Chapter 21: Chapter 21: The Cloud Troupe
Two blurry figures flew around Hu Immortal blessed land, endlessly zipping back and forth without any signs of stopping. They clashed into each other, fist against fist, leg against leg, each hit attempting to kill the other.
Whoosh!
Fang Yuan swung his fist and punched a hole through the cloud beast. The punch completely caved in the desolate beast's chest, but it didn't show any alarm. It stared at Fang Yuan with an empty gaze in it's blank eyes. Two seconds later, the hole in it's chest recovered, and the beast swung it's own fist into Fang Yuan's chest.
Bang!
The cloud beast's milky white fist looked soft and harmless, but it made a dull metallic sound when it smacked against Fang Yuan's chest.
"Strong yet malleable. Cloud path is more interesting than I imagined." By the time Fang Yuan's low whisper registered in the beast's mind, it was too late to dodge.
The cloud beast couldn't move fast enough to avoid Fang Yuan's next punch. This time, his hand was covered in a dense black aura, so vicious and powerful it tore apart his own skin. Fang Yuan pulled back his fist, and punched.
Bang!
The cloud beast attempted to disperse, but it didn't help. The entire lower half of the cloud beast's body erupted in a strong burst of wind. Only the top half of the beast's body remained. This time, it couldn't reform so quickly. But Fang Yuan floated there, patiently waiting for the cloud beast to recover.
During this short period, he noticed the small particles released by the cloud beast continue to float through the air, gathering into dust. This dust wasn't ordinary as it had an incredible amount of dao marks. Fang Yuan looked at this fleeting dust, and back to the cloud beast with a curious expression.
"I see. These desolate beasts have the unique ability to split, disperse and recover parts of their body depending on how many wind dao marks they sacrifice. This ability is very similar to phantom path, though much more restrictive."
Fang Yuan waved his hand and used multiple cloud path mortal Gu to help heal the desolate cloud beast. It looked up at him, somewhat confused by this entire experiment, but it didn't refuse. A swirl of wind entered it's body and it quickly reformed it's bottom half.
"By absorbing the dao marks produced by the wind and cloud path Gu worms it can reuse it's ability over and over. This is one of the useful racial abilities I've ever seen."
In Fang Yuan's life, he'd seen many desolate beasts with powerful racial abilities. But this was something unique he hadn't seen replicated by anyone besides phantom path Gu Immortals. The ability to almost completely negate damage was an incredibly powerful ability. Against most desolate beasts and rank 6 Gu immortals, these cloud beasts were almost invincible. Combined with it's invulnerable physique and it's malleable form, it was impossible to trap or kill these creatures.
"Your race has incredible potential. It's unfortunate that you and your siblings are likely to be the only members of your species."
The cloud beast seemed to recognize the meaning of Fang Yuan's words, and rose up to meet him with a strange human like enthusiasm.
"I don't know how a newly created desolate beast species would reproduce. But with enough time I'm sure something there will be a result."
"Krrrkkkkk!"
The cloud beast made a strange crackling noise in it's throat. Unfortunately, Fang Yuan couldn't directly speak with newly formed desolate beasts, but he roughly understood what they meant.
The desolate cloud beast was asking him for his wind path and cloud path mortal Gu.
"Cloud path isn't my specialty, but I do have wind path Gu." Fang Yuan summoned a couple hundred mortal Gu, each rank 3-5.
"These will be the first batch of wind path Gu. Based on your performance I'll either reduce or increase the supply next week. Don't disappoint me."
The cloud beast impatiently nodded and greedily swiped away the wind path Gu. It looked at Fang Yuan one final time before ascending up to the new shadowy figure in the sky. Hu Immortal blessed land, for all it's recent development, had it's sky completely empty. The only real things of value that floated above the surface were small patches of cloud soil, each clumped up to grow small plants that needed to be at high altitudes.
But this new island casting a long shadow over Hu Immortal blessed land was hundreds of times larger than the clumps of cloud soil. It was absolutely enormous, about 500 square kilometers. To put that into perspective this sole floating island was the same size as the largest cities in the entire world. This 'island' wasn't just a piece of land floating in the air either, it was an accumulated mass of densely packed clouds.
For newly discovered creatures like the cloud beasts it was necessary to devise an entire new ecosystem for them. This was a pain on Fang Yuan's part, but the end result was good enough to satisfy him. The cloud beasts liked their new habitat and had already seen significant growth by absorbing many of the cloud path Gu materials that made up their home.
It was certainly expensive, since Fang Yuan didn't produce any cloud path materials himself. But to him it didn't matter. These cloud beasts were already on the level of rank 6 Gu immortals. Once they grew to their full potential they would serve as his own elite attack force. Eventually, Fang Yuan planned to grow this quartet into his own personal army of desolate beasts. But for now, he had much more important things to do.
"The deadline to face Feng Jin Huang is tomorrow. I wonder what agreement she'll try to push me for this time. I'm sure Central Continent must know of my collaborative work with Myriad Dragon Dock. I wonder how Spirit Affinity House will respond?"
"The sects of Central Continent was already dead set on killing Song Zi Xing since before my arrival. Nothing my regression does will change that event. But this duel with Feng Jin Huang will likely go a very different direction. Is there anything that Spirit Affinity House can give me?"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone