Over two months passed within his Sovereign Immortal Aperture, and the brand-new Cooking Luck Pot finally stood before Fang Yuan's eyes.
It was a great cauldron, its entire body radiating brilliant golden light. Upon closer inspection, flashes of a platinum-like glow periodically shimmered across its inner and outer surfaces, carrying a potent aura of wealth and nobility.
The rim of the pot was remarkably thick, about as wide as a child's fist.
Along the pot's outer edge, eight carved dragons were depicted, each one lifelike and vivid.
The tails of all eight carved dragons gathered at the bottom of the pot, intertwining with each other before extending downward to form an eight-clawed stand. The eight dragon tails pointed respectively toward the eight cardinal and intercardinal directions: east, south, west, north, northeast, southeast, northwest, southwest.
Each dragon's claws gripped the pot's outer surface. Their bodies wound upward in sinuous curves, with their heads resting over the pot's rim, facing inward. Their eyes were shut tightly, as if in slumber.
The Cooking Luck Pot was now an Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu House!
Compared to its previous form, not only was its size significantly larger, but all eight carved dragons were now distinct and exquisitely detailed. This was unlike when it was at the Seventh Transformation, where one of the dragons always appeared somewhat hazy and rough.
Fang Yuan currently possessed over nine thousand Self-Will Heavenly Marks, making the conceptualization of composite killer moves far easier. Therefore, even though his attainment level in the Luck Path wasn't high, he was fully capable of modifying the Cooking Luck Pot to enhance its power further.
However, after careful consideration, Fang Yuan decided to shelve this idea for the time being.
If he were to modify the Cooking Luck Pot to resemble something like the Four Element Repentance Blood Refining Pool, then when deployed outside his body, its power would be drastically reduced. Yet the Cooking Luck Pot specifically needed to be used externally.
In his previous clash with Qin Dingling, when Qin Dingling had targeted his luck, it was precisely the Seventh Transformation Cooking Luck Pot that materialized at the critical moment, hovering above Fang Yuan's head to block her Eighth Transformation Luck Path killer move.
At a level like Fang Yuan's, because the enemies he faced were too powerful and possessed too many methods, his defenses had to be comprehensive. Fang Yuan not only needed to shield his physical body and soul, but also to safeguard his own luck.
The strong placed great importance on luck.
It was a crucial part of one's overall strength!
Even the resurrected Qijue Demon Immortal shared this concern. Back then, at the Qi Sea, when he clashed with Ancestor Qi Sea and Qin Dingling, in order to protect his own Qi Fate, he had wisely and decisively retreated.
And what was known as Qi Fate was precisely the function of the Luck Path within the broader Qi Path.
Fang Yuan refined the Cooking Luck Pot specifically to protect his own luck. The structure and origin of the Cooking Luck Pot determined that it was weaker in offense and focused on defending Gu Immortals' luck. The offensive methods of the Luck Path primarily resided in the true inheritances of Mass Luck and World Luck.
The Luck Path Immortal Gu involved in the Cooking Luck Pot's construction were all at the Eighth Transformation level, which was more than sufficient for defensive purposes regarding luck.
Of course, the Cooking Luck Pot still contained some Immortal Gu that were not at the Eighth Transformation.
For instance, the Path Consumption Immortal Gu, Cook, remained at the Seventh Transformation.
It wasn't that Fang Yuan didn't want to upgrade it, but he lacked the corresponding Eighth Transformation Path Consumption Immortal materials. The situation with the Blood Origin Immortal Gu within the Four Element Repentance Blood Refining Pool was the same—it remained at Seventh Transformation, lacking Eighth Transformation Blood Path Immortal materials for refinement.
Obtaining Eighth Transformation materials for the Path Consumption and Blood Paths was genuinely difficult in the short term.
This was largely related to the prosperity of the corresponding paths themselves.
The more flourishing a path was, the more abundant its Immortal materials were, making them easier to collect. Consequently, there would be more Immortal Gu, and more Gu Immortals cultivating within that path.
In the cultivation of Gu Immortals, the more Immortal Gu recipes created and the more Immortal materials nurtured, the more it in turn contributed to the prosperity of the entire path.
The Path Consumption and Blood Paths had never truly flourished. Gu Immortals cultivating them were always rare. Compared to the Path Consumption Path, there were slightly more practitioners of the Blood Path, but the vast majority were merely Gu Masters. Blood Path Gu Immortals were few, offering little help to the Blood Path's prosperity.
On one hand, this was due to the Heavenly Court's Demon Slaying List. On the other hand, Blood Sea Ancestor, the founder of the Blood Path, had only reached the Seventh Transformation himself.
It was worth noting that the Luck Path wasn't particularly prosperous either; it had simply been greatly popularized by Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, making it extremely famous.
The actual number of Gu Immortals cultivating the Luck Path was not large.
Since Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's era passed, virtually no strong practitioners of the Luck Path had appeared in history. If one were to force the issue, perhaps only Qin Dingling would qualify.
This was primarily because Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had hidden the three True Inheritances very deeply and had not circulated them widely.
Qin Dingling's ability to become a globally renowned Luck Path expert came only from her gaining some foundational knowledge from Giant Sun Immortal Venerable. Afterwards, she had still needed to alter the original path, comprehend the Heavenly Heart, and only then did she achieve her success.
Therefore, Fang Yuan felt extremely fortunate to have successfully refined so many Luck Path Immortal Gu this time.
Because the Luck Path was not prosperous, obtaining Luck Path Immortal materials was very difficult. That he had been able to scavenge so many from the two Heavens Grotto-Heavens was a very rare achievement.
Of course, the greatest contributor to the successful refinement was the Four Element Repentance Blood Refining Pool.
Without it, success would have been absolutely impossible!
The Four Element Repentance Blood Refining Pool had a success rate as high as fifty to sixty percent when refining Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu. Such a success rate was already sufficient for mass production of Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu.
The high success rate directly led to a drastic reduction in the consumption of Immortal materials, saving Fang Yuan a tremendous amount of Luck Path Immortal materials.