The pale tower opened its eyes.
Dream Feather Immortal Gu released a soft light, wrapping around Fang Ming's soul like layers of weightless feathers. The dream fog before him did not drag him in violently. Instead, it parted little by little, allowing his consciousness to pass through the boundary between reality and dream.
For an instant, Fang Ming saw countless blurred scenes floating around him.
Some were bright. Some were dark. Some were only broken fragments without beginning or end. Dream Feather trembled lightly, guiding him past the shattered dream pieces that had already lost their structure. Fang Ming did not rush. He allowed the Immortal Gu to lead him deeper, while his own will remained calm.
Dream realms were not ordinary inheritances.
They were not caves where one could walk in and take what was hidden inside. They were the condensed experiences, regrets, memories, and understandings of experts. If one passed a stage, attainment would rise. If one failed, the soul would suffer. In severe cases, even returning alive would only mean dragging back a damaged mind.
Dream Feather gave him confidence, but not arrogance.
The next moment, the fog around him changed.
Fang Ming opened his eyes.
He was standing in a large black stone square.
Above him was a sky covered by dark red clouds. Beneath his feet were stone tiles stained with old blood. Around the square stood rows of disciples in grey and black robes. Each person had a refinement cauldron placed before them.
The cauldrons were not uniform. Some were bronze, some iron, some bone-white, and some looked as though they had been forged from beast skulls. Faint heat rose from them, mixing with the smell of blood, medicine, oil, and burnt hair.
High above the square, on a platform carved into the cliffside, several elders sat silently.
Their robes were dark. Their expressions were colder than stone. None of them had the gentle bearing of righteous path elders watching juniors compete. Their gazes were like blades, sweeping across the disciples below as if they were inspecting livestock.
A hoarse voice rang across the square.
"Today's refinement: Slaughter Gu."
The disciples lowered their heads. No one dared speak.
The elder's voice continued coldly, "Those who fail refinement die. Those who exceed the time limit die. Only the top three survive."
The square remained silent.
No disciple protested.
No disciple asked for fairness.
This was a demonic sect.
Here, talent was useful only if it could survive.
A list of materials appeared on the stone table before Fang Ming. Blood-thread grass, bone ash powder, iron-tooth insect shell, corpse oil, beast marrow, black flame charcoal, and a few other mortal materials. The refinement steps also appeared in his mind, not like knowledge taught by a teacher, but like a rule forced into the dream itself.
Fang Ming looked at the cauldron before him.
Slaughter mortal Gu.
A mortal Gu, but not an easy one to refine. It required stable control over heat and blood path-like materials, while maintaining killing intent without letting the mixture collapse into useless poison. For ordinary mortal disciples, refining this under pressure was extremely difficult.
Fang Ming's expression did not change.
He was not here for the Gu worm.
He was here for attainment.
The moment the elder raised his hand, all the disciples moved. Flames lit under dozens of cauldrons at once. Materials were thrown in. Some disciples acted quickly, some carefully, and some had already begun trembling before the first step was complete.
Fang Ming also began refining.
His hands moved steadily. He did not use his immortal methods at once. Instead, he followed the refinement process honestly, observing the dream's rhythm. The cauldron responded like a true refinement environment. The materials changed texture, smell, and aura exactly as they should. The dream realm was not a crude illusion. It had condensed real refinement path profundity inside its rules.
This was indeed a refinement path dream.
Not far away, another disciple refined with calm movements.
He was a boy in plain robes.
Among all these demonic sect disciples, he looked strangely clean. His sleeves were neat, his breathing was stable, and his gaze was clear. He did not seem frightened by the threat of death. His hands moved with an almost natural rhythm, as if the cauldron, materials, and flame were all extensions of his body.
Fang Ming glanced at him once, then looked away.
On the other side of the square, Feng Jin Huang also stood before a cauldron.
Inside the dream, she had the appearance of a young disciple. Her clothes were different from her real body, and her cultivation was restricted by the dream's role, but her eyes still carried the pride and intelligence of Spirit Affinity House's genius.
She had noticed Fang Ming earlier.
Not his true identity, but his presence.
This was not the first time she had entered this dream realm. Sometimes she found herself alone among the disciples. Sometimes she saw other dream figures. And sometimes, she noticed this quiet youth also participating in the same stage.
