"A Ninth Transformation Refining Gu, huh…" Fang Yuan examined it carefully, discovering that the Immortal Gu didn't look much different from its Eighth Transformation counterpart.
However, in truth, it had already undergone a qualitative transformation!
This was Fang Yuan's second Ninth Transformation Immortal Gu, and the assistance it would provide would be enormous.
The Quadruple Fang-Regret Blood Refining Pool would likewise be upgraded into a Ninth Transformation Immortal Gu House.
A Ninth Transformation Immortal Gu House!
Such an Immortal Gu House was exceedingly rare in the history of the human race.
The Heavenly Court's Heaven Monitoring Tower was the most famous among them, but sadly, with the destruction of the Ninth Transformation Destiny Gu, it no longer belonged in that tier.
"Once I finish my modifications, the Ninth Transformation Refining Gu can be reinstalled into the Quadruple Fang-Regret Blood Refining Pool, causing this Immortal Gu House to undergo a qualitative change as well. If there were an Immortal Gu House ranking, it would undoubtedly claim the top spot."
Fang Yuan estimated inwardly.
If before, the Quadruple Fang-Regret Blood Refining Pool might have been on par with Divine Emperor City, once it became a true Ninth Transformation Gu House, it would definitively surpass Divine Emperor City.
After all, Divine Emperor City did not possess any Ninth Transformation Immortal Gu.
That said, Fang Yuan would need to modify the existing Quadruple Fang-Regret Blood Refining Pool to make it compatible with the Ninth Transformation Refining Immortal Gu.
As a Refinement Dao Venerable, an absolute grandmaster of the Refinement Dao, making such modifications posed little difficulty.
Fang Yuan set aside the Refining Gu for the moment and inspected himself.
Sure enough, as he had anticipated, possessing a second Ninth Transformation Immortal Gu meant that the layers of net-like Heavenly Way Dao Marks left on him by the Heavenly Secret Confusion killer move were being consumed nearly twice as fast as before!
This showed just how tremendous the assistance of the Ninth Transformation Refining Gu would be.
Its significance was immense, capable of influencing many things to come.
Refining other Eighth Transformation Immortal Gu in the future would be far easier and less troublesome for Fang Yuan.
"Fortunately, Star Constellation Immortal Venerable and Giant Sun Immortal Venerable are currently spending considerable amounts of Immortal Essence and are strapped for resources, needing to use them to refine natural Dao Marks. They won't conduct investigations as frequently as before, which greatly relieves the pressure on the Heavenly Secret Confusion killer move."
Fang Yuan understood clearly that at this level, the limits of the Heavenly Secret Confusion killer move had already been reached.
If he were to refine a third Ninth Transformation Immortal Gu now, the killer move might conceal it during the early stages, but by the mid-to-late stages it would certainly be unable to hide it, and the killer move's power would be completely exhausted.
"So, should I refine it or not? And if I were to begin refining a third Ninth Transformation Immortal Gu, which one would it be?"
Fang Yuan settled his mind and analyzed the current situation.
He was beset by troubles both internal and external!
The foremost internal trouble was the instability of his Supreme Immortal Orifice.
Because the Dao Marks did not repel one another, abnormal phenomena occurred frequently, and the entire immortal orifice ecosystem was highly unstable.
The fierce battle at the Mad Demon Den had resulted in severe casualties, leaving the Gu Immortals within the Supreme Immortal Orifice woefully short-staffed. They could barely maintain stability at present.
The second internal trouble was tribulation.
Even Venerables had to face tribulation.
Among the three Venerables, Giant Sun Immortal Venerable and Star Constellation Immortal Venerable, due to their mutual Dao Mark repulsion, found the flow of time in their immortal orifices extremely difficult to alter through Time Dao methods.
Fang Yuan, however, had accelerated the flow twice during the refining of the Heavenly Origin Treasure Sovereign Lotus Gu.
He Chunqiu, his Time Dao clone, had paid the price — his Time Dao foundations were nearly entirely depleted.
For a period of time, Fang Yuan could not alter the flow of time in the Supreme Immortal Orifice. If he attempted it again, it would trigger cascading changes, causing a massive eruption of abnormal phenomena and forming a terrifying tribulation that would sweep across the entire Supreme Immortal Orifice.
This was because any Time Dao killer move powerful enough to alter the entire Supreme Immortal Orifice would necessarily be of extremely high transformation rank. For it to be effective, it would inevitably have imprinted upon or altered a great number of Time Dao Marks.
Such a sudden mutation in Time Dao Marks would cause a chain reaction within the Supreme Immortal Orifice, leading to catastrophic changes that even Fang Yuan could not fully calculate, ultimately resulting in devastating losses.
If losses occurred, they would be immense.
The recovery method Fang Yuan had previously employed — "Rivers and Mountains As Before" combined with the Years Pool — was also unusable at present.
The Time River water in the Years Pool had only recently been rapidly filled. The essence of this method was still rooted in Time Dao Marks.
Using any Time Dao killer move amidst the eruption of abnormal phenomena caused by Time Dao Mark chaos would only pour oil on the fire.
"To alleviate this concern, I need to establish at least the first circle of Time Dao Veins!"
The third internal trouble was food for the Supreme Immortal Body.
Fang Yuan's Supreme Immortal Body had been transformed from the Supreme Immortal Embryo Gu, requiring it to consume immortal orifices of corresponding tiers at regular intervals for nourishment.
Now that Fang Yuan's cultivation had risen to the Ninth Transformation, he needed to consume Ninth Transformation immortal orifices!
In this regard, both Giant Sun Immortal Venerable and Star Constellation Immortal Venerable were essentially food for Fang Yuan.
But the difficulty involved was immense.
That said, Fang Yuan was not without his preparations.
At the Mad Demon Den, he had secretly plotted against the resurrected Paradise Earth. Before Paradise Earth's death, he had been mere hairsbreadth away from the Ninth Transformation, and his corpse still bore an Eighth Transformation immortal orifice.
This Eighth Transformation immortal orifice could be considered a quasi-Ninth Transformation orifice. Moreover, because Paradise Earth had exclusively cultivated the Dao of Heaven, this immortal orifice displayed a unique quality — it was capable of forming a self-contained, remarkably stable whole.
Normally, after a Gu Immortal perished, their immortal orifice would become unstable and fall into the world between heaven and earth, opening its gateway to draw in vast quantities of Heaven and Earth energies, forming either a Blessed Land or a Cave Heaven.
But Paradise Earth's quasi-Ninth Transformation Dao of Heaven immortal orifice was exceptionally unique — remarkably stable.
"If things truly become untenable in the future, I could split off a soul fragment and use Paradise Earth's body to create a Heavenly Venerable clone. Then I could have this clone undergo tribulation, become a Dao of Heaven Venerable, and devour its Ninth Transformation immortal orifice!"
Paradise Earth's corpse was Fang Yuan's emergency rations.