The immortal gu formation fluctuated as the anticipation in Qing Lao's eyes grew more intense. Old Man Desolate grew cautious but didn't interject as he sensed something enter the grotto-heaven through the other side. Plain robes covered the thin individual, his skin tanned and his body bereft of any hair. His narrow eyes flickered with cunning and concealed venom threatening to consume everything and everyone in a web of schemes of his own weaving.
He looked remarkably similar to Lo Jik… yet fundamentally different. Where Lo Jik inspired majestic boldness with each act and unsurmountable skills, this individual exuded a sense of coldness and aloofness rarely found escaping Lo Jik's thick hide.
"M-Master Lo Jik! I completed my tasks!"
Qing Lao fell to his knees with tears streaming down his eyes.
"Very well done, Qing Lao." Lo Jik smiled softly. His eyes flicked towards the guarded heavenly spirit before nodding at him.
"Greetings, Heavenly Spirit. I can see you are curious about me."
"Aye," Old Man Desolate answered grumpily. "What are you?"
"Me… I am a gu worm, a rank 5 gu worm." Lo Jik chuckled. "Qing Lao, be a dear and use this gu worm to hold a meeting with my main body. Even this immortal gu formation cannot transfer him."
"What?" Old Man Desolate instantly felt alarmed. "Who is your main body? Even if a rank 6 immortal gu formation, this formation is powered by the sum of this grotto-heaven's formation path dao marks. It can even summon rank 7 gu immortals nearing rank 8 without any additional support!"
Qing Lao stood up and accepted the gu worm before laughing proudly.
"Oh, Old Man Desolate. Just open your eyes and witness my master's wealth." He activated the gu worm as the information path gu worm projected a screen revealing Lo Jik's curious features.
"Everything went smoothly? Good." Lo Jik nodded and commanded Qing Lao through the screen. "Transfer the grotto-heaven's ownership to me, Qing Lao."
"Yes, master!" Qing Lao nodded eagerly.
"Wait!" Old Man Desolate panicked. "You are being controlled, master! Let me—"
"Shut up, you dogged thing!" Qing Lao instantly thundered with a furious expression. "I'm your owner, so it means Master Lo Jik is your true owner! Do you dare defy me? How dare you slander my master?!"
Old Man Desolate instantly felt speechless and glared daggers at Lo Jik through the screen. However, this attitude vanished once he was forced to accept his current master's words to accept another individual his owner—Lo Jik!
"How did you control this man, master?" Old Man Desolate instantly ignored Qing Lao and questioned curiously, prompting Lo Jik to chuckle calmly.
"I'll tell you all about it later. First, introduce yourself."
"Ah! Yes! I am Old Man Desolate, Master Lo Jik!" Old Man Desolate smiled before he cupped his chin. "I hope you aren't being controlled by yet another individual, master. And how come you didn't appear yourself? What gu worm is this? I've never seen such a gu worm before. Can it clone me? Can I also leave the grotto-heaven and experience the outside world?"
Lo Jik was slightly stunned by the last inquiry. He had indeed never tried using human path clone gu worms with heavenly or land spirits of grotto-heavens and blessed-lands. While a curious experiment warranting his attention, Lo Jik had other pressing matters to confirm first.
He couldn't help but smile appreciatively and pointed at Qing Lao.
"You did well, Qing Lao. Now, Old Man Desolate, I want you to suppress the effects of life tablet gu on Qing Lao's body before killing him. Leave no trace."
Qing Lao and Old Man Desolate blinked before the former turned to the latter and barked at the heavenly spirit's dumbfounded expression.
"What are you waiting for, you useless spirit? Can't you even follow simple instructions?"
"Poor thing." Old Man Desolate shook his head as Qing Lao froze. His body suddenly squeezed into a ball of flesh before Old Man Desolate shot out blue flames using a gu worm and burned the last of the unfortunate inner disciple's traces.
The gu worm Qing Lao used to project the screen with which they communicated dissipated before Lo Jik's clone pointed at it.
"Use it, Old Man Desolate."
"Ah, I'm back." Lo Jik smiled once Old Man Desolate used the gu worm. "Let's start from the beginning. I'm sure you have more questions than you expressed before. Inspect this, Old Man Desolate. This gu worm is the reason most formations cannot help me travel around."
The view shifted and Old Man Desolate shouted incredulously.
"Rank 9 Love Gu?!"
"Yes." Lo Jik sighed. "It's a wondrous entity, but it also represents the highest level of dao fragment of the grand dao. A simple rank 6 immortal gu formation cannot affect its position even when enhanced by the grotto-heaven's sum of dao marks. By my estimation, it will take a rank 7 immortal gu formation."
