Fang Yuan took a deep breath and calmed himself down.
What Fang Yuan had stumbled upon was monumental - perhaps the most significant discovery he had made since delving into the Human Path. However, he needed to focus on one thing at a time; his to-do list was already longer than he could imagine. And this new 'discovery' even if it panned out would need quite a lot of research and testing.
But, once he perfected this killer moves, this would undoubtedly be the next area he would explore.
Meanwhile, on Bei Gu Mountain, the Gu Yue Clansmen were planning for the feast as Fang Yuan had ordered them to. Even the elders were not dilly-dallying given that these words came from Fang Yuan himself. Fang Yuan's emotional manipulation had also caused many of them to be quite motivated to do so.
Fang Zheng was a bit disappointed that Fang Yuan was not spending more time in the village like he would've hoped for. Fang Zheng had often seen Fang Yuan as an impossible, towering figure -someone far beyond his reach and comprehension. This was not just figuratively true, but literally now; the gap between Fang Yuan's strength and his own was unfathomable.
'I suppose I can't really blame him, Big Brother must have a lot of complex problems to deal with,' Fang Zheng sighed, though he still bemoaned this chasm that had opened up between them which had shrunk for some time initially when they had reconciled but widened ever since Fang Yuan reached Rank 5.
Earlier, Fang Zheng thought he would be content reaching Rank 4 Middle or Upper stage. Now, seeing that Fang Yuan had stepped into the immortal realm, a fire was ignited in his heart.
'Perhaps I, too, can become an Immortal,' he thought. Breaking through Rank 5 seemed like an impossible dream, but his brother had mentioned it was not as insurmountable an obstacle as it appeared. 'I must advance through the minor realms of Rank 4 first before I can think about Rank 5 though,' Fang Zheng reminded himself.
As it was, he had a feast to arrange for.
The main issues regarding the feast were where to have it, when it should be set up, and how to provide the food.
As for where, near the base of the mountain, where the Gu Yue Clan had once set up camp before settling on the mountain, seemed the most logical choice.
"Is it not possible for Supreme Elder to simply host the party within his Immortal Aperture?" one of the elders mused. Many were curious about what an Immortal Aperture actually looked like.
"Of course not," another elder countered. "An Immortal's Aperture contains vital information regarding Lord Fang Yuan's cultivation methods. He can't reveal such secrets to everyone willy-nilly." Although none of the other clansmen were Immortals, it didn't meant that such information couldn't leak to an Immortal through them if they were ever soul-searched or interrogated via other means.
"However, if we continue to demonstrate loyalty, we may one day catch a glimpse of what such a world looks like," someone else said.
As for the food, they had more than enough milk products. Fang Yuan mentioned that he could provide varied food materials from his aperture as well. As for the timing, he told them three days in the future.
That was enough time for him to put the finishing touches on his killer move.
Invitations were sent to the Bei, Xiu, He, and Ye clans. Their reactions were far from positive as expected.
The Bei Clan leader ground her teeth as she read the message; she had been looking for a way to take down the Gu Yue Clan ever since Fang Yuan had first shown his face around the mountain.
She had schemed for hours and hours on end. But all schemes failed in the face of absolute power. Now, the thought of opposing them was a pipe dream. An Immortal's sneeze was said to be able to level an entire mortal village if rumors were to be believed - and even if that were an exaggeration, it still did not bode well for them.
"What shall we do?" the Bei elders asked with unhappy faces. "It seems the Gu Yue Clan will remain the masters of Bei Gu Mountain for years to come."
"We must do our best not to provoke Fang Yuan, or we might be annihilated."
"He has the strength to do it; he only lacks the justification."
The Xiu, Ye, and He clans were similarly distraught but also concluded there was nothing they could do.
None of the clans declined the invitation to the banquet.
To their surprise, the Gu Yue Clan seemed genuine in their efforts to make friends. They had thought that this banquet was little more than a farce for the Gu Yue Clan to rub their wealth and influence in other people's faces. A warning to all of them not to cross them.
But on the contrary, the Gu Yue Clan had put on quite the show for them. Fang Yuan had brought several gu worms and cultivation resources as gifts like he had said earlier - items that, while useless to him, were great treasures to these clans.
The greatest show of their sincerity was that Fang Yuan, their Supreme Elder, was at the banquet in person. For an Immortal to show mortals consideration and be physically present was not a small thing in and of itself.
Fang Yuan sat atop a throne set in the middle of the pavilion, his Rank 6 aura unhindered as it permeated through the area. He wore a kind expression and greeted the elders with politeness.
The other clans were even more shocked than the Gu Yue clansmen had been.
To them, Immortals were closer to fairy tales than reality; to see one in the flesh was terrifying since they knew that Fang Yuan had no real reason to befriend them.
"Ah, to see Lord Fang Yuan in person has already made my day - no, my month!"
"To see an Immortal grace us with his presence is beyond what we could have expected."
"We thank Fang Yuan for these gifts - but his appearance alone to meet with us is the greatest gift we could have asked for."
Fang Yuan was quite charming, speaking of cooperation and harmony to these people.
Scared for their lives, the other clans simply nodded and agreed with every word he said.
The feast was set to last five days and nights.
Fang Yuan chose such a long timeline because he needed time both to test out the move completely, and also to make it more convincing.
Fang Yuan had realized the limitations and benefits of the Emotion Path. While it was quite effective and could also be hard to detect, it also needed time in order to manifest else it was rather obvious what one was doing, ruining its effect.
As an example, when Fang Yuan had used such methods on the Gu Yue elders, he had not directly done so at the outset.
Fang Yuan was already a master of emotional manipulation with just his words. With his massive foundation in the Emotion Path, this ability had reached terrifying heights. No mortal would be immune to his schemes. Even many Immortals, if they were not on guard, would quickly succumb to his methods so long as Fang Yuan had enough time.
And the core of the Emotion Path relied on building upon a basic emotional manipulation incrementally in a manner that was near-imperceptible.
An example would be to say, use an anger-inducing gu worm. If one used it out of the blue naturally the target would wonder why they were angry all of the sudden. The user would then have revealed their hand prematurely. The target could then try to control their own emotions either through basic techniques, using their own gu worms to counteract the attack, or attack the user in question with their own gu worms.
That was why one did not use their effects all at once like that.
Instead, they would bring up a topic on the sly which might cause that person to become annoyed. And then they would activate the gu worm's partial effect. And as the discussion became more and more heated, activate the gu worm more and more until the target was frothing in rage without even suspecting Emotion Path involvement.
This was but a simple example. Fang Yuan could think of and plot at a much more complex level, even stretching it over a timespan as long as a few days or even weeks if he so chose. That was the essence of the Emotion Path - to manipulate others without them even realizing.
Naturally though there were times when such a thing was not possible. Such was the weakness of the Emotion Path - if used all of a sudden it would be found out rather quickly. In times of dire need one would have to use it in that way and it still could be used to say, make a quick escape, but it was ill-suited for prolonged fights once it had been discovered.