Gutstones

On Dang Hun Mountain, a gutstone looks like a gallstone mixed into the rock, easy to mistake for ordinary stone if one does not look carefully. Souls of living beings break into pieces on the mountain, scatter, and fuse with it. As time passes, gutstones form. In some gutstones, guts Gu are found, and that Gu can strengthen a person’s soul. ^{ch. 410}

Guts Gu lasts only an instant after it appears, then disperses or is broken down by the mountain again. Gutstones cannot be moved. They can only be used on the spot. Fang Yuan smashes gutstones by hand; a Gu flies out as grey eerie light and enters his body, clearing his mind and lessening the buzzing in his ears. With the land spirit guiding him, he opens more than a dozen gutstones and gains eight guts Gu, healing his soul injuries and improving past his prior state. ^{ch. 410}

In The Legends of Ren Zu, Wisdom Gu teaches Ren Zu that to climb past Dang Hun Mountain he must smash the gutstones and obtain guts Gu’s help. ^{ch. 410}

Dang Hun Mountain holds only over a hundred gutstones at the time Fang Yuan clears them, and not all contain guts Gu. Hu Immortal irrigated the mountain with fox souls for decades to create gutstones, then used almost all of them. After her death, a little over a hundred grew again over nearly eight years, and Fang Yuan uses that stock completely. Close to ten thousand foxes must be sacrificed to grow one guts stone. Stronger beast kings that die produce more gutstones. ^{ch. 411}

Rockmen who obtain gutstones use guts Gu to strengthen and expand their souls until the overflow forms little rockmen. Fang Yuan places souls from a soul burial toad on Dang Hun Mountain to breed new gutstones, keeps part of the yield to make his own soul six times stronger than a normal person’s, and gives the rest to the rockmen tribes. ^{ch. 413}

Immortal Crane Sect wants guts Gu from Dang Hun Mountain to raise disciples’ soul foundations. Gutstones cannot leave the mountain and can only be used on the spot, so access to them would also let disciples enter Hu Immortal blessed land freely. Fang Yuan refuses to sell gutstones or guts Gu and sells rockmen instead. ^{ch. 423}