Chapter 829

Partway up the mountain, Fang Yuan reaches the Disciple Selection Stage, its ground marked into numbered spots by a simple Gu formation. He takes a token reading sixty-three and sits at the matching spot. When an elder declares the four entry tasks begun, hundreds of Gu Masters on the stage set to work with different refinement methods. Fang Yuan places his materials in one by one amid dozens of dancing starlight specks. Fifteen minutes later he finishes every task and stands, his speed and flawless technique shocking the elder overseeing the stage, who already knew of his rank five status. ^{ch. 829}

An anxious old master’s disciple stays focused, missing the stir Fang Yuan causes. The presiding elder inspects Fang Yuan’s four Gu worms, finds no negative conditions, and invites him up the mountain. As a Gu Immortal, Fang Yuan makes no effort to hide his skill. ^{ch. 829}

An elder from Five Virtues Sect greets him, sent by its leader to recruit Fang Yuan as an external elder. Before he can finish, Fang Yuan waves him off, saying he has no interest and that Five Virtues Sect cannot accommodate him. Humiliated, the elder snaps that Fang Yuan is looking down on their sect. He backs down when Fang Yuan coldly asks if he wants to duel, leaving with a parting boast that Five Virtues Sect will be watching Fang Yuan’s performance in the convention. ^{ch. 829}

Fang Yuan continues to the wood virtue hall, where disciples of Five Virtues Sect manage the sign-up. Asked his name, sect and cultivation path, he gives only his name, keeping the rest secret. He pays the hundred primeval stone sign-up fee. In return he receives a token recording these details, with the place and time he registered, and is warned to replace it at once if lost, since without it he cannot join the convention. ^{ch. 829}

The ten great ancient sects created Central Continent’s Refinement Path Convention. Heavenly Court secretly supports it. Because many demonic path and foreign Gu Masters sign up this way, the details are kept very flexible: names invented freely, sects and paths left unstated, since only the token itself matters. ^{ch. 829}

A separate group of Gu Masters can join automatically on past standing. At Immortal Crane Sect such spots split between disciples and elders. But Fang Yuan’s subsidiary status and Fang Zheng’s very low refinement attainment leave them both to sign up on their own. ^{ch. 829}

At the fire virtue hall, Fang Yuan is told round one’s terms. In thirty minutes he must refine at least a hundred rank one water light Gu to pass into the second round. The reward scales with the tally, up to two hundred seventy-six for first place, which wins the rank four green shine Gu, a healing Gu for relieving heat toxins. He judges the round harder than the entry tasks, though not so hard that most Gu Masters will fail, since only a hundred is needed to pass. ^{ch. 829}

Green shine Gu is a rank four Gu, normally held only by a large force’s elder or a small one’s leader. Fang Yuan could buy one in treasure yellow heaven, so the reward holds no appeal for him. What interests him is the challenge the task poses. ^{ch. 829}

Calculating with the ordinary water refinement technique, he judges he could make at most two hundred fifty, only good enough for third place. Third place at Five Virtues Sect is already taken on a first-come basis, so matching it gains nothing. To leave his name on the board he needs first or second place. He could pay for costlier materials or alter the recipe with his wisdom path inheritance, but decides either would strip the task of its challenge. Instead, since water light Gu is normally refined with water or ice methods, he considers an unconventional water-fire technique, reasoning that fire might produce an unexpected result. ^{ch. 829}