Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
One day later, Tai Qiu.
“This place…” Fang Yuan’s hands were holding onto a giant strand of grass that was hundreds of meters tall, he climbed upon it and looked afar.
There was a trunk of a huge tree ahead, resembling a giant ship that was washed ashore.
But the tree only had part of its trunk left, it was dark and in ruins, it seemed to have been hit by lightning.
Fang Yuan’s appearance had also changed greatly.
He had turned into a monkey.
A fire swallowing monkey.
An ancient desolate beast.
Even though he was not big, he was not to be trifled with.
Fang Yuan had stopped using the coiling mountain goat’s appearance. The coiling mountain goat could not enter deep into Tai Qiu, this was a place where ancient desolate beasts roamed.
Fire swallowing monkey was a special case.
It was strong, but only ate fire, thus it roamed around the place. It did not compete with other desolate beasts for food, it was a suitable disguise for Fang Yuan.
Without becoming a fire swallowing monkey, Fang Yuan could not move in here.
“Thousand snakes haze tree…” Fang Yuan looked into the distance as he muttered.
This was the third destination on the Tai Qiu map.
The first location was occupied by a group of desolate beast black blood wolves. The second area was empty, it was a region between two carnivorous groups.
Fang Yuan’s current location was the final one marked on the map.
There was once a thousand snakes haze tree here.
This tree was like a mountain, occupying a huge area. It was immemorial level, with seventy thousand seven hundred and seventy branches, the branches were like long snakes. At the tips of the branches, there were snake heads.
The roots of this tree was deeply buried in the earth, they were thousands of meters long. It ate passing desolate beasts and ancient desolate beasts as food, when hunting, the tens of thousands of branches would dance around, moving like slithering snakes, coiling around the prey and strangling them to death, before sucking up their blood to survive.
For the longest time, the countless life forms that died under the tree rotted and piled into a mountain. Their grudge was overwhelming, the place was filled with a dark aura.
Positive and negative energy are drawn to each other, whenever there was a storm, grand heavenly lightning would strike on the thousand snakes haze tree.
It was fine if it were ordinary storms, but if it was unlucky and met with an extraordinary heavenly lightning bolt, the result would be disastrous.
The thousand snakes haze tree had no natural enemies, it was at immemorial desolate beast level, it dominated its territory, it might have attracted the attention of heaven’s will, resulting in lightning strikes.
In any case, three hundred thousand years ago, there was a huge fire in Tai Qiu. This thousand snakes haze tree was burned and resembled an erupting volcano, it lit the sky of the surroundings, for months without ceasing.
“But this thousand snakes haze tree isn’t dead yet!” There was a dark and wary gaze in Fang Yuan’s eyes.
When Long Hair Ancestor was alive, he left this Tai Qiu map behind, it was three hundred thousand years old.
This thousand snakes haze tree had lived for three hundred thousand years, it was not dead yet, there was still signs of life in it!
“Man is the spirit of all living beings, but our vitality, lifespan, body, and soul, are far inferior to other beings. This thousand snakes haze tree has the strongest vitality. It is still alive even after the lightning and fires.” Fang Yuan sighed in his heart.
Right now, the thousand snakes haze tree was completely lying on the ground. More than half of its tree trunk was rotten, a few li remained.
The complete thousand snakes haze tree was taller than a mountain if it was upright, the attacking range of its branches and vines covered an enormous surrounding area.
Fang Yuan could acutely sense that on this segment of the thousand snakes haze tree, dozens of branches were still alive. They were like pythons, coiling and moving around slowly. If any prey entered their range, they would strike swiftly, killing the prey.
Even though the thousand snakes haze tree was in a sad state, it was still an immemorial desolate plant, it was easy to kill ancient desolate beasts and desolate beast groups.
Fang Yuan observed for a while and discovered something new: “Fortune and disaster really comes together, the complete thousand snakes haze tree killed many life forms and created a mountain of corpses, causing the lightning to strike it. But this thousand snakes haze tree only has this tiny segment left, it can only hunt a limited number of prey, yin qi and grudge are not accumulated here, thus no lightning struck it again.”
That was the reason why this thousand snakes haze tree was still around in the world.
But Fang Yuan frowned gradually.
He took a huge risk in coming to Tai Qiu, it was to find a suitable location to set up the transportation Gu formation.
There were three locations indicated in Tai Qiu for Fang Yuan to visit.
The first two were gone, and the third was unsuitable.
Because the thousand snakes haze tree was still alive.
This was an immemorial desolate plant, it had incredible battle strength, rivaling rank eight Gu Immortals. Even if it were the weakest of all rank eight beings, Fang Yuan could not defeat it. This was a huge problem for Lang Ya Sect’s plan.
If they fought here, a beast tide might happen.
“That means, I completed part of my mission, and failed a part. Even though I made Tai Qiu’s map more accurate and eliminated three locations, I did not find a location that suited Lang Ya Sect in setting up the transportation Gu formation.”
“It can’t be helped, dark limit Immortal Gu’s power is weakening, I should leave first. I will return to explore Tai Qiu again another time.”
