The injuries caused by conflicting dao marks were extremely severe for Gu Immortals, and the reason was that dao mark conflict itself was not something commonly encountered.
Normally, this kind of injury appeared when a Gu Immortal cultivated two or more paths and then used an immortal killer move that caused the dao marks to conflict and cancel each other out. At that point, the Gu Immortal would suffer an extremely severe backlash that could even lead to death.
Of course, only foolish Gu Immortals would cultivate two paths without suitable Immortal Gu or an appropriate inheritance. When such people cultivated two paths without the proper Immortal Gu or inheritance, things would be fine at first, but as their dao marks accumulated, numerous problems would gradually appear. At best, they would possess pitiful battle strength, while at worst, they would become literally crippled.
In Fang Yuan's case, however, his dao mark conflict was not caused by recklessly cultivating two paths without considering their interference. The injury came from his body itself.
When Fang Yuan obtained the Great Strength True Martial Physique and Desolate Ancient Moon Physique, the materials used had been rather poor. After all, he had not used any Gu Immortal cultivating Strength Path or Time Path during the refinement process.
Because of this, he had been forced to use large quantities of Strength Path and Time Path immortal materials just to barely complete the refinement. Even after that, both of his apertures still contained dao marks from many different paths, such as Fire Path, Earth Path, Wood Path, Poison Path, and others.
Individually, the number of these dao marks might be small compared to his Strength Path or Time Path dao marks. But when added together, they greatly surpassed his Strength Path and Time Path dao marks, causing the dao mark conflict to become extremely severe.
Even when Fang Yuan refined Gu Immortals' apertures and barely obtained fewer than ten Heaven Path dao marks, the conflict between his dao marks was reduced by only one or two degrees.
The obvious solution to this problem was to increase his Strength Path and Time Path dao marks until all of his dao marks reached a kind of balance.
"To reach the required amount of dao marks, I'll need to spend a huge amount of immortal materials, and even then, it will take far too much time… The fastest solution would be to accelerate the flow of time in both my Strength Path and Time Path immortal apertures and undergo calamities and tribulations one after another."
Fang Yuan sighed with obvious fatigue.
"But if I do that, I'll expose far more than I want and place myself in unnecessary danger. So solving this problem through Food Path is still the best option… But for that, the amount of capital required will simply be enormous."
Fang Yuan found himself thinking about Starry Sky Grotto-Heaven.
Starry Sky Grotto-Heaven was a rank eight Star Path grotto-heaven belonging to Seven Star Child. Publicly, Seven Star Child had merely been a lone rank eight Gu Immortal who remained unknown most of the time, avoiding the Gu Immortals of Central Continent.
Starry Sky Grotto-Heaven was relatively rich in resources. Because it had absorbed a fragment of the immemorial nine heavens, specifically a fragment of Azure Heaven, Starry Sky Grotto-Heaven had not faced any calamities or tribulations for a very long time. The beasts and resources within it had multiplied until they existed in extremely abundant quantities.
In Fang Yuan's previous life, he had not known Seven Star Child's secret, that he was one of Spectral Soul's split souls who had been schemed against by Heaven's Will and trapped within Star Constellation Immortal Venerable's dream realm.
It was precisely because of Fang Yuan's carelessness, or perhaps because of Heaven's Will influencing him, that he had freed Seven Star Child, causing himself to gain far fewer benefits than he should have from a healthy and intact grotto-heaven like Starry Sky Grotto-Heaven.
"There are roughly two months left before Shi Lei and Star Lord Wan Xiang enter Starry Sky Grotto-Heaven. If I can kill them and seize their blessed lands…"
Fang Yuan was genuinely tempted.
By killing Star Lord Wan Xiang and Immortal Monkey King Shi Lei, Fang Yuan could seize their blessed lands and all of their businesses in Treasure Yellow Heaven, raising his capital by an entire level.
Star Lord Wan Xiang was a Star Path Gu Immortal, making him perfectly suited to Fang Yuan's needs. If Fang Yuan could kill Star Lord Wan Xiang, he could seize his blessed land and transfer all the resources from Starry Sky Grotto-Heaven into it. That would be absolutely ideal, since both Starry Sky Grotto-Heaven and Star Lord Wan Xiang cultivated Star Path.
Fang Yuan let out a breath of turbid air and stood after finishing his healing session. His injuries were rather serious and required some time to recover. He could not force them to heal completely in a single session.
"The most important thing now is using Reckless Savage's true meaning."
Fang Yuan thought this before sending his consciousness into his Time Path immortal aperture. The formation used to transform true meaning had been set up inside the Time Path immortal aperture.
