Bao Zhi left Sun Lotus city behind him. He walked along the trodden path. In the distance, hills could be seen. On both sides, dense forests lined his way. They were like two walls of green.
After waking for an hour, he went off the path.
His destination was now at the center of the forest.
When he was in the city, he had heard that there were many monsters in the forest. That was why it was not safe to go there.
But he knew the real reason was that places with more dao marks like a resource point would naturally attract wild beasts.
Bao Zhi did not care about monsters in the forest. His plan was not just to go as deep into the forest, but deep underground as well.
He started to activate his movement killer move. He felt a tingling sensation all over his body.
After two breaths of time, his body's contours started to morph.
At once, he turned into a piece of green-colored root!
He looked like a green snake with tails on both ends.
This wooden snake of a root coiled in a spring-like manner and dove straight into the ground as if it was a pool of water.
Bao Zhi was completely blind as he moved underground. He could sense the vegetation getting denser with dao marks. He knew he was nearing his objective.
"The speed of this move is not bad. It's because I used my old technique - Earth Root Travel - as a reference. "
"But there are still some shortcomings. I need to prepare it in advance and it needs an investigative killer move to complement it."
Bao Zhi pondered as he moved. If he could make a move that did not need to be prepared in advance, it would be even better.
He moved deeper and deeper. He had already been underground for an hour.
"This is it." - He stopped and started to head straight down.
He did not know how deep he had gone when he suddenly felt a gust of wind as he fell and landed with a soft thud.
Bao Zhi canceled his movement killer move and transformed back to his original form again.
He saw that he was in a large cavern. The walls of the cavern were filled with a greenish-black fungus.
The air was stifling, filled with spores. The walls of the caves were overgrown with fungus. They were slowly pulsating in a dim glow.
He recognized the place at once, this rare fungus was what he came for, the missing refinement material.
It was Ling Zhi!
He immediately started to collect the fungus.
He did not expect to find it so easily. He had only searched for a while before he found an entire cavern of it.
He took out a small jade bottle and started to pick the Ling Zhi.
He was very careful as he did not want to damage the precious fungus.
He was about to leave when he suddenly heard a noise.
He froze and listened carefully.
The noise was getting closer and closer.
He quickly put away the jade bottle and hid behind a rock.
A small group of mushroom men ran past him.
"Run! The beast is catching up!" - Shouted one of them.
"Why did you have to keep poking him? Now it broke free!" - Argued one of the mushroom men.
"What beast? These variant human slaves should have the resource point under control." - Thought Bao Zhi.
He was about to follow them when he heard a loud scream.
He turned around and saw a creature running toward him on four.
The beast looked eerie as multicolored fungus covered its whole body. It looked like corals and twisted antlers. Its moves were irregular and twitchy.
Bao Zhi did not recognize it at first, but the beast was actually humanoid.
He started to activate his movement killer move to get away quickly.
The beast stopped chasing after the group of mushroom men.
Bao Zhi saw its face has become unrecognizable as a human face anymore. Among the twisted fungi, two crazed eyes were sweeping the surroundings.
As it stood up on two legs, it opened its mouth wide.
"Kekeke." - Its jaw started to shake.
A cloud of spores erupted in all directions. It filled the caves in an instant.
Bao Zhi was caught in the middle of it and started to cough violently.
His killer move was almost interrupted, he just finished transforming into the green root.
As he transformed the urge to cough persisted but lacking a mouth his coughing fit was silenced right away.
"I'll... eat... your... heart!" - The creature took deep breaths of the miasma it released.
"Xu Lian! Die!" - The horrific creature shouted in a hoarse voice and pounced on Bao Zhi.
Bao Zhi was shocked, he did not expect to be discovered this easily.
He reacted quickly and dodged to the side.
Visibility was low in the cave and the spores made it even harder to see, yet the creature always knew which direction Bao Zhi jumped.
He turned around and slithered in the opposite direction.
The beast trotted on four closely behind him.
"Xu... Lian! Come... and play!" - The figure roared after the snake-like Bao Zhi.
The beast crashed into the wall and left a big hole.
It opened its mouth wide and sprayed more spores in all directions.
The spores filled the cave and Bao Zhi started to feel dizzy.
"These spores are poisonous! So it's not just for investigation." - Bao Zhi realized at once.
He knew he had to get out of there as soon as possible.
"I can't outrun it for long. My essence wasn't refilled since I arrived." - Bao Zhi thought through his situation as he was escaping.
"Then I'll fight." - He made the cold decision.
He stopped and slid into a crevice with half his body. He could clearly feel the vibrations getting closer and closer.
"Now!"
He lunged forward like a human-sized spear. He stiffened his body in mid-air and activated his defensive gu.
Leaf Skin Gu!
It all happened in a flash.
Bao Zhi's lunge hit true. He pierced into the chest of the beast with his great momentum.
The creature released a ghoulish scream and grabbed onto Bao Zhi's snake-like body as it tried to bite into the green root!
Bao Zhi's "upper" body came out on the beast's back. In his transformation, he could twist and turn his body not restricted by bones and joints.
Bao Zhi right away entangled the beast's limbs and neck.
The creature lost its balance and fell to the ground as it struggled desperately. With each breath it took, fresh blood gurgled from its chest.
Each time Bao Zhi increased his grip and did not relent.
