Yuxuan walked past the tavern his sleeves swaying as he moved through the street
He did not purchase any wine today because he had enough of it at home, and he did not want to waste primeval stones when he did not need to—they were a rare resource and vital to a gu master's growth.
He needed to to make purchases to feed his gu worms in the future as well, such as the moonlight gu that needed moon orchid petals
Until he took a few steps to get more primeval stones, he would need to be greedy with them
He continued to walk to the edges of the village and went even further after making sure that there was no one following him around—there was no sound aside from his own footsteps and the sound of crickets and birds chirping
He was naturally walking towards the direction in which the liquor worm was located
Or at least where he remembered it being located
As he walked Raphael was tasked with reciting the scene in which Fang Yuan had found the liquor worm so he could mimic it and find it himself
He walked for a long while more and eventually he came across a patch of snow-white flowers that seemed out of place amongst the brown earth and green trees
He lingered there for a few seconds and knelt down, picking up one of the flowers and brought it to his nose
Just then the wind blew
There was an odd peaceful silence that overcame the bamboo forest; all sounds of nature aside from the swaying of the leaves were made silent and it lasted for a few seconds
The clouds shifted from their position and like a falling river, moonlight fell down onto Qing Mao Mountain and shone on the flowers, making them glow but then the wind had moved and stopped
The clouds covered up the moon once more and the moonlight concentration lowered as if it were being diluted and a second later, the crickets chirped once more and the birds sang again
Yuxuan lowered his gaze, and then he saw it.
On a particular bamboo there seemed to be a white droplet of snow that was stuck to it.
Yuxuan smiled widely, not the goofy one he put for show for the elders and others but a genuine glad smile
The liquor worm
He slowed down his breathing and stopped his steps forward.
Up till this moment he had followed the steps that Fang Yuan had taken, but he was not Fang Yuan.
At this point Fang Yuan was a mere rank 1 gu master who happened to have 500 years of experience; Yuxuan may have lacked the experience but in no way was he a mere rank 1 gu master
He was an immortal, with an immortal aperture who just so happened to have a mortal aperture
Crouching his body and bending forward slowly, he felt the strength in his leg increase exponentially, and then he launched himself forward.
Woosh
It took a split second, and Yuxuan was already right beside the cute gu worm. Yuxuan watched as its little eyes widened and it attempted to escape but the moment it went airborne, Yuxuan raised his hand in a pinching motion
He gently gripped the gu worm, pressing it hard enough to keep it in his grasp while also not hurting it. He focused, and immediately the gu worm was no longer in the outside world—it was in his aperture.
He needed to complete what he wanted to do quickly now
The sovereign immortal aperture had an accelerated time frame of 1:60, and the liquor worm was already withering away under the effects of its starvation—now that it was in the aperture, every minute equated to an hour
But just because the gu worm was weak did not mean it lost its fight—it has the will of a rank 5 gu master, after all
But that was useless too.
The aura of the rank 10 divine copy gu was released, spreading over the aperture instantly, supressing the liquor worm and using the immortal essence bead he had released into his aperture with Raphael's help.
He suddenly realized that he had another Gu worm in his pocket and pulled it out, throwing it into his aperture and refining it as well
No mortal gu was ever going to cause him an issue with immortal essence and his refinement path attainment
There was another reason he used his immortal aperture in refining the gu
Refining a gu worm in his mortal aperture and using the essence from his primeval sea would make it his vital gu
He did not want to choose one as yet
The path that he had wanted to pursue was fire path; it was a very well-developed path within the gu world while simultaneously having many gu worms and many resources. That also meant it would be extremely difficult to become venerable in said path
Why?
Because to become venerable in a path, he would need to become a supreme grandmaster in that path; if it was an extremely developed path like water, fire, metal etc he was going to need to know a lot more.
In the case he used one of the more rare paths, then he could become venerable in that
His top contender was currently Wisdom Path.
