"What? That kid is actually a Rank Two Gu Master now, and even applied for the family separation mission at the Internal Affairs Hall!" Uncle Gu Yue Dong Tu’s voice, a mix of shock and anger, echoed in the reception hall.
"It is indeed so. Although I accepted your primeval stones, I couldn't well stop him, and could only tell him to come fetch the mission in three days. Dragging it out for so many days for you is already the limit of what I can do." A middle-aged male Gu Master sitting to the side said.
Gu Yue Dong Tu sneered in his heart; he heard the implication of this Internal Affairs Hall Gu Master.
What "dragging it out for three days is already the limit," saying such words was nothing more than wanting to take the opportunity to extort some wealth from him.
"However, the most pressing matter at the moment is still to exhaust all efforts to protect the family property. This little brat is truly making one worry too much!" Cold sweat dripped from Gu Yue Dong Tu’s forehead; Fang Yuan’s growth speed made him feel a sense of heart-pounding fear.
"I came here specially to inform you, I shall take my leave." The middle-aged male Gu Master stood up, intending to leave.
"Don't be in a rush to leave, my friend. There are still some matters I must trouble you to accommodate me with." Gu Yue Dong Tu hurriedly stood up too, took out a money pouch, and stuffed it into the male Gu Master’s hands.
The male Gu Master stuffed the full bag of primeval stones into his chest. His tone immediately shifted as he laughed loudly: "Brother Dong Tu, you are far too polite. What kind of relationship do we brothers have, we have known each other since over ten years ago. Rest assured, I will prepare the most difficult mission and hand it to Fang Yuan. But Fang Yuan might hire other Gu Masters, you must pay attention to this point."
"Hehehe, you can rest assured about this. Although your older brother has retired, I still have a network of connections, and I have already asked people to keep an eye on him. If that kid hires outsiders, it is violating clan rules. I was just worrying about not having any leverage on him. Hehe…"
"Then I can be at ease. Farewell."
"I will see you out."
"No need, please stay."
Watching the Gu Master’s receding back, the smile piled on Gu Yue Dong Tu’s face gradually collapsed.
"This Fang Yuan was clearly a C grade, how could he advance to Rank Two so quickly?! Truly dammit, what were Jiao San and the others doing! They couldn't even watch over a living person."
"Sigh, now Jiao San and the other three actually all died in the beast tide, they are truly useless. Fang Yuan has also advanced to Rank Two; this way, he will definitely be able to receive the family property mission. The methods previously used to restrict him can no longer be used. However, he is now a solitary loner; trying to complete the family property mission all by himself is truly difficult."
"Inappropriate! This kid's luck is a bit weird. Just as I hired Jiao San's group to suppress him, a small beast tide came. What if he relies on his luck to complete the mission again? I must make the worst preparations!"
An old person becomes shrewd; the fact that Gu Yue Dong Tu could navigate safely from start to finish and live to this day inherently represented success.
Compared to the fledgling Fang Yuan, his interpersonal relationships were far too much stronger.
…
"Collecting honey wine?" Receiving this family property mission, a cold light flashed in Fang Yuan’s eyes.
This mission was very troublesome. It required collecting five taels of Golden Bee honey wine. Every single Golden Bee was the size of a fist, with a colorful black and gold body and a sharp stinger, possessing very strong aggressiveness.
That wasn't all; ordinary small-scale bee swarms only had honey. Only in mid-to-large-scale beehives, when honey accumulated sufficiently, would it ferment into the even more precious honey wine.
"This mission, even for a five-person group, has a very high difficulty. Because having many people is useless; the Gu Master collecting the honey wine must have a defensive Gu worm to withstand the stinger attacks. It seems my uncle made a move behind the scenes, specifically bullying me for not having a defensive Gu worm. Pity… he miscalculated." Fang Yuan sneered in his heart.
Now, the hidden and unspoken benefits of the Flower Wine Monk’s inheritance were fully manifested.
Things done in the dark are easy; things done in the open are hard.
The more open and aboveboard one’s actions are, the easier it is for people to see through them, and the easier they are to stop. Conversely, acting in the dark and hiding one's trump cards prevents people from grasping the clear situation, rendering them unable to prescribe the right medicine for the illness.
"However, for me to collect the honey wine, relying solely on the Jade Skin Gu is not enough. The Jade Skin Gu is only a Rank One Gu worm. If I can advance it into the Rank Two White Jade Gu, I believe it would be easily captured."
There was no need to take risks and experiment at all; his rich life experience allowed Fang Yuan to skip taking a detour.
Speaking of which, Fang Yuan was now already a Rank Two initial stage Gu Master, but the Gu worms on his body, apart from the Spring Autumn Cicada, were all Rank One level Gu worms.
This situation was entirely like a burly man capable of wielding a large guan dao to chop people, yet holding a delicate dagger instead. A dagger could not fully exert the burly man’s maximum combat strength; only forging it into a large guan dao would be the most handy.
In Fang Yuan’s hands, he possessed seven Gu worms.
His vital Gu Spring Autumn Cicada, Moonlight Gu, Liquor worm, White Boar Gu, Jade Skin Gu, as well as two Little Light Gu.
Among these, the Moonlight Gu and the two Little Light Gu could be fused into the Rank Two Moonglow Gu; the White Boar Gu and the Jade Skin Gu could be fused into the White Jade Gu.
The Moonglow Gu represented an increase in offensive capability, while the White Jade Gu augmented defensive properties.
If Fang Yuan had ample primeval stones, he would naturally refine both. But just recently, to push his cultivation to Rank Two, he had consumed the vast majority of his primeval stones. Now, the primeval stones on hand were only enough to be used for one attempt.