Fang Yuan sighed internally.
If he could succeed this time, that would be best, after all, Fang Yuan’s recent situation was not bad, he had no immediate internal or external threats.
If he did not succeed, by the next time, Fang Yuan would not have much time or energy to spare.
He was very busy.
Managing an immortal aperture was a huge job, he also had his own cultivation to worry about, he had to settle his immortal zombie body’s problem, as well as turn Fang Zheng’s mindset.
It could not be helped. Most things in life did not go according to one’s wishes.
Fang Yuan slowly left.
He chose the direction closest to the exit and took his leave.
But the problem was, after Fang Yuan moved for a while, he discovered some peculiarities.
First, two ancient desolate beasts were fighting, causing a huge commotion. Next, three desolate beast groups were also facing each other, they were about to erupt into battle.
And unfortunately, these three desolate beast groups were blocking Fang Yuan’s path.
“These all point to the occurrence of a beast tide.”
“So that’s it.”
“The protection of dark limit Immortal Gu on my body has weakened to this degree? Even though heaven’s will cannot detect my location, it already known the general location. Thus, it is creating a beast tide, to wreak havoc Tai Qiu. It wants to use this chance to expose me.”
“Mm… that’s right, I have Spring Autumn Cicada and large numbers of snow monsters with me, they all have heaven’s will. Even though they are restricted inside my immortal aperture, the heaven’s will inside can resonate with the parts in the outside world.”
Fang Yuan frowned even deeper.
He had somewhat underestimated heaven’s will’s power.
Logically speaking, any immortal aperture world, be it a blessed land or grotto-heaven, was independent, they had nothing to do with the world of the five regions. Heaven’s will could not interfere in these small worlds.
But now Fang Yuan knew, if heaven’s will existed in these small worlds, then it could cause a resonance with the heaven’s will in the outside world, collaborating with one another.
Using heaven’s will’s connection, and with dark limit Immortal Gu’s weakening, even though heaven’s will could not find Fang Yuan’s location, it could create a huge beast tide that could seek out Fang Yuan, before eliminating him mercilessly!
“Experiments lead to the truth! Or maybe, the intel provided by Shadow Sect regarding heaven’s will was not complete. I cannot stay here!” Fang Yuan thought as he moved.
He stretched out his monkey arms, jumping on giant grass strands, moving away from the beast groups, evading heaven’s will’s trap.
But he was bound to fail.
It was too late.
The two ancient desolate beasts fought and went towards the beast groups that were in conflict, a huge chaotic battle started as a result.
The impact of the chaotic battle affected the surroundings, triggering even more chaos.
As the havoc grew, a beast tide formed, rampaging towards Fang Yuan.
The beast tide was terrifying.
Be it desolate beasts or ancient desolate beasts, they were in a frenzied state.
They were in a berserk state, only listening to their survival instincts as they growled frenziedly, roaring.
Prey began to attack the predator, many beast groups that had lived together were now broken apart, there was no order left.
Large numbers of desolate beasts scattered in fear, a strong force was forming. This force brought along other fierce beasts, even if they were unwilling to, they could not help themselves.
A moment later, this force became stronger and stronger, it was like an unstoppable flood.
Sweeping everything! Anything that stood before this force, be it desolate beast or ancient desolate beast, was decimated.
Fang Yuan felt like he was a small plank floating on top of raging waters.
He could not help himself, he could only move forward along with the beast tide.
He had to continue his disguise, if he was exposed, heaven’s will would overwhelm him using the beast tide. By then, even if he had unlimited immortal essence and a large number of Immortal Gu with him, he would die without an intact corpse.
He was only a rank six Gu Immortal who had passed one earthly calamity.
Even though Fang Yuan had Change Form and attitude Gu, and even familiar face, simply disguising himself was not enough.
Dark limit Immortal Gu’s power was fading, by some point, Fang Yuan would be exposed to heaven’s will!
He could not expose himself, that was courting death. But he could not stay hidden forever, that was waiting for death.
Fang Yuan was in deep danger, he could not find any solutions for the moment.
“Maybe I can take a risk for a chance of survival.” He suddenly had a thought.
If there was no other choice, he could only do this.
Entrusting his hope in blood torrent and sword escape Immortal Gu.
But this was deep inside Tai Qiu.
Desolate beasts were everywhere, and ancient desolate beasts were also high in number. Heaven’s will had too many options, it could choose and influence them, it could block Fang Yuan easily.
At this time, the beast tide suddenly changed directions, it was moving forward before, but now, it turned at an angle.
“This is?!” Fang Yuan looked ahead, joy was showing in his round monkey eyes.
He looked at the mountain-like red corpse in front, there were still buds of blue flames burning on the bones, the heat was concealed and there was no warmth at all, but Fang Yuan felt a deep sense of danger.
This was an immemorial desolate beast’s corpse.
It seemed to have just died, the immemorial aura was overwhelming, even the beast tide avoided it subconsciously.
“Truly a surprise when I least expected it, hope is just around the corner!” At this moment, Fang Yuan really wanted to laugh loudly.
