Refining Gu

The night was bright, the stars sparse. Hu Fangyuan opened his eyes, having brought himself into peak condition.

Rather than choose a day, he would seize this one. Tonight, he would refine his very first Gu worm.

As the saying went, man was the spirit of all living things, and Gu the true essence of heaven and earth. A Gu worm was a vessel for the essence of heaven and earth.

To practice Gu Refining, even with the Heaven Refining Furnace greatly shortening the process, three essentials remained unavoidable.

A Gu recipe, Gu materials, and a Gu refinement method.

With the Heaven Refining inheritance, Hu Fangyuan naturally had no need to worry about Gu Recipes. Even the Gu Refining methods were already inscribed within his Soul Skills.

They were his First Soul Skill, Water Refining Azure Furnace, and his Second Soul Skill, Fire-Refined Scarlet Force.

But Hu Fangyuan had to weigh the Gu materials himself.

The Heaven Refining Furnace could indeed reveal the dao marks represented by Gu materials, but the materials could not differ too greatly.

After an afternoon of careful deliberation, Hu Fangyuan decided to refine the Moonlight Pearl Gu.

Compared with refinement methods that required a particular time and place, the Heaven Refining Furnace could swiftly refine Gu worms.

This little courtyard was his temporary lodging. It was secluded, with no other buildings nearby, and especially quiet at night—just right for Gu Refining.

Hu Fangyuan walked slowly to the bluestone platform in the middle of the courtyard, then leaped up onto it. He sat cross-legged, his back straight, his hands resting naturally on his knees, and his eyes slightly closed, first bringing himself into peak condition.

His rank-twenty-one Soul Power flowed slowly through his meridians, nourishing his limbs and bones like warm water. Within his soul sea, the ancient Heaven Refining Furnace floated quietly, the patterns on its body glowing faintly and giving off a steady, weighty aura.

Images of sorting through the Gu Canon inheritance that afternoon flashed through Hu Fangyuan's mind.

The refinement methods for dozens of rank-one Gu worms passed through his mind one by one, each with its own uses and difficulties.

Some Gu worms leaned toward combat and were extraordinarily dangerous to refine; the slightest carelessness could cause a backlash against the refiner.

Others leaned toward support, with materials so hard to find that they often required hundred-year-old spirit herbs.

By comparison, the Moonlight Pearl Gu was undoubtedly the most suitable choice at present.

First, this Gu worm was purely supportive, with a gentle nature, low refinement difficulty, and a high success rate, perfectly suited to the nurturing properties of his First Soul Skill, Water Refining Azure Furnace.

Second, the Moonlight Dew produced by the Moonlight Pearl Gu had a wide range of uses. Applied externally, it could heal wounds and regenerate flesh; taken internally, it could clear the mind and sharpen Divine Sense. For a novice like him, who had only just begun Gu Refining, nothing could be more practical.

Third, while gathering supplies that afternoon, he had happened to find a similar spirit herb that could substitute for the main ingredient, Moon Orchid. With money in his pocket, Hu Fangyuan had naturally spent generously and bought seven plants outright.

All seven Moon Orchids were of excellent quality, with natural dew pores at the tips of their petals. Shaped like tiny moons, these pores fully met the standards for a Spirit-Communing Seed recorded in the Gu Canon.

With the materials prepared, the inherited method in hand, and the Heaven Refining Furnace lending its aid, Hu Fangyuan did not hesitate in the slightest. He drew a deep breath of the cool night air, then abruptly opened his eyes, a faint gleam of azure flashing in their depths.

The Heaven Refining Furnace within his soul sea stirred in response, giving a low hum. Pure Soul Power surged out along his meridians, forming a faint azure halo around him.

Hu Fangyuan gave a low shout inwardly. With a slight shift of thought, the seven Moon Orchids floated out of the Heaven Refining Furnace's internal space and hovered half a zhang high before him.

He had placed these seven Moon Orchids inside the Heaven Refining Furnace that afternoon, nurturing them for several hours with its source power. The moisture and impurities of soil that had originally clung to their petals had long since been completely refined away.

Now, each Moon Orchid gave off a faint azure glow. Their petals were lustrous, their roots white as silver threads. The vitality of each entire plant had been raised to its peak, making them fine Gu materials ready to go straight into refinement.

This was one of the Heaven Refining Furnace's wondrous uses: any Gu Materials nurtured within it could have their impurities washed away and dao marks imprinted upon them.

In Heaven Refining Immortal Venerable's world, all things in heaven and earth possessed corresponding dao marks.

But that was not the case in this world. The Heaven Refining Furnace was needed to further stimulate and activate them, or even imprint them from the inside out.

With the Gu Materials prepared, the next step was to construct the water mirror for Gu Refining.

