Fang Yuan thought about it for a moment, 'There is no point in charging into the dream realm blindly once again.' If he didn't have an answer in mind, he would just end up wasting more time, damaging his soul and wasting Gu guts.
The real question, though, was where to look for answers. There's no one in the village who could potentially help him, and he did not have access to a place like Yellow Treasure Heaven yet where he might be able to get some information regarding the same. All he had were the clues that he had been given while in the dream realm itself.
'Integration Gu...' Fang Yuan thought to himself.
'In mathematics, derivation and integration are the opposite of each other. If Ren Zu had created the world of humans through Derivation Gu, does that mean Integration Gu could somehow gather all of humanity and then recreate Ren Zu?' That was what Teng Mingyu had seemed to be hinting at in his scribblings.
'Or maybe that isn't it and I'm thinking about things too literally,' Fang Yuan thought. 'Integration could also be thought of as something else: as bringing together a large number of small pieces to make a whole.'
He then decided to do something slightly risky, although it was a risk that he felt would pay off. The system had given him this dream realm for getting 100 Human Path Dao marks, and it had given him Rank Five Integration Gu for getting 200 Human Path Dao marks.
'Could it be that these two things were related?' Fang Yuan withdrew Integration Gu from his inventory. He wasn't sure how to feed it, which was the main problem, and it was Rank Five, which was another issue with taking it out. But as he examined it, he realized that he had seen it before. 'Teng Mingyu had a lower version of this Gu in his aperture,' Fang Yuan realized.
Integration Gu took the form of two worms which were curled and fused in the middle. It had five segments on it; it seemed to imply its rank. More likely than not, the Gu which he had seen, which only had two, was Rank Two Integration Gu. 'So is Integration Gu involved in the refining of Hope Gu?' Fang Yuan thought.
Now that he knew that Teng Mingyu had Integration Gu in his aperture, it made things slightly easier. However, he didn't know what the other gu worms inside Teng Mingyu's aperture were or if they were also a part of the refinement, and there was no easy way for him to find that out.
'I will give this another try,' Fang Yuan thought, 'and if not, then I'll have to leave it for now.'
He entered the dream realm once again. He walked alongside the guard, who reminded him that there were only 15 minutes that he could use. Then Fang Yuan approached the primeval spring. The numerous Hope Gu glittered like specks of gold in the water, calling out to him. Here, he removed Teng Mingyu's vital Gu from his aperture, a Rank One Hope Gu.
He then approached the water. Hope Gu began shining a bit more, and other wild Hope Gu began gathering around it.
'However, this is not enough to fuse them together,' Fang Yuan thought. 'The 'Legends of Ren Zu' was the greatest Human Path inheritance left behind in all of history. From the looks of this, this was a Human Path dream realm, and the answer would likely come from there. If he thought about it a bit more, Hope Gu lied in Ren Zu's heart,' Fang Yuan thought. At first, he thought that the recipe for advanced Hope Gu might involve the hearts of actual Gu Masters or just humans in general, but that did not seem to be the case given he was right here.
The only real clue he had was that Integration Gu was involved somehow.
As Fang Yuan looked at the water, his mind turned in another direction. 'What does it cause for hope to be built up? Can the hopes of many people come together?'
He repeated the last phrase in his mind: 'coming together, integrating together.' A flash of inspiration then struck. He took Rank Two Integration Gu from his aperture, and he also took out Friendship Gu.
Friendship Gu had the will of Teng Ling and Teng Mei within it.
'If I can integrate these things together,' Fang Yuan thought. He used Integration Gu and Friendship Gu in succession, bringing the two wills to the forefront where Rank One Hope Gu began joining them.
As a Hope Gu joined with each of the wills which had been manifested by Friendship Gu, Fang Yuan then attempted to bring them all together, all the while pouring primal essence into Integration Gu.
The wills had manifested in the form of short, six-inch-tall versions of their owners. There weren't enough thoughts for a full person to manifest, as could be expected of such a low-ranking Gu worm.
