A day after the caravan left the village.
In the second secret room, four wine jars were in front of Fang Yuan.
Sour, sweet, bitter and spicy, four flavors of wine. Sweet belonged to golden honey wine; spicy was white grains liquid; sour came from redberry wine; bitter was from bitter leaf wine.
Fang Yuan sat cross-legged and summoned the two Liquor worms from his aperture.
Unlike regular fusions, the process to create the Four Flavours Liquor worm required a unique method.
Following his will, the Liquor worms flew into a jar filled with redberry wine.
Fusion began within the wine, and soon, a radiant white light ball formed, its glow piercing through the jar and illuminating the walls.
Fang Yuan tossed primeval stones into the jar — first one, then ten, then fifty...
By the time he reached the hundredth stone, the light had compressed to the size of a fist, floating steadily in the jar.
With the redberry wine completely consumed, Fang Yuan picked up another jar filled with golden honey wine and poured it in.
The moment the light ball touched the new wine, it swelled up again, returning to its original brilliance.
He continued to throw primeval stones towards the wine jar.
Each primeval stone added caused the glowing orb to shrink slightly, gradually condensing until it was the size of a fist — its limit reached.
Following the sequence, Fang Yuan poured in the bitter leaf wine, then the white grains liquid.
Once all four types of wine had been used up, the light inside the wine jar suddenly flared brightly, then vanished without a trace.
"Success." Fang Yuan knew he had succeeded without even looking in the wine jar.
He willed it, and a Gu worm shakily flew out from the wine jar.
It was the Four Flavours Liquor worm.
Compared to the original Liquor worm, there wasn't much difference in appearance—only a slight increase in size.
It still resembled a silkworm, with a tiny pair of glossy black eyes.
The key difference lay in its body.
While the Liquor worm was purely white, this new Gu worm flickered with four shifting colors: red for spicy, blue for bitter, green for sour, and yellow for sweet.
Fang Yuan couldn't help but recall the flashing neon lights from Earth.
"With this Gu, I can now start nurturing my aperture, and my battle strength has increased." Fang Yuan was pleased with this progress.
"Now with that done, it is time for me to also advance to the Rank two middle stage." Fang Yuan immediately used the red steel Relic Gu.
The red steel Relic Gu immediately shook and flew up, giving off bursts of red rays of light.
It was like the slowly rising sun, its rays of light shining upon the aperture wall.
The rays of light were as hot as fire and as dazzling as a sword.
The Black Boar Gu was soon unable to bear it and fell down to the primeval sea.
White Jade Gu was flashing inside the sea.
The Four Flavours Liquor worm sunk down to the primeval sea.
For Fang Yuan to reach Rank two middle stage through normal means, he would have to rely on the slow and tedious process of using light red primeval essence to refine and harden the light membrane aperture wall.
But now, the red steel Relic Gu released a powerful crimson light that directly substituted the light red primeval essence and surged into the aperture wall, producing remarkable results.
Fang Yuan clearly observed the membrane thickening at an incredible speed.
The light on the membrane began to converge into flowing streams, gradually transforming into a water membrane. Soft white rays shimmered across it—clear one moment, dim the next.
Fang Yuan had successfully broken through to the middle stage!
Yet the Relic Gu hadn't stopped. It continued to radiate intense red light, flooding the entire aperture. Replacing his own primeval essence, the light infused the aperture with deeper essence and foundation.
The water membrane absorbed it entirely, the flowing radiance on it now fluid and vibrant like running water.
This persisted for around fifteen minutes.
Once fully expended, the red steel Relic Gu turned transparent and faded away within the light, vanishing completely.
The crimson light vanished with it, and silence returned to the aperture.
However, the water membrane had now thickened significantly. The Relic Gu had saved Fang Yuan a vast amount of time and effort in solidifying his foundation.
A thread of scarlet red primeval essence emerged within the primeval sea.
