Chapter 841

Seemingly hearing Firesmith Dragon Chief’s unspoken rage, Fang Yuan mocks him further, declaring that only such fury lets him fight properly and that anything less would disgrace Myriad Dragon Dock. Every Gu Master present falls speechless, and Myriad Dragon Dock’s own members grit their teeth at his greater arrogance. Firesmith Dragon Chief trembles with fury. ^{ch. 841}

Fang Yuan’s bold surface hides extreme inward vigilance. He knows Firesmith Dragon Chief is secretly a fire path Gu Immortal competing disguised as a mortal, expelled long ago from Myriad Dragon Dock as a refinement path Gu Master. Firesmith Dragon Chief gained his fire path inheritance by chance and was later secretly retaken by the sect, which entered him in this convention on his grandmaster refinement attainment. ^{ch. 841}

Fang Yuan judges the man’s refinement attainment above his own. In his previous life Firesmith Dragon Chief ranked second in the convention, once suppressing three quasi-grandmasters at once. Such an enemy must be struck down early, since his previous life’s memory says letting this chance pass leaves almost no chance of suppressing him later. ^{ch. 841}

Fang Yuan urges Demon Expelling Sect’s elder to start. Firesmith Dragon Chief shouts the same, impatient to crush him. The elder holds firm under pressure from both, counting down before sealing the venue with an isolation Gu formation and releasing the task. ^{ch. 841}

The eighth round draws greatly fewer competitors than earlier ones. Each venue therefore runs its contest only once, and any Gu Master who misses it forfeits. Heavenly Court controls the tasks and transmits each one into a rank five information path mortal Gu as the contest begins. ^{ch. 841}

The eighth task is a keep silent Gu, rank five sound path. Whoever refines it first wins; everyone else is eliminated. The materials allowed include worry stones, immortal soul grass, a rank four apathy Gu, six rank three muted mouth Gu and two rank four sinking Gu, with outside materials barred. Six keep silent Gu recipes, three apathy Gu recipes and one collusion Gu recipe come with them. ^{ch. 841}

Gu Masters frown at the task’s difficulty. It runs about ten times harder than the seventh round’s, since no material matches any recipe directly. ^{ch. 841}

Firesmith Dragon Chief nearly coughs up blood at the sight of it. His cultivation is fire path, and several of the task’s key materials cannot be handled with fire refinement techniques, an awkward gap exactly where he is weakest. ^{ch. 841}

Grandmaster attainment is no empty title. He would certainly still succeed at refining the Gu alone, but the key factor is Fang Yuan’s presence. Among experts this closely matched, a slight drop in ability decides the winner, and here he is weakened by a whole twenty percent. ^{ch. 841}

The next moment his eyes nearly pop out: Fang Yuan has already begun refining. No supplied recipe matches the materials directly, so success demands careful thought weighing reverse-refining and recombination. Even a grandmaster like Firesmith Dragon Chief expected to need some eight minutes of thought first, but Fang Yuan needed none of it. ^{ch. 841}

Fang Yuan pulls ahead at astonishing speed regardless, already knowing this task’s contents. ^{ch. 841}

In his previous life, after becoming a blood path Gu Immortal, Fang Yuan had once planned to enter the Refinement Path Convention himself. He had no Immortal Gu at the time, and gathering immortal materials to refine one was a slow, extremely arduous effort. This life, even as an immortal zombie, his finances are many times better. He had recognized the convention itself as one large source of immortal materials. ^{ch. 841}