Waves of green essence ocean rose and fell, tides ebbing and flowing.
Above the sea surface, a liquor worm huddled together, emitting a white mist of alcohol vapor.
With a swoosh, a stream of true essence shot upward into the mist. When it descended, half of it had dissipated, and its color had deepened. It transformed from an initial stage emerald green to an intermediate stage deep cyan.
The intermediate true essence fell into the essence ocean, but did not mix with the primary true essence. It seemed heavier and sank to the bottom.
Thus, the essence ocean formed a structure: the upper layer was primary true essence water, and the lower layer was intermediate true essence.
Over time, the alcohol mist swirled continuously in the empty aperture. Under the refinement of the liquor worm, gradually, the primary true essence decreased, and the intermediate true essence increased.
It was clearly visible from the lower half of Chapter 43: The Last Sixth Purple Gold Stone that the water level of intermediate true essence was rising higher, while the upper level of primary essence water was alternately decreasing and increasing.
Fang Yuan refined true essence while simultaneously absorbing natural true essence from essence stones outside, quickly replenishing his empty aperture.
In the end, forty percent of the essence ocean in his empty aperture was again fully refined into intermediate true essence.
"Thanks to intermediate true essence, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to consecutively cut five stones at the gambling grounds." Fang Yuan sat cross-legged on his dormitory bed and slowly opened his eyes.
It was already late at night.
After leaving the gambling grounds, he didn't browse any other shops but returned directly to the academy.
Although it was on the outskirts of Gu Yue Village, it was still too much for a first-turn initial stage gu master to carry five hundred and thirty-eight essence stones.
This was not only because the essence stones were heavy and inconvenient to carry, but also because they could attract covetousness and endanger his life.
If a first-turn high stage or even second-turn gu master had ill intentions, with his current abilities, Fang Yuan would not be able to withstand it.
"Money and wealth are external things; it is tragic for people to die because of them. Ridiculous that so many people in the world cannot see this. How many people has the ship of profit carried, and how many has it sunk?" Fang Yuan's lips curled into a cold smile as he looked at the gray-white essence stone in his hand.
Complete essence stones were each the size of a duck egg. But the one in his hand had shrunk significantly because half of its true essence had been absorbed.
Fang Yuan did not feel a bit of regret.
Everything has a price. He was only a C-grade talent, and he had to use the liquor worm to refine true essence, so his consumption of essence stones was several times that of his peers. But because of this, he could overcome his talent deficiency. In terms of actual cultivation progress, he could rank in the top three.
Fang Yuan put the essence stone back into his money bag and took out the last piece of purple gold fossil.
He had purchased six pieces in total from the gambling grounds, cut open five on the spot, and brought one back.
A glint of light flashed in his eyes as he urged the moonlight gu again, rubbing his fingers to cut the stone.
The purple gold fossil rapidly diminished in the blue glow, eventually wearing away to nothing, leaving only a small pile of stone powder on the floor beside the bed.
Fang Yuan was not surprised. In stone gambling, nine out of ten tries result in a loss.
Even with his five hundred years of experience, at best he could only achieve eight losses out of ten bets. The remaining two wins were further divided into dead gu and living gu.
Dead gu were basically worthless. As for living gu, they were not necessarily rare gu. If he actually opened a living gu of great value, it would instead invite fatal disaster.
Fang Yuan's current cultivation was very low, only the bottom of the gu masters. The earth toad he had just opened, if not for being on the outskirts of Gu Yue Village, he might have been robbed by that Jia Jinsheng.
Gambling has never been a way to get rich; instead, most people lose everything because of it. This is not Fang Yuan's development path.