"Sawtooth Golden Centipede…" Bai Ningbing extended her slender, jade-like fingers, caressing the dark golden carapace of this Third Transformation Gu as she murmured, her expression somewhat complicated.
She had fought Fang Yuan and suffered greatly at the hands of this Sawtooth Golden Centipede. She never imagined that the day would come when Fang Yuan would voluntarily lend it to her.
The way Fang Yuan had wielded the Sawtooth Golden Centipede had left a deep impression on her.
Bai Ningbing immediately imitated his technique, swinging the Sawtooth Golden Centipede around like a greatsword.
From time to time, she commanded it with her mind, and the creature retracted and extended its body like a whip. The silver-edged sawteeth spun through the air, tracing bizarre, distorted arcs of light.
"Heaven Canopy Gu!" She stored the Heaven Canopy Gu inside her Empty Orifice, raising her eyebrows as she secretly infused it with Silver True Essence. Immediately, a suit of luminous white phantom armor enveloped her entire body.
"Fate is truly wondrous. I never imagined the day would come when I could use your Gu Insects," she said, glancing at Fang Yuan with a sigh.
Fang Yuan said nothing. He sat cross-legged beside the warm coal stones and closed his eyes.
He directed his consciousness into his Empty Orifice, and the full True Essence sea of his Grade A aptitude immediately manifested before him.
Ninety percent!
It had been just over forty percent before, yet now it had more than doubled out of thin air.
"Although my cultivation has dropped from Third Transformation back to First Transformation, and years of painstaking effort have been squandered — it was all worth it!" Fang Yuan was deeply satisfied.
Throughout history, there had been three key priorities in a Gu Master's cultivation.
First, aptitude. Second, resources. Third, Gu Insects.
All three were indispensable — the utmost priorities!
Previously, Fang Yuan had possessed only Grade C aptitude. He had relied on schemes and tricks, using resources and Gu Insects to compensate for his aptitude's shortcomings in every way he could. His years on Qing Mao Mountain had been quite arduous. Though his cultivation progress had been decent, it was the result of exhausting his mind and straining his wits to scrape together resources and take risks.
If his aptitude had been Grade A from the start, his life would have been an entirely different story. He would have long since reached Third Transformation.
"Fortune plays such tricks… Now I have Grade A aptitude, but the stable growth environment of the village is gone. In terms of resources and Gu Insects, I'm worse off than before."
Now Fang Yuan was wandering the outside world. His cultivation was far too weak, and he faced mortal danger at every turn — nothing compared to the comfort and stability of Qing Mao Mountain. Naturally, he also lacked a stable trading network to exchange what he needed.
"Fortunately, I have the Heavenly Essence Lotus. The biggest problem with resources is solved — at least until Third Transformation, I have nothing to worry about." Fang Yuan swept his consciousness inward, and in the ninety-percent Bronze True Essence sea, a blue-and-white lotus was rooted in the seabed of his Empty Orifice, its petals plump and brimming with a sacred, immortal aura.
The Heavenly Essence Lotus was a Third Transformation Gu with enormous development potential. To refine it, Fang Yuan had directly destroyed the Guye Clan's foundational Yuan Spring.
It was essentially a miniature, mobile Yuan Spring. Back when Fang Yuan had been at Third Transformation, it could continuously restore his True Essence at a Grade B recovery rate.
At Third Transformation, one wielded Silver True Essence. Now Fang Yuan was at First Transformation, Initial Stage, with Bronze True Essence. The Heavenly Essence Lotus inside his Empty Orifice raised his True Essence recovery speed to an astonishing degree.
"If I use First Transformation Gu, my True Essence recovery is phenomenal — nearly infinite. If I use one or two Second Transformation Gu, the True Essence sea level will drop, but with constant consumption and restoration, it stays relatively stable. If I use a single Third Transformation Gu, my True Essence plummets — consumption vastly outpaces restoration, and within moments the sea will be completely depleted." Fang Yuan calculated silently.
After all, this was Bronze True Essence, and at the Initial Stage no less — a verdant green of the poorest quality.
Apart from the Heavenly Essence Lotus, Fang Yuan still possessed some other Gu.
First was his Life Gu, the Spring Autumn Cicada.
This Sixth Transformation Gu, ranked seventh on the world's rarest Gu list, could never be moved outside the Empty Orifice once bonded as a Life Gu. It now sat firmly at the center of his Empty Orifice.
Having gone through yet another rebirth, its once-imposing aura was gone. The strong yellow-green glow had faded completely, leaving it wilted and extremely weak.
It concealed its form, silently drawing upon the river of time as it began yet another cycle of recovery.
Fang Yuan understood with clarity: "In the short term, there is absolutely no way to use the Spring Autumn Cicada again. In this dangerously weakened state, using it would only mean drowning in the River of Time, dying for nothing in a suicidal explosion."
Without the pressure of the Spring Autumn Cicada, the other Gu had reverted to their natural behavior.
The Second Transformation Four Flavor Wine Worm, its plump body cycling through four colors of light, frolicked upon the surface of the True Essence sea with great delight.
The Hidden Scale Gu, resembling a fossilized carp, lay quietly on the seabed, letting the True Essence water wash over its scales.
A black beetle with a pair of iron pincers on its head beat its wings above the sea's surface — this was the Forceful Seizure Gu.
Soaring and playing alongside it was the White-armored Yang Gu, the sole surviving piece from the Yin Yang Transformation Gu.
The Fourth Transformation Blood Skull Gu had sunk to the deepest reaches of the seabed, its surface occasionally flashing a vivid crimson light.
As for the remaining Gu, there was the Blood Moon Gu, now transformed into a red crescent mark hidden in the palm of Fang Yuan's hand. The Earth Listening Ear Grass had become one of his ears, invisible under normal circumstances. The Tushita Gu was lodged upon his tongue.
And the Heaven Canopy Gu and Sawtooth Golden Centipede had just been lent to Bai Ningbing.
Counting them all up, Fang Yuan currently had twelve Gu Insects in his possession.
That was far too many!
Generally speaking, low-level Gu Masters carried two or three Gu — that was the norm. It was only at Fourth or Fifth Transformation that one might rise to four or five Gu. Even the legendary detective Tie Xue Leng had possessed only around seven Gu.
One shouldn't compare to figures like the Guye Clan's founding ancestor or Immortal Crane Master — those were special cases, old monsters who had accumulated hundreds of years' worth of assets.
The number of Gu Fang Yuan possessed was three to four times that of an ordinary Gu Master. Too many Gu meant a crushing economic burden and tremendous logistical pressure on their bearer.