The will that originally possessed Fang Yuan's appearance had disappeared.
In its place was the will of a muscular man with a bare torso and fiery red hair that reached his waist. The new will stood in a fixed posture, looking exactly like Reckless Savage Demon Venerable.
Fang Yuan was not surprised by this change. It was exactly what he had expected.
"What is true meaning?… It is a special type of will that contains a Gu Immortal's attainment level, experiences, and insights. It is the accumulation of a Gu Immortal's lifetime stored inside a type of will… Reckless Savage's true meaning is nothing more than a type of will left behind by Reckless Savage, so naturally, it has exactly the same appearance as him."
Fang Yuan sank deeper into thought as he observed the appearance of Reckless Savage's will.
True meaning that had already been created could never be moved. Any movement could consume the true meaning, so true meaning always remained completely still. An example was Long Hair Ancestor's true meaning. Long Hair Ancestor's true meaning looked exactly like him, but although it was a will left behind by Long Hair Ancestor, it could neither move nor even think.
That was true meaning.
By absorbing it, a Gu Immortal could receive a sudden and tremendous increase in attainment level in the corresponding path.
True meaning was priceless to any Gu Immortal, and it was extraordinarily rare.
Fang Yuan withdrew his consciousness from his immortal aperture and went deep into Dang Hun Palace.
Inside one of the prison cells, Fang Zheng was curled up on himself, muttering at one moment and crying the next.
Fang Yuan looked at Fang Zheng before extending his hand toward him. Using several methods, he restored Fang Zheng's clarity.
"Fang Yuan! Let me go! Why are you torturing me like this? You killed uncle and aunt, you killed your family and your clan, and now you're torturing me. You're a demon!"
Fang Zheng cried and kicked at the air, but Fang Yuan's grip did not move in the slightest.
Fang Zheng's hair had become long and disheveled, covered in dirt and mud. It was no longer bright and beautiful like before. His face had become thin, his eyes protruded from their sockets, and the red veins and bags beneath them were clearly visible.
His appearance was miserable, and his mental state was even worse.
Even by human standards, he was already dead, merely still breathing.
Fang Zheng had passed his breaking point long ago. Even this current resistance had only returned because Fang Yuan's methods had temporarily gathered the shattered pieces of his mind back together.
Fang Yuan was in his human form. His deep black eyes looked toward Fang Zheng as he revealed the smile of a loving elder brother.
"Fang Zheng, you're still the same… I thought we had already moved past this long ago. Look, your older brother brought you a gift."
Fang Zheng's body trembled at Fang Yuan's smile, which was filled with seemingly sincere emotion. He wanted to believe it was a loving smile, but his previous experiences told him that it was a lie.
"Liar! You always lie to me! You hurt me!… You always hurt me! You kidnapped me from my master and my friends!… I don't want your gifts!"
Fang Zheng shouted, his body trembling as saliva sprayed from his mouth.
Fang Yuan shook his head as though scolding a child.
"Little brother, I prepared this gift especially for you so that you can understand the world. Your master wanted to seize your body once your soul weakened, while your sect sees you as nothing more than a pawn to deal with me, the one who obtained the Blood Skull inheritance."
Fang Zheng did not speak. Instead, his body trembled violently, and his back twisted at a strange angle as he was about to collapse again.
But Fang Yuan grabbed him and slapped his back, restoring his clarity.
Fang Yuan said nothing more. Instead, he took out the true meaning from his immortal aperture.
When Fang Zheng saw the true meaning resembling Reckless Savage, his body trembled in terror.
But Fang Yuan held him firmly before injecting the true meaning directly into his brain all at once.
Fang Zheng let out a painful groan before falling into a dazed state.
Injecting such an enormous amount of true meaning all at once would be fatal even to a rank eight Gu Immortal. Only Wisdom Path Gu Immortals could barely handle such a quantity of true meaning. As for a mortal like Fang Zheng, his brain would die instantly.
However, Fang Yuan held Fang Zheng's body and sent in a vast amount of wills, carefully and cautiously handling his younger brother's fragile brain. With Fang Yuan's help, Fang Zheng slowly absorbed the true meaning, and his mind did not collapse beneath the wonders of the Great Dao.
Exactly twenty-one hours later, Fang Yuan finally stopped helping Fang Zheng absorb Reckless Savage's true meaning.
Fang Zheng remained in the same dazed state.
Before he could regain consciousness, Fang Yuan threw him into his Strength Path immortal aperture.
"With this true meaning, Fang Zheng should become a master in both Transformation Path and Strength Path… This is very good. In the long run."Fang Yuan smiled inwardly before leaving the prison cell deep within Dang Hun Palace.