Chapter 2443 Unrefined Natural Elemental Dao Marks

"What I really want to try is this!"

Fang Yuan first began to refine the Water Path Dao Marks, since there were so many in the Eastern Sea.

The process went off without a hitch, soon 1 became 2 and then 3…

Fang Yuan stopped at 50 so that he could test their reactions, "My intuition tells me I'm doing it wrong."

Fang Yuan had an uncomfortable feeling while he was refining just Water Path Dao Marks:

"Wait!" Fang Yuan had an epiphany, he tried refining Fire Path: "I was right!"

What happened was that the Water Path Dao Marks he had originally refined, disrupted him from refining Fire Path!

"So that's how it has to be," Fang Yuan rubbed his head: "This will be troublesome."

Fang Yuan released that the difficulty had increased.

By 7 times to be exact:

"Because the Dao Marks all belong to the world, they exist non-conflictingly, Fire Path and Water Path can coexist without destroying the world, similar to how I can absorb either without getting hurt, but this also means they like to stick to their own areas."

This would not be a problem if Fang Yuan only cultivated 1 or 2 Elements, but he mastered all 7!

"I need to maintain the harmony between all 7 Elements when I refine them, which means that I must refine all 7 Elements at the same time!"

But the problem didn't end there: "But each region holds a different mixture of Elements, the Eastern Sea holds Water Path, the Western Desert holds Fire Path, the Southern Border holds Metal Path, the Northern Plains hold Earth Path [1] only the Central Continent has a balanced mixture of all 7."

Light and Dark Path were generally equally spread out across the 5 Regions.

"That means, even though my territory in the Eastern Sea is 50% I won't even be able to refine 15% of the Elemental Dao Marks in this region, same goes for the other 4."

Fang Yuan made an estimate that to refine the Dao Marks of all the Elemental Paths he had to journey across the world refining each Region one by one.

"Fine. 15% should be enough for now." Fang Yuan got to work Refining all 7 Elements at once!

Though it was only 15% that was 15% of all 7 Elements!

Meaning he had the power of 7 times 15%! [2]

Within his own HQ, there was now nobody that could beat him in sheer Dao Marks alone, even if they managed to refine all the Dao Marks of their Path in his HQ he could still overwhelm them!

"This could be a very useful trump card," Fang Yuan thought to himself.

Another benefit was that he could reduce the size of the Obscure Heavenly Secrets that was covering the Eastern Sea.

At first Fang Yuan had it cover 25% of the area but now he shrunk it down to 16%.

He was pretty stretched in terms of thoughts as he was occupied with Refining Gu, Refining Dao Marks and maintaining Obscure Heavenly Secrets, which was beginning to show signs of breaking.

"Luckily, with a smaller area, Obscure Heavenly Secrets will be more resilient and easier to maintain."

In Heavenly Court,

"Damnit! Something is off." Star Constellation bit her lip, she had been thoroughly deducing Fang Yuan but was not satisfied with her deductions:

"He's hiding something…"

Heaven was less sceptical: "Hmph! It's just because you've lost too many times to Fang Yuan that judgement has been clouded."

"The 5 of us will launch an attack at Fang Yuan when tries to refine those Gu to Rank 8, I'm sure he wouldn't even bother with Rank 9," Heaven said confidently.

Red Lotus and Genesis Lotus could only nod along.

Time ticked by,

Fang Yuan managed to easily refine, Metal Gu, Water Gu, Darkness Gu and Wind Gu.

From Rank 1 he raised them effortlessly through Ranks 2, 3, 4 and 5.

It was only once he got to Rank 6 that problems began.

"Hmm?" Fang Yuan noticed that Earth Gu was constantly unable to advance, "It seems Immortal Earth Gu already exists."

Fang Yuan was absolutely sure of it, after all, he was a Refinement Path Venerable with a Rank 9 Advance Refinement Gu!

How could he fail at a measly Rank 6?

But the failure to refine Earth Gu made it clear to the other Venerables that Earth Immortal Gu already exists!

"Who could have it?" The Venerables thought.

While it was entirely possible that some random Gu Immortal possessed the Gu, it seemed improbable as the Gu was not only extremely difficult to refine but was also extremely easy to notice amongst Earth Path cultivators as they would be able to control Earth Path to a degree no other Gu Immortal could.

Yet even the most talented Earth Path Gu Immortals did not showcase this ability.

That only left 2 possibilities, it was already a wild Gu, or it was owned by another Venerable!

Fang Yuan knew it wasn't a wild Gu as when he was deducing the existences of wild Gu, using Stealing Heavenly Secrets, he was not alerted of its presence.

"This can only mean it's with a Venerable…" Fang Yuan sighed again at the thought that another of his key Gu was held in Venerable hands.

"No matter, I can still advance Metal Gu, Water Gu, Wind Gu and Darkness Gu."

The process went smoothly, by the time Fang Yuan achieved Rank 6 Darkness Gu he also reached 6% in his overall Refinement of Elemental Path.

"I should be able to achieve 15% by the time I reach Rank 8," Fang Yuan calculated in his head: "I am running low on thoughts, it seems that the final refinement might require me to do it simultaneously."

Fang Yuan thought little of the matter and continued on, he kept spending Immortal Essence to maintain the Obscured Heavenly Secrets.

"Someone is incredibly persistent, which means it's either Heaven or Star Constellation or Both!"

Indeed, Star Constellation was the one who was constantly deducing.

"Are you still wasting your time?" Heaven asked.

Star Constellation did not respond.

