"Fang Yuan, you are now an elder of our Gu Yue clan. There are some privileges that only the elders are granted. You already know of one, you are now allowed access for five minutes one time each month into our secret area. The second benefit is a daily stipend of five hundred primeval essence stones. The third benefit is that along with a wife, you are now allowed two concubines."
The restriction of rank 2 gu masters only being allowed a wife, and rank 3 gu masters only being allowed a wife and two concubines is an extremely clever suppression tactic.
Let's suppose that the clan leader and another elder are both at the age of twenty, let's further assume they both want to make as many children as possible. The clan leader takes a hundred concubines and gets an average of fifty children per year. The elder gets one or two per year.
Each child has the potential of becoming a gu master. By the age of fifty the elder will perhaps have seventy children, of them perhaps forty become gu masters.
The clan leader will have thousands of children by that time, he would have raised a literal army. This rule is here to prevent anyone from the clan from accumulating too much force. The clan leader is free to make their small army, while the elders are forced to be subordinate to the clan leader both by their lower cultivation and their factions' lesser numbers.
I don't give a shit about any of this however, as soon as I've gotten to the root of the blood sea ancestor's inheritance I'm fucking off.
I give Gu Yue Bo a nod, to which he continues. "We will hold an inauguration ceremony for your ascension as an elder after we arrive at Gu Yue village. Is there anything you wish to ask?"
There is something that comes to mind, but asking that would just give me a non-answer. "There isn't anything that comes to mind. I'd like to give you a gift however."
Gu Yue Bo raises an eyebrow. "Oh? And what might this gift be?"
I take a yellow tusita flower from my aperture and pull out Gu Yue Bo's gift.
He smiles maliciously as he stares at the severed head of the leader of Xiong Clan. "Hahaha, to think that you were the one to cause his death! Tell me, how did you do this?"
I hand him the severed head. "I ambushed him after he fought a myriad beast king, he was heavily wounded and out of primeval essence already, so killing him was fairly simple."
Gu Yue Bo takes the severed head. "What a truly fortuitous encounter! Our Gu Yue clan can now subjugate the Bai clan after the beast tide is over, we will be the sole rulers of Qing Mao mountain!"
I really don't give a shit, pay me now. "Might I ask what the reward for this act will be?"
Asking for payment directly like this can be considered to be extremely rude, negotiating it afterwards would be even worse. Since I'm going to leave the village soon, I don't really care about my reputation here.
Gu Yue Bo continues staring thoughtfully at the severed head. "Since you have brought up the subject, what is it that you wish for?"
Me actually reaching rank 3 with my shit ass aptitude has also made Gu Yue Bo suspicious, he can't act against me yet because of the severity of the incoming beast tide, afterwards he's sure to investigate me, if he's still alive that is. "One million primeval stones."
Gu Yue Bo narrows his eyes at me. "That is too much, do not be greedy!"
I say. "Seven hundred thousand then."
Gu Yue Bo sighs. "It is not good to be greedy Yuan. We are family, we help each other when we are in dire straits. I will reward you with two hundred thousand primeval stones, no more."
That's about the price of a good rank 4 gu. "Your words have moved me, I will humbly accept the reward."
I expected to get around a hundred thousand, getting double that is pretty good all things considered.
—
Searching for the blood sea ancestor's inheritance turns out to be more difficult than I had expected. There's no clues about where exactly it could be, so I'm left with the nuclear option.
Wandering randomly until I find something. Said something just so happens to be the flower wine monks cave.
I go past the first cave entrance, where the skeleton of the flower wine monk still lies. Afterwards comes the jade eyes stone monkey cave, where I simply teleport to the center of the cave before going down the set of stairs.
The centipedes are still breeding relentlessly even without the chainsawpede gu, or rather they are breeding relentlessly because of the lack of said gu. I doubt that its endless massacre was doing the centipede population any good.
Right before teleporting to the end of the room I suddenly realise something, couldn't I just teleport directly to the final cave?
The answer turns out to be that yes, I can. I stare thoughtfully at the rank 3 heavenly essence lotus gu. Other than it and the spirit spring that it sits on there's nothing else inside of this room, there's only the blood red soil and the rocky walls and ceiling.
Walking around the spirit spring finally reveals something of note. There's a small, round canal taking water from the spring. Despite clearly being old, it looks to be more artificial than natural. There's one thing to confirm before seeing where exactly it leads.
