As these pockets of humans emerged though, naturally they began coming into contact with one another.
In the beginning, the people there got along well enough.
Fang Yuan saw those that were injured were nursed back to health by the others. Those who were sick were fed mixes of herbs. Those that could not feed themselves were fed so that they did not go hungry. The elderly who could no longer contribute to society were still taken care of.
Humans were naturally kind creatures, after all, Fang Yuan noted.
But there was a deeper darkness to these small patches of humanity as well.
Since there was no real limit on how much they could reproduce, the villages quickly became overpopulated.
Murder was not uncommon. Laws were rather loose; with 'might makes right' being the majority sentiment among most of the humans living on Fang Yuan Continent.
By the time one was an adult, on average, each male had killed at least one other person. That was usually one of their siblings; sometimes over a fight as seemingly insignificant as a small fish. Wives were taken by force. Infant mortality, even though disease wasn't as common as back in the outer world, was high as those infants who had low chances of survival were left to the mercy of the weather, whereupon they tended to perish.
Life was brutal and short, Fang Yuan noted. Art and literature were not widespread in these areas.
But the main question at the back of Fang Yuan's mind was how he wanted to develop this continent of his.
Unlike most Gu Immortals at Rank 6, during this life, he did not lack resources. The majority of space within his aperture was also technically empty so there was ample sites for him to expand on
Time within his aperture moved at twenty times the speed of the outside world. Ordinarily, it would have been much higher - but during the aperture's creation methods were put in place in order to slow this pace down.
After all, Fang Yuan needed time to prepare for his next Earthly Calamity, which would be in six months.
The rate of Immortal Essence depended on the flow of time within the aperture and also the resources in questions.
His aperture produced two beads of Immortal Essence a day as measured with time outside the aperture, or 36 beads of Immortal Essence each year as per the aperture's time within.
This amount could increase the more he developed it, or he could instead rely on earning Immortal Essence stones to supplement this Immortal Essence production.
There were many resources atop the Paradise Earth and Genesis Lotus continents that he could pilfer. Although both of them had their mechanisms to limit Fang Yuan from outright looting them, Fang Yuan could still skin a bit off of the top. And given how large those continents were, a bit off the top was quite valuable.
The easiest way to make money, however, was to sell human slaves.
Selling human slaves was not something that could be openly done for the most part, not that people didn't do so within Yellow Treasure Heaven.
The issue was that for the current Fang Yuan, these people were more valuable alive than dead.
After all, how else would the Integration Formation above the clouds work?
Both Paradise Earth and Genesis Lotus had their own ideas on how humans should develop and had made those continents based off of this decision.
But how did Fang Yuan want humanity to develop?
If he was only interested in selling them as slaves, he could round up the males and place them on Yellow Treasure Heaven, leaving only enough males to breed with the remaining woman.
If he was interested in using their bodies for the formation of an artificial secluded domain, much like the Human Sea or Human Mountain, he could undertake methods that greatly accelerated their reproduction while at the same time limiting their lifespans, thereby ensuring a fresh meat grinder of corpses in order to form such a location.
If he wanted to breed a large number of Gu Immortal seeds in order to keep the aperture working, he could instead shower a large number of Ambition Gu upon the continent after expending a few more beads of Grape Green Immortal Essence.
He had already started with over fifty beads, and at the aperture's current rate of production, using a few more would not be an issue.
That would raise a few Gu Immortal seeds whom he could assist regarding their ascension.
Did he only want to raise Human Path resources though?
Fang Yuan could also purchase or capture large beast groups and place them on the continent. It might have the dual effect of making the humans stronger as they would deal with these beast groups, and also allowing him to develop beast groups of his own.
After all, would Gu Yue Village have developed so much were it not for those threats? The mortals would have spread out to the surrounding valleys, would never had been so oppressed by the Gu Masters, and lie would have been easier - if perhaps not as exciting.
However, Fang Yuan did not proceed with this.
The first was that all apertures were suited to a certain environment. The Hu Immortal Blessed Land, for example, was suited for rearing foxes. Others would be for wolves, or other plants and animals that the Gu Master in question relied upon.
Fang Yuan's aperture, however, was strictly suited for raising humans. That was why there were so many of them around and so few of other beasts that might be able to threaten humanity's interests.
Introducing foreign species might end up altering the composition of his aperture, or far more likely, they might just die out because Fang Yuan did not have the appropriate environment for them to thrive.
As such, the best strategy for survival was to focus on raising specific Human Path resources that he could sell.
Among them, the clearest and most direct pathway to fortune to Fang Yuan was refining Relic Gu.
Yellow Gold Relic Gu and Purple Crystal Relic Gu were commonplace on Yellow Treasure Heaven, mainly because even Immortals needed them in gu refinement recipes. Since they were not possible to refine ordinarily, they were also somewhat limited in quantity - though not outright rare.
Fang Yuan, however, had seen the Goody Two-Shoes System upgrade a relic gu he had found earlier. Considering it was based off of Humanity's Collective Will, this meant that a path to refining Relic Gu should have been possible.
At the very least, it should exist, and with his attainment in the Human Path, he thought he might be able to discover it.
However, frustratingly, he could not find a solution right now.
He could harvest Relic Gu generated naturally from the populations of humans growing within his aperture and then sell them, but this was a indirect method of accruing wealth and he needed something far more sustainable in the future.
"Hmm... what's this?" Fang Yuan muttered.
A group of humans had come into contact with another tribe.
"Those people over there - look at them! Brutal savages, all of them!"
"Hmph! They spend too much time in the woods. I bet they're wood spirits or some other monsters!"
"Those who are not like us, cannot share the same heart!"
"Hmph! They are occupying some of the best fishing spots! How dare they!"
"Let us take up arms against them!"
"Gather your forces, we will ambush them!"
"Hehe - Heaven smiles down upon us!"
It looked like infighting was springing out between several of the scattered tribes on the Fang Yuan Continent.
'No,' Fang Yuan realized. It could not be called 'infighting' because they didn't think of each other as having the same heart in the first place. To Fang Yuan, they were all 'his' property, but they thought of themselves as disparate groups.
It was much like told in The Legends of Ren Zu.