The Wondrous Inspiration Pagoda arrived in the vicinity of Tian Qucheng blessed land. It hovered in the air, concealed.

Tian Qucheng blessed land was a public blessed land, pieced together and owned by multiple forces. It produced a variety of resources, but it also functioned as a gathering spot for gu immortals.

Due the the nature of public blessed lands' mixed composition, they had low defensive capabilities. Public blessed lands did not have land spirits nor heavenly spirits, their main defense was only the threat of retaliation from the force that controlled it.

Bringing a rank seven gu house any closer could be seen as a hostile action or provocation, they were flying fortresses after all.

With Bao Zhi in the lead, they left the gu house.

Jue Shi showed no inclination to go with them, he even motioned for Qinyang to stay behind.

"You don't know this, but for you, I have waited a very long time..." Jue Shi suddenly shut the doors of the gu house in front of Qinyang, isolating this space.

"Fifteen thousand years, I spent dormant! But now that you are here, I cannot tell you how good this is..." He said in high spirits.

"Leaving behind all those matters of the Lingering Mountains Grotto and the Ancestral Grotto, we can finally get to the important part." Jue Shi leaned close to her.

Alarm bells rang in Qinyang's mind. "This piece of! The moment the others are away, you try to make a move on me?! Damn, am I about to get violated by a baby-faced midget?"

Qinyang was both angry and terrified. She felt as if the walls constricted her, making even breathing difficult.

"Fifteen thousand years?" She laughed awkwardly. "That's a really long time. I'm not even close to a hundred years old. Aren't I just too young?"

Jue Shi waved off the idea with a flick of his hand, dismissing it without a second thought

"The other travelers were just as young." He shook his head.

"Travelers?"

"I mean, the otherworldly demons, that's what everyone calls them since Giant Sun Immortal Venerable suffered the might of otherworldly dao marks... How spiteful! But he brought it upon himself, hehe."

His thoughts trailed off, before glancing back to her. "So, you don't have to worry about your age. It doesn't matter to me at all, really. What matters is, that you-"

"Wait! The others will be back shortly. That's not a long time, is it? You waited so long just for this... Can't you wait a little bit for a better opportunity?" She tried to delay by any means. "Let's talk this over first, okay?"

"Yes, we should, naturally." Jue Shi said with a thoughtful expression.

Qinyang breathed a sigh of relief, urging in her heart for the others' quick return.

Jue Shi turned his back on her, looking into the far distance.

Qinyang wondered if she should attempt a sneak attack or maybe she should flee?

But she quickly dispelled such notions. Even the city lord of the oasis, who was a rank four gu master was trapped like a mosquito in ember due to the immortal gu house's power.

What could Qinyang do with just her rank three cultivation?

She could only listen.

"For hundreds of years, that pesky Wen clan, they tried prodding my secrets. Ha, but all in vain! How could they succeed! But indeed, it was very frustrating to endure silently."

Jue Shi spoke, his tone reverberating through the entire gu house.

"This era... The great era, I mean. You see, it needs to be ended. And for that, I need your help." He said without turning back to her. "Qinyang! It is foretold, with your knowledge and judgement, we will set the history of the world! How does that sound? Exciting, right?"

"Huh? He wants to do WHAT?" Qinyang's intense stare at Jue Shi's back vanished, replaced by a puzzled expression.

Jue Shi continued his explanation of a grand plan, spanning multiple eras, acting in the shadows and manipulating important events.

Qinyang listened quietly, but her mind was of a guilty conscience of false accusations. "I assumed wrong, I almost said something I shouldn't have..."

"No! But I wasn't wrong to assume the worst! In this world, that's just... That's just how it is... This damn Jue Shi! Can't you make your intentions clear? Why'd you have to scare me like that?!"

The more she thought about it, the more indignant she got, eventually interrupting Jue Shi.

"That's all well and good, Mr. Waiting-For-Fifteen-Thousand-Years. But all you have is a broken gu house! How are you going to make a difference? You think you are Heavenly Court or something?!" She blurted out in emotion, instantly regretting it.

