The Bu clan gu masters stare dumbfounded at the dead remains of the monkey. A rank 4 mount type gu worm can be anywhere between the equivalent of a rank 3 or rank 4 gu master in strength, this monkey was more towards the latter side.
For me to have casually killed it like this means one thing for them, I must be a rank 5 gu master hiding their cultivation. The concept of a rank 3 gu master killing the monkey as I did is patently absurd, a rank 4 gu master would similarly face at least some small amount of difficulty.
The only logical explanation left is that I am a rank 5 gu master, which is the best possible conclusion about me for them to reach.
All sides stay quiet for the next few minutes. The San clan's gu masters do not reveal themselves at first, nor do they send another attack, but eventually they do send someone towards us.
An old man dressed in golden robes approaches us. He pays the forces of the Bu clan no mind, a cultivator at the peak of rank 4 like him doesn't have to care for them.
Instead his gaze is set firmly on me. I give him a smile. "Are you here to negotiate?"
The leader of the Bu clan takes a sharp breath, before walking over towards me and leaning in to whisper. "Honored gu master, do not trust the San clan! They speak of naught but empty promises and lies!"
Of course you'd say that. If I side with them you're more fucked than you were before. I wave him off, he takes a few steps back and stares at me with apprehension.
The old man in front of us, whom I'm assuming to be the San clan leader, stops a few paces away from me. He gives me a deep bow. "Honored elder, is there anything this one could persuade you with to remain neutral in this conflict?"
I'm pretty sure that this guy is at minimum four times as old as I am, getting called elder makes me feel old. I make a show of thinking over his proposal. "I cannot remain neutral, for seeing needless death pains me greatly, but it would not be beneath me to help the two of you negotiate a peaceful settlement."
Said peaceful settlement involving me stealing their secrets is not something they are aware of, although I wouldn't put it past them to suspect so. The old man stays deeply bowed, before slowly rising. "That would not be something we would refuse, a peaceful resolution would be best for both clans."
The clan leader of the Bu clan points his finger accusingly at the San clan leader. "You scum! You threaten us, invade us and then dare to say that a peaceful resolution is the best option!?"
I stare at the old man, who is looking at me for approval. I nod, he gives the Bu clan leader a scoff. "Your Bu clan killed two of my nephews for naught but fear of their talent, and you expect us to do nothing?"
Talent gets killed when it's still weak often, neither of these two are angels who did nothing wrong. I shrug. "Be that as it may, I would still prefer that a peaceful resolution is reached. Let us convene together in private now and settle your disputes."
I start walking into the forest and motion for them to follow me. "You two follow me, everyone else should remain here."
Their villages are practically guaranteed to have prying eyes, in the wilderness I can kill anyone listening in much more easily.
We walk for about half an hour in silence, both clan leaders are smart enough to realise that annoying the one person able to decide who wins their conflict would be a bad idea.
I stop in the middle of a fairly large clearing, before scanning the area around us with a rank 3 blood sensor gu, a gu worm capable of detecting blood around the user. Whether or not said blood is inside or outside a living being is irrelevant for it.
Three humanoid shapes mark the presence of the clan leaders and I. There's a few earthworms beneath us, and no notable animals around us.
I keep the gu worm active, just in case someone is stupid enough to try and listen in on us. I give the two clan leaders a smile. "My proposal to resolve both of your issues is simple."
They give me expectant, and worried, looks. I continue smiling. "I want all of the gu worm recipes, secrets and knowledge your clans hold. In exchange I will allow both of your clans to survive. That is more than fair, isn't it?"
The Bu clan leader takes in a sharp, deep breath, while the San clan leader sighs. The first to reply is the San clan leader. "My clan holds something of much worth for one of your station."
From their perspective I am almost certain to be a rank 5 gu master pretending to be rank 3, downplaying my aura with a killer move or gu worm. Whether I am a rank 5 initial stage or rank 5 peak stage gu master is irrelevant, I would still be more than enough to deal with them.
I wonder what they would think if they knew I was really a rank 3 gu master, just like my aura indicates me to be?
I motion for him to continue as the Bu clan leader gives him an incredulous stare. "Hundreds of years ago one of our clan leaders ascended into a gu immortal. We have an incomplete recipe for an immortal gu, all we would ask in exchange is that you spare us."
From his perspective I am a pretty young rank 5 gu master, my ascension to a gu immortal might not be a guarantee, but it is something with a fairly large probability of happening. The fact that I already have a full inheritance of the Blood Sea Ancestor, containing the recipes for hundreds of immortal gu worms, is unknown to him.
Me being desperate for such a recipe would be a given from his perspective, what mortal wouldn't be when faced with the possibility of an immortal gu recipe?
Even if one were unable to refine it, it can still be sold for absurd wealth in a mortal auction house, let alone if one managed to find an agreeable gu immortal willing to trade for it.
` That doesn't mean that it's not interesting to me, it's just not the silver bullet that he expects it to be. Now, how should I actually respond to that?
