In the rock forest inside the mountain, filled with dark red light.

Huge stone pillars extended down from the ceiling, resembling long and gigantic tree trunks, forming into a majestic grey coloured stone forest.

Fang Yuan and Mo Beijing were currently engaged in a battle in the rock forest.

A bunch of stone monkeys stared with their green circular monkey eyes, attacking Fang Yuan relentlessly.

"Moonlight Gu!" Mo Bei called out while throwing 4 moonblades towards the direction of the monkey gang.

A jade eye stone monkey was in the air. With no foothold to escape on, it was hit directly by the moonblade. It lost all its remaining life force and plopped dead on the ground.

The moonblade only dimmed a little, and after killing this stone monkey, its force remained as it rushed for the monkeys behind. It was afterall powered by peak stage primeval essense.

Fang Yuan and Mo Bei were fighting the stone monkeys. Currently, they were advancing much faster due to Mo Bei having 72% peak stage primeval essense. Mo Bei's moonblade had become very powerful while he was also becoming more and more proficient. He had currently lent his liquor worm to Fang Yuan and hence even Fang Yuan was using Rank 1 advanced stage primeval essense. He was not worried that Fang Yuan would steal his liquor worm since they had set a clause in poison vow regarding not to steal each other's gu worm.

With both of them attacking at such a pace, they would probably clear out the stone monkeys soon.

At the same time, Mo Bei and Fang Yuan were also utilizing the stone monkeys to train his own fighting ability.

A Gu Master's physical stats, physical combat proficiency, aperture primeval essence, battle experience and every Gu worm, they were all elements that affected the overall battle strength

Using the tactic, Fang Yuan and Mo Bei had eliminated stone monkeys in many of the pillars.

They had not attacked the final and largest pillar for now.

'It has around 500 stone monkeys and also a Monkey King who is invisible using a Rank 2 gu worm. It is impossible for us to defeat it right now. Even when Fang Yuan encountered it in the novel, he was Rank 2 and still survived only due to Spring Autumn Cicada giving him a warning.', Mo Bei recalled the events in the novel.

"Fang Yuan, we should withdraw for now. Even my primeval essense storage has started to dry now.", Mo Bei suggested.

Fang Yuan nodded and they both started preparing to withdraw.

...

Back in the secret room outside of rock cave, Mo Bei and Fang Yuan were recovering their primeval essense.

"Fang Yuan, We need to increase our firepower. I need a favor from you in exchange of helping you advance to Rank 1 advanced stage."

Fang Yuan knew he was not very from advancing and just needed a few more weeks. But with the help of Mo Bei, he might just advance today itself. There were 2 factors where Mo Bei could support him : Liquor Worm and Primeval stones.

Ever since Mo Bei went to underground place, he had no lack of primeval stones. There were tens of thousands of primeval stones there to help him cultivate.

"What favor do you need? I will help if I can."

"I want to refine Moonlight gu into a Rank 2 gu worm.", Mo Bei answered with a smile.

Fang Yuan was surprised. Generally, very few gu master would carry a higher rank gu worm due to it's food requirement and the burden on the aperture. As for refining a higher rank gu worm, that was even less heard of. In the past, Fang Yuan had dabbled a bit into refinement path but wasn't even a refinement path master yet. However, he had the basic knowledge of refinement and could assist Mo Bei.

"Okay", Fang Yuan nodded as his approval to help him in the process.

(MTL Spoiler incoming)

###

Mo Bei was more than happy to get the help of future refinement path supreme grandmaster, Refining Heaven Demon Venerable or the self proclaimed Great Love Immortal Venerable.

In the novel, Fang Yuan had made a great breakthrough in the history of the human race and was considered as one of the 11 greatest humans ever existed. His name would have been forever recorded in the human and variant human history.

Because of Fang Yuan's personality and experience, many Venerables and other Gu Immortals saw him as a threat to their balance and control over the regions, which resulted in them trying to eradicate Fang Yuan before he became a Venerable that could pose a significant danger to their influence. But they ultimately failed.

Mo Bei was currently facing such a character who even the apex of the gu world, Venerables, we're unable to deal with. He was not able to describe his emotion in words.

###

(MTL Spoiler ended)

Mo Bei was now sure that the probability of successful refining of Rank 2 Lunar Stream Gu will increase a lot with the help of Fang Yuan.

"Great, I will start preparing for the materials. You can start your advancement right now. I have already prepared many primeval stones. Also, you can start using the liquor worm to improve the quality of primeval essense you use to hit the water walls."

Fang Yuan sat down and used the liquor worm and started using the advanced stage primeval essense to hit the aperture walls slowly. At the same time, he also started using the primeval stones provided by Mo Bei to recover his primeval essense. The process continued for many hours.

Even Mo Bei was cultivating during the time. He had no use of liquor worm since it could not improve peak stage essense. His goal was to advance to Rank 2 initial stage as soon as possible.

✵✵✵

Few days later.

The students lined up properly, faces flushed with excitement as they stood before the academy Gu storage room.

Today was the day where they would pick their second Gu!

As the person with the highest cultivation, Mo Bei had the priority in choosing, thus he stood at the front of the queue.

Behind him were the brothers Gu Yue Fang Zheng and Gu Yue Fang Yuan. They both had reached Rank 1 advanced stage.

When students learned that Fang Yuan had also reached Advanced stage with only C grade talent even faster than B grade Chi Chen, they were shocked. Even academy elder did not expect such a result. Currently no one except Mo Bei and Fang Yuan knew that Chi Chen only had C grade talent. Chi Chen was taking help from his grandpa to breakthrough but still didn't reach advanced stage.

Mo Bei went in and immediately picked up the Rank 1 Water Stream Gu when he saw it. It was the last ingredient he required. Previously, in the underground place, Mo Bei had found the recipe of Rank 2 Lunar Stream gu. The recipe was merging Moonlight gu, Little light gu and Water Stream gu along with some mortal ingredients to fuse into Rank 2 Lunar Stream Gu. Mo Bei already had Rank 1 Moonlight gu and Little Light gu and found the final Water stream gu.

He wanted to refine this Rank 2 gu since it had a good attacking power. It also shoot a moonblade but it was as tough and resilient as a water stream. It would be a great addition to his attack power. It would also help in facing the Monkey King.