At present, refining Immortal Gu was Lin Yan's highest priority.
He first reviewed the Thousand Wishes Tree formation before quietly shaking his head. Although Zhen Yuanzi's Formation Path inheritance had solved many of the problems he had encountered in his previous life, the Thousand Wishes Tree formation was still beyond his current abilities. It involved Formation Path, Wood Path, Human Path, and even traces of Heaven Path. Completing it would require years of deduction, repeated experimentation, and an enormous quantity of immortal materials. It simply could not be accomplished in a short time, so Lin Yan decisively set it aside.
The Hairy Man Gu Refinement Formation, however, was much simpler. Every aspect of the formation already lay within Lin Yan's current ability. Every improvement deduced within the Dream Realm was immediately incorporated into its development throughout Flame Sovereign Blessed Land. He never intended to use it for refining Immortal Gu. Its true purpose was to process immortal materials, refine Gu materials, and standardize every step of Gu refinement on a massive scale. Once that foundation was complete, refining Immortal Gu would become far more efficient.
After making his decision, Lin Yan immediately mobilized the entire blessed land. Millions of Hairy Men abandoned their previous work and rushed toward the designated formation sites. The Huang Family Gu Masters coordinated the overall project while countless Hairy Men worked day and night, carving formation patterns, erecting stone pillars, and constructing one Hairy Man Stone Nest after another.
Nine days quietly passed in the outside world, equal to one year in Flame Sovereign Blessed Land and nine hundred days in the Dream Realm.
Near the golden-red Attract Fire Immortal Bamboo forest at the southern end of Li Fire Plains, enormous crimson stone nests gradually rose from the earth. Deep circular pits extended hundreds of meters underground, while towering stone pillars stood at their centers. Their surfaces were covered with intricate formation patterns, connected by countless channels that spiraled through every level of the structure.
These were Hairy Man Gu Refinement Stone Nests.
Every level was responsible for a different stage of Gu refinement. Some purified materials, some controlled the flames, while others stabilized the refinement process itself. Countless Gu worms constantly transported materials between the different levels, linking every step into a continuous production line. From above, each stone nest resembled a colossal anthill capable of accommodating thousands of Hairy Men refining Gu simultaneously.
With a single command from Lin Yan, more than one hundred thousand of the most skilled Hairy Men entered twenty large Gu refinement formations.
Each formation could steadily refine up to five thousand Rank Five Gu every year without relying on Firelike or Raging Fire. When the Hairy Men had first arrived in Flame Sovereign Blessed Land, all ten thousand of them working together had produced less than a single stone nest could now accomplish. Together, the twenty formations were capable of refining nearly one hundred thousand Rank Five Gu worms each year.
After carefully calculating the costs, Lin Yan discovered that, even after deducting the consumption of Gu materials and daily maintenance, the formations still generated several hundred immortal essence stones in profit every year. The income could not compare with a mature immortal rank resource point, but once the formations were completed, they required very little additional attention. Stable, continuous, and highly efficient, they had unexpectedly become another important source of revenue for Flame Sovereign Blessed Land.
Looking at the rows of towering stone nests stretching across Li Fire Plains, even Lin Yan could not help but sigh.
"Formation Path truly deserves its reputation. Whether increasing production, constructing Immortal Gu Houses, creating Secluded Domains of Heaven and Earth, or transforming Gu refinement itself, almost every undertaking on a grand scale is inseparable from the Formation Path."
With a wave of his hand, the twenty Hairy Man Gu Refinement Formations activated simultaneously. The refinement of his first batch of Immortal Gu officially began.
Nine hundred days of practice inside the Dream Realm had already allowed him to repeat the refinement procedures of the five Immortal Gu thousands of times. Every success and every failure completed the missing pieces of the corresponding Immortal Gu Recipes. Combined with the eight Immortal Gu Recipes he had created over the past two years, his Refinement Path foundation had become much deeper than before.
Even so, refining an Immortal Gu inside a Dream Realm and refining one in reality were two entirely different things. Countless variables could never be reproduced perfectly. The slightest deviation in an immortal material, a tiny fluctuation in flame temperature, or an imperceptible change in timing could cause the entire refinement to fail. Only through repeated refinement in the real world could those experiences truly become part of his own foundation and raise his attainment. If he could successfully refine another dozen Rank Six Immortal Gu and one or two Rank Seven Immortal Gu, his Refinement Path attainment would likely advance another step.
Rumble!
From then on, explosions echoed throughout Flame Sovereign Blessed Land almost every day. Some came from immortal materials collapsing during processing, others erupted during the most critical moments of Immortal Gu refinement. Seven failures... eight failures... sometimes even more.
Time quietly slipped away amid the endless roar of explosions.