Chapter 22 – Limitations
Fang Yuan's situation was actually quite similar to Li Tianyu's.
He was also stuck at Rank One.
The reason...
Was the Sovereign Immortal Fetus Gu.
Fang Yuan's current Sovereign Immortal Fetus Gu was only Rank One.
As long as it remained at Rank One, his cultivation was essentially restricted to Rank One as well.
Of course...
Fang Yuan could remove the Sovereign Immortal Fetus Gu from his body and advance normally.
But why would he?
The advantages it provided were simply too enormous.
Its ability to allow him to cultivate different paths without conflicting dao marks was an advantage that far outweighed the inconvenience of remaining at Rank One.
The real problem...
Was the recipe.
The refinement of the Sovereign Immortal Fetus Gu required a large number of rare resources from multiple paths.
Most weren't necessarily extremely expensive.
They were simply...
Rare.
Some could only be found in specific environments.
Others were difficult to locate through ordinary means.
Some resources might not even appear on the market for years.
That was precisely why Fang Yuan had come to the battlefield.
The battlefield was a massive resource hub.
The various super clans continuously transported resources here to support the war.
Through contribution points and exchanges, Fang Yuan could steadily acquire the materials he needed.
In fact...
He had only recently succeeded in refining his current Rank One Sovereign Immortal Fetus Gu.
That was why he was still at Rank One.
But the benefits...
Were worth the trouble.
...
As they traveled through the forest, Li Tianyu silently thought about his own situation.
His Burning Ember Gu possessed an enormous advantage.
It could deduce Gu recipes according to his requirements.
More importantly...
It could optimize those recipes.
If a certain material was too rare or difficult to obtain, Li Tianyu could increase the number of Gu worms used for the deduction and have Burning Ember Gu search for alternative methods.
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The deduction would become more expensive.
But the convenience was enormous.
He didn't need to spend months searching for some obscure resource merely to refine a single Gu.
He could also specify the food requirements of the Gu being deduced.
The more resources he invested...
The more specific his requirements could become.
This was one of Burning Ember Gu's greatest advantages.
But there was one fundamental limitation.
Rank.
Burning Ember Gu was currently only Rank Two.
Therefore...
It could only deduce Rank Two Gu.
It couldn't deduce Rank Three or higher Gu worms.
Li Tianyu naturally wouldn't give up because of this.
If he couldn't deduce higher-rank Gu...
He could simply purchase them.
His mind soon returned to the various mother-type Gu worms available through the battlefield's contribution hall.
There were quite a few Gu capable of producing offspring.
At first glance...
They seemed extremely useful.
Li Tianyu had originally considered purchasing several of them.
His idea was simple.
Use a mother-type Gu to continuously produce Rank Two Gu worms.
Exchange those Gu worms for resources.
Use those resources to maintain the mother-type Gu.
Then use the newly produced Gu to obtain even more resources.
An endless cycle.
If everything worked...
He could rapidly accumulate an enormous number of Rank Two Gu worms.
Unfortunately...
Reality was far less convenient.
A mother-type Gu could only produce Gu worms of a rank lower than itself.
A Rank Two mother-type Gu...
Could only produce Rank One Gu.
If Li Tianyu wanted one capable of producing Rank Two Gu...
He would need a Rank Three mother-type Gu.
That immediately destroyed his original plan.
Burning Ember Gu was currently Rank Two.
Even if he sacrificed an enormous number of Rank Two Gu worms...
It could only deduce Rank Two Gu.
It couldn't deduce a Rank Three mother-type Gu.
And even after Burning Ember Gu advanced to Rank Three...
It would only be capable of deducing Rank Three Gu.
A Rank Three mother-type Gu could produce Rank Two Gu...
But not Rank Three Gu.
Thus...
The problem simply shifted upward.
Burning Ember Gu could never directly deduce a mother-type Gu capable of producing Gu of its own rank.
It was a loop.
A restriction that couldn't be exploited.
...
There were other problems as well.
Mother-type Gu didn't create Gu from nothing.
They still required resources.
