"With my level C apt.i.tude, the maximum Primeval Sea that my vain aperture could store is only at forty-four percent capacity. The speed that the Gu is using to expel my Primeval Essence is much faster than the recovering speed of my Primeval Essence. If I want to cultivate the Gu, I will then need to borrow power from external forces. In other words, I need to use Primeval Stones."
"Gu with weaker willpower will have weaker resistance. Hence, my cultivating process will be easier. Anyhow, being a living ent.i.ty, they always possess this willpower of wanting to live. If I want to cultivate the Moonlight Gu, I will need at least five Primeval Stones, or eight at most." Based on his profuse cultivating experience, Fang Yuan tried to calculate the total Primeval Stones that he was about to use.
"Right now, if I want to cultivate the Wine Gu, I would need at least ten Primeval Stones, and sixteen at the most." Although the Wine Gu was not much different from the Moonlight Gu, they were both level one Gus. However, as the Wine Gu was rarer, undoubtedly, cultivating it would also be harder.
In other words, even though Fang Yuan had a total of seventeen Primeval Stones right now. After cultivating the Wine Gu, he could only save six Primeval Stones left, or only one at most, according to his words.
The light from the crescent moon was emanating through the dark night.
The moonlight was as gentle as the hands of a fairy, softly caressing the Ancient Moon Mountain Stronghold. The bamboo houses were like jade tablets, standing close to each other.
The night breeze was gently flowing by.
Under the moonlight, Fang Yuan returned to his tavern.
The tavern was already closed.
Fang Yuan then knocked on the door, bang bang sound constantly reverberated.
"I heard you! I heard you! Aiya, who would knock at this time...." The servant of the tavern was mumbling while opening the door. He was still sleepy.
However, as soon as he saw Fang Yuan at the door, his resentful and lazy expression immediately changed. He lowered his head, flatteringly smiled, "It's young master. It's my honor to open the door for young master."
Fang Yuan nodded. With a cold expression, he walked in.
His expression made the servant smiled even pettier; he took the initiative to ask, "Young master, are you hungry? Do you want me to inform the chief to make some night snack for you?"
"No need to." Fang Yuan shook his head, then said, "Prepare for me some warm water, I want to wash my face."
"Yes!" The servant hurriedly nodded, "Young master, please return to your room first. I guarantee that warm water will be brought to you immediately."
Fang Yuan mumbled a yes and then headed to the stairs, walking to the second floor.
As the servant was looking at Fang Yuan's figure, his pair of eyes was beaming with light of admiration.
"This is a Gu Master. If I also have an apt.i.tude for cultivating, how nice would that be!" He tightened his fist and then deeply sighed.
This sole sentence had reached Fang Yuan's ear; he could not help but beam a bitter smile inside.
Gu Masters possessed extraordinary power and became the higher cla.s.s in society. Nonetheless, the price they had to pay was also not low. It was up high.
The first problem was financial resources.
Gu Masters required Primeval Stones for cultivating, fighting, and refining Gu, business trading.
Without Primeval Stones, how could one cultivate?
Such outsiders like the ordinary tavern's servant would not be able to understand such distress.
It was the same with when the young Gu Master named Jiang Ya from this evening had angrily vented on those hunters while throwing the jug of wine on the ground. Even I myself do not dare to waste my Primeval Stones on this jug of Green Bamboo Wine. You ordinary hunter even dare to leisurely use money like that!
A peep through a tube at a leopard[1], this could already conclude the situation of a Gu Master.
Gu Masters possessed formidable powers. Compared to an ordinary human, they made more, but also wasted more. There were many times when they had to haggle over every single cent when talking about Primeval Stones, especially for low-level Gu Masters.
Do not just look at the neat appearance of a Gu Master, inside; their lives were always in strict financial straits.
"Moreover, as their levels are enhanced, their requirements on resources would also increase. Without any backup, the cultivating path of a Gu Master is challenging." Remembering his past life, Fang Yuan had understood this point clearly.
