A mere few breaths of time had passed in the outside world when Fang Yuan snapped back to reality, standing beside Tian Wu and Tian Shan at the peak of the mountain.
"Brother Fang Yuan! What happened? You vanished!" Tian Wu asked quickly.
"It is nothing," Fang Yuan replied smoothly, concealing his immense gains. "Evidently, a brief displacement occurs to whoever successfully conquers the Impossible Boulder."
"They actually did it..."
"If I told someone about this, they wouldn't believe it!"
"I watched them push it with my own eyes, and I still can't believe it!"
The surrounding Gu Immortals buzzed with shock.
The occasion was so monumental that half an hour later, the leader of the Tian Clan - the Rank 8 Gu Immortal, Tian Li - personally descended upon the peak. Tian Li was Tian Wu's grandfather, and was a muscular middle-aged man with a long beard speckled with gray hair who cultivated the Earth Path. He looked at the Impossible Boulder, then turned a piercing, calculated gaze onto Fang Yuan.
"Ah, Gu Yue Fang Yuan," Tian Li smiled warmly, his voice carrying the immense weight of a Rank 8 leader. "Thank you for not only conquering the Impossible Boulder, but for graciously donating it to our Tian Clan."
The surrounding Immortals went silent.
Tian Wu opened his mouth to protest, but Tian Shan quickly slapped a hand over his cousin's mouth, shaking his head. Tian Shan understood the cold reality of the righteous path. He also knew that Tian Wu would without a doubt get himself into trouble by saying something against the Tian Clan's own interests.
Fang Yuan chuckled inwardly. He had anticipated this the moment he started. The Tian Clan had only permitted an outsider like him to attempt the trial because they desperately needed a solution to move it. Naturally they had only resorted to this method because they had found Impossible Boulder one day, and were unable to move it with their clan's own strength. But they weren't foolish enough to allow it to fall into someone else's hands. That was why it was kept here, surrounded by a large formation controlled by the Tian Clan.
Even if Fang Yuan wanted to grab it and escape, there was no way to do so.
A righteous path's super force would never allow a lone cultivator to walk away with a Secluded Domain of Heaven and Earth.
When Immortals ganged up on someone else, their killer moves would be decreased in efficacy because of dao mark conflicts between the moves. Because of that, in the Immortal world, two fists oftentimes could fight four palms effectively. Impossible Boulder was a solution for the same.
The primary effect of Impossible Boulder was revolutionary for military coordination: once conquered, it allowed a 'leader' to command a group of 'followers' and completely eliminate the dao mark conflicts between the leader's killer moves and the followers' attacks. While it couldn't eliminate conflicts among the followers themselves, removing the friction with the leader's main offensive was more than enough to turn the tide of a battle.
It could not remove dao mark conflicts between paths for an individual, however. It would not let one cultivate multiple paths without any drawback.
Fang Yuan did not intend to fight as a team in the future so this aspect was less useful for him, but he still could've made great use of the vast accumulation of dao marks that it possessed.
But Fang Yuan knew exactly when to cut his losses. He could find use for the Impossible Boulder's hidden properties, but he lacked the military power to fight a Rank 8 super force to keep it.
"Of course," Fang Yuan said, placing a friendly hand on Tian Wu and Tian Shan's shoulders. "The Impossible Boulder belongs to the Tian Clan. My brothers here did just as much heavy lifting as I did anyway. As it stands, the true treasure of cultivation is not lifespan, wealth, gu worms, or killer moves… the true treasure is the friends we make along the way!"
Fang Yuan laughed heartily.
The surrounding immortals stared at him, rewriting their evaluations. Was this Fang Yuan a naive idiot, or was he actually being serious?
Given his terrifying talent in conquering the boulder, they couldn't dismiss him as a fool. Perhaps his pure, unadulterated belief in the power of connection was the exact human catalyst required to move the Impossible Boulder?
"So, you used the power of camaraderie to conquer the Impossible Boulder?" Tian Li asked, his eyes narrowing slightly. They had long since suspected something of the sort was required to do so, given how The Legends of Ren Zu described it.
"Indeed," Fang Yuan nodded seamlessly.
"Well then, on that note, I hope the Tian Clan can continue our deep friendship with the Shang Clan in the future," Tian Li replied smoothly.
