Recently, Tang Si Yuan and group was hard at work to earn Bao Zhi's favor. Digging through every shadow, and pouring every ounce of human and material resource into the quest, leaving no stone, pebble, or grain unturned.
As a result, they managed to uncovers some relevant details about the time path inheritance in a relatively short time.
Bao Zhi received their message and sent some compensation their way.
"Only this much?" Tang Si Yao grumbled when he received his share. "This Xin Cheng is truly miserly."
"It is your vision that's too narrow, little brother!" Tang Si Yuan chided. "Don't you understand the meaning of this? Now we are working for a righteous force finally. This is just the first step in our rise in the ranks!"
Tang Si Yao agreed halfheartedly. "By the rules of the righteous path, our reward should match our efforts. Don't you think so, brother?"
"We only managed to uncover a single line of the poem, even though we spent a lot of effort." Tang Si Yuan was also not satisfied with the amount of immortal essence stones, but he decided to swallow his dissatisfaction. "The inheritance is still a mystery even if I add our finding. I know, I couldn't find it."
"Maybe if Time Fisher Grotto is found, the significance of our contribution would be elevated." Tang Si Yao suggested.
"That's exactly what I was thinking. One must have hope in their heart, brother."
* * * * *
"The rise of the timeless moon unveils the path at the stretch of shadows."
This single line was the most important fruit of Tang Si Yuan and gang's effort.
They provided many guesses of what it could mean, but Bao Zhi ignored them and pieced the lines of the poem together.
"The hours one spends fishing are not counted against his lifespan."
"The calm found in tranquility flows onward into perpetuity."
"The eye of Time Fisher Grotto opens where the moments fall like sand."
"The rise of the timeless moon unveils the path at the stretch of shadows."
When put in context of the whole verse the meaning became much clearer!
"The third line already refers to the location where the entrance will open. The last line is specifying the time." Bao Zhi understood.
"Moments fall like sands. This points to a specific desert region. But which one?" Bao Zhi had multiple places in mind.
"It could be either Floating Sand Plains where sand can be seen to rise and fall, if the meaning is literal. Or it could be a desert with dense time path dao marks, like Immemorial Desert or Third Year Flow Dune Desert."
Bao Zhi did some cross referencing, he quickly found out the current situation; Third Year Flow Dune Desert was no longer a time path area as he remembered. Now it was overtaken by soul path dao marks and its signature time path phenomena could no longer occur every three years.
"That leaves two locations, Floating Sand Plains and Immemorial Desert being the main areas to check."
This already narrowed down the search to a considerably smaller area.
Next, Bao Zhi turned his attention to the clue regarding the time.
"The stretching shadows denotes the season when the sun rises to a lower angle."
He started to deduce the cycles of the sun and moon.
"The timeless moon refers to the cycles of the moon, the moment is the beginning of the cycle. From this, the day can be calculated."
It wasn't as simple as on Earth. The sun and moon of the gu world moved through immemorial black and white heavens as they traced their paths above the five regions.
* * * * *
Hao Meng had is immortal aperture placed down once again to conserve his time until the tribulation.
He was diligently practicing his fire path techniques.
Occasionally he checked on the matters in Treasure Yellow Heaven.
"Oh, someone bought a huge amount of the resources."
Almost half of the soul path resources from Tian Qucheng blessed land got sold in a single transaction!
"Hm, this person seems familiar." Hao Meng vaguely recalled.
The other person messaged him, and introduced himself as the sell of the dragonfish.
"Right, he is that dragonfish seller from earlier!"
He offered Hao Meng to buy the rest of his resources, but instead of paying with immortal essence stones he wanted to pay with a batch of dragonfish instead.
"I can offer you a special kind of dragonfish, if you agree not to resell it. Normally, I wouldn't sell these, but you happen to have the resources I need."
"Silver dragonfish?" Hao Meng received the details. "Compared to the copper dragonfish, it has even denser food path dao marks and it is more effective to feed immortal gu?"
The superiority of the silver dragonfish was clear even to Hao Meng who only dabbled in ice and fire path but not food path. It was a universal solution to a pressing problem of feeding immortal gu.
Hao Meng pondered for a while, quickly calculating the total value.
"This is very much worth it! Even if it was just regular copper dragonfish, I would make a profit with this transaction. This person must be in dire need of these resources." He thought.
Hao Meng agreed to the transaction and received the batch of silver dragonfish into his immortal aperture.
He put the silver dragonfish in the same makeshift pond that held the copper dragonfish previously before they were spent to feed Hao Meng's and Bao Zhi's immortal gu.
The dragonfish seller thanked Hao Meng profusely for his help and expressed his intention to cooperate in the future.
"This will be a pleasant surprise for master. I know the copper dragonfish couldn't fully feed his immortal gu, he still needed to look for its food. But not anymore, this silver dragonfish can feed rank six immortal gu up to ninety percent!"
He returned to focus on his killer moves.
* * * * *
Jue Shi appeared at Qinyang's formation.
"You should be cultivating."
"I am. I will break through to rank four soon." She replied.
Jue Shi scrutinized the information path formation set up with the wills inside.
"Why are you still wasting your time on these wills? What can they give of worth? Nothing."
Qinyang looked at him silently with narrowed eyes but felt it cumbersome to explain herself.
"You should be focusing on your cultivation only. You need to become an immortal as we agreed. The sooner the better. If there are gu worms you need then tell me now." Jue Shi urged.