Acting interested in something is a big no no when negotiating, leaving me with the more interesting option.
Behaving like a stereotypical cultivator. I scoff. "Do you believe you can hold such a thing over my person for extortion? I'd sooner slaughter you all like the dogs you are than beg!"
The San clan leader waves his hands. "Nothing of the sort! All I ask is that you spare my clan, you have our promise that we will not attack the Bu clan afterwards either!"
That worked a bit too well. The Bu clan leader goes down on his knees and kowtows to me. "Honored one! Please spare my clan! I will offer you all that we have, primeval stones, women, all of it!"
I didn't even get to the part where he has eyes but doesn't see Mount Tai. He continues begging. "I will even offer you my daughter to serve as your concubine! Just spare us!"
Fucking hell. I know that I literally just threatened to end him and his entire bloodline, but I didn't really expect this level of ass kissing from him. At this point it might as well be called ass licking instead.
I take out two poison vow gu and hand one to the San clan leader, the other one gets thrown at the head of the still kowtowing Bu clan leader, from where it bounces onto the ground. "Just shut up. I'll take your knowledge and fuck off, you don't have anything else that interests me."
He slowly stands up, I point at the poison vow gu in front of him. "Now here's what you're agreeing to…"
They carefully listen to my terms. If they try to tell on me in any matter, be it intentionally or unintentionally, they're dead. They have to give me every gu worm recipe, methods to get refinement material and more that they have. The final thing I need from them is usage of the pool they use for their awakening ceremony. In exchange for that I will not intentionally kill anyone belonging to their clan.
The exact wording of the deal prevents them from attempting to screw me over. After my end of the deal gets hashed out the two start bickering for a deal between themselves.
Although it's less them bickering over an agreement as it is the Bu clan leader threatening to not sign anything with me if the San clan doesn't agree. "Why would I agree to this deal if my clan was to be eradicated anyway?!"
He has a point. I spit on the ground. "You worms truly cannot see Mount Tai despite the heaven's gifting you sight. Either agree or disagree already so I know whether to kill all of you or not. I grow impatient."
The San clan leader immediately folds. "I can agree to a two year truce."
The Bu clan leader shakes his head. "Ten years!"
The San clan leader turns his gaze to me, I stare at him, he sighs. "Ten years it is."
And so our deal is hashed. They give me their knowledge, I don't kill them and they don't kill each other for ten years.
Poison vow gu is used between us to enforce our deal. I give the two a radiant smile. "It seems we have reached a peaceful resolution after all."
—
I motion for Shen Cui to walk through the pool full of hope gu. She gives me a conflicted look, before nodding and walking into said pool.
Her first few steps face no resistance. Luli, Xin Ci and I watch as she slowly walks through the pool. I smile once she goes past the tenth step, she has at least enough talent to qualify as a gu master.
She continues walking. Another ten steps are walked without effort, before she begins to face resistance. On the twenty seventh step she is visibly sweating, on the thirty first she cannot proceed any further.
Her aptitude is 62%, not bad, not terrible. She can reach rank 3 easily, rank 4 is going to be out of her reach with this aptitude though. That's nothing that a aptitude boosting gu gu worms can't solve though.
Worst case scenario I buy a few variant humans that give birth to hundreds of offspring and impregnate them. The resulting children would be enough to power blood skull gu. Shen Cui, Luli and I should be related enough for that to suffice, otherwise I'll need to invent and refine in-vitro fertilization gu.
That idea makes me wonder what the old me would think of the current me, who finds himself unbothered by the thought of sacrificing hundreds of his own children. There has to be a fish-man variant that lays hundreds of thousands of eggs.
I'm not an unfeeling monster, I don't think so at least. I care for Shen Cui quite a lot, my regard for Luli isn't nothing either. I have a feeling that I would not find it that easy to throw away any children with either of them.
Xin Ci isn't quite at their level, but something in me tells me that she'll grow on me. Her determination at the caravan really was something else entirely.
Shen Cui stops trying to walk through the pool and turns around to us. I give her a smile. "Well done, now come here and let's see what Luli's aptitude is."
Her aptitude is another indication of how my luck works. If she had been born after my brother fucking Isekai'd me her aptitude would definitely have been either 99%, or an extreme physique.
Cui walks over to us, I extend my hand to her and help her get out of the pool. Next up is Luli.
Wang Luli takes a deep breath, before lowering herself into the pool and beginning to walk. Her first few steps are not a problem, on the eleventh step she starts to encounter difficulty. On the fifteenth she starts sweating, before stopping on the nineteenth.
38% aptitude, what most clans would consider to be D-grade trash. Plan Genghis has become more appealing now.
Blood relatives make for good blood path refinement materials, so I'll need to grow my own eventually anyway.
I give the hesitant Luli a smile. "Don't worry too much, aptitude isn't permanent."
That makes her worry more. How truly strange.
—
Cui hands the San clan leader and I two cups of tea. I give her a smile. "Thanks." before turning my head towards San, the San clan leader. "Now, is this everything you have to give me?"