"You!" A nerve popped out on Jue Shi's little head.

"This 'broken' gu house, I tell you, is still very capable! But you didn't let me finish, the first task is to get back the core rank seven immortal gu." Jue Shi puffed, unsure why Qinyang showed such contempt suddenly.

"Oh! So easy? Just a rank seven immortal gu? Then why not just make me a gu immortal before that!" She retorted.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Hm? Deal!" Jue Shi reached out his stubby little hand in genuine agreement.

Qinyang shook it mockingly. She still wanted to drill Jue Shi with important followup questions.

But Jue Shi raised his hand, stopping her. "They are back."

Bao Zhi returned, with Mo Xuan and Hao Meng behind him.

Inside the blessed land they met two gu immortals who were stationed here.

Bao Zhi exchanged a sum of immortal materials as a gesture of establishing a relation.

Hao Meng acted very cordially in the presence of these gu immortals as a consequence of his upbringing. He left a good impression on the two of them and received a small batch of materials.

Establishing good relations with lone immortals was also one of their duties here, it wasn't anything strange, considering the intentions of clans.

Bao Zhi knew this too well, he also wanted to rope in Hao Meng into his circle.

He saw great potential in this young man.

"An upstanding upbringing, a good nature and a solid foundation. He is like an unpolished gem."

Investing in Hao Meng at his lowest would be the cheapest and would be worthwhile later. Bao Zhi was clear on the principle of a small act of kindness yielding a hundred fold in return.

He took out two batches of rank five materials he just obtained by trading.

In his palm, the resources mixed and fused. In a matter of seconds a pair of rank five gu were refined.

Grandmaster attainment in refinement path!

"Refining two rank five gu in an instant?" Hao Meng's jaw dropped. He remembered his multiple attempts to elevate his core rank four gu to rank five. In total, he failed five times before succeeding.

"This is the Connecting Heaven gu. You use this gu to make a connection to the Treasure Yellow Heaven grotto." Bao Zhi passed the first gu over.

"The second one is the Divine Sense gu. It is used to produce your divine sense, which can enter and interact inside Treasure Yellow Heaven."

Bao Zhi quickly explained while refining a second set for himself.

Once again, Hao Meng's horizons have broadened.

"Qinyang, look! I can connect to Treasure Yellow Heaven. This is incredible, there are worlds beyond worlds!"

Qinyang couldn't exactly put her finger on it, but she found a certain calming charm in his enthusiasm, dispelling her previous mood.

"Remember when we flew on your cloud, leaving that icy mountain. You showed me how great the world is. Now look at you, I took you along to an even greater world." She teased.

Bao Zhi passed by briefly, giiving two immortal essence stones to Hao Meng, instructing him to cover his needs.

"Thank you senior!"

Hao Meng looked at the two stones.

"These primeval stones are strange. Hm."

"Because these aren't primeval stones. These are immortal essence stones!" Qinyang told him. "Use them to buy resources in Treasure Yellow Heaven. Now you are a fire path gu immortal, right? You will need fire path immortal resources to develop your immortal aperture."

"Aperture development is the basic foundation, you cannot neglect it! When your tribulation appears you cannot be caught unprepared. Otherwise, if you suffer a heavy loss, you will enter a negative spiral suffering even greater losses later on. You can even lose your life."

Hao Meng nodded, but smiled confidently.

"What? You don't believe me? Do not be complacent because you have the Blazing Glory Lightning Brilliance physique. The tribulation that a ten extreme physique gets is even stronger than normal." Qinyang cautioned him.

"You know so much, but you are still silly. Did you forget, Qinyang?" He straightened his back, striking a pose. "I already passed my tribulation. I am a gu immortal now! And gu immortals are mighty. I won't let anything happen to you, I promise."

"..." Qinyang blinked in disbelief. "Have you not looked into your mother's inheritance yet?"

"I did! But only at the parts relevant to fire path. Why?"

She took a deep breath. "Alright." She said, exhaling heavily. "Since you don't know..."

