Translator: ChibiGeneral Editor: ChibiGeneral
Soon, Fang Yuan calmed down.
Second aperture Gu was only an opportunity, to make it a reality, it needed planning and effort.
“Whether the refinement of second aperture Gu succeeds or fails, a large amount of immortal essence will be consumed. Without immortal essence, the blessed land cannot contend against the upcoming earthly calamity and heavenly tribulation. That is to say, even if I become the owner of the blessed land, this blessed land can no longer be saved and I will have to give up on it.”
“Thus, second aperture Gu will be my greatest reward for this trip.”
However, the whole matter was not so easy and simple. The situation Fang Yuan was facing now was extremely complex.
With the start of the refinement of second aperture Gu, the remaining immortal essence would start decreasing sharply; the blessed land would weaken greatly and the assistance the land spirit could give would become lesser and lesser.
At the same time, he also needed to consider the Gu Masters within the blessed land. If they discovered this main hall, they were sure to attack together just like in his previous life and disrupt the process of the Gu refinement.
Fang Yuan’s eyes flashed with sharp light and after pondering for a while, he took the initiative to demand: “Land spirit, tell me the recipe for refining the second aperture Gu.”
Land spirit Ba Gui slowly nodded its head and its deep voice entered Fang Yuan’s ears: “Then listen properly, this is the full content of the recipe.”
“Rotten soil blood powder, treasure flower in the earth. Jade bone turned into petals, ice muscles into stalks and golden relic into the heart of the flower. A bright stellar fire, gather ice and snow into plains. Yang cloud burns with elixir fire below and yin clouds scatter sand like gold above, add beast phantoms in the middle until lightning crackles, creating beast strength placenta, and start collecting apertures… Wild grass grow wildly, the qi of blood like the sea. Three hundred years as spring, five hundred years as autumn. With unlimited divine opportunity, swim and roam in the wilds, adding in third watch, and another third watch, obtaining nine. Nine as extreme, the refinement is complete!”
The recipe content was huge and had close to ten thousand words.
Fang Yuan’s expression turned grave as he listened.
There were up to a thousand steps in refining this second aperture Gu. The early stage involved hundreds of types of materials, the middle stage used up large numbers of rank four and rank five Gu, and it continued to become more arduous as it got closer to the last step, until finally, it needed the use of another rank six Immortal Gu!
“This is not good, the difficulty in refining second aperture Gu is many times higher than I estimated. The intel in my previous life only talked of the early stage of the recipe mixed with much misinterpretation from the people involved.”
Fang Yuan’s heart sank, the fifty percent confidence he had turned to about thirty percent after he heard the recipe.
“You don’t need to worry too much, large amounts of materials and Gu worms for refining second aperture Gu had already been stored in this main hall.”
With the land spirit’s words, the whole main hall was suffused with dark blue light.
The brilliant radiance shone over the main hall; the relief sculptures on the surface of the main hall suddenly protruded out and turned into solid.
Fang Yuan was amazed at this change: “This is clearly a kind of storage method, this is the first time I am seeing it. Sigh, many methods of the ancient era had disappeared along the river of time.”
Materials after materials of all kinds dazzled his eyes. There were at least five thousand Gu worms from rank one to rank five; among them, there were over six hundred rank four Gu and no less than eighty rank five Gu!
Rank five Gu which were very rare in the outside world had unexpectedly numbered to almost a hundred at this main hall. And the expensive rank four Gu had apparently become as rare as cabbages here.
“So many top-tier materials! There are so many Gu which I have never seen… these strength path Gu, if I obtain them, my battle strength will definitely rise by over ten-folds! And there are also over ten yellow gold relic Gu along with eight purple crystal relic Gu! If I used them, I will be able to advance to rank five peak stage within moments!”
Fang Yuan looked at these rank four and rank five Gu, and had a thought of giving up the refinement of second aperture Gu and directly taking all these Gu worms.
However, this impulse was immediately extinguished by him.
With the land spirit beside him keeping guard, these Gu worms could only be used to refine second aperture Gu and he was unable to use them for his personal use.
Secondly, second aperture Gu would be a great help in the future if it was refined, and it would provide enormous help even at rank six realm.
Second aperture Gu was a long term investment and its benefits would soar to the sky especially after one reached rank six.
“There is still one extremely crucial Gu worm left.” Ba Gui said and opened his eyes, using all his strength to control this main hall.
The blue radiance increased sharply and reached and unbearable intensity.
The immortal essence in the bronze cauldron began deplete bit by bit.
Fang Yuan narrowed his eyes, and within this blue light, he saw a confined Immortal Gu.
It was like a round gem, the gem’s whole body was yellow and was hollow inside with a ball of purple smoke in it.
This smoke transformed constantly; suddenly turning into a pegasus or an immortal crane the next moment, or changing into a moving cloud or pure thunderbolt.
Following its appearance, a strong wine fragrance spread through the whole main hall.
Fang Yuan took a few breaths and immediately felt drunk; his eyes turned hazy and his mind became dizzy, he immediately held his breath.
“This is the rank six Immortal Gu — Divine Travel.” The land spirit introduced.
