient sects might get to inherit it. But it would depend on internal competition between the sects under Heavenly Court to determine which one obtained it. Evidently, the Gu Immortals from Immortal Crane Sect that were in Heavenly Court were weaker in power compared to the others, it was unlikely that they could take back Hu Immortal blessed land. Even if they took it back, without Dang Hun mountain, Hu Immortal blessed land’s value would be greatly diminished. No matter how they looked at it, this went against He Feng Yang and Immortal Crane Sect’s benefits. Thus, He Feng Yang informed Fang Yuan of this matter, it was a way to defend his own benefits. “Right now, I am a subsidiary force of Immortal Crane Sect on paper, but I am actually placing myself between Spirit Affinity House and Immortal Crane Sect. This has allowed my external pressure to reduce by more than half.” Fang Yuan heaved a sigh to himself. In truth, Fang Yuan had been planning for such a situation. He ignored Feng Jin Huang’s challenge earlier, but he later sent a message and agreed to the duel, why was that? It was because he wanted to make use of Spirit Affinity House to resist the pressure from Immortal Crane Sect. Fang Yuan had achieved his intended outcome, but the crucial factor was not him. It was the allure of guts Gu itself! Fang Yuan seized Hu Immortal blessed land, it greatly incited Feng Jin Huang and caused her to find out dream wings Immortal Gu’s true ability in advance. Because Feng Jin Huang used Dream Wings, she obtained many benefits and placed greater importance on guts Gu. If not for that, why would Spirit Affinity House allow Fang Yuan to make use of them? They were not fools! Indeed, Fang Yuan purposely made the duel a draw. He wanted to show an agreeable attitude to Spirit Affinity House. To Fang Yuan, this duel changed his circumstances in Central Continent, it greatly reduced his pressure and gave him more time and energy to make bigger plans. Of course, once the secret that Fang Yuan was the culprit of Eighty-Eight True Yang Building’s collapse gets exposed, Central Continent would definitely be stirred up, Fang Yuan would be wanted by everyone, he would need to escape for his life. From Feng Jin Huang’s perspective, even though she was injured and did not win in the duel, she was the biggest winner. With guts Gu’s help from now on, she would be able to use dream wings Immortal Gu and improve drastically, her speed would surpass practically all Gu Immortals, she would grow rapidly. “In my previous life, I killed Feng Jin Huang, but now, it seems that I am aiding her.” Towards this, Fang Yuan felt deeply moved, but there was no point expressing this to others. “Fang Yuan, the matter has been settled, if there is nothing else, I will leave first.” Tai Bai Yun Sheng came to say his goodbyes. These last days, he had been moving around Northern Plains, finding a suitable location to place his blessed land. He had found a location already, and was about to place it down, but at the crucial moment, Fang Yuan asked him to return. “Thank you for your help just now, you chose a good location, go ahead and blend your heaven and earth qi. When the calamity comes, I will lend you a hand.” Fang Yuan said to Tai Bai Yun Sheng. Tai Bai Yun Sheng nodded, he went to Northern Plains using a stargate. After obtaining Star Form blessed land, Fang Yuan received a huge stock of starlight firefly Gu, he no longer had to save up on the number of times stargates were used. Fang Yuan came to the prison cell and saw Gu Yue Fang Zheng again. Wasn’t Gu Yue Fang Zheng killed by He Feng Yang already? Why was he alive here? As it turns out, this was just a show by Fang Yuan. He purposely cut off an arm from Gu Yue Fang Zheng, fitting a dog limb onto it, he was trying to create a false appearance of abuse and humiliation. In truth, he kept the severed limb here, when He Feng Yang killed Fang Zheng, Fang Yuan asked Tai Bai Yun Sheng to use man as before Immortal Gu, expending a considerable amount of immortal essence on the severed arm, reviving Fang Zheng. He Feng Yang did not suspect anything, he had limited knowledge, he did not know that an Immortal Gu like Man as Before existed. From his perspective, Fang Zheng’s body and soul were destroyed in front of him, thus Fang Zheng was definitely dead. Any other Gu Immortal would think the same. This was common sense. But the world was huge, there were bound to be rare and strange Immortal Gu, or immortal killer moves, like Man as Before. Nobody could know them all, because humans had limited knowledge, even immortals were no exception. Omnipotence and omniscience, even rank nine Gu Immortals or Ren Zu could not achieve that. To reach that stage, maybe only one grand existence could achieve it, that was the world! Fang Yuan tossed an information path Gu worm to Fang Zheng, he showed a mocking