With a thought flowing like the streams of a winding tributary, Primeval Essence flowed into the Rank 1 East Window Gu.
The Rank 1 East Window Gu, a ladybug with a square carpass, a single dot on its elytra (not Minecraft; this is like real science), embodying its shell with not just 'Gu Worm fashion' but also denoting the rank of the East Window Gu, swallowed the Jade Green 'fluid' like a gourmet enjoying a meal. Then, with a soft 'bop', it dematerialised as a vast sea of knowledge flowed into Yi Yun's mortal mind.
The young Gu Master had a blank expression on his face as his mind was overwhelmed with information about a wide array of things. Assassination techniques, footwork, Gu Worm Recipes, various methods of infiltration, tricks and tips on efficient utilization of Primeval Essence, various Gu Materials, a tea recipe and the efficient know-how of how to infiltrate a women's bathhouse and escape unscathed, the latter of which efficiently overlapped with his existing knowledge base.
After the amount of time it takes an incense stick to burn, Yi Yun's blank expression disappeared as he had a solemn look on his face.
He hurriedly moved to find parchment and his hands scrambled to grip a writing implement. The situation was dire. Even his body was lagging behind his mind, with thoughts formed over a long time. As the young Gu Master began scribbling like a deranged sleep-deprived student who figured out that- 'Yes! Bullshit is an appropriate response to this question that I absolutely know nothing about. Inventing formulas to reach a somewhat correct answer is not just exceeding expectations, but is part of the learning journey! A skill valued by even the most stringent of professors.' Not just due to its wide array of applications, but also because- 'Yes! I am the professor and I don't know shit. Not cause I didn't study. No! I am an expert in this field. But I don't know shit because- Fuck this course in particular! Even Fleming had a stroke making it. Just stick to the Left and Right hands. And if you're feeling dirty, then the corkscrew. Maxwell would have a boner for sure!'
As for why Yi Yun was so… 'enlightened'? As if he had 'ascended' to a 'higher plane of existence'...
Why indeed?
Why was it that when Yi Yun attempted to become a knowledgeable person, knowledge itself wanted to flow into him with tremendous velocity?
Why was it that he felt like his brain was about to achieve the final form of Dang Hun Mountain when Heavenly Court got its anti-variant hands on it?
The answer lies in a lack of space. If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. And if you stuff his face with a thousand live fish, you get a lesson in why databases have a horizontal and vertical schema.
Hint: It's an inside job.
Just like a pokemon about to evolve into a superior form, Yi Yun also felt like his brain was about to explode. Well, it would have. Thankfully, the brain is a very, very interesting organ. When faced with the threat of its own- 'bombaclat', it would rather perform the final form of every student who was forced to learn Quantum Mechanics and would debate whether to deepthroat a shotgun with unparalleled efficiency, showing the Mammalian Gag reflex who was the real boss of the throat.
Or do the impression of a certain beloved American president and go,
'Aswhdghtebefr'
'What?'
Thereby forgetting all this… 'irrelevant' data.
For the brain is an organ diagnosed with crippling NPD, denoting itself as the most important organ of the human body, and unlike the guy who brags about having 'rizz' , it has the skills to back it up.
Hence, to answer the aforementioned scientific question- 'Why?'
Knowledge was leaving Yi Yun's body quicker than a toddler not under supervision. The difference was that the paper was Yi Yun's railing and the writing implements were his glue. And he was scribbling instead of 'getting high' to 'get low'.
Random gibberish was being inherited by the paper, which was probably questioning the meaning of life, for it had been carved from a tree and now was being tormented to something for which the human equivalent can only be BDSM, not DBMS. There is a difference. Somehow.
This scene of mad scribbling was why Yi Yun's late 'master' Wang Da, who died due to unknown and unforeseeable circumstances- may his soul rest in peace in the gate of life and death as food for Spectral Soul- never used the East Window Gu in an orthodox manner.
This Gu was a great gu for storing information. If it were at a higher rank, that is. At Rank 1, apart from the obvious limitation of the low quantity of data that can be stored in its schema (compared to higher ranks), it is also a one-time-use (consumable for gamers) Gu Worm and infuses the Gu Master's mind with all the information like a mental Zip bomb.
At Rank 2, it loses the single-usage trait and gains an increase in the storage capacity, but the mental Zip Bomb remains. This 'feature' remains till Rank 4 of the Gu Worm, the stage at which this bug is denoted as 'Not a Bug' and instead enhanced upon to help the Gu Master get a good, smooth 'mental boom' experience. Moreover, after Rank 3, the information stored in the East Window Gu regresses or rather is 'forgotten' more slowly by the Gu Master using it. And at Rank 5 the information is even permanently etched into the mind of the Gu Master!