Divine travel Gu!
Fang Yuan opened his eyes wide and stared at this Gu without even blinking.
Divine Travel Gu was very mysterious and also legendary. Its earliest appearance was in <<The Legends of Ren Zu>>.
<<The Legends of Ren Zu>> was the first classic of Gu. It appeared to be a story when one first read it but it actually held profound messages, recording the secrets of the ancient times and all kinds of Gu. Some Gu were directly described like wisdom Gu, strength Gu and so on. And some Gu were hidden, their descriptions were very vague, requiring the readers to dig through it and study carefully.
In the legends of Ren Zu, divine travel Gu’s earliest appearance was beside Verdant Great Sun.
Verdant Great Sun drank four different top-tier wines in the world; the dense liquor aura in his body congealed into divine travel Gu.
Divine travel Gu had the power to send the Gu Master to any place in the world. But its activation required the Gu Master to be in a drunken state and its destination also could not be controlled.
Verdant Great Sun was transported to many dangerous places and suffered a lot due to divine travel Gu, his life on the line several times.
“Divine travel Gu might be one of the four great movement Gu and is very powerful at that, but its flaw is extremely big, who would dare to use it? Even Verdant Great Sun had no choice but to refine divine travel Gu into fixed immortal travel Gu in the end. No wonder the original master of this blessed land chose this Gu to refine into second aperture Gu.”
Fixed immortal travel Gu was also one of the four great movement Gu and could send the Gu Master to any place they wanted to, even if the destination was at the edge of the world. But the prerequisite was that the Gu Master needed to have a concrete impression of their destination. If there was any huge changes to their destination, they would fail in using the fixed immortal travel Gu.
Fang Yuan carefully pondered and understood the intentions of this ancient strength path Gu Immortal.
Divine travel Gu might be at the noble rank six but its every use carried extremely high risk and had low worth in using. Thus, Verdant Great Sun refined it into fixed immortal travel Gu, while this ancient strength path Gu Master thought of using it to refine second aperture Gu.
The land spirit Ba Gui carefully resealed the divine travel Gu and asked: “When do you plan on beginning the refinement?”
“There is no rush, let me first study this recipe properly.” Fang Yuan sat cross-legged on the spot and closed his eyes to contemplate.
Humans were the spirit of all living beings and Gu were the essence of the world.
After a Gu Master’s cultivation reached a profound level, they would understand a principle; a Gu Master using Gu was not simply using the Gu worms as a tool. But rather, it was a way to understand heaven and earth.
Gu worms were the vessels that carry the law fragments of the Great Dao. Refining Gu was not simply following random steps but was based on the understanding of law fragments.
A recipe not only contained the process of refining Gu, but even more importantly, it contained its creator’s comprehension of heaven and earth.
From this recipe, Fang Yuan could study the experimentation and insights of the original owner of this blessed land, the ancient strength path Gu Immortal. And when he compared them with his own experiences, he would gain an even deeper understanding of the Great Dao; this was absolutely a beneficial matter.
“Gu Master can only have one aperture from birth, if there was a second aperture, this would truly be an act of defying heaven. I see why divine travel Gu was chosen.”
Fang Yuan opened his eyes after a long while, gaining a deeper understanding of the whole refinement process.
“Land spirit, let’s start the refinement!”
“Okay.” Land spirit immediately responded and gave two kinds of materials and a Gu worm to Fang Yuan.
First material was green pond rotten soil which originated ten thousand feet deep under a rotten and poisonous marsh, and was extremely toxic. Even Fang Yuan’s arm would be rotten within a few breaths if he touched it.
Second material was a blood colored powder which had a rather large origin. The blood of eight kinds of immemorial desolate beasts were mixed, solidified and then grinded to form this powder.
The Gu worm, however, was common and Fang Yuan had come in touch with it at Qing Mao mountain.
It was earth treasury flower.
Earth treasury flower was a storage Gu. Flower wine monk planted it in the depths of the cave to store several Gu worms which were obtained by Fang Yuan in the end.
With the land spirit’s assistance, Fang Yuan mixed the green pond rotten soil and eight desolate blood powder.
After the mixture became an evenly distributed soil, he planted the earth treasury flower in it.
Earth treasury flower immediately decayed and died when it entered the soil. Whether it was the toxicity of the green pond rotten soil or the violent nature of the eight desolate blood powder, they both were something the earth treasury flower could not endure easily.
However, Fang Yuan had already anticipated this situation and was not discouraged.
Land spirit took out another earth treasury flower Gu, and Fang Yuan casually planted it.
That ancient strength path Gu Immortal had already foreseen the probability of failure in every step and had thus prepared enough spare material.
After continuously failing several times, Fang Yuan finally succeeded in planting the earth treasury flower in the soil.
Green pool rotten soil’s toxicity and the blood power of the eight desolate blood powder formed a kind of subtle balance, causing a strange transformation within the earth treasury flower Gu.
This was the first step of the recipe — rotten soil blood powder, treasure flower in the earth .
