"What? That lad, managed to applied for the asset-splitting mission from the Clan Leader himself!" Uncle Gu Yue Dong Tu's furious and shocked voice reverbed throughout the main hall.
"That is indeed so. Although I accepted your primeval stones, I cannot do anything to stop him, as this case is closely monitor by the higher-ups." The middle-aged Gu Master beside him said.
Gu Yue Dong Tu's heart sank as he heard the news directly from the Internal Affairs Hall's Gu Master.
The truth was, Gu Yue Dong Tu had already heard the rumors that Fang Yuan had won the year-end examination and even made a declaration to the Clan Leader. In fact, the news had been published to the entire village.
At first, Gu Yue Dong Tu did not believe the rumor, but now, hearing the confirmation firsthand, he could no longer remain calm.
"I came here especially to tell you this, so I'll take my leave now." The middle-aged man stood up to depart.
"Don't be in such a rush, brother. There are some things I still need for you to assist me a little with." Gu Yue Dong Tu hurriedly stood up, retrieving a money bag and stuffing it into the middle-aged Gu Master's hand.
"But, top priority now is still to do all I can to retain the assets. This rascal is really too troubling!" Gu Yue Dong Tu's sweat poured from his forehead as Fang Yuan's growth was so rapid it gave him the feeling of a heart attack.
However, unlike last time, the male Gu Master refused the entire bag of primeval stones. His tone was stern. "Brother Dong Tu, please. Although we have a good relationship and have known each other for over ten years, this situation is beyond my control. As I said, the higher-ups are watching this mission very closely—by that, I mean the internal affairs elder and even the Clan Leader himself are monitoring how Fang Yuan completes it."
He sighed and added, "You need to be careful with this."
With that, the male Gu Master finally sighed again and left.
Gu Yue Dong Tu stared at the leaving Gu Master, his smile slowly collapsing.
"How, how, how! HOW CAN HE?! He's only a C-grade! How can he advance to Rank Two so soon?! Damnit!"
"This lad's luck is absurd. He even got the Clan Leader himself to personally monitor his mission— and it's the asset-splitting mission at that!"
Gu Yue Dong Tu was in disbelief. Everything had happened too suddenly—he hadn't even had time to prepare. Fang Yuan had completely defied common sense. Even though he had hired Gu Yue Jiao San and his team, it was all pointless, as Fang Yuan didn't even need a team.
With that being said, all Gu Yue Dong Tu could hope for was that Fang Yuan would fail the mission.
Inside the secret cave
The road before the boulder blocking the path was an inclined slope. Being turned into a round rock by the Flower Wine Monk, it was most suitable for rolling.
"Finally, it's time to proceed with the inheritance." Fang Yuan's eyes shone as he stepped forward with his right leg, his left leg behind, forming a bow stance.
His arms touched the surface of the round rock as he took a deep breath in and pushed with all his strength.
The large boulder moved under the pressure of both his arms, moving slowly, gradually gaining momentum and rolling forward.
"Ten steps, twenty steps, thirty steps…" Fang Yuan slowly progressed, counting in his heart,
Forty steps, forty-five steps...
Forty-six steps, forty-seven steps...
Forty-eight, forty-nine steps….
Fiftieth step.
He suddenly felt that the pressure from the huge rock had lightened. It had actually rolled into a straight platform.
Fang Yuan advanced a few more steps. After circling around the massive rock, he discovered a hidden chamber.
This hidden space resembled the secret cave found within the rock crevice, so he temporarily referred to it as the second secret room.
The room was empty. Its four walls were made of an unusual red soil that emitted a faint glow. At the far end stood a plain, grey stone door—likely something the Flower Wine Monk had hastily constructed.
He found that the ground before the rock door was slightly damp.
The second Earth Treasury flower!
Fang Yuan carefully peeled the flower petals and retrieved the Gu worm slumbering in the golden nectar.
Once he infused it with his primeval essence, it was instantly refined.
This was the Jade Skin Gu. It resembled a bedbug—flat and wide with a small head. Its green, oval-shaped body emitted a faint jade-colored glow.
This is Fang Yuan's eighth Gu worm.
Fang Yuan now had a total of seven Gu in his possession: the Spring Autumn Cicada, Liquor Worm, Moonlight Gu, White Boar Gu, a Quasi-Great Strength True Martial Gu (expendable), and two Little Light Gu. One was obtained when he advanced to the Middle Stage, and the other was chosen recently after the year-end exam and was once again allowed to enter the Gu Hall.
