Fang Yuan's declaration had sent ripples throughout the world.
In the Eastern Sea, two Gu Immortals were discussing the matter. These were two brothers - Ding Qi, the elder, and Ding Yan, the younger.
Both of them were demonic Blood Path Gu Immortals.
"If this is real," Ding Qi said, "it is worth at least half of a true Blood Sea inheritance." The brothers had been looking for clues to an inheritance near the Turbulent Sea, but this itself was more than enough information to try and digest for the time being.
"The Blood Chariot alone is invaluable," Ding Yan replied. "It can be replicated endlessly. To even create something like this... whoever made this had a very deep attainment."
"But why give it away for free?" Ding Qi asked. That was the central question. "There must be a trap."
"Perhaps," Ding Yan said. "But even if there is a trap - we have already benefited. Look what I managed to make today." He pulled out a large number of Immortal Essence Stones from his aperture. They numbered over fifty.
Ding Qi's eyes widened. "Brother - you got all of these today?" Cultivating on their lonesome, the brothers rarely if ever had more than two dozen Immortal Essence stones between them. This wasn't like the time when Fang Yuan had been a Blood Path Gu Immortal. During those chaotic days, it was easy for Blood Path cultivators to move around and also to accumulate resources. Right now, in a time of stability, it was hard for the Ding Brothers to survive threats from righteous path cultivators.
"Indeed," Ding Yan said excitedly. "Prices for Blood Path materials and gu worms have quadrupled on Yellow Treasure Heaven! If you sell a full set that can be used to make a Blood Chariot, you can even sell it for five times as much!"
Fang Yuan's declaration had caused a massive market upheaval. This was only to be expected. Right now, demand for Blood Path resources was through the roof. This was a natural result of the world's economy being ill-developed. A market shock like this could last for some time before things stabilized.
Eventually, demand would cool down as most people made their Blood Chariots. Seeing the high prices and the ease of cultivation, the numbers of Blood Path cultivators would also increase and so supply would also increase in the future. Additionally there would be people who dedicated portions of their apertures to rearing Blood Path resources. Many righteous path forces would do so in secret as well.
Ding Qi's expression twisted. "Ah. I had sold most of my resources just a week ago. If only I had waited..."
"Don't blame yourself," Ding Yan said. "With your Grand Tribulation and advancement to Rank 7 approaching, it is only natural that you had to prepare. But you still have some time before that happens, no?"
Ding Qi nodded. "Some of these aspects on managing one's Blood Path aperture... I have constructed a Blood Waterfall for myself already. But I placed it haphazardly, assuming that its location wouldn't matter. It seems based on these pointers that it can be used synergistically when the other aspects of one's aperture are arranged properly... I was thinking of adding another Blood Waterfall. Perhaps I can see if I can follow this?" There were other minor things that he had found within the inheritance, nuggets of wisdom that would've eluded him before. Such as refinement techniques for Blood Path gu worms that Fang Yuan had developed which were both useful on their own and a foundation for someone like him to build upon. By his own estimates, even a Blood Path Grandmaster would've gained some use from this inheritance.
A novice could make their way up to quasi-Grandmaster in attainment in Blood Path through several years of study of this inheritance. That was a massive shortcut! If only Ding Qi had something like this in the beginning...
That said all such claims needed to be tested first to see if they were really true. A lot of the information was quite confident and seemed correct, but that didn't mean it was correct.
"Should I construct a Blood Chariot?" Ding Yan asked. Although his next Earthly Calamity was some time off, such an offensive option would be quite welcome. "I might even be able to help you in your upcoming Grand Tribulation if I were to make one..."
"Wait... I sense something off about this whole matter," Ding Qi said. "Don't do so for now. There is still time for my Grand Tribulation, and we can construct them rather easily if we change our minds in the future. There is no rush to do so."
The two brothers were openly Blood Path cultivators, and so could even use the Blood Chariot in the outside world if they had to.
But they wouldn't.
The same thing for the killer moves that Fang Yuan had left. It was easy enough to build upon them and make their own killer moves that improved upon them.
But if it was easy for them, it was easy for others as well.
The information was both good and bad for Blood Path cultivators. Good in the sense that the Blood Chariot and other pieces of advice were welcome, particularly for beginners. Bad in the sense that given this foundation, it would be easier for others to counter Blood Path methods in the future.
Given how often they had to fight others, this was a fatal flaw.
"At the very least," Ding Qi said , "we will not lack Immortal Essence Stones for some time."
"Indeed. Brother, if you need these, feel free to borrow them. I will not even ask for interest. What is mine is yours, and we need to support one another," Ding Yan said. The one advantage that they had was that there were two of them, so they were not entirely alone.
"Keep them for now. Let me see if I can tinker with my resources and increase their productivity, like this information suggests that I can," Ding Yan said.
***
Within the Heavenly Court, the master of the Demon Judgement Board stepped out from the Rank 8 Gu House. It took on the appearance of a red tombstone with countless words appearing on it. These were either the names of Blood Path cultivators or of notorious demonic cultivators.
The name of the current generation Demon Judgement Board was Red Heart Traveler, and he had been in secluded cultivation for a long time. He had not intended to step out, however, the recent activity on Yellow Treasure Heaven could not be ignored.
Fang Yuan had not been lying when he had said that the Heavenly Court cultivated the Blood Path in secret. As a matter of fact, because of their suppression of the Blood Path, the Heavenly Court was actually the most advanced in the Blood Path in all of the Five Regions.
Naturally, Red Heart Traveler had already tested out Fang Yuan's Blood Chariot and found that it worked flawlessly. Actually, that was not entirely correct - he could spot numerous flaws in its design after he had assembled it. Multiple areas of improvement. Not that he was about to do so. He was already Rank 8 and had little use for this kind of Gu House, but it was rather evident that many people in the world would. He had made some minor gains himself when going over the information regarding some of the gu worm recipes, but overall the inheritance was just too low-level for someone like him.
'Why did this person make such knowledge public... this Gu House is quite intricate in design and function. For that, it is a peerless creation...' he mused. 'Could it be that I can take their words at face value? That they really are a diehard Blood Path enthusiast and simply want to spread such knowledge? It sounds insane, but there really are some insane demonic cultivators whose logic and reasoning cannot be followed. Assuming that isn't the case, the most likely reason is that they are doing so to hide themselves. There is a saying - to hide a tree, use a forest; to hide a man, use a crowd. By stimulating the appearance of many Blood Path cultivators in the world it would make it easier to hide his own wicked deeds. That would make sense. From these clues however, I still cannot make out what this person's identity is.'
The formal stance of the Heavenly Court on the Blood Path would remain the same - they would deny that they were involved with it at all and also denounce this Blood Sea Ancestor Junior as being nothing more than a crazed demon.
As for the Red Heart Traveler, he was already in the process of making killer moves and modifying the Demon Judgement Board so that it could quickly unravel, defeat, and kill anyone who relied upon these methods.
Ordinarily this might've taken time and careful observation of the killer moves or Gu House in question. But with the formula handed to him on a silver platter like this, it amounted to only a few day's worth of work even though he wasn't a Wisdom Path cultivator.
Such a small thing could not shake the Heavenly Court's foundation.