Playing with Fire

Yu Wen Zi entered the cave to find an eager Gu Guangzhi. Gu Guangzhi had been restless ever since he heard that his aptitude could increase. When Yu Wen Zi saw this, he chuckled to himself and made Gu Guangzhi sit down.

"This method that I'm about to teach you isn't an instantaneous method to raise your aptitude. It is a dangerous and grueling method that will squeeze every last bit of life from you. So tell me, are you ready?"

Gu Guangzhi was not deterred. He replied, "I am willing to dedicate fully to this method even if it puts my life at risk. I want to break my limits and become stronger."

"That's good to hear. I've tried to pass on this method to two disciples before but they didn't live to see the results of their hard work. I hope you don't end up dead like them.", Yu Wen Zi spoke in a detached manner. Gu Guangzhi gulped but agreed once again to follow the method.

"Alright then. The first step is to form a blood path gu insect. It is a Rank 2 gu insect called Blood spark Gu. This gu has to be refined from your own blood.", saying so he pulled Gu Guangzhi's hand and cut his wrist open.

Gu Guangzhi flinched in pain but Yu Wen Zi told him to forget about the loss of blood and start pouring primeval essence in to the blood. He gave Gu Guangzhi some petals of Blood burst chrysanthemums that he recovered from the blood path gu masters that he killed. As Gu Guangzhi was eating the petals, he could feel fresh blood being generated in his body.

After a large amount of blood was lost, Yu Wen Zi used a healing type gu to stop the bleeding. He then proceeded to take out the heart of a Frenzy Lightning Wolf he obtained from the last wolf tide. He asked Gu Guangzhi to use his primeval essence to pump the blood through Frenzy Lightning Wolf's heart. Yu Wen Zi then proceeded to use a thousand year old mellow-dew root. The medicinal herb seemed to bring the heart back alive for a split second and in that split second, Yu Wen Zi took out a Ice clamper prison Gu and fed the bleeding thunder heart to it. The Ice clamper prison Gu was hurting from the inside and soon blood spikes protruded from inside. Some blood spikes broke through the shell of the Ice camper bison and shot towards Gu Guangzhi but Yu Wen Zi quickly stopped them. The Ice clamper prison Gu died soon after. Yu Wen Zi opened the clamped mouth and found a single spark of blood. He asked Gu Guangzhi to consume this spark of blood quickly and soon to Gu Guangzhi's surprise, a Rank 2 Blood spark Gu was formed in his aperture.

Gu Guangzhi was curious about this gu but Yu Wen Zi quickly advised him not to inject any primeval essence into it. Doing so would ignite the Blood spark Gu and it would blast his aperture to smithereens. Gu Guangzhi wondered why his master created such a useless gu insect that would kill it's user. But there was one other thing he was very surprised with. He refinement process didn't use any primeval stones! He had spent up a lot of his inheritance to research the recipe for a simple Rank 2 gu insect and even when he got the recipe, he had to spend a lot of primeval stones in the refinement itself. He wondered if this was the difference between a true refinement master and an amateur like himself.

"I thought refinement needed a lot of primeval stones. How did you refine a gu insect without using any primeval stones?", asked Gu Guangzhi.

"Hahaha. That's not true at all. There are several recipes for the refinement of a single gu insect. Some methods require primeval essence. Some don't. That's all. Borrowing the power of the world around you to refine gu insects is much more dangerous but it can reduce the financial burden on the gu master doing the refinement."

Gu Guangzhi opened his mouth in amazement. He was amazed at how knowledgeable Yu Wen Zi was. "How did you learn all this despite just being a Rank 2 gu master? I bet even the clan elder lacks in knowledge compared to you.", Gu Guangzhi voiced his thoughts.

Yu Wen Zi sighed and kept silent. Gu Guangzhi did not probe further. After a while Yu Wen Zi resumed speaking. "Alright. The first step is complete. Technically, we can proceed to the next step but it might cause you more harm than good due to your life bound vital gu. It would be better if we change your vital gu from a wood path gu to a fire path gu. That way, you have a better chance of survival."

Bamboo family gu were everywhere in the southern border. Many clans tried to adopt this gu into their clan by refining the bamboo family gu into the paths followed by their clans. Bamboo sword Gu was one such example. It was a sword path gu insect and had the best attack among all the Rank 2 bamboo family of gu insects available. Several other variations of this gu used too much primeval essence or wasn't very powerful. Bamboo fire flower Gu was one such variation. It was Rank 2 gu that could create small flowers of fire that could be used to hurt one's opponents but they had to be produced in huge quantities to overwhelm the opponents. Otherwise gu masters would put out the fire flowers before they could do any harm.

Many such recipes were not restricted by the clans due to the weak nature of bamboo family gu, so Gu Guangzhi had those recipes as part of his inheritance. Guangzhi refined his Rank 1 Bamboo sprout Gu into Rank 2 Bamboo fire flower Gu under the supervision of Yu Wen Zi. Since the Gu recipe was known to him, it didn't cost him many primeval stones to refine it to the next rank. Gu Guangzhi was a bit dejected that he didn't have any more primeval stones but Yu Wen Zi laughed at him.

"It is good that you don't have any primeval stones because once we are done through with the next step of the method, you cannot use primeval stones to advance your cultivation. You will have to use your own natural primeval essence to progress your cultivation." Yu Wen Zi explained.

Gu Guangzhi always had Fang Yuan on the back of his mind. He knew that if Fang Yuan awakened his aperture to become a gu master, he would become a ruthless monster that he always feared. Right now, Fang Yuan was only five years old. He was touted as a genius and was under the protection of the clan. So if things went well, he would have another ten years of head start to become strong. But now, if he only relied on his natural regenerative capabilities, would he even be able to break into Rank 3 before then?

Yu Wen Zi stopped his train of thought and spoke up, "Let's continue on to the next step."