Zhou Ming's good mood, which had just returned with his normal appearance, was ruined by the changes in his Aperture.
"I'm giving you the position and authority of team vice-captain. You can set it up first; I'm going back to the Main World now."
After a series of operations, Zhou Ming assigned authority to Qin Wumeng and decided to return to the Gu World first.
The Aperture problem could not be delayed for a moment; Zhou Ming's plan had to be executed quickly.
The Main God certainly had a way to solve the Aperture problem, but how to ensure that this method remained untwisted by Heaven's Will after returning to the Gu World was always an unavoidable issue.
What if Zhou Ming spent a great price on a valuable exchange that eliminated the risk of his Aperture exploding, only for the exchanged item to be directly refined into an Immortal Gu upon his return to the Gu World? Then Zhou Ming might as well just wait for death.
Qin Wumeng didn't ask any extra questions and immediately got up to leave. This was one reason Zhou Ming was willing to accept her as a teammate: she was obedient and never dragged things out.
After Qin Wumeng left, Zhou Ming exchanged for some Gu worms, then departed the Main God Space and returned to the Gu World.
In the Gu World, Northern Plains, beside a small lake, stood a Mushroom House Gu.
Zhou Ming walked out of the Mushroom House Gu, gazing at the shimmering lake, a half-smile on his face.
In his hand, he held a mechanical wristwatch, which he had exchanged for after his first mission world, upon returning to the Gu World.
At that time, he used this watch to measure the flow of time between the Gu World and the Main God Space, deriving the time flow patterns among the Gu World, the Main God Space's personal space, and its public space.
Back then, he was still wondering why the Main God would make time so complex and strange.
He just hadn't expected that he still hadn't found the answer, and the time flow comparison had changed again.
Upon returning to the Gu World from the Main God Space, Zhou Ming immediately noticed something was amiss the first moment he saw the outside world.
No matter how long one stayed in a mission world, it was only an instant in reality.
And the time between Zhou Ming's return from the mission world and his arrival back in the Gu World was only about half an hour.
Logically, only about half an hour should have passed in the Gu World, yet from the sunlight outside, it was clear that the change was far more than half an hour.
When Zhou Ming saw the mechanical wristwatch, he finally confirmed that his thoughts were correct.
The time flow rate between the Main God Space and the Gu World had drastically changed, from the original one-to-one to the current one-to-nine.
Therefore, Zhou Ming's half an hour or so in the Main God Space translated to more than four hours in the Gu World, with the sun having gradually moved from the eastern sky to the western sky.
Similarly, the Gu World's ninety-day mission interval became ten days in the Main God Space.
"A ten-day interval, could it be that..."
Zhou Ming vaguely felt that he had always overlooked a problem. He decided to ask Qin Wumeng about it after returning to the Main God Space.
As for now.
Zhou Ming turned around, put away the Mushroom House Gu, and then took out a map Gu.
The map Gu was a Two-turn Gu worm, with the sole purpose of recording maps. Compared to a bookworm, which also serves to store information, it recorded a narrower range of information, but it had the advantage of being easy to refine, making it a commonly used Gu worm.
Before leaving his Family, Zhou Ming purchased a large number of Northern Plains maps from his Family. The map Gu was merely sold to him as a carrier for recording maps.
Comparing the route recorded in the Gu worm, he left this small, nameless lake and continued towards the destination marked on the map.
The place marked on the map was called Crescent Lake.
Crescent Lake was long and slender, with pointed ends and a wide middle, resembling a crescent moon, hence its name.
The entire lake was about fifteen thousand li long and five thousand li wide, with abundant aquatic plants and flat terrain, attracting many animals to form large beast groups, each dividing territories to live in.
Looking across the Northern Plains, Crescent Lake was an ordinary lake, no more, no less, with countless other lakes even more lush and beautiful.
To the Gu Masters of the Northern Plains, there was nothing special about this place, and due to the many dangerous beast and insect groups living there, it was not a good place to establish a Family.
However, since Zhou Ming had set this as his goal, this place was certainly not ordinary.
This was because the Blessed Land of Old Ancestor Long Hair, a Rank Eight Gu Immortal from the legends of the Gu World, known as the "First Immortal of Refinement Path from ancient times," was located here.
Gu Masters of Rank Five are mortal, and Rank Six are Immortal; the distinction between Immortal and mortal is like a chasm (aside: Rank Five Hei Lou Lan beating Gu Immortal Taibai Yunsheng was an exception).
After achieving Immortal Ascension, the Aperture within the body transforms into an Immortal Aperture, like the creation of Heaven and Earth. The Immortal Aperture forms its own world, a separate Small World completely controlled by the Gu Immortal.
And after a Gu Immortal dies, their Immortal Aperture falls to the ground and becomes a Blessed Land, and the Gu Immortal's obsession during their lifetime transforms into a Land Spirit within the Blessed Land, continuing to preside over it.
The Blessed Land left behind by Old Ancestor Long Hair was named Lang Ya Blessed Land, and the Lang Ya Land Spirit, formed from his obsession, inherited the immense wealth Old Ancestor Long Hair left behind during his lifetime.
A massive amount of Gu worm secret recipes, Immortal materials, and Immortal Gu—this wealth was so vast it completely exceeded the imagination of ordinary Gu Immortals.
Old Ancestor Long Hair was most skilled in Gu Refinement, and his Refinement Path Realm was admired even by Rank Nine Venerable. Throughout the million-year history, only two other Refinement Path Gu Immortals could compare with him.
As for those whose Refinement Path Realm surpassed his, there was only the protagonist in the original novel.
How many Heaven And Earth Treasures and rare resources would such a mythical figure's Blessed Land contain?
Enough to make any force in this world envious! They would not hesitate to pay an immense price to seize Lang Ya Blessed Land!
