Fang Yuan deactivated Familiar Face along the way, dividing his attention between maintaining his defenses and purging the poison from his body.
There was nothing he could do about it — this poisonous mist was produced from the opened entrance of Lady Poison Scorpion's blessed land, and she was a rank seven Gu Immortal.
Thus, the deeper one ventured into this mist, the denser the toxins in the air became, until even the purple fog itself seemed almost tangible.
But all of this was merely a minor annoyance to Fang Yuan. After walking several hundred steps, he finally found what he had been searching for.
Siberian Snow Trees stood over twenty feet tall, their branches and leaves growing from pitch-black trunks. Their holy-looking white branches contrasted sharply against the poisonous purple mist, making them resemble trees of hope growing amidst hell itself.
There were dozens of Siberian Snow Trees within Fang Yuan's detection range, and on every single tree rested two or more rank four Snow Wash Gu. Fang Yuan collected the Snow Wash Gu and the Siberian Snow Trees before diving deeper into the poisonous lands.
Snow Wash Gu was an excellent rank four healing Gu and possessed extremely high value, but to Fang Yuan, it was almost worthless. The same applied to the Siberian Snow Trees — these trees could only grow in extremely poisonous environments, and even if Fang Yuan gathered them to establish another business, the profits would never compare to the costs.
At most, he could use them as Gu refinement materials due to the ice path, snow path, and poison path dao marks they contained. Still, they were not without value in the mortal world.
"This place is good…"
After another few hundred steps, Fang Yuan stopped and carefully inspected the location before taking out Fixed Immortal Travel Gu. Fixed Immortal Travel now resembled a black butterfly drenched in oil, barely capable of movement while its aura was completely concealed.
Fang Yuan activated his method, and unlike before, Fixed Immortal Travel transformed into a streak of black light and rapidly burrowed into the soil and mud.
From one hundred feet… to one thousand feet… to ten thousand feet… deeper and deeper until Fang Yuan finally stopped.
"Even if Lady Poison Scorpion passes directly above this area, she still won't be able to detect the sealed Fixed Immortal Travel Gu hidden right beside her blessed land."
Fang Yuan erased every trace he had left behind before immediately retreating far away until the purple mist became thinner. Once he had put enough distance between himself and that area, Fang Yuan increased his speed and searched for nearby wolf packs.
Within the poisonous grasslands, there existed only one type of wolf — Poison Beard Wolves. This species was relatively weak under sunlight and only truly powerful within dark or gloomy environments. They also lacked fur, their bodies instead covered in dark skin that distinguished them from other wolves.
Poison Beard Wolves lived along the outskirts of the poisonous grasslands, with only a few existing in the deeper regions. But Fang Yuan still managed to find some.
A mile away, a wolf pack ruled by a thousand beast king Poison Beard Wolf was preparing to emerge once night fell. But Fang Yuan struck before the pack could move, sending out rank three Wolf Enslavement Gu.
The soul of the thousand beast king attempted to resist Fang Yuan, but how could it possibly withstand Fang Yuan's ten-thousand-man soul? The will of the beast king was shattered almost instantly, and the entire wolf pack submitted to Fang Yuan.
"This is a good start. By only enslaving beast kings, the burden on my soul will be much lower… perhaps when I return to Hu Immortal Blessed Land, I should increase my soul foundation further."
Fang Yuan possessed a ten-thousand-man soul, but its quality far surpassed ordinary ten-thousand-man souls. Unlike others, Fang Yuan refined his soul properly to eliminate impurities, while also using Guts Gu to strengthen his soul foundation.
Increasing soul foundation was a quantitative change, while refining the soul and removing impurities was a qualitative transformation.
Fang Yuan inspected the wolf pack and felt rather satisfied. This group was much larger and stronger than ordinary thousand-beast groups, consisting of five thousand ordinary wolves, nine hundred beast kings, and one thousand beast king.
The thousand beast king was the size of a bull, and Fang Yuan could see four wild Gu worms on its body. There was rank three Wolf Enslavement Gu and Wolf Strength Gu, alongside Purple Movement Gu and Permanent Coagulation Gu.
"Wolf Enslavement Gu is useless to this beast king, while the others include Purple Movement Gu for mobility and Permanent Coagulation Gu for defense."
This was good. The strength of beast kings depended heavily upon the wild Gu worms they possessed, not merely their physical power. Without wild Gu, a beast king's strength would plummet drastically and become extremely predictable.
"I can enslave larger wolf packs and even wolf emperors or mutated beasts, but doing so would be far too conspicuous. At most, I can gradually expand my wolf group over time."
Inside his first aperture was a collection of rank five enslavement path Gu worms such as Wolf Smoke Gu, Wolf Howl Gu, Wolf Charge Gu, Wolf Cave Gu, Savage Wolf Gu, alongside many other precious Gu worms.
The recipes for these Gu worms had either been created by Fang Yuan himself or modified by him and pushed beyond the boundaries of this world! Take Wolf Cave Gu for example.
Originally, Wolf Cave Gu did not exist in this world at all, but Fang Yuan gained inspiration and created it himself. Wolf Cave Gu was not an offensive, defensive, or movement-type Gu — it was a support-type Gu. If it were revealed to the world, enslavement path would instantly become one of the most widespread paths in existence!
Wolf Cave Gu eliminated three major weaknesses of enslavement path at once! First, Wolf Cave Gu could store wolf packs, and the capacity was absolutely shocking — up to four million wolves! Wolves stored inside Wolf Cave Gu could include ordinary beasts or even rank five beast emperors.
Furthermore, the wolves' injuries would slowly heal while inside, and every wolf would enter a dormant state, eliminating the need for food and resource consumption!
One of enslavement path's greatest weaknesses was its enormous resource consumption, but Wolf Cave Gu could partially eliminate that flaw.
Alongside it was Wolf Smoke Gu for healing wolves during battle, Wolf Howl Gu which amplified wolf strength severalfold, Savage Wolf Gu which drove wolves into a berserk state and unleashed power beyond their limits, and Wolf Charge Gu which dramatically increased wolf speed.
These Gu worms could be coordinated into numerous killer moves, unleashing even greater effects from the corresponding Gu worms.
"With this set of Gu worms, I can unleash terrifying power through enslavement path. Even if I faced ten enslavement path Masters, I could still defeat them with ease!"
This was his confidence in himself — and even more so, in his experience and attainment in enslavement path.
Fang Yuan led his newly acquired wolf pack, enslaving more Poison Beard Wolves before finally leaving the outskirts of the poisonous grasslands.