At first, she had only felt disdain.
Dream realms were not places one entered casually. Even Gu Immortals were wary of them. She herself dared to explore because she possessed Dream Wings Immortal Gu and had the support of Spirit Affinity House behind her. Yet this other person appeared again and again, as if he also wanted to compete for the benefits of the dream realm.
Overestimating himself.
That was Feng Jin Huang's first judgment.
Later, after seeing him several times, she merely got used to him. He performed well, better than most dream figures, but never to the level that made her truly wary. In the refinement competition, he usually finished around fourth. She herself often placed fifth or slightly lower. Neither of them had truly passed.
In Feng Jin Huang's view, this only proved how difficult the dream was.
Even with Dream Wings Immortal Gu, she could not simply break through.
How could this unknown explorer do so?
The first attempt ended quickly.
A disciple's flame went out of control. His cauldron cracked, releasing a foul green smoke. Before he could scream, a demonic elder pointed from above. A black light descended and pierced his head.
He died on the spot.
No one stopped refining.
Soon, another disciple took too long while adjusting the blood-thread grass essence. The time incense beside his cauldron burned past the marked line. A shadow moved behind him, and his body split in two.
Death pressure filled the square.
Fang Ming remained calm, but he did not pass.
He finished fourth.
Three disciples completed their refinement before him. The plain-robed boy was first. Another ruthless-looking disciple was second. A thin girl with bloodshot eyes was third.
Fang Ming's Slaughter Gu formed successfully, but the elder's gaze did not soften.
"Fourth."
A dark light descended.
Dream Feather trembled.
Before the strike destroyed his soul, Fang Ming withdrew.
His consciousness left the dream layer.
In the quiet valley outside, Fang Ming's body remained seated on the flat stone. His three rank five Gu Masters stood guard around him, while eagles circled through the fog. His eyelids trembled slightly, and a faint weakness appeared in his soul.
Dream Feather had protected him. The backlash was light.
Fang Ming opened his eyes for only a breath, then used guts Gu to restore his soul. The cool and refreshing feeling spread through him, repairing the minor damage caused by withdrawal.
He did not feel frustrated.
Fourth place was information.
After a short rest, he entered again.
The demonic sect square appeared once more. Dark red clouds, black stone tiles, blood-stained cauldrons, cold elders, silent disciples.
Again, the command came.
"Today's refinement: Slaughter Gu."
Again, only the top three survived.
Fang Ming refined faster this time.
He reduced two unnecessary pauses and changed the order of corpse oil infusion. His control of the black flame charcoal improved. The Slaughter Gu embryo appeared earlier than before.
But the plain-robed boy was still first.
The ruthless disciple was still second.
The thin girl was still third.
Fang Ming was fourth again.
He withdrew before death.
Again and again, Fang Ming entered.
Sometimes Feng Jin Huang was not in the same layer. Sometimes she appeared and struggled with the refinement alongside him. Whenever she saw Fang Ming, her impression deepened slightly.
He was not weak.
But he was not enough.
At least, that was what she believed.
On one attempt, she saw Fang Ming finish before many disciples but still fail to reach the top three. His expression remained calm even when the elder's killing move descended. Just before death, his figure vanished from the dream.
Feng Jin Huang frowned slightly.
"He has a way to retreat?"
Her thought lasted only a moment before her own cauldron trembled. She hurriedly controlled the flame, but the beast marrow entered half a breath too late. The refinement failed. A black light descended.
She withdrew with Dream Wings Immortal Gu, her soul trembling heavily.
Outside the dream, Feng Jin Huang opened her eyes with a pale face.
The four Spirit Affinity House Gu Masters guarding her body immediately became nervous.
"Lady Feng Jin Huang!"
"I'm fine." Feng Jin Huang gritted her teeth and swallowed the blood rising in her throat.
She took out guts Gu and used it carefully.
Her soul slowly recovered.
She looked at the dream realm before her, frustration building in her chest. This dream realm was far more difficult than most she had explored before. The rules were clear, but passing them was not easy. It was not enough to refine successfully. One had to be among the top three.
And that plain-robed boy…
Every time, he was first.
Feng Jin Huang's eyes narrowed.