According to the Gu Canon, the traditional method required a natural white jade water mirror-a round, hollow stone with an inner surface polished smooth as a mirror. It also had to be filled with rootless morning dew or flowing mountain spring water, then left for a day until the water's energy merged with the earth veins.

Under ordinary circumstances, Hu Fangyuan might not have been able to gather all these conditions immediately, but with the Heaven Refining Furnace, these steps could all be simplified.

Hu Fangyuan raised his right hand, palm upward. Pale azure Soul Power gathered in his palm, gradually condensing into a ball of gentle, watery light.

This watery light was water formed from Soul Power through his First Soul Skill, Water Refining Azure Furnace. Gentle and pure in nature, it was best suited to refining mild supportive Gu worms. With a slight turn of his wrist, the watery light floated down onto the open ground before the bluestone platform, swelling in the breeze into a circular water screen roughly three feet across.

The water screen was clear throughout, its surface carrying a faint amber sheen. Soul Power circulated along its edges, forming a firm barrier.

At the center of the water screen, the crescent moon in the sky was reflected clearly, down to the scattered pinpricks of starlight around it.

This water screen, condensed from Soul Power, would serve as the site of Gu Refining in place of the white jade water mirror.

Compared with a natural stone water mirror, a Soul Power water mirror could absorb moonlight essence and spiritual energy more effectively. Hu Fangyuan could also adjust its size, temperature, and flow at will, controlling it as readily as his own limbs. Its advantages were plain to see.

With the preparations complete, Hu Fangyuan drew a deep breath and began laying out the formation. His fingers moved gently, guiding the seven hovering Moon Orchids slowly downward.

Each Moon Orchid landed precisely upon the water screen, roots downward and petals upward.

Their roots just touched the surface without sinking into the water, much less coming into contact with any mud. The seven Moon Orchids were evenly distributed across the surface, arranged exactly in the shape of the Big Dipper, guarding the clear reflection of the moon at the water screen's center.

The configuration of seven stars surrounding the moon was complete.

Hu Fangyuan nodded slightly, quite satisfied with his control. An ordinary Gu Master described in the records would have needed at least nearly an hour of trial and error to lay out this formation, and might still not have managed such precision. Relying on the Heaven Refining Furnace's innate control over Gu materials, he had completed the formation in one attempt, without the slightest error in placement.

Next came Essence Guiding and Essence Gathering, guiding the moonlight essence of heaven and earth into the Gu materials.

Under the traditional method, the practitioner had to sit cross-legged due north of the water mirror, form the Water Moon Seal with both hands, and slowly draw in moonlight essence using their own vital energy.

With the Heaven Refining Furnace's assistance, Hu Fangyuan did not need such complicated hand seals. Simply activating Water Refining Azure Furnace with Soul Power would gather the moonlight essence.

He adjusted his posture, facing due south with his back to the moon, sitting exactly due north of the water screen. Raising both hands, he held them over its edges on either side, leaving roughly an inch between his palms and the water.

Pure Soul Power flowed slowly from his palms, brushing across the water like a warm breeze and circulating throughout the water screen.

Tiny ripples began spreading across the water screen, and its previously still surface stirred gently.

The moonlight high above seemed to come under some kind of pull. The scattered silver radiance gradually gathered toward the courtyard, turning into slender ribbons of silver light that hung down from the night sky and poured into the water screen.

Each strand of moonlight essence that merged into the water screen sent out a small ring of ripples.

Hu Fangyuan focused completely on sensing the changes within the water screen, controlling the rhythm of his Soul Power output, neither fast nor slow, steady as a rock. He could clearly sense that after merging into the water, the moonlight essence did not dissipate. Instead, it followed the current and was slowly absorbed by the seven Moon Orchids.

Nourished by the moonlight essence, the Moon Orchids' petals grew visibly more lustrous.

Their pale purple petals gradually took on a silvery-white sheen. The dew pores at their tips opened and closed slightly as though breathing, drawing in a strand of moonlight essence with every movement.

Time passed, second by second and minute by minute. Hu Fangyuan maintained the same posture throughout, his palms hovering over the surface as his Soul Power flowed steadily.

His rank-twenty-one Soul Power cultivation was deep enough to sustain this degree of expenditure with plenty to spare. He even had the leisure to sense the operation of the Heaven Refining Furnace and appreciate the subtleties of the Water Refining Azure Furnace Soul Skill.

Water Refining Azure Furnace truly lived up to its status as an inheritance-grade Soul Skill. Not only could it be used for Gu Refining, but it also combined offense and defense.

Now, used to construct the water screen and draw in moonlight essence, it brought its nurturing, purifying, and spirit-gathering properties fully into play.