Under the dim amber lamplight, Lin Mu sat at the table with his brow furrowed, his eyes fixed with intense, scrutinizing focus.
His fingertips traced over and over across the palm-sized bone plate, black as pitch.
The deeper he probed by touch, the more sharply he sensed something off. The thing looked like a desiccated fragment of bone, but the texture of its surface and the naturally-formed, cryptic engravings across it bore no resemblance to the remains of any beast or bird.
More like... the hardened shell of some extraordinarily ancient, supremely high-ranked Gu worm — what's left after its carapace calcified upon death and endured the slow passage of countless ages.
That was his initial assessment.
Lin Mu drew a slow breath, closed his eyes, and concentrated every thread of his attention into his fingertips. With careful precision, he split off a tendril of peak-stage dark-green Primeval Essence and pressed it cautiously into the interior of the bone plate.
Hmm...
The moment his Primeval Essence made contact, something detonated in Lin Mu's mind.
His consciousness plunged without warning into a boundless, suffocating bog.
The surface of the bone plate was saturated with an incredibly dense, fathomlessly deep Earth Path aura — its weight dwarfing his Red Mud Gu a hundred times over, a thousand times over.
But beneath that vast concealment, the instincts Lin Mu had honed through countless life-and-death struggles — and those sharp, cutting eyes of his — seized on something buried at the very deepest layer.
Hidden beneath the heavy bog lay something else, coiled and dormant: a trace of the Blood Path, secretive and bone-chillingly cold, as though it could freeze the blood in one's veins.
He refused to give up, and forced more Primeval Essence in.
It vanished like a stone dropped into the ocean — swallowed whole by the hazy, murky phantasm within, without a single response.
He then tried soaking it in water, scorching it over a candle flame, and even using his Iron Leaf Gu to lightly scrape along the edges.
Every attempt produced the same result. The bone plate remained utterly still and unmoved, without leaving so much as a pale scratch on its surface.
Forcing it won't work.
Yet despite every attempt ending in failure, Lin Mu felt no discouragement. If anything, the light in his eyes grew sharper.
The more completely it failed to respond, the higher its grade had to be. He was certain: this was a fragment of an inheritance, or perhaps a core artifact-token, left behind by some ancient powerhouse.
It's unresponsive right now simply because I lack the correct key to open it. Or more precisely — at a mere Rank 1, I don't even qualify to resonate with it.
Lin Mu wrapped the bone plate carefully in several layers of oilcloth and tucked it back against his body.
It's a trump card. I'll turn it over when I have the strength to do so.
The night passed in a blink.
Daylight flooded through the window, scattering the morning fog that clung year-round to the Silent Stone District.
Lin Mu stood, grinding the heels of his palms hard against his throbbing temples.
He walked to the washbasin, drove the ice-cold water against his face, forced down the exhaustion from a sleepless night spent studying the bone plate, pulled himself into a sharp, alert bearing, and pushed open the stone door.
Today, the members of their championship squad would collect their baseline rewards from the clan.
As the undisputed contributors to their victory in the Grand Competition, beyond the three hundred Primeval Stones Lin Feng had privately distributed to buy goodwill, the clan officially awarded each of them five hundred Primeval Stones, along with the privilege of entering the outer Gu cave and selecting one Rank 1 Gu worm of their choosing.
Half an hour later, Lin Mu stood before the well-stocked stone shelves of the outer Gu cave.
It was no match for the core Gu Repository, which housed Rank 2 and even Rank 3 rarities, but for a Rank 1 Gu Master it was still a substantial treasury.
The steward assigned to escort him trailed at his side, smiling broadly, words pouring out in a steady stream:
"Steward Lin Mu, take a look at this Water Healing Gu — excellent sustaining power. And over here, the Green Vine Gu — superb for binding and restraining enemies. Paired with your movement techniques, it would be a perfect fit..."
The steward pushed hard on the flashy utility and crowd-control types.
In everyone's eyes, Lin Mu was simply the premium support tool kept at Young Master Lin Feng's side. Choices like these were only natural.
Lin Mu didn't spare a single glance at those softly glowing auxiliary Gu.
He walked straight through the Wood Path and Water Path sections without breaking stride, and headed directly into the Metal Path area at the back.
His gaze swept across the stone shelves and stopped on a beetle — its carapace honed to a blade's edge, radiating a pale gold killing aura from every inch of its shell.
Lin Mu reached out and closed his hand around it without hesitation.
Peak Rank 1, offensive — the Metal Rend Gu.
"Steward Lin Mu, this..." The steward stiffened, caught off guard. "Are you certain? This is a pure offensive Gu — the Primeval Essence consumption is enormous, and it doesn't seem to fit your Earth Path techniques at all."
