As Fang Yuan looked at the Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus, many doubts in his heart was cleared. He could roughly speculate what had happened.
Going back in time, a millennium ago.
A solitary Rank five Gu Master came upon Qing Mao mountain and incidentally found this underground natural spirit spring.
He was exulted and settled down here. He began merging the mortal villagers living around the foot of the mountain together, forming the prototype of Gu Yue village.
He took in over a hundred wives and concubines, wantonly spreading his bloodline.
He was the ancestor of Gu Yue clan, the founder of Gu Yue village.
Time passed by, and he passed away ending the first generation, then it was the second, third until it reached the fourth generation.
The fourth generation clan leader possessed an A grade aptitude and cultivated to Rank five, creating another golden age for the clan.
One day, a demonic path Gu Master came to the village.He was bald and muscular, dressed in pink clothes and moved alone; his favorite hobby was to defile innocent women. It was the famous devil of the demonic path: Flower Wine Monk.
Who knew what fortuitous encounter this Flower Wine Monk had, to be able to know the recipe to refine Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus. After many preparations, he only lacked a natural spirit spring to refine this flower Gu.
After looking all around, he finally chose Gu Yue village's spirit spring.
At first, he used the pretence of buying moon orchid to slowly approach the Gu Yue clan's higher-ups and get the details on Gu Yue clan.
Afterwards, in the battle with the fourth generation clan leader, he was able to achieve complete victory with his formidable strength. He had not only killed the fourth generation head, but also downed a large majority of the elders. However, his body was infected by the Moonshadow Gu.
Moonshadow Gu's ability was to restrict primeval essence and wasn't enough to be fatal. However, Flower Wine Monk couldn't wantonly slaughter if he wanted to refine the Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus, as that would attract a lot of attention and hinder the progress. Thus, he chose to do things from the dark.
He used the Thousand Li Earthwolf Spider to dig out a tunnel, secretly advancing to this area. Due to the thorough preparations he had made before and with the sufficient materials, he was able to refine Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus in the spirit spring.
The Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus has an extraordinary background. Its fusion recipe had been created many millenniums ago by a Gu Master of the righteous faction: Immortal Venerable Genesis Lotus.
Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus was only a Rank three flower Gu, but it had its advancement route and could become the Rank six Heavenly Essence Treasure Imperial Lotus, which was ranked sixth among the list of Top Ten Great Immortal Gu rankings.
Its worth was about the same as the Spring Autumn Cicada!The Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus had a reputation as a portable spirit spring, because it could produce primeval stones.
However, its fusion process had an extremely high price.
To refine the Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus, there must be a natural spirit spring. This spring should be full of primeval energy, and cannot be a spirit spring that has been used for many years, with its reserves drying out.
After the fusion succeeds, this spirit spring will be thoroughly useless and will lose its ability to produce primeval stones, becoming just an ordinary spring.
A natural spirit spring is extremely valuable. One only needs to look at how this spirit spring has sustained countless Gu Masters of the Gu Yue clan for close to a millennium to realize this point.
Refining a Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus would completely destroy this spirit spring. But that was just the beginning. If it was to be advanced to Rank four, it would need seven spirit springs, nine at Rank five, and eleven for Rank six!
Apart from this, many extremely precious Gu worms would be needed as auxiliary ingredients.
"If I take this Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus, it would be like carrying a mini-scale spirit spring with me. The Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus is only a Rank three Gu, so its daily primeval stones production can't compare to a normal spirit spring, but the amount will be enough to sustain my cultivation expenditure!"
This was just one of its benefits.
The primeval stones produced by Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus were a lot more than the earnings from the Nine Leaves Vitality Grass.
Primeval stones can not only help in advancing cultivation—they are also an exchangeable form of currency.
With the treasure lotus, Fang Yuan could decrease the amount of primeval stones he carried. The tusita flower could then be used to store various stuffs which could greatly decrease the burden on him.
"However….I heard that the fusion process of the treasure lotus is quite mysterious; it appears from nothing during which it transits between the astral and physical form. Ordinary people can't see it, and it can only be seen clearly through the crystal.
This Gu is quite delicate and needs to be nourished within the spirit spring for nine days and nine nights until it grows out nine intact leaves, before it can be plucked and put into the Primeval Sea in the aperture. If one picks it up before the time is ripe, all their efforts would be completely wasted."
Fang Yuan didn't know the detailed recipe of Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus and only knew some insider rumors. He had no idea on how to advance it in the future.
Even so, this Rank three Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus would be of an enormous assistance to him.
He looked beyond the crystal wall and carefully observed; to his surprise, the flower only had eight and a damaged half leaf. There was only half a leaf left for the nine complete leaves.
Fang Yuan wasn't baffled by this.
Centuries had passed, the spirit spring's reserves had been consumed for four generations of time.
This Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus condensed the majority of the spirit spring's essence, constantly consuming the primeval stones produced by the spirit spring, and causing the spirit spring's reserves to further decrease. As a result, the treasure lotus slowly began to reverse the absorption, instead replenishing the damage to the spirit spring.