"That person in the dream is probably part of the dream's structure. He is not an explorer."
She had considered whether the quiet youth might be one, but dismissed the thought soon after. The plain-robed boy was too perfect. His refinement was too natural. He did not have the uncertainty of an explorer. He seemed like someone the dream itself wished to display.
As for Fang Ming, she still did not consider him deeply.
He was another challenger.
A stubborn one.
But stubbornness was not enough to pass a dream realm.
Inside the dream, Fang Ming gradually stopped treating the competition as a simple speed contest.
He had improved his refinement each time. He had cut waste, optimized steps, and compressed timing. Yet the result remained the same.
Fourth.
No matter how much he refined better, the first three seemed fixed.
Especially the plain-robed boy.
Too stable.
Too perfect.
Too incompatible with this demonic sect.
Fang Ming watched him from the corner of his eye during another attempt. The boy did not panic when disciples died. He did not rejoice when others failed. He did not carry demonic ruthlessness, nor did he have the desperate ambition of someone trying to survive. His refinement was clean, isolated, and self-contained.
Like a white lotus placed in a pool of blood.
Fang Ming's mind moved.
Expert dreams were not always reasonable.
He remembered enough of Fang Yuan's future experiences to know that dream realms could have absurd passing conditions. Some dreams demanded actions that made no sense from the surface rule. Some were shaped by regrets. Some were shaped by resentment. Some were not about victory, but about satisfying the obsession hidden inside the dream.
The surface rule here was clear.
Only the top three survive.
But Fang Ming had already proven that simply refining faster was not enough.
If the dream wanted him to pass by honest competition, then improving his refinement should have gradually changed the result. Yet every time, the same three occupied the top. It was as if the dream insisted that they remain there.
Then perhaps the real key was not to become one of them by normal means.
Perhaps the key was to remove one of them.
Fang Ming's gaze returned to the plain-robed boy.
Among the top three, he was the strangest.
And also the most important.
Fang Ming withdrew again before death.
This time, after returning outside, he did not immediately re-enter.
He sat in the foggy valley for a long while.
The three rank five Gu Masters remained silent. None of them dared disturb him. The eagles above continued circling, driving away any disciple who strayed too close. From far away came faint explosions and shouts, proof that the dream blessed land's outer chaos had not ended.
Fang Ming's soul recovered under the effect of guts Gu.
His thoughts became clearer.
He had two Virtual Refinement chances left for this month.
Using such a precious method inside a dream realm was not something he did lightly. Virtual Refinement was one of his deepest abilities. It could create value far beyond ordinary immortal essence stones. But refinement path dreams were different.
If there was any type of dream where Virtual Refinement could produce maximum effect, it was here.
A refinement dream obeyed refinement logic.
A cauldron, materials, process, failure, success — all these were within the domain where Virtual Refinement could interfere.
Wisdom path dreams might not allow it.
Formation path dreams might distort it.
Battle dreams might ignore it.
But here, in this demonic sect competition, it could become the sharpest blade.
Fang Ming opened his eyes.
"It is decided."
Dream Feather glowed again.
He entered the dream realm once more.
The same black stone square appeared. The same dark red clouds pressed down from above. The same elders sat on the cliff platform. The same disciples stood before their cauldrons.
Feng Jin Huang was present this time.
She glanced at Fang Ming briefly and then looked away.
Another attempt?
She no longer felt surprised. She had seen him fail enough times. In her eyes, he had some ability, but he was still trapped by the same problem as her.
The hoarse voice echoed.
"Today's refinement: Slaughter Gu."
The competition began.
Fang Ming did not hesitate.
The moment his flame lit, he activated Virtual Refinement.
The world seemed to slow around the cauldron.
Inside his perception, the materials broke down into countless possible refinement routes. The blood-thread grass could be processed in twelve ways. The corpse oil could be introduced at different heat levels. The beast marrow's impurities could be suppressed, burned, or guided into the killing intent structure. Failure points appeared and vanished like lines in a diagram.
Fang Ming selected the fastest stable route.
The cauldron trembled.
Blood-colored mist rose, then condensed.
The Slaughter Gu embryo formed with terrifying speed.
His hands moved like shadows. Each action was precise. There was no hesitation, no correction, no wasted breath.
