"Are you okay, Rue Bu?" Shui Tao shouted, hurrying to his side and activating his Gu worm. The jade green copper primeval essence was consumed by the Gu worm and transformed into glistening blue water that traveled from his aperture to his hands, and finally to the wound on Rue Bu's shoulder. The bleeding stopped first, then the wound began to shrink until it disappeared, as if Rue Bu had never been injured.
"I'll be fine, thanks to you, Shui Tao." Rue Bu said, smiling at him. 'Hmm, if my injury had been a little deeper, the Gu worm might have died in the process of treating me. Does he even know about its limits? Anyway, I'm grateful that at least he's somewhat useful.'
This was their second mission together. The first one involved collecting some random, easy-to-find materials—nothing dangerous. Assessing their teamwork and coordination was vital before choosing a second, more dangerous mission.
They were just hunting a wild rank 1 beast commonly used by the Lin tribe to refine many Gu worms. Although the creeping vine was just a rank 1 plant beast and not dangerous for any experienced rank 1 Gu masters, it was much tougher for a group of students like Rue Bu's team, especially since only he could fight. After they found it, Rue Bu immediately started attacking, using the berserk Gu from time to time. He couldn't fight for five minutes straight before the beast used one of its numerous vines to penetrate part of his body. Even though he managed to protect his more vital points, Shui Tao had to use his Gu worm to heal him every time.
The battlefield was often like this: Rue Bu ripping the beast's vines with his bare hands until the effect of his Gu wore off, then dodging the monster's vines to the best of his ability. Meanwhile, Shui Tao sat behind Chen Huan, using primeval essence stones and preparing to provide help to Rue Bu. Chen Huan protected Shui from the vines and kept an eye out for any other threats that might come their way.
"Chen Huan, you should buy that Gu worm I told you about. It will help you better protect yourself and Shui Tao on future missions. And you, Shui Tao, you did great. It was my fault at the end, so don't worry about it." Rue Bu's last injury on his shoulder was more severe than the previous ones because he took a risk to finish off the wild beast.
'That annoying vine mess depleted almost half of my primeval essence just to kill it.' He was now at the middle stage, and his green copper primeval essence was more condensed than in the previous stage. It would have probably taken him longer without Shui's help, and he would definitely be dead if he were still at the initial stage.
"I know it was your fault, Rue Bu. You shouldn't have done something like that. Sigh!" Shui Tao reprimanded him for his reckless behavior but sighed as Rue Bu smiled at him without answering. "Anyway, I don't understand. What is the mission exactly? You destroyed the beast entirely. What do we hand in to complete the mission?" he asked, confused.
"That's not just one monster, Shui." Chen Huan explained. "You can think of every vine on the ground as a separate entity. On their own, they are barely a threat to mortals and not a big deal for Gu masters, even weak ones. But when multiple vines come together and work as one, they become very dangerous. They develop something like a shared mind. So, the way any Gu master in our tribe deals with them, while preserving their "body" is like what Rue Bu did—extracting each vine from the conglomerate mess independently. The refiner can then use them separately for smaller Gu recipes or together in various combinations for greater effects or more advanced recipes." Shui Tao was a little confused about what she was saying but eventually understood.
"So, what we need to hand in to get our precious stones is all of these vines?" he summarized.
"...Yes," Chen Huan said with an unhappy expression.
"Hahaha, don't feel sad, Chen Huan. Not everyone is as interested in this stuff as you are. Hahaha." Rue Bu started laughing and taunting her.
"Shut up." she said, still unhappy.
"Haha, anyway, let's start collecting these vines and get out of here. I barely have enough primeval essence for another fight like this one. We don't want to end up like that idiot from yesterday." Rue Bu reminded them, and they immediately started gathering the vines on the ground. Once they were done, they headed to the Lin tribe to hand in the mission.
Even though the alliance was nominally providing the mission, it existed in name only and didn't have any physical headquarters or bases. The three tribes essentially served as its headquarters. So, any mission that students received from the alliance always had three key elements: first, the rewards to attract attention; second, the requirements to complete the mission; and finally, the tribe from which the mission originated, so the students knew where to collect their payments.
