Ancestral Grotto, Great Root Manor
Three Immortals were gathered in the Bao clan's headquarters this time. They were discussing the latest events and needs of the clan currently.
The supreme elder - Bao Lang Chao - was looking over the aggregate reports from the different locations in the grotto heaven. He cleared his throat before saying:
"So far the numbers are promising. We've hit our target of newly awakened gu masters. The A grade talents are also sufficient in number and in line with our expectations." - He laid back in his chair with satisfaction.
Bao Chi Ping: "Yes, the chance of successfully nurturing immortal seeds is high with this many talents. But this has an adverse cost at a grand scale to our Bao clan. It is not obvious now as these gu masters are only rank one, but the thousands upon thousands of them will add up to a considerable expense. Now that we even increased our portion of resources contributed to the annual competition, my worry is that the clan will run into a deficit in the future." - Commented the third supreme elder, Bao Chi Ping with a concerned frown.
Upon the last remark, Bao Lang Chao's brow wrinkled deeper as he recalled his negotiation with Wen Jie about the five portions previously.
Bao Yijun: "Worry not, Lord Chi Ping. The second phase of our plan has not started yet. We have obviously thought of this issue beforehand." - She said calmly.
Bao Yijun was the mastermind behind this project, she had to have great attention to detail.
"Oh, Fairy Yijun, please don't leave me hanging and explain the details." - Asked Bao Chi Ping respectfully.
"Naturally, the next step involves addressing the problem you just outlined. And you are right, we can't afford to nurture the mass of new gu masters, not all of them, of course. With my calculations, even after paying the five extra portions for the annual competition with Wen clan, we stand a good chance of winning back most of those resources with our new talents. As for how the selection will proceed, it is best to leave nature to run its course... As said, a calamity is the natural whetstone of greatness." - She smiled meaningfully.
"Indeed a great plan. Often the boldest measures are the safest. Now my heart is at rest, Fairy has thought of every detail. I was ready to select talents and promote them to attend the competition from my Chi Ping blessed land. Looks like it won't be necessary." - Bao Chi Ping nodded and praised with newfound understanding. But he was actually surprised at how willing the other two were to go a great distance in nurturing the clan.
A man wouldn't cut off their limbs if it wasn't necessary for survival. But in the end, the mortals were only mortals. Even if all of them were to perish, all three immortals present carried their lineage of cultivators in their own aperture. It was a way of self-preservation, not putting all your eggs in one basket ensured the clan would have hope even if just one immortal was left.
Bao Lang Chao: "You can still decide to send your nominees, Lord Chi Ping. But you know that once you sent them to the academy they won't be able to return to your blessed land."
Bao Chi Ping: "Thank you for your reminder, Lord Supreme Elder. I will act in accordance to that."
"Mmm. Remember, the next stage will take place one month before the annual competition. In the meanwhile, we will fast-track the development. Spending now is saving costs later." - Added Bao Lang Chao.
Bao Yijun: "Also, for this plan to succeed, keep this information to yourselves. We need a period of peace for them to develop."
After the three of them discussed the details they bid farewell to each other. Bao Chi Ping and Bao Yijun left in the same direction.
Shortly afterward, Bao Yijun came back to the main hall where Bao Lang Chao waited for her.
Bao Yijun: "He went straight back to his post, nothing out of the ordinary. I don't think it's him."
Bao Lang Chao: "We cannot be sure. So it's better to be cautious. Now we wait. Sooner or later we will find out who is leaking information based on Wen clan's response.
* * * * *
A week has passed since Jin Ju managed to refine his first gu worm, the Carve Wood gu.
By now, two gu worms were floating in his aperture's sea of primeval essence. His essence was jade green and had a copper luster to it. He was still at the initial stage of rank one. He has already refined the Green Copper Relic Gu as well without problems.
Jin Ju was sitting cross-legged, he was cultivating diligently every day, not sparing his free time or spirit stones to replenish his essence. He could feel the effect of his aperture getting nurtured by his primeval essence day by day. It filled him with a satisfied feeling.
"My progress is already very good compared to the others in the class. I even managed to refine my gu worm before Zhao Min!"
He couldn't help but compare himself in his mind to the talented Zhao Min with A grade aptitude. It had to be said, Jin Ju's progress shocked the academy.
Teacher Tao expressed his satisfaction with Jin Ju's diligence and made him a role model to follow. The other students looked up to him, it stimulated their sense of competition. The message was clear, look at what you can achieve if you work hard enough, even an A grade talent was left in the dust. This made the usually carefree Zhao Min feel his reputation was stepped on by a B grade busybody with no background. He was also spurred to action.
Next, Bao Zhi entered the room.
"Are you ready to practice?" - He asked Jin Ju.
Jin Ju nodded and silently focused his mind on his Carve Wood gu. After a breath of time the middle of his palm started to glow with a faint grey aura, after another breath of time, the glow rippled around his hand and reached his fingers. The glow at the tip of his fingers turned sharp and well-defined.
