"Fang Yuan, I don't think that this recipe is useful at all," Bai Ning Bing said, glaring at him angrily. Of course, she had no means to make use of this. "At least, not for me. You've tricked me!"
Fang Yuan sighed. Even if he was Immortal and she was mortal, here, she still was able to bargain with him. The Poison Vow Gu's dao marks were suppressed in this blessed land. He didn't have an Immortal Information Path method to restrict the two of them either.
Fang Yuan's own gu worms were suppressed. If he went ahead and tried to use one of his Immortal Gu or his own Immortal essence to counteract the suppression of this blessed land, he would without a doubt be disqualified from the tournament and summarily thrown out. Because of that, he could not use his typical methods to try and influence Bai Ning Bing at all.
It was made all the worse by the fact that decisions had to be made as a team, meaning he couldn't hijack things. In this tournament when it came to the prizes and deciding what they wanted, they were equal. Bai Ning Bing had deferred to him on this decision, but she would soon become far more emboldened at time went on.
There was no way to change his mortal partner once the tournament had started per the rules laid out. And if he tried to kill Bai Ning Bing, according to the rules, that would be equivalent to attacking another candidate. Meaning he would be disqualified.
Fang Yuan cursed inwardly. If he knew the full details he would've brought in Shang Xin Ci somehow instead. But Thieving Heaven Demonic Venerable had 'conveniently' left out many details leading to this decision.
Fang Yuan was sure that Thieving Heaven was having quite the laugh at his expense right now.
"As compensation, how about I go ahead and give you 100,000 primeval stones?" Fang Yuan offered.
"Make it 200,000," Bai Ning Bing said, cold as always.
"All right, so be it," Fang Yuan said, handing her over the amount from his aperture, which she took in.
The waited while the other teams had either ended up succeeding or failing within their Gu Refinement, and the score was then tallied. Scoring was rather simple: the person who scored the most on each round would get 12 points, while the one who scored the least would get 1 point. Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing were third on the list currently when all the points for refinement (originality of recipe, number of attempts, speed of success, etc.) were added up, and so had 10 points. The land spirit informed them that in the future depending on the difficulty of the tasks there might be multiplies like (x 1.5) or even (x 2) to the points granted in a round, or even decreased to say, (x 0.5).
There were two rows on the scoreboard. One was with current points and the other was a column that read 'cumulative points.'
Whoever had the most points total at the end would win and become the owner of the blessed land. In-between however, they could still spend their points to exchange for various things. Right now since no one had spent any points both of these totals were the same.
There was a prize shop listed as well.
Even Fang Yuan was impressed by all that was offered in the prize shop. Not only could one ask for recipes for both mortal and Immortal Gu, they could also ask for gu worms directly, to exchange for Immortal Essence Stones, or even for things like desolate beasts that Tian Ji had captured.
"If one has one hundred points, they can even negotiate to help with them during a tribulation," Fang Yuan mused. "One can even ask for help in the refinement of gu worms."
"Fang Yuan, there are Ice and Snow gu worms and recipes we can trade for," Bai Ning Bing said.
"Yes, but only mortal ones. You need an Immortal one, don't you?" Fang Yuan pointed out. "And Ning Bing, do remember, even if you have the required gu worm in question, you will still need my help in surviving your tribulation."
The land spirit appeared before them. "Lad, I've thought about that gu worm you made for some time. I could deduce about seventy percent of its recipe just by looking at it. However, I can't figure it out completely. Willing to trade for something? It will be outside the realms of this tournament."
"I would be willing to trade for Rank 4 Dog Shit Luck Gu, if you have any," Fang Yuan said. "As well as the recipes for Rank 1 to Rank 3 of Dog Shit Luck Gu." Although Fang Yuan could deduce the latter given enough time, it would save him a bit of a headache to have the solution spelled out before him.
"We can deal with those arrangements," the land spirit said, handing Fang Yuan the gu worm recipes as well as one Rank 4 Dog Shit Luck Gu. Fang Yuan wrote down the recipe and handed it over.
"I see... so you used Relic Gu in its refinement... that was the ingredient I was missing," the land spirit said. "Well, anything else that you might have to trade?"
"Indeed, these might be of interest," Fang Yuan said. He took out several of the Pill Path recipes he had found, including those from the dream realm during his Immortal Ascension. They were the least valuable of his discoveries and the easiest to give away. But as he handed them over, the land spirit shook its head.
"Sorry, lad, but these were already given to me. By one of the other contestants, no less," the land spirit said. "Can't tell you who they were, but they had those exact recipes and since I already have them..." The land spirit then shrugged. "...they are worthless now."
Fang Yuan was a bit surprised - the Pill Path was not popular hence why these recipes still had some value. Not to mention some of these recipes were supposedly even from the future. Who else could have them?
"So be it then," Fang Yuan said. For now, he was satisfied.
"You are rather open with that land spirit," Bai Ning Bing muttered as it vanished.
"Land spirits tend to be rather straightforward, it is easy to deal with them," Fang Yuan said. "Now, let us iron out the details of our agreement..."
Neither party could really force the other, nor was there anything as convenient like Poison Vow Gu. Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing were both stuck here, however, and so were able to come to a consensus eventually.
Fang Yuan handed over the recipes for Rank 1 to Rank 3 Dog Shit Luck Gu to Bai Ning Bing so that she could learn them as well, though he kept the Rank 4 Dog Shit Luck Gu for himself.
The cloud they were on had a large stone castle that they could stay in and wait for tomorrow morning when the next round would start.
The second round was far more straightforward - it was a round-robin fighting tournament between the mortal candidates. In other words, rather than using brackets, every candidate fought the other and cumulative points were collected. The arena was similar to that in Shang Clan City, though atop the clouds and with methods to restrict even Rank 5 moves. Killing was explicitly forbidden here.
It was here that Bai Ning Bing showed her talent for fighting. She was paired off against a Rank 5 candidate, but this person was a Refinement Path Gu Master. Despite the gap of a major rank, Bai Ning Bing not only held her own but also defeated the latter summarily.
"This is..."
"It can only be the Northern Dark Ice Soul Physique!"
"Ah, so this is why Fang Yuan chose this lady..."
"...even then, is it not a wonder how she is not running out of primeval essence...?"
The secret to that was a new gu worm that Bai Ning Bing had in her aperture - Rank 5 Heavenly Essence Treasure King Lotus! It had cost him a few Immortal Essence Stones, but he had been able to obtain it from Yellow Treasure Heaven. With it, she had practically limitless essence and her set of Ice Path gu worms were amplified by her physique.