Fang Yuan was sitting opposite to Bai Ning Bing. They were using Equality Gu once more. The increase in Human Path Dao Marks had made a significant difference to its effectiveness while using it this time.
Speaking of Human Path Dao Marks, other than the five Human Path Dao Marks per day, the Goody-Two Shoes System had been rather silent recently.
Very few rewards were being handed out as compared to before, though today he had received a notification saying,
New Main Mission Unlocked!
Rank 5 Cultivation Rank
Description: Advance to Rank 5
Reward: ???
Now, with Equality Gu's heightened power, Fang Yuan felt his aptitude rise: first to 90%, then 95%, then 97%.
Both of them were sweating heavily as their free hands fumbled with the scales of Equality Gu at times.
Fang Yuan was no stranger to pain, but it was becoming unbearable even by his standards.
Bai Ning Bing too was feeling the nastiness of using Equality Gu for so long. However, she didn't want to be the first one to say that she couldn't continue further. Ever since venturing out into the world under her newfound identity and obtaining the Bai clan's ancestral inheritance, she had become bolder and did not want to lose that to Fang Yuan in this regard.
Right now, Fang Yuan had a hold over here because he had the Yang Rotation Gu, as well as control over the gu worms in the Dollhouse. If they fought over the latter, he could detonate them all at will, even though she was supposedly the 'true inheritor' Fang Yuan was not about to let something like this slip out of his hands. As such, to maintain some form of control, Bai Ning Bing didn't want to appear inferior to Fang Yuan in any way, shape, or form.
Finally, however, she realized that she could not continue any further.
"Fang Yuan, that's enough," she said.
Fang Yuan was also at his limit; if it had gone on for even five breaths of time longer, he would have been forced to withdraw. Then again, this took a greater toll on him than her since he also had to power up Equality Gu.
He took in a couple of deep breaths now that he had removed the effect of Equality Gu the pain began .
'Perhaps I had been a bit too greedy,' he thought to himself. His body felt sore all over, and the kind of pain that Equality Gu inflicted was not the kind that was very receptive to Doctor Gu's treatment. If it was going to make it difficult for him to concentrate on trying to breakthrough to Rank 5, it might have been worth it to abandon its use a while earlier so the subsequent breakthrough would be easier.
However, there was a reason why he had done so. With every percent increase in aptitude, especially at the higher levels, it could make a massive difference. It could be the difference between breaking through or not breaking through; breaking through within three days or five days and also in the amount of primeval stones one would have to spend to do so. Even if he was clan head, there would always be competition for resources, and it wasn't like he had limitless primeval stones.
Right now, his aptitude sat at 98%. He had used a great deal of primeval essence in order to power up Equality Gu, and now had to use primeval stones to rapidly increase his reserves. Even as he was doing so, his aptitude slowly started to decline.
With using Equality Gu more often, he had managed to learn a few more things regarding how it functioned. For one, the rate of decay of aptitude after one had used it was not constant; it was higher the greater one's aptitude was compared to their actual aptitude.
As such, by the time he had managed to fully replenish his primeval sea, it had already dropped down to 97%, but from experience, he knew that this would hold out for at least another 14 hours until it went down to 90%, which was more than enough for him to attempt to break through.
To break through to Rank 5 needed 90% primeval essence to break through on your own without external help, though it was still somewhat possible depending on how many primeval stones one had at around 80% or so.
His deep golden-yellow essence assaulted the walls of his aperture. The crystal walls began cracking, with the cracks rapidly expanding under the deluge of a 97% aptitude. Any progress he had made before this day had already vanished given the gaps during which he could not cultivate.
So that he could continue cultivating without having to rest, Fang Yuan was using several Gu worms that reduced one's need to sleep, eat, and drink. He had managed to get many of them from the Dollhouse.
And while the House Spirit had been somewhat upset that he had removed some gu worms from it, ultimately, there was little she could do unless Bai Ning Bing herself protested. Bai Ning Bing, for her part, went back to the Bai Clan while Fang Yuan continued cultivating.
Much as he had expected, by the time his aptitude dropped down to 90%, about 14 hours later, he had made a massive deal of progress.
'This time, things are different,' he thought to himself. 'This time I can indeed break through to Rank 5.'
More and more of the deep golden essence assaulted the walls. The rate of recovery of his aperture walls was slowly but surely going to reach the point where it would outpace the damage he could do. However, that was why the first assault that he had carried out at 97% was so important. Because although the rate of damage he was doing was higher in the beginning, the aperture walls also had more damage to recover from.
After four more hours had passed, his aptitude had dropped down to 87%, still more than enough in his experience to get through so long as he kept up at it.
Another 24 hours of non-stop cultivating later, after which his aptitude was now 80%, the final push was made, and the crystal walls of his Rank 4 aperture finally broke and small droplets of deep purple primeval essence began to condense, mixing in with what golden-yellow essence was left.
Main mission complete!
Advanced to Rank 5!
Reward: A dream realm has been added to your inventory.
Would you like to explore it now?
Fang Yuan stopped cultivating and nearly collapsed from the strain this had placed on his body.
Doctor Gu emerged from his aperture, examining Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan felt like he was about to pass out. The room that he was sitting in was spinning around him, and dark edges seemed to be forming at the corner of his vision.
He had cultivated non-stop, not even stopping to eat or drink, which is what had made this possible within 48 hours. If he had tried to take breaks, it likely would have taken much, much longer. Each moment that you were not cultivating was giving this output your time to recover and for his aptitude to be pleased. There's no way that Fang Zheng could do something like this. Otherwise, he would have been able to reach Rank 3 back before.
"Oh dear, young master," Doctor Gu said, examining Fang Yuan. "It looks like we have a problem."
"What... kind... of problem?" Fang Yuan asked between deep breaths.
"The issue lies with your stomach, I daresay. I've been examining your kidneys. Unfortunately, despite how old you've gotten, they haven't evolved into adultneys, you see!"
Fang Yuan: ...
Dr. Gu had said the joke in order to see whether it might cheer Fang Yuan up, but it looked like he had instead been so bad that Fang Yuan had indeed passed out.