Refinement under Heaven's Watch

Chen Wei has just left the Gu room of the academy with a Water Cut Gu in his pocket. As he heads back home, he sees a long line of at least 70 students waiting their turn to pick up their vital Gu.

He had the privilege of being first due to having the highest aptitude among this year's students, as positions in the line were determined by their innate aptitude from highest to lowest.

"Water Cut Gu, it's actually not a bad Gu; in fact, it's quite exceptional. It's versatile, powerful, with a medium attack range, and doesn't overly deplete primeval essence," Chen Wei thinks about the pros of his clan's main Gu as he walks home.

"This Gu showcases the profound foundation of our clan that has existed for centuries, well, profound foundation for the mortal world, at least," along the way, he sees the vibrant and bustling aura of the He An clan, which holds a dominant position compared to the other two clans of Longhua Shan Mountain.

"As for my Blood Cut Gu, it has greater strength and speed, but also a higher primordial essence consumption, and the worst part is that it has an uncertain development path as I'm pioneering the blood path now." This is one of the difficulties of being the tip of the spear and a pioneer in anything in life, but Chen Wei has accepted this challenge that comes with realizing his ambitions.

"Welcome, Young Master Wei!" The mansion guards greet him.

"Let the servants know that I'll be in closed cultivation, and no one has permission to enter my room," Chen Wei states, heading straight to his room without waiting for the servant's response.

"Yes, Young Master!!!" The guards respond simultaneously and go to carry out Chen Wei's orders.

"'Human is the spirit of all living beings, Gu are the essence of Heaven and Earth'; now that I'm cultivating personally, this phrase sounds even more profound." He is deeply immersed in the process of refining the Water Cut Gu, which involves replacing the Gu's own will with Chen Wei's will.

Or that's what a mortal or most immortals would say, but Chen Wei, as a reader of the novel, knows that he is essentially replacing Heaven's will in the Gu with his own human will.

"Ah, Heaven's will, I guess it already knows of my existence. Now I wonder if I'm here in this world so it can use me in its plans to stop a Venerable, just like it did with Fang Yuan." As he rests and replenishes his primordial essence, he ponders the same question he has asked countless times over the last ten years in this world.

After four hours of rest, which he used to eat and tend to his basic needs as well as to rest his mind, as Gu refinement is a stressful process for the Gu master's mind.

"My primordial essence reserves have increased from 1% to 35%. At this rate, I'll have finished refining the Gu in another two days." Honestly, he can't understand how Fang Zheng, with talent not much lower than his, could take so long to refine his Gu.

Of course, he could finish this process in hours if he used the primeval stones, but his grandfather forbade him from doing so, as this would be a good opportunity for him to learn the arduous task of Gu refinement.

"At this rate, I'm almost certain I'll be the first to finish, unless, of course, someone cheats, or a rich family's child uses primeval stones without caring about their parents' orders, but that's unlikely." After concluding his thoughts, Chen Wei returns to focusing on the Water Cut Gu.

Two days later, in the morning, Chen Wei arrives at the academy and sees that no one has refined their vital Gu yet, and he was indeed the first, as he imagined he would be.

"Young Master Chen Wei, I imagine you're here because you've finished refining your vital Gu," the leader of the guards approaches him politely.

"You imagined correctly. Could you inform the academy elder for me, please?" Chen Wei calmly requests while waiting for the guard the captain of the guard sent to inform the academy elder to return.

"Truly an impressive yet expected result, worthy of a Grade A genius," Chen Wei overhears the guards commenting on the side, some with admiration and others with envy.

"Ah, how good it is to see you here, Young Master Chen Wei. Refining a vital Gu in 3 days is quite impressive. I bet your grandfather must be very proud." The academy elder greets Chen Wei enthusiastically while verifying if he indeed refined the vital Gu, although he trusts Chen Wei, he still has to do his job with no room for errors.

"My grandfather sends his regards to the academy elder and says he is indeed very proud." His grandfather and the elder in front of him are old acquaintances, so his grandfather has an idea of how the elder would react to the arrival of his grandson.

"Well, well, here are 20 primeval stones, no more, no less." The academy elder hands over 20 primeval stones in a pouch he prepared before coming to Chen Wei.

"The junior pays respects and bids farewell to the honored academy elder." Chen Wei takes his leave and returns home because he needs to refine the Water Cut Gu into the Blood Cut Gu, and the sooner he does it, the better for him.

"That old grumpy Chen Wang found a great successor with both innate talent and latent talent," the academy elder speaks to himself neutrally, as he does not get involved in politics and mainly focuses on developing a competent new generation for the clan.

Back home, Chen Wei looks expressionlessly at three large vats of blood and some bloody flowers of various varieties as he begins to review the Blood Cut Gu refinement process again.

"Hmm, for today, I'll just organize the materials for refinement since I'm mentally drained from refining my vital Gu, and I need to rest." Chen Wei thinks as he organizes his refinement materials in one of the private refining rooms of his house.

"Although I requested enough materials for five to six refining attempts, it's always best to try to save as much as possible." After finishing his organization, he goes to practice using the Water Cut Gu.

"Although the Gu is different, the essence of both is still the same, so training with one will help me master the other when I refine it." Chen Wei trains diligently, knowing the three aspects of Gu cultivation: feeding, using, and refining Gu.

"I'm training the usage now; I'll exercise refining tomorrow and feeding at regular intervals." He already knows that the Blood Cut Gu, feeds on animal blood regardless of the race, is extremely easy to feed.

After a whole afternoon of training, Chen Wei arrives extremely tired at home and goes straight to bed after taking his bath.

When he wakes up, he receives the news that Xu Shang had secured the second place this morning, which is not very surprising given that he has the second-highest innate talent among this batch of students.

"Although in the novel, Fang Yuan finds a way to use his knowledge and 500 years of experience to surpass the other students despite his lower talent, for us normal people, that's not possible." Chen Wei solemnly thinks, knowing that the same people who admire and praise him for being a genius could be laughing and looking down on him if he had innate talent like Fang Yuan's, as that is human nature.

"And now, in the lower ranks, is when innate talent makes the biggest difference, so I must make the most of it." He is determined to give his all to increase his existing advantage over the other students and never let them overcome this difference.

He enters the refining room and sees that everything is the same as he left it and checks the blood again to see if there are any adulterations that could lead to the failure of the refinement.

"Everything is the same, but it doesn't hurt to be cautious." He takes a deep breath and relaxes his body and mind.

"Alright, it's time to start the Refinement!!!"