Supreme Immortal Aperture.
Small Central Continent.
Dark clouds bore down from the sky as lightning flashed and thunder roared.
Fang Yuan's Time Path clone hovered high in the air, his gaze heavy and expression grave as he monitored every stage of the Gu refinement process, ever vigilant against any mishaps.
Beneath the dark clouds, what had once been a broad, open plain was now pockmarked with deep craters.
Bolt after bolt of lightning struck the ground, blasting out hemispherical pits. The soil within had been baked into something resembling ceramic, wisps of smoke curling upward.
"The timing is about right—the main body should be making his move!" The moment this thought flickered through the Time Path clone's mind, countless bolts of lightning suddenly converged into a single massive stream.
BOOM—!
A pillar of azure lightning, as immense as a sky pillar, smashed violently into a giant white boulder at the very center of the plain.
In an instant, the white stone shattered, countless fragments blasting outward in every direction.
The lightning was extraordinarily swift—it gathered and struck in a sudden burst, then vanished just as abruptly.
The white stone, large as a small mountain, had been completely obliterated, but hovering in midair was a tiny Gu insect.
The Gu insect was shaped like a butterfly, shimmering with every color under the spectrum. It was none other than the Human As Before Immortal Gu.
"Failed six times, but it's finally refined. Not bad, not bad!" At the sight, the Time Path clone's face lit up with undisguised delight.
The Human As Before Immortal Gu had originated from Grandmaster Bai Yunsheng, and its lineage could be traced all the way back to True Monarch Zi Shan.
The original Human As Before Immortal Gu was only at the Sixth Transformation level. It worked quite well when treating Sixth Transformation Gu Immortals, but performance dropped off considerably at the Seventh Transformation, with activations frequently failing. At the Eighth Transformation, results were even worse. Fang Yuan had only been able to use it effectively thanks to a unique property of his Supreme Immortal Body—the alien dao marks didn't repel each other. Still, now that he had reached the Eighth Transformation, a Sixth Transformation Human As Before was clearly somewhat lacking.
But now, the Human As Before Immortal Gu had been successfully refined, ascending from the Sixth Transformation to the Seventh!
Fang Yuan's Time Path clone examined it closely and immediately noticed the differences between the Seventh and Sixth Transformation versions.
Though both took the form of a butterfly, the Seventh Transformation Human As Before was far more dazzling, and the butterfly's body had undergone a dramatic transformation—it now resembled a small, naked, fair-skinned child.
While an Eighth Transformation Human As Before Immortal Gu would have been more suitable for Fang Yuan, he was content for the time being with having refined it to the Seventh.
Refining an Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu would consume a staggering amount of cultivation resources, and Fang Yuan was nowhere near capable of bearing that cost.
Back then, Old Ancestor Snowbeard had nearly exhausted his entire reserves to refine the Eighth Transformation Heaven-Matching Fortune Gu, leaving everyone in the Snow Mountain Blessed Land grumbling from top to bottom. Old Ancestor Snowbeard had cultivated for far longer than Fang Yuan's current lifetime.
Unless Fang Yuan went all in—selling off Dang Hun Mountain, Luo Po Valley, the Reverse Flow River, the Wisdom Gu, and the like—he could rapidly amass huge resources. But that would be entirely not worth the trade-off. The Human As Before Immortal Gu was an extremely high-grade Gu, but it wasn't a critical one like the Spring Autumn Cicada.
Refining an Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu was not something Fang Yuan dared to hope for. He planned to upgrade most of his Sixth Transformation Immortal Gu to the Seventh.
Because the quantity was so large, the difficulty immense, and the failure rate very high, even pouring all of his current resources into the effort was barely enough.
Fang Yuan had been steadily gathering batches of cultivation resources from the Five Phase Cave Heaven, the Qi Family Cave Heaven, the Blue Whale Cave Heaven, and the Red Lotus Stone Island.
But Gu refinement was truly a bottomless pit—no matter how much you invested, it was never enough.
This was only feasible thanks to Fang Yuan obtaining the Regret Gu and setting up a Refinement Path immortal formation, which could undo minor stages of the refinement process and start over.
When the Time Path clone collected the Seventh Transformation Human As Before Immortal Gu, the dark clouds in the sky had already dispersed. The Refinement Path grand formation slowly activated, incorporating the Self-Purification killer move to cleanly remove all residual dao marks from the area.
"Next up is the Country As Before Gu," the Time Path clone thought to himself.
Gu refinement was proceeding at full speed. The two Time Path Immortal Gu—Human As Before and Country As Before—were the first in line, but many more awaited.
There were Sun Gu, My Strength, Mountain Pulling, Strength, Diamond Thought, Star Eyes, Star Thought…
The Puzzle-Solving Immortal Gu was also a priority. Once refined, it would greatly amplify the Dream Deciphering killer move's power, which would be enormously beneficial for Fang Yuan's Dream Path cultivation.
There were also the Fortune Path Immortal Gu: Dog Shit Luck, Fortune, Fortune Reading, Connected Fortune, and Timely Luck. Refining them would bring Fang Yuan tremendous assistance as well.
In terms of Fortune Path, Fang Yuan had always lacked offensive methods, but its supportive role was simply impossible to ignore. Earlier, Fang Yuan had leveraged his Fortune Path advantages to escape pursuit from several of the Heavenly Court's Time Path Immortal Gu Houses, fleeing to safety.
The refinement of Immortal Gu was handled almost entirely by Fang Yuan's main body. The Time Path clone's cultivation was too low and not up to the task.
After receiving the Red Lotus True Transmission, Fang Yuan remained on the Red Lotus Stone Island.
Besides his continuous Gu refinement, Bai Ningbing, Hei Loulan, and the others were also active on the island. They sparred with one another, striving to adapt to the Future Body.
Under the Future Body's effects, their combat strength had all surged to the Seventh Transformation—High Stage, even Peak Stage levels.
This was already the limit of the killer move's effect.
With his subordinates' strength suddenly skyrocketing like this, many of the previous awkward situations were resolved. The next time Fang Yuan entered a fierce battle, these people would at least qualify to participate.
It was a pity that Fairy Miaoyin, Maiden White Rabbit, and Mao Liu had all perished. Although Fang Yuan still had some slave Gu Immortals under his command—Qi Family Gu Immortals among them—these people were far less reliable than the former. The slave bindings on them could very well dissolve due to the Future Body's power. So Fang Yuan didn't plan to upgrade them, even though the Future Body killer move still had several slots available for enhancements.
Gu refinement had become Fang Yuan's primary task, consuming nearly all of his time. Occasionally, he would use the Fixed Immortal Travel killer move to teleport out, heading to the Five Phase Cave Heaven to continue refining the Heavenly Phase killer move.