"Please spare me! Pleaseple-" A kick to the temple knocks the woman out, silencing her. Knocking out the rest of them silences their screams. Focusing on cultivating while they were screaming was starting to get on my nerves.
—
Xiong Ha Fei POV
"The wolf tracks are getting clearer, be alert!"
I give Xiong Jan Ko a nod. We've been tracking this group of wolves for the past two hours. A single bold lightning wolf and sixty eight lightning wolves. Easy prey for a group of six rank 2 peak stage gu masters like us.
Most C grade aptitude gu masters will stall at rank 2 peak stage, their low talent rendering them unable to progress any further. All of us are in this category, our families poor foundations and our weak aptitude preventing all of us from advancing. All of us hope to gather enough resources to leave our children a good inheritance, perhaps they will succeed in becoming clan elders.
We continue following the tracks, Xiong Jan Ko expertly leading us towards the wolves. Gu Yue Mo Han taps my shoulder.
The Bai, Xiong and Gu Yue clans are all rivals. The Gu Yue clan is the overlord of our Qing Mao mountain, under normal circumstances allying with them would be unacceptable.
These are not ordinary circumstances. This beast tide is predicted to be one of the largest ones in the history of Qing Mao mountain, if our three clans do not band together then all of our villages will be crushed!
I turn to Mo Han, who uses sign language to speak to me. 'Someone is up. Following us'
We continue walking slowly, out of a desire to not alert our pursuer of our knowledge. 'How long?'
'Just now'
'Don't tell anyone'
Jan Ko motions for us to stop, before whispering silently. "The wolves are not far, don't make any noise whatso-" A long haired person suddenly appears behind Jan Ko and punches them in the back, hard enough to send them flying into me.
I hear Mo Han's voice. "Fang Yuan?!"
My back slamming into a thick tree stops my momentum and leaves me breathless. From here I can clearly see the fight.
Fang Yuan appears behind Mo Han and elbows his back, instantly crippling the man. I activate my rank 2 beetle strength gu and my trump card, the rank 2 second wind gu.
Our enemy does not have infinite primeval essence, he most likely calculated his expenditure to the last drop, surviving a single exchange with him will be more than enough to defeat him!
He teleports right behind Gu Yue Xun Fan, a kick into her spine cripples her as well. He is going for non-lethal blows, that is to our advantage! He cannot teleport forever!
Three of us have been already defeated, the other two remaining gu masters are quick to get their wits together. Gu Yue Xun Han throws a moonblade behind Xiong Ja, who prepares to use his rank 1 lightning arrow gu in case Fang Yuan appears behind Xu Han.
The next obvious target is me, I spin around and catch Fang Yuan just as he appears behind me. Fang Yuan throws an absurdly fast knifehand strike at my neck. My rank 1 lightning thoughts gu allows me to mentally process his attack, but my body is too slow to react in time.
I fall down on the ground, paralyzed. Xun Han's moonblade passes behind Ja, leading Han to throw yet another moonblade. I see Fang Yuan appear behind Xun Han, leading Ja to immediately throw his attack.
Fang Yuan punches the back of Xun Han, crippling him as well. A golden barrier appears to block Ja's lightning arrow just as Xun Han's moonblade passes through the space behind Ja, leaving him defenseless.
Another teleport and punch cripples our last combatant.
—
Fang Yuan POV
Three Gu Yue clansmen and three Xiong clansmen, not too bad. The first order of business is to knock each of them out. I've learned my lesson from the first time that I did this, this way they won't make any noise to either disturb my cultivation or attract any unwanted attention.
I take out the rank 5 blood skull gu and kill the Gu Yue clansmen by slitting their throats. Their blood floats to the blood skull gu before getting absorbed by it, leaving behind only their now bloodless pale cadavers.
The rank 5 blood skull gu works by absorbing the potential of a gu master's blood relatives. It will be fully charged after consuming
There's a group of wolves not too far from here, attracting them to this location won't be too hard. They'll eat the bodies and get rid of any evidence. Two of the Xiong clansmen were cultivating strength path, so I'll attract the wolves after I'm done eating those two.
—
"Fang Yuan, are you sure you don't want to join us?"
I shake my head. "Thanks for the offer, I really appreciate it, but I prefer to hunt on my lonesome."
Gu Hao takes a deep breath. "Look, it is extremely dangerous to go out alone. Even the bigger groups have the occasional death!"
I give Gu Hao a smile. "It makes me glad to know that you worry so much about my safety. Worry about yours and Chi La's safety, I am more than capable of handling myself."
Gu Hao sighs. "Alright then, I won't keep insisting. I've been meaning to create a larger group for a while now, the more of us there are, the safer we will be. Do you know anyone that you can recommend?"
