**Chapter 25: Venerable's Appearance??**
Hey everyone!
1. One reader asked if I would be willing to create a Discord server for this novel. As I don't normally use Discord, I wanted to ask first if there is any interest in that before I invest my time into setting it up.
2. If you were a Gu Immortal, what methods would you use to make money? I have a lot of ideas for that, some of which I'm sure nobody has thought of. But maybe you have better ones I've never considered…
3. What do you think is the record for the number of immortal Gu that have been refined in one immortal ascension?
4. Do you think it's possible to attain an 'Extreme Physique' level of Immortal Aperture just through attainment and Human Qi in general?
---------------------------
It took nearly half an hour for me to calm down from the refinement. And once I did, I noticed that the Rank 2 Acid Armor Gu was not the biggest gain I had made…
Refinement Path Quasi-Master…
"Hahahaha…"
'With that, I am equal in refinement path attainment to my father…'
'Well, probably not equal in that sense, as I have just gained my attainment and have not progressed further on the Path of Refinement, which my father definitely had…'
The difference between each level of attainment is massive; no attainment does not need an explanation. But Master level attainment is already the attainment of a Rank 6 Gu Immortal in their main path.
The difference between those two levels of attainment is enough to fill a lifetime. Naturally, there will be Quasi-Masters that would make others with the same attainment look like amateurs…
'But with this, I should be the third or fourth best refinement Master in the clan, as a Rank 1 nonetheless.'
'This in itself could guarantee me a comfortable life in the clan… but I did not want that to happen…'
I have seen the number of people with A or B grade talent who had just stopped advancing at Rank 2 peak stage or even Rank 3.
And for what reason?
Because life had become comfortable for them; they were content. They could eat their fill, fornicate, and be entertained. In combination with the relative peace of the Fei Yu clan, they lost their motivation.
'Pathetic,'
'Not like I will end up like that…' a smile of unwavering confidence spread across his face.
'Still funny that I got attainment in the refinement path before I got it in the poison path…'
As refinement is an older and more popular path, it should hence be exponentially harder to gain attainment in.
'Huuuh… let's just chill for the rest of the day…'
This was just a habit I had from my past life; if something really good happened on a particular day, I would try to lay low for a while, as to not tempt fate.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*10 minutes earlier – Lang Ya Blessed Land*
A room filled with variant humans, hairy men to be specific. A normal person would not even dare to breathe too loudly in here. That was because the weakest of the people here were Rank 5 Gu Masters.
But even these people, who would be respected for their strength anywhere they go, just sat behind the first row of hairy men, six of them Rank 6 and one of them Rank 7.
All of them were just inhabitants of Lang Ya Blessed Land and were listening attentively to the man holding a lecture about refinement right in front of them.
Lang Ya, or as he would be called in the far, far future… Long Haired Ancestor. A Rank 8 Gu Immortal, the supreme of the refinement Path, and the man who had, up until now, outlived a Venerable and refined countless Immortal Gu.
"So if I refine the Rank 4 Great Cleave Gu like this, how many of you can tell me what I did wrong?"
He asked as he demonstrated the refinement of a Rank 4 Gu, which for some would be considered the greatest achievement of their lives, in barely a few seconds.
"Don't be shy, come on, raise your hand…"
All the immortals and about 10% of the Rank 5 Gu Masters raised their hands.
"Hmmm…" looking at a Rank 5 middle-stage hairy man, who had blond hair and wore a purple robe with a bright and colorful design stretched onto it, he said:
"You come explain what I did wrong; a small hint, I did make 3 mistakes intentionally…"
With an excited expression, the young Gu Master answered:
"For the first mistake, you added the copper essence fruit about a second too early…"
"That is true. Impressive young man, did you notice anything else?"
"Did you mess up the order intentionally? The fire should have been started after the blade cut the Yewtree wood?" this observation was made as if he was not sure of it, more like he was asking a question.
"You are correct again."
"Sorry Ancestor, I could not come up with anything for the third flaw…" the Rank 5 Gu Master looked deeply ashamed, as if he had let down his whole lineage.
With a smile on his face, Long Ya answered: "That does not matter, young one; after all, you are here to learn. The third flaw was that I…"
The words would not leave his mouth as his face went from a bright smile to the most serious most of those attending the lecture had ever seen their ancestor.
"All of you, out!" Long Ya shouted with a furious expression.
Now an expression of shock seemed to travel around the room, as if someone had told the class that the moon fell out of the sky; none of them could remain calm.
But they left nonetheless, as they did not want to be in the same room as a Rank 8 Gu Immortal who was angry.
Once outside, the young Rank 5 Gu Master who had answered the question worked up the courage to walk up to one of the friendliest-looking Rank 6 Immortals and ask:
"Excuse me, senior, do… do you think it was something I said that infuriated Lord Ancestor?"
Looking at the honestly pitiful hairy man before him, the Immortal answered:
"Your answers were correct, and I don't think any of the other Rank 5s could have answered the third question correctly. And if I know this, let's just say I know nothing that Lord Ancestor does not…"
"It is likely just that something important came up in the middle of the lesson; you might not be old enough to remember, but something like this happens from time to time…"
"Thank you, Lord Immortal!" looking visibly better and more confident, he made his way back to his friend group.
*POV: Long Ya*
"Nonononono…. How could this happen??"
The arguably strongest hairy man in the world right now could not explain his own situation right now…
'How can I lose my Attainment this easily…'
That is right; in the middle of the lesson, Lang Ya noticed that he was no longer a Supreme Grandmaster of the Refinement Path.
To be a Supreme Grandmaster, you need to know more than anyone in a certain path, and that includes heavens will. So in theory, it takes only one person to invent something never seen before, and the supreme would lose that title.
