Tian Chuan Region, Nether Pond Rock Forest.
A group of gu masters rode a pack of hump wolves. These wolves had longer ears, grey fur, and their body was the size of a small elephant. On the backs of the hump wolves, two sections of the spine are raised, creating a natural and comfortable seat for the gu masters to sit on and travel with ease. Not to mention, the wolves were also quicker than the common big stomach horses. The leading gu master observed the rock forest. The pillars of natural forming rock reached almost 10 meters in height. The surface of the rocks flashed violet color. Such rock forests were quite common in the northern plains. However, if a gu master traveled into the heart of the Nether Pond Rock Forest, they would encounter an establishment of gu masters.
Pa Tribe!
The leading gu master was a feminine-looking man with pale skin and sharp features. A ghostly blaze would flicker in his left pupil while he traveled with warm robes covering him.
"Young Tribe Leader," one of the followers inquired, "The leader said that the water wolf pack is not needed to be enslaved."
Hearing these words, Pa Long, the Young Tribe Leader of the Pa Tribe snorted. The aura from his body firmly placed him on the peak-stage of rank 3 cultivation as he shouted with a ferocious expression, "You think I don't know what my father said? Stupid! He instructed me in public but what about the undercurrents in the Tian Chuan Region?" He inquired rhetorically, "That Fei Qing annexed Pei Tribe. Although this Pei tribe is only a small part of the large-scale tribe in the other region, they were a force to be reckoned with! War is looming and our alliance with Ma Tribe is simply based on interest."
Taking a deep breath, a vicious expression touched Pa Long's expression. "The need for enslavement path gu masters have never been higher. How can we not take the opportunity and swallow these water wolves? Their number is appropriate, too."
Pa Long's words removed all discontent breeding in the hearts of the Pa Tribe Gu Masters. The Northern Plains worshiped strength but there are minor cases where strong gu masters like Pa Long who was fairer than a maiden would be subjected to jeers behind their back despite their strength. The young tribe leader had suffered this 'injustice' his whole life but after reaching the peak of rank 3, the situation seemed to have mellowed quite a bit.
The ground of twenty gu masters moved through the grassland and soon reached a concentric lake. The ring-shaped lake had a large mass floating in between covered by shrubs of poisonous roses. From the blossom of each rose, a ghostly cackle would resound. This was the Poison Ghost Rose blossoms. However, Pa Long's gaze fell on a pack of little over 5,000 water wolves. These water wolves had snowy white patterns on their bodies. While the wolf pack rested, many lively wolves played and ran on the surface of the lake, hunting and chasing each other.
Under the blanket of darkness, these wolves gave a pure and noble feeling.
"Hehe," licking his lips, Pa Long pointed his index finger towards the area in front of the group of gu masters. A dark light flashed and continued to expand. The changes were startling and instantly attracted a few larger and more intimidating water wolves. These were the wolf kings in control of the tribe.
*Howl*
Many raised their heads and howled but it was too late, a pack of 10,000 night wolves encircled the water wolves. In the darkness, night wolves' attack and speed rise slightly and with huge numbers, the water wolves soon fell into a disadvantage. Not to mention, with Pa Long controlling the night wolves deviously, the water wolves were soon annexed.
However, at this time, the surface of the lake trembled and the ground shook. From the middle of the landmass surrounded by the lake, a towering spear completely formed of ice slowly pierced through the ground. The cold temperature from the ice instantly froze the lake and then spread outwards.
"Oh, no! The wolves are being frozen to death!" Alarms were raised as Pa Long hurriedly started to collect the wolves into his storage by commanding the wolf kings to retreat with their individual packs.
"Ahh!" Pa Long shouted as he saw a little over 800 water wolves freezing. These water wolves were injured from the battle and exhausting. The young tribe leader couldn't help but feel his heart ache when he saw this. In the battle earlier, he had to face the loss of less than 500 night wolves but only 3000 of the water wolves remained. Out of them, a little less than 1000 were dead and even many night wolves died. In essence, Pa Long had suffered a grievous loss to his enslavement path cultivation but once the gu masters were out of the reach of icy aura, they looked towards each other, fear still lingering in their gazes.
