Bao Zhi crouched down and placed his palm at the abdomen of Xing Zan's corpse. He was inspecting his aperture.
He felt the stone membrane walls of the rank two upper stage aperture. After focusing more, he could feel there was some crimson red primeval essence swirling and splashing inside.
"The aperture is about one quarter filled. D grade as expected."
Bao Zhi did not find any intact gu worms, only their remains were floating on the surface of the primeval sea.
This was nothing surprising. For a gu master, it only took a single thought to destroy their gu worms, which they had their will inside. Taking gu worms was difficult, even theft path had its limitations. This was common knowledge among gu masters.
Bao Zhi grabbed the body at its waist and carried it on his shoulder into the woods. He went in the same direction that he and Jin Ju came from earlier. He spotted a conspicuous mound. He laid the body next to it, before taking three steps backward.
This was an anthill reaching almost up to his chest in height.
"You did your part. Now rest and return to your roots where you came from."
Bao Zhi turned around and left, leaving nature to run its course. After a day only the bones would be left before those too would be consumed by animals.
Bao Zhi did not feel contempt or sorrow for Xing Zan. In his eyes, everything in this aperture was his, to begin with!
He inspected the camp once again. It was midnight already when he walked back to his temporary bed. He soon shut his eyes and fell asleep.
Morning came quickly.
Bao Zhi woke up early, he collected the Beast Repelling gu and Dark Shroud gu that Xing Zan has laid down in a primitive formation.
"Wake up."
Bao Zhi slapped the top of the cart, as Jin Ju was laying inside half-awake.
Jin Ju crawled out, rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes:
"You...? Where's Master?"
"That's what I want to talk about. He is dead."
Jin Ju stammered at the shocking news:
"W-what? How can this be?"
"I broke his neck." Said Bao Zhi with a cold expression while he imitated the strangling motion from yesterday with his arms.
"A-aah!"
Jin Ju fell back, landing on his butt in fright. He started crawling backward subconsciously until his chain clanked in tension.
"Get up."
Bao Zhi reached for the chain and pulled Jin Ju up to his face. He grabbed Jin Ju's iron collar in his grip and exerted force. The muscles bulged on his arms, his veins turned an eerie green color.
After a breath of time, the piece of iron was ripped in half with a loud noise. Without the chain holding him, Jin Ju fell back on his butt again.
"With your former master dead, I am your new master and now I grant you freedom. Our ways part here."
Bao Zhi threw the chain on the cart and pulled the cart back on the road to continue ahead without hesitation.
* * * * *
Great root manor
This was Bao clans headquarters. All the immortals of Bao clan were present in the main hall, sitting around a long table.
Bao Lang Chao sat at the main seat, next to him Bao Yijun and the rest according to their status. At the far end of the table sat two mortals as well.
Bao Lang Chao raised his hand and motioned for the immortals' attention, to end their discussions.
"Let's begin our talk."
The crowd quieted down and faced their supreme elder.
"We have suffered losses, but also made great gains in the last period."
"As you all have heard, two of our brothers have sacrificed their lives for the glory of our clan! Today their inheritance shall be passed down, continuing in the steps of our ancestors, furthering our clans' grandeur and dignity!"
"Deng Hong, son of Bao Deng Hai. From today onward your name shall be Bao Deng Hong. You will carry on your father's legacy and cultivate to the immortal realm. Do you accept?"
Deng Hong hurriedly stood up from his place and bowed in a ninety-degree angle:
"Yes, lord supreme elder!"
"Good." Nodded slightly Bao Lang Chao with a solemn face.
"Li Mu, son of Bao Li Tai. From this day I grant you the name Bao Li Mu. You will carry your father's legacy and cultivate to the immortal realm. Do you accept?"
"I accept it, lord supreme elder."
"Good. You two will receive further instructions. Now leave and enter closed cultivation. Familiarize yourself with your inheritances. Don't forget, the glory of Bao clan depends on you."
Bao Deng Hong and Bao Li Mu bowed again in respect as they replied:
"Thank you, lord supreme elder."
When the two immortal seeds left the discussion hall Bao Lang Chao continued with their agenda:
"Next topic at hand is the nurturing of our next generation of immortal seeds. We need to keep our heads above the waters, this incident was a timely reminder for our clan to not get complacent. To keep up with Wen clan, to keep up with the future tribulations the clan's foundation needs to be strengthened. Lady Yijun, please."
Bao Lang Chao sat down, and let Bao Yijun continue:
"The current resource allocation is not sufficient! Firstly, we will increase the support all the villages receive. Secondly, we will hold the awakening ceremony twice a year, so talents can be found quicker and nurtured sooner. And most importantly, every mortal under the age of fifteen shall participate in an awakening ceremony. This way we will have a greater number of immortal seed candidates."
The immortals started murmuring to each other breaking their silence.
