Jin Ju opened his eyes slowly. What greeted him was an unknown environment and a small group of young gu masters.
"You're finally awake." - Came the remark from one of the youngsters.
Jin Ju rubbed his eyes and looked towards the voice's origin. It was Zhao Min.
"Zhao Min? What happened? What is this place?" - Jin Ju turned with his questions to Zhao Min.
Zhao Min stared into thin air in front of him with a blank expression. He replied plainly:
"Does it matter? Sun Lotus City is destroyed. Most of the people died, even the protector of the city, the city lord, died. Yet here we are. Someone has saved us." - Zhao Min answered calmly.
"What? What did you just say? Sun Lotus City is destroyed? How can that be? There were thousands of gu masters protecting the city!" - Jin Ju was plainly shocked.
"How can that be? I don't know. But it is. Surely you've seen the destruction yourself. Don't tell me that you forgot?" - Zhao Min's voice became tinged with exhaustion.
"Well, I don't know. I don't remember anything other than the chaos." - Jin Ju's face became grim.
"The memories of the event are probably sealed. Many people suffer from amnesia. You must be one of them." - Zhao Min answered.
"Sealed? What do you mean by that?" - Jin Ju was puzzled.
"I suspect it's a method used by the gu masters to seal the memories of the battle." - Zhao Min explained.
"Why? What's the purpose of that?" - Jin Ju was more confused than ever.
"I don't know. If I knew, my memory would be sealed as well. Maybe they want us to forget the trauma. Maybe you saw something you shouldn't have. That's all I can think of." - Zhao Min said with a disheartened expression.
"What I know is that we are in the capital." - Zhao Min pointed at the window.
One could see the landmark of this world, the gigantic Azure Crown Oak Tree through the window.
"That's the World Tree! We're in the capital! How did we get here?" - Jin Ju was startled again.
"I can't recall." - Zhao Min shrugged.
"What about the others? Maybe they can tell us something." - Jin Ju was eager for answers.
"If that girl doesn't have the answer, then none of us have it." - Zhao Min glanced at the still unconscious Yu Lingxin.
"Sister Lingxin!" - Jin Ju's eyes were immediately drawn to Yu Lingxin.
Jin Ju tried to wake her up without success.
"What happened to her? She's completely exhausted. I've never seen her like this." - Jin Ju was worried.
"It's not just her. You were the same too, and everyone else. All you can do is wait for her to recover." - Zhao Min sighed with a hint of irritation.
Zhao Min's words were correct.
Despite his best efforts, Jin Ju could not wake up Yu Lingxin.
At the next moment, the door of the room opened. Two people stepped inside.
"Attention!" - A voice boomed through the room and everyone's ears.
Suddenly, the bodies of Jin Ju and the others started to tremble. Their faces twisted in pain.
"What's going on?" - Jin Ju groaned in pain.
"I don't know. I can't move my body at all." - Zhao Min tried to move his body but failed.
Everyone turned their gaze towards the source of the voice.
It was an aged man.
His face was pale. His body was thin. But his eyes were sharp and intimidating.
He noticed the still unconscious Yu Lingxin and gestured with his hand.
"Awake!"
Yu Lingxin rose to her feet like a puppet. She glanced around in shock, but she was fixed in place, just like the rest of them.
"That's enough, Steward Jie." - The other person beside Steward Jie said solemnly and stepped forward.
He had the looks of a middle-aged man. He had an average height and board shoulders. His face was square and plain. He wore a pristine white robe, which differed from the usual robes of the gu masters.
"Greetings to the Bao Wen Academy. My name is Bao Li Mu. I am the elder responsible for your group." - Bao Li Mu bowed slightly.
"This is Steward Jie. You will be under his care until you familiarize yourself with the place. Please treat him with respect." - He continued.
"Greet your senior!" - Steward Jie commanded.
Everyone's mouth moved in unison as they said the words: "Greetings to senior Li Mu!"
"From now on, you are students of the Bao Wen Academy! Congratulation!" - Bao Li Mu declared and left the room by himself.
Steward Jie narrowed his eyes as he stared at the group of youngsters.
"Senior Li Mu is an esteemed member of the Bao clan, currently he is busy preparing for his ascension, so I will be in charge of you. Follow me." - He instructed.
"Ascension? Is he going to climb the World Tree?" - Jin Ju asked in his mind as he glanced out the window from the corner of his eye with some confusion.
Next, the students formed two rows and marched like orderly soldiers behind Steward Jie.
"What going on? My body's moving on its own?" - Whispered someone.
"Silence!" - Steward Jie said coldly.
The person's mouth was forcefully shut closed.
"You will be here for a long time. Your fate lies in the hands of your seniors. You must remember that." - Steward Jie said with a hint of threat.
"But the academy is fair. We follow the model of a sect system. Work diligently and you will be rewarded. Disobey and you will be punished. The choice is yours." - Steward Jie's voice softened as he continued.
"The academy is divided into two major branches. One is the branch of the Wen clan, the other is the branch of the Bao clan. This is the Bao clans branch, but don't be surprised to meet fellow sect members from the other branch here. You, too, will eventually have missions at the Wen clan's location. But let's not get ahead of ourselves." - Steward Jie said with a smile.
