Inside his quarters, Fang Zheng received a letter from Fang Yuan via the Moving Perspective Gu.
'It's finally time,' Fang Zheng noted, his eyes snapping open. "Brother Qing Shu, it's time for me to advance."
"All right, I'll guard the mouth of the cave," Qing Shu said, stepping outside to stand watch as Fang Zheng advanced.
Fang Zheng sat cross-legged and began to cultivate.
First, he activated a Rank 4 gu worm - Yellow Golden Relic Gu. In minutes he did what many Rank 4 Gu Masters would spend months or years trying to accomplish.
But that wasn't all. He used another one.
Rank 4 Peak Stage!
His will then reached into his aperture for a gu worm that resembled a rising flame - Rank 4 Ambition Gu. He activated it.
The crystal walls of his Rank 4 aperture shuddered as deep gold primeval essence slammed against them. Cracks spread across the crystal walls - cracks that did not heal or regenerate themselves under the influence of Ambition Gu. The Heavenly Essence Treasure King Lotus inside his aperture continuously produced primeval stones, ensuring he never ran out of primeval essence as he relentlessly battered the walls.
Finally, the crystal walls shattered completely. A new light membrane formed in their place, filling his aperture with light purple primeval essence - Rank 5 Initial Stage primeval essence!
Fang Zheng got up. "Did anything important happen while I was breaking through?"
"Yes," Qing Shu said. "It turns out that there was a Woodland Biao Emperor that appeared some distance away and slaughtered a team of Tie clansmen."
Fang Zheng's pupils widened. Even with his superficial knowledge, he knew just how lethal a Woodland Biao Emperor could be. It was not just strong, but also stealthy and able to fly to boot. That was not even considering the kinds of gu worms that it could have. "We're all in danger then... even I'm not confident I could take one on. Should we call Elder Brother to deal with it?"
Qing Shu shook his head. "I'm not sure of the details, but the creature is already dead. It seems that Divine Investigator Tie Xue Leng already dealt with the matter."
Fang Zheng relaxed a little. "That's good news then... shame about the Tie clansmen who were slaughtered. That could've been us if we were unlucky."
Qing Shu nodded. "It just goes to show that the world is full of dangers. One can never be complacent. That said, I wouldn't worry too much. Supreme Elder likely has his investigative methods around this area even if he isn't here in person. He would not have allowed something like that to hurt us."
***
Qing Shu and Fang Zheng were both invited to the Tie clan encampment. The invitation had Tie Xue Leng's name on it, as well as Tie Ruo Nan's. Tie Xue Leng had likely added his own name only when he found out that Fang Zheng had advanced to Rank 5, as any less could be seen as an affront.
Fang Zheng and Qing Shu had both been expecting the invitation, as their fame had grown quite substantially over the past few days. They waited outside the encampment, not wanting to trigger the security mechanisms, until someone waved them in.
Many people cast strange looks in their direction. Qing Shu was less known, aside from the fact that he had recently killed Kong Ri Tian. Fang Zheng, however, was extremely famous, and most of the clansmen were eyeing him surreptitiously. Still, given that Tie Xue Leng had personally invited him, they could do nothing but tolerate Fang Zheng's presence for the time being.
Not to mention, Fang Zheng's newly achieved Rank 5 Gu Master aura was the talk of San Cha Mountain. How had he advanced so fast? Many theories abounded, but most of them concluded that he had found some kind of hidden treasure in the Three Kings Inheritance.
"Lad, so you're finally here?" a voice called out to the two of them. It came from the four Tie clan old-timers who were sitting around drinking.
Qing Shu and Fang Zheng walked over. "Come, sit down and have a drink with us."
"Thank you kindly," Qing Shu said.
"Lad, I have a question for you," one of the old-timers said to Qing Shu. "I heard you happened to kill Kong Ri Tian?"
"Indeed I did," Qing Shu replied.
"Quite a feat, quite a feat!" the man said. "But if I may ask... where exactly is his body?"
Qing Shu paused for a moment before answering, "His body was mangled to pieces during our fight. I'm afraid none of it remains."
"Eh?"
The four old-timers looked at Qing Shu in shock. "Lad, are you serious? Was there nothing on him? Nothing... strange about his arm? Nothing at all?"