"Now is time for me to refine the White Jade Gu and Moonglow Gu." Fang Yuan plans to refine two Gu at the same time.
Fang Yuan brought out most of his belongings and took a look. "I don't have many primeval stones left—just enough for one fusion. But one fusion is more than enough."
White Boar Gu, Jade Skin Gu!
The two Gu worms followed his will, drilling out of his aperture and floating in front of Fang Yuan.
Moonlight Gu, two Little Light Gu!
Another three Gu worms floated in front of Fang Yuan.
"Fuse!" Fang Yuan shouted inwardly. White Boar Gu and Jade Skin Gu suddenly emitted dazzling lights and directly bumped into each other. Same goes for the Moonlight Gu and two Little Light Gu.
This was a silent bump, but it created two ball of light.
The white light was more dazzling than before.
This showed that Fang Yuan's two consciousnesses were fusing.
Fang Yuan used his consciousness to maintain the two white balls of light while taking out primeval stones from the bag. With both hands, he threw the stones into each of the white balls of light.
The primeval stones were engulfed by the ball of light and only rock powders remained, scattering on the bed. Each time the ball of light swallowed a primeval stone, its edges would expand a little.
The ball of light absorbed the natural primeval essence and became bigger and bigger.
Normally, in the standard procedure, one would have to throw in more primeval stones for the refinement to be completed, but Fang Yuan was waiting for something else.
"Now is the time—fuse again!" Fang Yuan shouted inwardly.
The two balls of light merged directly into each other, forming an even larger ball of light.
This was the true Simultaneous Refinement, created by the Heaven Refining Demon Venerable himself.
Once again, Fang Yuan threw in more primeval stones.
Gradually, it changed from the size of a washbowl to a grindstone size.
"Almost there." Fang Yuan narrowed his eyes; he decisively threw the wild boar tusks and moon orchid into the ball of light.
If anyone were to witness this scene, they would be astonished. Refining even one Gu is already difficult—let alone refining two at once. No one in the entire clan would be able to replicate what Fang Yuan had done, not even the Clan Leader himself.
As the tusks and orchids were thrown into the ball of light, a fantastic transformation occurred immediately.
The previously dazzling light softened. The light that had been shooting off blindly in all directions now moved in a natural pattern, shifting rhythmically between light and dark.
Under Fang Yuan's gaze, the ball of light slowly split into two once more. The lights gradually shrank and finally dissipated into the air.
Instead of the five Gu worms, there was now two completely new Gu worms hovering in front of Fang Yuan.
On Fang Yuan left it was like an oval pebble, its whole body was completely white; this white was not pale like Xuan paper and was not milky white like milk, but was a kind of moist white like that of the luster of jade.
This was — Rank two White Jade Gu!
On Fang Yuan right it was sparkling and translucent, bent like a crescent, resembling a piece of water blue crystal. In a nutshell, it was like the Moonlight Gu that was enlarged in size by twofold. Its attack power reached three times of the Moonlight Gu
This was — Rank two Moonglow Gu!
Now only did Fang Yuan exhale a heavy breath, feeling a wave of relief in his heart.
At a glance, the process might have seemed simple — but it was far from it.
The initial stage alone required him to split his consciousness and manage multiple tasks at once.
Think of trying to draw a circle with one hand while drawing a square with the other — that's basic dual-tasking, and many already struggle with it.
What Fang Yuan did went far beyond that.
True multitasking of this level can only be achieved through years of harsh training, enduring countless failures, setbacks, and even then, it demands a natural aptitude few possess.
Imagine reading one script of text while simultaneously speaking or presenting a completely different one, all while your left and right hands each write separate scripts of text at the same time. Now imagine all four texts and words are written in entirely different languages. This was the level of extreme multitasking Fang Yuan had to endure while refining both Gu worms.
"The benefit of Simultaneous Refinement is not only the ability to refine multiple Gu worms at once, but also to reduce the overall cost. I truly saved on primeval stones — I only needed a few hundred to refine two Rank Two Gu worms. If I were to refine them separately, even with my skills, I wouldn't have had enough primeval stones. But the White Jade Gu would have had a higher chance of success if I had the Snow-White Tusk of the Wild Boar King. However, since I didn't join Jiao San's group, I wasn't able to obtain it and had to substitute it with regular wild boar tusks instead." Fang Yuan summarized his entire refinement experience to better understand it and further improve his refinement technique.
After all, Fang Yuan's knowledge in the refinement path is truly unparalleled, but in the aspect of refining Gu, he still has room for improvement.