Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Bitter shells lived in deep waters.
Taking in the sand and rocks in the water, they could melt the sediments and turn them into bitter water. If someone opened the shell and obtained this bitter water, using it to brew wine, they would get bitter shell wine. Its taste is very unique, bitter and fragrant.
Fang Yuan had once obtained a bitter shell, he opened it and used the bitter water to create bitter wine, before using that to refine the liquor worm.
Bitter shells were quite rare already, but thousand year bitter shells were even rarer, it was a good material to refine Immortal Gu.
Fang Yuan’s bitter shell was a thousand year bitter shell, it was black and had circular loops of white markings, like tree rings. The alternating black and white color was very eye-catching.
Fang Yuan looked at the fire below the turtle shell, as for the thousand year bitter shell in his hand, he threw it in without looking.
Refining Immortal Gu was very important, all of the immortal materials had to be checked.
Fang Yuan had already checked them many times, the ingredients had no problems.
Thus, when Fang Yuan was refining Gu, he did not need to distract himself and inspect the immortal materials, he only needed to check the flame’s intensity.
After tossing in the thousand year bitter shell, the poisonous blood no longer boiled, but the poisonous gas was still rumbling, like there was a black python coiling around inside.
An intense, foul odor was created.
Fang Yuan did not move, he was engulfed in the foul odor, sniffing it attentively.
Although he was an immortal zombie and did not have any sense of smell, he had investigative killer moves to help him smell things.
This odor was hard to describe, it was absolutely disgusting, Fang Yuan wanted to vomit, his head was dizzy from smelling it.
But Fang Yuan had to persevere, because this odor was one of the signs of whether the Gu refinement was successful, whether the thousand year bitter shell melted perfectly into it.
Soon, the thousand year bitter shell that Fang Yuan tossed in completely melted, the black poisonous fog stopped rumbling, while the poisonous blood boiled again.
Fang Yuan tossed in a second, then a third thousand year bitter shell one by one…
After a total of twelve bitter shells were melted, the poisonous fog was extremely thick, the intense foul odor started to smell fragrant.
Fang Yuan’s expression became more serious and stern.
…
“Twin ice heart!!”A hairy man, Ben Duo Yi, shouted.
Even though he was only a rank five Gu Master, he had an extraordinary refinement path attainment level. Thus, he had broad vision and could recognize the immortal material that Yu Mu Chun took out.
Ben Duo Yi had an expression of shock.
A thumb sized ice heart was already an immortal material, but the ice heart that Yu Mu Chun took out was as large as a basin!
Not only was it big, the crucial thing was that this ice heart had a special appearance, within it were two conjoined pieces of heart shaped ice.
This was a twin ice heart, it was a hundred times rarer than ordinary ice hearts!
Ordinary ice hearts were rank six immortal materials, they could create rank six Immortal Gu. Meanwhile, twin ice hearts were immortal materials that could refine rank seven Immortal Gu.
‘Such a valuable immortal material, he actually took it out first. Evidently, the twin ice heart is not the main material for this Gu, it is only a supplementary material. Master is really amazing, I have no idea what Gu he is trying to refine.’ Ben Duo Yi had a look of admiration and adoration.
At the same time, he finally relaxed.
Such a precious material was used, it seemed that Master Yu Mu Chun was prepared, he was not casually refining this Gu.
But Ben Duo Yi thought: Yu Mu Chun was here in the middle of nowhere refining a precious Immortal Gu in the open. Was this because Yu Mu Chun was stupid? Or was he extremely daring and fearless from his skill?
Ben Duo Yi could not come to a conclusion.
The surrounding winds were getting stronger, soon, the winds gathered into a tornado.
The tornadoes were separated by a certain distance, they did not crash into one another, it resembled a scene of a forest of tornadoes.
Yu Mu Chun floated in the air, in between the tornado forest, the winds were wild, as his bronze mask was blown away, revealing an aged face which was full of hair.
Yu Mu Chun laughed loudly, his body shook as the black robe on him tore, the pieces of fabric flew away, showing Yu Mu Chun’s muscular body, his entire body was covered in brown hair.
It turned out that his real identity was like that of Ben Duo Yi, he was a hairy man.
No wonder he gave Ben Duo Yi pointers.
Hairy men were variant humans, they were different from humans. More specifically, they were two different races.
Not even Fang Yuan knew about Yu Mu Chun’s true identity.
As if he understood Ben Duo Yi’s worries, Yu Mu Chun, while paying close attention to his work, said: “You fool! Why do we hairy men have talent for Gu refinement? It is because hairy men are born with refinement path dao marks on our bodies. In fact, refinement path originated from hairy men. In terms of the history of Gu refinement, we have been doing it for eons, our accumulated foundations dozens of times deeper than that of humans! But humans have achieved superiority, they wiped out many hairy men, causing countless pieces of precious refinement path knowledge to be lost. Right now, the Gu refinement techniques of humans are influencing hairy men, this is a huge error.”
Yu Mu Chun continued: “For example, when humans refine Gu, they need a quiet environment that is isolated from the outside world. This allows them to refine Gu safely, they have a higher chance of succeeding. But this is only focusing on short term gains, they are not planning ahead for the future.”
