When Rue Bu woke up the next day, despite feeling good after a restful night and his successful advancement, he frowned.
'My primeval stones are almost all gone. I have just barely enough to feed my Gu worms for a day or two, then I will be out.' he thought. It wasn't because he had few primeval stones; rather, he had many Gu worms to sustain.
He looked inside his aperture. His primeval essence had now turned dark green, increasing his overall strength almost fourfold. His watery aperture walls were gone, replaced by a more condensed, stone-like membrane. The flowing light from before had solidified into what looked like tall castle walls surrounding his aperture, trapping him inside with no way out but to destroy them and escape the confinement.
On the surface of his primeval essence sea, a white spider with blood-red eyes played, diving in and out of the essence like a child who had never seen the sea before. Not far from the berserk Gu was another Gu worm, resembling a black candle without a flame. It wasn't a particularly special Gu worm, merely used to generate a small flame, usually for lighting dark places during missions.
However, combined with another Gu worm, which flew above the primeval essence sea with absurd speed and resembled a dragonfly, they created the core Gu worms in the Rank One killer move that Rue Bu had learned from the elder. The dragonfly-like Gu worm slightly increased a Gu master's speed.
'Hmm, they aren't the only two in the killer move, obviously. But to think that two otherwise useless Gu worms could be combined to achieve such a powerful effect is astonishing. And whoever thought of adding the berserk Gu to boost the effect even more is also a genius.' he mused. He wasn't exaggerating. Though the berserk Gu had been known for centuries and its effect was mostly mundane, boosting a Gu master's physical power, no one had thought of using it to enhance various killer moves—until someone did.
Ignoring the rest of the Gu worms, which included a Rank One healing Gu and another for defense, he focused on the other Gu worm in the air, flying majestically above his primeval essence sea.
Its metallic emerald look gave it an air of royalty, and its black eyes, gazing down on the aperture as if it didn't belong there, made its aura even more pronounced. This was the Rank Two Gu worm, the mindless wasp.
'I still can't believe I managed to refine a Rank Two Gu worm so easily.' he thought but immediately frowned. 'Even though it's a Rank Two Gu worm and I probably won't be able to activate it with my current strength—maybe when I reach the peak stage—but no matter how hard it is, shouldn't I be able to at least inject it with primeval essence?' His frown deepened when he tried to inject the mindless wasp with his new dark green copper primeval essence and still couldn't.
'It's a weird Gu worm. For a Rank Two, it's incredibly easy to refine, and when you refine it, you can't even use it? Does it need Rank Two red steel primeval essence specifically to activate it? Hmm, I did hear about Gu worms having special requirements to activate. There are even some that don't require primeval essence at all.' He contemplated but eventually gave up, as he had no way to know what that special requirement was.
'Well, maybe someone in the tribe knows about the mindless wasp and wrote something about it. I'll have to check later.' he concluded, leaving his bed to eat something before meeting with Shui Tao.
'I need primeval stones. I don't care what is going on with Chen Huan. If she can't come today, I will find someone else to join me and Shui Tao.' he thought on his way to the west gate of the Ma tribe, where Shui Tao was waiting for him.
They didn't waste any time and headed straight to the Lin tribe territory to meet with Chen Huan.
"Do you know what's wrong with her? Didn't you tell me that her cousin tried to kill her after you saved her and her team? Why would she be "affected" by her death so much that she wouldn't come out anymore?" Shui Tao asked on their way.
"I don't know either, but if she still won't come today, we will go to the academy elder and inform him. I'm almost out of primeval stones." he said nonchalantly. Shui Tao understood what he meant and stopped talking.
'I guess we barely know each other anyway, and we can't just sit idly and waste time while all the other students are getting stronger each day. I do like Chen Huan, but I won't compromise my future for anyone.' he thought as they zoomed through the forest without stopping.
After what happened with Chen Yan, no one strolled in the wild anymore. Every student, despite knowing their tribe's territory and each dangerous place in it well, didn't act nonchalantly as Shui Tao had before.
Arriving at the Lin tribe, they lowered their guard a little and, to conserve their stamina, walked to the Chen family's residence. When they arrived, Rue Bu was surprised to see a couple of familiar faces.
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The Jin tribe territory spanned almost one-third of the entire region, far larger than any of the other three tribes. Despite being comprised mostly of huge mountains and cliffs, the rugged terrain had made it difficult for them to survive in their early years. Yet, they had managed to turn one of the most barren landscapes in the region into flourishing cities, with far more mortals and Gu masters than any other tribe.
On a huge mountain in their territory stood a lone building. Modest yet breathtaking in its solitary position, it housed two Gu masters. One wore golden yellow clothes, had a long white beard, and his black eyes shone with the wisdom of time, reflecting his old age. The other was a young woman with long white hair extending to her waist, sharp black eyes, and various scars on her body. Adorned in black clothes, she sat on the ground like a little girl taking a lesson from her teacher.
"Luo Niu, I already told you that I don't care what you do in your spare time, as long as you don't get caught and bring shame to our tribe. But for you to almost get caught by that hateful Ma Long Min and then want to go back again? As your master, I forbid you from doing so!" the old man said firmly.
"Master, I get that you are still anguished about Jin Jian, but it has been almost two years since he died. We can't do anything without risking war against the Ma tribe and their alliance. And sorry, Master, but I'm not like Jin Jian—I know my limits." The old man was about to say something, but she continued.
"Besides, he didn't manage to learn my identity nor did I give him any clues. And the mission I took doesn't have to be done in the Ma tribe; the target will get out of hiding eventually. I will probably never encounter Ma Long Min again." she finished.
"Hmph, I guess I won't be able to convince you, huh? Fine, you can continue your little hobby, but before that, I want you to do something for me first." he said, giving up in the end, knowing how stubborn Luo Niu could be.
"Yes, Master. Please tell me what I need to do." she replied.
"Near our borders with the Shui tribe, there is an important location for our tribe. Recently, I've heard that some Rank 1 student Gu masters from the alliance have been going there for some reason. I want you to go there and see if something strange is going on." he said.
"What? That's it? Don't you know about their little missions they've been doing all over the region recently? Master, is it that strange for them to go there?" She was confused why her master was so concerned about this location.
"Shut up, Luo Niu. It's a mission that the tribe leader gave to me personally. Do you understand?" The weight of his words was evident, and it shook Luo Niu.
'The tribe leader? Why would the tribe leader give Master a mission personally?' She didn't understand why but knew it was important, so she didn't ask any more questions. She accepted the mission and prepared to leave the mountain.
At the foot of the mountain was a mortal city, one of the biggest in the Jin tribe and the entire region. Luo Niu's master, a Rank Three nearing the end of his lifetime and unable to advance to Rank Four even if he had more time, had been assigned to protect this place. The city, with its huge population of mortals, attracted attacks from various wild beasts.
Although Luo Niu found it pathetic that her once formidable master had been reduced to a mere guard over mortals, she understood why he didn't object. "Master was a mortal to begin with, and when he managed to awaken his aperture, he was shunned by the other students for his mortal origin. Even when he became an elder, he had no supporters and continued to be looked down upon by the other elders. He was tired of it and wanted his final moments away from that chaotic place in the heart of the tribe." She didn't fully agree with his decision, but she understood and respected it.
"If I were in his position, I would probably destroy this cursed city and leave the tribe for good." She looked down at the huge city below the mountain, children playing with one another, the laughter and cries of the mortals barley reaching her. "I guess it's a good thing that I'm not." then left for the location her master had given her.