"So tough! I can't break the neck. Then you'll either suffocate or bleed out."
The beast was writhing on the ground. It tried to claw Bao Zhi off of him, but it only left marks on Bao Zhi's leaf skin.
"Die! Die! Die!" - The beast shouted in a frenzied voice.
Bao Zhi was calm as he felt the beast struggle.
He increased his grip even further and the beast's breathing became more and more labored.
"Xu... Lian! Help... me!" - The creature gasped out in a hoarse voice.
The beast's eyes were bulging out of its sockets as it gasped for air.
Bao Zhi did not let up and the beast slowly stopped struggling and moved less and less.
"Xu... Lian!" - The creature breathed out another small puff of spores before it breathed its last.
Bao Zhi released the dead and limp body and slowly transformed back to take a glimpse of the corpse.
"This man. How did he survive in this place?" - He wondered looking at the fungus-covered remains and innards of the creature.
"Is this a case of adaptation? No, it is too extreme. No human could adapt like this."
He stepped closer and placed his hand on the abdomen below the chest's gaping hole.
"A gu master indeed. Rank four cultivation. But his two gu is only rank two and both fungi related."
"Strange. Who is Xu Lian, he kept shouting?" - He could not uncover the crux of the situation.
Bao Zhi did not want to stay in the cave for a second longer, the stench of the spores in the air was making him feel nauseous.
He did not hesitate and left.
When he emerged from the cave, he took a deep breath of fresh air and felt much better.
He looked at the jade bottle in his hand and felt very satisfied.
With this, he had everything he needed to refine the gu.
* * * * *
Lingering Mountains Grotto
This was a small and remote floating island. It was a unique one among the many floating islands in this grotto heaven. It did not have imposing mountains, it only had a small mound on it. There were no resources produced here either.
Despite all these, it only took one glance to figure out that the purpose of this place was special.
In the center of the island was a towering building. It radiated white light. It looked to be carved of pure jade.
This building was an immortal gu house of Wen clan.
Rank seven Wondrous Inspiration Pagoda!
An immortal landed gracefully a hundred steps before the gu house.
She approached it on foot before respectfully bowing in front of it.
At this moment another figure just appeared, this one leaving the gu house.
"Wen Yun pays her respect to the supreme elder." - Said Wen Yun, the rank six refinement path immortal.
"Child, what brings you here?" - Asked Wen Jie while fanning herself casually.
"I did not mean to disturb grotto lord's business. I just wanted to meet with Lord Old Refinement."
"You can go ahead. I'm already finished." - Replied Wen Jie plainly as she walked past Wen Yun and disappeared into the sky.
Wen Yun collected herself and sized up the building once more before taking a breath and entering.
"Refinement grandpa! I'm here again for your advice." - She called out expectantly.
From the ground, a pool of ethereal water emerged. It took the shape of an old man.
"Yun'er!" - Called out the will of Lord Old Refinement.
"Tsk! Don't call me refinement grandpa! What if the other wills hear of this?" - He lectured Wen Yun jokingly.
"This old man only has his name and title left. What can he do for you?" - He asked humbly.
Wen Yun: "Grandpa, there's this gu recipe. I can't figure out the final steps. It has stumped me for months now. Can you take a look?"
Lord Old Refinement stoked his beard in a sage-like manner.
"I can't think for you. I would just expend my will."
"But I can help you figure it out on your own." - He raised a finger and started to explain.
"Give a man a fish and you feed him-"
"I know, I know. So here's the situation. I keep getting stuck when I try to complete this immortal gu recipe, look!" - She passed over an information path gu worm.
Lord Old Refinement's will did not take her attitude to heart, he continued without taking the gu worm.
"...for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
"Refining gu is the deepest aspect of gu cultivation. It is not a simple matter, but it is actually not complex either."
"Have you tried refining the gu yet?"
Wen Yun: "No. Because, I don't have the recipe yet?" - She raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"Then you should try. Deducing is for the wisdom path, refinement is for the refinement path!" - He explained.
Wen Yun: "But with an incomplete recipe the refinement will definitely fa-"
"So what?" - Interrupted Lord Old refinement's will this time.
"Young Lady, haven't you read the Legends of Ren Zu? Success and failure are intertwined. One does not know in advance whether they grasp success or failure in their hands. But does this mean they should not reach out?" - He looked at Wen Yun before continuing.
"Treat success and failure in the same manner! Do not be emboldened when chance works out in your favor; and do not be discouraged when it does not."
"Discipline yourself, remind yourself; and when you did your best to succeed, you have no reason to be disappointed."
"Concern yourself only with what you can control, and leave the rest to the heavens."
Wen Yun: "But I would waste the materials. I still can't succeed with a bad recipe."
"The only way to refine like a grandmaster is to refine oneself first. One cannot refine themselves by refining others. You still hold the idea that failure is bad and success is good. Why is that?"
"It is just your preconception that things are like this. Failure brings inspiration and success brings complacency!"
"The refinement path is not afraid of failure. On the contrary, it wants to fail in the process of refinement. The purpose of refinement is to refine itself! Cultivation is refinement!"
"So cultivate your mind. Be steady and embrace failure. What good is it if you plan for a long while and then stumble at the first step? Do fail! Fail faster! Speculating is useless, only actions can do refinement!"
* * * * *