Hao Meng perked his ears. What news could she still tell him?

"An immortal needs to face calamities and tribulations not just once, but every ten years." She started to explain, her tone heavy.

"What?"

"Currently, you are a rank six gu immortal with one earthly calamity and one heavenly tribulation."

Qinyang meticulously explained the order and increasing strength of calamities and tribulations.

Earthly calamities, heavenly tribulations, grand tribulations, myriad tribulations...

At rank six, every earthly calamity will increase in strength compared to the previous, until the tenth tribulation is reached in sequence, which will be a whole new class of tribulation, a heavenly tribulation. Then the pattern would repeat until the gu immortal has faced 27 earthly calamities and three heavenly tribulations, including their ascension's tribulation, which was technically both an earthly calamity and a heavenly tribulation combined.

At rank seven, the heavenly tribulations would occur at every fifth tribulation. Every tenth tribulation was an even stronger, worth about ten heavenly tribulations, this was a grand tribulation. After passing 24 earthly calamities, three heavenly tribulations and three grand tribulations, the rank seven gu immortal would become rank eight.

The pattern followed from here on.

Rank six: 27 earthly calamities, 3 heavenly tribulations.

Rank seven: 24 earthly calamities, 3 heavenly tribulations, 3 grand tribulations.

Rank eight: 24 heavenly tribulations, 3 grand tribulations, 3 myriad tribulation.

"I will have to face so many tribulations?" Hao Meng had an ashen expression, but he composed himself quickly.

"At least they are only coming every ten years. I still have a long time to prepare." He said confidently.

Qinyang shook her head.

"The time is calculated according to your aperture's time. What is the rate of your time flow?"

"..." Hao Meng gulped, a chill running down his spine. "Forty to one." He looked at Qinyang incredulously. "But this cannot be! That means, I will have a tribulation every three months in our time? How would anyone deal with this?"

"Now you start to get it. If you want to protect me, you first need to be able to protect yourself!" She said. "Ah! Forget what I said earlier about the two immortal essence stones. We need to resolve your aperture's time flow first. We need to find a time path gu immortal who can lower your aperture's rate of time. This is a must!"

Later, Hao Meng looked through the rest of Hao Jiong's inheritance. He trusted Qinyang, but there was a lingering hope in his heart for she to be wrong, just this time.

But his findings matched what Qinyang just told him.

Back in the Lingering Mountains Grotto, Wen clan also had a time path gu immortal inheritance. They relied on this to deal with the problem of fast time flow.

Hao Meng spent the rest of his day browsing Treasure Yellow Heaven in search of a solution.

But he came up empty handed, the overwhelming majority of the transactions and services concerned only soul path.

In the end, he could only put up a request for service, looking for a time path gu immortal to find and accept it.

Bao Zhi was also dissatisfied with his findings in Treasure Yellow Heaven. He had carefully selected the immortal materials he could store and sell for a good profit back in the immortal treasury.

But what he found now was that these wood path resources didn't even fetch a third of the price he initially estimated.

There was almost no demand for his wood path resources. He had to sell at a great loss to obtain immortal essence stones.

"The problems are mounting. At this rate, how will I feed my Verdant Heart Seed immortal gu?" He sighed to himself, his divine sense wandering in Treasure Yellow Heaven.

"Oh, what is this! Another new path? Food path beasts for sale... Dragonfish?" This offer caught his attention. "Mortal dragonfish can feed all mortal gu, while immortal level desolate dragonfish can substitute a portion of food for immortal gu?" Bao Zhi discovered this new advancement in gu cultivation.

Bao Zhi promptly decided, instructing Hao Meng to buy a portion, all in the guise of letting him practice how the transactions worked.

It had to be said, Bao Zhi was in an awkward position considering his aperture. He could store the select few wood path materials in various gu, but the dragonfish needed a lot more space. They even needed water to swim in, if one didn't use them right away.

After some quick tests, he noted with satisfaction, the dragonfish was effective, just as advertised.

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