AN: I've changed the way the nemesis perk works, if you're a new reader don't worry, chapter 1 already has the edited version :).
Old perk:
Nemesis luck: During all stages of your cultivation, you will find a mortal enemy. At rank 1, another rank 1 will want to kill you for some unlikely reason. If you kill your nemesis or become a whole rank stronger than them, another will appear after a year's delay. A nemesis will always be unusually strong for their rank. +250CP
New Perk:
Nemesis luck: During all stages of your cultivation, you will find a mortal enemy. At rank 1, another rank 1 will want to kill you for some unlikely reason. If you defeat or ally with your nemesis or become a whole rank stronger than them, another will appear after a year's delay. A nemesis will always be unusually strong for their rank. Nemesis will stop appearing once you reach rank 10. +250CP
This should make for a more interesting story as well as give a clear endpoint for them spawning. There being two rank 10 gu masters would probably just destroy the gu world entirely lmao xd.
—
The rest of the journey is uneventful. When I arrive at the alliance meeting area I find a few gu masters from each clan already there. At least there's people to kill time with.
One of the groups present is my former team, of which Gu Hao is currently beckoning for me to come. "Yuan! Long time no see, how've you been lately?"
I head on over to them and sit cross legged on the floor. "The usual, boredom and trade. What have the three of you been up to?"
Chi La points at Gu Hao. "He's been cultivating like nothing else, trying to get to rank 2 upper stage."
Then at Chi Ju. "He's stopped being as much of a doormat-""Oi""-See?"
Then at herself. "And I've been trying to get my family to finally agree to let me marry my oaf."
Gu Hao sighs. "At this point we're just going to elope. If we both manage to live through this beast tide that is."
It's not unusual for large numbers of clan members to die during a beast tide. I shrug. "You three still have those rank 3 concealment gu right that I got for you, right?"
Chi Ju gives me a nod. "We still have them, I still can't thank you enough for them."
I've been meeting up with these three occasionally, we've gone past being simple acquaintances but haven't gotten to the point of being 'ride or die' allies, so to speak. Refining some cheap rank 3 gu for them wasn't a big deal for me, since refinement and luck are a match made in heaven. "Keep them with you, make sure to use them if you're in any danger. I'll be taking my leave, I want to scout out before everyone else gets here. We'll talk some more later"
Gu Hao, Chi Ju and Chi La all give me curt nods as I rise up and leave for the forest. The Xiong clansmen all stare at me as I leave, surprised at my audacity at going out on my lonesome. Some of them give me greedy looks.
This is a good opportunity to advance my physical cultivation, as there'll be plenty of beasts to harvest during the beast tide. I stay in the treetops, avoiding the ground where the beasts will be. The area surrounding the encampment is clear of any signs of lightning wolves, it's to the east that their tracks begin to appear.
It's a fair bit away from the encampment that I encounter a group of lightning wolves. There's three of them eating the remains of a moose.
Their fur is a stark snow-white, while the tips of their tails and paws are a light blue. The three of them are a tiny bit larger than a bear, meaning that they're ordinary beasts, roughly equivalent to rank 1 gu masters.
Beasts are separated into categories just the same as gu masters. Mortal beasts go from: Beast, Hundred beast king, thousand beast king, myriad beast king and beast emperor. Their main strength is numbers, a hundred beast king can have a following of a hundred beasts, a thousand beast king can have a following of a thousand beasts and so on. A regular lightning wolf is a beast, a bold lightning wolf is a hundred beast king, a frenzy lightning wolf is a thousand beast king and a lightning crown wolf is a myriad beast king.
Since the wolves aren't aware of me I can easily ambush them. I drop down towards one of them and prepare to unleash a moonblade. I fire a moonblade at one of the other two wolves, drop kick the one that I've dropped on and fire another moonblade at the now aware final wolf.
The first wolf's neck is cut off by the moonblade, the second wolf is heavily wounded by a moonblade and the final wolf's head is caved in by my drop-kick. I go to the wounded wolf and chop off one of its legs with another moonblade before beginning to eat it.
The raw flesh is just as disgusting to eat as the first time. After swallowing I begin to cultivate and integrate the strength path dao marks into my body. There's just a tiny issue this time. The gains are minuscule, I'm only able to get less than 0.1% of the wolves strength. I stomp the wolf's head, killing it, it's not worth eating these things raw.
The physical cultivation manual had mentioned that efficiency will drop off as I gain more strength, but it shouldn't have been to this extent. When I ate that man's ar- Other people are a more efficient source for this method, aren't they?
The Bai and Gu Yue clans don't have many strength path users, the Xiong clan however has plenty of strength path gu masters.
Searching the bodies of the wolves reveals two gu, a rank 1 electric fist gu and a rank 1 electric teeth gu. Beasts can attract and form symbiotic bonds with wild gu worms, the gu worms will then use their abilities to protect the beast much in the same way that a gu master uses gu.
Beasts are stronger, tougher and faster than gu masters of the same rank, the wild gu that they bond with use the primeval essence in the air, meaning that they don't have to worry about primeval essence expenditure. The only combat advantage that humans have against beasts is their intellect, in all other areas we are decidedly inferior.