Feng Jin Huang's eyes widened.
Fast!
Too fast!
She almost lost control of her own flame from the shock.
The plain-robed boy was still refining steadily, but this time Fang Ming overtook him.
The ruthless disciple looked over in disbelief.
The thin girl's expression twisted.
Fang Ming ignored them.
A sharp cry came from his cauldron.
Slaughter mortal Gu formed.
He finished first.
For a moment, the entire square seemed to quiet.
The demonic elders above looked at him. Their cold eyes carried a trace of surprise, but they did not announce the end.
The dream did not fade.
Fang Ming's expression remained calm.
As expected.
Refining Slaughter Gu alone was not enough.
Feng Jin Huang stared at him, stunned. He had finished first. Not fourth, not barely ahead of her, but first. Yet after completing the refinement, Fang Ming did not look relieved. He did not look upward at the elders. He did not wait for reward or survival.
Instead, he slowly turned his gaze toward the plain-robed boy beside him.
Feng Jin Huang noticed this.
Her heart moved.
Why was he looking there?
The plain-robed boy was still refining. His hands remained calm, his flame steady. Even after being overtaken, his rhythm did not break. It was as if Fang Ming's success had nothing to do with him.
Fang Ming's eyes became deep.
Second Virtual Refinement.
The final use of the month.
But this time, the target was not his own cauldron.
It was the boy's cauldron.
Within the dream, Fang Ming's interference was silent and precise. He did not smash the cauldron. He did not attack the boy. He did not use brute force. He followed refinement logic and inserted another possibility into the process.
Inside the boy's cauldron, the materials shifted.
A poison Gu began to form.
It was small, hidden, and born from impurities that should have been harmless. Corpse oil mixed with bone ash. A trace of blood-thread grass essence reversed. The flame curled inward. The poison Gu took shape inside the cauldron like a worm hiding in rotten fruit.
Then it dissolved.
Poison spread through the refinement.
The plain-robed boy's hand paused for the first time.
His expression changed.
The cauldron hissed.
Black smoke rose.
The Slaughter Gu embryo collapsed.
The refinement failed.
The demonic elder above moved instantly.
A streak of darkness descended from the cliff platform, faster than thought.
The plain-robed boy raised his head.
For a fleeting moment, his eyes were clear and sorrowless. He did not seem afraid. He only looked at the cauldron before him, as if unable to understand why such a result had occurred.
Then the dark light pierced through him.
His body fell.
The square froze.
Feng Jin Huang stared blankly at the scene.
Two breaths ago, Fang Ming had finished first.
One breath ago, he had turned to look at the boy.
Now, the boy had failed and died.
The dream began to fade.
The black stone square blurred. The demonic elders distorted into shadows. The cauldrons became mist. The disciples dissolved one after another like ink dropped into water.
Feng Jin Huang finally understood.
This person had not merely refined faster.
He had understood something she had not.
The true passing condition was not simply entering the top three.
The key was that boy.
No, more precisely, the key was making that boy fail.
Feng Jin Huang felt a chill.
She had explored dream realms longer than him. She had Dream Wings Immortal Gu. She had the guidance of Spirit Affinity House. She had always believed herself to be one of the people closest to dream path in this era.
But in this dream, she had been following the surface rule.
Fang Ming had seen deeper.
Her gaze turned toward him, but the dream had already begun collapsing.
Fang Ming did not look back at her.
The dream swallowed him.
When Fang Ming opened his eyes again, he was back in the foggy valley.
Dream Feather Immortal Gu floated quietly within him. His soul was tired, but not severely damaged. Passing the stage had consumed strength, but the protection of Dream Feather and his deep soul foundation made the burden acceptable.
Then, comprehension surged.
It did not come as words at first.
It came as instinct.
Heat control. Material compatibility. Failure reversal. Refinement psychology. The relation between impurity and opportunity. The boundary between poisoning a refinement and guiding a transformation. Countless fragments of refinement path experience merged into Fang Ming's understanding.
His refinement path attainment rose rapidly.
Ordinary.
Quasi-master.
Master.
Then, like a thin wall breaking, his perspective changed.
Grandmaster.
Fang Ming slowly exhaled.
Refinement path grandmaster.
