I have enough time to breakthrough to rank 2 now, the only question is whether to postpone it for after fighting my next nemesis. The next awakening ceremony is two weeks from now, so it wouldn't take that long until then.
There's still some things that I can do now however, since everyone is preparing for the next awakening ceremony I can begin preparing to increase my aptitude.
I wait for night time to come feore sneaking into the graveyard under the cover of night. Finding the gravestone that I am here for does not take long.
'Fang Zheng'
'Died at 16 years old'
'Rest in peace'
I begin to dig the top half of the grave, the occasional glance around allows me to confirm no one is nearby. Thanks to my strength it does not take much time to uncover the decaying head of Fang Zheng. The skin has dried, the eyes have sunken in, the cheeks have turned inwards, pulling the corpse's lips open, unveiling the rotting mouth within.
A single strike to the neck with the shovel is enough to decapitate the head, which I swiftly deposit within three layers of sack. Filling in the created hole covers the macabre theft. Leaving the village with everyone none the wiser allows me to deposit the shovel and head safely in the wine flower monks cave.
The next day no one cares or notices that Fang Zheng's grave has been dug, after all, why would anyone care for someone whom they considered trash?
On the next day I begin shopping for the more common materials that I need, sadly only finding a tenth of the total required.
—
The entire village is in an uproar, a rank 5 river swallowing toad gu has been spotted worryingly close to the village.
Rank 5 gu can be capable of destroying entire mountains, which is especially true for one such as the river swallowing toad gu. The good news is that the river swallowing toad gu is a generally peaceful gu when wild, most of its time between eating being spent sleeping.
The problem is that if something makes it hostile then it could flood Gu Yue village and destroy it with the mere aftermath of its attack. The only way to make it move is to be acknowledged by it, and the only way to be acknowledged by it is to physically move it with your own strength.
As the most physically able gu master in the clan I am naturally selected for this mission. The toad is not far from the village, it only takes an hour of walking to reach it. The colossal blue skinned toad is sleeping calmly in the river, appearing more akin to a boulder than an animal.
I begin walking to the toad, the torrential flow of the river smashes into me. Thanks to my strength I can easily weather the push of the river, anyone else would have been swept away. I am barely a quarter the height of the toad. A good push is more than enough to dislodge and wake up the toad.
It gives a loud quack as it wakes up, before opening its mouth and swallowing the entire upstream flow of the river. The water is pulled forcefully into its mouth, creating an eerie scenery of dried up river behind it and raging water flow before it.
Once the toad is done eating it closes its mouth, before opening it again and vomiting everything except for the water that it had swallowed into the sky. A rain of rocks, fish, crabs, weeds and everything else that can be found in the water starts.
The river swallowing toad eats, just as its name implies, river water. Everything else in the water that it does not eat, it simply vomits out. The toad gives another loud quack as the rain of river creatures continues, before turning towards me and letting out another loud quack.
I haven't refined it, all that I have done is make it acknowledge me. At this moment there is no one on this mountain who can refine this rank 5 gu. "Can you please leave for another river?"
The river swallowing toad stares at me, its beady eyes betraying nothing. After a somewhat long period of time it gives yet another loud quack before turning around and hopping away. Its hop is strong enough to make a deep hole where it once was, allowing it to jump all the way to the river's shore.
Its second hop takes it into the forest and out of eyesight.
—
Spectating the awakening ceremony is not required, but since I am waiting for my nemesis to appear before advancing I have a lot of free time and not much to do with it.
This time I can actually understand the clan leader's speech. "You are the hope of the Gu Yue clan, it is the hope of the older generation for their followers to become greater than them, and it will be your hope that your descendants be greater than you!"
An entire year has passed since I found myself in this world, since I had resolved to become strong enough to not be turned into refinement material. "The founder of our Gu Yue clan was a legendary man, providing us with his superior bloodline!"
