While Fang Yuan continued with such purchases, the Will which called itself Ambition-Seeking Immortal did not stop trying to speak with him.
"Friend, do you know when the next batch of Ambition Gu will be ready?"
Fang Yuan sighed. He had to deal with this person, or else further work would be difficult and it was clear that he wasn't taking the hint.
"It will be ready in about a week's time."
"Friend, if you do not mind - can I get preferential treatment in buying your goods? I am willing to offer six and a half Immortal Essence Stones in turn."
Fang Yuan considered the matter.
He could've just told the Will to scram, but the thing was that although this Will he was currently using went under the name of Great Strength True Martial Jr., he was the only one selling Ambition Gu on the market. It would be clear it was him even if he went under another alias - he would not be able to fool people for too long.
As it was, he was getting good business from this person. And it didn't make sense to antagonize them for no reason, especially as he had no clue who this person was.
"I can put aside a few batches for you, but I also need to sell my wares on the broader market, you must understand."
"I understand! I understand! Would it be possible to set aside eight batches for me?"
"Eight? That is a tall order... I think six or seven might be the most that I can do."
"Six or seven? Alright, friend, that is acceptable."
Despite saying this, Ambition-Seeking Immortal did not move away. "Friend, I know that we have just met on Yellow Treasure Heaven, but could it be possible to meet in the real world? Transactions are far easier when one is face-to-face."
Alarm bells immediately went off in Fang Yuan's head. "Friend, I am sorry, but I do not even know who you are."
Ambition-Seeking Immortal had not identified themselves, and moreover, this Will seemed created specifically for doing business with Fang Yuan based on its name.
"I understand. Trust takes time to build, after all," Ambition-Seeking Immortal said. "Perhaps later on?"
The Will still did not state who it was or where it had come from before leaving Yellow Treasure Heaven.
"How peculiar..." Fang Yuan muttered to himself.
Before leaving Yellow Treasure Heaven, as an experiment, he decided to put up ten Rank 5 Ambition Gu.
The treasure light began emitting nine meters worth of light!
Fang Yuan's eyes widened. Only ten mortal gu worms could emit this kind of light?
He immediately took them out as the bright light had attracted the attention of various Gu Immortals.
"Oh? What was that?"
"It's already been taken away."
"I didn't even get a good look at it! Does anyone know what that was?"
"Probably an Immortal Gu recipe..."
"Maybe someone had happened upon one and was just trying to see how complete it was?"
"That's right, you can do that in Yellow Treasure Heaven too..."
Fang Yuan's remnant Will stayed in Yellow Treasure Heaven in case anything came that would interest him, but he otherwise disconnected from it.
He still had several Immortal Essence Stones, but he chose to reserve them for now rather than spending on anything else. He then turned his mind to details within his aperture.
***
In the Western Desert, there was an area of rocky terrain with no vegetation growing.
But beneath this, there was a massive ore mine - the Myriad Ore Desert, under control of the Shi Clan, a super force within the Western Desert.
Over a hundred thousand Rockmen were enslaved and mined mortal ore. As for the Immortal Ore, that required Immortal hands to work.
Beneath the ore mines, there was a huge gold fragment river current.
Ordinarily gold fragment river currents could only be found in Yellow Heaven, and the reason one had formed here was because a piece of the Immemorial Yellow Heaven had fallen to earth here long ago.
Within this gu formation, there was a gu formation from which a Gu Immortal monitored the mines and the actions of the Rockmen slaves.
Boom!
A crack formed in the formation as a middle-aged Gu Immortal walked out. He was disguised as a Rockman, but this disguise soon fell off, revealing him to be a purebred human.
"Success.... I've never had such success before..." the man muttered.
He held a large number of Rank 4 and Rank 5 Wealth Gu in his hands.
"But I've used up all the Ambition Gu that I had bought... if only I could get my hands on more, and faster..." he said to himself.
This person was none other than the one who had sent his Will, Ambition-Seeking Immortal, into Yellow Treasure Heaven.
The reason why he wanted so many Ambition Gu was for the refinement of Wealth Gu - not mortal Wealth Gu, but the Immortal Wealth Gu as described in The Legends of Ren Zu.
In the story, Ren Zu had refined Wealth Gu with the usage of his own hands, Blue Sea Water, Worry Gu, Difficulty Gu, Sadness Gu, Stupidity Gu, as well as Wisdom Gu being indirectly involved in its refinement.
However, most of these ingredients were extinct or those which one could not procure anymore. Such as the Blue Sea Water, or Ren Zu's hands.
But most of the stories in The Legends of Ren Zu were more figurative than literal. On top of which, multiple recipes tended to exist for a single gu worm.
As such, modifications were made to this recipe.
This man had managed to have a fortuitous encounter from someone who had attempted to refine Wealth Gu in the past. This mysterious benefactor of his had made several changes to the recipe.
One could find Stupidity Gu in reasonable numbers. While Fang Yuan's Beggar Sect produced a small number of them, in the vast world, there were other producers as well that made them in far greater numbers. This was also true for Worry Gu, Sadness Gu, and Difficulty Gu. They were not difficult to find - at least not their mortal versions.
Since he could not find Wisdom Gu, he had to substitute other Wisdom Path gu worms.
And as for Ren Zu's hands, he had resorted to using human slaves.
This was a demonic practice. The Shi Clan could not be seen doing something like this openly.
This man would without a doubt be greatly admonished if he were caught doing so.
And yet, despite this risk, he had gone ahead with attempting its refinement regardless.
This man's name was Shi Zhong and he had Rank 7 Gu Immortal cultivation.
But despite this, he was ostracized by the Shi Clan. That was because of his father - his father had betrayed them and caused huge losses to the Shi Clan.
In modern sensibilities, one would not blame the son for the sins of the father - but such was not so in the Gu World.
'The sins of the father will be visited upon the son!' - such was a saying even back on Earth in old times.
Because of this, Shi Zhong was shunned, being forced to oversee mine work, and had little chance for upward mobility within the Shi Clan.
He had even changed his name from Shi Zhong to Shi Zhong in order to convince them of his trustworthiness - but this did not change their feelings towards him. It was as if changing his name from Shi Zhong to Shi Zhong had accomplished nothing and they treated him just like they would the old person named Shi Zhong.
It was not just his father's betrayal that rubbed many the wrong way however. There was also the fact that he had access to many Immortal Gu and many people coveted what he had.