By doing this, it was damaging itself; this was the reason for the damaged leaf.
"Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus must have nine complete leaves before it can be plucked. It only has eight leaves and a half now. I need to throw in primeval stones to the spring if I am to pluck it!"
Primeval stones were the crystallization of the spirit spring, they could provide the nourishment to the treasure lotus and let it grow again.
However, don't underestimate this half damaged leaf. It was sure to require large amounts of primeval stones for it to grow back!
"If I am not wrong, this crystal wall should be produced by a Moat Gu…." Fang Yuan tried to touch the wall, and found that this wall was real but also virtual, just like light and shadow; his hands went through the wall without any obstruction.
But he quickly took back his hand and didn't dare to go deep into the spirit spring.
Spirit springs should never be polluted.
He poured his primeval essence into the tusita flower and took out a primeval stone.
He threw the primeval stone through the crystal wall. As if the wall didn't exist, the primeval stone went through it and dropped into the spirit spring, striking onto the phantom figure of the Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus.Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus transited between blue and white and started shaking like water ripples. It digested the primeval stone in almost an instant.
After waiting for the flower to turn calm, Fang Yuan observe it attentively, but found no change in that damaged leaf.
His expression was calm. He started throwing in dozens of primeval stones but there was still no change to the damaged leaf.
Fang Yuan continued to throw in primeval stones while silently counting the number. When over five hundred primeval stones were thrown, the damaged leaf finally grew by a little.
After the sight of this scene, Fang Yuan couldn't help but feel slightly gloomy.
From this calculation, he had to throw in at least over fifty thousand primeval stones in at one time.
If he did it in batches and the time gap was long, Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus would consume itself to replenish the spirit spring as the clan continuously extracted primeval stones.
"Over fifty thousand primeval stones… I only have just over ten thousand with me and lack forty thousand more."
With his status as an elder, raising these forty thousand primeval stones wasn't really a problem.
The true problem, however, lay elsewhere. Once he took out this Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus, the spirit spring would be completely useless and this was bound to attract the whole clan's furious and frantic investigation.
Fang Yuan had plentiful experience, but he had limited methods. If the clan investigated without any considerations, they were sure to find some clues. In fact, the clan's higher-ups were already suspicious of him, but their suspicions were temporarily suppressed by the wolf tide.
If the Flower Wine Monk's inheritance was exposed, Fang Yuan would definitely be the primary suspect.
Even if Fang Yuan secretly escaped, he would suffer the whole clan's reckless chase.
"I can't give up over the Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus. Even if I don't have its fusion recipe, who knows what the future holds? The problem is that once I take this Gu, it is akin to stabbing a hornet's nest and bringing calamity upon myself."
Fang Yuan secretly considered every situation and decided he had to wait for the best opportunity to appear, to take this Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus.
"This Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus should be the last inheritance of Flower Wine Monk. But there are many suspicious points to this; Flower Wine Monk would have come to this place to refine the Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus, so what kind of accident did he encounter to be so seriously injured that he had to hurriedly set up this inheritance before dying?"
Fang Yuan already knew the reason for the Flower Wine Monk to set up the inheritance.
It was to take revenge against the Gu Yue clan.
If Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus was to be taken out of the spirit spring—whether it was a success or failure—this natural spirit spring was bound to be useless.
Without the natural spirit spring, Gu Yue clan would have no foundation to stay here. It was only a matter of time before the clan broke apart.
"Forget it, I won't make any headway in my doubts without any new evidence. I should return to the village now." In the end, Fang Yuan shook his head and began to return back the way he came.
When he had just exited the rock crack, a loud and clear wolf howl continuously resounded.
"This sound!" Fang Yuan turned grim and quickly moved.
When he reached the riverbank outside of the rock crack, he could smell a thick odor of blood.
Sounds of cries, yells, wolf howls and explosions could be heard even though there was still some distance to the village.
Fang Yuan concealed his figure and climbed a hill.
It was early in the morning and the first rays of sunlight had just broken out of the sky.
Countless wolf packs were rushing towards the Gu Yue village like a flood.
Fang Yuan's gaze swept past them, then his body trembled.
In the rearmost part of the wolf packs, he saw a lightning wolf that was as large as a small hill.
Myriad beast king: Thunder Crown Wolf!
It was tall and slim, had strong limbs and its whole body was covered with eerie blue scales. Tufts of golden wolf fur could be seen on its claws and tail.
The fur on its head were all stiff and upraised, forming a towering crown.
It was crouching on the ground and was still like a sculpture. The frenzy lightning wolves and bold lightning wolves around it constantly howled, serving to show its elegance and nobility.
Just by sitting there, it had already brought a great mental pressure to the Gu Yue clan.
"The myriad beast king has finally arrived, it is the decisive moment for the survival of the Gu Yue village!" Fang Yuan gazed towards the village; innumerable Gu Masters were in fierce battles, using all of their strength to block the frantic charge of the wolf tide.
Suddenly, around ten figures flew out of the village and rushed against the wolf tide, charging towards the Thunder Crown Wolf.
They were all elders and in front of them was the clan leader Gu Yue Bo!