I hope Jeremy is doing well, he'll need to grow up to take care of mom and dad. I wish I could help him. "In other clans at most five out of ten will be capable of awakening their aperture and becoming gu masters, in our Gu Yue village six out of ten will become gu masters!"
I turn my gaze to the pool. They've rounded the edges and corners of the pool. "This is because of our Gu Yue clan's founder! His legendary bloodline is what made this possible! It is our duty to uphold and respect this gift from him!"
I turn my gaze to Mo Chen. To his left is Mo Bei, to his right is a tall man with a long face. "Today is the time for you to join the ranks of our clans gu masters! May the ceremony begin! Ji Ta, come forward!"
Ji Ta comes forward, he is a tall lanky boy. He begins walking through the pool, only stopping after he takes his thirty second step. 64% B-grade aptitude, not bad.
The awakening ceremony continues in this manner, each teen being called by Gu Yue Bo, before they begin traversing the pool. It is the eleventh student that manages to draw everyone's undivided attention, Yao Le. She is a beautiful black haired young girl, her eyes clearly put her innocence on clear display. She has taken the thirtieth step and shows no sign of stopping.
After taking the fortieth step she begins to struggle, the forty fifth leaves her to waddle through the water as if it was molasses. The forty sixth as if it was quicksand. She is sweating profusely by this point, her red face clearly showing the effort that she is putting in. She makes the forty seventh step, which leaves her legs paralyzed in the water. She has 94% A rank aptitude.
Every member and elder of the clan rises and begins celebrating. I stay motionless and continue looking at this Yao Le. I had read the novel a bit past the first year of the academy, and someone with aptitude of this kind was not mentioned at all.
This Yao Le will be groomed to become the next clan leader, her aptitude practically guarantees that she will reach rank 5 without any troubles. Her life is also now in danger because of this.
On average each clan on Qing Mao mountain will have someone of A grade aptitude every three years, but none of the clans have any elders with A grade aptitude. The Gu Yue, Bai and Xiong clans will sabotage each other, assassinating anyone who threatens to tip the status quo towards their rivals.
The Gu Yue clan is in a precarious position, our clan leader is fairly old, a successor must be found and prepared. This Yao Le is the clan's hope for the future, meaning that she is the bane of the Bai and Xiong clans.
The ceremony continues after everyone has calmed down, the revelation of Yao Le's aptitude has made the rest of the ceremony fairly dull. Once everything is over the clan leader gives a short pointed speech, before the crowd disperses.
If I assume that my nemesis… spawned? For a lack of a better word, when my aperture awakened then at this moment in time my second nemesis should have done so as well. I can now breakthrough to rank 2 without worrying about facing a rank 2 nemesis while also giving myself an advantage against my current one.
—
Coffee - a pot of coffee stands ready.
Primeval stones - prepared in a giant pile next to my bed.
Water - Shen Cui will bring water and help me drink as needed.
Food - Wang Luli will prepare food and feed me as required.
The preparations for my breakthrough are complete. It will take several days for me to break through to rank 2. The gist of what I need to do is simple, just smash primeval essence into my aperture walls until they crack and break. The problem is that my aperture walls heal slightly faster than my primeval essence regenerates.
Picking up the rank 3 heavenly essence treasure lotus would have increased the regeneration rate of my aperture enough for me to breakthrough naturally, but that would've led to my almost certain death. I am almost certain that my luck would turn the resulting fiasco to my favor, but I will not rely only on my luck in cases of life and death.
I take a primeval stone in each of my hands and begin cultivating. My primeval essence forms large waves, relentlessly smashing and damaging the walls of my aperture. As primeval essence smashes into the walls it is consumed, which leads to me replenishing it with the primeval stones in my hands. Once the stones are consumed I swiftly replace them.
I do not stop cultivating even as Shen Cui holds a glass of water to my mouth, allowing me to drink. When Wang Luli feeds me smoked brisket I continue cultivating. When Shen Cui puts a cup of coffee to my mouth I do not stop cultivating.
