Second day, secret room.
On the shiny white jade plate, there was a recipe —
Blood Moon Gu.
Using Rank two Moonglow Gu and Blood Essence Gu to combine and form the Rank three Gu worm.
Once activated, the moonblade glows blood red, with the size of a face. If one gets injured by it, there would be a continuous bleeding effect.
"That’s it." Fang Yuan’s gaze swept through the information and memorised this recipe at heart. Then he closed his eyes and recited again, and opened his eyes to check. After several times, he checked that he had completely memorised this recipe in his heart, with no margin of error.
Compared to the Golden Moon, Frost Moon and Illusionary Moon Gu - the three cla.s.sics, this Blood Moon Gu was much more sidelined.
The former three’s refinement recipes had almost a hundred thousand words of refinement experience. But this Blood Moon Gu barely had a few thousand.
It can be seen that through history, Gu Masters who chose this Blood Moon Gu were rare.
The Blood Moon Gu’s attacking capability was average. It only had a ten meter range, and even the bleeding effect after attacking isn’t optimal.
Gu Masters from Rank one to five had limited primeval essence, and could not sustain for a long battle to decide the victor. A bleeding effect, in the real battlefield, was only a small problem. Against a Gu Master experienced in healing, they could even have the ability to counter this.
Furthermore, the Blood Moon Gu had the biggest flaw.
Every few days of the month, it would ooze fresh blood out. The blood would flow uncontrollably and during this period, its attack power would be reduced to a third of the original.
But it had the greatest advantage that Fang Yuan liked.
It was easy to feed.
Much easier than the Golden Moon, Frost Moon and Illusionary Moon.
The food it needed was no longer moon orchid flower petals, but fresh blood.
Although the blood required was a lot, it was not limited to one type. In the Western Desert it might be a problem, but the Southern Border had all sorts of wild beasts in its forested and mountainous areas.
Killing them would allow easy extraction of blood. To the Blood Moon Gu, its food was all over the Southern Border, everywhere.
"Next, all I have to do is refine this Blood Moon Gu." Fang Yuan decided in his heart.
The refinement steps, as well as things to take note of, were all memorised by him. In his hand, there was already the Moonglow Gu, but the Blood Essence Gu was slightly harder to get a hold of.
The Blood Essence Gu was precious, being able to replenish the blood of a Gu Master. Those Gu Masters with it were always energetic and even if they got injured and lost a lot of blood, they could replenish it easily. Thus, their survivability in battle was much higher than others.
Xiong Jiang once desired a Blood Essence Gu badly.
If the Blood Essence Gu was paired up with the Roaming Zombie Gu, it would greatly reduce the side effects. It would allow him to be a zombie for a longer period without any worries for backlashes.
He was already a well to do Rank two Gu Master, and had a rather high position, but until he died, he did not get his wish fulfilled.
In the secret room, Fang Yuan looked at the Digital Shade Gu on the rock tables again.
There was still ample time today. Out of the fifteen minutes, he only used five minutes, so there was still ten minutes left.
The yellow Digital Shade Gu recorded the Rank four recipes. The purple Digital Shade Gu recorded Rank five recipes.
The owner of these Digital Shade Gu had always been the generations of each Secret Hall clan elder. But the one responsible for feeding them, is the clan.
Gu worms can be borrowed, as long as the will on the Gu worms concedes to it.
The will in the Digital Shade Gu is one with the Secret Hall clan elder. Fang Yuan as a newly advanced clan elder, is recognised by the Secret Hall clan elder thus he can freely use a portion of the Digital Shade Gu.
But the Secret Hall clan elder does not think Fang Yuan has the authority to browse the Rank four and five recipes, thus the yellow and purple Digital Shade Gu, even if he used primeval essence, there would not be any reaction.
The truth is, even if it’s a wild natural Gu worm, it is possible to gain their recognition as well.
Those beast kings are like this, thus able to borrow the Gu worm’s ability. Among humans, such situations occur as well, like the story of the Rank five River Swallowing Toad and Jiang Fan.
Of course, Fang Yuan could rely on the Spring Autumn Cicada’s aura to refine these Gu worms and obtain the recipes, that was definitely possible.
But the consequences of doing that, is something Fang Yuan cannot handle yet. The benefits involved is not sufficient for him to act either.
"Actually the most precious recipe is not these Rank four or five recipes, but how to reverse engineer a Moonlight Gu. This Gu originated from the first generation clan leader, and on that basis, after hundreds of years, developed into such a scale and structure," Fang Yuan thought.
Gu fusion is to turn low ranking Gu worms into higher ranking ones, while reverse fusion is to turn the high ranking Gu worms, back to their lower forms.
Between rising and falling, because of different processes, what is obtained can be entirely different Gu worms.
The Moonlight Gu is not a natural Gu worm, but something gotten from reverse fusion by the first generation clan leader.
The Gu worms in this world were mostly new species created by many Gu Masters on the basis of natural Gu worms. Thus, even with Fang Yuan’s five hundred years of experience, he still had limited knowledge of the entire Gu worm ecology.
And for the clan, they would definitely have one or a few unique Gu worms. These Gu worms were not the rare natural species, but a new species created through reverse fusion.
On this basis, Gu Masters can develop a strength unique to their clan.
Gu Yue clan’s Moonlight Gu, Xiong clan’s Bear Strength Gu, Bai clan’s Stream Gu, these were all the same.