Third supreme elder, Bao Chi Ping interjected:
"I object! The purity of our bloodline needs to be preserved. We cannot let outsiders dilute our noble clan's blood, can we? Going after these short-term gains to nurture more gu masters will cost us dearly in the long run, not just in resources but the quality of our foundation will be threatened."
Bao Lang Chao replied:
"Chi Ping, in this grotto there are no outsiders to speak of. They have lived here for many hundreds of years. A branch family is still our family. As for where the resources will go? Only the most talented will deserve our true backing, this will be unchanged."
Bao Chi Ping heard his arguments refuted and nobody showed agreement. He could not stay standing, he sat back.
Bao Xu Lian asked:
"Lord supreme elder, but what about the academy? How will we support our outstanding gu masters once they enter the academy?"
Bao Lang Chao was proud to see his son discover this problem.
"The issue of the academy is both simple and difficult. Since the academy is founded on the joint and fair cooperation of Bao and Wen clans we cannot act overbearingly. But there are still methods at our disposal that we can employ to support them without going over the line."
The foundation of the Bao Wen Academy was a part of the agreement between the two clans. It was their goal to create competition and cooperation between their gu masters. They imitated the style of the sect system from Central Continent: only the contribution was to be accounted for and not their family background. This system combined the advantages of both systems, of course, it wasn't perfect. Political undercurrents still highly influenced the workings of the academy.
* * * * *
Jin Ju was bewildered, this was a big shock to him. He did not know what to make of this situation. He felt sorrow that he has lost his master. Even though Xing Zan did not treat him well, he was the only close person he knew, the only person who vaguely filled a parent's role in his life. On the other hand, he felt relief. Leaving his slave status behind was something he could only dream about. He still couldn't decide what he should do now that there was nobody to order him.
He sat on the ground with reddened eyes as he collected his disorganized thoughts.
"I can't stay here. Too dangerous!"
Bao Zhi was pulling his newfound cart, it was packed with wares. The cart rattled on the pothole-filled dirt road. He thought to himself:
"After selling these materials and gu worms I will have enough primeval stones to last through the early cultivation. I should have no problem with this body's aptitude. It will be higher than my previous 81 percent, which was already exceptional."
He calculated in his head.
"My plan is to lay low until I reach rank two, but before that, I have to figure out when the aperture awakening ceremony will be held. It would bring me trouble if I sold everything and had to wait a long time."
"I already know many inheritances, not even counting my own, I have plenty of options to choose from..."
He was a rank eight expert before he died, it was common that experts of his caliber purchased inheritances and immortal gu recipes. Most of them were remnant, incomplete ones. What meant a huge fortune to rank six immortals, to him only amounted to scraps. Their use was also different, he got them only to draw inspiration from them. But now these could come in handy, now that his cultivation path isn't already set.
"It is not a problem to innovate and create novel gu with my attainment. I should still focus on wood path, this grotto heaven is very beneficial to wood path cultivation. It is probably the mainstream path even to this day. My body also has dao marks that will help me amplify my gu and killer moves. Sadly, wood path dao marks give no protection against wood path attacks by themselves, but other paths should be no problem..."
Bao Zhi pondered on the specifics now, as his previously prepared gu worms did not survive the tribulation of his rebirth his plans needed to be adapted.
"Please wait! Wait for me please!"
There came a distant shout from behind, interrupting his train of thoughts. Bao Zhi had a faint smile:
"It was about time."
Jin Ju was running as fast as he could, still a thousand steps from catching up to Bao Zhi.
Jin Ju was drenched in sweat, he ran like his life depended on it. He was panting heavily when he caught up, he said:
"Please... lord... gu... master..."
"I already told you, you are free. I have no business with you."
Bao Zhi continued forward like it was the most natural thing to do.
"Please... I can repay... you later... I can work for you!"
Bao Zhi stopped the cart to let Jin Ju catch his breath:
"Work what? As I see it you are weak for a slave of your age, what use do I have for you?"
"I kept inventory... and did accounting for the old man... I have my uses! I can, I can also do whatever you ask, just take me to safety. Please!"
Bao Zhi raised an eyebrow:
"So Xing Zan kept you for your wits, huh? Then tell me what this gu material is called!"
He threw a small pouch over to Jin Ju to test his knowledge.
"This... It has the smell of yellow ginseng char. But the color and texture are different, it resembles tree bark... It should be a rare wood path material with, healing properties?"
Jin Ju did not know what this material was called, he saw it for the first time as he studied it now, he could not name it.
"C-Can I try again? I know all the wares that the old man was selling, please give me another chance! I can be useful!"
"No, I already decided."
As Bao Zhi said this, he threw a flask of water to Jin Ju:
"Drink up, you have five minutes to rest. When the five minutes are up, it is your turn to show your sincerity and pull this cart."