His name is literally San San, San of clan San. San San nods. "Indeed it is. These are all of the gu recipes that our clan has knowledge of, along with instructions on how to grow the refinement materials and food of our clan's gu worms."
His clan specialises in monkey mount type gu worms. In a way they are practicing a rather interesting alternative to enslavement path.
Enslavement path is all about controlling others, be they monstrous beasts or humans. An enslavement path gu masters specialty is literally building and using an army.
Instead of enslaving others to their will, the San clan just uses gu worms to carry an army around. Their approach has some benefits, and some drawbacks.
Actual beasts can reproduce and regrow their numbers naturally. They can grow stronger with age without significant investment from a gu master. Their food is usually just normal food, which makes feeding them fairly simple.
Mount type gu worms cannot reproduce, they cannot regrow their numbers naturally. Their food can be difficult to source, and they need more investment to be used properly.
The advantage mount type gu worms have over beasts are enough to somewhat offset their disadvantages though. They are practically undetectable inside of an aperture and can be deployed whenever and wherever, and most importantly, it can be much easier to advance a gu worm than it is a beast.
All it takes to advance a gu worm is to refine it, a beast has a biological cap from its species on how strong it can grow.
I stare at the rank 1 bookworm gu in my hand, before refining it and using it. A steam of information comes into my mind, containing all of the knowledge I demanded of the San clan.
The rank 6 immortal gu recipe is included in that stream. It's about 5% complete, the end goal being the refinement of rank 6 Immortal Monkey Golden Gu.
Said Gu worm is, to my surprise, actually alive, so even if the recipe was 100% complete it would still fail. Immortal gu worms are unique, any attempt to refine them while they are alive will always fail.
That doesn't mean the recipe is useless, I can still complete it and then sell it. But it's not anything too interesting. The rest of their recipes are fairly simple, with their clan's specialty being somewhat interesting.
The monkey mount gu worm series they use is simple to feed, moderately difficult to refine and simple to use. It's a pretty good gu worm series for a clan with more resources to throw at refinement.
I put the bookworm gu into my aperture and take a sip of tea. "That will be all."
San San nods, before standing up and giving me a polite bow. "Then I will take my leave."
He leaves, not even taking a sip of his tea. I sigh, before taking another sip of tea.
Cui's tea is really good. I turn my gaze to her. "Prepare to leave, we're not going to stay much longer."
The resources required to refine Eating One's Word Gu, the gu worm that disables the effect of Poison Vow Gu, are not available in the villages on this mountain. I'll refine it in Wu clan city.
Cui gives me a deep bow. "As you command master."
She leaves the room to pack up. I take another sip of tea.
Gu Yue Bo's tea recipe really is one of the best. What a shame that he's literally toast.
—
One month later
I scan the area around us once again, making sure there is nothing that can pose a danger to us.
We're currently on the eagle, traveling towards Wu clan city. Other than the occasional beast we've had no trouble so far, but I expect us to start meeting demonic cultivators soon.
We have around a week left of travel before we reach Wu clan city, which is one of the largest population centers of the Southern Border.
I expect there to be a plethora of low-lives and criminals in such a place, why, as a demonic blood path cultivator I quite literally am one of said low-lives.
Another routine scan of the area reveals a lone gu master. I turn my head backwards, towards everyone else. "I'll be back in a sec."
Ning Bing's response is to yawn and give me a thumbs up. Luli, Cui and Xin Ci simply nod in response. Zhi-whatever grips the eagle harder.
One teleport takes me to the probable demonic gu master. His aura is that of a rank 4 gu master, so dealing with him shouldn't be that hard.
I'd rather deal with any potential dangers before they become actual dangers. A wave of my hand and activation of the Amplified Golden Moon Gu killer move is all it takes to bisect him in half.
As his halves drop on the floor so do his gu worms. I watch as his halves land on the ground, splattering intestines, shit and blood everywhere.
Most of the gu worms this guy had aren't anything special, so I leave most of them here. What is special are the aptitude decreasing gu worms.
Not increasing, decreasing. Four rank 3 Stone Aperture Gu and two rank 3 Aperture Shatter Gu.
Stone Aperture Gu's effect is to immediately increase a gu master's cultivation to the peak of their rank, with the downside of turning the walls of their aperture into stone. The gu master will never be able to breakthrough from said rank again.
Aperture Shatter Gu's effect is to, as its name implies, shatter apertures. It severely damages the walls of the target's aperture, practically crippling them as they can no longer hold primeval essence inside of it.
An extreme physique will slowly heal the damage these two cause, but the cultivation of the gu master would stagnate while the damage is being healed.
This guy was definitely someone with an extreme physique. The value of these gu worms is practically nothing for someone who does not have one.
I look through his gu again, making sure I didn't overlook anything, before teleporting back to the eagle.
—
AN:
Hope you enjoyed the chapter [plain]:)[/plain].
If you notice any mistakes please let me know, I have a feeling that I missed something when proofreading this.