A quick teleport confirms that Gu Yue village is in range. Note to self: Test the actual range of this killer move.
With my escape option confirmed I slowly lean down into the spring and go towards the canal. The water is moving extremely fast, thankfully not fast enough to take me with it in spite of my strength path foundation.
I keep my hands and feet pushing against the walls of the canal, preventing the fast moving spring water from taking me along with it. It's soon that an issue comes up, I can't breathe underwater. A quick teleport back to the cave allows me to breathe, another teleport takes me back to where I was in the canal.
Letting the water carry me along and then teleporting in case of any danger is an option, but I'd rather have some control over my movement. It takes half an hour of crawling before I finally find the exit of this canal. I'm still inside of the canal as I look at the revealed cave right behind the exit.
The canal leads right into a dark cave, the ground is the exact same blood red that's everywhere in this cave system. What worries me are two things.
The first is the absolutely insane amount of bats rapidly flying around. Each one is the same size as a grown man and their wings appear to end in bladed steel. These are bladewing blood bats, created from the use of the rank 3 bladewing blood bat gu.
The second thing that worries me is the gigantic pool of blood in the center of the cave, and the equally gigantic blood red snake lying inside said pool. That's a rank 5 blood river python gu.
Before eating the Xiong clan leader fighting a gu like that would've led to my doom. Now I have some chance to actually escape. Looks like I need to make some preparations before going forwards, I doubt that the python and bats will be my only opponents here.
Looks like I'll have to remain in the village for a bit more.
—
The ceremony to become an elder is fairly simple. Gu Yue Bo motions for me to come towards him. "Do you swear to serve our family justly, to uphold order and righteousness?"
We're currently in the shrine building, right next to the pool filled with primeval spring water. I walk forward and nod. "I do."
Gu Yue Bo gives me a nod. "Very well then. Do any of the present elders have any objections?"
Chi Lian glares in impotent anger at me. "I do not."
Mo Chen gives Chi Lian a confused look, before giving me an appraising one. "I do not either."
Their two factions follow their lead, their momentum makes the independent elders follow suit. Gu Yue Bo nods. "Good. You are now an elder of our Gu Yue clan, you are tasked with upholding our laws and enforcing righteousness!"
Gu Yue Bo proceeds to leave the shrine, allowing the elders to attempt to make small talk with me. Keyword being, attempt. I don't give half a rat's ass about their politics, I need to figure out a way to deal with that snake and those bats.
Not having an AOE attack, so to speak, has been somewhat of a pain. Fixing that issue will allow me to easily deal with the bladewing bats. The bigger problem is that python and whatever else lies in wait there.
I follow Gu Yue Bo in leaving the room, heading directly to the wine tavern to begin preparations.
On my way I notice more mortals working construction than usual, most seem to be digging basements. That's one way to attempt survival I guess, the only problem is that if a wolf catches your smell it's going to try to come inside.
Speaking of wolves, there's also the beast tide coming. This year's awakening ceremony has been temporarily postponed, most of the clan's efforts are going directly into preparing for the incoming beast tide.
The effort spent training and teaching students is not worth the addition of any amount of rank 1 gu masters.
—
In the end I settle for the simpler solution to the bat question. A sound path killer move. Practicing it in the village would be a fairly bad idea, so I've come to the forest for practice.
Rank 4 thunder roar gu is the core gu of the move. The only available thunder roar gu was rank 1, thankfully my inheritance had a recipe for advancing this gu worm all the way up to rank 5. The materials necessary for refinement are common to Gu Yue village, making the advancement of this gu worm simple.
Thunder roar gu creates vibrations in the air that are strong enough to kill. I would've preferred to use the rank 5 version of the gu worm, but I simply don't have enough primeval essence to incorporate it into a killer move.
The next gu worm necessary for this killer move is a rank 2 soundwave gu. This gu creates a shockwave capable of pushing away enemies. Ideally I'd have the rank 3 version of it, but that's not available for purchase and I don't have the recipe for its advancement.
I use the rank 4 thunder roar gu, making a wave of deadly vibrations emanate from me. Using the rank 2 soundwave gu immediately after the rank 4 thunder roar gu pushes the vibrations much farther, boosting the range and power of the thunder roar gu significantly.
