Fang Yuan found himself in a rather familiar location once he entered the dream realm. 'No wait', he thought. 'This only looks familiar on first glance.' He was in an underground cavern, much like the one that the Gu Yue clan had. However, the faces around him were completely different from the time of his ceremony. Whoever he was embodying in this dream realm was currently undergoing their aperture awakening ceremony.
That meant that they were somewhere in the Southern Border as the awakening ceremony varied slightly from region to region.
The cavern itself was also slightly different from that of the Gu Yue clan's once he took a closer look around, though this wasn't as apparent as the varying faces around him. 'Who am I here?' Fang Yuan thought to himself.
This clan's surname seemed to be Teng, as there was an elder here who called out their names one by one. Fang Yuan examined himself. He was not that much different from how he was currently, perhaps a few inches shorter.
Without any gu worm or primal essence, there was little that he could do other than observe. For now, the elder called out "Teng Mingyu!". No one moved forward. It was only when he called out the name again, and people started looking at him, that Fang Yuan realized that he must be Teng Mingyu.
"Ah, I'm sorry," Fang Yuan said, and then began walking towards the primeval spring.
"You can daydream after you've awakened your aperture!" the elder, who was reading out names, snapped. Then Fang Yuan took several steps forward. The numerous lights representing Hope Gu entered this space that would become his aperture.
He kept walking until suddenly he felt a pressure against him, and a small explosion occurred in the area where the Hope Gu were entering. "Thirty-xix steps!" the Elder called out. "B-grade talent!" He was no longer scowling and had a smile upon his face.
The other youngsters had jealous looks, though there were two within the crowd who were cheering.
"Great job!"
"Well done!"
However, this person was not done. Fang Yuan felt himself lose control over the person's body as he reached into the spirit spring to retrieve something that was shining brightly. "Come on out there! We don't have all day!" the elder who was calling out names, yelled out.
"Coming," the person in question said.
Teng Mingyu then took one of the Hope Gu, placing it in his aperture and then refining it instantly.
'This is... this person decided to take Hope Gu as his vital gu?' Fang Yuan thought.
It was a very peculiar choice. Hope Gu had not use other than awakening one's aperture, and so to choose it as one's vital gu worm was a massive waste.
Whoever this person was, they were destined to become an elder at the very least. It was odd that they had gotten no guidance regarding this beforehand, unless it was assumed that they were a surprise talent.
'Perhaps if one could refine Immortal Hope Gu- but even in my previous life, I had not heard of anyone possessing Rank 6 or higher Hope Gu,' Fang Yuan thought. The Immortal version of it was mentioned in 'The Legends of Ren Zu', but even then, it had little power other than being able to drive away Predicaments. What ultimately happened to Hope Gu once Ren Zu and his children had entered Derivation Gu was not mentioned in the tales, so it was anybody's guess as to what that was.
Even then, Hope Gu was essentially a consumable gu as a mortal gu. It was a bad idea to make it into your vital gu for that reason, even if it might have gained a function when it became an immortal gu.
The scene then shifted to Fang Yuan facing off against someone.
Thanks to his reflexes, he was able to just barely dodge the fist coming his way before he tripped his opponent.
The attack had come out of nowhere from his point of view, and he had not been given time to observe his surroundings before the dream realm had shifted.
He only had a breath's time to take the field into account, but that was more than enough.
It appeared that these two people were sparring somewhere in private, one-on-one. His vital gu within his aperture was the Hope Gu, as well as a different gu worm that he did not recognize. Rank 2 Initial Stage primeval essence filled his aperture.
"Not bad, I really thought that I'd gotten you there," his opponent said with a smile.
Based on how they were fighting, Fang Yuan quickly assessed that this was not a serious life-or-death battle and more likely than not a spar.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a girl.
Both the boy he was sparring against and the girl who was watching the two of them looked vaguely familiar- they were the two who had cheered this person on when they had found out that he was a B-grade talent.
'Should I use a gu worm?' Fang Yuan thought. It seemed that this fight was restricted to physical fighting as it was, and his opponent had not used anything as of yet.
If he used a gu worm if the terms of this fight beforehand had been to refrain from using them, he would fail the dream realm and be ejected. His opponent was Rank 1 Peak Stage, so it could be a possibility.
He only briefly thought of this as the opponent struck out at him.
'His moves are rather wild and inexperienced,' Fang Yuan noted. He placed his opponent's fighting prowess as slightly lower than Fang Zheng's current level.
Fang Yuan swept out his opponent's feet from under him before dealing several blows to his solar plexus.
"Ugh!" the boy said, rolling around the arena, clutching his chest. He struggled to get up. "Couldn't you have gone a little bit easier, man?"
Fang Yuan did not really know what the meaning of 'going easy' was, but if this was a friendly fight, he should probably avoid certain blows.
"I got carried away, is all," Fang Yuan said.
They charged at each other again, with Fang Yuan limiting his attacks somewhat and trying to disable his opponent without causing much pain.
"Argh!" his opponent said, falling to the ground. He stared at Fang Yuan with gritted teeth before saying, "Alright, I concede, you've won."
Fang Yuan walked away, though as he did so, a sudden sense of regret and sadness assaulted him.
'What's going on? Didn't I win?'
Those were his last thoughts before he was ejected from the dream realm.
The damage to his soul was rather minimal, thankfully, and he had Guts Gu to repair his soul.
However, he still couldn't wrap his mind around what he had done wrong. He didn't have [Unravel Dream] or a similar ability to make exploring this dream realm easier, so he could only reflect and somewhat try things through trial and error.
'I did something wrong...' Fang Yuan thought. 'Was I supposed to lose on purpose? No, I wasn't ejected after winning, but after I had walked away after my victory. If those two people were friends than that means... was something else supposed to happen?'
Fang Yuan entered the dream realm once again.