Snow Lotus Essence
The Gu refinement fails. The giant iceberg explodes, leaving Fang Yuan coughing blood clots and badly injured. He activates his Immortal Gu Man as Before to heal himself, and his injuries mostly vanish, though frost energy accumulated through the long refinement still lingers in his body, since duration had weakened the Gu’s effect. Fang Yuan reflects that rank six Man as Before is his main healing method and a core of many Shadow Sect killer moves, and that his healing will rise sharply once he masters those moves. Rank six Man as Before is weak against rank seven Gu Immortals and often fails, though it works better on a time path Gu Immortal with many time path dao marks. ch. 1441
A flash of inspiration strikes Fang Yuan: could a Gu as Before exist to heal Gu worms, as Man as Before heals Gu Immortals, instantly repairing refinement damage? Shadow Sect’s inheritance shows many predecessors had envisioned this, but every recipe was left incomplete, since Immortal Gu of different paths conflict and a healing Gu must outrank its target, so rank seven on rank seven would certainly fail. Gu as Before, Fang Yuan concludes, is not viable. ch. 1441
Other paths remain open to him. Shadow Sect’s inheritance holds more than ten refinement path immortal formations able to briefly backtrack time and undo a mistake, each limited by cost, uses or rank, the greatest being Immortal Gu House Regret Pool. Regret Pool is one of the world’s three legendary pools. Fang Yuan has only the knowledge for these formations, lacking the Immortal Gu needed to use any of them. The most attractive of his choices, the venerable inheritances in soul path, time path, earth path and space path, would cost astronomical time, energy and resources. What can help him immediately instead is wisdom Gu, whose benefits he has already tasted deeply. ch. 1441
To earn wisdom Gu’s acknowledgment again, Fang Yuan must use his original rank six strength path immortal zombie body, which first needs its soul path trap removed by cleanse soul Immortal Gu, the core piece he still lacks. He and Sixth Hair have already tried refining it more than ten times and failed. Fang Yuan admits the ice refinement method suits him well, but that he lacks experience in ice path and the final steps are truly difficult. Sixth Hair agrees. Fang Yuan also worries that someone may have already refined cleanse soul Immortal Gu, since each Immortal Gu is unique and such a rival would doom his attempt, though a flawless refinement failing at the moment of success would be the sign. But the recipe is secret, its circulation small, and the Gu itself destroyed only recently, so his odds stay high. ch. 1441
Sixth Hair proposes replacing the ice path immortal materials in the recipe’s last few steps with snow lotus essence, which would lengthen the process but greatly ease its difficulty. Fang Yuan decides to try the modification despite the risk. Fang Yuan worries that snow lotus essence, a rank seven material rare in treasure yellow heaven, will be hard to find. Sixth Hair reminds him that they have already joined Northern Plains’ variant human alliance, and that the snowman tribe below the northern icy plain holds plenty of it. Fang Yuan resolves to purchase it, confident his vast Shadow Sect inheritances can move the tribe, and to refine cleanse soul Immortal Gu as fast as possible whatever the cost. ch. 1441
