Fang Yuan purchased a squad of twenty high-ranking hairy men slaves from Yellow Treasure Heaven - most of them Rank 4 and Rank 5 Gu Masters specialized in refinement - and transferred them into the Ba Gui blessed land.
They were all a massive grade above the hairy men that could be found in the Ba Gui blessed land.
Many of them were Refinement Path quasi-Masters or Masters, with there even being one Refinement Path quasi-Grandmaster among them. He had paid an arm and a leg for them, but he needed this refinement to succeed.
Addressing the slaves, Fang Yuan's Will said clearly: "Hairy men, all of you are naturally endowed with Refinement Path dao marks and all of you are experts in your field. I have a task for you. Perform it successfully, and I will grant you your full freedom. This I promise."
The hairy men exchanged wide-eyed glances.
"What exactly is this task, Lord Immortal?" the boldest among them asked.
"I want you to refine an Immortal Gu."
Their eyes widened to the point they nearly fell out of their eye sockets, but they agreed immediately.
The hairy men slaves immediately set to work, assisting Fang Zheng with the complex preparation steps. Fang Yuan had motivated them perfectly and they were naturally good with refining gu worms. Half of them were so deeply honored by the prospect of refining an Immortal Gu that the work itself was a dream come true, let alone the potential reward of their freedom.
They had further assistance as Fang Yuan disassembled his Rank 5 Refinement Cauldron and sent it over through Yellow Treasure Heaven. His Will on the other end then reassembled it.
"Amazing! This is simply incredible!" several of the hairy men said. Despite the situation they were in, being slaves, they all still took a moment to appreciate the Rank 5 Refinement Gu House. All of them were experts at refinement, there was no way that they would not recognize the worth of the Refinement Cauldron. Its design had likely come from Old Eccentric Tian Nan himself, and had been later on passed down to Tian Ji. "With this, the odds of the overall refinement going successfully go up by sixty percent!"
It was not all that helpful when it came to the last step of the refinement of the actual Immortal Gu, but it would be of tremendous help in the various supplementary steps involving mortal gu and mortal materials; saving greatly on both materials and time.
Simultaneously, Qing Shu was summoned to the hall in order to assist them. However, Fang Yuan assigned him a different objective.
"Head over to the King Xin Inheritance and secure Undefeated Hundred Battles Gu," Fang Yuan instructed.
Now able to use his gu worms freely within the Ba Gui blessed land, Qing Shu plowed through the trial obstacles with ease, on track to secure the gu worm by the end of the day.
Meanwhile, inside his own immortal aperture, Fang Yuan was dealing with a pressing problem that he couldn't ignore for much longer: the condition of his Vital Gu.
The Spring Autumn Cicada was still tightly sealed and teetering on the verge of starvation. Having not yet found a way to reverse-refine it, he could only wait until the absolute last moment before unsealing it.
Doing so would alert Heaven's Will to what he was trying to do, but if he executed his strategy properly Heaven's Will would be too late to stop him regardless.
"It's done," Fang Zheng gasped as he finalized the first ingredient needed: Beast Strength Placenta Gu. It was a gu worm that could devour the apertures of other Gu Masters after killing them. One could tell from a glance at the recipe needed to make Second Aperture Gu that the owner of this blessed land had not been a very kind person.
"Good!" the Ba Gui Land Spirit praised. "Now it is time to feed it apertures. One has already been secured."
With a wave of its hand, the corpse of Tie Xue Leng was brought into the bronze hall. He had already been on his last legs before entering the inheritance and had succumbed to his injuries inside. The Beast Strength Placenta Gu greedily devoured the Rank 5 Gu Master's aperture.
To complete the Second Aperture Gu, the Beast Strength Placenta Gu needed to consume a vast quantity of high-grade apertures. The higher the quality of the sacrificed apertures, the higher the aptitude of the resulting Second Aperture Gu.
With the Land Spirit actively supporting him, Fang Zheng could be teleported anywhere within the realm. He was no longer bound by the normal rules of the Three Kings. In fact, thanks to Fang Yuan's supply of Immortal Essence Stones, the Land Spirit had enough power to reclaim the entire territory previously seized by the Three Kings - though that remained a secondary objective compared to finalizing Second Aperture Gu and therefore it wasted no time on such.
