Fang Yuan exited his room. Now that his attainment in the Human Path had risen to quasi-Grandmaster level, it opened up new avenues for him to pursue. Not only that, he now knew the recipe for advancing Hope Gu.
'However, I can't do anything with the primeval spring right now,' Fang Yuan thought. He did have his own idea to advance Hope Gu, but it'd be better if he became clan head before doing so.
"You're done, Fang Yuan?" asked Fang Zheng who was standing guard outside Fang Yuan's room. If anyone were to ask, he was to tell them that he was in closed-door cultivation and had demanded not to be disturbed. This was true, but Fang Zheng was also waiting just in case Fang Yuan happened to become trapped in the dream realm somehow as a safety measure to wake him up.
"Did anyone drop by?" Fang Yuan asked.
"A couple of people did," Fang Zheng answered, "but their needs weren't urgent, or they were just people wasting time, you know, the sort."
Fang Yuan nodded. "The only thing that I think was important was that there was an elders' meeting tomorrow," Fang Zheng added. "And they sent a messenger to ask me whether or not you would be attending."
"I was going to say that you were in closed-door cultivation, and I didn't know when you were going to come out, so probably not. But..."
"It's not an issue," Fang Yuan said. Although it was late, he had no problem attending the meeting.
It had been ultimately pointless last time, based on his memories, to the point where he had nearly forgotten about what had happened there. It was just a meeting to go over the upcoming wolf tide, and there was a lot of brow-beating and chest-thumping, as well as descriptions of how the wolf tide was getting worse, but very little of practical value was done at the time.
Now, though, Fang Yuan had something to contribute to the meeting so he would without a doubt attend.
"Go to the underground cavern and ask for these supplies for me," Fang Yuan said, writing down some supplies on a piece of paper and handing it to his younger brother, as well as a bag filled with primeval stones.
It may have been late at night, but for someone like Fang Yuan, there was no issue in obtaining supplies, especially right now with the Wolf Tide nearly at its peak.
"These supplies are..." Fang Zheng said, reading over them. "Brother, aren't they slightly different from what you thought we were going to use initially?"
"That's right," Fang Yuan said. "I was going to advance my Golden Moon Gu at first. At least, that was what I was thinking. However, I've changed my mind after contemplating. I wish to refine the advanced version of the Blood Moon Gu instead."
In the previous timeline, the clan head had highly suggested that Fang Yuan refine the advanced version of the Golden Moon Gu, and at the time Fang Yuan had agreed, simply because he could not leave the village then. However, now things had changed.
For one, he could leave the village, and feeding an advanced version of the Golden Moon Gu would be a massive headache if he stayed on Qing Mao mountain. Secondly, while he had thought of a potential killer move during the prior timeline, he now had a more firm understanding of the Human Path, and therefore could think of a definitive killer move. However, this was not just a Human Path killer move. It would be a combined Human and Blood Path killer move. For that, he needed a Blood Path gu worm at least at Rank 4, and this was the easiest one to get his hands on.
"Brother, are you sure?" Fang Zheng asked. "Even the clan head and the other elders thought that the Blood Moon Gu wasn't the best path to advance the Moonglow Gu on?"
Fang Yuan waved his hand. "It might not have been for them. In my experience, however, this is a far better gu worm. Go ahead with this. Once you become more experienced yourself, you'll also understand."
Fang Zheng couldn't help but think, 'I know brother's advanced to Rank Four, but he's speaking about things from his own limited experience. How much could he have experienced by this point, even if he is a genius? He's only 16 years old, just like me. A lot of the elders have been cultivating for far longer than he's been born. I wish he would listen to their advice. From this tone, I can already tell that he's not going to change though. Uh, I just hope this doesn't come back to bite him in the future.'
Fang Yuan noticed this reluctance from his younger brother, but didn't say anything. As his younger brother wandered off. What did it matter if Fang Zheng didn't understand so long as he fulfilled his role as a puppet and that Fang Yuan could extract Immortal Gu from him?
'As a backup plan,' Fang Yuan thought, 'in case I happen to fail, I need to find out a way to...' His eyes suddenly widened. 'Could it be that that was the reason that I had been handed that gu worm?'
Running away on his own was fine, but he wished to save Fang Zheng as well, if possible. After all, this was an actual, reasonable way that he could get an Immortal Gu. Unlike that weird mission from the system in which he had to marry Bai Ning Bing, which was definitely not going to happen. The issue was how he would keep Fang Zheng safe.
'Doting Mother Gu and Traveling Son Gu,' Fang Yuan thought. 'The only issue is how I'm going to make it so that he can actually use one of those Gu worms.' While he waited for Fang Zheng to return, he began preparing things for refining Vermilion Blood Moon Gu.
He already had some of the ingredients, but there were also some that he could not pull out in public. It was only when Fang Zheng returned that Fang Yuan started the refinement on his own.
He took out Blood Moon Gu. He was a Blood Path Grandmaster in his previous life, and advancing this would have been child's play at the time, though he did not have much of the resources available to him right now.
However, he did have one thing which he did not have in his original life at this time: the support of the Crimsonhoof Deer. Even if it was not a full-grown deer yet, its blood could still count as a Rank Two refinement material. And after Fang Yuan had visited it, it would soon be able to count as a Rank Three refinement material in this timeline, though he did not have that right now.
To the Blood Moon Gu, he started adding various ingredients. First, he needed the blood from three different Thousand Beast Kings. With the wolf tide going on, this was not hard for him to collect. As he added it to the Blood Moon Gu, it began glowing.
Then, he had to add fifty moon orchid petals. If he had not been granted his increased allowance, doing so would have been financially crippling to him. However, the advanced version of the gu worm would not need moon orchid petals to feed anymore. So, this was a one-time cost.
He then added two Moonglow Gu. The ball of light started growing brighter!