This was the marvelous aspect of this wonderful world of Gu. Yi Yun felt a strange sense of wonder and fascination as he wrote and realized this aspect. Not just removing the weakness of the Gu Worm, but even capitalizing on it and making an improvement to the Gu Worm. He was filled with praise and amazement to the Gu Master/Immortal who invented/discovered the Gu Recipe.
This weakness of the Rank 1 East Window Gu being a one-time infusion of an overwhelming amount of information was the reason why the Rank 2 Gu Master Wang Da never used it in this manner.
Instead, he capitalized on a universal aspect of Gu Worms. What was this aspect? This aspect was such that even Yi Yun, despite the rescinding information about the inheritance, had to stop and take a deep breath and a moment of silence for this genius.
A young mortal asks a question.
"Why is it that we mortals must bow to the Gu Masters?"
An old and wizened mortal replies, "Because they are strong. You never know when a Gu Master might discard our very lives."
The young mortal furrows his brows and asks again, "Why are the Gu Masters strong?"
The old mortal, although with a beard stained white with the vicissitudes of time, was half-ignorant of this aspect of a Gu Master.
"It's because they have the talent to be a Gu Master and have an aperture?"
The answer was only half right.
Gu Masters, the 'mortal cultivators' of this world, possess a capacity for the supernatural.
The Aperture is the storage of the Primeval Essence, which by itself doesn't have a lot of uses apart from nurturing the aperture.
But combine this Primeval Essence with Gu Worms…
And a Gu Master can create unnatural phenomena.
Man is the spirit of all living things, Gu are the spirit of heaven and earth.
Gu Masters create a variety of different wonders and phenomena with the usage of different Gu and Primeval Essence, and later, Gu Immortals use Immortal Essence.
If a more complex result is desired, the first instinct of most Gu Masters is to either combine the Gu Worm with another Gu Worm. Two Gu Worms, depending on usage, may either decrease or multiply the power of the Gu.
One of the first instances showcasing this aspect in the novel <
Combining multiple Gu Worms to achieve a favorable result is the essence of Killer Moves.
What! You have a Fire Path Gu Worm that lets you throw a fireball?
Great!
What! Its range is limited?
Fellow Daoist, have you heard of this Wind Path Gu Worm called Light Breeze?
What? Using the Fire Path Fireball Gu Worm alongside the Wind Path Light Breeze Gu Worm causes the range to increase, but the output is lowered because the wind produced by Light Breeze Gu Worm diminishes some of the fire of the Fireball Gu. Hm… This is a tough one…
Fellow Daoist, have you heard of the Kerosene Gu?
Wow! Fellow Daoist! This is amazing! You now have a Killer Move! Your talent is really commendable.
Here, take a look at my Soul Path Change Soul Killer Move.
As per the original inheritance, the Rank 4 Gu Master Wretched Assassin placed the basic knowledge of his inheritance, which contains a wide array of Gu Recipes for the Dark Path and certain experiences about using some of these Dark Path Gu Worms. There was also some knowledge related to the non-Gu Worm aspect of Assassination.
All this knowledge was stuffed into the Rank 1 East Window Gu. As for why the Rank 4 Gu Master did not place this information in a higher rank Gu or in a better Gu Worm like the Rank 2 Digital Shade Gu or the better Photo-audio Gu, the mystery died with the Rank 4 Gu Master Wretched Assassin.
Maybe he was poor. Maybe he was 'chill' like that. Maybe he was eccentric.
Per his original thought process, as Yi Yun guessed, he, Wretched Assassin, wanted his inheritor to use the East Window Gu in combination with another Information or Wisdom Path Gu to make sure that the Information 'stuck' with the inheritor.
However, he didn't place such a Gu Worm anywhere near the inheritance, or, if he did, Wang Da maybe did not find it or the Gu Worm might have simply died.
And Wang Da was a mortal with no significant background, so how could a mortal with no connections, Clan, or force to rely on achieve the condition of finding a suitable Gu Worm?
The answer was simple. He didn't. Wang Da didn't use any other Gu to gain information from the East Window Gu. His solution to this problem was simple, yet at the same time, it was ingenious, making Yi Yun lament why he hadn't thought of this himself.
Wang Da's theory was simple: a Gu Master is formidable and different/superior to mortals because he possesses 'talent', which in its most simple quantity is in the form of an aperture. The output, i.e., the unnatural phenomenon achieved by the Gu Master, comes from utilizing his Primeval Essence and using it to activate Gu.
Gu Masters use Gu, nurture Gu, and refine Gu!
Use Gu to rewrite the world!