Noone really comes to mind, I don't spend much time socializing with any other gu masters. "There's no one that comes to mind at this moment. I would advise you to be careful when recruiting from the Bai and Xiong clans; however, they are supposed to be our rivals after all."
Our Gu Yue clan is the overlord of Qing Mao Mountain; the Bai and Xiong clans are weaker than us. Even if they were to band together, they would still be weaker compared to our clan. If a group were to have two Gu Yue clansmen and five Bai clansmen, the Gu Yue clansmen would be the first sacrificed for the safety of the group.
Gu Hao nods. "I have recruited eight Gu Yue clansmen until now; our group numbers twelve in total so far."
That's good. "Make sure to ditch the Bai and Xiong clansmen first if there's any sign of danger."
Gu Hao snorts. "Of course, what else did you think that I even recruited them for in the first place?"
—
I've been tracking this group of Gu Yue clansmen for quite a while. Everyone has started to group up into larger and larger groups, which is something more convenient than annoying for me.
This group has a total of twelve Gu Yue clansmen, three Bai clansmen and four Xiong clansmen. They are currently trying, and failing miserably, to defeat a frenzy lightning wolf.
They are pretty well coordinated, so either they've been teaming up for a while or have known each other beforehand. If any of the Gu Yue or Xiong clansmen are in danger of dying I'll intervene, I need them alive rather than dead.
I don't really care about the Bai clansmen however, so I don't bother to join them when one of the Bai gu masters tries to strike the thousand beast king wolf from behind with the ice edge gu, misses the attack and then gets kicked hard enough to cave in his chest and kill him.
One of the Gu Yue clansmen has the Rank 3 Blood Moon gu, allowing the small wounds he caused to the frenzy lightning wolf to bleed profusely. All that they have to do is buy time for the wolf to bleed to death. I preemptively take out the blood skull gu out of my aperture and hold it in my left hand. My right hand is already holding the longsword gu.
The wolf lunging towards one of the defenseless Gu Yue clansmen is my signal to intervene. I teleport underneath the lunging wolf and stab its head with my longsword gu, instantly killing it as a result.
The Gu Yue clansmen all recognize me, my involvement in the river toad debacle having gained me quite the reputation among them. The man whose life I just saved gives me a deep bow. "Fang Yuan! Tha-" Teleporting behind him allows me to slice him in half vertically, the blood instantly floating towards the blood skull gu. The hands of the Gu Yue gu masters begin glowing blue, ready to unleash moonblades.
I teleport behind another Gu Yue gu master and decapitate them. Moonblades pass through my previous location. It is by the time that I kill the fifth Gu Yue gu master that they begin to aim where I will teleport instead of where I already am.
I prepare to use the rank 2 moonglow gu, the rank 2 light gu and the amplify effect gu will give it enough juice. A teleport allows me to line up six of the Gu Yue gu masters, a swipe of my hand releases a moonblade.
While they are distracted by the moonblade, I teleport and line up the three Bai clan gu masters before throwing another moonblade. The first moonblade has already killed four of them, the fifth managed to dodge unharmed and the sixth is preparing to defend himself.
I teleport behind one of the Xiong clansmen and break his spine. The first moonblade has penetrated the defenses of the defending Gu Yue clansman, while the second has killed all three of the Bai clan members. With most of the group dead it is trivial to simply teleport and either decapitate them or attack them with a boosted moonblade. I take care to keep the Xiong clansmen alive, all four of them are strength path gu masters after all.
This scuffle was enough to fully charge the blood skull gu. I hold it above myself with both of my hands and activate it. It's mouth opens wide as blood begins to pour out of it. I smile as I feel my aptitude increasing, going from 44% to 59%, then to 71%, until finally stopping at 84%. Thanks to my 'Dao Carver perk' a single use of the blood skull gu has increased my aptitude straight from C grade all the way to low A grade!
Another use of the blood skull gu will increase mu aptitude to 99%, reaching 100% and attaining an extreme physique simply through use of the blood skull gu is not possible, additional methods will be required for that. After the next usage of the blood skull gu I will use my 'Second Aperture' perk and gain another aperture at 99% aptitude.
With all of the gu masters either dead or crippled it's time to advance my physical cultivation. The rate at which I absorb their strength path dao marks has started to decrease, at this point I've started to only assimilate 4%, which with 'Dao Carver' equates to about 8% of their dao marks.
It's when I'm halfway through the third Xiong gu master that I am interrupted. The rank 3 blood sensor gu alerts me to a human shaped pool of blood slowly walking towards my location. There's also a lot of blood in what I assume is their hair. I turn towards their direction and pretend not to have noticed them.
A beautiful, pale, white haired woman comes out of the bushes in front of me. Her long white hair is stained by fresh blood, just as her robes and skin are. She is the only woman that I would call a jade beauty. The blood staining her looks more like splashes of red paint on a white canvas than the remains of a living being.
