"So this is the final step… magnificent! I never expected fire path materials to be used to balance water path materials in order to stabilize a wood path Gu!"
Fang Tian rubbed his nose. Now that he had completed the fifth Gu recipe, only one remained.
The final recipe was the Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus Gu.
At first, Fang Tian had been startled to discover the Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus Gu recipe among the inheritance, only to feel slightly disappointed when he realized it was merely Rank Three. Still, he chose to complete it.
Without hesitation, Fang Tian activated a large number of Bright Thought Gu, generating countless luminous thoughts within his mind—like bubbles of light rising and colliding. These thoughts smashed into one another, birthing new ideas, fragmenting into smaller strands, or shrinking repeatedly until they struck an invisible wall they could not surpass. At that point, they would collapse and self-destruct.
To Fang Tian, this was an acceptable result. After all, deducing Gu recipes was never simple. He had already spent four months inferring and completing these formulas. Had each of them not already been eighty percent complete, he would have required far more time.
Inspiration Flash Gu provided tremendous assistance. Combined with Bright Thought Gu, their effects were exceptional. He needed only around twenty days to complete a Gu recipe. Moreover, his attainment level in wood path played a vital role, granting him intuition—an instinctive sense of whether he was advancing in the correct direction.
This was an enormous advantage.
All things considered, he lacked the time to personally test the validity of the recipes, but his attainment compensated for this shortcoming.
"Only one hundred and twelve Inspiration Flash Gu remain. That should be more than enough to complete it to a high degree. The rest, I'll have to perfect myself."
Days passed as Fang Tian continued deducing the remaining portions of the Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus Gu recipe. The difficulty was immense. The wood path materials did not constitute the majority of the formula—less than half, in fact—forcing him to incorporate materials from other paths to stabilize the composition.
Because of this, the deduction process took two months.
Yet he was not without gains. Through this effort, his refinement path foundation deepened considerably. He memorized thousands of material names and absorbed vast amounts of background knowledge regarding their origins and properties.
Rising stiffly, Fang Tian gathered the sheets of paper upon which he had written the Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus Gu recipe along with five other Gu recipes. When he placed them upon the stone protrusion where he had first discovered them, a brilliant beam of light shot into the sky, piercing through the ceiling of the hall and surging toward the mountaintop.
The hall trembled slightly.
The surrounding Gu formation collapsed into half-ruined corpses. From between the stone walls, a doorway slowly opened, leading toward the final inheritance hall.
Fang Tian did not immediately approach the door. Instead, he studied the fallen Gu worms with keen interest.
"So… this was an information path formation. It verifies whether the inheritor has completed the recipe by comparing it with the recorded version. If the similarity is high enough, it deems it a success. If it resembles the incomplete version too closely, it counts as failure, and the inheritor cannot enter the final hall…"
His gaze darkened.
"Did Li Hua truly intend to harm her inheritor?"
Fang Tian was genuinely puzzled. Li Hua's inheritance resembled that of a demonic Gu Master more than a righteous one. The trials were brutal and deadly. Yet at the same time, she had nurtured her inheritor strictly but generously—preparing refinement materials and leaving behind Reenactment Gu to explain refinement methods despite having been dead for over a century.
It could be said her inheritance bore both demonic and righteous traits.
"Although Li Hua's will's memories merged with mine, they were incomplete. I did not experience what she felt in her final moments. Who knows what conflict raged within her?"
He sighed and stepped toward the newly opened doorway.
Upon passing through, he immediately sensed a savage aura filling the air.
The source was a massive bird resting upon colossal roots that covered the entire cavern floor.
Its head was adorned with thick blue feathers. Its beak was sharp and curved like a hook. Several times larger than a human, this creature would easily be considered the king of beasts—but size meant little to Fang Tian. The aura alone felt suffocating.
"A mutated beast king… on the verge of becoming a desolate beast. With battle strength at the peak of Rank Five… I can do nothing against it."
This was the bitter truth.
Even if he possessed a bead of green grape immortal essence, it was not his to command. It contained no trace of his will; it belonged to the land spirit of Ancient Strength Blessed Land.
Fortunately, killing this dangerous creature was not his goal. He only needed to seize Li Hua's inheritance and escape.
He did not understand why the bird had not attacked him. His aura was unmistakable—indeed, abnormal due to one of the Ten Extreme Physiques. Yet the bird did not even open its eyes.
Relieved, Fang Tian surveyed his surroundings.
The inheritance hall was astonishingly vast. At its far end, sunlight poured in through an entrance that led directly outside. On another side stood a half-collapsed Gu House, surrounded by fallen Gu worm corpses.
Fang Tian moved cautiously toward the Gu House, careful not to activate any Gu that might disturb the slumbering bird.
Upon entering, he held his breath.
Before him sat a wooden corpse resting upon a chair carved from solid timber.
It was Li Hua's body—just as he had seen within her will's memories.
Her final tears had crystallized into white sap. Her arms clutched the wooden chair tightly, and a bitter smile remained frozen upon her lips.
Fang Tian felt no sorrow.
He activated several investigative Gu and revealed a sly smile.
"Found you."
A phantom hand shot forth from his palm, plunging into Li Hua's wooden corpse and seizing a weak Soul barely clinging to existence.
The Soul awoke and struggled desperately, but it was futile. Fang Tian's grasp was crushing, immovable.
The Soul shrieked in ghostly tones, speaking in a language he could not understand.
Fang Tian activated a Gu worm to comprehend its speech.
"You ungrateful inheritor! Is this how you treat your master?! You should be ashamed! Release me at once! Kneel five times and kowtow so I may forgive you!!"
Fang Tian laughed coldly.
Tightening his grip, he crushed the remaining fragment of Li Hua's Soul.
The spirit dispersed into the air, leaving behind the wooden corpse—and several Gu worms resting upon it.