"No, master." Old Man Desolate blinked. "Rank 6 formation is enough."
It was Lo Jik's turn to feel surprised as the clone behind the heavenly spirit prompted with look of fascination.
"Don't keep us in the dark, Old Man. Explain things clearly."
This was none other thank rank 5 Schemer Gu, a human path clone that explored the mysteries of human and wisdom paths.
"The issue isn't the main formation isn't powerful enough, master. Formations are affected by both, the main and sub ends. The sub-formation is merely a mortal formation. Furthermore, this entire transportation formation is quite dated." Old Man Desolate pointed out the flaws correctly. This formation was from one of the inheritances Lo Jik obtained. It was truly behind the current times.
"Also, this is Immemorial Desolate Grotto-Heaven!" Old Man Desolate raised his head and laughed loudly. "My main body mastered and perfected several killer moves and formations that used beasts as the core of the formation itself. Hehe… I just have the formation to bring you and your Love Gu along, master."
Lo Jik frowned before he shook his head.
"No, it's fine, Old Man Desolate. Such a formation will surely impact your reserved of immortal essence. Your main body is dead and the grotto-heaven's immortal aperture core can no longer produce more immortal essence. You cannot even convert immortal essence stones into immortal essence. Do not waste it."
Old Man laughed even louder as he gave Lo Jik a thumbs-up.
"Trust me, master! We're not wanting for immortal essence at all. Haha, we have too much!"
Lo Jik and Schemer Gu blinked at once before sharing a glance.
"We will follow your instructions, Old Man." Lo Jik smiled as he recalled Schemer Gu. "I cannot wait to observe my grotto-heaven personally."
<<<>>>
Lo Jik's vision shifted as he found himself stepping into the marbled hall within Immemorial Desolate Grotto-Heaven. He hurriedly looked to his side and found Love Gu on his shoulder.
'It worked…' Lo Jik sighed in amazement. The gu world was vast and even his monstrous attainment couldn't have prepared him for such a twist.
'But… a grotto-heaven!' He could hardly conceal his excitement!
"Master!" Old Man Desolate quickly waddled up to Lo Jik with his short legs. "You came~!"
'Ok, weird.' Lo Jik noted before shrugging. He couldn't care less and grinned. "I sure did."
"Show me around, Old Man Desolate," he ordered. The heavenly spirit nodded as the duo disappeared from the marbled hall. His vision expanded and Lo Jik found himself above a cloud. However, it was significantly different from a blessed land.
Rank 6 and 7 gu immortals' immortal apertures were known as blessed lands. The gu master's gu set, attainment, life experiences, and even their location and region of birth influenced blessed lands during their creation. Some blessed lands had small land and a vast sky and some might have a lone island surrounded by a sea and such. There was no one set rule.
Breaking into rank 8 transformed the gu immortal's very immortal aperture core. The blessed land experienced another change at this stage, and influenced by the entirety of the gu immortal's cultivation and dao marks they possessed, changed the structure of the immortal aperture. This wasn't the first grotto-heaven Lo Jik witnessed. He had once stayed inside Fairy Yi's grotto-heaven as they traveled to Hu Immortal Blessed Land. Her grotto-heaven was influenced by the monstrous amount of water path dao marks on her body.
Meanwhile, the sight of Immemorial Desolate Grotto-Heaven was quite orderly from this far up.
"It's… like a formation…" Lo Jik muttered under his breath.
Beneath him was a vast stretch of land, the entire surface decorated by several forests, plains, mountain ranges, cities, towns, and such. However, observing from this high up allowed Lo Jik to notice a subtle order influencing everything.
Old Man praised: "Such a sharp eye, master. Indeed, it's an incomplete formation left behind by main body. He wanted to create a formation that influenced the entire grotto-heaven and convert everything and everyone into a dao mark."
Lo Jik cupped his chin as Old Man continued his explanation. "The placement of gu worms and materials in a formation is nothing but the placement of dao marks and fragments. Everything else is an unneeded luxury. However, just because my main body wanted to create such a formation didn't mean he wanted to ruin the grotto-heaven itself. He planned to use it in the main continent."
Such a formation had wide applications. Heck, Lo Jik could already imagine using such a formation as an offensive tactic and then later supporting the transformed dao marks to improve one's own foundation using theft path methods.
That wasn't all.
Lo Jik looked up at the night sky and noticed countless glimmering stars forming another natural formation. Being a formation path grotto-heaven, the advancement of the blessed land to such a grotto-heaven entailed shifting several natural landmarks into cores of a formation.
