A flame burned quietly in Fang Yuan's palm.
It was only the size of an infant's fist, its color cycling through a continuous rotation. Any Refinement Path expert who witnessed this scene would cry out in shock.
The ever-changing color of the flame was merely the outward appearance — its fundamental nature shifted just as dramatically.
When it blazed crimson, it was fire refinement. When it turned dark white, it was light refinement. When it shifted to icy blue, it was ice refinement…
Fang Yuan gently closed his five fingers, and the flame instantly vanished.
Fang Yuan fell silent, sinking into deep contemplation.
A long while passed before he blinked and gathered the flood of thoughts swirling through his mind.
In the recent period, he had been personally refining all his Immortal Gu, making no use of the Four Element Square Regret Blood Refinement Pool. He had successfully refined over a dozen Immortal Gu, all limited to the Sixth Transformation and Seventh Transformation — hardly a noteworthy achievement for someone of his caliber.
Yet the process had yielded considerable gains.
His current attainment in the Refinement Path had reached the level of Supreme Grandmaster! Regardless of what Gu refinement method he examined, he could effortlessly discern every last mystery. All Gu recipes held no secrets for Fang Yuan whatsoever.
Now, when Fang Yuan set about improving a Gu recipe, the vast majority could be accomplished in a single attempt. Even for many complex and profound Immortal Gu recipes that required a period of refinement, it was merely a matter of calculation — the only effort lay in selecting the appropriate immortal materials. Fang Yuan's intuition in the Refinement Path had grown so formidable that a single glance was enough to determine the correct direction for recipe improvement.
Fang Yuan had tested this several times, and practice had proven that the direction his intuition indicated was always absolutely correct!
The same applied to improving Refinement Path killer moves, Gu refinement techniques, and the like. During one Gu refinement session, Fang Yuan had even experienced a flash of inspiration, devising an entirely new Gu refinement technique — and successfully putting it into practice!
As for hands-on Gu refinement, Fang Yuan's greatest sensation was one of control.
This sense of control dramatically improved his success rate in refining Immortal Gu. On many occasions during refinement, at a certain moment, Fang Yuan would know with absolute certainty that this particular refinement would succeed.
Even when an Immortal Gu refinement ended in failure, Fang Yuan still possessed that sense of control — he could predict in advance that it would fail.
Even a Refinement Path Venerable could fail at refining Immortal Gu.
On one hand, there was the refinement technique itself. If a human error occurred, failure was inevitable.
On the other hand, constraints from other paths still applied. For example, refining a Fire Path Immortal Gu required a large quantity of Fire Path immortal materials. And regarding Fire Path materials, Fang Yuan's sense of control was far weaker. His attainment in the Fire Path was also nowhere near as deep as his Refinement Path attainment.
"However, when refining Gu that belong to the Refinement Path itself, the success rate is essentially one hundred percent. Of course, I haven't attempted any Ninth Transformation Refinement Path Gu."
Fang Yuan had already verified this.
Refinement Path Gu naturally required large quantities of Refinement Path immortal materials, and regarding these materials, Fang Yuan's degree of control was absolute — one hundred percent!
In this regard, neither Tian Nan Old Freak, nor Kong Jue Old Immortal, nor Ancestor Chang Mao could compare to Fang Yuan.
Because Fang Yuan was a Refinement Path Venerable, he could refine the natural Refinement Path dao marks in the outside world.
The Refinement Path dao marks within Refinement Path immortal materials naturally fell under this category. Therefore, Fang Yuan had perfect knowledge of these materials and flawless control over them.
So, as long as no errors occurred in the Refinement Path technique itself, and the quantity of other-path immortal materials used in the refinement was not too great, Fang Yuan's success rate for refining Refinement Path Immortal Gu approached one hundred percent!
In terms of Gu refinement success rate alone, Fang Yuan had already thoroughly surpassed the Four Element Square Regret Blood Refinement Pool.
And this was with relatively little practical experience, with many Refinement Path techniques and killer moves still not practiced to full proficiency.
Although Fang Yuan had become a Refinement Path Venerable, there was still considerable room for growth.
"Beyond enriching my practical experience, my future advancement in other paths will rapidly improve my corresponding success rates for refining Gu of those paths!"
"Unfortunately, for now, I still cannot take possession of the Yuan Realm."
Fang Yuan had no method for seizing the Yuan Realm, so the Yuan Realm he had obtained from Giant Sun Immortal Venerable remained stored in Treasure Yellow Heaven, and he continued paying fees for its upkeep.
At the thought of Treasure Yellow Heaven, Fang Yuan recalled the three Gu Immortals he had just traded with.
These three immortals hailed from the Southern Border, Central Continent, and Northern Plains respectively.
All trades had been conducted under their real names and in the open, so every Gu Immortal across the Five Regions knew of them.
The Southern Border Gu Immortal was a member of the Qiao Family. The Qiao Family served as a vassal of the Wu Family, and the fact that a Qiao Family Gu Immortal had publicly traded with Fang Yuan was very likely at Wu Yong's instructions — to help distribute some of the political pressure weighing on the Wu Family.
The other two were a Northern Plains rogue immortal and a Central Continent demonic immortal.
In truth, ever since Wu Yong's trade, many Gu Immortals had secretly contacted Fang Yuan hoping to commission the refinement of Immortal Gu.
But Fang Yuan had imposed a strict requirement: all trades must be conducted with their identities publicly disclosed. This drove the majority of interested Gu Immortals away.
Only a handful remained — immortals who, whether due to their temperament or external pressures, gritted their teeth and accepted the terms of a public trade.
After filtering through them, Fang Yuan had selected these two.
Both were of modest cultivation, at only the Sixth Transformation — the very bottom tier of the Five Regions' Gu Immortal world.
Perhaps it was precisely this bottom-tier status that made them more inclined to take risks, eager to seize the chance to turn their fortunes around.
Just as the poor often disregarded their own lives while the wealthy treasured theirs and exercised caution.
Of course, neither of these two immortals was still in the Northern Plains or Central Continent.
No one knew how Heavenly Court or Eternal Heaven would react after these Gu Immortals had openly traded Immortal Gu with Fang Yuan. The two were hardly foolish — they had long since fled to foreign lands.
In the past, such a situation would undoubtedly have been rife with drawbacks.