"No, I don't happen to know anything about that," Qing Shu asked, genuinely puzzled. "What was it? Was there something about his arm?"
"Indeed there was," the Tie clan old-timer said. "We've been trying to deal with Kong Ri Tian for a long time. The problem was that he could always turn into butterflies and escape us. To counter this escape mechanism, we developed a killer move known as Infinite Search and Lock. To use it, however, requires a specific gu worm called Fixed Star Gu. After much difficulty, one of our agents planted this gu within his arm without him even noticing."
Fang Zheng frowned. "How did anyone manage that? Kong Ri Tian would never let anyone near him... unless..."
"It appears you've already understood, lad, a girl whom he had captured and toyed with did so while he was distracted having fun," the old-timer said. "That girl wanted to get revenge for another girl who was one of his victims, I think it was her elder sister, and so willingly gave herself up and allowed herself to be captured - one must admire her guts and determination to do so. Our plan was to eventually track him down and kill him. No matter where he went in the world, he would have been caught by our search. But if what you're saying is true... not only is he dead, but that gu worm is lost as well."
They had worked quite hard to plant that gu worm; a girl had even sacrificed her innocence to do so, and yet it was all for naught as Qing Shu simply ambushed Kong Ri Tian and killed him without needing that kind of elaborate scheme.
"Ah... that," Qing Shu said, trailing off. "I did not know about this gu worm. I can only apologize. If he had something in his arm, it was completely destroyed during our fight."
The Tie clan old-timers had no response to this. The gu worm in question was quite valuable - not something easily found even for them, despite being a Rank 4 Gu. It was a gu worm from the Immemorial Antiquity Era. There was a recipe for it using Fairy Wind Gu, Seven Shining Stars Gu, and a few other materials, but even those materials were rare.
They exchanged dejected looks amongst themselves.
They had planned to capture Kong Ri Tian to make a name for themselves in the righteous path, but Qing Shu had gone ahead and killed him. That in itself wasn't the issue; the problem was that there was only one Fixed Star Gu, and now it was gone. They had worked hard in order to create Infinite Search and Lock, and yet they would no longer have an opportunity to display this move of theirs!
They didn't even have the face to ask Qing Shu for a replacement.
For one, the gu worm was so difficult to refine that even a large sum of primeval stones wouldn't help. It wasn't even like primeval stones were the problem. There were several other targets they could use Fixed Star Gu on, but there was no hope of refining a new one in time to showcase their skills meaning that the whole idea was ultimately fruitless.
Furthermore, asking Qing Shu for compensation would be seen as extremely petty especially by righteous path standards. The cherry on top was that Qing Shu was a guest of Tie Xue Leng - if they tried anything foolish, Tie Xue Leng would frown deeply upon their actions.
The four old-timers looked at one another and silently agreed to let the matter slide. In life, profits were not the only guarantee - one was bound to face losses sooner or later. Humans naturally hated to suffer losses and would try to salvage them by any means necessary; but sometimes, one could do nothing else save for letting go.
Gu Yue Fang Zheng had killed Century Boy for them, earning them glory for free. Now Gu Yue Qing Shu had killed Kong Ri Tian, but they had gained nothing from that and even lost a valuable asset. That was just how the cookie crumbled, and they just had to accept it.
While Fang Zheng was chatting with them, someone marched over toward him. It was none other than Tie Ruo Nan.
"Hello, Fang Zheng," she said frostily. "Congratulations on reaching Rank 5. I was sure that you would eventually achieve great things in life after we had parted ways. But I've heard you've been spending all of your time beating up women and children instead?"
Fang Zheng looked at her but did not respond in anger, knowing she was baiting him.
The "woman" she referred to was Xue San Si, who could hardly be considered a normal helpless woman by any means, and the "child" was Century Boy, who was most certainly not a child.
Fang Zheng decided to bait her in turn. He had gotten quite good at baiting people lately. One might even call him a master baiter.
"What's wrong with beating up women and children?" Fang Zheng replied smoothly. "Can't a man have a hobby? And for that matter, what have you gotten up to? Solved many cases lately? Found out who was responsible for the attack on my life? Or are you still chasing the demonic Gu Master supposedly making the frogs gay?"