Chapter 593: Appearance of the strength path Immortal Gu
Translator: ChibiGeneral Editor: ChibiGeneral
Hei Lou Lan’s brows furrowed as he walked out of Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s room.
“An expert cannot become conceited by success nor discouraged by failure; who could have thought the grand, renowned Tai Bai Yun Sheng was no more than this.” he was very dissatisfied with Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s mental state.
“Tai Bai Yun Sheng is the number one healer, if his state is not good, the difficulty for me to cross the rounds will increase by a lot.” Hei Lou Lan raised his head and looked above.
On the summit of the sacred palace, the bright aurora was surging majestically.
Eighty-Eight True Yang Building had already condensed sixty-seven floors and was currently condensing sixty-eighth floor.
Hei Lou Lan gazed at Eighty-Eight True Yang Building with an obsessed look, a cold light of ambition flashing in his eyes.
In the sixty-eighth floor there existed a strength path Immortal Gu!
Hei Lou Lan possessed an one-edge owner token, this strength path Immortal Gu was assimilated into Eighty-Eight True Yang Building just moments ago, and he could immediately perceive it.
This was a rank six strength path Immortal Gu called flying bear strength Gu.
The flying bear was a desolate beast with battle strength that could match Gu Immortals.
Flying bear strength Gu could allow the Gu Immortal to have a definite probability of bursting out with a flying bear phantom during battle and strike with the divine strength of flying bear.
This was the Immortal Gu Hei Lou Lan wanted. With it, he could advance into a strength path Gu Immortal!
“I must get this Immortal Gu in my hands. My plan for revenge only has hope if I have it!” Hei Lou Lan unconsciously clenched his fists, but soon relaxed.
His trusted aide Hei Shu came towards him in short, quick steps, and kneeled before him.
Hei Lou Lan’s expression quickly changed back to normal.
Even in front of his trusted aide, he did not reveal even a trace of his true emotions.
Every day, during this time, Hei Shu would come to report on the movements of every great expert in the sacred palace: “Lord Chang Shan Yin is still at the ninetieth round of seventh floor and has still not made any progress. Lord Ye Lui Sang is at the forty-ninth floor, he has crossed the eighty-first round, thirty percent of the Gu Masters with him have perished….”
Hei Lou Lan had completely opened up Eighty-Eight True Yang Building to everyone; it was a generous move that was rarely seen in the history, attracting a craze in everyone to explore Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.
Even though every owner token’s price was raised to a sky-high amount, there were still countless people scrambling for them madly.
Humans die for wealth and birds die for food; blinded by greed, many had lost their lives.
Adding the casualties from the attempt of Tai Bai Yun Sheng, five rank five experts had died already – Chang Biao, Pan Ping, Hao Ji Liu, Gao Yang and Zhu Zai. This was an enormous loss to Hei Lou Lan.
The smaller the forces he could mobilize became, the harder the difficulty in getting flying bear strength Gu.
Of course, there was also a certain benefit by completely opening up Eighty-Eight True Yang Building. As long as the participating Gu Masters could survive, most would be able to experience rapid increase in strength.
There were also not a small number who were able to successfully advance, creating many new rank four and rank five Gu Masters.
Eighty-Eight True Yang Building was originally arranged by Giant Sun Immortal Venerable for the benefit of his descendants.
“This sixty-eighth floor is the main focus of our tribe, it even far surpasses winning over the thirty-ninth floor. This is a task specially handed to me by a certain supreme elder of our tribe. Thus, every bit of strength in the sacred palace needs to be treasured. Hei Shu, make this news public: Starting now, Eighty-Eight True Yang Building will be closed and everyone will listen to my arrangements. After breaking through the sixty-eighth floor, Eighty-Eight True Yang Building will be opened again.” Hei Lou Lan instructed, his tone containing a will that could not be questioned.
When Hei Shu heard this was actually a task given by the tribe’s supreme elder, his body shook and his expression turned extremely solemn.
“Get to work.” Hei Lou Lan waved his hand.
Hei Shu accepted the command and retreated.
Every Imperial Court contest was a chess game played by Gu Immortals. Even the stronger Gu Masters were no more than chess pieces.
To seek some kind of Immortal Gu, Gu Immortals would provide support to certain tribes participating in the Imperial Court contest. This was a common set of circumstances.