Sure, he wanted to have an attainment in other paths, but he did not want to limit himself and his ability to grow. With the wisdom path, he could deduce an enemy's plan and mess with their mind before they could attack him
Aside from the wisdom path, the soul path was also something he could grow in
But he did not need to worry about that right now
Refining gu in his immortal aperture would allow him to not choose a vital gu until he chooses one that he wants
If push came to shove, he was already a Refinement path supreme grandmaster
Yuxuan was already dashing through the forest, moving up along with the river, his feet causing splashes as he ran and within a short amount of time, he had reached the location he wanted to be at
The boulder that had been eroded by the stream falling from the waterfall appeared in front of him, and inside the crevice would be the cave.
The cave in which the flower wine monk died
Yuxuan moved closer and sized the hole in the boulder and made sure he could fit through without causing damage, and thankfully, he could.
He squeezed through the crevice, his head stuck in one direction that reminded him of when a video game character walked through a crack in the wall.
He slipped through and let out a large sigh
'That took longer than expected.' He groaned
He had a slightly limited amount of time—the sky had just gone dark, and comparing it to Earth's time, it was roughly 7 o'clock. He would need to return to his house by the morning, hopefully before sunrise
"Try touching it?"
Yuxuan heard the voice sound from behind him, but he did not panic, nor did he turn his body. He knew what it was and what the content was
It was the photo-audio gu playing the last moments of the fourth-generation clan head and the flower-wine monk and what had truly happened.
He walked towards the breaking corpse of the flower-wine monk and ripped the pouch of primeval stones of it
"Raphael" He called out loud knowing that no one is around
Yes, Master?
"Can you make a copy of these 15 primeval stones and prepare to make a copy of the liquor worm after I remove it from the aperture?"
Why does the master not make a copy of the liquor urn along with the stones?
Yuxuan's face became confused—"You said you can't have 2 of the same gu in the aperture."
Immortal Gu are unique, and so only one can exist at a time in the real world. Thanks to the master's special constitution, a copy can exist within the aperture as well—mortal gu are not unique and so many can exist
Yuxuan let out a disappointed sigh—'How did i even forget that?'
Immortal gu were unique while mortal gu could exist in millions
"Well then, make a copy of everything I place into the aperture, okay?"
Understood
From now until the indefinite future, anything placed into the immortal aperture will have a copy made, just like how it was doing so right now.
From 1 liquor worm he now had 2, from 1 moonlight gu he now had 2 and from 15 primeval stones he had 30
So right now in total he had 59 and a half primeval stones, including the copies he made of Fang Yuan's stones and what he had on his own.
He needed a way to get more primeval stones and he had one as well.
Primeval stones were essential for a gu master's progression; they were also used to purchase gu and their food and with the trade caravan moving up Yuxuan wanted to have as many as he possibly could
But for now there were gu he could get without worrying about buying them—there were several gu here left by the flower wine monk.
With the moonlight gu in his immortal aperture, where there was inexhaustible essence due to the used green grape immortal essence bead, this meant an unlimited amount of moonblades could be released
Yuxuan smiled and knelt down in front of the oddly smooth boulder and began to dig using his fingers.
After a few moments of digging, he pulled out a flower
The flower was the one-time-use expendable gu—the earth treasurey flower gu—and inside this particular gu, the flower wine monk had sealed the white boar gu
He slowly unwrapped her the flower petals one by one and threw them on the ground—it was unfortunate that he could not make a copy of the earth's treasury flower
A copy was identical to the original in every way. If he were to make a copy of the spring-autumn cicada, for example, he would not just be making a copy of the spring-autumn cicada but also Fang Yuan's will within and even Heaven's will that was hiding within it.
So making a copy of the earth treasury flower would result in creating a used earth treasury flower that could not be reused
One by one, Yuxuan pulled off the petals and eventually reached the center where the bud was, and on it he found the small ladybug-like gu.
White boar gu.
He smiled and shoved it into his immortal aperture, and instantly a copy was made.
