Inside, the Gu Room was small but stunning.
The four walls were filled with square holes of varying sizes. Each hole held a container, and each container housed a Gu worm.
Some Gu sat silently. Others chirped or fluttered. The noises layered together, forming a strange, living symphony.
Just like Gu Masters, Gu worms were ranked from 1 to 9.
These were all Rank 1.
The first Gu worm refined by a Gu Master would become their Vital Gu—also known as their Life-bound Gu. Their life force would be linked from that moment forward. If the Gu died, the Master would suffer severe backlash.
Fortunately, the process of refining the Vital Gu was safeguarded. The Gu couldn't die while attempting to refine it to a higher rank.
'My Vital Gu is already the Rank 1 Gun Gu, so there's that...'
What Mo Bei needed now was a Gu that could complement his Gun Gu.
He walked over to one of the walls.
On the top row of silver plates sat a neat line of Gu worms shaped like crescent moons, made of a translucent crystal.
He picked one up, touching it to get a slightly better feeling for it.
'Moonlight Gu… There's no guarantee, but there should be a good chance to combine it with Gun Gu. If I refined it, I'd be more sure...'
He returned it to its plate and kept browsing.
On a different wall, a bronze bowl caught his eye. Inside was a flat, wide Gu with a small head and an oval body. Its yellow-orange shell gave off a faint metallic glow.
He picked it up.
'Bronze Skin Gu.'
It was a defensive Gu. It temporarily turned the user's skin to bronze, boosting defense.
'As it is... nah. I could potentially use it to enhance the bullets' durability, but that's not the priority right now. It's also a defensive type Gu, so I can't imagine the process of combining it with Gun Gu being easy.'
He put it back.
There were six more like it – Stone Skin Gu, Iron Skin Gu, Beast Skin Gu. All variations on the same theme. Pass.
Next wall.
Longhorn Beetle Gu.
'Strength boosters,' he thought, picking one up. It squirmed. 'Useless for a Gun Gu build. Maybe if I was going for a bayonet.'
He moved on.
The entire second wall – mostly melee-oriented Gu. All too up-close-and-personal for someone with a ranged mindset.
Third wall – Boar type Gu. More strength boosters. Also incompatible.
There were some wood-path healing type Gu, but Mo Bei saw the idea of combining his Gun Gu to create a Healing Gun to heal others as something difficult to accomplish and completely useless to him at this point.
He lingered for a moment, imagining a Glock that shot green Jesus beams of light, which healed whomever they struck, then shook his head.
Next, he discovered several storage type utility Gu, mostly storage type. But again, the compatibility just wasn't there.
To Mo Bei's disappointment, there were no Fire type Gu there. No Lightning Gu. No Soul Path Gu either, while the Metal type Gu were all defensive Gu.
Among everything, only Wind-type Gu showed some potential.
In the end, he returned to the Moonlight Gu and pocketed it.
…
"Geez, finally out!" Chi Cheng whined, seeing Mo Bei exit the room.
Without waiting for a response, he rushed inside.
Mo Bei walked away without a word.
'The next few days will be all about refining, there will be no chance for training. Might as well treat the way back home like a workout.'
He began to jog, gradually raising his speed as he ran on the way home.
…
Back in his room, he skipped dinner and sat cross-legged on the carpet.
He took the Moonlight Gu from his pocket and rested it on his palm.
Then he focused inward on his Aperture.
His Primeval Sea was currently 70% full - the limit of his talent.
The outer edge of the Aperture was encased in a thin layer of white light. Although it seemed fragile, it supported the walls firmly.
At the bottom of the sea lay the black gun-shaped Gu. It was motionless, like a submerged rock.
The walls of the aperture glowed jade green, marking his Rank 1 Initial Stage cultivation. The water inside shimmered the same color.
With a thought, a surge of Primeval Essence left the sea and flowed into the Moonlight Gu in his hand.
The Gu Worm immediately began to radiate blue light and tremble slightly. It resisted the invasion of essence.
As the elder had said - Gu are the essence of heaven and earth, born with their own will. Refinement meant destroying that will, turning the Gu into a mindless tool to the Gu Master.
Naturally, it would resist.
After three minutes, Mo Bei's face turned pale.
His Primeval Essence poured out in a continuous stream. The toll on his body came fast.
He began to do things in a more controlled and sustainable manner.
1%... 2%... 8%... 10%.