She appears surprised when she notices me. My mouth is still caked in blood from the raw flesh in my hands. I teleport right in front of her and kick her, throwing her back into a tree. It's the look that she gives me that makes me stop from pulping her head.
She is giving me the exact same look that Cui and Luli do during foreplay. I lower my leg. She sighs. "Please marry me."
What is your major malfunction?
—
I take a bite from the arm of the final Xiong clansman. "So, Ning Bing, you have the Northern Dark Ice Soul extreme physique."
Bai Ning Bing nods, her smile yet to fade. "Yep."
I take another bite. "And how does that make you suicidal again?"
She pouts and shakes her head. "I'm not suicidal! My life will not last long, my physique will kill me long before my natural lifespan ends. I want excitement! There's nothing that makes me feel more alive than the feeling of being in danger, of my life being on the line!"
A gu master with 100% aptitude has one of the ten extreme physiques. They cultivate quickly, to an absurd degree. Their rate of primeval essence regeneration is different from other gu masters, other gu masters regenerate a total of 10% of their total aptitude in primeval essence per hour. Extreme physiques regenerate a total of 60% primeval essence per hour instead!
Depending on the physique held the power of certain gu that a gu master uses is also increased by a rank, for Ning Bing's Northern Dark Ice Soul extreme physique soul path and ice path gu worms are boosted by a rank. Her using a rank 2 gu worm will display the power of a rank 3 gu worm!
The downside to an extreme physique is that they are racing to their deaths. Upon reaching rank 5 peak stage, they will detonate, destroying everything in the area around them. If they do not have a rank 6 gu pertaining to the paths of their physique as their vital gu they are unable to ascend to rank 6.
I sigh. "So you're an adrenaline junkie instead."
She nods, happy that I've finally understood her point. "That's right. Why are you eating human flesh?"
I shrug. "I fancied myself a good meal and found these guys freshly dead. Waste not, want not."
I've gotten more of a handle on how exactly my luck works and what exactly it does throughout my life in this world until now. If there's something that would be dangerous to me, I begin to feel unease, sort of like a gut feeling of something being not quite right.
Conversely, if there's an opportunity to be had, I get a good feeling, sometimes it's just me being calmer than usual, other times it feels as if I'd missed something.
Luck will bring me opportunities; it is up to me to take hold of those opportunities. If the Jia clan caravan came along and I didn't buy gambling rocks, then I'd have squandered an opportunity, which would give me this odd feeling of having missed something.
Bai Ning Bing does not make me feel uneasy, quite the opposite. I get a gut feeling that if I were to kill or ignore her, I'd have missed an extremely good opportunity. This doesn't mean that I'm going to expose all of my secrets to her just yet. Ning Bing raises her eyebrow at me. "I'm not retarded, you know? I know you killed all of them, I just don't care."
I take another bite of flesh. "You caught me. I killed all of them and then started to feel a bit peckish."
She narrows her eyes at me. "You're clearly using a digestion gu and calorie fire gu to eat as much as possible."
She's really not letting this go. "I'll tell you later."
Ning Bing looks at one of the dead Gu Yue clan members, before forming a blade of ice, cutting the corpse's hand off and taking a nibble from the raw flesh.
She actually chews and swallows it. "Huh, it tastes kind of like pork. It would probably taste better if it's cooked, you know?"
I shake my head. "I prefer my meat raw."
Bai Ning Bing takes a stick and impales the severed hand, before putting it right above the fire from the calorie fire gu. "Suit yourself."
I know that those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones and all that, but what is your major malfunction?
We spend the rest of the time in silence. She continues eating and nibbling from the hand while I continue cultivating. When I'm done cultivating, I extinguish the flame of the calorie flame gu and rise up. Ning Bing does so too. "I'll join you; things are bound to be exciting with you. I just feel it."
No feeling of dread or impending doom comes. I shrug. "Alright, just make sure to leave any strength path gu masters alive."
—
The blood of the dead Gu Yue clansmen is surging towards the blood skull gu, slowly charging it back up. Ning Bing stares at the rank 5 blood skull gu. "And what the fuck is that thing for?"
I shrug. "It's a part of my skin care routine, you'll see later."
Going by the rock that she throws at me, I don't think that she found my joke funny.
—
I manage to harvest sixty more Gu Yue clansmen throughout the rest of the day. Ning Bing's presence doesn't make things either harder or easier. Killing the groups was already pretty easy for me to do alone, adding in Ning Bing to the mix is overkill.
Ning Bing stares at me as I'm eating the fourth Xiong clansman of the group. "For real, why the fuck are you eating them? And why only the Xiong clan members? Do they taste better than the Bai and Gu Yue clan members or what?"
I throw her a bone, literally. "I told you, I'll tell you later."
She catches it and throws it behind her. "Fine."