"Young tribe leader! Look!" One of the gu masters hurriedly pointed towards the icy spear that seemed to have created a snowy hell. Pa Long focused on the shaft of the trident as words started appearing on it: Ice Trident Pierces Through Heaven; Poor Ice remains Immortal.
"Could this be—" Pa Long's cheeks started to flush with excitement. Poor Ice! This was a legendary figure
Poor Ice Immortal!
---
Meanwhile, in the Warm Pond Valley of the Tian Chuan region controlled by Fei Tribe, Bai Tribe was finally hosted by Fei Tribe. A large tent was set-up to raise a banquet. The interior of the tent was decorated lavishly and deliberately made cozier. A long platter of lambs, roasted ducks, braised golden pork, and vats of wine delicious wines were set. On the head of the seating arrangement sat Fei Qing. To his left, Fei Chang sat with a small and polite smile while Bai Mo Shang, the current Chieftain of Bai Tribe sat with his face plastered with a wide grin. This was a completely different expression when Mo Shang was led by Fei Kao.
"Hahaha!" Bai Mo Shang laughed loudly, "Chieftain Qing, the other mid-scale and large-scale tribes only have gu houses upto rank 2. They can only use it to travel and live but with rank 3 gu house, we can use it for a variety of actions including using the gu house in offensive situations! The Fei Tribe is truly leading to the development of a super-tribe!"
Fei Qing smiled and replied, "And Bai Tribe finally has its second rank 4 elder! This is mutual development, Chieftain Bai. It won't be long before the Bai Tribe will be able to compete with Pa and Han Tribe. Let me toast you all for the healthy development of our tribes!"
It is a common tradition in Northern Plains that the host would raise glasses in name of their guests. If the guests drain the glass completely then it meant that the guests respected the hosts. If the guests only drank half of the wine or didn't even touch it then it would mean that the guests disdained or even hated the hosts.
When Fei Qing raised his cup of wine, every gu master of the tribe raised it without missing a beat. In this tent, nobody commanded more respect than Fei Qing. The man was peak-stage rank 4 gu master. Ordinarily, he would be an equal to Bai Mo Shang but Fei Qing had a horse group that could eradicate tribes. He enslaved a grey peach wolf with the strength of rank 5 gu master. He had Beast Emperors in his beast groups and even a special group of Mutated horses with their combined strength greater than ordinary rank 5 gu master. How could Bai Tribe leader compare to this?
After a few rounds of toasts, the feast began as beautiful girls provided entertainment to the gu masters. The atmosphere was lively and everyone was laughing and chatting. The banquet was prepared in the name of the alliance and from tomorrow, Bai Tribe would be considered an ally to Fei Tribe. If Ma Tribe tried to force its way into the Warm Pond Valley, they would need to be prepared for the united attacks from both the tribes.
"Anyway, Chieftain Qing, we were shown the astounding battle of your cub and Elder Chang's boy. Truly, it opened my eyes," Bai Mo Shang stated. He was devious with his wording. Even if the Bai Tribe had allied itself with Fei Tribe and took a submissive approach, the Bai Leader tried to sow discord. Fei Cai is a cub, a young beast but Fei Mang is only a boy. This was a mocking comparison but Fei Qing chuckled.
"My boy needs to learn humility. Sigh, I have chided him a great deal this time and made him reflect on his action," Fei Qing sighed. He had to speak such words because Fei Cai's actions, in the eyes of the elderly, were quite 'demonic'. Even if the elders did not speak anything, Fei Qing could read the situation. Now, there was also the matter of Polished Jade Gu Worm. Many elders wished to know the outcome but during the entire banquet, Fei Qing and Fei Chang revealed nothing. It was as if the two cousins had reached a tacit understanding.
After the banquet concluded, Fei Qing returned to the depths of the valley and gazed at his horse group. The total number of horses under his command had almost reached 160,000! This was a great force to be reckoned with but Bai Mo Shang's words were still echoing within Fei Qing's heart.