I continue exploring, finding and killing the occasional beast group until I encounter a pair of Xiong clan gu masters surrounded by beasts fighting a lightning wolf the size of a large van. This is a hundred beast king and its following.
Even if these two were to kill the beast king, they would still fall to the beasts following it. A gu master only has so much primeval essence. The gu masters are a young teen and a middle aged woman. Both of them are physically fighting the wolf and matching it in physical strength.
I watch as the teen punches the wolf in the body, opening it up for an uppercut from the woman. "Li, I'll make an opening for you to escape!"
The boy narrowly evades getting his head bitten off. "No mother! I won't abandon you to die like this!"
The wolf lunges at the woman, who narrowly dodges before giving the wolf an ineffectual kick. "It's better for one of us to live than for both of us to die! Please listen to your mother!"
The wolf growls, getting annoyed from these two continuing to dodge it. Their attacks don't deal enough damage to actually mean something, the instant the wolf lands a blow it will kill.
I drop down from the treetops, aiming for the hundred beast king. The teen kicks at the Bold lightning wolf's maw. "Li, No!" The wolf simply leans its head back and then bites the teens exposed leg off.
I land right on the wolf's neck, the force of my landing more than enough to break it. The surrounding beasts charge at the three of us. A backhanded punch turns the head of a wolf into gore. The boy and woman are mostly deadweight, the boy is down a leg and the woman is protecting him from wolves, leaving me to kill the beasts.
Each strike that I land kills a wolf, each lunge I dodge leads to the wolves biting each other. After twenty of their numbers die the wolves retreat, leaving me alone with the duo. The woman, seeing that they are now safe, gives a sigh of relief. "Thank you for saving us, I… thank you."
I begin walking towards them. "Don't worry about it. Let's see about fixing your kid's leg."
She turns towards her crippled son and begins cutting fabric from her robes, making a makeshift garrote. By the time that her practiced hands have stopped the gushing of blood from her boy's leg I'm close enough to kick her upper spine and paralyze her from the neck down.
She shouts in pain and confusion, the boy stares at me in horror. I've brought a rank 2 digestion gu and a rank 2 calorie fire gu.
The digestion gu speeds up digestion significantly, allowing me to each much more. The rank 2 calorie fire gu creates and feeds a fire using a gu master's stored fat.
In the end human flesh is more efficient than beast flesh, yielding about five percent of its dao marks. I make sure to integrate a large portion of them into my bones, blood, skin and organs. Having a better foundation will allow me to display greater strength with ease.
By the time that the two of them die they've already detonated their gu worms, the strength gained from eating them is worth more than their gu worms anyway.
Through the rest of the day I don't encounter any other gu masters, only beasts. Eating the flesh of a recently dead hundred beast king yields 0.2% of the wolves strength, which is still not enough to be of much worth to me.
—
It's on the last day left before the collective arrival of all of the clans that I am ambushed by some Bai clansmen. Me always going out alone has drawn out the greedy among them. I only have a few detection type gu, among them is a rank 3 blood sensor gu.
The rank 3 blood sensor gu gu allows a gu master to instinctively know where blood is, irrespective of whether it's in a living body or not. So I am instantly alerted when five human shaped blood bags begin to surround me.
I pretend not to notice them just yet. They give themselves away by appearing around me, electing not to take advantage of the element of surprise. Five Bai clan gu masters appear from the bushes, two are women and three are men. Their leader, a bald middle aged man, is the one to address me. "Give us all of your gu worms and we will allow you to live, refuse and you will die!"
If I gave them all of my gu worms they would still try to kill me afterwards in order to hide their tracks, if the clans at large knew of what they were doing they would be heavily penalized. I pull out a rank 1 moonlight gu and the rank 2 white jade skin gu.
I try to appear as frightened as possible. "This is all that I have, please don't kill me."
Going by the wary looks that they are now giving me it appears that I've only put them on guard. I put the gu back in my aperture. "Eh, it was worth a shot."
The rank 2 bloodstep gu takes me right next to their leader, I pull out the longsword gu and swipe at his midsection, cutting him in half. Three of the four gu masters throw their attacks at me as soon as they realise my disappearance, the remaining woman forms a sword of ice.
I teleport behind the ice sword wielder with the dream gu killer move, dodging a flying pike of ice, a gust of wind that freezes the area where I was and a ball of ice that violently explodes on impact.
A vertical cut bisects the ice sword wielder, leaving only three gu masters remaining. Another teleport takes me to the next gu master and avoids another barrage of ice attacks.
My swipe strikes a circular, man sized barrier of ice, the force of my strike easily slashes through and cuts the head of the offending gu master off. The final two gu masters, a man and a woman, realise that they've bitten off more than they can chew and run away in separate directions.
The man gets decapitated, the woman just gets her legs cut off. I turn her on her backside with my foot and point my sword at her neck. "Why did you target me?"
