26 **Chapter 26: Rank 1 Refiner**

Hey guys, I have created an RI Discord. You can discuss all RI Fanfictions that are currently active by joining: 5efZtawZKC.

These questions come from the Discord:

1. How many Rank 9 Gu do you think exist in the Gu world? Like actually exist.

2. How many Gu can theoretically achieve Rank 9?

3. What is your favorite Path and why?

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"Okay, all of you, sit down so I can read the rules to you," said the Rank 3 Gu Master, standing in front of about 20 Rank 1 Gu Masters. He said it in a way that made it seem like we were all wasting his time.

The Gu Master, a Rank 3 working in the refinement Hall, had one of his obligations to oversee the test for the Gu Masters who wanted to become certified Rank 1 Gu Refiners.

He had a legitimate reason to give up on them, though. Everyone with a Rank 0 token would come to the refinement hall at the end of the year, just to avoid wasting the one free chance to take the test they got every year.

"This is the same every year, and it is very rare for one of you to succeed," he let out a heavy breath, shaking his head. His head was already hurting as he thought of the time he was about to waste today.

As I looked around the room, filled to the brim with people who had the same idea as I did.

'And here I thought I was being creative…'

"So, all of you, I will put you into groups of 5. In the group, each of you has to refine the same 3 Gu. You have 4 tries at refinement in total."

'No wonder there are so many people here. It is basically 4 free tries of refinement for most of them.'

'Not even 2 months prior, I had the same idea. But with Quasi-Master attainment, this will probably be rather easy...'

"This means that the rest of you will have to wait for the prior groups to finish the test."

'Hmm, let's see how many of these people will become Rank 1 Refinement Masters, if any…'

"So, the people in the first group are: Tao Lin, Xin Huang, Sheng Liu, Zhi He, and Yu Guo."

"If you are in that group, please come to me now."

The elder waved his hand, and 5 cauldrons appeared at the front of the room.

"You will refine the Swift Wood Gu first."

"Oh, and before I forget, every year some people fail because they get distracted by other people, causing the cauldrons to explode."

"And no, you will not get another chance if that happens to you."

As the 5 people the elder called upon made their way to the front, the elder waved his hand again and said:

"This is one set of materials for the Swift Wood Gu, as well as its recipe… for those of you that need it."

The elder did not even try to hide his expression, obviously looking down on those who did not even bother to memorize the recipes for the 100 Gu that could be tested here, as these were the people that would fail this test anyways.

'Who am I kidding, he is looking down on all of us…'

"One last thing, you have half an hour to refine it. Start now!"

Leaning back in my chair in the last row, I try to guess how many of them will refine at least this Gu successfully.

Instantly I give up hope for 4 out of 5 of them, as they do not even check the materials….

The Swift Wood Gu was actually pretty easy to refine; the materials were about a dozen types of Rank 1 wood and a Swift Eater, which was a type of fish. All the materials could be found around Fei Yu Island.

To refine it, just put the 12 types of wood and the Gu into the cauldron with water. Then watch it eat 3 types of the Gu and take the fish out.

You have to be fast with the taking out part, as the fish will try to eat more than the first three types of wood. And if it manages to do that, the refinement will fail.

After that, it will begin to glow, and the refiner has to just throw some primeval stones into the light.

Pretty easy, right?

I will let Xin Huang answer the question for me…

*Bang*

*Bang*

*Bang*

That's what I thought.

'He and one other person failed to pull the Gu out in time… the third failure let himself be distracted by the other two.'

Then I saw the first problem with the rules. Everybody had to refine the 3 Gu with 4 tries, but two of those that have failed the refinement will not refine another Gu today. They were hit pretty hard by the backlash of failing the refinement, stripping out blood and fainting outright.

'But like… good for me. I will have to wait for significantly less time.'

Like this, the test continued.

And only one person was able to pass out of the first 3 groups. A Rank 2 Gu Middle Stage Gu Master, he looked about 30 to 35 years old, and was ecstatic when he passed.

I could not blame him, with that age and cultivation, he was probably a low C-Grade or D-Grade talent, and this was a big deal, a way to make a living, and a good one too.

"The last group is everyone that is left; come to the front."

'That's my cue.'

Four people go with me to the front, none of them look particularly confident after the last 3 groups had a success rate of 6.66%. All of them are older than me, long graduated from the academy, and see this as their chance to a good life.

But the Rank 0 token we have is special, not like the real Rank 1-4 tokens. After 3 years, it stops giving out free resources, and if you have not become good at refining by that point… the cost to practice on your own will eat you alive.

This makes sense as well, as the clan is not a charity. If you cannot learn 100 Gu Recipes to perfection in 3 years, you just are not worth further investments.