Zhou Ming's journey to Crescent Lake was naturally for the Lang Ya Land Spirit, which was formed from Old Ancestor Long Hair's obsession after his death.
According to the method in the original novel, he could definitely obtain a huge Opportunity here, and the method to resolve the Ten Extreme Physique crisis would also be found here.
Vast grasslands, green mountains, clear waters, and lush greenery.
Under the sunlight, Zhou Ming rode on the back of a huge camel wolf, surrounded by a pack of camel wolves, numbering about seventy to eighty. Such a scale was common on the grasslands and not worth mentioning.
The camel wolf Zhou Ming rode was a King of Beasts. He encountered a wolf pack on the way, killed another King of Beasts, obtained a Two-turn wolf-controlling Gu, and then subdued this King of Beasts.
Afterward, he gathered the remnants of this wolf king's pack and proceeded, saving a lot of travel time and effort.
"I've been traveling for more than ten days, and I haven't even completed a third of the total journey. At this rate, I probably won't reach Crescent Lake for another month."
"Although this mission interval is a full three months, I can't waste all my time on the road. Next time I encounter a Market, I'll see if I can buy a flying Gu or other Gu worms that assist with long-distance travel."
"And this Soul Devouring Refining Scripture, it truly is a thorough Demonic Path Cultivation Technique; its effects are incredibly powerful!"
These past few days, Zhou Ming had killed many Kings of Beasts and Thousand Beast Kings along the way. Most of their Souls were devoured by him using the Soul Devouring Refining Scripture, directly increasing his own Soul Power by more than thirty person-equivalents!
Compared to the arduous task of one Soul crystal a day before, the efficacy of this Cultivation Technique was simply Heaven-Defying.
Moreover, this was the first supernatural method Zhou Ming could use in the Gu World without needing a Gu worm.
Simply mobilizing Soul Power to activate the Cultivation Technique could yield such powerful strength. It could only be said that it was indeed a Divine Grade product from the Main God, always Divine Grade.
However, the drawbacks of the Soul Devouring Refining Scripture also emerged with Zhou Ming's use.
The memories, emotions, and beast nature of the Kings of Beasts and Thousand Beast Kings whose Souls he devoured were also absorbed by Zhou Ming as part of their Souls.
The most obvious change was the aura surrounding Zhou Ming, filled with wildness and ferocity, mixed with brutal and bloodthirsty rage, as if he were a savage aboriginal who ate raw meat and blood, emerging from the primeval jungle.
Even his habits were affected, causing desires for hunting and devouring raw flesh and blood to occasionally arise in Zhou Ming's heart. Sometimes, he even felt momentarily as if he had become a wild beast.
This, however, made the camel wolves he rode much more affectionate towards his aura.
"These were relatively simple-minded wild beasts, and they already had such a great impact. If I were to devour the complex Souls of humans, I would probably go mad very quickly!"
"To eliminate these memories and emotions that don't belong to me, Wisdom Path and Soul Path methods should both be able to play a part. However, Wisdom Path Gu worms have always been not widely circulated, and similar Soul Path Gu worms are also rare. To acquire these Gu worms, I'm afraid I'll still have to start with Lang Ya Blessed Land."
"Tsk, no matter what I say, it all comes back to Lang Ya Blessed Land in the end."
"Or exchange from the Main God Space? These past few days, I did find some seemingly suitable exchanges from the Main God Space exchange list I recorded. As for whether they are truly suitable, I'll have to wait until I go to the Main God Space next time to try."
Originally, Zhou Ming planned to return to the Main God Space after encountering a Market along the way for a large-scale Gu worm purchase. However, for more than ten consecutive days, he didn't even see a Family, let alone a Market, so Zhou Ming hadn't returned to the Main God Space even once.
"Hmm? Why is there shouting and killing ahead?"
Zhou Ming's ears suddenly twitched. The powerful hearing granted to him by the Wind-Listening Grass Gu allowed him to hear sounds dozens of li away.
Zhou Ming rode his camel wolf pack up a high slope, activated the Ghost Eye Gu, and quickly located the source of the shouting and killing.
There, a team of Gu Masters, numbering over a hundred, was battling thousands of wolves.
The wolf packs were vast and diverse, including wind wolf packs, water wolf packs, turtle-backed wolf packs... Each pack numbered over ten thousand, densely packed, like a tide.
Most of the hundred-plus Gu Masters were Two-turn, fighting desperately under the leadership of several Rank Three, but the wolf packs were fearless in death, too numerous to kill. Moreover, there were Thousand Beast Kings, whose numbers crushed the Rank Three Gu Masters, and there was a commander.
That's right, these wolf packs had a master, a Rank Four Enslavement Path Gu Master, who appeared to be around thirty years old, with a straight nose, rough skin, and the rugged style unique to Northern Plains people.
Beneath him was a white-eyed wolf exotic beast, equivalent to a Myriad Beast King, coldly observing the battlefield with its naturally white eyes.
This battle of vastly unequal strength was destined from the start.
"It's nothing more than a common struggle in the Northern Plains."
Although that Enslavement Path Gu Master possessed quite exquisite wolf-controlling techniques, it was clear that the strength of the opposing group was not worth him going all out. He only used half of his wolf packs, yet he sealed their defeat.
Because of this, that Enslavement Path Gu Master didn't use any wolf-controlling techniques so subtle as to amaze Zhou Ming. Zhou Ming watched for a while, then lost interest and prepared to leave with his wolves.
Just then, he heard the desperate curses erupting from among the hundred-plus Gu Masters.
"Chang Shan Yin! Lord Ha Tu Gu will avenge us!"
"You, and your Chang Family, will all be flattened beneath Lord's bone-chariot iron cavalry!"