“Gu Masters nurture, use, and refine, nurturing Gu is being familiar with materials and their connection to Gu worms, why do we feed certain kinds of food to a particular Gu worm? Looking at the Gu worm and its food, countless Gu recipes can be discovered. Using Gu is using and understanding the dao marks on the Gu worm. Refining Gu is even more crucial, it is the handling of dao marks. When refining Gu, one should be surrounded by nature! Because the world itself has an endless number of dao marks. It is like a baby in a mother’s womb, the world itself is the best place to refine Gu. If we can make use of the dao marks of the world, in a way, the world itself is helping us refine Gu!”
“Borrowing the power of the world to refine Gu?!” Ben Duo Yi stared with wide opened eyes, he was tongue-tied.
Yu Mu Chun’s words were shocking, this was the first time Ben Duo Yi had heard this theory, it was a huge inspiration and expanded his vision.
Yu Mu Chun laughed heartily, his eyes shined with brilliance: “Ben Duo Yi, you have learned the Gu refinement techniques of humans, even though they are effective, you have taken the wrong path. Learning from others can improve oneself, but the ways of humans is not suited for us. If you want to improve further and become a refinement path great grandmaster, you will need to go back to your origins, and use the Gu refinement methods of us hairy men.”
“I am willing! I am willing! Master Yu Mu Chun, please be magnanimous and teach me the Gu refinement techniques of us hairy men!” Ben Duo Yi shouted excitedly, he kowtowed non stop.
Yu Mu Chun laughed heartily: “Don’t be eager to make a decision, there is a huge risk in this, you might not improve, it could potentially harm you instead. I started feeding Gu worms at three years old, I touched and was in close contact with Gu worms at ten years old, without any instructors, I knew what food foreign Gu worms needed to eat, and how to feed them. At sixteen, I used human Gu refinement techniques to refine rank five Gu with a ninety percent success rate. But this was a wrong path, when I was twenty-two, I realized this point, I decided to start all over again, refining Gu in nature. When I was a hundred and thirty-eight years old, my nature Gu refinement techniques had finally reached a state of minor success. Now that I am two hundred and forty-six years old, my nature Gu refinement techniques has reached great success. I can comprehend nature and learn about astrology and earth veins, I can choose the most suitable area, making use of hidden dao marks in heaven and earth to assist me in my Gu refinement. Right now, I have a forty percent success rate in refining rank six Immortal Gu, and a five percent success rate in refining rank seven Immortal Gu. As for rank eight Immortal Gu, limited by my cultivation level, I have not tried them yet.”
Such words shook Ben Duo Yi.
Yu Mu Chun’s success rate in refining Gu was too high.
Ordinarily, the success rate of refining rank six Immortal Gu was less than one percent.
For rank seven, the success rate was one-tenth of a percent, and for rank eight, it was one-hundredth of a percent.
As for Yu Mu Chun, he could refine rank six Immortal Gu with a forty percent success rate. That was four in ten attempts. And for rank seven Immortal Gu, he could succeed once in every twenty attempts.
Such a success rate would shock the world if it was exposed!
This was the brilliance of nature Gu refinement techniques.
And Ben Duo Yi also realized.
To learn these incredible technique, one needed ample talent and aptitude. Yu Mu Chun had incredible talent, he fed Gu worms at three years old, he was in close contact with Gu worms at ten, learning what they ate. By that age, he had already learned that Gu worms carried the traces of dao marks, they were connected to all beings in this world.
When Yu Mu Chun was sixteen, he could refine rank five Gu using human techniques. When he was twenty-two, he realized this was not the way for him, and he gave up his achievements, restarting from scratch.
From this point, one could see that Yu Mu Chun not only had talent, he also had ambition and aspiration.
Furthermore, to learn nature Gu refinement techniques, one needed huge amounts of time and resources.
When Yu Mu Chun was a hundred and thirty-eight years old, he achieved minor success. When he was two hundred and forty-six years old, he attained great success.
Along the way, he must have spent an immense amount of wealth and time to practice, it was unthinkable.
Aside from his talent, just the point about expending resources was unrealistic for Ben Duo Yi because he was a lone cultivator.
When Gu Immortals cultivate, they needed resources. This was even more the case for refinement path Gu Masters. Without lots of practice, without enough resources, even Gu Immortals could learn nothing.
Most Gu Immortals were flying masters, but only a small number were refinement path masters.
Fang Yuan did not have higher achievements in refinement path, he only had become a refinement path quasi-grandmaster. Other than his limited talent and that his efforts were not focused on this path, it was also because he was limited by resources.
Yu Mu Chun saw that the tornadoes were calming down, he started to refine Gu.
He stood in the air, his hair was swaying as he took out immortal materials one after another from his immortal aperture.
He tossed these immortal materials into each of the tornadoes after careful selection.
The tornadoes were like sharp blades, the immortal materials were grinded into powder quickly.
Ben Duo Yi was dumbfounded.
Ordinarily speaking, when refining Gu, the sets of immortal materials had to be measured properly, the timing in which they were used was precise, and the heat used to handle the immortal materials had to be managed.
But Yu Mu Chun was very casual, leaving aside the forest of tornadoes, his technique in handling the immortal materials was very crude, he did not pay attention to the quantity of each material. He was like a terrible chef, randomly tossing in oil and other condiments into the dish according to his urges.
If anyone else tried this method, Ben Duo Yi would scoff in disdain.
But when Yu Mu Chun did it, there was an unspeakably smooth flow and natural feeling.
His every moment was very ordinary, but there was an indescribable beauty, as if perfectly suited to nature, deep and profound meaning was hidden in his actions.
At once, Ben Duo Yi had frozen in place, his eyes were staring without blinking.
He was completely dazed!
