Limitless Demon Venerable stares at me, a slight smile on his face. I stare back at him, my face frozen.
There have been only ten venerables in the entire history of the gu world, only ten men and women have reached rank 9 in millions of years. The man in front of me is one of them.
I take in a deep breath, before letting it out. I repeat this another two times, before finally focusing on what to do now.
The danger has passed, and its passing has left an opportunity in front of me. I get to ask two more questions to this man, and he will answer to the best of his ability.
Can I leave and ask him later?
Asking him whether I can do that would leave me with one question left, without ensuring whether or not I can actually do so.
If I can leave and come back then it would be worth it, otherwise it would just be a complete waste. The true conundrum I am facing is whether or not it's better to ask, taking the risk of losing an opportunity, or to simply go forward with two questions.
Nothing comes to my mind as being worth asking now. I could use one of the questions on what was going on with the fire immortal, but something tells me that doing so would be a waste.
Liao Tian, Limitless Demon Venerable, takes a sip from his cup of tea. "You may leave and ask the two questions later, but you will not receive the attainment of this dream realm until you do so."
I give him a deep bow, as deep as I am able. "This one extends his thanks."
He chuckles, but says no more. I rise from my bow, stay in the dream realm for a few more seconds, before leaving it.
I find myself right in front of the same door that led me to him. I take a step back, before taking a deep breath and examining the hallway again.
At first glance it seems that my luck has worked in my favor. Whatever is going on with this dream realm is tailored directly to me, whether or not it is a trap remains to be seen.
Although I personally doubt it to be a trap. A venerable wouldn't need to bother using something as elaborate as that just to trap me, they could just do with me as they pleased.
Signs point to this being something good, which makes my encounter with the fire gu immortal all the more bizarre. Was that encounter really just a case of something bad leading to good things?
The answer to that question is beyond the me of now, so I put it out of my mind. I look through the doors in the hallway, trying to decide which one to go for.
I end up picking a bright, grey door. It doesn't give me the impression that it's the most valuable dream realm here, but I want to go for something on the easier side for now.
My hand touches the door knob, I find myself in a crowd. My aperture is my own, so I am not playing the role of someone else right now.
We, the crowd, are watching a duel between two immortal gu masters. One of them is a heavily scarred old woman, each scar marking an old wound.
Her opponent is a young man. His body is not natural, it gives off the impression to have been personally chiseled by him.
The old woman and young man are both sitting just a few meters away from one another, their gazes locked on their opponent.
Fighting has not started, not yet. The crowd is completely silent, locked on the two immortal gu masters in front of them.
A few breaths time passes, before one of them makes the first move. Hundreds, then thousands, then what must be millions of qi swords appear behind the man.
The woman's response is to simply stand there and snort. The swords fly towards her, crash into her body with the force of a mountain and…
Do nothing. Each sword that lands shatters, leaving the woman unharmed but ruining the landscape behind her. The barrage lasts for all but a few seconds, during which the land behind the woman was carved into a large trench.
She chuckles, before extending her arm to the now panicking young man. "Is this the best the famed Ju Hao can do? Aren't you supposed to be a sword path genius?"
A simple, iron dagger forms in front of her hand. There's nothing special about it, it is a very simple, unadorned dagger made of mundane iron.
WIth no warning at all a deep stab appears out of nowhere on the man's neck, bleeding profusely. I can feel him try to activate gu worms and killer moves to, presumably, heal himself, without success.
His wound continues to bleed and bleed, until his eyes roll to the back of his head and he collapses. For now he is just unconscious, in a minute or two brain death will kill him for good.
The dagger in front of the woman's hand is still there. She lowers her hand and the dagger falls down onto the ground.
That had to be an extremely high level sword path killer move. Forming the dagger itself was not something complicated, I can come up with a few ways to do so as well, but the killer move that made the wound itself was something else.
I feel myself forcibly leave the dream realm as my attainment of sword path increases. My initial attainment was 'merely' master level attainment, now it is at the level of a great grandmaster.
Master level attainment is what a rank 6 immortal gu master will typically have in their path, grandmaster is what a rank 7 gu immortal would have and great grandmaster is what a rank 8 gu immortal would have.
Reaching great grandmaster attainment can take thousands of years, I have gained it in mere minutes.
The gains from this dream realm were truly phenomenal. I stare in front of me, where the door used to be, only to find a solid wall.
Now, onto the next one.
—
I wake up with an unbelievable amount of satisfaction in my bones. Calling the benefits my exploration of dream realms has given me substantial would be an understatement.
It was like walking through a farm that someone has taken care of for millions and millions of years, and getting the first pick of whatever fruits my heart desired.
