Fang Yuan turned his thoughts away from matters of the Pill Path and toward a structure in the sky. It was his Vital Gu, the Spring Autumn Cicada, which was currently sealed off and placed within his immortal aperture's Black Heaven. He could not use it, and Heaven's Will within it could not gather from it into his aperture. This also meant that it was sealed off from the River of Time, slowly but surely starving until he dealt with the underlying issue affecting it.
He knew that Heaven's Will had infected it, and also that Heaven's Will had played a large part in his past life even though he hadn't recognized that at the time. Fang Yuan had chanced upon the recipe for the Spring Autumn Cicada not out of pure luck; but through the arrangement of Heaven's Will.
He did not understand all the details of this, however. He had only picked up bits and fragments of information when he absorbed a portion of the memories from the Embodiment of Humanity's Collective Will.
However, he did realize that not just his success in refinement, but also in using the Spring Autumn Cicada in his previous life had been a tactic by Heaven's Will, which remained present within the gu worm.
As for the exact purpose of this scheme, he did not yet fully grasp it. Heaven's Will was unimaginably powerful. In its eyes, Fang Yuan was no more than a tiny insect; an ant being led somewhere by a child leaving a trail of sugar cubes. Much like the ant in that scenario, Fang Yuan couldn't fathom what it was that Heaven's Will wanted, he had only followed that sweet trail without realizing the reality of his situation.
What he did know, however, was that it would be a mistake to allow Heaven's Will to remain within his aperture. What had been planned for Fang Yuan and what Fang Yuan aimed to do currently were two very different things.
Yet, he could not simply discard the Spring Autumn Cicada. He needed to find a way to either parallel refine it or advance it to Rank 7, thereby cleansing Heaven's Will from it. Reverse-refining and re-refining would ordinarily also be an option, but a Rank 5 Spring Autumn Cicada could not exist.
Fang Yuan did not currently have the recipe to Rank 7 Spring Autumn Cicada.
Failing that, he needed to find another way to cleanse Heaven's Will from it.
Currently, he lacked such a method. There were mortal gu worms that could do so, but the Spring Autumn Cicada was a Rank 6 gu worm. The massive dao marks on it would resist such an attempt unless he used a killer move or gu worm of equivalent level.
Although he didn't need to use the Spring Autumn Cicada's effect immediately, and he possessed other Rank 6 Gu worms, the refinement of one's most valuable gu remained a major issue for any Gu Immortal. He could not as easily advance any of his other gu worms without risking them dying in the process, a setback that would greatly hurt him.
There was a more pressing concern, however. Fang Yuan could not use the Spring Autumn Cicada to generate Rank 0 gu worms as he had learned from the Thieving Heaven in one of Genesis Lotus's paintings while it was sealed.
Earlier he had thought that such things were useless, but he now had insight into what they could do. The method to him, however, was useless to him now that the Spring Autumn Cicada was sealed. In order to prevent the Spring Autumn Cicada from being detected earlier, he had destroyed the previous Rank 0 gu worms he had managed to make.
But that had without a doubt still been the correct decision - Fang Yuan had no regret regarding this. Rank 0 gu worms could not be easily hidden from mortal eyes.
Regarding Heaven's Will; although it had attempted to suppress him while he was generating this immortal aperture, that was merely a reaction to its unnatural size and nature. So long as Heaven's Will still required him for its overarching purpose, it would not openly obstruct him.
However, Fang Yuan understood that Heaven's Will was considerably crafty, and its machinations could stretch over millions of years. He would have to tread carefully lest he become tangled up in one of its schemes.
Looking down at the Fang Yuan Continent within his aperture, he chose to allow the humans their to develop on their own. He could certainly urge the humans there to develop in specific ways, but his interference might hinder the authentic human experience. For now, natural development was better in driving the Integration Formation, which was piecing together human experiences.
Meddling with them could lead to unfavorable results.
With that, Fang Yuan's will emerged from his aperture. With the current flow of time within his aperture, he would undergo an Earthly Calamity in six months.
Typically, Rank 6 Gu Immortals undergo an Earthly Calamity every ten years as time flows in their aperture and a Heavenly Tribulation every hundred years. Once they have cleared three Heavenly Tribulations, they advance to Rank 7.
On an unrelated note, Jade Beauties, whether mortal or Immortal, underwent Blood Path tribulations every month. Unfortunately, they did not get any Blood Path dao marks from this.
In his earlier life, Fang Yuan had been only a few Earthly Calamities away from Rank 7 before being forced to use the Spring Autumn Cicada.
However, the situation was different now. Although Fang Yuan was stronger - possessing multiple Rank 6 Immortal Gu, a Rank 5 Gu House that could potentially be advanced to Rank 6, and knowledge of the future - his aperture was so vast and plentiful that his Earthly Calamities might contain the strength of a Heavenly Tribulation instead.
Since he wasn't concerned with managing the internal affairs of his immortal aperture for the time being, he shifted his focus on obtaining external resources to help deal with the coming calamity. His consciousness returned to his body in the outside world, and he flew into the skies above new Gu Yue Village.
He did not stop there, instead flying north to the location where he had found the grave of the Abyssal Earth Dragon Emperor. Thieving Heaven Demonic Venerable had mentioned leaving an additional present there for him when he reached the Immortal Realm.
Flying over peaks and clouds, Fang Yuan arrived in a fraction of the time it had taken him originally.
His immortal senses could now detect several desolate beasts in the area. They had not paid him any mind when he was a mortal, and they would likely not bother him now so long as he didn't intrude upon their territories.
Even if they attacked, he could simply outrun them.
The gap between a beast and a Gu Master of the corresponding rank widened as one went up the ranks, simply because gu became more powerful and could be used in different ways. How one used those gu worms became more important than simply having raw power. This was evident in killer moves, which could often punch a rank above their weight. Leaving that aside, a gu master could use their gu worms to a better degree, easily gaining an advantage over a beast without the intelligence to do so. That was ignoring the matter of gu houses entirely.
Fang Yuan moved through the earth, the soil parting before him with ease. A task that had taken him hours as a mortal was now done with extraordinary ease. He no longer lacked mortal Gu and could use multiple stacks of Rank 5 gu worms without worrying about primeval essence consumption. The chasm between the mortal and immortal worlds was vast - the two of them simply could not be compared.