Fang Yuan's thoughts stirred, and the Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu house Fortune Boiling Cauldron activated violently.
Fang Yuan diverted some of his gaze upward, looking at his own fortune.
He saw his Ninth Transformation Refinement Path fortune, shaped like a furnace.
The furnace seemed to be made of clay, its surface covered in many cracks, giving it a crude, hastily-made appearance.
At the bottom of the furnace was a small pile of firewood, burning with all its might. This indicated that Fang Yuan had already mobilized all of his Immortal Essence reserves!
And inside the furnace, two clouds of mist were tangled in struggle.
One cloud was predominantly white, accented with black, bearing a strong resemblance to the Heavenly Appearance killing move. This cloud of mist was on the verge of dissipating, but every time it was about to collapse, the furnace would emit a burst of heat that forcibly drew the mist back together.
The other cloud of mist was slightly smaller, resembling a green lotus. The green lotus cloud mist was the exact opposite of the immortal crane cloud mist — while the latter tended to scatter, the former was far too condensed. The vast majority of the furnace's heat was directed at this green lotus cloud mist, as though roasting a slab of green stone.
Most of the green lotus cloud mist remained quite condensed, with only a small portion melting away, continuously diffusing downward through the furnace's cracks, sinking all the way to the bottom as if trying to take root.
"The furnace is crude and full of cracks, indicating that my foundation is unstable. The Supreme Immortal Aperture still has hidden dangers — it hasn't yet experienced a single Great Chaos Tribulation, meaning there's enormous room for growth."
"The immortal crane cloud mist represents the Heavenly Appearance killing move, while the green lotus cloud mist symbolizes my refinement of the Heavenly Origin Treasure Imperial Lotus."
"What about the fortunes of the other Venerables?"
Fang Yuan strained to observe, but beyond his own furnace, he could see nothing of their fortunes.
When he had been at the Eighth Transformation, his fortune appeared as a silver pillar of light, with the three Venerables' fortunes manifesting as three separate clouds of radiance.
But now that he had become a Refinement Path Venerable, the three Venerables' fortunes were completely invisible to him.
Fang Yuan understood why.
Setting aside the defensive and scouting measures of the twin Venerables, the main reason was that the Fortune Boiling Cauldron's level was too low. It was only at the Eighth Transformation, and the fact that it could observe Fang Yuan's own Ninth Transformation fortune was already quite impressive. Naturally, there were certainly details that were not being displayed.
Asking it to also detect the intertwined fortune between the other two Venerables and Fang Yuan's own was too much to ask of the Fortune Boiling Cauldron.
"However, even if I could detect the intertwined portions of fortune, I probably wouldn't dare use them as reference evidence," Fang Yuan thought.
Before the Mad Demon Lair contest, Fang Yuan had repeatedly observed fortune.
Looking back now, his observations regarding Star Constellation Immortal Venerable and Phantom Soul Demonic Venerable's fortune manifestations had been correct. The main reason was that at the time, Star Constellation Immortal Venerable existed in three separate forms, Phantom Soul Demonic Venerable's condition was abnormal, and neither of them cultivated the Fortune Path.
But his observation regarding Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's golden radiance fortune was clearly wrong.
Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had revived through Blood Path methods — such a crucial detail was entirely absent from the fortune reading. Furthermore, his combat system possessed terrifying late-stage momentum, which had also not been revealed.
The golden radiance fortune representing Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had been in the inferior position for most of the time.
Giant Sun Immortal Venerable must have employed Fortune Path methods to camouflage his own fortune, misleading Fang Yuan.
He was Giant Sun Immortal Venerable — he had once specialized in the Fortune Path and was extremely familiar with the Fortune Boiling Cauldron. Achieving this was not inconceivable.
Fang Yuan now planned to use the Heavenly Secrets Confusion killing move to deceive and blind the other two Venerables. In truth, regarding this matter, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable had already been doing it long before the Mad Demon Lair contest!
Supreme Immortal Aperture.
Four Origin Square Regret Blood Refinement Pool.
Gray flames burned fiercely, as massive as a small mountain.
Wood Path Immortal materials were thrown in one by one, melting rapidly like candles.
And at the very bottom of the flames was a block of ten-thousand-year-old Mystic Ice.
Sealed within the Mystic Ice was the Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu, the Heavenly Origin Treasure Imperial Lotus!
The Gu Immortals standing guard had originally all been tense-faced, but now, having refined Gu for over ten days, their expressions were filled with excitement and joy.
"All the Immortal materials have successfully melted once again."
"At this rate, in another ten-something days, the refinement will succeed!"
"What wondrous Gu refinement methods! On the surface, it appears to combine Fire Refinement and Ice Refinement into one, but in reality, it has perfectly fused the isolation flow of Humanity and the natural flow of the Hairmen's Gu refinement essence."
"There are still many key aspects filled with mystery. Even though we've participated in the entire process and witnessed it with our own eyes, we still cannot comprehend the underlying reasons. The Master is truly a Venerable who achieved his status through the Refinement Path — the gap between us and the Master is as vast as heaven and earth!"
But just then, Fang Yuan's expression suddenly darkened.
"No — the Gu refinement is about to fail!"
A powerful Refinement Path intuition flooded his heart in an instant.
Fang Yuan had no doubt about this judgment, and in that same instant, he understood the truth —
The problem lay in the processing of the Wood Path Immortal materials!
These Wood Path Immortal materials appeared to be fine, but in reality, every step had contained minute flaws. These flaws had accumulated step by step, and had now reached a sufficient scale to destroy the whole.
Continuing any further was pointless. Fang Yuan decisively began issuing orders to terminate this Gu refinement session.
"What?! Why terminate?!"
"Everything was going so perfectly."
"Fool! If the Master has made a decision, then it must be correct. Our strength is far too negligible — how could we possibly understand? Just follow orders immediately!"
Within the Four Origin Square Regret Blood Refinement Pool, over a dozen Gu Immortals scrambled in a flurry of activity, gradually halting the refinement.
After spending nearly a full day and night, under the full efforts of Fang Yuan and his subordinates, the first refinement session was voluntarily stopped.