Chapter 841: Fang Yuan’s Public Provocation Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios Seemingly hearing Firesmith Dragon Chief’s inner voice, Fang Yuan continued to ridicule with even more intensity: “Good, this gaze, this mood, this rage, only like this can you bring out all your strength to fight me. Only such an opponent can make me feel some interest. Remember, you must use all your strength, otherwise you will be Myriad Dragon Dock’s disgrace! Hahaha.” Fang Yuan spoke with such arrogance while pointing at Firesmith Dragon Chief. At once, all the Gu Masters were speechless. Wasn’t this way too arrogant?! Myriad Dragon Dock’s members gritted their teeth. They were arrogant, but Fang Yuan was even more arrogant. Firesmith Dragon Chief trembled in anger, staring at Fang Yuan with such fury that flames seemed to spout out. Unlike the imagination of outsiders, Fang Yuan had a bold demeanor on the surface, but inwardly, he was extremely vigilant. “Differing from the information in the outside world, this Firesmith Dragon Chief’s main cultivation is actually not refinement path but fire path. Back when he was at Myriad Dragon Dock, he was a refinement path Gu Master. And he was also indeed thrown out of the sect, but because of a fortuitous encounter, he obtained a certain fire path Gu Immortal’s inheritance. After he became a fire path Gu Immortal, he tried to enter Myriad Dragon Dock again. Myriad Dragon Dock naturally would not let go of a Gu Immortal and had actually already secretly taken him in. It was just that it happened to be time for the Refinement Path Convention, and seeing his refinement path attainment was grandmaster level, they hurriedly made him join the competition to try to seize the top spot and get more benefits for the sect!” “This Firesmith Dragon Chief’s refinement path attainment level is above mine, in my previous life, he was ranked at second of this convention, a refinement path grandmaster cannot be taken lightly. Especially during the Gu refinement in the tenth round, he impressively suppressed three quasi-grandmasters on the spot. Such an enemy must be beaten down early. If I let go of this chance, according to my previous life’s memories, there will be almost no chance of suppressing him.” Firesmith Dragon Chief was a Gu Immortal, but he did not disclose it, instead disguising himself as a mortal. He naturally could not conceal his Gu Immortal cultivation from other Gu Immortals, but it was okay for them to know it, no one would expose this. Maintaining their mysteriousness helped Gu Immortals to maintain their dominion. There was also another reason: By any chance, if they lost to a mortal in the Refinement Path Convention, that would be too disgraceful. Why would Gu Immortals lose to mortals? There were actually many cases of mortals defeating Gu Immortals in the Refinement Path Convention. Gu refinement was not like fighting or killing, it was purely technical. The most important reason was that Immortal Gu were unique and were extremely difficult to successfully refine. Without Immortal Gu as a benchmark, the competition between Gu Immortals and mortals depended on refining mortal Gu. Everyone could refine mortal Gu, and to a great extent, it could not embody the gap between immortal and mortal. Thus, normally speaking, all Gu Immortals would hide their identities when participating in the Refinement Path Convention. “Start.” Fang Yuan urged the Demon Expelling Sect’s elder. “Begin quickly!” Firesmith Dragon Chief shouted, he was already impatient to crush this rampant Fang Yuan. Demon Expelling Sect’s elder endured the pressure from the two, and said firmly with gritted teeth: “It is not yet time, the competition cannot be started. There are still three breaths of time left... three, two, one, okay, activate the isolation Gu formation, close the entrance of the venue, release the task!” In the previous seven rounds of the Refinement Path Convention, because of too many participants, they could only let the participants take the test in turns. Now, at the eighth round, the number of participants had greatly reduced. Each test venue only held the competition once, the Gu Masters who missed this chance would be regarded as voluntarily giving up. The Gu worms that contained the tasks were also very specific. This information path rank five mortal Gu was a method of Heavenly Court, and had extraordinary ability in preserving secrets. The tasks were not stored inside, but controlled by Heavenly Court. The instant the competition was about to begin, the true tasks would be transmitted. Everyone, inside and outside the stage, went quiet when the task was released. They were holding their breaths as they fixed their gazes on the task, it was so quiet that even a pin dropping could be heard. The eighth task: Refine a keep silent Gu, a rank five sound path Gu worm. The participant who successfully refines it first will be the winner and can advance to the next round. The remaining Gu Masters will be eliminated. The materials provided were: Immortal soul grass, worry stones, a rank four apathy Gu, six rank three muted mouth Gu, two rank four sinking Gu... and the test did not allow the use of other materials. The Gu recipes provided were: Six different keep silent Gu recipes, three different apathy Gu recipes and one collusion Gu recipe. Everyone was frowning. The difficulty of this task could be considered about ten times higher than the seventh round! Not only were there ten different Gu recipes, it also demanded a discerning eye, so the Gu Master could choose those most suitable for themselves. Moreover, the supplied materials were limited and did not allow the Gu Master to use materials they brought, in addition, these materials could not satisfy the requirements of any one Gu recipe. This meant that the Gu Masters would need to reverse-refine apathy Gu, muted mouth Gu or sinking