If they used a common and well-known Gu worm, they would be easy to deal with, and easily targeted.
A clan’s foundation lies in the primeval spring, as it can produce primeval stones. Next is a unique Gu worm that can prevent one’s strength from being completely deciphered. Lastly it is bloodline, bloodline and kinship are an important chain that ties a clan together.
Thus, don’t look down on the Rank one Moonlight Gu - the worth of its reverse fusion recipe is far greater than Rank four or five recipes.
The recipe to reverse fuse the Moonlight Gu is normally kept by the clan leader. Other than the clan leader, the most loyal clan elder of that generation would also know the recipe’s secret. At the same time, the Moonlight Gu recipe’s Digital Shade Gu is also hidden appropriately.
Fang Yuan could obviously not obtain the recipe from this secret room.
"This recipe’s value is very high, thus if I can obtain it before I leave, that would naturally be the best. But I do not have to force it." Fang Yuan was very plain about this matter.
For starters, he was not planning to create an organisation or force. The Moonlight Gu’s recipe to him, was not a necessity.
"However, the Blood Moon Gu and the other Rank three recipes are what I need."
Although Fang Yuan was Rank three now and had white silver primeval essence, not all his Gu worms were Rank three, thus he could not display the true fighting power of a Rank three Gu Master.
"I have the Thunderwings Gu and Sky Canopy Gu, so if I manage to refine the Blood Moon Gu, I will have three Rank three Gu worms. But that is nowhere near enough."
Ordinary Gu Masters can rely on the clan. With the cooperation of their clansmen, as well as ample resources, they only needed three to four Gu worms.
But Fang Yuan wanted to roam the Southern Border and leave his homeland, thus he needed at least six Gu worms to deal with all situations.
With his experience, the six Gu worms had to be attack, defense, healing, storage, recon and movement - six attributes to provide him ample support.
For attack, the Blood Moon Gu barely qualifies. For defense he has the Sky Canopy Gu. Movement wise, even though the Thunderwings Gu uses a lot of primeval essence, it can allow temporary flight and is very powerful.
For healing, the Nine Leaf Vitality Gra.s.s is slightly weak. It is afterall a Rank two Gu, and even the advancement option is not satisfactory to Fang Yuan.
The Rank two Nine Leaf Vitality Gra.s.s did not have outstanding healing abilities. Its only advantage was creating the Rank one vitality leaves and from selling that, Fang Yuan can get a continuous supply of primeval stones, akin to a money tree.
But thereafter, Fang Yuan is going to travel to places where there are no inhabitants, so even if he creates the vitality leaves, no Gu Masters would buy them using primeval stones.
For recon, Earth Communication Ear Gra.s.s had a huge range, so even as a Rank two, it was still usable.
For storage, Fang Yuan had no such Gu. This was however, the Gu of the utmost importance. This is because after he starts travelling alone, the supplies are the most important, it can single-handedly become the basis of the other five categories.
Storing food to feed the Gu worms, his own food, and storing primeval stones.
Without primeval stones, Gu Master lose the power to cultivate.
On this matter, Fang Yuan had no progress. Before he obtains a satisfactory storage-type Gu worm, he will not leave the village.
"Gu worms for storage, the first condition is a wide utility, able to store food and primeval stones. Next, they have to be easy to feed, and lastly, it is best if they have the ability to prolong the expiry date of the items stored. But even in the resource board of the three clans, there is no Gu worm that I like. It seems I can only make use of the Chi faction and squeeze out the last of their savings."
Once fifteen minutes was up, Fang Yuan walked out of the tunnel as he continued to ponder.
"Lord Fang Yuan, h.e.l.lo." A middle-aged Gu Master stood outside, specifically waiting for Fang Yuan.
"You are?"
The person smiled, "I am Gu Yue Chi Zhong, the current medicine hall clan elder stand-in."
"So that’s him," Fang Yuan realized, starting a close inspection of this person.
Gu Yue Chi Zhong had a proper appearance with a squarish face, and he showed an aura of stability. Similar to Fang Yuan, he was also a clan elder, but his cultivation was Rank three middle stage.
After Fang Yuan caused Gu Yue Yao Ji to faint, Gu Yue Chi Zhong had been ordered to temporarily lead the medicine hall, and his wife was an important member of the medicine faction, thus this was Gu Yue Bo’s political approach to balance the two faction’s rivalry.
But no matter what, Gu Yue Chi Zhong still managed to ascend to this role.
"This is three hundred primeval stones, the payout to the clan elders for this week. I know that you are here, thus I brought this over as well. I hope you do not mind me taking matters into my own hands," Gu Yue Chi Zhong said, handing a money bag to Fang Yuan.
"This man..." Fang Yuan squinted, taking the bag.
The clan elders’ payout needed to be collected by the clan elder themselves. But Gu Yue Chi Zhong could collect it for him, so in some ways, this was hinting to Fang Yuan his status in the clan as well as his social network.
But this hint was also well-timed, as it showed a sign of goodwill, and was not aggressive.
"To speak the truth, I took the initiative to find Lord Fang Yuan this time, because I have a matter to ask of you."
Soon after, he went straight to the topic and mentioned his intention.
"Oh, you want me to turn in the Nine Leaf Vitality Gra.s.s?" Fang Yuan showed a deep profound expression.