"Fang Yuan, once wasn't enough for you, you still want to rob away our primeval stones again?!" The students were shocked and angry as Fang Yuan blocked them at the gates once more.
A week has already passed and Fang Yuan is once again standing at the entrance.
"A piece of primeval stone per person and you'll be spared of physical pain." Fang Yuan stood in the middle of the entrance, his hands behind his back, his expression cold and tone flat.
"Fang Yuan, your bullying is excessive. I want to challenge you!" Gu Yue Mo Bei roared angrily, coming out first.
"Oh?" Fang Yuan raised his eyebrows slightly.
Mo Bei raised his fists and rushed forward. After a single punch, he fainted onto the ground.
"Mo Bei, you're too useless! Watch me!" Gu Yue Chi Cheng yelled loudly and dashed towards Fang Yuan. After a single punch from Fang Yuan, he also joined after Mo Bei's footsteps.
Fang Yuan's strength is only increasing under the influence of White Boar Gu and these children will never be his match.
After ten minutes, Fang Yuan leisurely walked away with a bulging money bag, leaving behind a floor full of youths. Some of them were lying motionless, and some were holding their bellies or clutching their crotch as they moaned and howled.
...
The crescent moon hung high in the night sky, the moonlight shining pure as water.
"If a Gu Master wants to raise their cultivation level, they would have to expend their primeval essence to nurture the aperture. Initial stage Gu Masters have light barriers as their aperture walls, while middle stage Gu Masters have water barriers as their aperture walls and for upper stage, they have stone barriers. For me to cultivate from initial stage to middle stage, I will have to nurture the light barrier into water barrier aperture walls."
Fang Yuan took out a primeval stone from his storage bag and held it in his hands, and started cultivating.
He simultaneously absorbed the natural essence from the primeval stone and observed his aperture.
The primeval sea level which had originally fell drastically within the aperture, with help from the constant stream of natural essence, began to slowly rise up again. This form of recovery speed was inevitably slow, but Fang Yuan was in no hurry.
After half an hour, Fang Yuan's green copper primeval sea reached 44%, the maximum capacity it could hold. But this was not the end.
"Liquor worm." With a thought from Fang Yuan, the Liquor worm within the primeval sea instantly flew out and hovered in mid-air, its body curling into a ball form, resembling a white rice ball.
"In order to advance in their cultivation, ordinary students all use initial stage primeval essence. However, I'll be using middle stage primeval essence, and the efficiency is at least twice of theirs. Similarly, when using middle stage primeval essence to activate the Moonlight Gu and throw a moonblade, it will be far stronger than activating it using initial stage primeval essence."
Time passes in the blink of an eye when cultivating, and at this point it was already midnight. The sky was no longer a pure black, but it had turned a deep dark-blue colour. The moon was no longer visible, and only a few lingering stars remained.
"After a night of cultivation, I had expended two primeval stones." Fang Yuan calculated in his mind.
He had C ranked talent, but in order to pursue faster cultivation speed, he used primeval stones to replenish his primeval essence. What was more crucial was the Liquor worm, as it had been used to refine his middle stage primeval essence.
This had greatly increased the expenditure of his primeval stones.
"Although I plundered another sum of primeval stones yesterday, a night of cultivation cost me two stones. In this case, although it might seem that I have a lot of resources, it is unable to sustain me for a long time with my current cultivation speed, but this is the price I have to pay for pursuing cultivation speed and efficiency."
...
The month of May was a transition between spring and summer.
Under the clear azure skies, the white clouds drifted like cotton
Ring, ring…
The sound of camel bells could be faintly heard in the spring breeze.
"It's the merchant caravan!"
The adults caught on the situation at once, and the children stopped playing with the water and clay in their hands. Together, they energetically approached the caravan.
The caravan merchants entered the Gu Yue mountain village one by one, lead by a Treasure Brass Toad. This toad was two and a half meters tall, its entire body orange-yellow in color. The back of the toad was thick and full of warts and knots. It was like the lumps of bronze nails on ancient city gates.
On the Treasure Brass Toad's back, thick ropes were tied around plenty of goods. At a glance, it seemed like the toad was carrying a giant backpack.
The windows on the second stories opened one after another, the mountain villagers observing the merchants from a short distance. Some had eyes that flashed with fear and some others waved their hands to express a warm welcome.
The merchant caravan arrived at the boundaries of the Qing Mao Mountain in the early morning, and by afternoon they were stationed in the Gu Yue Village. When it was dusk, the surroundings of the village had formed into a widespread area of temporary shops and stores. All kinds of red, blue, yellow and green lofty tents were built and every inch between the tents was squeezed with numerous little street stalls.
The night was descending, yet it was still brightly lit in the area.
Fang Yuan moved along with the crowd, walking alone.
A month had passed since the awakening ceremony. Every five days, he went out to hunt wild boars. Each week, he collected primeval stones through extortion. Every night, he focused on nurturing his aperture wall.
Now, he had around two hundred primeval stones in his possession.
"I've waited a long time and saved up these primeval stones just for this."
"In my past life, my understanding of the refinement path was shallow, so I didn't know this before. But now I realize—I can craft a mortal-level Illusion Path Gu using only the most basic materials available."
He cloaked himself in a black robe that concealed his face and entire body, then began purchasing materials: Mist Flowers, a drop of dew from a Mirage Tree, bone dust, Red Dye Grass, pigment-holding oil, a water-path Gu, insect antennae, Flickering Flame Gu, Moonlight Moth wings, Whisper Grass leaves, Moonlight Fire Gu and and three Photo-audio Gu.
In an instant, his stash of 194 primeval stones dropped sharply—he was left with only 15.