"It is no secret that the Bao clan is the most powerful clan in the world. The Wen clan is the second-most powerful. The distribution of power is not exactly equal, but it has been this way for a long time. It is the fate of the two clans to be linked together. You will treat the members of the Wen clan as your brothers and sisters. Of course, you should never forget your roots." - Steward Jie explained.
* * * * *
Bao Zhi had a strange feeling.
"I've entered an immortal aperture!" - He realized suddenly.
Xu Lian blessed land's entrance opened and swallowed Bao Zhi's transformed body.
He ended up in the air inside the immortal aperture and started falling rapidly.
Bao Zhi did not panic. He activated his defensive Leaf skin gu on top of his Earth Root Transformation and waited for the eventual impact. He was not going to give up easily.
"One. Two. Three. Four..." - He counted in his mind as he plummeted towards the ground rapidly.
Thud!
Bao Zhi landed on something, cushioning his fall greatly, before he tumbled to the ground.
"How long did I fall for? I need to know the height at least." - He thought to himself.
"Fourteen seconds... That means I've fallen about two li in height." - He estimated.
He lay on the ground motionless and extended his sense. The information he gathered made him satisfied.
"Hm. I can sense wood path dao marks all around. With this, I can conclude that I'm in a wood path blessed land. It is probably the immortal who destroyed the Sun Lotus City..."
"Have I been discovered?" - He wondered.
"Not likely. Or he would have acted differently. I couldn't sense the aura of immortal gu from him. Without an immortal gu or killer move, he couldn't see through my dense dao marks?"
"Maybe, maybe not. But I can't afford to be careless. Transforming back right now is risky. And if I'm already exposed, it is hopeless anyway." - He evaluated calmly.
"Since my primeval essence is abundant, while I wait, I will continue to refine the remaining dao marks on my body." - Bao Zhi activated his Flesh Worm Gu inside his body and started cultivating.
He spent the next few days refining dao marks in his body, before finally stopping. His progress had steadily accumulated. Now another five percent of his dao marks was refined, making it a total of ten percent.
He was starting to get accustomed to his new situation, when Bao Xu Lian's divine sense suddenly returned.
The thing that interrupted Bao Zhi was something that landed on him.
He had no eyes to look, he could only feel the wood path dao marks of the item. He could not tell exactly what it was.
"It's a wood path resource that was collected by the immortal. This is good. He probably mistook me for an immortal material as well."
Bao Zhi continued his cultivation in peace. The only thing he could do was to wait it out. He could not take any action, otherwise, he could attract unwanted attention.
He did not know how long he was left alone, but he was sure that days had passed.
The next disturbance interrupting him was a formless force. It grabbed onto his body and transported him somewhere else.
When the force carrying him disappeared, he started to transform back into his human form to gather some information. He had to be quick.
"He just left, it is the least likely that he returns right now. I have my window of opportunity." - This was the moment Bao Zhi waited for. He could not afford to waste it.
He looked around and saw a forest of Elephant Ears plants in the direction he came from.
"That explains my landing." - He nodded to himself.
"He tried to plant me like a seed." - Bao Zhi could not help but chuckle as he found himself buried waist deep in dirt.
"Little does he know that I'm not a plant, but a human. Let's keep it that way." - Bao Zhi smirked to himself.
He hopped out and dusted himself off.
Once again, he extended his sense and started taking in information about his surroundings.
He observed the surrounding area, and saw trees everywhere, with an occasional plant or two. Here and there, he could see some trees bearing fruit.
"There is no animal life here. The development of the aperture is still in the early phases." - Bao Zhi shook his head.
His eyes caught something peculiar behind one of the bigger plants. He approached it cautiously, taking care not to make any unnecessary noise.
He peeked from behind and observed the object.
"It's a huge lotus root." - He was surprised.
"He probably received it from the clan. Good choice." - He praised.
He continued observing it for a few minutes, until he noticed a glowing sphere near the lotus root.
He moved closer and inspected it.
"Is that the aperture origin core?" - His eyes flashed with excitement.
Aperture origin core was the most important thing in a blessed land. It was the foundation of the immortal aperture, the base of it all.
Once the aperture origin core was destroyed, the aperture would slowly collapse and all the resources inside would be lost.
It was also the source of the immortal essence that the immortal produced.
The immortal essence slowly coalesced into a drip at the bottom and dropped before the eyes of Bao Zhi.
The green grape immortal essence beads were in a small pile under the aperture origin core.
Bao Zhi carefully inspected the patterns on the spherical object.
"Seven, no! Eight earthly calamities passed." - He concluded.
Before his seasoned eyes, the aperture origin core was like an open book. He could see the effect of the calamities like the growth rings on a tree's trunk. The most recent one was only a few years ago.
"This all makes sense now. This is a mid-sized aperture. The immortal advanced without refining any immortal gu and is now trying to develop it to prepare for the heavenly tribulation after the ninth earthly calamity." - He nodded to himself.
"The rate of time is different inside than the outside. Since this is a medium-sized blessed land, its time flow should be about three to eight times faster compared to my aperture. Since my aperture is placed down in the five regions, its rate of time is close to the five region's rate of time. This is good. The faster the rate of time is, the harder it is to keep it under surveillance."
After a short while, Bao Zhi did not dare linger any longer and returned to where he was transported by Bao Xu Lian.
"If you want to nurture me, why don't I turn into a tree?" - Bao Zhi's eyes flashed as he came up with a crazy idea.
* * * * *