Sun Lotus City, Brilliance Lotus Academy
"Today's class is dismissed. Don't forget to practice your techniques! Just raising your cultivation is pointless in itself." - Called out Teacher Tao.
The students were eager to continue cultivating, mainly motivated by the generous rewards. They did not waste much time on teacher Tao's genuine advice, they headed home.
"Bao Zhi, wait for me!" - A voice called out from the students.
"Zhao Min, what is it?" - Turned around Bao Zhi.
"I have something for you." - Zhao Min handed over a common storage-type gu worm.
Bao Zhi nodded before taking the gu worm and putting it away casually.
Zhao Min had an inquisitive gaze as he walked beside Bao Zhi.
"So, what's inside?" - He asked Bao Zhi.
"Oh, you don't know?" - Bao Zhi stopped for a moment and looked at Zhao Min.
"..."
"I guess there's no harm in telling you. Just a few primeval stones."
"Why? Did you sell something to my father?"
"Yes, you could say that."
Zhao Min furrowed his brows for a moment.
"Bao Zhi, I admire your strength, but you should avoid my father in the future."
"Oh, why's that? Your father, Zhao Feng seems like a good business partner. The Golden Fruit business is handled quite well by him." - Bao Zhi remarked.
Zhao Min did not answer.
"The Golden Fruit business is related to Bao Zhi? How is that possible?" - Zhao Min's shock was written on his face.
They walked quietly for a while. Each of them pondered on the situation.
"I see, so Zhao Min didn't know about my business with Zhao Feng and wanted to distance me from him? Seems like there's a rift between the two. The current and the future family head not being on good terms is something I could exploit." - Bao Zhi was already weaving a possible scheme in his mind.
"Bao Zhi, speaking of the Golden Fruit, I have some here." - Zhao Min said after a long pause with embarrassment.
Zhao Min handed over a leather pouch to Bao Zhi.
"I just wanted to give you some." - Zhao Min answered.
Bao Zhi opened the pouch and inspected the content.
"This much? It's worth a lot of money." - Bao Zhi raised one eyebrow.
"It's fine, take it." - Zhao Min insisted awkwardly.
Zhao Min had no idea originally. He planned to persuade Bao Zhi with his own merchandise.
"So is there anything else?"
"No. Just be careful who you deal with. You can just tell me if you want to deal with my family, and I'll see to it."
"Alright, if there's anything I'll look for you. Then see you next time!" - Bao Zhi continued on, leaving Zhao Min behind.
"Hehe, trying to rope me into your internal strife? By playing both sides I can only come out on top." - Bao Zhi smirked to himself on his way home.
As for the Golden Fruit gu. He casually took out one from the pouch and ate it.
"Hm, as expected. It has little to no effect on my body."
"But time is of the essence. I don't know how much is left until the immortals' arrangement. I can't fool around chasing small gains."
Thinking of this, he activated the Flesh Worm gu that resided in his body.
Immediately, the dormant gu worm came to life. It started to chew away at Bao Zhi's insides.
The pain was extreme. Anyone else would consider this torture, but Bao Zhi continued walking on.
Over the dozens of his cultivation sessions, he got more and more accustomed to the feeling of using the Flesh Worm gu.
Only the cold sweat rolling down his neck betrayed his performance.
"About five percent of my wood path dao marks are refined." - He estimated in his mind.
"There's no way around it. Refining a whole dao mark with a rank one mortal gu would be impossible. Mortal gu only contains dao mark fragments, so breaking down my dao marks first is a must."
"With this amount, I should be thinking about the next step. What killer move should I use these dao marks for?"
Gu cultivation encompassed many aspects, the killer moves could be classified under these main categories: offense, defense, movement, investigation, concealment, healing, cultivation etc.
Bao Zhi's carved fake aperture could also be classified as a cultivation-type killer move.
"The most important is survival. My body is already tougher than normal, plus I have a defensive gu worm, the Leaf Skin gu. So my defense is set. Healing methods can also wait, my innate vitality is even better than my defense."
"Also, rather than taking a hit, avoiding it is better. That needs either good investigative methods to let me know of a threat ahead of time, or a concealment technique to avoid detection..."
"The most direct way is still movement, escaping is an indispensable skill."
"Movement it is then. That's still the aspect I'm most proficient in."
When he arrived home, he sat down and continued to cultivate, refining his dao marks on his body.
Now his limit of enduring the Flesh Worm gu was already two and a half hours continuously. The problem was not his willpower anymore, but running out of primeval essence. He had to stop and recover it.
The main door opened as Jin Ju returned from the cultivation boards.
"I'm back." - He announced in a good mood.
"Jin Ju, come here for a bit."
Jin Ju presented himself in Bao Zhi's room.
"Look, I got the relic gu!" - Jin Ju beamed with joy.
"Haha, very good. Use it well. You can't reach rank two soon enough! I also got something. Here take it."
Bao Zhi passed over the pouch of Golden Fruit gu, there were nine Golden Fruits inside.
"What are these?" - Jin Ju was not sure.
"Golden Fruits, of course. I got them for you."
Jin Ju has only heard some gossip about this costly expendable gu.