Gu to obtain more refinement materials. They would have to make use of these materials to finally refine the rank five sound path keep silent Gu. Another method was for the participating Gu Masters to use wisdom path methods to sum up these Gu recipes and improve them, deducing a Gu recipe that met the conditions using the supplied materials as the base. However, between these two methods, the first one was naturally the most worthwhile and effective. The second method required extremely high wisdom path attainment, and by this stage, it was rare to see Gu Masters who also had deep wisdom path attainment. More importantly, this test took time into consideration. Only the first one to refine the Gu successfully could be the winner, while the rest were eliminated. The mental pressure was high. And during the final steps, it was likely for there to be those who could not endure the mental pressure, making a mistake and failing. Firesmith Dragon Chief almost coughed out blood when he saw the task. What kind of shitty task was this? Firesmith Dragon Chief almost cursed out loud! He was actually a fire path Gu Immortal, and was most proficient in refining fire path Gu worms. This sound path Gu worm clearly did not fall within his proficiency range, moreover, several of the crucial refinement materials could not be handled with fire refinement techniques! This was awkward. Fang Yuan had rampantly asked Firesmith Dragon Chief to use his strongest Gu refinement killer move, mad deity’s blazing flames. Firesmith Dragon Chief was furious and had also planned to use this killer move to completely humiliate Fang Yuan. However with such a task, what would Firesmith Dragon Chief use mad deity’s blazing flames for? Using the fire to burn air? This task was extremely at odds with Firesmith Dragon Chief. Relatively speaking, out of his entire Gu refinement attainment, he could only display eighty percent. Even if he was a Gu Immortal, they also had areas where they were proficient in and those that they were not. This task just happened to be an aspect which Firesmith Dragon Chief was most unskilled in. Naturally, refinement path grandmaster attainment was not just for show, Firesmith Dragon Chief could absolutely succeed in refining the Gu. However, the key thing was the appearance of Fang Yuan. Fang Yuan’s true skills were enough to threaten Firesmith Dragon Chief. Among experts of similar levels, just a slight decrease in capability could determine the winner and the loser, let alone when Firesmith Dragon Chief was weakened by a whole twenty percent! ‘This guy chose such great timing, his luck is seriously too good! No, I must defeat him!’ Firesmith Dragon Chief swore to himself, and glanced at Fang Yuan. However, at the next moment, his eyeballs almost popped out! Fang Yuan had already started refining! How was it possible? How could he start so fast? The supplied Gu recipes and materials could not be matched together. Gu Masters had to reverse-refine Gu worms to create materials, or sum up the Gu recipes and deduce a new one. In short, refining rank five keep silent Gu at the end. Thus, this required the Gu Master to think deeply, making deductions constantly in their mind, and consider the probabilities of orthodox refining and reverse-refining, from there, combining many ideas to make the most concise Gu refinement plan. This thought process was extremely important. The ideas from the thoughts needed to have low risks. If the risks were high, there could be many failures, resulting in materials being wasted and not leaving enough for the Gu refinement, and with the condition of not being able to use one’s own materials, they could only admit defeat. While seeking low risk, they also needed to consume the least amount of time. If you consumed too much time, someone else might have already finished, and even if you succeeded in refining, you would be eliminated. Demanding low risk and also low time consumption, this was quite difficult. They would require meticulous thinking, constant comparisons and arrangements, and then choosing the best plan out of them all. Even though Firesmith Dragon Chief was a grandmaster in refinement path, he estimated he would also need about eight minutes of time. However, this, this, this Fang Yuan, how could he start refining Gu at the very start? “Is there a mistake?” “He really has such confidence?!” “Foolish, a workman must sharpen his tools if he is to work well. The correct way is to calm down and think.” The participating Gu Masters glanced at Fang Yuan a few times before concentrating on thinking. Fang Yuan had the lead and was progressing extremely quickly. Other Gu Masters had not even begun refining, only he had started, this naturally led to most of the spectators gazing at him. Exclamations of praise sounded out repeatedly. “Such dazzling methods.” “Skilled, too skilled! It is simply like an instinct that has seeped into his bones!” “But is this okay? Haste makes waste.” Fang Yuan naturally knew the logic of haste makes waste, but he knew the contents of this task. In Fang Yuan’s previous life, after he became a blood path Gu Immortal, he had once planned to participate in the Refinement Path Convention. The reason? Because even the demonic path could participate in the Refinement Path Convention, even wanted criminals could register their names overtly, and the righteous path would not arrest them. During that time, Fang Yuan did not have a single Immortal Gu and was putting his efforts in gathering immortal materials to refine Immortal Gu, the whole process was extremely arduous. In comparison, although he was an immortal zombie in this life, his financial circumstances were many times better. Fang Yuan had considered almost any possible method to gather immortal materials. He realized that the Refinement Path Convention was an opportunity to obtain large amounts of immortal materials.