My refinement path attainment has reached grandmaster level, my time path attainment has reached grandmaster level as well, my flying path attainment has reached great grandmaster level. Strength path and Qi path are also at grandmaster level. Truly wonderful benefits.
Shen Cui and Ning Bing are still sleeping. Cui is hugging my left side, while Ning Bing is sitting to my right with her back towards me. I gently disentangle myself from Cui, before getting out of the bedroom.
In the common room I find Xin Ci and Luli talking to one another. Both of them briefly pause their talk once they notice me, before going back to it with whispers instead. Xin Ci whispers. "I didn't expect Ning Bing to be that inexperienced."
Luli giggles. "She might be fearsome, but she still has the heart of a girl, like us."
Ning Bing really is a bottom. She even did the whole 'please be gentle' thing. I clear my throat. "I'm going out to the market and then to gamble, I should be back by the time lunch is ready."
They both turn towards me with confused looks. Xin Ci tilts her head. "WIll you not be eating breakfast?"
I shake my head. "I'm not feeling hungry."
Xin Ci immediately turns her attention back to Luli and the two start gossiping again.
—
The market of Wu Clan city is dominated by shops. There are stalls selling goods, but the true quality and rare refinement materials and gu worms are in the shops.
Completing my shopping list does not take me long, since most of the shops selling gu worms also sell food for the gu worms they are selling. In but half an hour I have everything I need.
Food for my gu worms, three times as much as other gu masters would require, has been bought.
Gu worms for refinement have been bought.
The only thing that I haven't purchased are gu worms for advancing my strength path foundation. Thanks to my perks, and how strength path works, I can have the power of a rank 5 strength path gu master while still being a rank 3 gu master.
With my two apertures, one of which is an extreme physique and another a 99% aperture, combined with liquor worms and amplify effect gu I have more than enough primeval essence to activate a rank 5 gu once, which is all it takes to get all of the benefits of body refinement gu!
Rank 5 gu worms are rare though, most rank 5 gu masters don't even have a single one. Gathering a full set of strength path rank 5 gu worms would be, frankly, impossible.
A rank 3 gu master like me gathering a set like that would attract too much attention, but what would not do so is if I was to refine them myself.
I'm certain to find a few in gambling rock as well, which is where I am going next. I enter the first gambling den with a smile on my face, the clerk, a young buxom woman, returns my smile. "Welcome honored customer, what games do you wish to play today?"
Gambling rocks aren't the only thing people gamble for in gambling dens. Inside are gu masters playing cards, dice and other games of luck. All tables are supervised, to prevent anyone from cheating with either mundane methods, like card counting, or with gu worms.
I point at the gacha rocks on display. "Are these the only ones that you have available?"
There's quite a few of them, much more than the caravan coming to Gu Yue village had. The clerk gives me a short, polite and practiced nod. "Our selection of gambling rocks is wide, we have enough to please any customer! Which one's do you wish to purchase?"
I rub my chin in thought, before taking out a coin and pointing at random rocks. The first result is tails. "Not that one."
My finger points at another rock and I flip the coin. Tails again. "Not that one either."
I point at yet another rock and flip the coin. This time the result is heads. "Put that one into the pile."
The clerk takes said rock with a smile. "That one is a high quality luminous stone, it will cost you five hundred primeval stones!"
My answer is to shrug. "My pockets run deep, just tell me what everything will cost me at the end."
I continue pointing at random rocks, before flipping a coin to decide whether to buy them or not. The act of flipping the coin isn't done to increase my luck or anything along those lines, it is done purely to deceive.
Gamblers are superstitious. Even back on earth, people had all sorts of superstitions for gambling. From making a few backup spins after every win, all the way to only gambling considering thirteen to be an unlucky number.
This is even more true when it comes to gu masters, who are even more superstitious than gamblers on earth. Someone flipping a coin to decide whether or not to buy certain gambling rocks is nothing out of the ordinary.
On the other hand someone coming in and just pointing at rocks to buy is extremely suspicious. The first question on everyone's mind if they see someone do that would be 'What does he know?'.
By the time I decide that I have enough gambling rocks I've gathered around twenty of them. I give the clerk a smile, which she returns, and give her the twenty five thousand three hundred and forty primeval stones that my purchase is worth.
Her smile grows wider, and more sincere, after taking the primeval stones from me. "Thank you for your patronage, honored customer! Would you like for us to open the stones for you? That is a service that we offer free of charge!"
I shake my head. "I prefer opening them myself, it really gets my blood pumping."
So far I've been playing up the role of a happy gambler, so there's no reason not to continue. I lean on the counter. "Perhaps sister would like to see how much it gets it pumping?"