This was not a pile of recipes or a few tricks. It was attainment. A change in how he understood refinement itself. With this level, when he looked at many Gu recipes in the future, he could see their flaws and possibilities more clearly. He could modify mortal Gu recipes with much less effort. Even Immortal Gu refinement concepts would no longer be as distant as before.
The gain was enormous.
But along with the attainment came the background of the dream.
Xiang Ji.
An old refinement path great grandmaster.
He had not been one of the three supreme refinement path masters, but he had stood close behind them, only a step away from that highest level of fame.
The plain-robed boy in the dream had been Old Immortal Kong Jue in his youth.
The creator of human isolation refinement path.
Fang Ming sat silently as the information settled.
Xiang Ji had created Seven Heaven refinement path.
It was not weak. In fact, in certain aspects, Seven Heaven refinement path could be considered superior to human isolation refinement path. Its principle was to deceive heaven. It misled heaven into believing that the refinement was a variant human refinement against humans, or a refinement that should fail. Then, when the refinement succeeded, heaven's wrath would descend.
The fatal danger was the calamity.
It did not scale according to the Gu being refined.
It scaled according to the refiner.
If a rank six Gu Immortal used Seven Heaven refinement path to refine even a rank one Gu, the calamity that descended could still be dangerous to a rank six.
In ancient times, when humans were suppressed and variant humans were rampant, Seven Heaven refinement path had room to exist. But as eras changed and heaven's will shifted, this method became increasingly dangerous for human refiners. Human isolation refinement path, which isolated refinement from heaven's interference and stabilized success for humans, eventually became mainstream.
Xiang Ji had never accepted this.
He believed his path was superior.
He believed Kong Jue had stolen his limelight.
But his feelings were not simple hatred. There was admiration too. Rivalry. Jealousy. Resentment. Recognition. That was why Kong Jue appeared so perfect in the dream. Xiang Ji admired his brilliance, but also wanted him to fail.
The dream's true condition had been shaped by that obsession.
Refine well?
No.
Survive?
Not enough.
The dream wanted Kong Jue to fail.
Fang Ming's lips curved slightly.
"Absurd, but reasonable."
This was an expert dream.
Such dreams were not solved by blindly following the visible rules. They were shaped by the owner's heart. Their regrets and obsessions were often more important than the announced trial.
Fang Ming was glad he had not underestimated it.
He was also glad Virtual Refinement had worked.
In a wisdom path dream, it might have been useless. In a formation path dream, perhaps only partially effective. In some battle dream, the dream might not even allow him to use it properly.
But in a refinement path dream, Virtual Refinement was terrifyingly suitable.
Outside the valley, eagle cries echoed through the fog.
The blessed land trembled again.
Fang Ming looked toward the direction of the pale tower.
His first true dream realm exploration had succeeded.
He had gained refinement path grandmaster attainment.
And somewhere within the same dream realm, Feng Jin Huang had finally begun to understand that the unknown explorer she dismissed was not merely overestimating himself.
Fang Ming stood up slowly.
The dream realm was not finished.
But this exploration, at least for the identity of Wu Meng, had reached its limit.
Fang Ming waved his sleeve and opened his immortal aperture. A figure walked out from within.
It was the real Wu Meng.
Compared to the silent and ordinary rank five disciple who had been captured before entering the blessed land, the current Wu Meng was completely different. His aura was steady and deep, already at peak rank five. His eyes carried sharpness, and his movements had the controlled discipline of someone who had gone through harsh training.
In the outside world, only several days had passed.
But inside Fang Ming's immortal aperture, more than a year had gone by.
During this period, Wu Meng had not been idle. He had been planted with Slave Gu and placed under Bian Si Xuan's strict training. His combat strength, reaction speed, and obedience had all been raised sharply. More importantly, his memories had been carefully altered.
In Wu Meng's mind, he had truly entered the dream blessed land with Wing of Freedom Sect.
He had truly been separated during the eagle chaos.
He had truly risked himself to protect Feng Jin Huang.
He had truly been carried away by an eagle and barely survived.
These memories were not perfect, but they were enough. Even if others questioned him, he would not appear guilty. A person repeating lies might reveal flaws, but a person speaking from altered memory would show sincerity.
Wu Meng knelt on one knee.