Instead, she said: "Fang Yuan's thoughts are being drained at a rapid speed, it seems to refine 4 main Gu after refining his natural Refinement Path Dao Marks to 50% is putting a heavy tax on him."

Star Constellation was not entirely wrong.

Again, she had been misled by Obscured Heavenly Secrets, but her effort had not been in vain as even though the reasoning was wrong, the deductions was right, to some extent, Fang Yuan was getting tired!

Heaven raised his eyebrow, "Oh? Interesting. Did your deductions inform you if he is capable of refining their Rank 8 counterparts?"

Star Constellation shook her head.

"Then when he begins refining Rank 7 Water Gu, we strike!"

Star Constellation was slightly shocked but quickly understood Heaven's intention: "You don't want him to possess Water Gu as it counters your Fire Gu? Isn't that too predictable?"

But Heaven scoffed: "Hmph, there are open schemes and close schemes this is an open scheme, so what if he knows?"

Star Constellation said nothing further and informed Red Lotus and Genesis Lotus.

Meanwhile in Longevity Heaven,

Giant Sun was debating if he should help Fang Yuan.

On the one hand, the two had a slight alliance, but on the other hand, Giant Sun didn't want Fang Yuan to giant too much of an advantage.

"I have fallen further behind since Fang Yuan obtained the Dao of Elements, besides he's the one that brought this on himself," Giant Sun reasoned.

When out of nowhere Giant Sun detected 4 powerful Killer Moves shooting towards the Eastern Sea: "Not good!"

Giant Sun was caught off guard that the 4 Venerables would act before Fang Yuan even made it to Rank 7!

"I thought they might have attacked at Rank 8 but Rank 7? Isn't that too early?"

Giant Sun decided to do some deductions as he was powerless to stop the moves on such short notice: "Oh? Water Gu? Really that's the reason?"

Giant Sun was almost shocked at how simplistic the reasoning was.

He thought it was a scheme but after several more investigations that was what all the signs pointed to.

Meanwhile, another person was caught off guard,

It was Fang Yuan!

"You've got to be kidding," he noticed the approach of the 4 Killer Moves.

They were timed perfectly, more so than was intended.

Fang Yuan was a crucial step in Dao Mark refinement, Gu refinement and upkeep of Obscured Heavenly Secrets!

With how little thoughts he had left Fang Yuan could only pick to do 2 of the 3!

Forcefully stopping his refinement of Dao Marks would cause him to drop from 8% to 6%!

While stopping the Gu refinement would cause him to lose Rank 6, going 7, Water Gu.

And while he could abandon Obscured Heavenly Secrets and allow it to break, it would mean that Star Constellation and Heaven would easily detect that he had refined Elemental Dao Marks!

"Damnit!" Fang Yuan wondered if Heaven and Heavenly Court already knew his plan, as the timing seemed to coincidental:

"No. It is unlikely as Obscure Heavenly Secrets is still active, I can only curse bad luck." Fang Yuan sighed.

He forcefully suppressed his refinement of Dao Marks, causing them to regress, while he both intercepted the incoming Killer Move and safeguarded the incomplete Rank 7 Water Gu!

"Hmph! You cowardly lot!" Fang Yuan used his spare thoughts to activate a few Killer Moves he had in wait, easily countering the 4 Killer Moves that targeted him.

"You don't want me to refine Water Gu? Too bad!" Fang Yuan placed the incomplete Water Gu in his aperture.

In Heavenly Court,

"It appears Fang Yuan is now determined to advance Water Gu," Star Constellation told Heaven: "We can't do anything if refines from within his Aperture."

"It doesn't matter," Heaven said, aloof, "I never really cared if he refined Water Gu to begin with, but having assistance from all his Refinement Path Dao Marks made it trivially easy to refine Gu using the Heaven and Earth method.

"At least now he has a chance to fail by natural means,"

Even for a Gu Refinement Venerable, it was possible to fail!

This has happened quite a few times to Fang Yuan, even when making Rank 8 Gu!

Although, since he had the Four Elements Square Regret Blood Refinement Pool, this was not a huge concern.

Heaven's little stunt only cost Fang Yuan, the possibility of losing out on some materials.

Though Heavenly Court had not realized the fact that they cost Fang Yuan more than just some material and convenience.

"Hmph, it really was just bad luck," Fang Yuan was still slightly unconvinced that their timing was so perfect that his hands were virtually tied.

"*sigh* Is this the retaliation of the Heavenly Dao? Fang Yuan wondered.

Although the Heavenly Dao wanted to promote stronger living beings, that was not the same for Otherworldly Demons!

Both Heaven and Earth despised them!

This was something they both agreed upon.

After all, who would want to raise somebody else's children, especially if they didn't know them!

This was why the Heavenly Dao would make things difficult for Otherworldly Demons but it was because it operated on rules, it had to be fair, even to otherworldly demons, there is no situation that is inescapable.

Otherwise, the Heavenly Dao could just send a Chaotic Tribulation and wipe out any Otherworldly Demons.

[1] I say Metal Path is Southern Border because even though it is full of Mountains, they contain a lot of Metal within them.

[2] Basically, to clarify what I mean, imagine there are 100 Dao Marks for each of the 7 Elements, now if FY has access to 15% of those it means he can use 15 Dao Marks from each element which means out of the total 700 Dao Marks he can mobilize a 105 Dao Marks in total!

This means even compared to a Venerable who can refine a 100% FY is still stronger!

Of course, this is based on the assumption that a region has unified amounts of Dao Marks, which they don't.

But it does mean that if FY travelled the world and refined all the Elemental Dao Marks, he would have 7x more Dao Marks than any other Venerable in history!