Ten percent of his sea was gone in just over ten minutes.
The Moonlight Gu glowed, but only the tips of its crescent showed signs of refinement—small patches of green-copper hue.
'No surprise. It's putting up a fight.'
After an hour, his Primeval Sea was almost dry.
He stopped the flow of Primeval Essence.
As he checked, the Moonlight Gu was refined by less than 20%, about 18% by his estimation.
'Not bad for the first session.'
But there was a problem.
Even though he'd stopped refining, the Gu hadn't stopped resisting. It continued pushing out his Primeval Essence, bit by bit.
The green copper coloring at the tips began to recede.
At this rate, 18% would fall to 10% in six hours… then get down to 1% in another six.
Around twelve hours – that's how long it would take for his work to be undone.
Refining a Gu wasn't a one-time burst – it was a war of attrition.
He took out a Primeval Stone from his pouch.
A Gu Master had two ways to replenish essence: natural recovery, which took around ten hours… or Primeval Stones, which were much faster.
With Mo Bei's talent, relying on natural recovery alone was possible but would be painfully slow. Because of the constant resistance of Moonlight Gu, without the use of Primeval Stones, an A-grade like Fang Zheng would be twice as fast.
So he used the second method.
He directly absorbed the natural essence from a Primeval Stone.
The natural essence flowed into him, replenishing his Primeval Sea.
Within close to two hours, it was back to 70%.
At that point, the water stopped rising. His aperture had room, but no more capacity.
Meanwhile, his earlier progress had dropped from 18% to around 15%.
'Time to push again.'
He resumed refining, determination gleaming in his eyes.
He wasn't just doing this for the assignment.
He wanted to see how far he could go, how close he could get to Fang Zheng, even with weaker talent.
Even if the odds were stacked against him…
He wanted to see if persistence could load the chamber.
In the next two days, Mo Bei didn't eat anything.
Although the servants brought him food, he refused after the first time.
Since he didn't have time for physical training while refining Gu, he decided to fast—partly for health, partly to drop some body fat, and mostly because chewing and shitting took too long.
He only drank some water to stay hydrated.
…
Two days passed.
During that time, Mo Bei did not eat, shit, or sleep.
After the first day, he only took a brief nap before diving back in.
For forty-eight hours straight he had almost no rest as he continued his work.
Then, after two days of continuous effort – Moonlight Gu was fully refined by him!
Mo Bei clenched his fist. His body ached, his eyes were bloodshot, and his clothes reeked of stale sweat. But there was a glint of pride in his eyes.
He was mentally exhausted, but it was a burden he could bear. He hadn't transmigrated to this world to play on easy mode.
Refining a Gu worm wasn't difficult, but it was an incredibly boring and painfully tedious process.
But. He. Had. Done. It.
The Moonlight Gu was refined in one go, in just two days.
Now fully his, the crystal-like worm sank obediently into his Aperture, settling near his Gun Gu at the bottom.
Mo Bei stood up shakily, his joints stiff.
It took about ten kilograms of his sheer willpower not to collapse onto the bed and just rot there for eternity.
He glanced out the window.
It was late evening.
Heavy raindrops beat down from the sky. The rain had continued nonstop for two days, and it still hadn't stopped.
'Hmm… That means Fang Yuan won't come out until it clears up. Then, probably the same day, he'll catch the Liquor Worm. Which means… he'll only report his Moonlight Gu refinement that night,' Mo Bei calculated.
In other words, if he reported his Gu refinement now, he'd beat both Fang Yuan and Fang Zheng to the punch.
Mo Bei refining his Gu this fast definitely wasn't something that had happened in Fang Yuan's first life…
Even so, Mo Bei still planned to report it.
Fang Yuan would find out he was different eventually. Especially as time passed and Mo Bei veered further and further from the original's path.
In that case, there was no point in pretending to be the same old "Ordinary Mo Bei." He needed his cultivation to be far faster than the original's.
In the current situation, reporting first would earn him 20 Primeval Stones and also raise his standing in the clan, and most importantly – win points with his grandfather. That could open doors to much better resources down the line.
Gu Yue Mo Chen was strict. But if Mo Bei showed results, real results, then maybe, just maybe, he'd loosen the purse a bit.
But first…
Mo Bei took out the Gun Gu, stashed it inside a locker, and locked it securely.
Then, without delay, he grabbed an umbrella and left the mansion.