Hei Lou Lan was sure that everyone would be dissatisfied by his decision to close Eighty-Eight True Yang Building, but under the pressure of a Gu Immortal’s reputation, no one would dare to raise an issue.
“Tai Bai Yun Sheng’s injuries are too severe, but I can make him participate in the battle after he rests for about half a month. After all, he is a healing Gu Master and will be in the rear of the battlefield. He needs lifespan Gu, I can start from this aspect to mobilize him.”
“Chang Shan Yin is fighting the seventh floor. Hehe, his days have not been easy because his son suddenly perished in this round. To get back his reputation, he must pass this round. But he demanded flying bear phantom Immortal Gu from me before, taking loans and owing me a great deal of resources. I can mobilize him.”
“There is also Ye Lui Sang, he has a fire path support type Immortal Gu and would be of strong help to me. I can entice him with heavy bait…of course, the crucial point will still be using the strength of the three Gu Immortals, Xue Song Zi, Hei Cheng and Hei Bai. Hehehe, I should send them letters.”
…
Hei Bai was extremely excited after reading Hei Lou Lan’s letter: “I waited so long and now finally the wooden chicken Gu has appeared, I did not think it would be within the sixty-eighth floor.”
He did not doubt the contents of this letter in the least.
After all, Hei Lou Lan was Hei Cheng’s son, and was the current Hei tribe leader. If his loyalty was doubted, then was there anyone in the world who was worth trusting?
Hei Cheng smiled brightly: “Virtuous brother, every cloud has a silver lining, hard work will eventually pay off. Did the letter mention anything about strength path Immortal Gu?”
Hei Bai’s face flushed red: “I am ashamed, I was only thinking of wooden chicken Gu and forgot about nephew’s situation. Nephew has Great Strength True Martial Physique, he must have a strength path Immortal Gu to advance to Gu Immortal. Nephew has mentioned about this in the letter, but unfortunately a strength path Immortal Gu has yet to appear in Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.”
“Still no strength path Immortal Gu?” Hei Cheng frowned.
Previously, when Hei Bai had been worried about wooden chicken Gu, he was consoled by Hei Cheng. This time, it was Hei Bai’s turn to console Hei Cheng: “Brother, no need to worry, Eighty-Eight True Yang Building has altogether eighty-eight floors, there are still twenty floors that have not condensed yet.”
Hei Cheng nodded, sighing: “Immortal Gu Dark Limit won’t be able to mask his physique any longer, this can almost be considered as my son’s final chance at life. Sigh… Man proposes and God disposes, we can only leave things to the will of heaven.”
Hei Bai’s heart was fervent as he changed the topic back to wooden chicken Gu. He reminded: “Brother, time waits for no man, let’s quickly prepare to give some help to Hei Lou Lan!”
“Yes. This matter demands immediate actions, which place did the letter mention?” Hei Cheng slowly stood up from his seat.
Hei Bai also followed suit and stood up: “It is near Demon Blood Hill.”
“Let’s go.”
The two Gu Immortals were very straightforward as they immediately set off.
Not long later, they arrived at the sky above Demon Blood Hill.
Demon Blood Hill was a famous area in northern plains where four great tribes of the righteous path had allied to annihilate a gang of demonic path bandits who had been ravaging around northern plains.
The demonic path bandits were extremely fierce because of their deep background, with demonic path Gu Immortals secretly supporting them from the dark.
After the intense battle, the bandit gang was completely annihilated while the righteous path also suffered serious losses. The blood of demonic path Gu Masters dyed the whole hill red, and thus later generations called the hill ‘Demon Blood Hill’.
Hei Lou Lan had requested help in the letter.
Hei tribe’s two Gu Immortals had already prepared for a long time and were ready to leave at any time; this was to help Hei Lou Lan to clear the floor as fast as possible.
But Eighty-Eight True Yang Building was located in Imperial Court blessed land, why would the two Gu Immortals from Hei tribe come here?
Eighty-Eight True Yang Building’s structure needed to be mentioned for this.
The previous ink text had explained: Eighty-Eight True Yang Building was a rank eight Immortal Gu house formed from innumerable small towers, with divert disaster Gu as one of the main cornerstones.
