Chapter 860

Bitter shells are rare, thousand year ones rarer still, prized as Immortal Gu material. Fang Yuan’s shell is black with white rings. Having inspected every material and found nothing wrong, he no longer checks them mid-refinement, watching only the flame. He tosses the shell into the poisonous blood without a second look. ^{ch. 860}

After it goes in, the poisonous blood stops boiling, but the gas keeps rumbling, and a foul odor forms. Though an immortal zombie has no sense of smell, Fang Yuan relies on investigative killer moves to smell it, holding still despite the odor, which signals whether the shell has melted perfectly. He melts twelve bitter shells this way. The fog grows thick, the odor turns fragrant, and his expression grows more serious. ^{ch. 860}

Ben Duo Yi is only a rank five Gu Master. But his extraordinary refinement path attainment lets him recognize the material Yu Mu Chun takes out. A thumb sized ice heart is already an immortal material, this one basin sized: a twin ice heart, a hundred times rarer, able to make rank seven Immortal Gu instead of rank six. Ben Duo Yi reasons it must be only a supplementary ingredient, relaxing since this shows preparation, not carelessness. He cannot decide whether refining something this precious in the open means recklessness or fearless skill. ^{ch. 860}

The wind strengthens into a forest of tornadoes. As Yu Mu Chun floats among them, the wind tears off his bronze mask and laughter shakes his black robe apart, revealing an aged face and a muscular body covered in brown hair. He is, like Ben Duo Yi, a hairy man, a variant race distinct from humans, and not even Fang Yuan knows his true identity. ^{ch. 860}

As if sensing Ben Duo Yi’s unspoken worry, Yu Mu Chun explains. Hairy men are born with refinement path dao marks and so have refining talent; refinement path originated with them, their foundation dozens of times deeper than humanity’s. Humans achieved dominance, wiping out many hairy men and with them much refinement knowledge; human technique now wrongly influences how hairy men refine. ^{ch. 860}

Gu Masters nurture, use, and refine, and refining means handling dao marks. Refining should be done surrounded by nature, since the world holds endless dao marks that can help refine the Gu. Ben Duo Yi is stunned by a theory he has never heard. ^{ch. 860}

Yu Mu Chun tells him that human technique, though effective, led him astray, and that reaching great grandmaster means returning to hairy men’s methods. Ben Duo Yi begs to be taught. Yu Mu Chun warns of risk, since the method could harm rather than help. He fed Gu worms at three, handled them at ten without instruction, and at sixteen used human technique to refine rank five Gu at ninety percent. At twenty-two he started over, reaching minor success at a hundred and thirty-eight and great success at two hundred and forty-six. At that level he chooses ground by astrology and earth veins, using hidden dao marks to assist. This gives him forty percent success on rank six Immortal Gu, five percent on rank seven, and rank eight untried. ^{ch. 860}

Ordinarily rank six Immortal Gu succeeds under one percent of attempts, rank seven at a tenth of that, rank eight at a hundredth, so Yu Mu Chun’s rates would shock the world. Ben Duo Yi realizes the technique demands ample talent, plus immense wealth and time. As a lone cultivator, Ben Duo Yi cannot afford it. Fang Yuan only reached quasi-grandmaster, held back by talent, focus and resources. ^{ch. 860}

Seeing the tornadoes calm, Yu Mu Chun begins, tossing carefully chosen immortal materials into the tornadoes, which grind them. Ordinarily the amount, timing, and heat of each material must be measured. Yu Mu Chun tosses materials in like a careless cook adding ingredients on a whim. Yet in his hands it carries a smooth, natural flow, as if perfectly suited to nature. Ben Duo Yi freezes in place, staring without blinking, completely dazed. ^{ch. 860}