Tian Li, however, remained highly suspicious of Fang Yuan. He had received the full report from Tian Clan Immortals in the area. Fang Yuan had vanished into a separate space immediately upon reaching the peak, before reappearing moments later, despite the formation made to stop such movements.
How was that possible?
The Impossible Boulder had historically been shifted by Reckless Savage Demonic Venerable. It took no great leap of logic to deduce that Fang Yuan's disappearance was the result of a Venerable's method and that Fang Yuan had just inherited a Venerable's secret.
Yet, Fang Yuan was playing the fool perfectly and had willingly surrendered the Secluded Domain of Heaven and Earth without a fight. The righteous path had its own morality. Tian Li couldn't openly pressure or attack an emissary of the Shang Clan who had just handed his clan a strategic treasure like this. Certainly not when several of the Gu Immortals here were not of the Tian Clan. 'For that matter, it seems he has swayed Tian Wu and Tian Shan to his own side... I cannot be hasty...'
"Fang Yuan, given your spectacular merits today, have you considered becoming an external Supreme Elder of our Tian Clan?" Tian Li offered, attempting to draw him in. While Impossible Boulder was a hefty prize in and of itself, a Venerable's Inheritance could be said to be almost equal or even greater to it depending on how complete it was.
The Venerables were like bright suns shining above the skies of the gu world; having attained places that others could only dream of. Anything associated with a Venerable was worth quite a deal.
Naturally, Tian Li would try to coax it out of Fang Yuan.
"Thank you for the profound honor, Clan Leader Tian Li," Fang Yuan courted politely. "However, I currently hold a position as the Shang Clan's emissary, so I cannot make such a drastic commitment immediately. Furthermore, my Immortal Aperture has begun to destabilize due to the environment of the Western Desert. I must urgently return to the Southern Border to anchor its Heaven and Earth Qi."
"Of course, but please keep our offer in mind," Tian Li conceded, masking his disappointment flawlessly. He wanted that Venerable's inheritance, but a wise man knew when to submit to circumstances. There was no way to overtly force Fang Yuan to hand it over right now. "Additionally, for your merits to the clan in gifting us Impossible Boulder, I can allow you to take up to two Rank 6 gu worms from our Tian Clan's treasury." Since Fang Yuan had 'donated' Impossible Boulder to them and given the Tian Clan face, Tian Li had to give Fang Yuan something in return - otherwise there would be no difference between this and outright extortion. Many of the Immortals gathered there began chattering with each other. Although Fang Yuan had lost Impossible Boulder, he was getting two Rank 6 Immortal Gu in return. This could not be said to be a bad deal, especially given that Fang Yuan was a lone cultivator who likely didn't have a single Immortal Gu on him. "However, unfortunately the treasury is closed right now due to bookkeeping. It will have to wait until you return. Additionally, if there is something else that you would like to bargain for, like Immortal Materials, recipes, or an inheritance we possess, we can also negotiate that as well. Do note for security reasons, howsoever, you will have to come back here if you wish to avail of them."
This was the trap that Tian Li was setting up. There were no bookkeeping going on in the treasury nor any 'security reasons' as to why this kind of deal couldn't be done over Yellow Treasure Heaven; but his main concern was that Fang Yuan would leave the Western Desert and would not return. Fang Yuan had to leave for the Southern Border to maintain the integrity of his aperture, this was reasonable and he could not voice any dissent against it. Moreover, being an emissary of the Shang Clan meant that there was a limit to the force that Tian Li could enact against Fang Yuan. It was not worth it to attack Fang Yuan as he didn't know for sure whether this inheritance existed or what kind of inheritance it was.
Of course, this was only because Tian Li didn't know what it was that Fang Yuan had obtained that he was staying his hand and waiting patiently. If he knew the full details of what kind of wealth Fang Yuan had in his aperture, he would not have hesitated to disregard all ordinary moral boundaries of the righteous path and attacked Fang Yuan!
By hanging out this carrot in front of Fang Yuan, Tian Li wanted to ensure that Fang Yuan returned to the Western Desert in the future. Only then might he have a chance at extracting the details of this supposed Venerable's inheritance.
The enticement of wealth from the Tian Clan, a super force, was more than enough to stoke the greed of any Immortal even if they had Immortal Gu of their own. That was the carrot that Tian Li had chosen to dangle in front of Fang Yuan.
"I thank clan head for his generosity," Fang Yuan said, cupping his fists.