Fang Yuan needed a great number of Evil Thought Gu. It was not simply a matter of a few hundred. He had initially estimated that he would need at least two thousand of them. Only by activating them simultaneously could the Evil Thoughts they produce barely reach the passing line of sufficiency under the Halo of Wisdom.
It must be emphasized that these two thousand-plus Evil Thought Gu all had to be Rank Five.
Fang Yuan had the recipes for Evil Thought Gu from Rank One to Rank Five. The Gu from Rank One to Rank Five all produced Evil Thoughts, so their effects were the same. The only differences were the number of thoughts produced at a time and the vast disparity in True Essence consumption.
"Refining Gu isn't easy. The higher the rank, the harder it is. Especially for Rank Five Evil Thought Gu. You have to refine them step by step from Rank One to Two, Rank Two to Three, and so on. There is no recipe that allows you to skip straight to completion. Calculating it this way, the success rate isn't high, and the materials consumed in the process are extremely vast."
Fang Yuan's initial plan was to refine two thousand Evil Thought Gu first. As for Malice Gu, he didn't need them for now. There was still plenty of Joyful Will remaining in his mind.
Refining two thousand Rank Five Evil Thought Gu was undoubtedly a massive and time-consuming undertaking.
If Fang Yuan had not purchased the Haired Clan and established the Second Stone Nest, and had relied solely on the Haired Clan of the First Stone Nest to refine them in their spare time while making Air Sac Gu, it would have taken at least ten years to reach the goal of two thousand Rank Five Gu.
Now that Fang Yuan had the Second Stone Nest and a large number of Haired Clan, this time was drastically shortened to about sixteen months.
"If I can improve the recipe during this time and devise a completely new Rank Five recipe that can directly refine Rank Five Evil Thought Gu, then the sixteen months can be greatly reduced," Fang Yuan thought to himself.
His current attainment in the Refinement Path had already risen to the level of a Quasi-Grandmaster, but his attainment in the Wisdom Path was almost a blank slate.
Nevertheless, Fang Yuan still had confidence.
The source of this confidence was none other than Wisdom Gu.
With the help of the Halo of Wisdom, he would have infinite inspiration. Even if his attainment was slightly lacking, it didn't matter; he could forcefully deduce it.
"The might of a Rank Nine Immortal Gu is truly terrifying." Fang Yuan was increasingly feeling the power of the Rank Nine Wisdom Gu.
By borrowing the Halo of Wisdom, he could deduce Immortal Gu recipes, things that even the Lang Ya Earth Spirit, who was at the Quasi-Grandmaster level of the Refinement Path, was stuck on and unable to make progress on.
Fang Yuan could also use the Halo of Wisdom to deduce Immortal Killer Moves.
The Fierce Lightning Evil Man had comprehended the Immortal Killer Move Lightning God Son from the remnant recipe of Blood God Son, and it had taken him several years. He had isolated himself in seclusion during this time, never stepping outside.
If it were Fang Yuan, with the same attainment in the Lightning Path, and borrowing Wisdom Gu, he could complete it in a month at most.
Hei Lou Lan was currently working hard to push the Mortal Killer Move My Strength Virtual Shadow to the Immortal level. Unfortunately, even though she had the foundation of the Mortal Killer Move and had the attainment in the Strength Path, it would still take her at least several years to achieve her goal.
If it were Fang Yuan, he could probably get it done in half a month.
In fact, Fang Yuan had already been working on deducing an Immortal Killer Move on and off for a while. It was none other than Ten Thousand Me.
The core of the original Ten Thousand Me was the Immortal Gu Purify Soul, but due to hunger, it could not be efficiently activated. Fang Yuan's main purpose in deducing Ten Thousand Me was to replace the Immortal Gu Purify Soul with other Gu.
But unfortunately, without this one Immortal Gu, the power plummeted. Even if he used a vast number of mortal Gu, it could not match its original power.
Throughout the history of Gu Masters, from ancient times to the present, there was only one Mortal Killer Move whose offensive power could rival an Immortal Gu.
That was the Bone Chariot!
This killer move was created by the Proud Bone Demon Lord Shen Jie'ao, whose brilliance was unparalleled, looking down upon both ancient and modern times.
Therefore, when Fang Yuan hung desolate beast corpses for sale in Treasure Yellow Heaven, among the transactions was one for exchanging a desolate beast corpse for the War Bone Wheel Gu and other Rank Five mortal Gu.
The War Bone Wheel Gu was one of the mortal Gu that made up the Bone Chariot killer move. Fang Yuan only had one, which he had obtained from the Northern Plains, on the battlefield where the Wolf King Chang Shan Yin had been hiding.
Fang Yuan's talent could not compare to Shen Jie'ao's; without the Immortal Gu Purify Soul, the power of the Ten Thousand Me killer move was utterly insufficient.
Over the next two weeks, Fang Yuan worked hard on improving the Evil Thought Gu recipe. Besides that, he did not give up trying to improve the Immortal Killer Move Ten Thousand Me.
During this period, he sold two desolate beast corpses in Treasure Yellow Heaven.
In return, he obtained a second pair of Bat Wings and several dozen Immortal Essence Stones.
Fang Yuan originally did not want to directly exchange desolate beast corpses for Immortal Essence Stones. But he only had fifty Immortal Essence Stones left. Most of his funds had been used to purchase the Haired Clan. Now that he was refining Rank Five Evil Thought Gu on a large scale, the required resources were enormous. Therefore, he had no choice but to exchange them for Immortal Essence Stones to barely cover the expenses.
As a result, only three desolate beast corpses remained in Fang Yuan's listings in Treasure Yellow Heaven.
He only had a little over twenty Immortal Essence Stones left. The Green Grape Immortal Essence had also dropped to thirty-six drops due to the constant deductions.
However, Fang Yuan's plan to improve the Evil Thought Gu recipe had achieved results.
The new Evil Thought Gu recipe, although not reaching its expected level, had reduced many steps. Creating a Rank Five Evil Thought Gu previously required starting from Rank One and continuously upgrading. Now, a Rank Five Evil Thought Gu only needed two steps: the first step was to refine a semi-finished product, and the second step was to finish the product.
Although the success rate did not increase, the reduction in steps greatly reduced material consumption and saved time.
"At this pace, the original sixteen months are cut in half. In just eight months of refinement, I will have two thousand Rank Five Evil Thought Gu. But my Immortal Essence Stones are running low. Even with the support of the Bravery Gu trade, I am still spending more than I earn. Should I take a short pause, first have the Second Stone Nest refine Air Sac Gu to increase Bravery Gu production, and earn some Immortal Essence Stones to support the situation?"
Just as Fang Yuan was forced to consider this, the good news he had been waiting for finally arrived.
"Brat, you win! I agree to your terms, we'll split it forty-sixty!" The Lang Ya Earth Spirit spoke in a surly tone, his mood very bad.
Fang Yuan was short on money because he was refining mortal Gu on a massive scale. The Lang Ya Earth Spirit wanted to refine Immortal Gu, and the resources he consumed were hundreds of times greater than Fang Yuan's — he was even more broke!