He stares at me numbly, seemingly in deep thought. My soul path foundation is the second deepest one I have, excluding the paths boosted by my extreme physique it is actually one of the strongest paths available to me. I just haven't really had the resources to advance it all that much.
Enslavement gu is a slave path gu worm, but its effect also scales with a user's soul to some extent. Each being that I enslave puts a burden on my soul, if that burden grows too big then some of them are going to escape.
This guy almost got away from my control during immortal ascension, but right now he's still locked under my control. If he passes a tribulation or two then the dao marks gained would make my control over him go away, as it is he's still forced to obey me.
A ripple takes the newly ascended gu immortal back into the blessed land, replacing him with the next rank 5 peak stage batman. This one immediately breaks his aperture, before sitting down in a cross legged position.
Tribulation clouds form above as heaven and earth qi surges for the second time this day. I use a vitality leaf and the amplify effect gu, healing myself enough to be ready to take on this one's tribulations as well.
A giant fireball forming in the tribulation clouds is this guy's heavenly tribulation, the giant earthworm that erupts from the ground in front of me is the earthly tribulation. I activate one of the more useless gu worms my brother gave me, the Rank 3 Blood Step Gu, and jump towards the earthworm.
An ungodly boom resounds as I slam into the earthworm with enough force to dig myself into it. I hold my breath as I am closed inside of it by its flesh, before punching both of my hands outwards and summoning the strength path phantom of a phoenix.
Flames burn both the worm and I, but the worm is much, much more affected than me. I activate the Blood Step Gu again, this time I burst out of the worm in a fiery explosion. The worm slams onto the ground, dead.
The ball of fire in the sky has become much, much larger than it was. I have some anxiety on whether I can actually block that thing. I probably wouldn't be wounded too much, but saving the batman from it is another question entirely.
I dash towards the batman, who is still sitting down cross legged, before grabbing him by the midsection and running away with him. The fireball condensed, before immediately being launched towards the ground.
Jumping away and using the phoenix phantom to fly into the sky is the only thing that saves the would-be gu immortal from dying. The resulting explosion from the fireball slamming into the ground absolutely incinerates everything in a wide area around ground zero.
Heaven and earth qi has stopped flowing to the gu immortal, so I motion for him to follow me. "Let's go to the blessed land, I-"
He's not under my control. He slipped off during his ascension. He stares at me defiantly, I tilt my head. "You do realise that you don't have any gu worms, do you?"
When he dashes at me in rage I just punch him in the solar plexus hard enough to break his spine. He might be a gu immortal, but he doesn't have any gu worms. His dao mark accumulation also isn't enough to make him tough enough to resist me wailing on him.
A sound like a kettle letting out steam comes from his mouth, I grapple him and punch him in the gut again, and then a third time. When I let go of him he falls down onto the ground on the verge of death, his abdomen practically pulverised into paste.
I use a single vitality leaf on him, healing him just enough to take him from a state of dying within minutes to one where he'll die within hours, before grabbing his ankle and dragging him the rest of the way to the blessed land. Once we get in range Yu Land Spirit pulls both of us inside. "Do you want to use a slavery gu on that one again? We'd have to buy some more if you do, since you didn't ask me to get any copies."
I shake my head. "No need, I'll use him to refine an immortal gu in a few minutes. The other two I'll help ascend tomorrow."
I'm still wounded and a bit singed from the previous two ascensions, giving myself some time to recuperate wouldn't be a bad thing. I'm not in a rush or hurry anyway, especially after I get Immortal Vampire Gu refined.
Yu land spirit teleports the two rank 5 batmen away, leaving me with the two immortals to deal with. Now, to make the necessary preparations to refine Immortal Vampire Gu.
—
The primary ingredients in the refinement of Immortal Vampire Gu are a batman gu immortal of rank 6, any enslavement path gu worm, and a rank 5 bloodskull gu. Other than these two ingredients nothing else is actually required.
When I was attacked by my first nemesis I refused to use the enslavement gu I had on me at the time. I have had some time to think about that decision, and it wasn't exactly the wisest, but there is something telling me that my stupid choice was just so I had it for this moment.
The gu worms that Jeremy chose for me are somewhat special. They don't really operate by the rules of this world, there's something… other, for lack of a better world, going on with them. Using that one Slavery Gu I have in the place of a gu worm from this world would change the resulting Immortal Vampire Gu, in what ways exactly I know not, but it is sure to be something interesting.
My foot is on the head of the batman gu immortal I beat the shit out of, in my right hand is the rank 5 Blood Skull Gu and in my left the otherworldly rank 3 Slavery Gu. I push with my leg and the skull of the batman gu immortal starts cracking and he starts hollering in pain, he isn't dead, not yet.
We're not in my inherited blessed land, instead we're somewhere closeby. Attempting this refinement there would be pretty risky, since a failure could actually ruin the blessed land.
