Chapter 4: Gold Dragonfish

Dragonfish jumped through the white pale water of the northern lake, flapping their long fins for extra hangtime. Their blue dragon scales shined with a healthy gleam and their red tinted eyes glowed bright like flashlights as they swam through the lake. At the center of one these groups was a particularly large one, almost ten times the size of any other. It's large scales were dark red in color, with small gold patterns covering it's fins and tail. It's eyes were dark red and flecked with gold.

"Looks like the immortal formation is finally showing effect. Eat Strength Gu really is suitable for purifying the dragonfish." Fang Yuan activated Myriad Self and lifted the desolate beast into the sky.

Dragonfish aren't an original product of nature. In fact, they're completely artificial. Dragonfish are products of food path experimentation and because of this they're animals that can be "improved", just like a killer move or formation. Desolate beasts like dragonfish usually have a majority of one type of dao mark, whether that be water or fire or anything else.

Dragonfish have all sorts of dao marks with a slight majority being food path, this is why they are universally used as a replacement for traditional Gu food. Since they have a messed up ratio, dragonfish have not reached their full potential. What Fang Yuan's immortal formation did was draw out the dao marks that weren't food path dao marks, basically "purifying" the dragonfish species.

Once these dragonfish were "purified", they would change physically. Mortal dragon fish would turn copper, then iron, then silver, while desolate beast dragonfish would turn gold. This desolate beast wasn't the first dragonfish to start changing. A few groups of copper dragonfish and even a couple of iron dragonfish had already fully finished converting. Fang Yuan estimated that around half of these five hundred thousand dragonfish would fully become copper dragonfish by the end of the year.

"Vomit Dao Refinement!"

Eat Strength Gu activated, but it didn't add any dao marks to the desolate beast. Instead it removed them with the help of various time, theft, and rule path Gu. The desolate dragonfish vomited out a large chunk of it's inner organs, coughing out gallons of red blood flecked with gold. As the beast vomited more and more, Fang Yuan activated a healing killer move to keep the beast alive.

Slowly, the water path, fire path, metal path, and wind path dao marks inside the desolate dragonfish started to fade completely, further turning the beast into a gold wreathed being. After an hour, Fang Yuan finally stopped and laid the desolate beast back down into the lake with the few food path materials he could find.

"It's not enough for it to advance to rank seven. I need more food path materials otherwise the desolate beast won't be able to recuperate it's lost dao marks."

The rate at which desolate beasts grew in rank was dependent on how many dao marks they had. Since Fang Yuan was actually removing dao marks from the dragonfish, he needed to give them more than they lost otherwise they would fall in rank. This was a difficult task, not only because Fang Yuan was quickly running out of money again, but also because there wasn't a market for food path materials. If Fang Yuan wanted food path materials he would have to find them manually or grow them himself. Food path materials couldn't be bought.

"At the level of rank six, my ability to advance my finances and cultivation is simply too low. My own immortal aperture is barren and my dao marks are at the lowest level of immortal cultivation. Even this desolate beast has more dao marks than me."

Attainment level and killer moves could only bolster Fang Yuan's power to a certain extent. When it came down to it, the most important thing to a Gu immortal is their cultivation level and their Gu. Fang Yuan had immortal Gu. What he didn't have was a high level of cultivation. In the time that Fang Yuan had been a Gu immortal, he had gained only a dozen strength path dao makes.

This was due to his awkward state of being a zombie. Immortal zombies can't experience tribulation, so they can't gain dao marks. And besides undergoing tribulations there are almost no other ways to gain dao marks. The easiest method Fang Yuan has is using Eat Strength Gu to add strength dao marks to his body by consuming strength path materials.

Unfortunately, Fang Yuan didn't have enough materials to spare wasting on his own cultivation. The little strength path materials he did have were currently being used to refine the crucial strength path mortal Gu used in Myriad Self. Without these mortal Gu Myriad Self would fall in strength and cause a massive shift in the relationship between Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan.

The current situation between the two parties of the Snowy Mountain Alliance was one sided. Fang Yuan had just undergone a massive victory, procuring massive benefits and reaching the peak of rank seven strength. Tai Bai Yun Sheng also had a massive growth in strength, going from the bottom of rank six to the top of rank six while being a supportive type Gu immortal. Meanwhile Hei Lou Lan and Fairy Li Shan had suffered massive injuries and lost most of their money stockpile.

Right now, Hei Lou Lan didn't even have a home. She was temporarily staying in Hu Immortal blessed land out of necessity. Fairy Li Shan was also being pressured by Old Ancestor Xue Hu to give more and more resources towards the goal of refining Fortune Rivaling Heaven Gu. This was a massive opportunity for Fang Yuan to show that he was the dominant party, setting up the foundation for a different type of alliance to form.

Since he couldn't afford to lower his combat power, he needed to find another way to increase his dao marks besides Eat Strength Gu. The only other way was becoming human again. If Fang Yuan became human again he would be able to experience tribulations and gain dao marks. The problem with becoming human again wasn't the difficulty in reversing life and death, Fang Yuan had accomplished that long ago.

The problem was the matter of Heaven's Will. As of yet, Heaven's Will had no idea that Fang Yuan had gone back in time. Fang Yuan had already removed all of the will in Hu Immortal blessed land. This kept the secret of Fang Yuan's revival hidden for over a month in Hu Immortal blessed land's time, just over 6 days in the outside world.

If Fang Yuan left the blessed land or underwent tribulation, Heaven's Will was sure to try and enter his mind and it would notice that it couldn't. This meant one of two things, Fang Yuan had revived with knowledge about Heaven's Will from the future. Or the other more troublesome possibility, Fang Yuan had come into contact with someone who knew about Heaven's Will and wanted to make use of him.

If Heaven's Will suspected him of being from the future, Fang Yuan didn't care. Heaven's Will still needed him to take care of Spectral Soul Demon Venerable. Until then, Fang Yuan was safe from Heaven's ire. What was more troublesome was if Heaven's Will suspected him of working with Shadow Sect. That would mean that the plan to stop Shadow Sect was under compromise and Fang Yuan had switched sides and wanted to fight against Heaven's Will.

It would be a massive issue if the second possibility was the one that Heaven thought most likely. Fang Yuan still needed to work with Heaven's Will to get rid of Spectral Soul Demon Venerable, and to get the sovereign immortal body. Without Heaven's support, Fang Yuan would have a much harder time in the fight against the Venerables.

"I don't really have a choice in the matter. The Refinement Path Convention starts tomorrow. Even if I don't undergo tribulation Heaven will notice that I have protection against it the second I step into Central Continent."

"If that's the case I might as well become a human again and speed up the time in my aperture. After the Refinement Path Convention I'll show my stance as an enemy of Shadow Sect."

"Song Zi Xing will be attacked soon. When that happens I will be there to strike him down. Once he is dead, Heaven will no longer suspect me."