In many cases...
Producing a single Rank Two Gu worm could consume two or even three times the resources required to directly refine that Gu.
The main advantage was that there was no refinement failure.
But even that wasn't enough.
Mother-type Gu also had production limits.
A single Gu might only be able to produce five to ten offspring per day.
To obtain a meaningful quantity...
Li Tianyu would need many mother-type Gu.
And that created another problem.
Their food.
Mother-type Gu often had expensive feeding requirements.
Worse...
Their feeding intervals could be quite short.
Maintaining dozens or hundreds of them would consume an absurd amount of resources.
It wasn't an endless resource cycle.
It was an endless resource sink.
Li Tianyu quickly abandoned the idea.
Still...
There was another possibility.
He could create the necessary Gu himself.
Li Tianyu was an undeniable genius.
With his understanding of Gu worms, his Primordial Flame physique, his non-conflicting dao marks, and the knowledge he had accumulated through Burning Ember Gu...
If he devoted himself to research, he could theoretically create a Rank Three or even higher mother-type Gu capable of producing Rank Two Gu in quantities at a low cost.
But...
That would require actual research.
Experimentation.
Failure.
Modification.
More experimentation.
The process could take years.
Perhaps even decades.
And Li Tianyu didn't have that kind of time to waste.
His greatest advantage was precisely Burning Ember Gu.
It allowed him to bypass most of the tedious research process through deductions.
Spending years researching a single production-type Gu...
Would completely defeat the purpose.
Therefore...
The idea was ultimately impractical.
Li Tianyu could only abandon it for now.
...
He briefly asked Fang Yuan whether he knew of any Gu capable of producing Rank Two Gu.
Fang Yuan naturally knew several.
But after considering their characteristics...
Li Tianyu discovered that they all suffered from essentially the same problems.
High resource consumption.
Limited production.
Expensive food.
Frequent feeding.
And the mother-type Gu themselves weren't cheap.
In the end...
The idea simply wasn't worth pursuing.
Li Tianyu could only let it go.
...
Another thought then appeared in his mind.
A hypothetical one.
If Burning Ember Gu could deduce Gu worms above its own rank...
Then everything would be different.
He could first deduce a mother-type Gu that used primeval essence as its primary production resource.
Then...
He could deduce higher-rank primeval essence recovery Gu.
Refine hundreds of them.
After that...
He could refine hundreds of powerful mother-type Gu.
The mother-type Gu would continuously produce Rank Two Gu worms.
The primeval essence recovery Gu would replenish his reserves.
The entire system could operate continuously.
It would become a true production cycle.
Unfortunately...
That was only a hypothetical scenario.
Burning Ember Gu couldn't do it.
Li Tianyu had already asked.
Previously, he had specifically instructed Ember Spark Gu to deduce a Gu similar to itself.
A Gu that could consume higher-rank Gu worms...
And use them to deduce things beyond its own rank.
The answer had been simple.
Impossible.
The limitation was fundamental.
A Rank Two Burning Ember Gu could only deduce Rank Two Gu.
No matter how many Rank Two Gu worms he sacrificed...
It couldn't cross the rank boundary.
Even if he fed it an astronomical quantity of resources...
The limitation remained.
Rank Two...
Was Rank Two.
Li Tianyu quietly sighed.
This was perhaps the greatest limitation of Burning Ember Gu.
Its potential was enormous.
But it wasn't omnipotent.
If he wanted to deduce Rank Three Gu...
He first needed a Rank Three Burning Ember Gu.
And to obtain that...
He needed to gather enough Rank Two Gu worms.
Which meant...
He had to continue advancing step by step.
There was no shortcut.
Li Tianyu looked toward the distant mountains.
His thoughts gradually settled.
For now...
He would simply have to work with what he had.
Burning Ember Gu had already given him an advantage that ordinary Gu Masters could scarcely imagine.
He didn't need to demand perfection from it.
As long as it continued advancing...
His path would naturally become wider.
One day...
Perhaps he really could build the absurd production system he had imagined.
But that day...
Was still far away.