Summoning a Rank 6 Wisdom Path Gu, Lang Ya thought.
'Should I risk it?? The only time this has happened in the past was when my friend Thieving Heaven invented Refining Fake Gu and robbed heaven.'
'That time I was lucky, as he instantly shared his insights with me, and I regained my attainment…'
But the hairy man was scared as he looked at his only wisdom path Gu, which he normally only used to find out if a Gu already exists.
'What if this is the work of another Venerable?' he shivered.
Which was understandable, as every Venerable, with the exception of Thieving Heaven, was an absolute genocidal maniac when it came to variant humans.
Gritting his teeth, he decided.
'I will not back down, refinement is my passion… not like a venerable will go after me just because I wanted to find out a refinement method… Maybe??'
That said, he prayed to Hairy Men Jesus and activated a Rank 6 Wisdom Path killer move to find out why he lost his attainment status.
*Death Refinement*
…
…
…
More and more information just kept appearing after he had only activated the killer move once.
'Strange… this is definitely not a Venerable level of resistance that I just faced. In fact, it almost seemed like I was looking into someone who knew nothing of the wisdom path…'
'And this *Death Refinement*, absolute maniac psychopathic behavior… like who comes up with something like this…'
Instantly after he learned about Death Refinement, he regained his Supreme Grandmaster Attainment.
There are different styles to refine Gu:
Human Isolation Style – basically humans isolating themselves from the outside world to focus on refinement, without the world interfering.
Heaven and Earth Style – basically the opposite of human isolation style; it uses the dao marks in nature to refine Gu.
Both of these have opposites as well; one creates Humans from Gu, and the other Worlds using Gu.
Refining Fake Gu – it is a refinement style invented by Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable. It allows one to refine convincing fakes.
Now there was a new addition to this list, Death Refinement.
'A kind of refinement where the first step is always to kill the Gu you refine… Only using the corpse as an ingredient…. '
"What the heck? Which madman came up with that??"
Then he saw it again, out of the corner of his eyes, his Rank 6 wisdom Gu. It was calling to him.
'It's probably not a Venerable, so what's the worst thing that can happen?'
With that, he activated his killer move again, this time searching for the creator of this intriguing innovation in refinement…
Fei Yu Zhen Wei
Rank 1 middle stage
Fei Yu Clan
Xuan Feng Bao Archipelago
Eastern Sea
…
…
…
Information about our protagonist appeared in the mind of a Rank 8 Immortal one after the other.
He was wrong; the worst thing that could happen was not a new Venerable; this had killed his ego at least…
"What in the world…" Long Ya was about to curse again but gave up halfway…
He obtained a myriad of information about Zhen Wei, but the man himself would be surprised by a few pieces of info he did not obtain.
And that despite the fact that a Rank 6 Immortal killer move should easily be able to notice these things.
Long Haired Ancestor did not get even a clue about Zhen Wei's cheat. As if his common sense, heavens will, and the Gu malfunctioned at the exact same time…
He also did not learn that Zhen Wei was an otherworldly demon… There was definitely something wrong here….
"Hahaha…" relief was all Long Ya felt at the moment. It was nothing that could threaten him or his interests….
This was the absolute best-case scenario.
'Death Refinement has a high success rate, but the loss is too big if it fails. It's a method without compromise, either fail or die…'
'But I can definitely combine it with my Heaven and Earth Style to increase my odds at refining Rank 6 Gu. As the materials for that would only risk immortal materials, and not immortal Gu….'
'The longer I think about it, the better this gets….'
With a sudden bout of inspiration, he opened Treasure Yellow Heaven and bought dozens of different Gu, some of them refinement, some, but fewer, of poison path.
Something they all had in common, though, was that he bought them from Eastern Sea immortals.
Up until this point, it had cost him only primeval stones, which for him might as well be air.
'I have to find a fitting one to deliver that…'
Looking around Treasure Yellow Heaven, he searched for Eastern Sea Gu Immortals…
Rank 8?
'Pff… Heck no…'
Has an immortal Gu?
'Nope?'
Just advanced and was broke?
'Perfect!'
Long Ya set the tone of the conversation with the first sentence he said.
"I want you to do something for me… your pay will be one immortal essence stone."
"…" The other immortal was about to say something, but before he got the chance, Long Ya continued.
"If you open the package or interact with the person you will deliver this to, I will kill you."
"Don't take this as a threat but as a fact, I am a Rank 8 Refinement Path Gu Immortal. I know a lot of people in the Eastern Sea that would gladly cut your head to get a chance to even make a request to me."
"…" This time the immortal seemed to be a bit intimidated and did not dare say anything.
"Here is the package you have to deliver. The person you will deliver it to lives in the Fei Yu clan on Xuan Feng Bao Archipelago. He is called Zhen Wei; at the moment he is Rank 1 middle stage, but that could change."
"Also, he cultivates poison and refinement Path. Is that enough information for you to find him?"
"Yes, senior! About the pay?"
"Humph… " Long Ya threw a half an immortal essence stone at him.
"You have three months to deliver it; the other half will be paid upon completion." With that, he left without giving the newly coined Rank 6 Gu Immortal a chance to protest.
He did not seem to mind, though, as he looked at half the immortal essence stone in his hand…
"I can finally start building resource points in my Aperture… Yes!" he even let out a small tear.
"And all I have to do is find some stupid mortal and give him this package, that is too easy…"
Two people, both thinking they ripped each other off, went their way…
Back in Long Ya Blessed Land, the Supreme Refinement Master thought:
'There are not many people that have original thoughts… especially not in the refinement Path. If this small investment will result in even one more creative refinement method it will be worth it….'
'Who knows, maybe this Zhen Wei will grow up into an immortal that will be worth discussing refinement with….'
2279 words