"Go on. Explain the structure." Lo Jik nodded at Old Man Desolate as they both teleported again.
They were in yet another hall. It was small but lit brightly. Before Lo Jik was a miniature model of the entire grotto-heaven.
"Eh?" Lo Jik gasped. "Your main body made the model spherical? Why?"
Old Man Desolate scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"Even I don't understand, master. I'm a heavenly spirit and only inherited a portion of my main body's memories. The inheritance he left behind is still intact and I never wanted to look through it."
Lo Jik grew even more confused.
"You never wanted to? Like an obsession of not wanting to do something?" Lo Jik questioned.
"Yes." Old Man nodded energetically. "Other rank 8 gu immortals of my main body's time often captured the likeness of their grotto-heavens in a flatter space but my main body refused to do such a thing for some reason."
Lo Jik nodded as he leaned closer to the model and observed everything. The grotto-heaven was littered with thousands of immortal gu formations, each marked clearly alongside their functions. Most of these formations either defended precious resources grown within the grotto-heaven or increased the production of such resources.
"Talk to me about the denizens of the grotto-heaven." Lo Jik hummed as he continued observing the… globe. "Any gu immortals?"
"Four, master, each rank 6. They lead four great kingdoms and pay tributes to me in terms of resources and immortal essence stones." Old Man grinned. "They're good seeds. Two of them are enslavement path gu immortals, and the remaining two are fire path and soul path gu immortals."
"Not a single formation path gu immortal?" Lo Jik frowned.
"Haha! Of course, not! I used to own every formation path gu worm and materials in this grotto-heaven! I even secretly plundered all talented formation path gu masters until they died from poverty and misery."
Lo Jik couldn't help but roll his eyes.
"And immortal gu worms? Do they possess any?" Lo Jik continued.
"Hmm, they are quite secretive about that, master." Old Man sighed. "Why can't they be more honest? Still, I helped them reach rank 6 and only one of them could advance their vital gu into an immortal gu using the remainder of their heaven and earth qi. It was a rank 6 Fire Dragon Immortal Gu."
'So, the fire path gu immortal.' Lo Jik let out a disappointed sigh. He hoped to obtain a soul path immortal gu.
"Take me to see the immortal gu worms, Old Man." Lo Jik turned to the heavenly spirit after observing the globe and understand the general situation of the grotto-heaven.
The duo first appeared before a massive well. It was easier to call it a gaping pit as its depth seemed to stretch endlessly.
"The earth qi oil formation." Lo Jik observed. He had already learned the name of most of the formations and their functions. Of course, Old Man Desolate didn't have immortal gu worms lying uselessly. He put every resource into productive matters being the formation path heavenly spirit he was. This Earth Qi Oil formation was used to collect the grotto-heaven's pure earth qi and transform it into rare oil qi. A vast amount of qi could be sold for great profits in Treasure Yellow Heaven.
"The formation's core uses rank 6 earth path immortal gu—Treasured Oil Immortal Gu."
Lo Jik worked his jaw and nodded. He knew about Treasured Oil Immortal Gu. As the name implied, the immortal gu could spill out large quantities of treasured oil, a rank 5 mortal material used commonly in the refinement and feeding of earth and fire path gu worms.
Of course, not all formations used immortal gu worms so the duo skipped a few landmarks and appeared before a tall, pitch-black mountain range.
Nether Valley Formation around the Dark Soul Mountain range was crucial for the soul path gu immortal residing within the grotto-heaven. All this belonged to Old Man Desolate but was loaned to that soul path gu immortal for the special materials of the latter's blessed land.
"This formation uses rank 6 soul path immortal gu, Soul Claw Immortal Gu, as one of the cores."
As the name suggested, it was an offensive soul path immortal gu.
Then Old Man Desolate introduced Lo Jik to yet another rank 6 immortal gu worm.
"This is…"
Lo Jik's eyes brightened once he heard the heavenly spirit's explanation.
They observed a large in-land pond that was no different from a small sea give its massive size. The formation in this sea increased the production of air bubble fish. Air Bubble Fish was precious in of itself and presented a great future prospect for Lo Jik. However, it was one of formation's core that surprised Lo Jik.
Rank 6 Water Strength Immortal Gu!
It was another rank 6 strength path immortal gu!
They returned to the marbled chamber that held the formation which allowed Lo Jik to enter the grotto-heaven.
"This formation has the last of rank 6 immortal gu I possess, master. It's the rank 6 space path immortal gu, Connect Space Immortal Gu."