She blinks in surprise, before politely waving me away. "Ah, sorry. I am- Honored customer, such requests should be kept to oneself! I will overlook them this time, but please do not do this again!"
She's not blushing or anything, so she's probably not into girls. Doesn't matter much to me, I only flirted to distract everyone from the fact that I'm opening my stones by hand. I sigh. "You have my apologies then, please find me if you change your mind."
With those words said I leave the gambling hall and immediately beeline for the next one.
By the end of the day I've purchased around one hundred and twenty different types of gambling stones, all of which I'm certain must contain rare and powerful gu worms.
Most of my primeval stones have been spent, but that's nothing that selling a rank 5 gu worm can't solve.
—
Ning Bing, Luli, Xin Ci and Cui all watch me slowly opening the first gambling rock of the day. Ning Bing rubs her chin. "I think it's going to be an ice path immortal gu, I know it!"
Xin Ci giggles. "If it is then master should be really gentle, it's probably it's first time being removed from a gambling rock!"
I continue chipping away at the gambling rock as Ning Bing's pace face turns completely red. "The fuck do you me- I - you-"
Xin Ci continues to giggle as Ning Bing finds herself at a loss for words. I pause from chipping at the rock, which makes them all pause as well, before going back at it.
The next chip of rock I remove exposes just a bit of the gu worm inside. The tiny leg visible is enough to tell us that whatever is inside is still alive, but it's not enough to tell gu worm it is.
I slowly and carefully remove another piece of rock, this one fully releasing and revealing the gu worm inside of the rock.
Ning Bing blinks as the faint aura of a rank 5 gu worm is exposed to us. "That's actually a rank 5 gu worm."
The gu worm is a small, barely flaming eagle with bright red feathers, orange beak and crimson eyes. I smile. "This is a rank 5 Phoenix Strength gu!"
This gu worm increases a gu master's strength and, most importantly, allows them to manifest the phantom of a phoenix! Its food is the eggs of bird-like beasts.
I'll need to go to the market once again tomorrow, which is something that I expected. Buying so much food for gu worms after gambling will attract some attention, but it will hopefully not be enough to be an issue.
Worst case scenario I can just teleport away and fuck off somewhere else.
Since the gu worm is almost dead refining it is extremely simple, once it is refined it goes directly into my aperture. I take the second rock and begin opening it.
Ningbing, who is still blushing slightly, crosses her fingers. "Immortal ice path gu, please be an immortal ice path gu."
I chuckle as I chip away at the rock. "I doubt that we'll find any immortal gu in these rocks, we'll probably have to either find one in an inheritance or refine one ourselves."
Ningbing freezes. I continue chipping. "We'll start searching for inheritances soon enough, don't worry about that."
With my luck we should be more than guaranteed to find some good ones. I break off another chip from the rock, revealing half of a gu worm. Another chip is quickly removed as everyone's gazes lock onto it.
I gently pick up the rank 4 Qi Sack gu. Its appearance is that of a sack made of linen, except the insides are fleshy, with the mouth of the sack having the same texture as skin.
Ningbing squints her eyes at it. "What's that?"
I refine the gu worm, before putting it into my aperture. "It's a rank 4 Qi Sack gu. It's feeding and use are done simultaneously. It takes in qi, be it human, earth, heaven or any other type of qi and stores it. It slowly feeds on the stored qi, until it consumes it completely and opens again. The only way to remove the qi from it is killing it."
Despite seeming useless at first glance this is a fairly interesting gu worm. The Vampire Immortal's inheritance mentioned that gu worms like this can be used to cheat somewhat during Immortal Ascension and refine more immortal gu than would otherwise be possible.
Although that's not why my luck decided to give me this gu worm, I suspect the reason it did so is because this gu worm is a key ingredient in a few of the blood path gu worm recipes I have.
I glance at the large pile of gambling rocks on the table, from which I take another rock and get back to chipping. We've got a long day ahead of us.
Gambling rock after gambling rock is opened, and gambling rock after gambling rock contains either rare gu worms, outright extinct gu worms or gu worms crucial to my cultivation.
A few of them are even tailored specifically towards slowing down the self detonation of extreme physiques, giving Ningbing and I more time before we are forced into immortal ascension.
I remove the final chip from the final rock, revealing the gu worm inside. Ningbing looks curiously at the rank 5 gu worm inside. "I don't recognize this one either."
The gu worm has two sets of butterfly wings, the body and legs of a centipede and the mouth of a lion. I tilt my head at it as I refine it. "I think it's a mount type gu worm? I don't know what it eats though."
—
AN:
Gacha rocks acquired, luck abuse semi-complete.
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