Chapter 159: Dollhouse: Part Seven
"What's going on?" Fang Yuan asked, and Bai Ning Bing quickly explained the situation to him before he began laughing loudly.
Fang Zheng backed away from the doll. "Why would I want to degrade myself by becoming the less useful gender?"
"Oh, but senior brother," the doll said, approaching Fang Zheng, "I think you would look extremely good in a dress."
Fang Zheng kicked the doll, sending it flying to the other side of the room where it hit its head again.
"Quick, Fang Yuan, give me the Yang Rotation Gu!" Bai Ning Bing said.
Fang Yuan glared at him devilishly. "Why, certainly, Bai Ning Bing, but there are certain things we need to take care of beforehand. We still have a very angry Rank 5 Gu Master hovering above us, and no way to deal with him."
"What do you mean? We have this Gu House," Bai Ning Bing said.
The doll got up slowly, nursing its head.
"You may have a Gu House," Fang Yuan said. "But do you have the essence needed to use any of its Gu worms?"
'Primeval Essence...' Bai Ning Bing thought to herself. With just a little bit of Rank 3 Peak primeval essence he could not even power up a corner of the Gu House. "Isn't there any primeval essence lying around? How are we supposed to make this work?"
The doll shook her head. "My apologies, fai- senior sister, but my master thought that the one who discovered this Gu House and the inheritance would be an immortal, and so he had not planned for anything like this."
'That person must have had a connection to Genesis Lotus somehow. Either that, or Genesis Lotus found this inheritance and kept it, thinking that it would be useful in the future,' Fang Yuan thought to himself.
"Bai Ning Bing, quickly hand over control of this Gu House to me. I have a way that we can use it."
Bai Ning Bing turned toward him, frowning. "It only needs to be temporary," Fang Yuan added.
"All right, then," Bai Ning Bing said. "House spirit, this person is now in control of the house for a while."
"Alright, then, fairy," the doll said, before being kicked by Bai Ning Bing again.
"How many times have I told you not to call me fairy?!"
Fang Yuan smiled inwardly.
As he released his will and the drop of Grape Green Immortal Essence from his inventory, his will condensed and took the form of another Fang Yuan making it seem like the Fang brothers were triplets instead of twins.
It was holding a bead of immortal essence as it flew towards one of the walls.
In an instant, as the new owner, Fang Yuan refined all of the Gu worms within the house and obtained complete control over it. Even though the requirements to inherit the place were that the inheritor had to be a woman who used to be a man, once that requirement was met, that person could transfer the inheritance to anyone they wanted.
In that way, the House Spirit seemed to be like a Land Spirit: quite easy to fool and quite straightforward.
The Grape Green Immortal Essence filled the Gu House as it now began to rise into the air. Outside, Lord Sky Crane's pupils shrunk.
Two doors on the side of the Gu House opened up while it flew, and numerous small figurines flew out. Many of them looked like porcelain dolls, but others looked like tiny soldiers, some looked like cooks or butlers, etc.
However, there was one thing in common with all of them: they were all puppets. And they were all rapidly rushing towards him.
"This is... the Puppet Path!" Lord Sky Crane muttered. Even in all his years, he had barely heard mention of it.
It was an obscure path that was a branch of the Human Path which in and of itself was a rather underdeveloped path.
As the Human Path contained the profundities of all paths, the puppet path was a sub-branch of it which combined the essences of the Enslavement Path along with the Human Path.
Man is the spirit of all things, and men were not easy to enslave. Enslavement Gu itself was a Rank 5 Gu worm, after all.
However, by combining the Enslavement Path and the Human Path, or at least in an attempt to do so, it was rumored that the Puppet Path had been created.
But that was all that Lord Sky Crane knew about this path. It was so esoteric that he had never seen it with his own eyes before, nor did he think that anyone in the Immortal Crane Sect had either.
These puppets were all Rank 4 or Rank 5 gu worms. None of them were immortal, but their coordination was excellent. They began downing his cranes left and right, and he only had a small amount of primeval essence left. Gritting his teeth, he knew he had to cut his losses as he flew away.
"Should we chase them?" the doll asked Fang Yuan.
"No," Fang Yuan said. There was no guarantee that he would be able to kill Lord Sky Crane, even if he rushed out with this Gu House. Although it was powerful, it was only a mortal Gu house and still had the deficiencies of a Gu House, namely, that its moves were somewhat limited, and once they were found out, one could start to avoid them. He also was not experienced with using it either- much of its motion as it moved through the air was erratic as he tried to get a handle on it. It would take him several hours to be able to operate it properly.
