Wang Tian left the cave that he cultivated behind, watching the sun closely.
"Ah, I'm a bit late... should I risk using my gu worm again?" he wondered.
Since the humans on the Fang Yuan continent mainly spurred cultivation, they spent most of their time either hunting or gathering. Some of them had evolved basic means of animal husbandry - usually things like raising snails which were easy to capture and raise (they were also far less likely to run away as all it took to contain them was a circle on the ground).
As for agriculture, it was still in its most nascent stage with small fields of potatoes and the like. Wide scale farming had not yet been developed as most societies on the Fang Yuan continent were only a few thousand people large if not smaller. The tools to effectively farm were also not developed fully and since gu worms were shunned agriculture was little more than a subsistence level. It had not yet reached the point where farms could support massive cities or nation-states for that matter. But the people on Fang Yuan Continent had simple desires, they simply wanted to eat and sleep for the most part. Those were grander ambitions were usually frustrated or kicked out of society.
Those who lived near the coast had plentiful seafood, though Wang Tian's tribe did not have such amenities.
As such, Wang Tian was part of the team tasked with gathering - usually berries or mushrooms. If he missed his quota by too much, it wasn't like they would starve him. They would, however, get suspicious as to what he was actually doing if he came back empty-handed all the time.
'In such a case, I can only try and use this to compensate,' he thought to himself, releasing his vital gu - and for that matter, the only gu worm in his possession, near a field of berries.
It was Gatherer Gu - a Human Path gu worm that took the form of a woman with a wicker basket.
Gatherer Gu was very good at collecting berries and the like.
Initially, Wang Tian did not have even a single gu worm. The people of his tribe tended to kill any live gu worms they could find, and those that they did not kill ran away. It had only been through luck that Wang Tian had found her, refined her, and then made her his vital gu.
It was thanks to Gatherer Gu that Wang Tian volunteered for gathering missions in the first place.
Else, he would've joined the hunters like the rest of the men did. Hunting was usually done by men, and gathering by the woman.
That was why it was a bit strange for him to take gathering missions. Some of the boys even made fun of him for it.
But he didn't mind.
Because of Gatherer Gu, he was able to collect a large amount of food in a small amount of time. Gatherer Gu's feeding requirements were also low, it could be fed on anything that humans ate. It also didn't eat much more than a human did.
And because of this, he could always find a few hours each day to spend cultivating. Otherwise he would be even further behind than he was now.
The only danger was that someone might spot him using this gu worm. He quickly glanced around while she worked, on the lookout for anyone that might be tailing him.
If he had an investigative-type gu worm, this would've been easy. But alas, a Gu Master was basically nothing without his gu worms, and he did not have the means to gather other gu worms. Many gu worms, particularly wild ones, were quite dangerous and he couldn't go after them even if he so chose.
For a moment, he glanced beyond the line of hills that obscured the rest of the area from him.
Although the Fang Yuan Continent was vast, Wang Tian had only ever lived in a small corner of it. Beyond those hills was a boundary which separated their tribe's area from another tribe, but he was told that beyond it was the ocean. And what lay beyond the ocean?
No one knew.
There were rumors of great things in the world. Stories of people called 'Immortals' with great power though Wang Tian wondered whether or not they were true. There were even people who believed that there were lands beyond the great ocean if one could swim far enough, but boats that could make that journey had not been invented by anyone yet.
'Someday... I want to leave this place and wander the world...' Wang Tian thought to himself. If there were really things called Immortals, if there truly was a higher purpose to Gu Master cultivation, he wanted to know it. 'But first... I have to advance!'
He didn't know how many ranks there were, only that cultivation went to Rank 3. Could it go beyond that? Who knew. He had never seen anything greater than a Rank 2 gu worm in his entire life and it had been the corpse of one at that.
What a waste, he could only bemoan, recalling that incident.
Had he grown in the outside world, he would've been raised and nurtured with great care as a clan's future genius and an A-grade talent. He would've gotten the best teachers and guidance on the matter. Here though, he could only fumble around in the dark when it came to Gu Master cultivation. He had many misconceptions and incorrect beliefs on cultivating because of this.
"Alright, we're done," Wang Tian said, satisfied with what Gatherer Gu had managed to collect, placing all of it within his own collection pouch. If he had a storage-type gu worm, this part would be far easier. He could carry berries and the like enough to feed a small army if he could do so, instead, his ability to gather was limited.
Another way that his fellow tribesmen couldn't see the benefit of using gu worms.
It wasn't like Wang Tian hadn't tried to get them to change their ways.
He would occasionally drop small hints to some of them suggesting that maybe not all gu worms were bad or that not all Gu Masters could be so dangerous, but he was always met with such vitriol that he had begun to abandon any such attempts. Wang Tian didn't have any close friends. The men sought to avoid him because his job was seen as 'too feminine' and the girls didn't want him either. As such, Wang Tian only had himself and his gu worm to spend time with.
Not that he minded. The isolation was a blessing in disguise; people were far less likely to go looking for him if if no one cared for him. That made being found out far less likely.
He had seen two people who were Gu Masters, who had found ways to awaken their apertures, who had been killed. And six others who weren't but killed anyway because people were suspicious!
In such an environment, naturally he could not expose himself.
"Thank you for your help," Wang Tian said to Gatherer Gu who bowed before shrinking back to a small size and going into this aperture.
Wang Tian then made the long trek back to the home of the Wang Tribe.
The Wang Tribe was but one of the numerous sub-tribes that made up the greater area controlled by this region, which was firmly in the hands of the Anti-Gu Master Coalition, if it could be called such. Boasting over twenty thousand people in total, this coalition was the largest on the Fang Yuan Continent, hence its success.
The Wang Tribe had only about eighty people. They were all that Wang Tian had ever known.
"Ah, little Wang Tian, did you manage to get a good haul today?"
"Maybe not as much as the others, but yes," Wang Tian said in response to a disappointed look.
He had brought back a considerable amount given how little time that he had spent, but the thing was it was still less than what a human completely devoted to the task could've done so. "Ah - why so little?"
"I uh, might've been unlucky..."
"If only you'd go work with the others instead of going on your own. Two fists cannot rival four palms, you know? Or did you secretly have ambitions to become a Gu Master or something?"
"What? N-No, impossible, I would never want to become something as horrid as a Gu Master, hehehe..." Wang Tian said before laughing nervously and bounding away to get home as soon as possible.