Twelve days later.
Inside the secret chamber, Fang Yuan sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, his eyes closed, his muscles alternating between tension and relaxation. His mind was calm and serene as he focused on the Turtle Jade Wolf Skin Gu within his Empty Orifice.
At this moment, the Gu hovered above the surface of True Essence in his first Empty Orifice, continuously infused with True Essence, radiating a jade-green light.
The light penetrated through the Empty Orifice, shining from the inside out upon every inch of Fang Yuan's skin.
Gradually, the light dimmed. The entire Turtle Jade Wolf Skin Gu dissolved into countless motes of luminescence before finally vanishing completely.
Fang Yuan had long been mentally prepared for this. The Turtle Jade Wolf Skin Gu was a consumable-type Gu, one that inscribed Dao marks onto the Gu Master's body — similar to the Copper Skin Gu and Iron Bone Gu he had used before.
"All these days, I've been cultivating in seclusion without rest, and I've finally refined all my skin into Turtle Jade Wolf Skin."
Fang Yuan slowly opened his eyes, rolled up his sleeves, and examined the skin on his arms.
His skin still appeared to be its normal flesh color. But when Fang Yuan drew a dagger and slashed it fiercely across his arm, the Turtle Jade Wolf Skin Gu's effect was immediately triggered.
The skin where the dagger cut turned a bluish-green color, faintly revealing patterns reminiscent of a tortoise shell.
When the dagger struck such skin, it felt like hitting iron or jade, yet there was also a supple resilience to it.
Fang Yuan nodded in satisfaction. "The Turtle Jade Wolf Skin Gu is a Fifth Transformation Gu — its defensive power is quite impressive. More importantly, it doesn't need to be actively activated. As long as the body is attacked, it automatically manifests its defensive effect without consuming any True Essence. Incredibly practical."
A Fifth Transformation Gu was not difficult for a Gu Immortal to obtain. But for ordinary Gu Masters, it was exceedingly rare.
Many Fifth Transformation Gu Masters possessed only a single Fifth Transformation Gu. Some didn't even have one and had to make do with Fourth Transformation Gu.
When Hei Loulan had presented the Turtle Jade Wolf Skin Gu to win Fang Yuan over at their first meeting, others had seen it as an incredibly generous gesture.
Though Fifth Transformation Gu held only modest standing in Fang Yuan's eyes, it was enough to demonstrate Hei Loulan's sincerity.
"The Turtle Jade Wolf Skin Gu is complete. Next comes the strength path cultivation." Fang Yuan remained seated on the meditation cushion, seizing every precious moment to tirelessly advance his strength.
He summoned a Ten Jun Strength Gu.
This Gu resembled an iron counterweight. Once infused with True Essence, it flew up and hovered above Fang Yuan's head, then released a mysterious radiance that spread throughout his entire body, inscribing a segment of strength-path Dao marks onto his form.
As time passed, Fang Yuan's strength grew slowly but surely.
He had never once ceased his strength path cultivation.
The five Ten Jun Strength Gu he had purchased before were already exhausted. The ones he now used had been taken from the Hei family clan treasury.
By now, sixty jun of strength had accumulated deep within his body.
Ten jun equaled three hundred catties of force, so sixty jun amounted to one thousand eight hundred catties.
On Earth, the legendary Green Dragon Crescent Blade weighed a mere eighty-two catties.
"Now that I've refined all my skin into Turtle Jade Wolf Skin, my body can bear at least a hundred jun of strength. Beyond a hundred jun lies the foundation of a Fifth Transformation Gu Master."
The secret recipes for Cattie Strength Gu and Jun Strength Gu had been personally created by the Seventh Transformation Gu Immortal Chu Du. They were easier to refine than the traditional Beast Strength Gu and cheaper as well, which was why they had spread widely across the Northern Plains.
Fang Yuan had chosen to abandon Beast Shadow Gu in favor of Jun Strength Gu — not only to stay current, but also to simplify his future cultivation and better disguise his identity.
However, Jun Strength Gu still couldn't solve the core problem of the strength path.
Fang Yuan possessed sixty jun of strength, yet only a small fraction of it could actually be brought to bear.
To solve this problem, he still had to rely on the All-Out Gu.
The All-Out Gu could unleash the full measure of a Gu Master's strength without restriction. It was the undisputed core Gu of the strength path.
For this reason, Fang Yuan had designated it as his Life Gu for his second Empty Orifice.
But this All-Out Gu was only Third Transformation grade, and after arriving in the Northern Plains, it had been further suppressed by the foreign land's restrictions, rendering it effective at only Second Transformation level.
What Fang Yuan now lacked was the secret recipe for refining the All-Out Gu to Fourth Transformation. If he could advance this Gu to Fourth Transformation while in the Northern Plains, it would be as if he had been reborn there — no longer subject to the Northern Plains' suppression.
"It's just that... further accumulation is not so easy. The Turtle Jade Wolf Skin helps bear greater strength, but does nothing for the enslavement path. Though I have two Empty Orifices, I still have only one body."
In this world, few things ever worked out perfectly on both fronts.
If he attended to the strength path, he couldn't simultaneously favor the enslavement path.
If he wished to prioritize the enslavement path, Fang Yuan should not have used the Turtle Jade Wolf Skin Gu, but rather another Fifth Transformation Gu known as the Wolf Image Gu.
This Gu was designed to store packs of wolves. It could be embedded in his skin, and for every wild wolf stored, a wolf tattoo would manifest on Fang Yuan's body.
Many enslavement path Gu Masters would select the appropriate Beast Image Gu and store their elite forces upon their own bodies.
When the critical moment arrived, the Gu Master need only give his whole body a shake, and this elite force would be summoned forth instantly to fight on his behalf.
Just as before, Fang Yuan had used the Fourth Transformation Impermanence Bone Gu to allow his physical body to bear a stronger soul.
But the Impermanence Bone Gu offered no benefit whatsoever to the strength path.
Cultivating both the strength path and the enslavement path simultaneously was no easy feat. It could easily lead to a scattering of energy and attention, ultimately failing on both fronts.