Fang Yuan emerged from secluded cultivation and glanced at the new Gu Yue Village.
The Goody-Two-Shoes System had updated itself; he was no longer receiving any rewards - neither dao marks, nor luck, nor Guts Gu, nor primeval stones.
All of the missions had been deleted from its interface, with the only remaining directive being to advance to Rank Six.
Even his dao marks from maintaining his clan and being the Clan Head/Supreme Elder were not being distributed to him. The system tried to tell him that he would start to receive them once he was Rank six, but that for now, there was no greater goal than to become Immortal.
He was not getting any daily quests either.
Fang Yuan's mind once again went towards his aperture when he thought about advancing to an Immortal.
The prospect was not easy. Most Rank 5 Gu Masters chose to remain at Rank 5 Peak Stage, as kings of the Mortal Realm rather than attempting to become Immortal. Fang Yuan, of course, desired eternal life, so to simply remain a Rank 5 Peak Stage Gu Master was unacceptable to him. Before he had used the Spring Autumn Cicada, he had first advanced to Rank 6, being only a few steps away from Rank seven.
There were two issues with ascending to Immortal, of course. The first was balancing the three aspects of Qi; Human, Heaven, and Earth appropriately. This was a task that no one could help Fang Yuan with, but he had already done so during his prior life and was confident in being able to do so now.
The second was the Heavenly Tribulation and Earthly Calamity that one might experience while ascending. Naturally, this was easier if there was a Gu Immortal aiding in the ascension.
However, in Fang Yuan's previous life, he had ascended to Rank 6 on his own, using information left behind by the Blood Sea Inheritance to increase his odds of successfully ascending. He did not have the same number or quality of Blood Path Gu worms currently.
Fang Yuan's original plan was to use the Dollhouse to help him ascend to Rank 6.
But, if he could leverage either Paradise Earth Immortal Venerable or Genesis Lotus Immortal Venerable into aiding his ascension, triumphing over the calamities and tribulations was certain.
If Genesis Lotus was to be believed, his tribulation would be of a nature that would require external help from him to survive. This did not line up with what Paradise Earth said regarding the Righteous Virtue Physique not having any major drawbacks. There was clearly a gap here - a gap in understanding, a piece of information that Fang Yuan was missing. It was likely related to why the Goody Two-Shoes System was acting in this way.
'Still, am I missing something?' Fang Yuan wondered to himself, glancing into his aperture once more. Getting to Rank 5 Peak Stage and then shattering his aperture was not the difficult part, but it was generally not worth it to breeze through the various cultivation realms without giving oneself pause to develop first, otherwise one's foundation would remain underdeveloped and one would lack the maturity to make use of the higher realm's of power, eventually getting crushed under the weight of an Immortal's burdens. Fang Yuan had already gone to Rank 6 before so this was not a problem for him.
But that was not the only aspect when it came to building a foundation.
As an example, the first gen Gu Yue Ancestor had specifically wanted the Ancient Moon Desolate Yin Physique to fix his own aptitude so that his foundation as an immortal would be much greater. Fang Yuan currently had the Righteous Virtue Physique, which allegedly did not have the drawbacks of the Extreme Physiques but was still powerful. He had already felt its effect recently by advancing to Rank 5 Upper Stage.
He no longer needed to use Equality Gu with Bai Ning Bing to extract a portion of the Northern Dark Ice Soul Physique. As a matter of fact, it could be harmful if he tried to take on that Extreme Physique on top of having the Righteous Virtue Physique; it may very well send him into an aperture crisis where it was overloaded and ended up detonating. There was such a thing as too much of a good thing.
The more he thought about this, the more murkier the matter became.
There was another issue for him to deal with first.
Currently, his reputation among the clan was quite low. Although the ordinary citizens, the rank-and-file Gu Masters and mortals that is, still thought highly of him as a hero who had saved their clan, the Elders were quite dissatisfied with him. The biggest reason given the drain that he posed on the clan's resources.
The Elders were quite disdainful of him taking away the clan's resources. Only a child thought that once they became a leader they could do whatever they wanted. To a poor peasant or beggar on the streets, it may seem as if the emperor could simply take whatever he wished without repercussions. This, of course, had never been true.
The emperor was simply another man bound by his duties. He was answerable to court officials and ministers. Qin Shi Huang had been betrayed by his mother's lover, Li Hong was killed by his own mother, and the Guangxu Emperor was poisoned by his own aunt.
To be a ruler sometimes simply meant to be a bigger puppet at the whim of stronger forces. Fang Zheng had learned the harshness of this reality recently.
The difference was that in the gu world, the ones at the top had immense physical strength. That was the only reason that Fang Yuan was allowed to get away with what he did. An ordinary man would've been strung up and hung by his own clansmen long ago.
But this also meant that the elder's opinions mattered more than that of the rank-and-file clansmen.
The seeds of discontent were no doubt sown within their minds.
The discontent, ordinarily, would still restrict a leader in what he could do simply by the rules of the righteous path and concerns for his own reputation. Fang Yuan, however, had none of that.
So, the only thing truly restricting him was the chance of rebellion from the clan elders. It's not as if they had no ways of subterfuge against a Clan Head who took far too many liberties with his powers. They could either try to attack him through nefarious means, such as poison, or try to take him by surprise, or they could try to involve a third party, such as a Demonic Gu Master or even ally with another clan to take him down.
These last countermeasures were, of course, only last-resort options, and Fang Yuan had not yet pushed them to that level. Far from it. A coup like that could leave the clan vulnerable, and as it was said back on Earth, "blood is thicker than water," and family ties were greatly prioritized in a clan. They would normally prefer the tyranny of one of their own rather than the tyranny of someone else who could be far worse than Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan's financial situation was also not that good either. Despite obtaining many Rank 4 gu worms and refinement resources, it would still probably just put him barely in the black, and he still had to negotiate with Bai Ning Bing regarding an appropriate price or alternative for replacing the Rank 5 Frost Lance Gu. After that he would need to worry about feeding some of his gu worms, like the Rank 5 Ink Dragon and Rank 5 Scouting Hive Gu.
He had not truly cared about any of these things.
He had not cared about losing to Liu Nan either, as it would allow him to fill in the portraits faster once Shang Xin Ci became a Young Master and he could leverage the Beggar Sect to fill them in.
Once he became Immortal, all of these worries regarding resources would disappear.