"Supreme leader."
Fang Ming looked at him calmly.
"Return to your place. From this moment on, you are Wu Meng of Wing of Freedom Sect again. Report only what you remember. Do not mention me. Do not search for me. Continue living as before."
Wu Meng lowered his head even further.
"Yes, supreme leader."
Fang Ming nodded. His figure was covered by a faint layer of purple smoke.
The next breath, he vanished.
Only Wu Meng remained in the foggy valley.
The eagles circling in the distance began to scatter. The three Eagle Sect rank five Gu Masters returned into Fang Ming's aperture before he left, leaving no trace behind. The danger zone slowly weakened, as if the eagle swarm had simply moved elsewhere.
Wu Meng stood up.
He looked around, his expression dazed for a moment, then firmed again.
In his memory, he had been dragged away by an eagle after helping protect Feng Jin Huang. He had struggled desperately, fallen into this valley, hidden from dream beasts, and survived with difficulty.
Now, it was time to return.
He adjusted his torn robes and moved toward the outer region.
Time passed quickly. Soon, it was already the last day of the agreement.
All the Gu Masters who had entered the dream blessed land came out one after another and returned to the sides of their respective sects' Gu Immortals, reporting their findings.
Some were wounded.
Some had lost arms or legs.
Some had empty gazes, clearly damaged by dream path backlash.
Some sect groups had suffered heavy losses, while others had gained only scattered dream path materials. The chaos inside the blessed land had ruined many plans. Eagles, dream beasts, broken terrain, rival disciples, and unstable dream fog had turned the exploration into a disaster for most subsidiary forces.
Wu Meng returned to Wing of Freedom Sect's group.
Luo Fei and the others were surprised to see him alive. After hearing that he had been carried away by an eagle and survived by hiding, no one suspected much. The dream blessed land had been too chaotic. Everyone had their own dangers and losses. A single disciple's strange survival was not worth deep investigation.
When Spirit Affinity House's side heard that Wu Meng had returned, one of Feng Jin Huang's guards glanced at him for a long moment.
He recognized him.
This was the disciple who had protected Lady Feng Jin Huang during the eagle attack.
The guard said nothing immediately, but the matter was remembered.
Feng Jin Huang herself stood near the Spirit Affinity House Gu Immortals, her expression pale. Her soul injuries had recovered somewhat with guts Gu, but the repeated failures inside the dream realm had left her exhausted.
Her gaze swept across the crowd and paused briefly on Wu Meng.
A trace of confusion flashed in her eyes.
Was it him?
No.
Inside the dream realm, the person who had beaten her to the answer carried a different feeling.
But the dream realm blurred identities. The outside world had its own bodies, while the dream had its own forms. Feng Jin Huang could not confirm anything.
She only remembered that gaze.
The gaze of someone who understood the dream's true condition before her.
Her hands tightened slightly within her sleeves.
This exploration had not gone as she expected.
Soon, the Gu Immortals began gathering reports.
The central dream realm had shrunk. Many outer resources had disappeared. Several dream beasts had vanished without explanation. Dragonfish in a dream-touched lake were greatly reduced. Dream fog crystals, dream moth Gu, illusion flowers, dream dew grass, and other resource points had been damaged or emptied in different areas.
The sect Gu Immortals' expressions were ugly.
Everyone had suffered losses.
Everyone suspected someone else.
Some believed rival sects had secretly used forbidden methods. Some believed the dream blessed land had collapsed faster than expected. Some blamed the eagle swarms and dream beasts. But no one could find a clear culprit.
In this contest, no sect could claim a clean victory.
Yet far away from the valley, Fang Ming had already left.
He did not stay to watch the arguments.
He did not wait for praise, suspicion, or investigation.
He had taken the dream path resources he wanted. He had captured dream beasts and dream-touched dragonfish. He had copied Dream Wings into Dream Feather. Most importantly, he had passed a refinement path dream stage and raised his refinement path attainment to grandmaster.
The Gu Masters returned to their sects.
The Gu Immortals argued over losses.
Feng Jin Huang silently remembered the unknown dream explorer.
Wu Meng resumed his proper identity.
And Fang Ming remained hidden.
He was fully aware that in this exploration, the biggest winner was himself.