"Undoubtedly, choosing to fuse the White Jade Gu is wiser. With the White Jade Gu, I can collect the honey wine. Furthermore, possessing the White Jade Gu will also have a helpful effect regarding the Flower Wine Monk’s inheritance. But if I fail the fusion this time, the consequences will be severe. My economy is already on the verge of collapse; without the White Jade Gu, I have no way to inherit the legacy. If I am stuck at this step, it will severely delay my growth speed."
Fang Yuan faintly felt a wave of pressure.
He knew he had arrived at a critical moment. If the fusion succeeded, the future prospects would naturally be bright. If he failed, it would be akin to falling into an abyss; wanting to climb back up to this current stage would require even more diligent management and an even longer time.
…
"A Gu Master uses their own primeval sea as the foundation and Gu worms as their methods. Gu are the necessary items of a Gu Master; without a Gu, one cannot be mentioned as a Gu Master. Aside from their own cultivation, a Gu Master must also refine Gu, nurture Gu, and use Gu."
In the room, Clan Head Gu Yue Bo carefully explained to Fang Zheng.
"Refine, nurture, use. Any one of these three aspects is broad and profound; even pursuing it for an entire lifetime, one cannot exhaust its explorations. Regarding the aspect of refining Gu, you already know how to refine a Gu worm to accept it for your own use. However, that is merely single-refining. Beyond single-refining, there is the even more important fusion-refining."
"Through fusion-refining, one can merge multiple different Gu worms into a higher-rank Gu worm. This is the evolution and sublimation of life. Fang Zheng, you already possess Rank Two cultivation, yet the Gu worms in your hands are all Rank One. It is time to fuse a Rank Two Gu worm."
Fang Zheng asked, "Lord Clan Head, then how should I fuse them?"
Gu Yue Bo said: "To fuse Gu worms, one must know the secret recipes. Some Gu worms cannot be fused with each other. After the development and accumulation of countless ages, through continuous practice and uncountable failures, our ancestors finally summarized many secret recipes. Our Gu Yue clan holds the deepest research on the Moonlight Gu; today, we have already grasped two Rank Five secret recipes."
"What is a Rank Five secret recipe?"
"Following this secret recipe and continuously fusing, one can eventually fuse a Rank Five Gu worm. Fang Zheng, you have a Jade Skin Gu in your hands, and also a Moonlight Gu, exactly matching one of the Rank Five secret recipes. If you follow this secret recipe, you will eventually fuse the Rank Five Gu worm—the Treasure Moonlight King Gu!"
"Treasure Moonlight King Gu?" A look of longing instantly surfaced on Fang Zheng’s face.
"Hehehe, telling you about a Rank Five Gu worm now is still too early. Come, take out your Jade Skin Gu and Moonlight Gu, I will instruct you on how to fuse these two Gu into the Rank Two Gu worm, Moon Raiment!"
Speaking to here, Gu Yue Bo’s expression turned solemn: "The most important thing in fusing Gu worms is multitasking, aligning the consciousness. Right now, the Moonlight Gu and the Jade Skin Gu in your hands have lost their original wild consciousnesses, replaced entirely by your consciousness. What you need to do now is to merge these two threads of consciousness together."
"Merge together?" Fang Zheng blinked his eyes, his expression very bewildered.
Gu Yue Bo smiled: "It doesn't matter, practice more and you will be able to grasp this feeling. Let us begin now."
"En." Fang Zheng nodded. Under Gu Yue Bo’s guidance, pale red iron primeval essence rose like smoke, holding the Jade Skin Gu and the Moonlight Gu in mid-air.
Fang Zheng closed his eyes, beginning to sense and mobilize the consciousnesses of these two Gu worms.
Gu Yue Bo paid constant attention from the outside, watching as the Jade Skin Gu and the Moonlight Gu revolved around each other like two stars.
As their consciousnesses grew increasingly merged, the distance between the two Gu worms also drew closer and closer.
After three hours of continuous attempts, the consciousnesses within their bodies were finally mobilized by Fang Zheng, completely merging together.
Instantly, both the Jade Skin Gu and the Moonlight Gu burst forth with a blinding white light.
The two patches of white light connected with each other, rapidly forming a ball the size of a washbasin.
"Maintain the current state, and then toss primeval stones into the light ball." Gu Yue Bo promptly instructed.
Fang Zheng took out a primeval stone and tossed it into the light ball.
It was strange to say, but after the primeval stone was thrown in, it turned into a stream of pure natural primeval essence and thoroughly blended into the light ball. Only some white stone powder was left behind, fluttering down onto the bedsheets.
"Continue throwing until it fuses into a Rank Two Gu worm," Gu Yue Bo said.
Fang Zheng tossed a second piece. But right at this moment, the white light abruptly vanished. The two Gu worms seemed to have forcefully pushed each other, flying out and landing in two opposite directions.
The fusion had failed.
"Oh no, I just forgot to maintain the merger of the consciousnesses." Fang Zheng instantly realized the mistake he had committed.
"It doesn't matter, failing the first few times is extremely normal." Gu Yue Bo comforted Fang Zheng, and then warned again, "But you must pay attention, the number of failures cannot be too many. Otherwise, both the Moonlight Gu and the Jade Skin Gu will perish."
Fang Zheng recalled the Jade Skin Gu and the Moonlight Gu, and indeed discovered that faint cracks had appeared on the surface of the Moonlight Gu, while the Jade Skin Gu appeared somewhat listless and sluggish.
His heart instantly sank, truly experiencing the difficulty of refining Gu.