Ch 6 - Facing the one and only Lord

A young man was sitting in front of a refinement cauldron. His body was full of injuries. One could see that he's been practicing refining for days and night without rest.

'Sigh, I am finally able to refine Rank 2 gu worms without much issues. I have also had enough practice with refining rank 1 water light gu which will be asked in the first round after the test. Although, others are unaware of the content of refinement path convention, how could I not know! Although, it would have been impossible to reach here without these two gu.'

His gaze landed at Iron Blood gu and Persistence Gu. Iron Blood Gu could turn pain into pleasure. Persistence gu increased the stamina of gu master helping them go through long arduous tasks.

Haru was using fire refinement method and it was very easy to get hurt. Since he was not fond of pain, he activated this Iron Blood gu while refining. Lord Sky Crane was not pleased at first but since this was an effective method by which Haru could focus on refining, he didn't say much.

Central Continent's Refinement Path Convention was created by the ten great ancient sects, but secretly, Heavenly Court was supporting it.

The Refinement Path Convention was of a huge scale, there were hundreds of sign up locations all over Central Continent. Most of them were sects similar to Five Virtues Sect, having abundant strength and being closely linked to the ten great ancient sects, or simply one of their representatives.

If anyone wanted to sign and receive the token, they had to refine Gu on the spot, and completing the four tasks.

However, there was also a group of special Gu Masters.

These people were either in sects or they themselves had obtained a good position in the previous Refinement Path Convention, thus they could join the Refinement Path Convention automatically.

Of course, Immortal Crane Sect had a larger number of spots. A portion of the spots that the sects had were distributed to disciples and elite disciples, while the other portion went to elders.

Fang Zheng was now an elder of Immortal Crane Sect, he could not compete with the disciples for the spot. His refinement path attainment was very low as well, he could not beat other elders.

Immortal Crane Sect naturally gave the free spots to those with deep foundation in Gu refinement, those Gu Masters that could defend Immortal Crane Sect's prestige in the Refinement Path Convention.

Hence Haru had to sign up himself by applying for the test.

Central Continent, Five Virtues Mountain.

Streams of people were busily moving around Five Virtues Mountain.

Five Virtues Mountain was not tall. It was located in the eastern part of Central Continent and was the base of a middle sized sect – Five Virtues Sect.

Haru was mixed in the stream of people, slowly moving up Five Virtues Mountain. Many of the disciples of Immortal Crane Sect had joined him too.

He wore a blue robe, his tall body and rank 5 aura made people give him a praising look wherever he passed by and parted way for him.

Following the slow stream of people, Haru arrived in front of Five Virtues Sect's entrance.

'Wow the entrance is so huge. Although, I have seen it countless times in my past few days in Immortal Crane Sect, but it still mesmerizes me. Archway of Sixteen huge columns, six magnificent stone lion statues, green and verdant trees along with mountain winds blowing over,.. the description of novel really matches!'

Haru's gaze went over to the many people who had gathered here. People from all walks of life, young to old, Southern Border to Northern Plains, Eastern Seas to Western Desert, all had gathered here from the Refinement Path Convention.

He interacted with many of them on the way. His identity as a Immortal Crane Sect elder was too sensitive. Many people bowed to him in respect.

As one walked along the path on the mountain, they would arrive at a point part way up it. There was a huge platform here, on the mountain wall, there were the huge words of 'Disciple Selection Stage' engraved. Every year, the aptitude of the disciples who had just entered the sect would be tested, and the elders would choose their disciples here.

At the sides of the path, Five Virtues Sect disciples were passing out tokens with numbers on them.

Haru took his token, the number on it was twenty-one.

Walking into the Disciple Selection Stage, after finding the spot numbered twenty-one, he sat down on the ground. There were a total of about two hundred spots spread over a large area.

After a while later, when all the people had finished sitting in the square, an elder of Five Virtues Sect declared: "This Refinement Path Convention has four entry tasks, the test begins now!"

At the next moment, the hundreds of Gu Masters on the Disciple Selection Stage started showing off their skills.

Haru began practicing his skills as he had learned over the past half a month with the guidance from Lord Sky Crane.

About 20 minutes had just passed into the test when he heard a commotion.

"A mysterious Rank 5 demonic path gu master cleared the test within 15 mins and obtained the token. Some experts are saying that he is a refinement path master. Five Virtues Sect tried to recruit him but got rejected directly.", someone near Haru spoke out loud. He was excited at the thought of participating with a refinement path master.

'So, he is here.'

Thinking this, Haru looked towards the stairs of the 5-story building, and saw a person covered in a black robe, his physique was average, not tall, not short, not fat, not thin. He had covered his face with a mask and his head with a rain hat, the brim of the hat was low and its shade under the sunlight covered even the shoulders and was currently walking down the stairs.

'Gu Yue Fang Yuan! We finally meet!'

At the same time, Fang Yuan looked towards a certain direction as he felt a peculiar gaze upon him.

'Ohh, what a pleasant surprise. My naive little brother is still alive. I can move forward with the blood deity plan once I kidnap him.'

Haru and Fang Yuan gazed intensely at each other for a second. No one knew what the other was thinking. The two otherworldly demons were having a face-off.