The pain from my wound has calmed down a fair bit by the time that I am done cultivating. Shen Cui has finished cleaning the needle, thread and bandages by now and is currently washing clothes by hand. She's sitting with a washboard in her hands next to a pile of clothes and a wooden bucket, dunking the robes into the water and then rubbing them onto the washboard.
I get up from the bed. "I'll be gone for some time, the dangerous part has passed so you don't have to worry too much about me."
Shen Cui bows, before seeming to thoughtfully consider something. "Young Master, if you need to get rid of a body I can help you dispose of it."
I stumble. "Eeer- Not for now." I shake my head, saying, "Maybe later?"
Shen Cui just nods at me and nonchalantly goes back to washing clothes. I leave the village and go back to where I left the body of that man. When I get there I thankfully find it exactly as I had left it. The tree trunk is to the side, surprisingly intact despite the force that the man was using with it.
Searching his body reveals two gu. A yellow flat bug and a blue honeybee. The yellow flat bug is a rank 1 bronze skin gu and the blue honeybee is a rank 1 lightning thoughts gu.
The bronze skin gu allows a gu master to create a barrier around their body. The barrier is supposed to be fairly weak at rank 1, so ordinarily it shouldn't have been able to stop me from stabbing him. The lightning thoughts gu allows a gu master to slow down their perception of time. The food for the bronze skin gu is bronze, which is pretty easy to buy. The lightning thoughts gu food is static electricity.
There are some gu that eat more abstract things, these are usually either not a problem at all to feed or practically impossible to feed. The lightning thoughts gu falls into the former category, since it eats ambient static electricity it's essentially free, since its food is everywhere.
I don't find anything else on the body, so I carry it with me to the flower wine monk's cave. Once I get there I dump it on the ground. There's a decision to be made. His body should work for physical cultivation, the only problem with that is cannibalism.
My mind flashes back to the first time he smashed that tree trunk. Any single one of his slams landing square on me would've almost certainly killed me. The only reason that I am still alive right now is my absurd luck. If he had a way to nullify it, or if he was as lucky as I am I, I would be dead.
I don't have much time to decide either, the body will be useless for physical cultivation the more time passes from death.
I make my decision. I take a deep breath and cut off one of his fingers. I put the severed finger in my palm and stare at it. Blood is slowly pouring out of it, making the severed finger paler and paler. I take another deep breath and cut it into smaller pieces. If I am going to do this I don't want to have to chew.
I brace myself and then swiftly swallow a piece before immediately beginning to follow the instructions from the physical cultivation manual. I can feel something in my stomach, but I can't put an exact feel to what it is. It gives me a similar impression to the white boar gu. Whatever it is, it is slowly fading away, so I don't have much time.
According to the manual I'm supposed to make what I am feeling in my stomach inhabit my body, which should then slowly acclimate to it and make me stronger. Following how everything else has seemed to work thus far I try to will the energy into moving, which works somewhat. I try to make the energy cover as much of my body as possible, which proves to be surprisingly easy once I get the hang of it.
What surprises me is that once the energy settles in me, it immediately acclimates to my body and doubles in quantity. I continue this process until the energy fades away. In total I've used about 10% of it, which doubled into 20% being infused.
I don't stop after finishing his fingers. I cut small pieces from his body, swallow them whole and infuse the energy from them into me. I only stop once the 'energy' has faded away completely, which is when dusk arrives. I've eaten an entire forearm. I'm feeling pretty sick. Before leaving for the village I rinse my mouth with water. I'll get rid of his body tomorrow,
Once I'm at my apartment I just drop on the bed and begin smashing my primeval essence into my aperture walls. After consuming all of it I pull out the phone gu and read the inheritance. That 'energy' was probably those dao marks mentioned in the CYOA. Its doubling and instantly acclimating was the telltale sign for it, just as the dao carver and instant success perks mentioned.
The 'energy' reminding me of the white boar gu probably means that dao marks are involved in that gu as well. The inheritance has been mentioning them from time to time, from what I've understood they're boosts to gu of the same type, with some types of dao marks having further effects.
Shen Cui enters the room with an empty clothes basket. When she sees me she promptly bows and then goes to the bathroom.
I put the phone gu back into my aperture. I almost died today. If I was hit a single time I would be dead. If my enemy was not slipping constantly he would've killed me. Any single thing going wrong would have led to my death. My head would burst like a watermelon.