There were gaps of several li between each small tower, covering Imperial Court blessed land in accordance to each region of northern plains. During ordinary times, the small towers would be taking in the wild Gu within Imperial Court blessed land. As every ten year period arrived, these small towers would start to sink one after another, sacrificing the wild Gu inside them while also resonating with the blizzard in the outside world to achieve a miraculous power.
This power would carry out an enormous plundering of the whole of northern plains, taking in the precious Gu resources of northern plains to above the sacred palace in Imperial Court blessed land, and thus condensing floor after floor of Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.
These floors would form on top of one another, finally forming the complete Eighty-Eight True Yang Building!
Back then, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable’s plan had been rejected by Long Hair Ancestor. Long Hair Ancestor was a refinement path supreme grandmaster, and thought of an exquisite plan with a different approach, refining the current Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.
Every time Eighty-Eight True Yang Building formed was a process of refining Gu once again.
It not only made use of the wild Gu in the small towers but also the Gu worms absorbed into it.
For example, looking at the sixty-eighth floor, Eighty-Eight True Yang Building first absorbed flying bear strength Gu and refined it, using the strength of the Gu to form the hundredth round.
Again, absorbing other strong Gu worms to form the ninety-ninth round. Following was the ninety-eight round, ninety-seventh…..
It was like building a high building, one must first build a strong foundation.
If there were not qualified Gu worms, then Eighty-Eight True Yang Building would replace it with Gu recipe, primeval stones, inheritance secrets and so on.
Everyone knew the harder the rounds in Eighty-Eight True Yang Building were, the more bountiful the rewards would be. Conversely, the more bountiful the rewards or stronger the Gu worms, the more difficult the round would be.
One could say every Gu worm assimilated into Eighty-Eight True Yang Building was a part of its structure.
Countless Imperial Court contests passed by while countless generations of sagely immortals had been probing before the workings of this mechanism of Eighty-Eight True Yang Building were finally discovered.
Originally, there were no flaws in this.
But with the passing of time, changes started to appear which created a loophole, allowing northern plains’ Gu Masters to exploit it.
This loophole was in the aspect of ‘refinement’.
Eighty-Eight True Yang Building plundered northern plains and absorbed Gu worms, ‘refining’ them and using their strength to form rounds.
What did Gu refinement rely on?
Will!
Back then, how did Fang Yuan refine the liquor worm?
By using primeval essence as a carrier for the Gu Master’s will to continually wear down the Gu worm’s will, until the Gu worm was filled with the Gu Master’s will, thoroughly turning into the Gu Master’s tool.
When Fang Yuan refined Gu, he had used Immortal Gu Spring Autumn Cicada to get the desired result at the least expense.
If the Gu worms differ by two ranks or more, there would be suppression. Fang Yuan used Spring Autumn Cicada’s aura to force the lower ranked Gu worm’s will to curl up at a corner, and then poured in his primeval essence and will straight into the Gu worm, swallowing the withdrawn Gu worm’s will.
Eighty-Eight True Yang Building was not a Gu Master, how could it refine other Gu worms?
Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, thus, intentionally left behind his will!
Giant Sun’s will!
Fang Yuan had seen Giant Sun’s will when he was refining the guest halt stele before. It was genuinely majestic and vast like the sun.
Comparatively speaking, the will Fang Yuan left behind after refining the guest halt stele was as minute as an ant.
Eighty-Eight True Yang Building refined Gu worms by using Giant Sun’s will.
Immortal Venerable were unrivalled, their wills were also similarly unrivalled and could easily extinguish other wills.
Thus, Eighty-Eight True Yang Building had never encountered any problems when refining Gu worms.
However, there was a problem.
Wills were formed from thoughts, if there was not a soul to act as the carrier, continuous thinking would only lead to unceasing consumption.
To resist such astonishing consumption, the will would often choose to hibernate.
When Fang Yuan entered Water Pavilion, Mo Yao’s will which was stored inside had awoken from her hibernation.
Giant Sun’s will might be vast as the Sun, but Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had passed away for countless years now; the will was gradually unable to resist the power of time and also chose to hibernate!
When Giant Sun’s will went into hibernation, Eighty-Eight True Yang Building’s Gu refinement speed slowed down.
This reduction in speed caused a loophole to appear in Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.