Fang Zheng was teleported directly behind Mo Wu Tian. Before the demonic path Gu Master could even react, Fang Zheng smashed his head like a watermelon. His corpse was instantly warped away to be consumed by the Beast Strength Placenta Gu.
The same fate rapidly befell Wang Xiao. The man offered the pathway to Wu Mountain as compensation, but that could not move Fang Zheng.
Yet, as the Beast Strength Placenta Gu absorbed more high-grade apertures, its hunger only grew harder to satisfy. Each additional aperture had diminishing returns.
Recognizing the demand, Fang Yuan brought the corpse of Kong Ri Tian through Yellow Treasure Heaven and tossed it through, allowing the placenta to devour it as well.
"The environment outside is becoming increasingly unstable," the Land Spirit reported to Fang Zheng.
Nearly all of the land's Immortal Essence was being channeled to sustain the refinement ritual. Meanwhile, chaos raged across the blessed land. Soon, the entire realm would begin to collapse in on itself, weakening the suppression rules on gu worms. Mortal Gu Masters would regain the ability to use their gu worms, and once they spotted the main bronze hall, they would swarm it immediately. The problem wasn't so much Immortal Essence as it was time. No one, including Fang Yuan, cared to deal with this so long as the Second Aperture Gu could be refined.
This was how it had been in Fang Yuan's past life. The land spirit had found an inheritor far too late, there was not enough Immortal Essence, and the refinement had failed and killed the first person. By the time a second was found, there was not enough essence left, the land spirit could only accept failure and pass away saddened.
"The easiest way to resolve this," Fang Zheng urged, "is to allow my brother to connect his blessed land with yours. He can assist directly in defending the hall and also with stabilizing the spatial structure."
"Young man," the Ba Gui Land Spirit replied solemnly, "I was not born yesterday. For now, we have enough essence to attempt the refinement multiple times. Beyond that, we shall see."
"I assure you, my brother is quite trustworthy, he would never try anything especially if he has promised you on his honor," Fang Zheng said, but the Ba Gui Land Spirit still did not budge on that matter.
"Words are but air. I've never met your brother so I cannot know what his true intentions are," the Ba Gui Land Spirit said.
And so, Fang Zheng resumed preparing the secondary components of the Second Aperture Gu.
Meanwhile, in his own blessed land, Fang Yuan laid out four distinct vials of top-tier wine. He had several sets of spares if needed. Some had been bought during his time with the Tian Clan, while the An siblings had arranged for the rest through the Tian Ji blessed land by giving Fang Yuan their own contribution points.
Outside, small structural tears appeared across the Three Kings Inheritance. Many famous figures had been drawn there in the past few days from all across the Southern Border.
A dark cloud surged toward the mountain with the wailing of hundreds of ghosts. The dark clouds seemed to emanate with malevolence themselves.
Additionally there was a man flying with white boney wings.
These were the demonic experts Wu Gui and Ku Mo!
Rank 5 demonic path Gu Masters, they were widely feared throughout the Southern Border.
Both entered the inheritance, only to be promptly ambushed and slain by Fang Zheng to nourish the Beast Strength Placenta Gu.
Several other Rank 4 and Rank 5 experts met the same end.
"Is this enough?" Fang Zheng asked his brother mentally, his voice heavy with fatigue.
The placenta was nearly saturated, and Fang Zheng was sick of the endless slaughter. He did not possess Fang Yuan's cold detachment. Though the victims were predominantly notorious demonic path cultivators, they had done nothing to him directly, and a part of him felt dirty executing them while they were helpless under the blessed land's suppression.
It seemed very unfair.
"Younger brother, you are far too naive still. We need to take advantage of every opportunity we have. Just a little more," Fang Yuan instructed. "That Hu Mei Er has entered, she offended you didn't she? Go ahead and take her down. And what luck! Wu Ji decided to come in; remember that she's also our Gu Yue clan's enemy. But if you're squeamish about killing her allow my Will to do so."