He was tongue-tied, not knowing what to say. He already felt like his debt to Bao Zhi just kept piling up. He wouldn't have accepted if Bao Zhi didn't shove it in his hands directly.
"I know what you are thinking. 'I can't accept this. How will I repay you?' But don't worry, to me these are of very little use." - Bao Zhi patted Jin Ju's shoulder.
"But there is actually something you can do to repay me. Just lend me your Carve Wood gu for a while."
* * * * *
Lingering Mountains Grotto, Icy Peak Mountain
A group of elders has gathered.
"This girl is pushing her luck! I gave her time to think it over again. Now she still wants to weasel her way out of the marriage?" - The elder grumbled sitting at the head of the table.
"She's our family's daughter! I don't want to see her unhappy. She's just not ready yet." - An old woman pleaded.
"Qinyang has already come of age. Yet she still toys with us. Who would believe she lost all her memories?"
"What can the medicine hall say about this?"
"With respect sir, her physical condition has recovered. But her memories in fact are missing. We can rule out that she's trying to deceive us. Her soul suffered a backlash during her exile- I mean, secluded cultivation. Sadly we have no methods to heal a soul. But with time, her memories might come back as her soul naturally heals." - Reported the elder of the medicine hall.
"Then what is your suggestion? Let her choose the right husband or keep living on this mountain like some kind of freeloader?" - One of the elders barked.
"Elders, I don't think we should push her too much. We should look into how she lost her memories. Maybe something happened up in the mountain. Perhaps some people were planning something in the background. It's better for us to wait for the results of the investigation before we decide." - Another elder spoke.
"Bunch of cowards! This is your problem! You don't dare to take responsibility for your own mess! This girl is going to be married to someone who will ensure the prosperity of our branch family! Have you forgotten why we live on this forsaken and frozen land? We have to mend relations with the main branch. This is the only way we can raise our heads again in the future."
The hall fell into an awkward silence.
"This is right. If Qinyang has to be taught again, she will be taught once more. If she has to be trained again, she will be trained once more. The marriage cannot be annulled. This is her contribution to the clan." - The elder at the head of the table concluded.
...
In the meanwhile, Qinyang was sitting in her room. She looked out her window gloomily.
There was only snow and ice till one could see.
"This place... It can't be the famous Snowy Mountain Blessed Land as I first thought. The Snowy Mountain blessed land has many peaks and demonic immortals rule each. But this lone mountain is controlled by the Wen clan, it seems."
"Oh, what am I thinking? They are just mortal gu masters, how could they have any idea about the affairs of immortals? For all I know, an immortal could be watching my every move from a thousand miles away."
"Are my thoughts even safe?" - Qinyang shuddered at this uncomfortable idea.
"I'm an otherworldly demon, I bet any immortal would be more than happy to extract my soul and do god knows what with it..."
Just the thought of Old Ancestor Xue Hue - the rank eight overlord of Snowy Mountain blessed land - showing up made Qinyang's skin crawl.
She dazed at the slowly falling snow outside.
"This land is the same cold wasteland as far as I can see. It is most likely just another ice path aperture or blessed land in the gu world. This would mean there is definitely at least one gu immortal or a land spirit in charge."
"Oh wait. Wouldn't that mean that Fang Yuan would want to attack and annex this place?" - She broke out in cold sweat as she remembered the main character from the novel she read.
"Calm down. I need to calm down! Knowing too much is almost worse than not knowing anything."
"But I also don't know anything about my circumstances." - She lamented.
"One way or another, I need to adjust myself to this world if I want to live."
Qinyang controlled her breathing and closed her eyes as she tried to regain her calm but her mind kept wandering.
"Ah! It's easier said than done... This world is filled with ruthless villains and thousand-year-old two-faced schemers." - She couldn't even focus for five minutes.
"But I'm not a psycho. I don't belong in this place, for goodness sake! Good people are exploited even for their dying breath here. My life is as cheap as grass."
"What should I do?"
She hugged her knees as she rocked back and forth on her bed, mulling through what she knew about the gu world.
"Why, why did I have to land in this cruel place? Even if I die my soul will be eaten by that murder hobo Spectral Soul..."
"Or, or what if Giant Sun will force me to be his concubine, locked away as a slave for the rest of my life?"
"Hahaha..." - She mocked herself.
"I'm just a regular, ordinary person. I haven't even graduated from university before I came here. Cut me some slack, you stupid Heaven's Will or whoever it is!"
Qinyang grabbed her pillow and threw it at the wall in frustration.
"Look at yourself! Enough with the self-pity!" - She warned herself self-consciously.
"Wait, what is this?" - She noticed a small book that was tucked away under the pillow.
She opened it curiously and started reading it.
"Dear Diary, today was the awakening day. I was really afraid at first. I skipped eating all day..."
"The ceremony got me really tired, but it was worth it. Dad was even more excited than I was at the results. He said I'm the hope of the family. My heart is still racing just thinking about it..."
"A diary of the previous Qinyang? This is my ticket! With this I can 'recover' my memories!" - Qinyang already forgot her previous worries as she immersed herself in the inner thoughts of this oh-close yet foreign person.
* * * * *