In the meanwhile, Bao Zhi made his upper body free and sat in front of Jin Ju with his back against him. He slowly exhaled and readied himself.
"You may begin." - He instructed Jin Ju plainly.
Jin Ju hesitated for a moment before he raised his hand and placed it on Bao Zhi's back. The glow on his hand stabbed under Bao Zhi's skin and left a line on it as Jin Ju moved his fingers.
Bao Zhi gritted his teeth as he endured the pain without flinching.
The marks left behind healed quickly on Bao Zhi's body. After Jin Ju completed a cycle to start from the beginning the first scar has already faded.
Jin Ju wasn't surprised by this sight now. At first, he was really reluctant to use this technique on Bao Zhi. The reason was that he almost cut off one of his fingers by accident when he previously trained on wooden pieces.
The method Jin Ju was using was a technique described in the inheritance he received. This technique required fine control and was an effective close combat technique against wood path cultivators. At least, this is what the inheritance stated.
In reality, though, this technique was designed by Bao Zhi, especially for his condition. He figured that he needed a method to utilize his wood path dao marks and the key figure to carving his dao marks was Jin Ju.
"I can already feel the effect slightly. This method is working. What I'm doing is treating my body as a high-grade wood path gu material, and naturally, wood path methods are the best to process such material." - He pondered.
At this moment Jin Ju made a mistake and deviated from the described pattern he was supposed to follow.
A sharp pain struck Bao Zhi as he sucked in cold air.
"Sorry, I'm sorry!" - Apologized Jin Ju immediately. "I think, we should take a break. I still can't control this gu worm well."
Bao Zhi: "No, this is the proper way. Because you can't control it, you have to practice it."
"Maybe I can go back to carving the wood pieces?" - Asked Jin Ju with worry. He felt bad for hurting and taking advantage of Bao Zhi for his training. But he had to admit, working on a piece of wood was like cutting butter with a hot knife compared to carving Bao Zhi's body. His body was really tough! It gave him resistance when he executed the technique.
"Don't mention this again. I already agreed to this because it is suitable for me, I have a tough body. Where else will you find someone willing to be cut up?"
Jin Ju: "..."
Bao Zhi: "Now continue as described in the inheritance. I can still feel some uncertainty in your hand."
...
After another two weeks of diligent cultivation each day, Bao Zhi stood up after today's session of dao mark carving. He stretched his back and arms, he had a good mood as he began to inspect his abdomen and thought to himself: "This should be it. It reached the least viable stable state."
Bao Zhi praised Jin Ju for "mastering" this technique.
"Now your training's first part is complete, you can fully focus on just cultivating for now." - With that said, Bao Zhi left and went back. He held back his excitement as he wore a plain expression.
Why was he so excited?
"Now I can finally start to cultivate!"
"It was truly a good decision to recruit Jin Ju, he has helped me refine this fake aperture! With this, I can finally store gu worms and primeval essence. My possibilities are slowly opening up, I can see the path forward."
The fake aperture he developed was not comparable to a regular aperture. When he inspected his aperture, its wall appeared like they were carved of wood instead of the light membrane that a regular aperture had.
The fake aperture had some severe shortcomings as well. Firstly, it could not produce primeval essence, he needed to use primeval stones to create his own primeval essence. The essence created was only the rank one jade green copper essence. The other shortcoming was that this aperture was fixed, he could not cultivate it into rank two in the traditional way. It had to be carved according to the technique that created it.
Bao Zhi took out two primeval stones and sat down in a cultivating manner, he held the two stones in his hands.
After a while, his fake aperture started to fill up with primeval essence.
But Bao Zhi frowned, the two primeval stones ran dry before his aperture was filled just over halfway.
"The conversion rate is worse than with a regular aperture. I need at least twice the primeval stones for a given amount of essence. Add on the fact that I need to source all of my essence from stones..."
He sighed to himself.
"But beggars can't be choosers, this is already a cause for celebration."
"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. This is only the most basic solution currently. I can improve upon it in the future."
With that thought, he continued to absorb the primeval stones and create primeval essence. He made a surprising discovery when he finished: he could fill his aperture fully with essence!
Normal apertures could not be filled above their aptitude grade. Only the ten extreme physiques had this characteristic of having a hundred percent primeval sea. But those with the extreme physiques had incomparable talent and aptitude compared to their peers, even the heavens couldn't tolerate them! Their apertures would explode by themselves as they couldn't withstand their cultivation automatically rising rapidly. This was not a concern to him though as he wasn't an extreme physique.
The fully filled aperture was a bit of consolation to Bao Zhi. This meant he could have a larger reserve of primeval essence to go into battle. But he had to be wary of drawn-out battles as the other gu masters could recover essence naturally while he would have to stop and absorb primeval stones.
"Such expenditure... The financial strain of cultivation will be bigger than on any other rank one gu master."
Bao Zhi went to rest and looked ahead to the next day. It was the day the auction hall would put up his inheritances for sale.