Chapter 1326

After two more tries, Fang Yuan completes a Gu formation that traps the panther. Earth path Gu stays above formation heart Gu, water path Gu moves up and down below it, and fire and wind path Gu circle the water path Gu. The whole gives off a hazy white light that shrouds and holds the panther, rather than shielding Fang Yuan. Building it was hard, since the panther’s constant movement kept disrupting the arrangement, which is why Tu Shi Cheng had allowed five minutes. Tu Shi Cheng praises him again and warns of a stricter, life-or-death test within a month if he continues studying under him, closing the dream’s second stage. ^{ch. 1326}

The third stage opens on a river Fang Yuan recognizes as Southern Border’s red dragon river, one of the region’s three great rivers alongside jade dragon river and yellow dragon river. Tu Shi Cheng tells him he is on his own from here, then shoves him into the water before he can protest. Fang Yuan struggles to the surface and finds he must arrange twelve mortal Gu this time, not four, under a short time limit. He activates unravel dream twice without hesitation, which reveals the first six steps of the arrangement but not the rest, before a whirlpool sweeps him into a floating tree and knocks him unconscious. He wakes with a soul injury severe enough to need six guts Gu. ^{ch. 1326}

Despite the third stage’s failure, Fang Yuan finds his formation path attainment has risen to quasi-master level, a level few Gu Masters ever reach. He gains it after only two completed stages and a few days inside the dream, the effect of successfully drawing true meaning from a dream realm. He senses himself one step from master level. Completing the third stage would carry him there. Attainment runs in five tiers, ordinary, master, grandmaster, great grandmaster and supreme grandmaster, with quasi-ranks between them. Master level is rare enough that most rank six Gu Immortals hold it at minimum in their own path, and grandmaster mostly belongs to rank seven Gu Immortals. Supreme grandmaster is scarcer still: refinement path counts only three in its history, Long Hair Ancestor among them. ^{ch. 1326}

Rather than return to the dream at once, Fang Yuan researches the twelve Gu worms from the third stage, of which he had recognized only sixty percent, and re-reads the mortal formation path inheritances he bought earlier. Now at quasi-master, he reads a completely different meaning into content he had already seen, though some of it, left by mortal Gu Masters who reached master level, he cannot completely comprehend. Formation path’s contents are truly vast, with connections to every other path. Time passes unnoticed until Wu An requests an audience. The chapter states eight days have passed since Fang Yuan lost himself in study, and states ten as well. Wu An brings Lady White Rabbit, who reports the dream realm business’s accounts for Fang Yuan’s inspection as his subordinate duty, despite his open lack of interest in the business. ^{ch. 1326}