Without a doubt, this notification greatly shocked Fang Yuan, and he eagerly accepted the recipe, downloading it directly into his mind as if he had used an information path Gu worm.
Normally, the recipes for Immortal Gu worms could go on for pages and pages. However, these recipes for Rank 6 to Rank 9 Charity Gu could have easily fit on one page. That was because the requirements for refining them were rather straightforward.
Rank 6 Charity Gu could be refined from Rank 5 Charity Gu, assuming that no Rank 6 Charity Gu already existed, by donating a Rank 6 Gu to someone, with Rank 5 Charity Gu already in your possession.
There were restrictions on this, of course. You could not just simply take it back, and it had to be freely given to whoever you were donating it to. In the same vein, you could get Rank 7 Charity Gu by donating a Rank 7 Gu to someone else. You could get Rank 8 Charity Gu by donating a different Rank 8 Gu to someone else, and for Rank 9 Charity Gu, you would have to a Rank 9 Gu to someone.
Fang Yuan's eyelid twitched. Upon reading this information, he nearly spat out a mouthful of blood in anger. Out of all of the unreasonable things mentioned by the system - this seemed to be the most unreasonable. Even more than that mission requiring him to marry Bai Ning Bing.
What kind of Gu recipe was this? What did this system take him for? Did Rank 9 Gu grow on trees or something? Given how unique Immortal Gu were and how hard it was to obtain an Immortal Gu worm in the first place, with many Gu Immortals not having even a single Immortal Gu corresponding to their rank, this might have been entirely useless, especially given that he had no idea what he was even going to use Charity Gu for or what the Immortal version of Charity Gu did.
Essentially, these recipes did not suit Fang Yuan at all!
He was sure that he could eventually find a workaround to the stipulation that they had to be freely given. He was sure that there was a way to fool it in such a way that he could still the gu worm and have Charity Gu refined to the next level.
However, even with that in mind, this was an awful deal. The more he thought about it, the more annoyed he got, because usually the highest-ranking gu worm a mortal would have would be their Vital Gu, and naturally, you cannot give your vital Gu away. And to swap it out from the position of it being your Vital Gu would cause backlash and also make it far more difficult to refine advanced versions of said Gu worm.
He quickly calmed his heart - perhaps in the future there would be a use for this. However, regardless, the tiny bit of information was still useful.
This showed that his plan had been successful at the very least however. Qing Shu had advanced to become an elder, and would be far more useful in the upcoming fight.
A crowd had already gathered around Qing Shu's house even as Fang Yuan made his way there later that afternoon. The crowd completely parted upon seeing him, many of them bowing deeply before him.
"Elder Qing Shu," Fang Yuan said.
"Elder Fang Yuan," Qing Shu said, standing near the entrance of the house. There were dark bags under his eyes, and he looked like he hadn't had enough to eat or drink in the past few hours. He had only recently come out of closed cultivation, after all.
Of course, the moment that he had advanced to elder, there were numerous people who had gathered around his house, asking for various kinds of favors. The fact that the wolf tide was increasing in intensity lately only made such a situation worse.
Fang Yuan had, of course, experienced something similar when he had advanced to Rank 3. In the case of Qing Shu, though, it was even worse simply because he had a reputation that spanned far longer than Fang Yuan's, and many people wished to see if he could solve some of their problems.
"Everyone!" Fang Yuan yelled out to them, using the kind of words which Qing Shu felt uneasy saying himself. "Elder Qing Shu is tired. Currently, he needs his rest before an important issue that he must attend to. All of you disperse!" At his words, the crowd thinned out until it was just the two of them.
"Qing Mao and Yao Hong were here," Qing Shu said. "To congratulate me. Though I don't think Qing Mao or Chi Shan will be happy to hear about this."
"It's good," Fang Yuan said. "Maybe knowing that you've gone to Rank 3 will spur them to work harder. Get your rest," he then added, his face a bit more serious than before. "We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow."
"You don't need to tell me twice," Qing Shu said. The advancement to Rank 3 must've left him feeling somewhat invigorated, but at the same time, exhausted as well. At the very least, he had not failed to break through to the next major realm. The worst feeling in the world- one that Fang Yuan himself had experienced in his prior life spanning 500 years was to put in all that effort to advance and then fail due to some reason or the other.
"But before that," Fang Yuan said. "Go and get a Rank 3 gu worm from the underground storage. Without one, your strength will be lacking. I'm sure that whatever Senior Brother picks, it will without a doubt be the right choice."
"Alright, and I haven't forgotten the fact that I owe you 3,000 primeval stones," Qing Shu said.
"No need to worry about that at all. You can even consider it payment for being such great help."
"Hah- as if I could do such a thing! I could only get this far thanks to the generosity of the clan head. How could I do such a thing without paying it forward? On that note, how is Fang Zheng lately?"
"He is doing as well as one can be during these dangerous times," Fang Yuan said. "Though, he won't be joining us in tomorrow's fight." Fang Yuan wasn't going to risk losing Rank 6 Beauty Gu like that.
"Ah, that is to be expected, I suppose. I can only hope that your plan is successful."
News of Qing Shu's advancement spread rapidly throughout the village with there being barely a soul who had not heard of it.
The elders, however, had something else on their minds. The fighting that was going to take place tomorrow- that is.