"So there is a land spirit. That's both good and bad." Bao Zhi noted in his mind.
What was a land spirit? It was the remaining obsession of the gu immortal fused together with their blessed land's heavenly power.
Land spirits could think and had personalities, but they weren't human-like in spirituality. Their thinking was mechanical and straightforward. They could not lie, for example.
But heaven and earth was balanced. What they lacked in spirituality, they made up for in their abilities.
A land spirit could oversee and manipulate the blessed land as if it was its own body. Depending on the depths of its accumulations, it could display various effects without the use of gu.
A sufficient amount of space path dao marks would let it perform teleportation, for example.
If one could obtain the acknowledgement of the land spirit then they could claim ownership of the blessed land itself. At that time the land spirit would be greatly beneficial to the management of the blessed land.
Lands spirits were always alert, they didn't need to sleep. They were truthful and loyal as well. In essence, they were the perfect caretakers one could ask for.
Hao Meng looked at the land spirit with a heavy heart.
"Mother, grudge has no place in my heart. Leaving me your inheritance will make us even, I will forgive you." He thought in his mind.
"Hmph! You trespassers dare invade my domain? You are nothing more than ants beneath my notice. I should freeze you where you stand then burn you in the same breath." Its voice was sharp, filled with disdain.
The land spirit's gaze landed on Hao Meng.
"You, young man! You have a warm aura. Become my guinea pig, let me do some experiments on you. Then I let the rest of you leave. What do you say?" The land spirit floated down, closer to Hao Meng.
"Huh?" Hao Meng was speechless. "She doesn't even recognize me?" He felt a hint of ire and disappointment.
Qinyang tried to transmit a message to him, but she found all her gu worms were suppressed by the land spirit's control.
Bao Zhi spoke before she could.
"This land spirit is not who you think she is. Don't be surprised if she doesn't act how you expect."
Now that the land spirit was closer, Hao Meng noticed some obvious differences in appearance too.
The land spirit's limbs were made of pure snow. Its height was shorter than Hao Jiong's. Wherever it moved, it left a trail of ice mist, rising like hot steam.
"This isn't her. I won't be confused by it!" He shook his head.
Qinyang: "We are here to take ownership. Tell us what the condition is! What is your obsession?"
Land spirit: "Hmph! You are not qualified to know. I can achieve my goal on my own!" The land spirit turned its head.
Bao Zhi: "How can that be known without trying? You have to give us a chance first."
The land spirit looked at him with a vexed expression. She knew if her obsession was fulfilled, someone would take control of the blessed land.
The land spirit's attitude was naturally reluctant to lose its freedom.
"Tch. As if I would tell you! My obsession is far too... Wait." The land spirit promptly covered her mouth, laughing twice. "Did you think I'd just say it aloud that my obsession is to complete my inheritance?"
"..."
"How did you trick me?" The land spirit's eyes widened for a moment. "Hmph! No matter." But she quickly recomposed herself.
A mischievous smile crept up on Qinyang's face. "You are right. If the task is impossible, why not just tell us the details! It makes no difference."
"That's right! Even if you knew, it wouldn't matter. No one can fuse ice and fire, only I! Solely I can complete this dual inheritance. No one else is—"
"!!!"
She caught herself, clenching her fists in anger.
A huge crack formed in the depths of the ice, sending a tremor through the ground, reminding everyone who was in control of this place.
"Hahaha. Good! Very good! But you will definitely fail! And when you fail I will forcefully take the young man and freeze the two of you into human ice cubes."
Her voice trailed off as she realized her slip again, yet unable to stop herself...
"Oh, I shouldn't have said that either. I should not have said anything at all!"
Just like this the land spirit decided it was best if it didn't show itself. Its figure flickered and disappeared.
"What's going to happen now?" Hao Meng was puzzled at this situation.
"Don't panic. The land spirit is young, it has just realized its inability to lie." Bao Zhi said.
"That must be very frustrating. Yet it can't deal with us. It could only retreat." Qinyang gloated.
"Why? Doesn't it control this whole world?" Hao Meng asked.
Bao Zhi: "Land spirits can only act according to the rules of the heavenly power and their obsession."
Hao Meng nodded, his gaze still questioning.
Qinyang: "This means as long as we don't threaten its world or try to hinder it in its obsession, then it has no reason to act against us."
Hao Meng: "So earlier, these were just empty threats?"
Qinyang: "No, a land spirit cannot lie. It did intend to harm us, but we just haven't fulfilled the condition that would trigger her to attack. Land spirits are like this, there's a rule and reason behind everything they do. They are like a program running their course. The personality? Ha, that's just the dressing, all a facade."
Hao Meng wondered, why didn't he know of these? He was a gu immortal after all...
Qinyang and Bao Zhi talked about land spirit like it was the most obvious thing to them.
But in this short exchange, they gained valuable information already.
"So it turns out Hao Jiong's goal was to merge ice path and fire path? What a stupid goal! Uh, no offense."
"The spirit is right. Obtaining this blessed land is nigh impossible if fire and ice need to coexist. They are like yin and yang, they oppose each other." Hao Meng sighed.
He had no idea his mother had such a hidden ambition. She had concealed this from even the leadership of Wen clan.
Qinyang racked her brain in search of a solution, but all she could think of were venerable-level techniques, far beyond their reach, that could make two paths not conflict. This was tough!
But some land spirit were like this. She remember one land spirit demanded the head of Spectral Soul Demon Venerable as a dying grudge. This was still better than that.
She turned to Hao Meng.