Even as I slowly walk to the bathroom and relieve myself I continue cultivating. Stopping for even a second would put me back significantly. Days and Nights pass in this manner, by the third day the only reason I have not dropped unconscious is the unhealthy amount of coffee in my sistem.
My aperture walls finally break, the crystal membrane walls characteristic of peak stage cultivation are shattered, turning back into the light membrane walls of initial stage cultivation. Light red primeval essence is being produced by my aperture, the primeval essence of a rank 2 initial stage cultivator.
I crash on the bed and instantly fall asleep.
—
There are two more days until I will be required to go on a mission, I will spend those days resting and recovering. The breakthrough took me four whole days of nonstop cultivation, if it took even a quarter of a day longer I would have fallen asleep and failed.
Breaking through to rank 3 with my current aptitude will be impossible. The second aperture from my perks would solve that issue, but I want to first increase my aptitude as much as possible, since the second aperture will have the same aptitude as the first.
I still need to refine some requisite gu to solve my aptitude problem, the good news is that those are not that difficult to refine, all that they really need is time. I'll bring up skipping missions to my team after completing our next one.
Today and Tomorrow's order of business is relaxation. I turn to Shen Cui. "Prepare to give me a massage, I'm still sore all over from sitting in one place for so long."
Shen Cui gives me a smile. "Of course young master, I shall do so right away!"
—
There are some preparations that I need to do before going on a mission and presumably facing my next nemesis, first of which is upgrading all of my gu from the 'superior gu set' to rank 2. The next is refining a few gu.
I take the white boar gu and the jade skin gu. Slowly pushing them together forms a small ball of light, in which I throw some primeval essence stones. I concentrate on maintaining the sphere and keeping it stable, soon enough I am staring at the rank 2 white jade skin gu, the upgraded version of the jade skin gu.
Next on the list is refining the rank 2 moonglow gu and the rank 2 light gu. The rank 2 light gu's recipe is not known to the clan at large, but my inheritance has its recipe recorded. Refining the rank 2 moonglow gu is simple, only needing to fuse the rank 1 moonlight gu with 2 rank 1 little light gu. I push the moonlight gu and a little light gu together, forming a small ball of light. I throw in a primeval stone and the other little light gu. A few seconds later the rank 2 moonglow gu falls into the palm of my hand.
Pushing three little light gu together at once forms a ball of light, which quickly transforms into the rank 2 light gu. This light gu is an upgraded version of the little light gu, boosting the power of moonlight gu by an additive 200%.
Rank 2 amplify effect gu will also give an additive increase of 200%, meaning that the moonglow gu is now 500% as effective. Its range is boosted from twenty meters to a hundred, its strength is absurdly higher.
This killer move has the power of a top rate rank 3 gu, it is not something to be treated lightly by an opponent!
—
I stare at the decaying wolf corpses. Chi Jan clicks his tongue. "Too soon, this is too soon! The next beast tide should only happen in three years."
Our current mission is fairly simple. There were beasts spotted near a village owned by the clan, so we are here to investigate what's going on.
Chi La kneels next to one of the dead wolves. "They have bite marks matching they own kind. Their population increasing to the point that this would happen is not unusual, the problem is that it's still too soon."
Chi Jan nods. "There are two possibilities, the first is that the beast tide will come earlier than expected, which is the ideal scenario."
Gu Hao sighs. "And the second is that the beast tide comes later, which would mean that we will be facing an unusually large beast tide."
Going by cultivation tropes the enlarged beast tide will then wipe the village and kill everyone except me, leading me to begin adventuring throughout the world. I need to increase my aptitude ASAP.
I still don't understand why I got such a bad feeling when I thought of breaking through to rank 2 during the school year. Intuition tells me that something bad would have happened, but it does not tell me anything else.