Rank 5 Blood Skull Gu opens its mouth, before starting to suck in all of the blood bleeding out of the batman. I need to time killing him and using Slavery Gu just right. Too early and Slavery Gu will be dead before the refinement can complete, too late and using Slavery Gu will fail, since he'll be dead.
I continue pushing down with my leg, the batman continues to scream in pain. The second I feel the skull break I use Slavery Gu. He is enslaved, before dying right the next instant. Slavery Gu begins to die, but I start refining it and the Rank 5 Blood Skull Gu before it can fully perish.
A ball of light forms from the two gu worms merging. Blood continues to be sucked into the ball of light, regardless of Rank 5 Blood Skull Gu currently being used for refinement. There's nothing to give it away, but I am sure that the soul of the batman and his blessed land are getting sucked into the ball of light as well.
The refinement continues for a few more seconds, during which the sphere of light grows larger and larger, from a small sphere into a man sized ball, before all of the blood in the batman has been sucked almost dry. The last surge of blood also drags the body into the now ball of light, increasing its size to that of a small house.
I take a deep breath as I focus on the refinement. The ball of light starts to shrink as the refinement process comes further and further along. Once it's the size of a fist it begins to dim, which is the signal for the final point of refinement beginning.
Vampire immortal gu is a blood and transformation cross-path gu worm that combines refinement and use. It's a single use gu worm, refining the gu worm is also using it, which leads to the final step in its refinement.
I carefully move the dimming ball of light to me, before taking it in my mouth and swallowing it whole the moment it is in range. I take in a deep breath as I feel rank 6 Immortal Vampire Gu's refinement end and its activation begin and then immediately finish.
The whole process would have taken longer if I was a gu immortal or had any other dao marks to interfere with the transformation, but since my dao marks don't suffer conflict anyway the process is practically instant.
It's not visible to me, but from reading the recipe over and over again I know that my canines are now longer, my skin pale and my eyes blood red. Checking the skin on my hand confirms the paleness, moving my tongue over my teeth confirms the longer canines and looking into a mirror is going to confirm the eyes.
The aptitude of my extreme physique aperture is still 100%, and the aptitude of the other aperture is still 9- that's at a hundred percent now. Another extreme physique. Something tells me that it's also not one of the ten extreme physiques either.
My hunch about the Slavery Gu was probably correct, now all I need is to figure out what extreme physique it is that I have.
—
Ningbing pokes at my cheek. "You're prettier now, but you're still not as good looking as me. What did this Immortal Vampire Gu do to you anyway?"
We're both in the balcony of the newly made gu house, watching the newly refined Rank 6 Immortal Blood Python Gu swimming in the ocean around the island. "A bunch of things, first-" I raise a finger. "-It's apparently given me an extreme physique, one that's apparently related to Blood and Luck path."
It took me a few days to figure out what extreme physique I have, but buying a few wisdom path killer moves from Yellow Treasure Heaven has allowed me to deduce it. I've decided to name this the Lucky Vampire Physique.
The Immortal Blood Python Gu takes one of the mermaids swimming in the ocean, before bringing her to the balcony. I motion for her to go into the bedroom, which she does after blushing and gulping nervously. "Second, it's given me the ability to absorb the lifespan of others by drinking their blood, and to give others lifespan by having them drink my blood."
I bought the mermaids for the sole purpose of having children for refining the odd blood path gu worm or two, but that doesn't mean that it has to be all business when it comes to them.
This effect is the main effect of Vampire Immortal Gu. It transforms a gu masters body to have this ability, but it also gives it another strong ability. "Third, anyone drinking my blood can be enslaved the second a drop touches their lips."
Typical drawbacks of enslavement path are still an issue for this, the strength of one's soul still affects how many beings they can enslave. Ningbing blinks curiously. "Are all immortal gu that strong?"
I let out a short laugh as Immortal Blood Python Gu goes back into the ocean. "Fuck no! Vampire Immortal Gu is hundreds of years ahead of this era!"
Vampire Immortal Gu is the result of a veritable genius spending hundreds of years and almost their entire wealth researching. Inventing a recipe for a gu worm like this one would take even the current me a decade or two.
The extreme physique was a surprise to me, that's not supposed to be an effect of Vampire Immortal Gu, but some research has made me conclude that it has to be the result of using that Slavery Gu during refinement.
I stare down at the beach in front of the house, where Xin Ci and Cui are playing fetch with Wiggles. Ningbing yawns. "How much longer are we going to stay here? I want to burn down a few clans and eat some people again."
She really is quite bloodthirsty. "We'll leave in a few days, I want to see what other immortal inheritances we can find."
Getting a luck path extreme physique is something quite insane for how deep my foundation in luck path goes. I've also noticed my physical strength having increased, likely a result from the human path dao marks inherent in extreme physiques.