Lo Jik's smile widened.
It was a precious space path immortal gu!
Even if Old Man Desolate's grotto-heaven was a formation path grotto-heaven, the very nature of formation path prompted the old man to possess several immortal gu worms of different paths.
They continued. It was time for even better things.
Lo Jik observed a massive plane. The duo remained hidden from plain sight as they watched hundreds and thousands of hairy men living without a care in the world. The former's breath momentarily hitched as the variant humans lived their best lives and refined gu worms with a jovial atmosphere.
"My main body always needed more and more gu worms. Soon, he designed this formation to cater to his batch of hairy men."
Lo Jik nodded. This formation manipulated the vast group of hairy men to breed and refine endlessly. Their population was truly shocking!
Five million!
However, Old Man Desolate never sold them in Treasure Yellow Heaven and steadily trained them to refine several crucial mortal gu worms in batches.
"Its main core is a Rank 7 qi and wind path immortal gu—Atmosphere Immortal Gu."
They continued ahead.
"Aha! This is my creation, master." Old Man Desolate presented proudly. Most of the formations were already set or planned by his main body. So, the heavenly spirit was happy to show a creation not influenced by his main body.
Unlike the earlier formations that dealt with the massive quantity of materials or stretches of land they were meant to influence, the formation before Lo Jik was not only visible but also as small as his fist.
It glowed pure white and looking at it for more than a few seconds strangely caused Lo Jik to experience a headache.
"This is a rank 8 formation." Old Man introduced, indifferent to the fact that Lo Jik already knew several facts about it. He was simply too excited. "I used several rank 8 materials to create this formation and linked them to the core of one of the immemorial desolate beasts. Master, this is the formation I told you about. Hahaha! Such a creation will have all other heavenly spirits kissing my feet. It allowed me to be independent of several restrictions and mimics Heavenly Essence Treasure Imperial Lotus's ability!"
Heavenly Essence Treasure Imperial Lotus Immortal Gu was the immortal gu advancement to Lo Jik's lotus gu. As one might expect, it allowed a gu immortal to produce more immortal essence! Such an immortal gu worm was necessary for land and heavenly spirits unable to produce their own immortal essence. However, an immortal gu was unique. There was only one Heavenly Essence Treasure Imperial Lotus Immortal Gu and its location was unknown.
However, human is the spirit of all living beings.
Well, heavenly spirit in this case.
There were different ways to reach the same effect. Just because Old Man Desolate didn't possess the lotus immortal gu did not imply he could not mimic the same ability using a formation!
Rank 8 Imperial Essence Formation.
"Which immortal gu did you use?" Lo Jik smiled and interjected Old Man's boasting.
"Ah, reporting to master. I used the rank 7 Lotus Armor Immortal Gu."
Lo Jik raised his eyebrow. It was a rare wood path defensive immortal gu worm which marked the gu immortal's body with dao marks. A lotus armor would appear around the gu immortal once they were attacked without using any immortal essence.
A passive defensive immortal gu.
Four rank 6 and two rank 7 immortal gu worms.
Just this haul was more than enough to make the supreme elders of Lo Jik's sect go green with envy.
However, there was more.
There were still the actual inheritance and this grotto-heaven's specialty…
Lo Jik licked his lips and commanded.
"Take me to your mutated beasts… or should I call them core beasts?"
***
Alternate Title: Qing Lao: Keeps glazing Lo Jik *Lo Jik the first second he appeared: KYS*; Some Code Geass type shh; Old Man's new master; Old Man Desolate: M-Master! You came! *Lo Jik: I N D E E D*; Huge Haul; New subjects to enslave; Hitting the mother lode; Immemorial Desolate Grotto-Heaven's mysterious specialty; Formations everywhere; Old Man Desolate with Imperial Essence Formation: I'm the best heavenly spirit *Old Man Lang Ya: Spider Man 2099 OST*; Hairy Men sea; Immortal gu worms; Touring the land; Residential Gu Immortals; Lo Jik about to raise taxes and demand their souls; Human is the heavenly spirit of all living beings; Poor Qing Lao; Somewhere, Ju Lin let out a sigh of relief; Transfered ownership; Dumbfounded Old Man Desolate; Mysterious Immemorial Desolate Immortal; Globe?; Atlas Globe for a grotto-heaven; New strength path immortal gu; Passive defense is the meta; Next: Inheritance!
***
Join the discord through the link in the synopsis.
Read 60 chapters ahead @ Patron and Subscribe Star (Links in the synopsis.)
Support the Fanfic through comments, likes, reviews and such (if the published site allows it.)