"Well done, Fang Yuan," the clan head said as he inspected his aperture, confirming Fang Yuan's advancement to Rank 2. "As promised, this is your reward."
Jade Skin Gu- a rank one defensive gu worm, was handed to Fang Yuan who graciously accepted. It had even been refined by the clan head, which meant that there was likely more to this meeting than first appeared.
"But that is not the only reason that I've called you here..." the clan head said. They were back in the small garden that "I'm sure that in a year or two you will be a clan elder! There are many things you need to learn before that, however, and one of them is regarding gu refinement."
Fang Yuan already had Master-level attainment in gu refinement, but he pretended to be ignorant just as the clan head would've expected from someone his age. "Refining gu? Like, controlling them with your primeval essence?"
"That is a part of it, but I am referring to fusing gu to refine them. You have a rank 1 Jade Skin Gu, and a rank 1 Moonlight Gu. Together, they can be combined to form the Rank 2 Moon Raiment Gu!"
"And how do I do that?" Fang Yuan asked eagerly.
"Both of these gu worms have had their own wills removed from them, they respond to you," the clan head said. "You need to take the Moonlight Gu and the Jade Skin Gu, and infiltrate them with your Rank 2 essence. Then, maintaining your consciousness, you need to bring them together."
"Bring them together... I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand," Fang Yuan said.
"Think of it this way, rotate your right hand clockwise," the clan head said.
Fang Yuan obliged.
"Now rotate your left hand anti-clockwise," the clan head said.
Fang Yuan tried to do this, but found difficulty in doing both processes simultaneously. "Ah, I'm sorry I can't do it."
The clan head nodded. "You are trying to do something similar with gu fusion. You are taking two independent thoughts, and merging them together. It is far easier to understand this by doing rather than simply telling you."
Fang Yuan took out the Moonlight Gu and the Jade Skin Gu, and then infiltrated them with his red primeval essence. They both responded, and then hovered in the air, rotating around each other like a pair of planets.
"Now, try to bring them together, maintaining your control over them at the same time," the clan head said.
The two gu began to get closer and closer, until they finally merged together and formed a ball of light the size of Fang Yuan's fist.
"Clan head! Uh- I- what's going on? What do I do now?" Fang Yuan asked, sounding panicked. The ball of light seemed to almost unravel for a second.
"Calm down, this is all according to how things should be," the clan head said reassuringly. "Now, toss primeval stones into this ball, maintaining the fusion at the same time."
Fang Yuan obliged, tossing in a stone, the ball of light growing bigger in response. He tossed in a second, then a third, and this went on. Soon, the ball of light stopped growing bigger and instead condensed back to its original size.
There was a loud sound, and a flash of light as a new gu worm dropped down from the ball of light.
"Excellent! Well done Fang Yuan!" the clan head praised. Despite all he knew about Fang Yuan having natural talent, he had not expected him to succeed on his first try.
Fang Yuan himself was a bit surprised- no matter how experienced he was, there was always a chance of failure. Experience would not help with that. There was a way to make this refinement more successful - that was to add in the bones of a jade eye stone monkey during the refinement, but this modification had not been discovered yet and would not be for at least another hundred years.
This was likely thanks to his high Luck, he realized.
The Rank 2 Moon Raiment Gu fell into Fang Yuan's outstretched palm. Now that it had taken the form of the Moon Raiment, it lost its earlier ability to attack. It was now solely a defensive gu worm, but that ability had been greatly advanced.
"Continue doing well like this Fang Yuan," the clan head said. "You've done great things for the clan already, Fang Yuan, and I have high hopes for you." The clan head been astonished by not only Fang Yuan's performance, but by his luck as well. Sometimes, even those who did not start out well could reach great heights if they had fate's blessing. With Fang Zheng out of the picture, Fang Yuan was the new hopeful among the clan's youth.
"I will continue to work hard so as to not disappoint you," Fang Yuan said, cupping his hands.
The next few days leading up to the exam were uneventful until one day, while walking back to the dorm, Fang Yuan noticed a change in his aperture.
"What is this... gu refinement?!"
The mysterious Rank 3 gu that he had been unable to identify was changing, glowing with a pleasant light. As Fang Yuan continued to walk, it continued to glow, and by the time he had reached his dorm it had formed a fourth feather and was now emitting a Rank 4 aura.
He had refined a Rank 3 gu worm into Rank 4!
The only question was- how? He had no idea what had caused this change.
If one of his disciples back when he had been Supreme Elder of the Blood Wing Demon Sect had told him that they had somehow refined a Rank 4 gu without even knowing what they had done to refine it, he would've slapped them across the face for being an idiot.
But now, he was left speechless as to what had happened. The mysterious gu worm had not done anything until that point, not even needing feeding despite being relatively healthy, and had just suddenly had a change today.
'I don't remember doing anything different today...' Fang Yuan thought. He normally kept the gu worm hidden though he would occasionally take it out and place it in his aperture just to make sure that it was doing alright. Also, if he didn't do so occasionally, unless he used special sealing methods it would eventually die.
He took out the newly refined Rank 4 gu and took a good look at it. The fourth feather... it was not the length of the others, though the feathers on the gu worm had not been symmetrical to begin with.
"It almost looks like... it's imitating a human hand, or trying to," Fang Yuan thought. Granted, it only had four fingers, but perhaps it would grow a fifth one when it was Rank 5? The 'feathers' were bent in the same way that fingers would be, with only a 'thumb' missing.
If the food that this gu worm changed upon refinement, it would be an issue, yet, there was nothing that Fang Yuan could do about that. He could only hope that it continued to feed on something that was intangible and yet easy to obtain while he pondered what it was that had led to it changing like this.