He would give one of them to Fang Yuan tomorrow and would keep the copy for another use; he would not be using it himself because a White Boar gu was not going to do anything to increase his strength in the slightest
In fact, all the gu he was going to get from this inheritance was going to go to Fang Yuan while he would keep the copies for another purpose
This was a necessary thing to do
Fang Yuan may have been his servent but he did not loose his goals and aspirations, it was just that his loyalty to Yuxuan came over that
But Yuxuan was not going to limit his growth, in fact he wanted to expidite it and make him grow much stronger than what was originally made
Yuxuan stood up and stretched his arms above his head before placing his hands on the boulder
And then he pushed
The boulder simply moved forwards under his strength without any effort—it looked and felt like he was simply walking forward.
'I chose my wishes well.' He smiled to himself
He took step after step and as he read it took 50 steps before he was on flat ground again; he pushed the boulder to the side
He moved forward and just as he had done with the White Boar Gu, he unearthed the earth treasury flower. He unwrapped it and pulled out the Jade Skin Gu.
Standing up, he knew what was going to be located in the next room so he pushed it open and stood
Stepping into the room he saw the pillars and readied himself by stretching—this was room where the Jade-Eyed Monkeys were.
Yuxuan raised his hand and allowed a small insignificant bit of green grape primeval essence to flow into it—suddenly his hand was brought down in an arc, shooting out a blue moon blade that swam through the air
'This. Is. Amazing'
He smiled to himself and began to walk. when he got within 10 steps of the first pillar, he saw a stone monkey leap out from within its little pillar hole
Swoosh
The moonblade flew through the air, followed by another and then another and then another
He recalled the memory of reading how Fang Yuan said it took four moonblades to dispose of one of them
If he were to use his rank 1 initial stage essence, he would be able to shoot 9 moonblades and take out 2 monkeys till he refilled his essence, but with the immortal essence, he was not limited to that
Walking through the room, he threw endless amounts of blue moonblades, slashing every monkey that came out. Since his precision was not as great as Fang Yuan's, some missed and hit the ground, but that did not mean any survived
When they got too close, he simply threw a punch and blew them apart, the jade stone eyes falling to the ground.
He systematically killed each one from each pillar, harvested their eyes and threw them into his aperture before attacking the next pillar
He cleared all of them and picked up the jade that would be the food for the jade-skin gu
Even the monkey king did not last that long
He had used many moonblades to attack it, sending them out in almost endless succession; it was just unfortunate that a rank-one moonblade was not that powerful, so he just used his hand to dispose of it. One punch was all it took, just like the regular monkeys.
Fang Yuan had used the quote 'Haste brings no success.'
But Yuxuan smiled widely, his eyes reflecting absolute happiness before continuing to move forward—"That only applies when you're too weak to barrel through."
Coming this far had taken fang yuan months of hardship, and yet he had done it in less than 6 hours so far
and he still had at least 8 more hours before he needed to return home in order to not incur suspicion
He threw the stealth rock gu into his aperture and continued to move forward
Like Fang Yuan, he moved to take the earth communication ear grass, and after once more unearthing the earth treasure flower, he shoved it into his aperture.
He had no plan of using it; he was not the ruthless fang yuan who could sever his own ear nor did he need to with his great senses
But he did not focus on it
This was the next room
Yuxuan saw the large number of centipedes in the room grow and move towards him from all sides, even the roof
'Chainsaw Golden Centepide'
Yuxuan thought immediately, dashing forwards and grabbing the gu, throwing it into his aperture before sending moonblades out in great succession
He did not mind the centipedes, nor could their mandibles or legs pierce his skin to induce the poisoning effect but they were annoying, so he killed them too
He sighed, moving out from the room
There was now only 1 gu worm left in the flower wine monk's inheritance, the rank 3 heavenly essence treasure lotus, but he was not going to get that gu now
It was in a dangerous spot, and for now and the foreseeable future, he did not want to awaken the first-gen Gu Yue yet.
'Well, let's go back.'
He said in his mind while dashing back to the boulder
When he reached it, he didn't just leave the inheritance ground; he sealed it up again by pushing out the boulder and coming out, then pushing it back into place carving it with his hands to appear natural against the wall
'I really ransacked the whole inheritance ground.' He laughed to himself
"Sorry, man, but the truth of your life will remain secret."
He spoke to the corpse of the flower wine monk while taking the photo audio gu in his hand and moving out of the cave
He was going to go and increase his fortune and then multiply that by 2!