Lin Yan had basically finished handling all the spoils of war and decided to enter seclusion fully.
The Family's core Gu and these recipes were all Rank 4 and Rank 5, making refinement much harder than before. At the same time, integrating a new killer move into a Rank 5 transformation path Gu would be even more difficult. He also needed time to become familiar with the several new Gu he had just obtained.
He could already sense that this seclusion would last a long time. But once it was complete, his Flame Path attainment would very likely reach the Master level.
Many tasks were stacked together, pressing on him. As the first step, Lin Yan planned to refine the Rank 4 Flame Sparrow Wing Gu.
Flight had always been one of humanity's most desired abilities. In the Gu World, it carried even greater meaning. Once someone mastered the skies, they could easily suppress ground-based Gu Masters.
If Zhang Bai had used the Golden bird transformation to slowly exhaust him, Lin Yan would have been in danger. But it was hard to say, because Zhang Bai was not a Master in flight—the risk of being shot down by Lin Yan was too high.
Because of this, Lin Yan not only needed to refine Gu, but also had to train his flying skills in the dream realm, pushing them to at least the Master level. Only then could he retreat safely if he could not win.
This goal was not easy. Even after more than two years of cultivation and long periods in the dream realm, Lin Yan only had Master attainment in Refinement Path, while his Human Path and Flame Path were still at quasi-Master level.
"No matter how long it takes, I must refine it. It will also help me build the foundation needed for ascending to Gu Immortal."
Lin Yan studied the Gu recipe. Even the normal refinement required materials such as Flame Sparrow feathers.
The Flame Sparrow was a Rank 4 Myriad Beast King level exotic beast, carrying a trace of phoenix bloodline.
After that, it required fire-gold materials, turning metal into flame, along with a large number of supporting materials.
Lin Yan constantly studied the Gu recipe, occasionally deducing it within the dream realm. To his surprise, after Dream Derivation Gu advanced to Rank 4, while the time flow remained the same, the dream realm's area expanded greatly, almost reaching the size of Sandwell Oasis.
The most important change was a new effect called Dream Revelation. It allowed him to occasionally gain hints from the dream realm, whether from the memories of dream figures, guidance from simulated Gu Masters, directions for refining killer moves, or sudden flashes of inspiration.
This effect was extremely powerful, comparable to a Rank 3 inspiration-type Gu, but far more stable, providing a steady flow of insights.
To be honest, Lin Yan's talent was not poor, but it was not outstanding either. He had reached Master attainment through continuous effort and long-term accumulation, but this level was close to his natural limit.
To go further required more than hard work. It needed innate talent and higher knowledge. Relying only on time was still possible, but the cost was too great—decades, a century, or even several centuries.
It was similar to mathematics—if you did not understand it, then you simply did not understand it. Some thresholds in cultivation were like this.
Lin Yan was not afraid of effort. What he feared was putting in effort and seeing no results.
After more than ten days, which equaled nearly half a year of repeated refinement practice in the dream realm, Lin Yan judged that his success rate had reached an acceptable level and decided to begin.
The Huang Family had already obtained Flame Sparrow feathers, but they lacked the fire-gold conversion material. Lin Yan directly requested both from the Zhang Family.
Soon, news returned. The Zhang Family strongly objected and demanded that everything be calculated clearly as compensation.
In their view, giving a Yellow Golden Relic Gu worth three hundred thousand primeval stones, along with providing the feeding method for the Rank 5 Six-Armed Heavenly God Gu, was already enough to show sincerity.
Lin Yan thought about it and admitted that this was reasonable. He handed the matter over to the Family for negotiation. They understood the Zhang Family far better and could better judge their limits.
The Huang Family, having benefited from Lin Yan's earlier concessions on several transformation path inheritance Gu, became very proactive. They pushed hard in negotiations, bargaining step by step and steadily lowering the price.
After several rounds of back-and-forth, both sides argued without stopping. In the end, the Zhang Family set their limit at two million primeval stones.