expression as he said: “Take a good look, this is the Immortal Crane Sect that you are so grateful towards, and that kind hearted master of yours, if it were not for me, you would be dead already.” “Impossible! I won’t believe your lies!!” Fang Zheng screamed, but he still held this information path Gu worm in his hands. In this Gu worm, the video of He Feng Yang killing Fang Zheng as well as his conversation with Lord Sky Crane’s soul were recorded. After looking at it, Fang Zheng broke the information path Gu worm into pieces, he fell into immeasurable rage. He raised his head and screamed, his expression contorted as he pointed at Fang Yuan, shouting: “Impossible! This is all fake, you made this up. I will not believe it, I will never believe it! You lied to me, you are lying!! Unless I see it for myself, hear it for myself, and get master’s reply!” “You will witness it all. But... now is not the time yet.” Fang Yuan turned around, leaving the room. He shut the cell as the room went into complete darkness, Fang Zheng was still screaming in the darkness, he ran around in the tiny room and punched and kicked the walls, venting his emotions. After settling the matter regarding Fang Zheng, Fang Yuan progressed smoothly in the Refinement Path Convention without any problems. Since he eliminated some of the truly skilled Gu refinement experts early, it made the later rounds much easier for him. Eventually, Feng Jin Huang got sixth place, while Fang Yuan reached the finals. He faced the strongest competitor in this competition — Yu Mu Chun. In this battle, Fang Yuan lost completely. Even though the task was still the same as his previous life, and Fang Yuan had a huge advantage of knowing it in advance. But his opponent — Yu Mu Chun — was a true refinement path quasi-great grandmaster. This level was terrifying. Even though Feng Jin Huang had dream wings Immortal Gu, she could not reach this stage easily. The higher the level of attainment went in each path, the more difficulty one would face in trying to raise it. In history, only the Three Olds of refinement path could reach the highest point. Right now in Northern Plains, there were only four people who were publicly known to match or surpass him, they were the four refinement path experts of Northern Plains. Fang Yuan knew deeply, even if he had the advantage of knowing the task, he could not defeat Yu Mu Chun. This was the difference in level. Speaking of which, Yu Mu Chun wore nearly the same thing as Fang Yuan, he wore a black robe that covered his entire body, as well as a mask on his face. In Fang Yuan’s previous life, he got first place. There were no surprises, his ability was truly unfathomable. Fang Yuan forfeited without competing, many people were unhappy and blamed him. After all, refinement path attainment level was hard to assess, even though Yu Mu Chun was very strong, Fang Yuan was also an extremely favored contestant. Forfeiting without a fight, the spectators who were looking forward to the final round felt unhappy, they were complaining and claiming that Fang Yuan’s forfeiture was rigged! But no matter what, Fang Yuan, who reached second place, obtained his original goal, he obtained a success dao mark. After that, the representatives from Immortal Crane Sect and the other nine great ancient sects came to Fang Yuan, attempting to buy his dao mark. This success dao mark could not be traded or given away. Even though Heavenly Court tried many times, they had never succeeded. The ten great ancient sects naturally did not have any intention to seize it, they only tried to make a deal with him. After all, with Fang Yuan’s incredible Gu refinement techniques (an over-evaluation on everyone’s part), asking him to refine a rank six Immortal Gu would use up this success dao mark, in exchange for no failure rate. No matter how high of a price the ten sects of Central Continent offered, Fang Yuan rejected them all. Returning to Hu Immortal blessed land, he started preparing for the refinement of change form Immortal Gu. Ever since Fang Yuan started the plan of refining change form Immortal Gu, he had been gathering the materials for it. Because he had the success dao mark, he only needed one set of Gu refinement materials, this greatly reduced the cost that he had to bear. Even so, after Fang Yuan collected all of the ingredients, he had already sold or traded most of the immortal materials that he had obtained from the Northern Plains auction. If not for the Refinement Path Convention filling up the gap in materials, he would still be lacking in some of them. The difficulty of refining an Immortal Gu could be easily seen. Fang Yuan only had to prepare one set of materials, but it expended almost all of his current accumulated resources. If not for the guts Gu trade and success dao mark, Fang Yuan would not take a risk and undergo such a gamble.