I pat my bed once Shen Cui comes out of the bathroom. If I can just die at a moment's notice I'm at least going to try to live as decadently as fucking possible.
—
I decide not to rely on Shen Cui to hide the body. The next day is martial arts training, so I just go into the forest after finishing training, making sure to bury the body in an as remote place as possible.
—
"Close your eyes. Concentrate on trying to feel my primeval essence. Raise your hand once you feel it. It will feel faint at first, with practice you will be able to sense it much more clearly."
I close my eyes and follow the academy elders instructions. I succeed at sensing his primeval essence almost instantly the moment that I actively try to do so. When I stop trying to sense it the feeling of it slowly fades, until it is almost, but not entirely gone.
"By the end of the year this will become your sixth sense. If you cannot sense primeval essence without active focus you will die the first time that you are ambushed. This is a critical skill in combat, so do not slack in training it."
The elder is right. If I had been able to sense primeval essence then I would not have been surprised back in the forest. I would've sensed that man before he could've attacked me.
The rest of the class is spent training sensing primeval essence. Noone asks the elder any questions during the rest of the lesson.
Five minutes before the lesson ends the elder raises his voice. "Today you will each receive a single moonlight gu. You will also receive an allowance of two primeval stones at the end of each week from now on. The first person to refine theirs will receive a total of twenty primeval stones!"
Each of the students go one by one towards the academy elder, each of them takes their allowance and then proceeds to pick out a moonlight gu. Some just pick whichever one their hands land on, some check the gu to make sure that there is nothing wrong with their choice. When my turn comes I just pick the first one that my sight lands on.
As I'm going to my apartment I examine the moonlight gu more closely. It's identical to the one that the elder showed us during his demonstration, a cyan crescent moon. I turn it into a tattoo on my hand and go into the forest. By now I've formed somewhat of a schedule. I cultivate in the morning, before going to the academy lesson. After the academy lesson I either go hunt boars or read the inheritance. When returning to the village from hunting I buy anything that I need, like bronze to feed the bronze skin gu. At night I just cultivate and read the inheritance.
My finances are doing pretty well thanks to the lotus gu. My biggest expense is feeding the bronze skin gu, since bronze is pretty expensive. Mediocre wine is pretty cheap, so feeding the liquor worm isn't an issue.
Once I've entered my apartment I sit cross legged on the bed and begin refining the moonlight gu. Using the liquor worm along with the amplify effect gu allows me to use upper stage copper primeval essence, which makes refining the moonlight gu fairly easy.
I've skipped cultivating in the morning so that I would have as much primeval essence available as possible. It takes about half an hour and 25% primeval essence to refine the moonlight gu. I don't go to claim my prize just yet, I'll do that after I come back from the forest.
I've formed somewhat of a plan to avoid suspicion. I'll try to frame myself as being backed by the Chi faction of the clan.
There are three main functions in the clan at this moment. The Chi faction, led by the elder Gu Yue Chi Lian, The Mo faction, led by the elder Gu Yue Mo Chen, and the clan leader's faction. The inheritor of the Chi faction is Chi Cheng, the kid who cheated in the awakening ceremony.
I can blackmail Chi Lian to pretend that he is backing me. Revealing that his son is a C-Rank talent instead of a B-Rank talent could lead to his faction falling apart. Once everyone sees that the faction's inheritor has no chance at advancing to rank 3 they would all leave for better pastures. The future of the Chi faction relies on the lie that it has a future.
—
Observing as the white boar gu devours an entire boar carcass in seconds will never get old. With my chores in the forest done I decide to test out the moonlight gu. I make it into a tattoo on the palm of my hand and push primeval essence into it, making it glow.
I swipe my hand at a small spruce tree and activate the moonlight gu, sending out a wave of moonlight. The wave penetrates about two centimeters deep into the tree. Using the amplify effect gu alongside it doubles the penetration.
An idea comes to my mind. Instead of swiping my hand I jab it at the tree. The wave is much more compact this time and penetrates much deeper. Using the amplify effect gu as well makes it penetrate halfway through the tree. The downside is that the wound is much more compact this way. Instead of making a wide cut it's more like firing a bullet than anything else.
Next up is range testing. I use the moonlight gu and make a swipe at a tree eleven meters away. The wave dissipates before reaching it. Using the moonlight gu with a jab creates the same result. Using the amplify effect gu increases the range, allowing the wave to reach and cut the tree. I use it against a tree nineteen meters away and the wave reaches the tree. At twenty one meters it fades away before reaching it.
