"You need to pick a Vital Gu," Sun Lei said. "It really doesn't matter. Most of the gu worms kept here are Smelly Fart Gu as a way to make fun of us, though if you want something a bit more dignified, I guess you could have this Moonlight Gu."
"All right then," Ruo Dei said, keeping it within his aperture. He had read cultivation novels in the past, the original Ruo Dei knew very little about cultivation other than that it involved gu worms. Naturally he had several questions. "So how do I advance in cultivation? How many spirit roots do I have? How long does it take to create a golden core? And this Immortal, you say that he's 'immortal' does that mean he's at Nascent Soul or higher?"
Sun Lei frowned. "Spirit roots? Golden core? Nascent Soul? What are you talking about?" She then explained the cultivation system of the world to him, going from Rank 1 to Rank 9.
"All right then. So all I have to do is work hard, cultivate to Rank 9, and then I'll be able to topple this tyrant," Ruo Dei said.
Sun Lei sighed. "You're going to be spending your entire time trying to meet your quotas to make Rank 0 Gu worms. You won't have time to cultivate."
"Hmm, I'll just do it in secret then," Ruo Dei said. "How many years of lifespan do we gain by the way with each rank? Like if I go from Rank 1 to Rank 2, how many more years can I live?"
Sun Lei squinted her eyes. "None. Advancing through the ranks doesn't increase your lifespan whatsoever."
"What?" Ruo Dei said, clutching his hair. "How are we going to defeat this Fang Yuan then?"
"You can't," Sun Lei answered, sighing. She too had thought about escaping or defeating Fang Yuan for a long time. However, Fang Yuan had done much to impress upon her just how hopeless her situation was, and despite trying to think of a way out regardless, she had been unable to. "The only real thing that I can think of is that this Immortal is still bound by lifespan, so he may end up dying due to old age, and we might have a chance to escape then."
"Hold on. He's Immortal, right? How can he die of old age?" Ruo Dei asked.
"Becoming an Immortal at Rank 6 doesn't actually make you Immortal. It also doesn't increase your lifespan either," she answered, waving her hand.
"Man, this entire cultivation system is nuts! I wanna refund!" Ruo Dei said, clutching his hair once more as it dawned on him just how bad things were. "And wait, if he dies, won't that mean that all of us will die too? Won't this world collapse?"
Sun Lei shrugged. "That's probably true, but what other choice do we have other than to obey?"
"Look, I know it's hard and that you're just a young girl," Ruo Dei said, "but I'm sure that we'll manage to find a way out of this together."
Sun Lei sighed. She admired Ruo Dei's optimism, and at the very least, she would now have someone to talk to who was not AE-3048-195. He was not a very good conversation partner because he had been hit by Enslavement Gu, and whenever he did talk, he spoke about extremely racist and xenophobic things from back on his world. There was no way for someone like Sun Lei to connect with him whatsoever.
While she did feel a small spark of hope from what Ruo Dei was saying, she also knew that it was still essentially impossible to escape, and that they would have to bow their heads before Fang Yuan anyway. That was why she didn't want to get her hopes up.
As it was Fang Yuan had multiple methods to make their lives miserable if he wanted to. Right now, the island was quite comfortable to live and work in, but he could easily take that away with a wave of his hand.
"Don't do anything reckless. As it is, I'm not nearly as young or naive as I look," she answered. "Back where I came from, I was actually an adult woman."
"So wait a moment," Ruo Dei said, licking his lips. "So you're basically a young girl who's mentally an adult woman... man, finally, there's something good about this world, and one of the tropes I was looking for that I actually found!"
Sun Lei frowned. "Stay away from me. I'll have you know that my Vital Gu is Rank 1 Pepper Spray Gu. So shut up and start working."
Fang Yuan watched this all from afar and thought, 'Why are none of these transmigrators thinking of Eternal Life? Surely that's all that one would think so when given the chance. It appears that I'm the only normal one here.'
AE-3048-195, if he were actually free to think, would've thought, 'When I'm eventually free I will go ahead and establish the master race in this world as well. That is the only natural thing to want. Too bad that I'm the only normal one here and everyone else is a filthy sub-human.'
Sun Lei thought, 'I just hope we don't get into trouble. Being transported into another world, the only real thing that you can hope for is to live an easy life... but I can't. And it doesn't help that I'm the only normal one here.'
Ruo Dei thought, 'Man, in another world where there are wondrous things like legal lolis and I can't even take advantage of it. No one else is thinking about it either? In a world where we're no longer bound by the societal and legal constraints of our home worlds, why not? Looks like I'm the only normal one here.'
Thieving Heaven still had a remnant of his Will in the aperture. 'None of them seem to want to go back home, which is the only logical option after transmigrating if you have a life behind you. Why am I the only normal one here?'
***
Fang Yuan was meditating in White Heaven above his blessed land. Before his scheme in the Three Kings Inheritance could come to fruition, he first had to deal with his upcoming third Earthly Calamity.
Thieving Heaven Demonic Venerable had left behind a blueprint for using Rank 0 killer moves. Now, Fang Yuan had the time to experiment, as well as the resources of three otherworldly demons "assisting" him.
The only problem was generating the killer move in question. As Fang Yuan contemplated it, going over The Legends of Ren Zu over and over again, he realized something: Thieving Heaven had told him that The Legends of Ren Zu were not the end-all, be-all of the human path. After all, that was simply one aspect of humans, and humanity would continue changing. Not to mention, otherworldly demons came from different worlds, so that could not be the sole foundation.
'I guess I'll just have to try and consider things on my own,' Fang Yuan thought to himself. Even as he did, though, he couldn't escape the influence of The Legends of Ren Zu. Ren Zu had escaped through the Ordinary Abyss by becoming extraordinary, but to do so, he had to carve his own path. Fang Yuan, too, had to carve his own path when it came to this killer move. He sighed; the insight within The Legends of Ren Zu was truly profound, even when it could not be directly applied here.
Soon enough, the time for Fang Yuan's third Earthly Calamity arrived. He ordered the three otherworldly demons within his aperture to release the Rank 0 gu worms they were holding. Thousands of them floated up into the air as a window in his blessed land opened, and heaven and earth qi rushed in alongside the earthly tribulation which formed a dark mass which was ever-changing in the skies above.
Rank 6 Ambition Gu was activated, but this time Fang Yuan added the Rank 0 gu worms into the mix.
What was this new killer move based on?
It was based on his own thoughts and ideas. He remembered when he had first reincarnated into this world and wanted to explore it - how he had been fascinated by all the kinds of Gu worms that existed and their mystical powers, wanting to explore every single corner of the world. And it wasn't just him; the other otherworldly humans had similar drives.
Ruo Dei was actually the closest to how Fang Yuan had been back then. AE-3048-195 had the ambition to gain his old body back and establish a new world order in the gu world consisting only of rainbow-haired, pink-eyed humans.
Sun Lei had her own, simpler ambitions - she simply wanted to leave her encampment under Fang Yuan's boot.
What otherworlder didn't have aspirations of their own?
He called this killer move 'An Otherworlder's Ambition'.
Several beads of Grape Green Immortal Essence were spent activating the move. The Rank 0 Gu worms were all single-use and were consumed immediately upon activation. The move struck the forming tribulation clouds, which shrank until they disappeared into nothing.
In an instant, the third Earthly Calamity was over!