He returned to his room. As soon as he lit up the lamp, the servant instantly brought up a basin of warm water.
Of course, there were also towels and basic neccesities used for was.h.i.+ng one's face.
Fang Yuan dismissed the servant. Afterwards, he closed the door, put on the latch, washed his face then returned to his bed.
Although he was quite tired, a gleam of excitementstill remained in his heart, "I have finally found the Wine Gu. The Wine Gu was much more rarer than the Moonlight Gu. According to that, it could enhance the apt.i.tude of the Gu Masters!"
Fang Yuan sat cross-legged on the bed, and took out the Wine Gu.
The Wine Gu was still deeply asleep. It was relatively bigger than the Moonlight Gu. With a snowy white color, it looked like a silkworm.
Underneath the lamp light, its body was covered with a layer of faint light, like a mellow and round s.h.i.+ning pearl. Its eyes were like two black sesame seeds that were inlaid on its fat head, showing off a silly and palpable appearance.
Holding it in his hand, it was not heavy. It seemed to be about the weight of half of a bird's egg.
When carefully smelled, one could sense the wine fragrance coming out from its body.
This fragrance was not that of the Green Bamboo Wine, but it was from the Gu's body. The faint scent was vague. Fang Yuan wrinkled his nose, trying to inhale the scent of the wine into his body.
His breath carrying the wine fragrance immediately traveled down below, entering his vain aperture and intruding the Bronze Primeval Sea in the middle.
The Primeval Sea slightly swayed and then quickly absorbed this breeze of the wine's scent. An extremely refined beam of Primeval Essence was released.
Different from the normal emerald Primeval Essence, this one was flickering with a copper colored light.
However, this beam of Primeval Essence was also dark blue. Compared to the initial Primeval Essence, it was more compact. This was the Primeval Essence that only an Intermediate level one Gu Master could urge.
Discovering that dark blue beam of Bronze Primeval Essence, Fang Yuan satisfyingly smiled, "My current cultivation base is Beginner level one. Anyhow, being compacted by the Wine Gu, the Primeval Essence that I release after that can be the Primeval Essence of an Intermediate level one Gu Master. The wonderful thing about this really cannot be explained in two or three sentences."
Nevertheless, quickly after that, he had retrieved his smile, "However, I still have not officially seized this Wine Gu. I have to totally refine this Gu, turn it into my Vitality Gu, being able to freely control it, then use its best efficiency to refine my own Primeval Essence."
Thinking like that, he did not hesitate anymore. He urged a beam of Bronze Primeval Essence from his Primeval Sea.
The Primeval Essence tightly covered the Wine Gu, brought it to Fang Yuan's front, and started to intrude its body.
As it could feel that something was threatening its life, the Wine Gu immediately woke up. It began to struggle fiercely. Urging the power from its body, it was trying to expel Fang Yuan's Primeval Essence.
"This Wine Gu is resisting too harshly." With a solemn expression, Fang Yuan could feel that his Primeval Stone was being drained at a speed that doubled when he was trying it with the Moonlight Gu.
"No matter what, I'm certainly able to refine this Wine Gu." A gleam of determination flashed in his pair of eyes. He continued urging the Primeval Essence, heading towards the Wine Gu.
A calm candle light brightened up the interior of room in the tavern. The middle of the room was being shone upon, while the room's corners were filled with darkness.
The candlelight shone on Fang Yuan's face, who had now already closed both of his eyes, focusing on handling this Wine Gu.
A long beam of Bronze Primeval Essence was like a cloud of mists, emitting from Fang Yuan's entire body, gathering to where the Wine Gu was, encircling and suppressing it.
The Wine Gu which was floating on air was not even one tchi[2] away from Fang Yuan. It was vigorously struggling in the middle of the Bronze Primeval Essence.
Time silently flew by.