After half an hour of collecting and sorting the vines according to their conditions and traversing back through the forest, they arrived at one of the gates of the Lin tribe. Chen Huan went straight to her clan's mission hall to hand in the mission and collect the rewards, while Shui Tao and Rue Bu waited at an inn near the gates.
As they waited, they watched various students come and go. Among them was someone very familiar to them, especially to Shui Tao, who knew him personally.
"This idiot is still doing missions? Why are the elders letting him do that?" someone whispered.
"Hmph, if that had happened to us, we would be crucified by the elders already. It's just because our tribe leader is giving him biased treatment." someone else from his tribe remarked.
"What do you think, Shui Tao?" Rue Bu asked openly.
"Ah, we may have gone to the academy together, but he didn't hang out with anyone, not even the other talented students, let alone someone like me. So, I don't really know him that well, Rue Bu." Shui Tao explained nervously, which didn't go undetected by Rue Bu.
"But?" Rue Bu could sense Shui Tao knew something more, so he pushed him further.
"...But one thing I suspect is that he might have done it on purpose." Shui Tao speculated after a moment of silence.
"What? Why would anyone do something like that?" Rue Bu asked, confused.
"Come on, Rue Bu. I'm not dumb, and I know for certain you aren't either. A lot of students have realized that the elders didn't divide all of us randomly. Like our team, his team," he pointed at the back of the student they were discussing. "and various others. Do I really need to explain?" he finished.
"Haha, I know what you're trying to insinuate, Shui Tao: that most, if not all, the 'talented' students were put into teams with no other capable students than themselves, right?" Shui nodded, acknowledging Rue Bu's point. Rue Bu continued, "So you're saying that Shui Jun intentionally severed the hand of one of his teammates? That it wasn't an accident but a purposeful act to get the elders to change his teammates into more favorable ones?" Shui nodded again. Yet, Rue Bu still wasn't convinced. "But, Shui Tao, if you're that observant, enough to see through the elders' scheme, shouldn't you understand their purpose too?"
"What do you mean? I already know the purpose." Shui Tao responded, confused.
"Let's take a step back. The elders put you in a weak team to challenge your capabilities, and your response is to want a new team? That just tells them that either you didn't understand their intentions, or you are incompetent. Why would Shui Jun do something like that?" Rue Bu explained his point of view.
"..." Shui was silent for a while. Rue Bu thought he was considering his logic, but then Shui said. "You're right. If someone else besides Shui Jun did that, I would think the same as you. There's no way someone could understand the elders' intentions and yet still show such incompetence on purpose. But when it comes to Shui Jun, it makes sense."
"And why is that?" Rue Bu finally got what he wanted to hear.
"Shui Jun is crazy, Rue Bu." Shui Tao started whispering. "Common sense doesn't apply to him. If you were part of our academy these past three months, you would understand. He enjoys playing with mortals, and I don't mean in a fun way, Rue Bu. He has probably killed more mortals than anyone in our tribe. You might think I'm exaggerating, but when I said he didn't hang with anyone earlier, I lied. It's the opposite—no one hangs with him because we were scared of him. He would brag every day about how he killed one or two mortals, or how he dislocated their finger joints one by one. And when they got used to it, he'd start removing their fingernails, talking about how amazing it was to listen to them scream." Shui Tao had a horrified expression on his face.
"Seriously? I know it's just mortals and nobody truly cares about them, but isn't that too far?" Rue Bu asked, shocked by Shui Jun's cruelty.
"Sigh! Like those guys said earlier, if it was anyone else doing things as excessive as Shui Jun, they would definitely get punished by the tribe. But since he's our most talented student, and some people think our tribe leader has something to do with him, he just gets a couple of slaps on the wrist. That's why I think he did it purposefully, Rue Bu. Even though it's against common sense for a student to do that, I think he must have gotten mad at his teammate or that unfortunate guy was from a mortal family and Shui Jun ended up severing his hand, and threatening the other team member to keep quiet."
"I guess we should keep our distance from him then." Rue Bu concluded. Right after they finished their conversation, Chen Huan showed up with the primeval essence stones. After they divided them equally, they headed straight back to the nearest mission center, exclusively for students, to take on another mission.