As Ningbing smiles and leans on my shoulder I feel my first aperture break through to rank 3 middle stage. "Scratch that, we're leaving after I refine immortal gu for our immortal ascensions."
We still have some time before we'll be forced to undergo immortal ascension, but that doesn't mean that we can't prepare the gu worms beforehand. Ningbing stretches her back. "I'm bored, so I'm going to go and bother the fish."
With that said she leaps off of the balcony and leaves to, presumably, go bother Yu Land Spirit.
—
Some months later
Ningbing and I stare at the half spider half woman Land Spirit in front of us. "I am the one called Qin Lao, survive and you shall inherit my inheritance, die and you shall become my food."
This is the sixth immortal inheritance that we've come across. Ningbing and I are in a blessed land with no sun, where everything is pitch black and the few sources of light present seem to be drowned out by darkness. Even our rank 2 light gu seem to be getting dimmer and dimmer.
I prepare to give the Land Spirit a response, before feeling my second aperture breakthrough to rank 3 upper stage. That's both apertures at rank 3 upper stage, it won't be long until my main aperture hits rank 4 peak stage. "What tests do you have for us?"
Ningbing smiles as a rank 5 peak stage gu master is teleported in front of us. The gu master is a woman, a species of spider variant human. Her bottom half is a full spider, while her top half is a robed, pretty looking woman.
The spider land spirit chitters out. "Kill this gu master."
I point my hand at said gu master as Ningbing prepares to fight. The gu master melds into the shadows the second the land spirit finishes her sentence, but it's already too late for her.
Rank 4 Blood Moon Gu gets amplified by rank 3 Amplify Effect Gu. Both of my extreme physiques increase the strength of the killer move, as do the seven other auxiliary gu worms I use for this killer move.
A flick of my wrist sends out a bloody moonblade. A bloody, red flash illuminates the cave as the moonblade gouges out the cave, slicing the mortal gu master in half as it does so.
Her human half slides off of her spider half, and her internal organs, guts heart and lungs, surge out of her body. I give the land spirit a smile as Ningbing sighs with disappointment. "Is that enough for you?"
Qin Lao Land Spirit stares at the corpse, before nodding. "It is. You are my master now. In life I was a rank 7 shadow path gu immortal, me and my inheritance now belong to you."
This is the first rank 7 inheritance we've found so far, everything else has been rank 6 until now. I give the spider a smile. "Show me what immortal gu and resources this blessed land has."
Just as a rank 7 Gu immortal is worth more than a hundred rank 6 gu immortals, so is a rank 7 blessed land worth more than a hundred rank 6 blessed lands.I'll have to set up a rank 5 Stargate Gu here to connect this blessed land to all of the others we've found.
It's getting about time for me to face my next nemesis too, it shouldn't be more than a few days until they spawn, for a manner of speaking. Ningbing sighs. "You owe me a clan massacre."
I chuckle. "Fine, but you're the one refining the blood path gu worms."
She blinks, before shaking her head. "I'd rather not suffer from the backlash when I fail the refinements."
That's a fair point. I shrug. "Okay, then we'll just search for a clan following strength path."
Getting more strength path dao marks from mortals has become… difficult for me. I have reached the point that anything short of a rank 5 gu master has become worthless when it comes to eating them for dao marks.
A gu worm inside of my aperture activates. Looks like San Li Chiao has finally reached rank 5 and gotten to the Central Continent.
—
Meanwhile, in Shang clan city.
Li(Wu) Ran (Wu clan spy) POV
The mountain where the Three Kings Inheritance lies stands proudly, a beam of light comes from the top of the mountain, signalling for all that the Three Kings Inheritance is open.
For the past year I have experienced fortune after fortune, my strength and battle power has increased to that of a true powerhouse. My cultivation rank is that of a rank 4 upper stage gu master, yet my battle power is that of an initial stage rank 5 gu master.
Among the few gu masters that have arrived so far I am the strongest, which means that I need to take advantage of getting here so early and explore the inheritance as much as possible.
The bigger my lead becomes, the more of a safety net I have in case someone else comes that will progress faster than I.
I prepare an Exploding Egg Gu and steel myself for the coming trials.
Shang clan will be forced to give me a high ranking position within their ranks once I complete any one of the three inheritances, that will give me the most information on them!
—
AN:
Hope you enjoyed the read :).
If you notice any mistakes please let me know so I can get to fixing them.
Also:
A bit of a question for how to approach a few things going forward.
I don't wanna write out the three kings inheritance arc, cuz following canon would be boring as shi. At the same time the events that happen are kinda important for the story.
I'm going to assume that everyone knows what the arc in RI is all about, but would you also like some explanations (In the author's notes) as we get occasional Wu Ran POV's on what is going on as well?
I'm kinda tempted to keep FY as a girl for the lulz (but make her/him(?) make a penis growing killer move) I kinda just wanna make some "Her dick is bigger" jokes.