However, both of his "friends" smiled at him as they each held onto a single Hope Gu. They then began approaching his vital Gu worm, and under the influence of Integration Gu, these three lights of Hope Gu began rotating around each other.
As they rotated faster and faster, a ball of light began forming.
'Is this the crucial step?' Fang Yuan thought, tossing in primeval stones while maintaining this. It was more difficult than a normal Rank Two Gu fusion, simply because he not only needed to think about the fusion, but also maintain Integration Gu's function separately while tossing in primeval stones. The ball of light shrunk, and then a new Gu worm emerged from the ball of light and landed on Teng Mingyu's palm.
Rank Two Hope Gu had been successfully refined!
Teng Mingyu then took this Gu worm and walked out of the underground cavern. "I was about to call for you," the guard said. "15 minutes are up."
"Don't worry, my job here is done," Teng Mingyu said. Fang Yuan thought that the dream would be over by this point.
However, it continued, though he had no control over Teng Mingyu's body right now. Teng Mingyu walked back home. The village was bustling with activity, and many people bowed to him once he went back home. He showed his father his new creation. "Look, Father, I did it! I managed to refine Rank Two Hope Gu!"
"Congratulations," his father said, though he had a sad smile on his face. "And what can you possibly do with Rank Two Hope Gu?"
Teng Mingyu trailed off. "Although I have advanced it to Rank Two, it still seemed to have no function. Maybe at a higher rank, it can do something else..." His father shook his head, still not understanding why Teng Mingyu had chosen Hope Gu, of all Gu worms, to be his vital Gu.
Teng Mingyu then went into a room where Teng Mei was. Her abdomen was slightly swollen, indicating that she was at least a few months pregnant. "I managed to do it!" Teng Mingyu said, embracing her.
"That's amazing!" she answered. "How did you do it?"
"The essence of refining Hope Gu is to take the hopes of many people and stack them upon each other," Teng Mingyu answered. "I have to thank you for this."
"Oh, it was nothing," Teng Mei said.
"No, I really do need to thank you and Teng Ling for this."
"Thank us, but what did we do?" Teng Mei asked.
"It was your friendship that let me do this." Teng Mingyu took out Friendship Gu from his aperture.
"You still have that?" Teng Mei asked.
"Not only do I still have it, your wills were still always there with me, and it was thanks to them that I was able to create Rank Two Hope Gu. I think that if I managed to get more people, I might be able to create a Rank Three Hope Gu as well. But first, I need to advance Integration Gu to the next rank."
"You're always so busy," Teng Mei said, wrapping her arms around him. "You should relax a little, you know?"
"Teng Mei," he said, "You know how much work and expectations there are on my shoulders, on top of which I decided to do something as dumb as taking Hope Gu as my vital gu. I have to work hard to compensate for it, don't I?"
"Don't call my husband dumb!" Teng Mei punched him lightly on the shoulder. "I'm sure you had your reasons for doing so, and if it was something unconscious, maybe it was Fate itself that desired you to have Hope Gu and refine it further."
"I don't really see how that's possible," Teng Mingyu mused. "Fate Gu is the enemy of Hope Gu, after all. Isn't it true that one's hope would be to persevere, even if Fate decrees that you have to fail? Even in the direst of scenarios, didn't Ren Zu continue to keep Hope Gu in his heart, which had refused to abandon him even as Fate Gu mocked him and trapped him in his web?" He then went on another tangent. "And Hope Gu is also the first step towards cultivating... every Gu Master awakens their aperture with the tiniest seed of hope... so long as one has that, there is always a chance to succeed..."
"You're thinking too much again," Teng Mei said, rolling her eyes. She then gasped. "Oh, right, you promised to take me shopping this afternoon, didn't you? Don't tell me you forgot!"
"All right, yes, I did," Teng Mingyu said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry, let's get ready and go."