'Super Tribe... hmph! Bai Mo Shang has ambitions but no ability. If it was this easy to become a super tribe, any tribe with a hundred years of foundation could reach this step. But what about the true force of super tribes? Gu Immortal! Just how does it feel to look down on mortals from the peak of immortality?' Fei Qing pursed his lips and gazed at the night sky barely illuminated by the moon with countless clouds covering it.
'But is A-Grade Aptitude the most important resource in a gu master's life?' Fei Cai, within his room, sat with his eyes tightly shut. His forehead was covered with cold sweat while the view of his aperture became clear once again. It was astonishing!
Previously, Fei Cai's aperture was filled with the black-green primeval sea a little more than half of the entire space. But now, Fei Cai's aperture was filled to the brim. The black-green primeval sea barely left the slightest space uncovered.
99% A-Grade Aptitude! Not only Fei Cai's primeval essence had increased astronomically, but the rate of regeneration of primeval essence had also increased, too. Even in the A-Grade Aptitude, Fei Cai's natural talent had completely peaked. If Fei Cai was an ordinary gu master with Chieftain of a father then that was it but he wasn't. He had the personal experience of Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable. The implications of the rise in aptitude were great. To Fei Cai's latest estimate, now he didn't need four months to break into rank 2 but merely a month. How could Fei Cai not feel excited?
But aptitude wasn't the most important resource of a gu master. It was gu worms. Back in the day, due to his low aptitude, Thieving Heaven had developed a method to steal the aptitude of others. Even Fei Cai had planned to walk this road but all he had to do now was beat and traumatize a young boy before looting his father off of one of his most precious treasures!
"But I cannot lose focus," Fei Cai willed as a gu worm emerged out of his body. It looked like an icy shard in the form of a pyramid that was upside-down. The top of the gu worm had a hole embedded in its surface. This was a rare Ice Path storage gu— Hollow Shard Gu. But right now, its surface was marred with deep cracks and Fei Cai could feel the gu worm's anguish.
Sighing softly, Fei Cai took out two gu worms. These were rank 2 Sneak Attack Gu worm and Invasion Gu worm. Even if Fei Qing had promised that he wouldn't pry, how could Fei Cai believe such words naively? Hollow Shard Gu could store gu worms, too. Its best use was in storing unrefined ice and snow path gu worms but by storing rank 2 gu worm in a rank 1 storage gu, Fei Cai had evidently pushed the gu worm to its limit.
Now, Fei Cai had to slowly treat the injuries of the gu worm but his mood was still pleasant.
"However, Fei Qing, that old Chieftain. He likes to test me at every step. He said that now I understand the consequences of knowing secrets. After all, using Fei Mang's words, I extorted Polished Jade Gu Worm from Fei Chang. No doubt, Fei Qing's support was crucial but in the end, he had to reveal that he was already a rank 5 gu master! How else could he simply use a rank 5 gu worm so easily not to mention polished jade gu worm which is notorious for its expenditure? Later, Fei Qing will try to hint at this revelation often, and he would also expect me to catch up on it. But why would he go through all this?" Fei Cai considered this seriously.
But the information at hand was negligible and the young gu master could only put such thought to rest. Instead, he took out a rough parchment from the hollow shard gu. On the surface of the parchment, three gu recipes were written on it.
These three recipes were used to refine rank 1 horse enslavement gu worm. One of them was received from Fei Qing while the two were present in Thieving Heaven's inheritance. After all, being the wealthiest gu immortal in history, the richness of the information Thieving Heaven could provide was close to none other!
Right now, Fei Cai wad comparing the recipes and slowly learning the conversion of gu materials. He activated his memorize gu as he started the comparison: 12 stalks of horseshoe blades can be exchanged with 4 great bean horse bladders. 5 grams of fire mane and 11 snort stones can be covered by the use of 4 drops sparkling horse tears...
Just like that, Fei Cai devised a refinement recipe. He had most of the materials so he started refining immediately. With the rise of his primeval essence, many things became easier by at the third step, he failed and the product burnt into a crisp with Fei Cai's head turning dizzy.
"Ugh, every backlash brings adverse effects. Sigh, refinement of a gu worm and learning more about this aspect is something I can't steal from others... yet..." Licking his dry lips, Fei Cai began the comparison of the steps once again.