"Remember when she gave me the Fiery Thoughts gu at the Bao Wen competition?"
"Of course I do." Hao Meng affirmed. How could he forget the moments when he risked his life to save Qinyang?
"At that time I didn't find it strange. It was just a mortal fire path gu after all. But do you think that was a gu she created?"
"What are you trying to say?"
"She was already cultivating fire path on the side, it only makes sense. But she obviously reached a bottleneck somewhere. It's only natural when you try to do something like dual cultivating two paths."
Qinyang started to pace in a circle, deep in thought.
"If everything was going smoothly it wouldn't have turned into her obsession, it would have been just plain cultivation."
"Hmm. There has to be a key. What could it be? Some kind of regret maybe."
"Merging paths... To complete her inheritance... Incomplete inheritance?"
The two of them looked at each other as the answer suddenly became obvious.
"A missing immortal gu!" They exclaimed.
"She did not have a proper fire path immortal gu." Qinyang said.
Suddenly it all clicked into place in her mind. "I remember seeing it in the gu house's recording. Her agitated state when she was pleading with her supreme elder for the fire path immortal gu. Those eyes were not of concern for her son's survival, her goal was the immortal gu itself. Ah, this damned world! Even when you have the ten extreme physique, are you nothing more in your mother's eye than a calculated excuse to obtain more benefits?" Qinyang thought she had seen it all and no depravity could surprise her anymore, yet she was proven wrong again.
But she knew, this wasn't the time nor place for Hao Meng's consolation.
"So this must be that fire path immortal gu?" Hao Meng produced the Fiery Wings immortal gu on his palm. His face was unreadable. "Can we use it?"
At this moment the land spirit reappeared, its coveting gaze sternly fixed at the immortal gu.
"A fire path immortal gu. You have one! Oh you have it! Wonderful!" Its attitude took a drastic turn.
"You are qualified! Yes! Go ahead. Do it! I want to see you succeed! Merge the two paths." The land spirit was elated, urging Hao Meng to act.
Of course just the appearance of an immortal gu was vastly insufficient to fulfill the land spirit's obsession.
Hao Meng knew this as well, having cultivated ice path his whole life, even if he became a fire path gu immortal now with the Blazing Glory Lightning Brilliance Physique granting him an innate affinity towards fire path, how could he combine the two paths on the spot?!
Creating just a single killer move that used both paths could take years. And that would only be a single technique, a small step compared to resolving the dao mark conflict to cultivate both at the same time. That would be an even harder challenge, stumping even rank eight gu immortals with hundreds of years of experience.
Bao Zhi laughed heartily at the absurdity of the situation.
But they have made some headway, the land spirit reappeared at least.
The enormity of merging two paths didn't deter Bao Zhi. He knew he couldn't succeed, but why would that stop him? He would still eke out some benefits if he could.
"We have the immortal gu. You do not. What can you show of your own? Are you even worthy of our help? Hah, wanting to combine two paths when you don't even have the gu..."
"We will just combine the two paths and keep the results to our self. Let's go." With that, Bao Zhi turned on his heel, urging the two of them to leave.
"Wait! Don't be hasty!" The land spirit jumped in front of Bao Zhi, blocking his way. "We can negotiate."
That's it! Bao Zhi keenly sensed the land spirit's obsession was its weak point. So what did he do? He dangled this bait right in front of the land spirit.
"Oh, do tell me." Bao Zhi stopped and replied indifferently.
Now that the land spirit saw a chance of success due to the presence of the Fiery Wings immortal gu it became much more lenient.
Bao Zhi: "Pay us. If you want our efforts, you naturally have to compensate."
"So shameless! Wanting to be paid by the land spirit to take its land?" Qinyang raised an eyebrow at this bold move.
"Not a problem. Once you combine ice and fire, everything in the blessed land is yours." The land spirit promised.
"It just works?" Qinyang's jaw dropped.
"You are still wasting our time. I was wrong to think you were sincere. You need to compensate us for our time." Bao Zhi shook his head, while rubbing his fingers. He released the auras of all three of his immortal gu.
The complex aura burst forth, the blessed land could not suppress it.
"But I can't give you resources. What to do? What to do?" The land spirit panicked. Afraid of the opportunity slipping away.
The two of them argued for a while. Eventually Bao Zhi managed to narrow down the land spirit's bottom line.
It was time to reel in the fish!
"How about this, you give us the incomplete inheritance, and we give back the completed inheritance?" In this case the inheritance referred to just the information, not the gu worms.
The land spirit pondered for a moment aloud. "If I give you half, then you give me a whole... That's a good deal!"
Next, it immediately produced an information path gu and handed it over with the details of Hao Jiong's life's work.
"Good. We will be back with the completed one." Bao Zhi put the gu worm away.
"When can I expect you? Hurry back!"
The three of them exited through the same hexagonal opening they came.
Hao Meng: "Why did we just leave like that. I know it's a very hard challenge, but shouldn't we at least try to take over?"
Bao Zhi shook his head. "This might seem to you as giving up, or choosing the scraps. But did you consider what would have happened if the land spirit realized our inability? Have you forgot its intentions?"
Hao Meng gulped. The land spirit might seemed silly and easy to fool, but that perception was only illusory. The land spirit operated on simple logic. Friend or foe, success or failure.
"Should we strayed from the path of success, we wouldn't be standing here now, but fighting inside."
"..."
"Here." Bao Zhi tossed the information path gu to Hao Meng. "Now you have your inheritance."
* * * * *