Fang Yuan took another primeval stone from the bag, which was already half-empty.
He was currently in secluded cultivation, and had asked for time away for the same reason. Things on the academy side had died down mostly kudos to everyone now focussing on the upcoming final exam.
Of course, it would be of immense help to him during it if he could reach Rank 2 before then.
In his prior life, with only 44% primeval essence, he had to sustain a certain amount of essence to attack the walls of his aperture while continuously using up primeval stones over and over again. The process had taken him several days, only allowing for breaks to eat and crap, not to mention costing him around a thousand primeval stones. It was because of this great cost that it had taken him a decade to reach that point.
Now though, his reserves were large enough for him to overcome the natural regeneration rate of his primeval aperture allowing him to slowly chip away at it so long as he did so regularly. He would not even need the assistance of primeval stones for that. However, there were always interruptions it seemed. Either class, or someone calling on him, or his duties as president.
Breaking through to a major realm was far more difficult than to a minor realm. Before, it had been somewhat fine, but he was making frustratingly low progress even now. Additionally, he lacked the support of the Liquor Worm which had doubled what he was able to accomplish earlier. To Fang Yuan, it felt like he had been running but suddenly sprained his ankle and was now limping along.
No longer though- he had feigned sickness the day before and had asked for time off today. That was two days where he could fully focus on breaking through, using primeval stones with what seemed like reckless abandonment just to get through the process earlier.
That said, he was making rapid progress, having cultivated all through last night. 50% of his essence was needed to overcome the natural regeneration rate of the aperture, and the other 9% was used to actually break free. His primeval stones guaranteed that he could do so over and over, and it looked like even the hard crystal membrane was beginning to yield.
'Just a while longer...' he thought to himself. He was not an actual B-grade talent yet, despite what the others thought. The difference may seem small, but he was sure that his difficulties would be reduce to a third if only he had genuine B-grade talent.
Morning turned to afternoon, and finally, the crystal walls shattered and were replaced by a new light membrane.
The remaining green primeval essence was being replaced by light red essence.
This was genuine Rank 2 red primeval essence!
Fang Yuan relaxed. Things would be somewhat easier now given the amount of Red Steel Relic Gu he had accumulated- though once again, he couldn't advance too rapidly or it would get suspicious. He had a few things to test out first.
Success!
Advanced to Rank 2!
Reward: Strength of Ten Men Gu (x 1)
Fang Yuan was puzzled as he hadn't heard of that gu before. This was one of hte few times the system actually seemed to deem to give him information on a gu worm.
Strength of Ten Men Gu is a Human Path single-use gu worm somewhat similar to White Boar Gu. It grants the user the strenth equivalent to ten adult men permanently when used over time, though unlike the White Boar Gu cannot be reused over and over and will dissipate once it has been accumulated. Can also be split among people- one person can accumulate the strength of five men and the other as well, or five people the strength of two men, and so on.
'And what do I need to feed it?'
The gu uses Human Qi as its food. Based on system estimates, given that it is a Rank 2 gu worm, the human qi being released into the air around Qing Mao Mountain should be sufficient to feed it given its population.
There was a flaw there, Fang Yuan realized. 'And if I were to move out into the wilderness alone, then?'
Human Qi would need to be extracted in other ways.
The system did not overtly say so, but Fang Yuan knew that it was implying that he would need to kill people to absorb their human qi if he were to go out into a less populated area.
However, that didn't mean that he couldn't use it now.
He took the gu worm out of his inventory- it looked like a small action figure but with ten arms.
There was a great advantage to this type of gu worm, even if it was consumable when compared to the White Boar Gu. Although the strength of animals like boars and tigers was great, their anatomy and physiognomy were quite different from that of humans. Crocodiles had a strong jaw, horses had strong hind legs, and boars had a strong charge. Because of this, despite absorbing the strength of a boar, Fang Yuan was technically weaker than a boar when it came to head-to-head combat as he could not properly express the strength that had been stored within him. Of course, he had his own strength to add on top of that, but the strength of a human was so weak compared to that of a boar that it might have well been zero.
With this though, since it was a Human Path gu worm, he could bring out the full strength of ten men without any restrictions. Of course, he would need a defensive gu worm to use this fully as well otherwise his fists would shatter on impact.
Although this gu worm was classified as a Human Path gu worm, it had Strength Path properties. Many gu worms were like that which had dual-type properties. However, this meant that it would not synergize with other Strength Path gu. He could however, amplify its power if he imbibed more Human Path dao marks on his body.
There was also another drawback- he might not be able to bring out a beast phantom using this Human Path gu worm like he could with the White Boar Gu. That said, on average, the benefits of this were far greater than that of being able to bring about a beast phantom.
Thinking of this, he kept this new gu in his aperture and began using primeval stones to recover his essence before instilling the gu worm with his new red primeval essence. He did this until he began feeling an uncomfortable fire in his stomach, prompting him to stop. He saw that the gu had about a fourth of one arm which had dissolved, meaning he had likely gathered that much strength.
But, that would be his limit for now. He went outside and decided to check up on how Fang Zheng was doing- and found him cultivating in his room.
Fang Yuan did not bother to disturb him. RIght now, Fang Zheng was trying his hardest to advance to Rank 1 Middle Stage once again. Even with the Liquor Worm he was running into some issues as he did not have as large a supply of primeval stones as Fang Yuan. However, it could not be denied that he was trying his hardest after the incident that had happened to him.