Chapter 12: Planning For Refinement
After Vicious Lightning Fiend left, a large pile of giant pearls littered the ground beneath Dang Hun mountain. Each one was perfect, clear of blemishes and impurities as if they were created by heaven itself.
"10,000 immortal essence stones. That bastard Vicious Lightning Fiend really is rich. Even with the Dang Hun formation and the new Blood Asset formation I'll only make around 700 immortal essence stones every month."
Fang Yuan took a quick look at his income and was slightly dissatisfied. Although 700 immortal essence stones seemed like a lot it really wasn't. Fang Yuan had to feed over a dozen immortal Gu. He had several desolate beasts to feed. Even the hairy men in the blessed land needed resources to sustain their population and keep them healthy. The process of cultivation in this world was heavily reliant on money. No matter how talented you were, unless you had money you had no future.
"With the Guts Gu business I'm making around 8,400 immortal essence stones annually. Most of that will be invested back into the blessed land so I have to use the spare 10,000 immortal essence stones wisely."
There were several ways of using the 10,000 immortal essence stones. One of them was to invest all of it into future prospects like the dragon fish formation. This was an almost guaranteed success but Fang Yuan didn't want to go this route. If Fang Yuan launched the sale of his dragonfish people would start investigating him. The dragonfish market was already exhausted to the extreme by many skilled competitors. Once he entered the market the people at the top would do everything in their power to stop and kill him.
Fang Yuan didn't have any strong methods against wisdom path. If he was heavily investigated by a grandmaster in wisdom path then he was screwed. Staying cooped up in Hu Immortal blessed land wasn't an option either. It would protect him from being conspired against but it would also prevent him from going outside. With the refinement path convention still ongoing he needed to be able leave Hu Immortal blessed land to participate in the rounds.
What Fang Yuan needed wasn't to start another business. He'd already attracted too much attention with the highly profitable Guts Gu sales. What he needed to do was either increase his strength in preparation for fights or refine a wisdom path Gu to protect him from deductions. Fang Yuan planned to refine Change Form Gu with the success dao mark gained from the convention. This combined with the immortal Gu left behind by Star Lord Wan Xiang would suffice to create a anti investigation killer move.
This would cover his wisdom path weakness so what he really needed was to round out his combat system. Myriad Dragon could now be formed with the addition of Dragon Strength Gu but it wasn't enough to completely eradicate a rank 7 veteran like Song Zi Xing. Fang Yuan needed to increase his power to a ridiculous level. Only two strength path Gu fit the criteria for what Fang Yuan wanted, All Out Effort Gu and Myriad Self Gu.
All Out Effort Gu had the unique effect of drawing out beast phantoms. This would let Fang Yuan be able to draw out the dragon phantom inside him whenever he pleased. The dragon phantom within his body wasn't just a normal desolate beast. It was an ancient desolate beast, a being at the peak of rank 7. Even the Violent Blood Dragon Bat that Song Zi Xing was famous for was only a mixed hybrid. The beast derived from Dragon Strength Gu was a level stronger than the Violent Blood Dragon Bat. Once Fang Yuan could fully control the dragon phantom with All Out Effort Gu his strength would soar.
The other immortal Gu Fang Yuan wanted to refine was Myriad Self Gu. The version of the killer move Myriad Self that Fang Yuan was using was already far too complicated and involved far too many Gu. Just the number of mortal Gu used in the killer move numbered over 50,000. Operating a killer move of this scale was very taxing on his mind so he desperately needed to cut down on the number of Gu used in Myriad Self.
Refining Myriad Self into an immortal Gu would do exactly this. It would eliminate the need for most of the strength path mortal Gu used in the killer move. This not only made it less exhausting to use Myriad Self but also made it much more affordable. Every time Myriad Self was used it would need a dozen immortal essence beads. Cutting down on the number of mortal Gu used would greatly reduce the number of immortal escense beads required to use the killer move Myriad Self.
After thinking it over for a while Fang Yuan decided on refining Myriad Self Gu. "There isn't much time left until I have to make my move. In this short period I will gather the materials needed to refine Myriad Self. All Out Effort Gu can wait."
Fang Yuan immediately set about gathering materials for Myriad Self Gu, causing a massive change in Treasure Yellow Heaven.
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"Oh?"
A man with a beastly appearance peered into his Divine Sense Gu. He had fiery dark red hair and gold plated armor that loosely fitted over his large frame that stood several meters tall. This was none other than the immortal monkey king Shi Li.
"Monkey Brain Gu? Interesting, an immortal Gu suited for transformation path Gu immortals that has the effect of expanding the mind."
The Gu recipe he was looking at was only one of the many Gu recipes posted at a new stand in Treasure Yellow Heaven. He had never seen this particular stand before but it contained many Gu recipes, none of which were ordinary or widely spread among the Gu immortal community.
"This immortal Gu recipe is very good. Just the small portion available to see for free is insightful. Still, the price is very steep, even for me. I wonder which pretentious expert crawled out of their cave?"
This amount of immortal Gu recipes put up for sale wasn't something that could be obtained through inheritance. Whoever owned this stand likely created these Gu recipes themselves. Anyone with this level of expertise in Gu refinement was likely to be at least a grandmaster. Maybe it was an old Gu immortal who desperately needed funds? Shi Li didn't know but he knew that this immortal Gu recipe was special. If he missed this chance to purchase the recipe then someone else might buy it first.
"6 tons of Rock Fist Monkey dung. 100 pounds of Immortal Golden Blue Monkey flesh. 5 kilograms of Hallucinating Cloud Dust. 100,000 pieces of Stone Money Fur..."
Shi Li saw the last Gu material listed and frowned. That frown quickly turned into a terrifying smile. "Who's the bastard that's targeting me? Everyone knows only I produce Stone Monkey Fur!"
Stone Monkey Fur was an extremely rare Gu material lost to time. In the modern era only he had managed to figure out how to produce it via a complicated reverse refinement process. Whoever put this immortal Gu recipe for sale was clearly trying to rip him off asking for such a ridiculous amount of the material.
But after thinking it over for a while Shi Li calmed down. The person that put this up for sale was probably really desperate for Stone Monkey Fur so he could definitely negotiate for a lower price right? As long they could come to an agreement than they could both get what they wanted. He could get the recipe for Monkey Brain Gu and they could get the Stone Monkey Fur they wanted.