I'd initially dismissed the rank 1 moonlight gu as an offensive option, but I've changed my mind after testing it just now. Using it with the amplify effect gu makes it much better, not to mention that there's another way to amplify its effect that will soon become available to me.
The main reason for me initially dismissing the moonlight gu is it's food, which is moonlight petals. The moonlight petals are a specialty of the Gu Yue clan, meaning that there is no outside source of them. They are pretty expensive, and since yours truly has to feed gu three times as much as others I would have to buy quite a lot of them.
With the testing done I head on over to the village and beeline towards my apartment. I leave all of my gu, except the liquor worm, white boar gu and the moonlight gu in the clay pot in my apartment. Afterwards I head on to the academy elders office. Once I get to his door I knock on it. I enter as soon as I hear him exclaim, "Enter"
The office is pretty spartan. There's a wooden desk with a wooden chair in the middle, with a window behind it. To the left there are drawers filled with green bamboo paper. Other than that the office is empty. The elder is sitting on the wooden chair.
I take a deep breath. "I have refined the moonlight gu"
The elder raises an eyebrow. "I do hope you are not wasting my time. I will overlook it this one time if you confess. If I find you lying afterwards there will be consequences."
I shake my head. "I am not lying, check my aperture for yourself."
The elder now frowns, gets up and puts a hand on my shoulder. I can feel him inspecting my aperture. I can see the surprise on his face once he sees what is inside, but I can't tell if its from the liquor worm and the white boar gu or from me not lying about succeeding the refinement.
The elder nods once he confirms that I've refined the moonlight gu. "You are indeed the first to have refined the moonlight gu, congratulations! Here is your prize."
I take the bag of primeval stones that he hands me. I don't count them in front of him, that would be pretty rude. Counting them in my apartment confirms that its the full amount.
Since I've used most of my primeval essence testing and refining the moonlight gu I just sit on the bed and continue going through the inheritance. I finished reading about the rank 2 gu of the inheritance yesterday and have begun reading about the rank 3 gu. Once thing of note is that as the ranks go higher the amount of gu that are not blood path related begin to sharply decrease. I've not found any mention of any of my other gu worms, which is a bit worrying.
I'd rather not have to test them out, only to then find out that they are one time use gu and waste what would've otherwise been an absurdly overpowered gu.
While reading my wound begins to itch a bit, so I put the phone gu back into my aperture and begin to change the bandages. I've decided against wearing bracers, because If I had I would've had to commit to wearing them. If I wore them for a week then stopped it would be more suspicious than just having a wound.
After cleaning and rebandaging the wound I get back to reading the inheritance. At this pace I should finish reading it in about two more weeks. Having eidetic memory is extremely useful, since I can speedread through the whole thing and process the more intricate details later.
—
I can hear the gossip getting louder and louder as I get closer to the classroom.
"Fang Yuan was the first to refine the moonlight gu? How? He is just C-Rank trash with no backing, there's no way he did it!"
"He probably cheated, there's no way he refined it without someone else helping him."
"Is it against the rules if someone else helps you refine the gu? The academy elder didn't mention anything about something like that"
"Hmph, I bet one primeval stone that Mo Bei would be the first to refine the moonlight gu, now I've lost half of my allowance because of this Fang Yua-"
The gossip immediately switches subjects once I enter the classroom. I pretend I didn't hear any of it and just go to my seat.
"Did you hear, there will be a caravan arriving in a week."
"Is it the Jia family caravan? My grandfather made a request for them last year."
"The Jia clan will come in four months time idiot, this is the Hu clan caravan"
"You dare call me an idiot?!"
"I'll call you e-"
The academy elder entering the classroom abruptly stops all of the gossip. A caravan is coming? Originally the novel didn't mention anything about any caravan other than the jia clan. This is probably an effect of my luck.
I don't want to rely on my luck, but ignoring it entirely is just as bad as relying solely on it. I'll try to see if there's anything good going on with this caravan. I can't sell the white boar gu or the liquor worm just yet, but I can secretly sell the bronze skin gu if there's anything worthwhile in the caravan.
After class is over I head on back to my apartment. The white boar gu only needs to eat three boars every week, so I don't have to go hunting every single day. I spend the rest of the day reading the inheritance and cultivating.