This was Rank two middle stage primeval essence—denser and heavier than the light red essence of the initial stage. It sank deep into the primeval sea, orbiting near the White Jade Gu.
The red steel Relic Gu could enhance an aperture's foundation directly, which meant a small realm advancement for a Gu Master.
Its effect was most valuable when used early in cultivation.
For a Gu Master, higher cultivation meant stronger combat ability, increased survival, more completed missions, and greater earnings from primeval stones—it affected nearly every aspect of life.
Having broken through to middle stage, Fang Yuan began recovering his primeval essence using several primeval stones.
He only stopped once the 44% primeval sea inside his aperture was fully filled with scarlet middle stage primeval essence.
"Now with the Four Flavours Liquor worm my primeval essence is at the Upper stage, now is the time for me go through the Flower Wine Monk inheritance." Fang Yuan stepped into the stone forest, heading towards the central area.
In the rock forest inside the mountain, filled with dark red light.
Huge stone pillars extended down from the ceiling, resembling long and gigantic tree trunks, forming into a majestic grey coloured stone forest.
A bunch of stone monkeys stared with their green circular monkey eyes, chasing after Fang Yuan relentlessly.
"Moonglow Gu!" Fang Yuan called in his mind, his right arm chopping towards the direction of the monkey gang.
A ghostly blue crescent moonblade, large as a human face, tore through the air and sliced into the group of stone monkeys.
One jade-eyed stone monkey had leapt mid-air, leaving it without any way to dodge.
The moonblade struck it squarely, cleaving its body from head to toe before it could even cry out.
All vitality drained from it instantly, and a chilling aura of death engulfed its form.
Its once lively eyes solidified into jade-like orbs, and as the body fell, it transformed into a lifeless stone statue.
Fang Yuan is exploiting the stone monkey's weakness to kill them. Every time, he had to fight while retreating. Luckily, the monkeys did not have high intelligence. They could not adjust their attack patterns, and even after seeing Fang Yuan crushing them in mid-air many times, they still leapt towards Fang Yuan while attacking.
At the same time, every time they chased Fang Yuan, if it was too far from their homes, their longingness to their homes would overwhelm their anger. Many monkeys gave up on the chase due to this.
Gu are the essence of heaven and earth, humans are the spirit of all living things.
Fang Yuan is relying on the intelligence of humans to understand the stone monkeys' habits and using the correct fighting methods to get deeper into the rock forest, at this point he was already near the central area of the rock forest.
After many attempts, Fang Yuan finally exterminated the monkey group on this rock pillar.
Right now, in front of him, was the final pillar.
It was the tallest and thickest stone pillar in the entire rock forest.
Stretching from the ceiling nearly to the ground, it stood silently with a majestic presence.
Fang Yuan surveyed the number of rock caves carved into it and estimated there were at least five hundred jade eye stone monkeys residing within.
This was the largest monkey colony he had encountered so far.
Yet, regardless of their numbers, they posed little threat to him—just more effort and a few extra trips.
What truly caught his attention was a particular cave at the very top of the pillar.
Its entrance was far larger than the others—at least double in size, if not more.
Beneath it, the other smaller caves clustered tightly together, forming a pattern that almost looked like they were bowing or paying homage to the upper cave.
"This is where the stone monkey king is." Fang Yuan knew already that there was a monkey king residing here.
As long as a beast group is large, there would be a beast king created. There was a wild boar king in the wild boar group. Obviously there would also be a monkey king in the monkey group.
A beast king posed a far greater threat than an ordinary wild beast—several times more dangerous.
This was because beast kings often hosted one or two Gu worms within their bodies.
These Gu shared a symbiotic relationship with the beast king, and once it was under attack, they would emerge to aid in its defense.
"Thankfully the stone monkey king only has a Stealth Rock Gu, which can merely help it hide. As for the countermeasure, I've already prepared it." Holding a bag that contained some sort of liquid, Fang Yuan had already decided to kill the stone monkey king.