Several months passed on San Cha Mountain.
A flash of light appeared near one of the mountain paths. Fang Ming stepped out from the inheritance entrance, his clothes stained with dust and faint traces of blood. His expression was calm, but his eyes carried a tired sharpness.
He had just exited the King Quan Inheritance.
During these months, Fang Ming had entered it many times. He did not focus on the refinement inheritance. Refinement had already been patched up in Shang clan city. Manuals, practice, Steady Refiner, and Counterfeit Refinement Genius had given him enough foundation for now. He was no longer ignorant in refinement, and he had no need to chase that path deeper at this moment.
What he needed now was different.
Enslavement path.
King Quan Inheritance was based on controlling dog groups. It tested command, sacrifice, formation, judgment, and the ability to fight through beasts instead of one's own hands. At first, Fang Ming was clumsy. He could kill well, and he could scheme well, but commanding beast groups was another matter.
Dogs were not Gu worms.
They had instincts, fear, aggression, hunger, and pack behavior. A careless order could waste troops. A slow reaction could break a formation. A wrong sacrifice could collapse an entire advantage. Fang Ming learned this through repeated failure.
He learned how to preserve strong dogs and sacrifice weak ones.
He learned how to use numbers to exhaust enemies.
He learned how to read beast group movement and identify where the controller's intention lay.
He learned how to counter dog waves, conserve troops, and force opponents into bad terrain.
Most importantly, he learned how an enslavement-path Gu Master thought.
This was what he lacked before.
Back on Zombie Mountain, Fang Ming had known Ding Hao existed, but he did not know how to find him. He had known the zombie army was controlled, but he did not understand the method well enough to locate the controller himself. In the end, he had relied on Fang Yuan.
That weakness had almost cost him.
He would not allow it to remain.
Northern Plains was his next major target. There, beast groups, large-scale battles, and enslavement-path experts were common. If Fang Ming walked into that place only knowing strength path and blood path, he would be blind in one eye.
So he entered King Quan Inheritance again and again.
The inheritance gave him rewards too. Some dog enslavement Gu, some food, some useful materials, and a few Gu that would have made Rank three and Rank four Gu Masters happy. But to Fang Ming, they were not important.
He was already Rank five.
The rewards were secondary.
The experience was the real gain.
After returning to his dwelling, Fang Ming closed the door and sat down.
His current cultivation was no longer Rank five upper stage. During these months, he had copied another Rank five Relic Gu. After stabilizing himself, he used it.
Rank five upper stage.
Rank five peak stage.
Now, Fang Ming had truly reached the peak of the mortal realm.
But he did not feel invincible.
The more he learned, the clearer it became. Cultivation was only one part of strength. Gu worms, experience, path understanding, resources, and timing all mattered. A newly advanced Rank five peak Gu Master and an old Rank five peak expert were not the same.
Fang Ming understood this.
That was why he kept learning.
That was also why he kept preparing.
He took out a small Gu. Its light was faint, like starlight condensed into a tiny insect.
Starlight Gu.
Rank four.
It was not powerful in battle. It was not even especially useful to Fang Ming personally. But its value was strategic.
Fang Yuan would need it later.
For the refinement of Fixed Immortal Travel.
Fang Ming had copied it for this reason alone. If he could provide or control one of the necessary pieces, he would have a reason to approach the refinement center later. He needed to be close enough when Fang Yuan refined Fixed Immortal Travel.
Close enough to use Counterfeit Copy.
A true copy of Fixed Immortal Travel was impossible for him now.
But a counterfeit version?
That possibility was worth planning for.
Fang Ming stored Starlight Gu away.
His real target was not the outer inheritance rewards. It was not a few Rank three or Rank four Gu. It was the blessed land. It was Fixed Immortal Travel. It was the moment when the inheritance stopped being a mortal opportunity and became an immortal one.
Before that, he needed one more preparation.
A killer move.
Fang Ming entered the deeper chamber of his dwelling. The walls were reinforced, and several layers of warning arrangements had been placed around the room. He could not allow anyone to sense too much.
He sat cross-legged and summoned two Gu.
One was blood-red.
Blood Handprint Gu.
Rank five attack Gu.
The other was quiet and strange, carrying a faint time-path aura.
Spring Autumn Tag-Along Gu.
A counterfeit time-path Gu born from Spring Autumn Cicada's shadow.
It was not an attack Gu. It could not reverse time by itself. It could not even activate unless Spring Autumn Cicada moved. But it carried something special.
A trace of immortal aura.
A trace of time.
Fang Ming's eyes became focused.
Inside the blessed land, many mortal methods would be restricted. If he entered unprepared, even his Rank five Gu might not function properly at critical moments. But methods carrying immortal-level aura were different.
Spring Autumn Tag-Along Gu was weak, limited, and dependent on Fang Yuan.
But its aura could still be used.
Fang Ming guided his primeval essence carefully. Rank five peak primeval essence moved into Spring Autumn Tag-Along Gu first.
The Gu trembled slightly.
A faint ancient aura appeared.
Not strong.
Not complete.
But enough.
Then Fang Ming activated Blood Handprint Gu.
Blood light condensed in his palm. Normally, Blood Handprint Gu would form a bloody palm attack, direct and brutal. But this time, Fang Ming wrapped the attack in the faint aura of Spring Autumn Tag-Along Gu.
Blood light twisted.
For a moment, the red color seemed to thin, as if part of it no longer fully belonged to the present.
Fang Ming raised his hand and struck toward a stone pillar in the chamber.
A thin blood mark flashed.
It crossed the air silently.
The next instant, the stone pillar split.
There was no loud explosion.
No violent shockwave.
Only a clean cut, as if the damage had already existed and time had merely caught up.
Fang Ming's face paled slightly.
The primeval essence in his aperture had dropped sharply.
Too much.
Far too much.
He closed his eyes and calculated. With his current Rank five peak primeval essence, he could use this move around five times before being exhausted.
Five times.
That was the limit.
This was not a move for ordinary battles.
It was a trump card.
A move for mortal danger.
A move for killing a key enemy.
A move for escaping restrictions.
A move for the blessed land.
Fang Ming looked at the split pillar.
"Cut Time Blood."
That would be its name.
It borrowed the aura of time.
It delivered the attack of blood.
It was not a true immortal killer move, but it carried enough immortal-like aura to possibly bypass restrictions inside the blessed land.
That was enough.
Fang Ming sat quietly and began recovering his primeval essence.
Outside, San Cha Mountain remained chaotic. More experts were arriving every day. Righteous path. Demonic path. Old monsters. Hidden forces. The inheritance openings were changing, shortening, weakening.
Everyone could feel it.
The outer inheritance was only the beginning.
The real storm was getting close.
Fang Ming opened his eyes after a long while.
Rank five peak stage.
King Quan experience.
Starlight Gu.
Cut Time Blood.
Spring Autumn Tag-Along Gu.
Blood path trump cards.
Strength path public methods.
He had prepared as much as he could.
Now, he only needed to wait for the true stage to open.