The elder waved his hand, making a bunch of materials appear out of nowhere and said:

"The first Gu you will have to refine is the wind blade Gu."

'lol… lmao even…' the 14 people that had failed prior did not find it as funny as I did, as the Windblade Gu was very common, and everyone here knew how to refine it without a doubt.

The others in my group could only thank their luck, as after an hour, all but one of them had succeeded in refining the wind blade Gu.

As for the one that failed, he blew up the cauldron and spit out blood, obviously out of the competition.

'Yeah if these people get injured this much doing this, there is no way they can make money refining for others…'

A thing I did not expect was that everyone had 4 chances to refine Gu, but nearly everyone stops after the first failure. It must have something to do with soul injuries; they likely know from past experience that they will only make their situation worse if they fail twice in a row.

The Silent Wind Gu that the elder selected next was enough to eliminate 2 other competitors. I did not fail a single refinement, and the only other person that was still qualified to compete has failed the Silent Wind Gu refinement once.

But he did not spit out blood and generally seemed to be in good condition.

"Two of you in the final round, color me impressed… the last Gu you have to refine is the Rank 1 Poison Vow Gu…"

'Pfff…'

This was a Gu that I had about 20 of in my basement right now, just because it is a very useful Gu that I planned to sell to the next group of merchants that came by.

It is a Gu that I could refine with my eyes closed and my hands bound behind my back.

The effect was to make a vow, or agreement, and if it is broken, it poisons the one who broke it.

'Definitely not unbreakable, as a Rank 2 killer mover or Rank 3 Gu of a healing Gu Master can get rid of the poison.'

'But for the vast majority of people, who were Rank 1 or 2 and not rich at all, it was more than enough. Hmm… it would maybe be better to call it better than nothing.'

"You can start now; for this Gu, you have 45 minutes time."

The materials for this Gu were the tongues of different Rank 1 beasts, some poison, and primeval stones.

I threw the tongues into the cauldron, started the fire, and began throwing in the primeval stones one by one.

As the fire became hotter and primeval stones fewer, I feigned an expression that became more and more excited.

'Not quite the right time… soon… but not yet…'

My face became more and more excited as the mass of tongues and primeval stones shrank down and began glowing.

"Yes…" I whispered, but even that small whisper from me was enough to have catastrophic consequences.

*bang* The other contestant that was still qualified to compete did not let himself be distracted by my failure, even as my face became pale, and some blood dripped from my nose.

I had just made a rookie mistake, intentionally mind you. During the refinement of the Poison Vow Gu, the refiner could not speak a word, or the refinement would fail and lead to a backlash.

'This should be good enough to tell the Elders of the clan that I am still naive and not a threat. It might be a harmless failure in the eyes of some, but to those that have power, it will be enough to put their thoughts at ease.'

After recovering for 5 minutes, I tell the Elder, "I would like to use my fourth refinement chance to try the refinement of the Poison Vow Gu again."

"Very well, you have another 45 minutes starting now," and with a wave of his hand, I once again had a set of materials.

'To intentionally fail a refinement was a very rewarding strategy, but I would not have done it before I reached quasi-master in the refinement path.'

But with the attainment I had gained, I could take such risks, as it gave me absolute certainty that I could refine the Rank 1 Poison Vow Gu successfully on my second attempt.

And that is exactly what I did. I quickly refined the Gu, this time acting like I was trying hard to keep my composure. The Gu was finished about 10 minutes after the other Gu Master in my group had refined his.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw that the elder had used some Gu to keep his celebration quiet, so as not to distract me from my refinement.

'This guy might be a friend of my father.'

"Now that you have finally finished, all but the three non-failures can go."

"I say can, but like… get out!"

The people that had failed switched from sad that they did to terrified very quickly. One would think they were using movement Gu if they just watched them leave the room without context.

After they had left, the Elder turned to all three of us.

"Three, that is better than most years… here are your Rank 1 refiner tokens."

"For those of you that don't know, they work like the Rank 0 ones, except they give you 3 sets that are needed for Rank 2 Gu refinement once a week. And that for the next 5 years."

"If you take them to the refinement hall, you can take up Rank 1 Gu refinement missions. This is the main way us refiners make money."

"You are of course allowed to also refine Gu on the free market as well, but keep in mind that you have to deal with customers there."

"Last thing is, missions, you will have to do mandatory ones from time to time. But if you take up Rank 1 Gu Refinement Missions it will count towards that, so for most it is an afterthought."

"Oh and Zhen Wei, you are exempt from missions, as you are still an academy student."

With that said, the Elder made his way out of the room, making it clear that he would rather be doing something else the whole time.

It left the three of us all alone in the exam room, each having our own thoughts.

'This will be a great help in making the money to buy my last Red Steel Relic Gu.'

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