The woman pisses herself and begins to hyperventilate. "We thought you were an easy target! Please don't kill me! PLEA-"
Letting go of the sword makes it pierce her neck on its way down. She begins to gurgle as she is drowning in her own blood. A good kick to the head turns the insides of her skull outside, instantly ending her suffering.
Now that the fighting is over it's time for my favorite part, looting!
The ice sword gu master had a rank 2 ice edge gu, which I will keep for further refinement. Otherwise there's no other really interesting gu to take, shame.
—
The details of the alliance are quickly announced to the public at large once all three clans have arrived.
The clan leaders of the Xiong, Bai and Gu Yue clans are standing on a tall wooden podium. Gu Yue Bo points at the gigantic wooden tablet behind him. "This tablet contains the resources that we have collectively agreed to pool together for rewards!"
I give said list a quick scan. There's a few interesting gu available, like the bear enslavement gu series. There's even a nine leaf vitality grass gu available, although it's one of the more expensive gu on the list.
Clan specialties, like the Bai clans ice edge gu series, the Gu Yue clans moonlight gu series and the Xiong clans bear strength series are not present on the list. These gu series are the core strength of each of the clans, they will not be sold or given away easily.
Most of the list is uninteresting to me, I already have a full complement of gu as it is, getting more would just increase my expenses without giving me any benefits. There are no relic gu available, so after trading for the few interesting gu I'll just switch to redeeming my points for primeval stones.
Gu Yue Bo continues explaining the terms of the alliance. "Providing proof of your kills will yield you points. One beast will be one point, bold lightning wolves will be a hundred points and killing a frenzy lightning wolf will be rewarded by ten thousand points!"
The only people capable of tackling a thousand beast king are the rank 3 clan elders, rank 2 gu masters have no hope of victory. "Retrieving the gu worms of fellow gu masters will be rewarded with points! If someone is caught stealing them they will be severely penalized!"
Each clan keeps track of gu much in the same way as physical property. Gu are recorded and inherited, if a gu master was to die their inheritors would get their gu, taking the gu of a dead gu master is akin to theft. It's for the benefit of each clan to give back the gu of the dead. "The ears of the lightning wolves will suffice as proof."
Gu Yue Bo and the other two clan leaders leave the stage, having finished informing us of the alliance terms. Everyone leaves for their own housing.
Erecting wooden houses in haste is not an issue, there's plenty of mortal labour available. After the beast wave comes everything here will be destroyed and demolished by the wolves, so it's pointless to build for the long term.
—
I look at the unaware wolves beneath me, take a deep breath and shout as loud as I can. "YOU SUCK ASS FLEABAGS!"
The wolves instantly howl and begin to rush towards the tree that I'm on, I start running away from them, making sure that they remain in range to chase.
It doesn't take long for me to reach my destination, which just so happens to be the camp of three Xiong clan gu masters. They immediately jump into alertness the instant they begin to hear the howling growing closer and closer.
A fierce battle ensues as I purposefully lead the beasts into the path of the gu masters, I only intervene once a wolf is about to bite the head off of one of the Xiong clansmen. A moonblade decapitates the lightning wolf, saving the man from death.
No words are exchanged between the gu masters and I, the frantic pacing of their fighting leaving them unable to concentrate on anything else. All of them are strength path gu masters, so I make sure that they all live.
A lightning wolf lunges at a distracted woman, a spinning back kick turns the head of that wolf into paste. Another wolf tries to bite off a man's arm, a punch instantly kills it.
Slowly but surely the horde of wolves is thinning, the wolves begin to retreat after a third of them are dead. The sole woman of the group sighs in relief. "Thank you, I don't know what we wo-"
Teleporting behind her and jabbing a finger into her spine turns her into a vegetable, the other two gu masters step back in shock as she begins incoherently screaming. Teleporting behind the stronger of the two lets me paralyze him as well. The final gu master, knowing my strength from the battle, decides to surrender. "I Surr-"
I teleport behind him. "-en-" I jab my finger into his spine. "-deAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
All three of them are screaming in pain. I sit down, pull the rank 2 red steel longsword gu and chop off the leg of the nearest gu master. "Look at the bright side, you can't feel me eating your leg now."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"
Apparently getting your spine forcefully fucked with hurts like a bitch, who would've thought? Their pain begins to slowly go away as I continue eating them. I'm making sure that they all remain alive for as long as possible. The fresher the meat is, the more benefits cultivation will bring. They all slowly begin to stop screaming as I continue eating.
I'm to the back of the two men, the only one of them that can see me is the woman, who is staring at me in horror as I eat her living friend. "Why are you doing this? Please spare us, I beg of you!"
The man that I'm currently eating the chopped off hip of shouts. "What is he doing?! I can't feel anything!"
The woman gulps, her unblinking eyes stuck on the chunk of flesh in my hand. "He is eating your flesh."
The man shouts back. "WHAT?!"
I activate the rank 2 digestion gu and the rank 2 calorie fire gu. The woman stares at the fire in front of me in horror. I shrug. "Relax, I'm not going to cook you."
That just makes her scream louder.