As it was, there were other things he needed to do right now on the mountain, especially given that so many of the Gu Yue clansmen were buried under the ice.
Main mission complete!
Stupid birds!
Reward: Aptitude increased by 4%.
"House spirit," Fang Yuan said to the doll. Unlike the others, he was easily able to accept its existence- Blessed Lands had Land Spirits, and formations could have Formation Spirits. The creator of this house had managed to make a House Spirit- so what? It could be dealt with in the same way that he would deal with any Land Spirit. Bai Ning Bing was unaware of this and so still treated it with some suspicion, but Fang Yuan knew of its straightforward nature. When it came to such things, usually, 'yes means yes and no means no.' It had also likely inherited an obsession from its creator, which is why it behaved the way it did and there was little use attacking it to get it to change. It was here that his experience as an Immortal was paying dividends as he knew how to optimally utilize the Gu House and the House Spirit. "Is there a way to get rid of the ice covering the mountain?"
"Indeed Senior Brother - there is the killer move 'Man's Triumph Over Nature' that can deal with the environment and weather as well," the doll answered.
"Activate it for me."
Mortal Killer Move - Man's Triumph Over Nature!
The ice began to thaw out rapidly in a massive area around the peak of Qing Mao Mountain. The base was still somewhat encased in ice, signifying the limited range of this skill - but given how thick the layer of ice at the top near where Bai Ning Bing had detonated had been, and how it would've likely remained unthawed for several weeks if not months even under the assault of the summer sun, this was no small feat.
Next, Fang Yuan used Doctor Gu in conjunction with Charity Gu to heal the injuries of those down below, prioritizing those of the Gu Yue clansmen.
"The ambition which blooms in spring withers in winter,
Whether winter comes from within or without,
The flame of humanity continues to smolder,
Until fanned by ambition into a raging inferno,
Burning as bright as the midsummer sun,
Thawing through even the coldest of embraces-
-death."
The doll clapped. "Senior Brother, that was wonderful! If you were a fairy, you'd be renowned as one of the greatest wordsmiths in the Five Regions!" Once again, it was letting its obsession show.
Speaking of, that seemed to snap Bai Ning Bing back to reality.
"Fang Yuan!" Bai Ning Bing snorted. "Hand me the Yang Rotation Gu!"
"Sure, sure," Fang Yuan said. "I just need you to do a few things for me first," he said, grinning wickedly. "I need your help rebuilding my clan, after all."
"Why you-"
Even if Bai Ning Bing attempted to turn the house against Fang Yuan it was useless. By this point, he controlled the entire mortal Gu House as his will had overwritten every single one of the gu worms.
The doll, while it seemed to know much about the house, had also realized that it had lost control over the gu worms there. Fang Yuan smirked to himself. 'Genesis Lotus, you said this was destined for someone else? No, I think I'll be keeping this Gu House to myself, thank you very much.'
His will joined up with him, injecting some information into his brain before leaving to continue controlling the Gu House. There were several Information Path gu worms in the house itself that revealed its secrets, though these were probably only for the rightful inheritor. For one, this was only a part of the inheritance that its creator had set up.
This Gu House in and of itself was actually a downgraded version of what used to be a more sophisticated Gu House that had several Rank 6 Immortal Gu worms in it, though they had been removed at one point. Still, Fang Yuan now knew of the places where they were supposed to be put if he could find them in case he wanted to recreate the Rank 6 Gu House. Not only that, but most of the mortal gu which were already here were Human Path gu worms and there were several that he could remove for his own usage without significantly compromising the strength of the Gu House.
Fang Yuan even found a blueprint for a Rank 7 version of this Gu House, though it had never been completed as the creator had been unable to find the proper Rank 7 gu worms. There was a blueprint for a Rank 8 version of this Gu House as well, but that was only 50% complete.
Still, that meant that there were several Immortal Gu that were out there, somewhere in the world, waiting for him to claim them! He just needed to follow the clues that were left in this Gu House.
There was also the matter of the creator's Grotto-Heaven in question, which was also somewhere out there, the clues hidden within the walls of this Gu House.
Fang Yuan laughed before stepping out of the Gu House, noting the villagers around him coming to and wondering just what it was that was going on.
There was quite a lot of work to be done.