Next was ‘jade bone turned into petals, ice muscles into stalks and golden relic into the heart of the flower’ ; it required the use of jade bone Gu, ice muscle Gu and yellow golden relic Gu along with skilled Gu refinement techniques.
Third step ‘bright stellar fire, gather ice and snow into plains’ ; this could easily be misunderstood with stellar fire Gu and snowy plain Gu. But the firepower from that would be inadequate. In fact, the two phrases needed to be combined to be understood, the true answer was to use stellar fire prairie Gu together with snowy plain Gu, only then would there be balance.
Fang Yuan followed the order one by one.
At the fourth step ‘Yang cloud burns with elixir fire below and yin clouds scatter sand like gold above’; this tested his multitasking ability.
Fang Yuan first used yang cloud Gu with elixir fire Gu, then activated yin cloud Gu and used golden sand Gu.
The yin and yang clouds mixed with the smoke from previous steps. Spheres of fiery orange elixir fire rose up from the yang cloud. The golden sand fell down from the yin cloud like a light drizzle.
“Yin above and yang below is anti-balance… this is the critical juncture! Go, white elephant beast phantom.” Fang Yuan’s eyes burst out with divine light as he activated all-out effort Gu and summoned white elephant phantom.
White elephant phantom collided into the center of yin and yang clouds and was grinded down by elixir fire and golden sand.
With a soft explosion, white elephant phantom turned into a ball of white light and revolved in the air.
“Again, black python beast phantom.” Fang Yuan pointed and sacrificed another beast strength phantom.
Black python entered the center of the clouds and quickly turned into black ray and spun around the white light; the two were in an endless tangle.
“Stone turtle beast phantom, horse beast phantom.” Another two beast phantoms flew out of Fang Yuan’s body.
Four beast phantoms tangled against each other and formed a whirlpool of colorful light, but there was still something lacking.
“Strange! Why have they not fused?” Fang Yuan was baffled, this was the first difficulty he had ran into.
The colorful whirlpool was being grinded down by the elixir fire and the golden sand, and was continuously becoming smaller; the multiple auras could not fuse together.
Fang Yuan suddenly had a thought as he looked at the process which was about to end in failure: “Wait a second, could it be…”
He began to control the four beast phantoms.
White elephant beast phantom was steady and simple. Black python phantom was coiling and cold. Stone turtle phantom was still as a mountain. And horse beast phantom ran with the wind.
These four beast phantoms were just carelessly tangling with each other before, but under Fang Yuan’s control now, each of them began to display their true disposition and nature.
Boom!
Thunder crackled and a strange transformation began.
Yin and yang clouds moved, yin cloud sank down and yang cloud rose up; the two forming into a whole entity.
The mist surged and mixed ceaselessly with lightning and thunder constantly crackling inside.
“So it was like that. No wonder it needed strength path Gu Master, although those who merely possessed beast phantoms would still not be able to succeed. The Gu Master must understand the true nature of each beast phantom to start the fusion.” Fang Yuan let out a breath of relief and comprehended the process.
Rumble…
Lightning crackled and thunder exploded.
The sound was like war drums, becoming more condensed and finally blending into one.
Boom Boom Boom…
Under continuous rumbling sounds, the mist completely fused into one color before suddenly exploding.
A frenzy wind blew, dispersing all the clouds and mist.
Only one Gu remained in the air.
This Gu was rank five Gu and was like a disk. Its surface was rough like an embryo made of grass and soil. In the middle of the disk was a ferocious beast with the head of a horse, tusks of an elephant, body of a turtle and the tail of a snake.
“This is the beast strength placenta Gu.” Fang Yuan relaxed his mind when he saw this Gu; the moment he relaxed, he fell down to the ground and fell asleep.
He had used a total of five days and five nights to refine this Gu. He had not rested a moment during this time and had been multitasking the whole time; his mental energy had been used to the limits, and he was extremely exhausted.
This sleep lasted for a day and a night before Fang Yuan woke up.
He touched the beast strength placenta Gu and recalled the recipe: “Yang cloud burns with elixir fire below and yin clouds scatter sand like gold from above, add beast phantoms in the middle till lightning crackles, creating beast strength placenta, and start collecting apertures…”
“Next is gathering apertures!” Thinking of this, he stood up and said to the land spirit: “Ba Gui, it is time.”
Ba Gui was also straightforward: “Alright, I can send you to wherever you want to go in the blessed land.”
A large map appeared in front of Fang Yuan along with all kinds of scenes, displaying everything in the blessed land.
Everything from Gu Masters, hairy men, dog beasts and so on were clearly shown.
“This place.” Fang Yuan searched through the map before his gaze fixed on a place, and pointed at it.
Next moment, Fang Yuan disappeared and appeared in front of Tie Mu Bai.
“You.” Tie Mu Bai was exploring the inheritance and was slightly surprised by Fang Yuan’s sudden appearance.
But he calmed down soon and was just about to say something when Fang Yuan quickly waved his hand and luckily summoned a rock crocodile phantom.
Bam!
Tie Mu Bai’s head was smacked by the rock crocodile’s tail, and it exploded like a watermelon —
He, was dead.