Chi Jan sighs. "Let's go turn in the mission, it's no-" Lightning strikes his head, exploding it.
"Tch, Can't believe I missed like that."
I turn towards the speaker, a flying fifteen year old boy with wings made of lightning. Their hair is blue, their blue eyes seem to sparkle with electricity. "I'm not going to miss this time!"
He is ninety meters away from me. I use the moonglow gu's killer move and thrust my open palm at him, throwing an absurdly strong moon blade at him. A barrier of light is formed halfway between me and him, but the boosted moon blade effortlessly shatters through it.
His eyes widen, he tries to fly to the left and dodge but is too slow, his right shoulder is pierced through. The hole created is large enough to have almost removed his whole arm, which is now hanging limply by a strand of flesh as blood gushes out of the open wound.
He stares in shock at this hanging arm, I throw another moon blade at him. He notices it too late to dodge, he is split in twain, his halves falling unceremoniously from the sky, his guts trailing behind them.
Chi La and Gu Hao are staring at me in shock, Chi Ju is staring at Chi Jan's headless corpse in shock. I go towards where the dead body fell, which makes Chi La and Gu Hao get their wits about them.
The man's intestines are splayed about, shit flowing out of them and mixing with the rapidly flowing blood and organs. There are no gu on his body, he detonated them before dying. Chi La gulps nervously. "I'm not telling on you, I don't know how you made your moonblade that strong and I don't care, thank you for saving us."
Gu Hao leans on Chi La. "Same here, if it wasn't for you we'd be dead."
We turn our heads towards Chi Ju, who is still staring in shock at Chi Jan's dead body. Chi La sighs. "I'll take care of him, he won't say a word, don't worry."
Intuition tells me that they're both honest with me, there's no feeling of doom coming when I think of trusting them either. I nod. "Thanks."
—
Our final report mentioned both the ambush and the dead wolves. The only falsehood in it is the defeat of the attacker, where he instead flew too close to us and was hit by two lucky strikes.
With the death of Chi Jan our team is officially disbanded, it is up to each of us whether we want to remain in the same team, join another or form our own. I shrug as we exit the mission hall. "I will be forming my own team."
Chi La leans on Gu Hao. "Can you rethink that? We would really like to remain as a team together, even if we only met so little time ago. It's safer to be in a team than alone when going on missions."
I shake my head. "I'm not going to be going on missions, I'll be skipping them."
Both Chi La and Gu Hao freeze. I continue. "My income is more than enough to sustain my cultivation, I have no practical reason to be going on any missions."
A gu master in Gu Yue clan is given a mission every week. If they fail or don't complete the mission then their assessment within the clan goes down. I don't care about assessment or the income from the missions.
Gu Hao sighs. "At least keep in touch man, allright?"
I nod. "You're free to come to my tavern anytime for free drinks, you'll find me there most of the time."
—
Most of the common materials I need for the gu worm that will increase my aptitude are gathered, the materials that are left are best gathered all at once.
I activate the rank 2 dream wings gu, pulling myself out of the dreamworld and into reality. I look at the sleeping couple.
This is one of the smaller villages owned by the Gu Yue clan, the clan member assigned here is at rank two initial stage, so dealing with him shouldn't be too difficult.
I pull out a red mosquito with a human mouth out of my aperture. This is a rank 2 blood storage gu, refined using mosquitoes and the lower parts of human skulls.
A razor sharp knife allows me to instantly cut the neck of the man all the way to the bone, waking him up. His blood spews from the open wound, drenching him and his wife. His wife's eyes open, I cut her neck to the bone as well.
The blood storage gu sucks the flowing blood out, gathering every single last drop of blood flowing out, not even leaving enough blood to leave any form of stain.
Once the couple are dead and all their blood is completely drained I activate the dream wings travel gu, fly towards the location associated with their neighbors, activate the dream wings gu and find myself right next to another sleeping couple. Between them is a three year old boy.
I slit his throat all the same.