"Why is it so important? Can my ascension not wait? What will you do if I die? Or do you have a secret method to revive the dead?" She voiced one objection after another.
She couldn't help it. Having others tell her what to do without a good reason was a sure way to get a reaction out of her!
"This matter's importance is greater than you or I." Jue Shi's tone turned serious. "You do not understand it at all!"
"Oh, I know." Qinyang imitated Jue Shi's voice. "Fixing the gu house, then changing the world... Very important! Huh?"
Jue Shi's little face flushed red. "Enough!" He stomped his feet on the ground, making the whole immortal gu house shook.
Qinyang didn't expect such emotions from the usually quiet and measured Jue Shi. She realized, she pushed her luck too far.
She spoke in a softer voice, trying to reconcile.
"Maybe you should explain it to me, because currently I don't see what the point is. The world changes all the time, what little difference can we make even?"
"It isn't just any change. It is the change of the great eras." He corrected.
"What?" Qinyang looked at him like she heard the biggest joke since her transmigration. "Great eras are governed by the fate of the venerables. Nobody can change it, not even the venerables can oppose Fate gu's power."
"It can't be done, you say?" Jue Shi laughed softly, he started to pace with his hands behind his back.
"What if I told you, I already have changed this great era, and the one before it as well. Do you know which path Ming You originally wanted to cultivate? Do you know why Ming You committed to cultivate soul path in the end?" Now it was Jue Shi who bombarded Qinyang with his questions.
Seeing Qinyang's vexed reaction, Jue Shi shook his head, grinning from ear to ear. "Guess."
Qinyang collected her thoughts, there was no need to guess, she knew these secrets.
"Back then, before Spectral Soul became a venerable, he had already obtained food path methods. Once, when he explored immemorial black heaven, by chance he found the immemorial black heaven's heavenly spirit."
Jue Shi nodded thoughtfully. She continued.
"Spectral Soul is the venerable with the deepest killing intent. He wanted to develop killing path. He sensed the opportunity of that from the heavenly spirit. So he used food path methods to devour this immemorial black heavenly spirit and fused it with himself."
"While he gained greatly from absorbing the heavenly spirit, in turn it also influenced him. This is the reason he couldn't create killing path."
This was knowledge Qinyang has brought with her, her certainty in its truth was absolute.
"Correct." Jue Shi clapped his small hands as he nodded. "But this is only half the picture. I will let you know the rest. Ming You found the black heavenly spirit not by chance! It was due to a gu in his possession, the gu I lent him when the two clans ambushed him."
"It was the core immortal gu of this gu house; Rank eight Spirit Immortal gu!"
It took a moment for Qinyang take in the shocking news.
"Wait! You want to get back your immortal gu from Spectral Soul Demon Venerable?!" Qinyang once again felt like she heard the biggest joke since her transmigration. "Impossible."
Qinyang shook her head with incredulity. "You think it was you who influenced those events? Have you not read the Legends of Ren Zu? Fate gu predetermines every outcome!" She argued. "Fate gu is filled with Heaven's Will. But Star Constellation Immortal Venerable has found a way to influence Heaven's Will. So in essence, she is the one controlling the fate of the world. Your actions were nothing more than her scheme to protect humanity from Spectral Soul's butchering."
"Oh." Jue Shi raised his eyebrows. "You don't have to think too much of Heaven's Will. While you are inside here, it is powerless."
Qinyang's belief was already stretched thin, upon hearing such a proclamation as being unaffected by Heaven's Will after claiming to make changes to the world's fate, she questioned if anything Jue Shi said so far held truth at all.
"Wait!" Qinyang suddenly realized something. "Immemorial white heaven also had a heavenly spirit, but Spectral Soul couldn't find it because Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable found it first and took it away."
"Don't tell me... It was also Thieving Heaven who created the famous killer move that could hide someone from tribulations and Heaven's Will's detection, Divine Concealment." She looked at Jue Shi with suspicion. "What is your relation to Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable?"
Qinyang has surprised Jue Shi with her guess.
"Right! I was right to wait for you... You could see the big picture from just some little details. But you are also very wrong." Jue Shi smiled meaningfully. "Thieving Heaven is not a demon venerable but an immortal venerable!"
Thieving Heaven was the most well known transmigrator in the gu world. Having come from an advanced civilization with a loving family, his utmost desire was to find a way back and leave the gu world.
"Answer me, are you trying to collect his inheritances and that's why you need me and the rest of the otherworldly demons?"
As if Jue Shi hasn't heard her, he stared into the far distance. "It was Heavenly Court who gave him this unpleasant title." His face contorted. "Master was a righteous person! He only took what he needed and spared the lives of people. He did not wish harm upon this world, his only goal was to return home."
"Master?" The more Jue Shi told her the more shocked Qinyang became.
"Yes. He is the only person I look up to. He trusted me with a great task and I will do anything to carry it out." Jue Shi turned back to face Qinyang. "To collect master's true inheritances? How utterly ridiculous!" He laughed. "I am the one who oversees them."
"???"
"Although it hasn't happened yet, you should know of the last great era... How many Thieving Heaven true inheritances have appeared out of the ten?"
"Ghostly Concealment, Divine Concealment, Perfect Pair and Thieves Den, a total of four... no, there was also the Golden-Red Armor, so five." She summarized.
"And did you think those were only inherited once? How naive!" Jue Shi emphasized. "Once an inheritor dies the inheritance must be collected and the inheritance space set up once again for the next person."
Qinyang was stunned.
* * * * *