"This one."
Lin Mu had no intention of explaining himself. He registered the Metal Rend Gu and drew it into his Aperture.
He walked out of the Gu cave into the glaring sunlight. The corner of his mouth curved into a cold, clear smile edged with quiet contempt.
Did he not understand Lin Feng's thinking?
Before, when Lin Feng had needed him to hand over the Jade Tendon Gu, he had made a promise — large and generous-sounding: "On the day I use my true disciple status to advance to Rank 2, I'll give you this peak Rank 1 Metal Rend Gu of mine as a reward."
A textbook move by those who sit above others.
Dangle a resource you intend to discard anyway as a weightless promise, loop it like an invisible chain around a subordinate's neck, and let them work themselves to the bone chasing it.
Lin Mu simply took the Gu for himself.
Staking your combat power on someone else's hollow vow is foolish. In this world of Gu that devours men whole, only what you hold in your own hands is a real resource.
The Metal Rend Gu filled the gap in his lineup for a Rank 2 Gu worm.
Let's see what you'll use to keep me in line after this.
Carrying the cold clarity unique to the Demonic Path, Lin Mu bypassed the External Affairs Hall and went instead directly to the clinic at the edge of the stockade.
There, he collected Lin Wuxie, who had been drifting in and out of consciousness for days, too weak to stand.
"Move."
No ceremony.
Lin Mu hauled him along like a sack of grain, slipping past the clan's visible and hidden sentries, and disappeared with him into a stretch of dense forest behind Black Blood Stockade.
The midday sun filtered through the heavy canopy in scattered fragments.
Lin Mu dropped Lin Wuxie against a moss-covered boulder.
Lin Wuxie's condition was harrowing.
He had gone without food for days during the Grand Competition to conceal his nature.
Then yesterday he had physically endured the full, frenzied thrashing of a Rank 2 Python King in that bog, sustaining severe damage to his body. On top of that, the incomplete Small Swallow Gu in his Aperture had been pushed to the edge of a rampage by days of starvation.
Lin Wuxie was skeletal. His cheeks had caved in.
Beneath skin that had always been pale, a deep, suffocated black was pressing up from underneath.
He was curled against the boulder, both hands clawing into the soil, fingernails splitting.
His eyes were locked on the dark depths of the forest ahead, the pupils glowing a dim, crawling green — the look of a wolf starved past the point of reason. From his throat came sounds no human should be making: a low, guttural, suppressed snarl.
He was holding himself back. Without an order from his Senior Brother, he would sooner choke on the impulse than dare to feed.
Lin Mu watched this near-feral thing crouched at the boulder's base. His expression carried no pity, no revulsion — only cold appraisal.
"Go."
Lin Mu finally unshackled the chain. His voice was low and flat as he issued the single command:
"Eat your fill. Anything living."
"HRAAUGH—!"
The instant the order landed, the last flicker of reason in Lin Wuxie's eyes went out.
He let out a shrill, animal howl, dropped to all fours, and became a black streak of motion — a demon unshackled — and tore into the forest ahead.
It didn't take long before the stillness broke.
"AWOOOO——!!"
"HGHHKK——!"
From deep in the trees came a cascade of screaming — wild boars, Wind Wolves, their cries soaked in terror and agony.
Woven through them: the wet crack of bones, and the visceral sounds of flesh being torn apart and chewed through without pause.
As the feeding frenzy raged, the vital essence of beast after beast blinked out across the forest.
In its place, something turbulent and twisted was surging — a savage, violent wave of blood and qi, swelling by the moment.
The most fearsome trait of a Food Path Gu Master — that brutal, insatiable regenerative force — was coming back online, fed on raw flesh.
Amid that nauseating, blood-soaked backdrop.
Lin Mu tapped his foot lightly against the trunk. Earth Ring Body activated.
His frame went light, and he vaulted up to the crown of a towering ancient tree dozens of zhang above the ground.
He stood on a thick branch. Using his Blood Scent Gu and Eagle Eye Gu, he kept watch over the surrounding forest while Lin Wuxie fed below.
In one hand, he turned over the Pitch-Black Bone Plate, with its faint, ancient pulse.
In the other, he rolled the newly acquired Metal Rend Gu between his fingers, its killing aura cold and sharp against his skin.
He listened to the hellish sounds rising from the forest below, and felt the weight of real, tangible resources in both hands alongside the unknown promise of the bone plate.
Lin Mu's eyes grew deep and very still.
Next, it's time to find out the true origin of this bone plate — and make the final preparations for the push to Rank 2.