The candle was melting down, making the candlelight turning dimmer. The crescent moon had almost descended from outside the window. A new day was dawning fast.
The sunlight of the dawn was piercing through the window's crack, s.h.i.+ning inside the room. As if it was outlining the window with sunlight.
Fang Yuan opened his eyes, looking at the Wine Gu right in front of him.
The Wine Gu's white body was somewhat turning towards a hue of dark blue. This was the result of Fang Yuan diligently working for half of the night.
However, obviously, that spot of dark green color was not even one hundredth of the Wine Gu's body.
Fang Yuan's face became solemn. The willpower of this Wine Gu was too tenacious. Its resistance was also extremely forceful. This had soon surpa.s.sed the limits of a level one Gu.
"There is a high possibility that this Gu is Hua Jiu monk's Vitality Gu. Hua Jiu monk was a level five supreme master. Initially, this Gu was also at level five. However, through several years of lacking food, its grade has dropped. Right now, it is only at level one, but its willpower is as solid as stone!"
Fang Yuan had accurately guessed this.
This Wine Gu used to be Hua Jiu monk's Vitality Gu. Before, its natural willpower had been completely washed away by Hua Jiu monk. Afterward, it accompanied Hua Jiu monk, constantly fighting with him from north to south, and rampaged through the whole world.
After Hua Jiu monk had died, he left a gleam of supreme willpower inside this Wine Gu. Right now, Fang Yuan wanted to refine this Wine Gu was like competing with Hua Jiu monk's willpower.
This was much harder than refining a natural Gu.
The willpower of a regular person was normally higher than that of a natural Gu. Facing death, a human could burst out unimaginable never-before-seen powers. And Hua Jiu monk was a supreme master on the Demon Path. Going on a rampage around the whole world by himself, his willpower had soon been tougher than that of the masters of the righteous sect's who were at the same level as him.
"It is impossible for me to refine this Wine Gu in a month. Unless there is some supreme master, who can use their level two or three power to suppress this Wine Gu, oppressing its willpower to its lowest point. With such aid, I may be able to succeed." Thinking to here, Fang Yuan could not help but deeply sighed.
His parents had all pa.s.sed away. His aunt and uncle were deviously scheming against him. Without any backup, how could he find someone to help?
It would be easier if he was a grade A apt.i.tude. However, right now, he was only a grade C. No one in this clan valued him, who would be willing to waste such efforts in trying to help him?
More importantly, the Wine Gu could not be exposed.
The Ancient Moon Mountain Stronghold did not have this kind of Gu. Fang Yuan would not be able to explain where this Gu came from.
If it was exposed, there would be a high possibility that the high authority would realize this, hence, discovered its relation with Hua Jiu monk. By then, it would be easy to imagine the connection between the two.
"If it is so, seventeen Primeval Stones would not be enough. It would have to be at least thirty! This is too annoying. But no matter how hard it is, I still want to refine this Wine Gu." With his will of steel, Fang Yuan had decided to refine this Wine Gu determinedly.
A Vitality Gu had a great relation, as well as significant effects on the path a Gu Master chose to cultivate later on.
Although the Wine Gu was not the most ideal Gu to be used as the Vitality Gu, it was still better than the Moonlight Gu. With Fang Yuan's circ.u.mstances, this was his best option.
Gurgle, gurgle...
Right then, Fang Yuan's stomach started growling.
It was natural for him to be hungry since he had stayed awake the whole night diligently cultivating the Wine Gu.
"I should fill up my stomach first before thinking about saving up Primeval Stones." Fang Yuan stroked his stomach and walked downstairs.
Entering the luncheonette, he sat down at a corner, and started to choose his meal.
As soon as he began to eat, his didi Gu Yue Fang Zheng appeared.
"Gege, why are you staying at the tavern? Why haven't you been coming home at night?" He was blunt about it as an inquiring tone could be heard in his voice.
Translator's Thoughts