Everything within a range of thirty meters away from me gets turned into mulch, trees are turned into sawdust and the rocky ground gets pulverized. Outside that range things are severely damaged instead of utterly ruined. Trees are turned to pieces and rocks become pebbles.
The damage becomes less and less severe as the wave moves further away from me. At two hundred meters the effect ends, having started to leave only small cuts after the hundred and fifty meter mark.
This is where my attainment has helped massively. The soundwave gu's shockwave has to hit the wave of vibrations with perfect timing. Hitting it too early or late would simply disperse the wave of vibrations. The goal here is to match the frequency of the vibrations, allowing the shockwave to pass all of its energy to the vibrations.
Just like hitting a pendulum right when it's at the end of its swing, this will give a massive boost of force to the thunder roar gu. Using the rank 3 amplify effect gu with both has given this killer move massive power, even making it comparable to the effects of rank 5 gu worms.
The only downside is that I can only use it a single time before running out of primeval essence. This killer move uses 96% rank 3 middle stage primeval essence, using it a single time will leave me with 3% primeval essence.
I'll call this killer move 'Thunder Wail'. Getting my second aperture to rank 3 has become a top priority.
When returning to the tavern from the forest I find a certain someone waiting for me right at the tavern's doors. Mo Chen gives me an appraising look. "I have a proposition for you."
—
I motion for Shen Cui to pour us tea. "So, what is your proposition?"
I've brought Mo Chen to my never before used study, having a private conversation anywhere else would either be not so private or fairly weird (I Can't invite the man to my bedroom now can I?).
Mo Chen takes a sip of the poured tea, blinks in confusion before taking a second sip to make sure that he tasted it right. "This is the clan leader's personal tea recipe, I didn't know he gave it to you. He is extremely proud of it, having never shared it with anyone before."
I can thank Shen Cui for this recipe, she somehow managed to bribe some mortals to spy on Gu Yue Bo while he was making tea. She'd probably make for a pretty good spy master. "It is an extremely good blend of tea, isn't it?"
Mo Chen nods. "It is. I have come to ask you to join my faction."
It is my turn to blink in confusion now. "I apologize, I am already in the Chi faction, betraying it would be detrimental to me at this moment."
In other words: 'Make it worth it for me.'
Mo Chen takes a large sip of tea. "My faction has a free white silver relic gu. Most of our rank 3 gu masters are either already at the peak of rank 3 or are non-combatants."
Not all gu masters focus on combat. Some focus on healing, some on refinement and so on. These noncombat gu masters tend to live longer, refinement is much safer than fighting, who'd have thought?
I take a small sip of tea. "Add in fifty thousand primeval stones and I'm sold."
Mo Chen begins coughing, the tea having gone in the wrong way. "I-Chm-That's too many primeval sto-Agh-stones."
Shen Cui refills my tea. "Then what is an acceptable amount?"
Mo Chen coughs for the final time. "Twenty thousand."
I sigh. "Forty thousand. I am betraying my benefactor here, you can cough up some more primeval stones."
Mo Chen gives me a disgusted look. "Thirty thousand and no more!"
I pretend to think about his offer. "Let's go to thirty five thousand, not like you and not like me either."
He sighs. "Very well, thirty five thousand primeval stones and the silver white relic gu. I want you to protect my heir, Mo Yan, during the beast tide."
Wait what? "Very well, I shall personally guarantee their life!"
In the Gu Yue clan, women don't inherit property or gu unless there are no male inheritors. His heir is supposed to be Mo Bei, not Mo Yan.
I can't even ask the fucker about it, that would be extremely awkward.
After Mo Chen leaves, a quick conversation with Shen Cui confirms that yes, Mo Yan is now a man.
—
With benefits firmly acquired from the clan leader and Mo Chen it is now time to blackmail Chi Lian. "I've joined the Mo faction, pay me two hundred thousand spirit stones or I'll reveal Chi Cheng's true aptitude to Mo Chen."
Chi Lian's hands begin to shake in anger. We're currently in his study, I doubt that he wants anyone to overhear any conversation the two of us have. "You are truly shameless. My Chi faction does not even have that many spirit stones."
I shrug. "That sounds like a you problem. You can pay the difference in gu worms."
Chi Lian sighs. "Come here in two days time, pooling together enough gu worms will take some time."
I'll sell the information to Mo Chen before leaving the village for good.
AN: Traveled again, thankfully chapter is slightly longer this time than the last time xd.