"So, why should I, Wang Da, use another Gu worm? Do I not have this Gu Worm? An Aperture? Why is it that I cannot achieve a desired result from this Gu Worm alone? Why must I require more? Whatever I have, I earned as a mortal. Even becoming a Gu Master was a journey of endless flows, like the gentle curve of a river. A single change of line in a map, but an immense change of life for the living things that call that former dry land their home."
I, Wang Da, realize this now. "There is no absolutely useless Gu Worm! Only useless Gu Masters!"
"What weakness of one-time activation? The East Window Gu won't be 'used' if I don't consume it. I just need to 'fail' in its 'activation'."
Indeed. Wang Da's solution was simple. Somewhat crude even. Just send enough Primeval Essence to fail in activating the Gu Worm. You'll get fragments of information in return, since, well, the Gu Worm received some Primeval Essence, but it wasn't enough to activate.
To put it into modern perspective, it was to have a bulb of, let's say, 5V and connect it to a battery of around 4V. What you'll get, depending on the bulb, is either nothing or a faint flicker.
This 'faint flicker', which was the information within the East Window Gu, would be less in quantity. Very little. But this solved not only the 'overwhelming of information' aspect of the Gu Worm but also the 'one-time usage' factor of the Gu Worm.
The demerits were simple. Due to failing to activate the Rank 1 East Window Gu, which was a consumable-type Gu Worm, the Gu Worm would inadvertently be damaged. Hence, it would need to be healed back to 'good health' before this method could be used again.
This was why there was such a quantity of food for Gu Worms around in this small treehouse.
The second demerit was the repeated usage of Primeval Essence. After all, the original East Window Gu Worm was a one-time-use Gu Worm. Just channel Primeval Essence into it and be done with it. Sure, you'll forget a lot of data from the Gu Worm, but if you use another suitable Gu Worm this would not be a big weakness. Moreover, in the current circumstances of both Wang Da and Yi Yun this might not have been such a glaring weakness.
The third demerit was not exactly a demerit it was more of a pre-requisite. The Gu Master required very fine control over Primeval Essence.
Wang Da's solution to this problem glared back at Yi Yun as he felt these pieces of information flood in. How Wang Da had managed to inscribe into the East Window Gu was a mystery. But it wasn't something impossible. After all, with a relevant Gu Worm like the one Yi Yun had earlier scribbled about- Green Quill Gu, or some other specialized Gu Worm, information could be written into the East Window Gu even after its refinement process.
If it weren't for the bits and pieces of information slowly fading away and drifting into becoming a 'forgotten memory', Yi Yun might have just stayed silent, deep in thought, for these words were now deeply etched in his mind.
This was no heaven-defying genius. Or a Gu Immortal.
This person had no remarkable background. He came from humble origins.
He was a damn hunter. His birthright was the bow and the beasts he hunted.
This 'insignificant' mortal's fate should have been to hunt beasts to provide for his family until he died, maybe while hunting the same beasts.
But through a stroke of luck or perhaps a twist of fate, this person's life flipped upside down when he discovered the cave and fell into the inheritance of the Rank 4 Gu Master Wretched Assassin.
He awakened his aperture. Cultivated to Rank 2. Killed his own wife to refine a Gu for power.
His mortal origins as someone who was initially born weak apparently provided him with a slightly unique thought process in the usage of Primeval Essence.
His ruthlessness towards his own wife was commendable, but in Yi Yun's mind, it paled in comparison to this 'unique' way of using Primeval Essence.
A certain phrase from a certain novel drifted through his mind.
"In this world, no one is born a side character and no one is an eternal main character, as all living beings compete and struggle for opportunities within an impartial Dao."
Wang Da was a person with a unique perspective and such a mindset for the manipulation of Primeval Essence. He was also very ruthless, sacrificing the one he loved to refine a Gu Worm.
However, even such a person died.
This undeniable fact left a deep impact on Yi Yun.
However, life was not content to watch Yi Yun digest these truths. Time sadly, was also not on his side. Every second meant another piece of information that could be crucial to him, maybe for survival, maybe for power, be forever forgotten.
Yi Yun took a deep shuddering breath and ignored the faint chill of the cold night that suddenly felt more real as he tried not to deviate in his thoughts and resumed writing like a madman.
Wang Da died because he was fooled by me and because of greed. I must simply adhere to the simple fact of caution above all. However, I need to realize the truth.
He thought as he froze for just a moment and let out another sigh, one filled with melancholy.
Even Rank 9 Venerables died. Rank 8 can also be killed. Similarly, I, even if I am a Unique Otherworldly Demon with knowledge of this world as a novel, can still be unexpectedly killed.
With this nascent realization, Yi Yun resumed trying to document before he forgot everything his brain deemed 'irrelevant'.