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Purchasing the eleventh gu worm was quite a task for Fei Cai. He realized that somehow, he now felt restricted in his options due to the Demon Venerable's journal. The journal not only contained his experiences and tales but also described the essence of cultivation and how complicated it actually was. Every action in the path of cultivation would have drastic consequences and such is the life of Gu Masters, to oppose such consequences and bend the world to their whims. Still, Fei Cai had long realized that there are many more options greater than beast strength gu worms. However, as he went through the journal last night, a particular point of importance caught his attention.
Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable made sure to point out that even if some paths have their own restrictions, it is in the nature of Gu Masters to overcome such hurdles and innovate methods unseen before their existence and if such a man could still admire the innovative spirit of the world, who's to say that the restriction of beast strength gu worms couldn't be overcome? Not only that, the Demon Venerable was only the seventh and three more venerables rose after his 'departure'. More methods were invented and many more changes were brought that is why even if the gu recipes in the inheritance were substantial gain, the most important benefit of the inheritance was the secrets of the gu world, Thieving Heaven's experiences... and the location of other inheritances. As the Venerable stated, he left everything in this one inheritance and it was now on Fei Cai's luck and skills to obtain these methods.
However, far from the thoughts of monumental secrets, Fei Cai reigned his desires and gazed at the rank 1 attack type gu worms with a deep expression. The attacking methods were subpar. The exhaustion of primeval essence brought by the gu worms present was high, too, and even if he could try his hand at refining a suitable attack type gu worm, in the beast trials, he would need to keep the pretenses of having an attack method accumulated through the tribe. His purchases of refinement materials would be an alarming issue if he had shown more gu worms in his arsenal which he didn't. Instinct Gu worms required to feed on his own blood, Lizard Mouth Gu needed to feed on a pound of insects which also happened to be the food for Yellow Tongue Gu.
In front of the Tribe's eyes, Fei Cai was a junior with a thirst to refine something and achieve a sense of accomplishment but now, even if he refines something, Fei Cai had no thought of displaying it to the world. He needed to purchase a Gu worm from the tribe to have it marked in the books that he, Fei Cai, had an attack-type gu worm. That was it. Finally, after a considerable amount of time, Fei Cai chose rank 1 poison arrow gu worm. Taught in the art of archery by Fei Qing at a young age and his uncle being a proficient Poison-type Gu Master, nobody would raise an eyebrow if Fei Cai decided to go with a method that utilized the combination of his blood family's methods. Not only that but the poison arrow gu required to feed on dart-shaped poison flowers which were relatively easy to acquire and the cost of the gu worm, due to specialization and the distance restriction of 100 steps reduced the price to 180 primeval stones.
With that, Fei Cai left the tent and perked his ears for information about his father. As expected, the raid of terror horsed brought Pei Tribe to their knees within hours, something nobody could have expected due to Fei Chang deliberately misinforming the tribe by stating that Fei Qing had traveled to wage war with Pa Tribe. While belonging to a peaceful civilization and inept at the art of war, Fei Cai soon realized the meaning of his uncle's actions. There must be some form of an informant within the tribe planted or bribed by other tribes. Fei Chang's actions acted as a distraction to elude Pa Tribe into tightening their defenses and lay in waiting while Pei Tribe, a tribe situated in the opposite direction, continued to assimilate their gains only to be stricken down out of nowhere.
---
Fei Sheng returned to his tent after the tribal meeting sharing the fortunate news of a large amount of compensation earned as war loot by Fei Qing with the Chieftain now returning to the tribe in an orderly fashion with the Pei Tribe's slaves. Fei Sheng held no delusions that Fei Qing would have killed the rank 4 leader and would easily enslave the rank 3 gu masters only to share them with the clan later. After all, Fei Qing was one of the most talented enslavement path gu masters with his reputation only below the Enslavement Path Masters such as Ma Zun, the Horse King.
His warm expression shifted into a cold one the moment he entered his tent. Making way to the cultivation room, Fei Sheng cut off his connection with the outside world and fell into deep thought. 'To not even inform the group of elders, Fei Chang must hold suspicions that one of us is a traitor. Fei Kao is still resting from the ambush so nobody would be willing to accuse him. Not to mention, after the Fei Qing and Chang, Kao is the greatest and eccentric powerhouse of the tribe. Fei Dan has proposed marriage to Fei Chang and removed a better half of the suspicion, making me the prime suspect.'
Still, without fear, he calmly analyzed, 'But I am not a pawn of Pa Tribe. And even if Fei Qing decided to attack Pa Tribe, they would fall because there is no need for me to help assist a competing tribe. This ought to clear some of the suspicions from me but I need to tread carefully now and digest my gains. It won't be long before I reach rank 4 but I cannot stop assisting Fei Chang.
Out of all the Elders, Fei Qing was genuinely supported by Fei Kao. Not only were the two childhood friends, but they were also brothers from war. Comrades in the truest sense. The remaining two elders, including himself, supported Fei Chang. Fei Sheng did this out of the selfish motive of sowing discord between the cousins but it was taking longer than he had expected while Fei Dan, the youngest of elders, supported Fei Chang for the poison master was his mentor. 'The loss of a huge opportunity such as refining earth lizard house gu for slightly more resources was a foolish choice of mine. I let myself get led by a moment of greed. Not only that, but I also lost the business of lending strength Gu worm to Fei Dan for that very reason,' admonishing himself, Fei Sheng cleared his mind and began cultivating.
As he continued to cultivate, a thought finally struck him which led to a breakthrough in his act of conspiration, allowing him to think in a different direction and use other targets for his objectives.
---
Instead of going out to hunt, Fei Cai receded into his room. He had the recipe of Enslavement Gu till rank seven but unfortunately, most of the materials he had never heard of. However, after receiving the gu recipe of rank 1 enslavement gu, Fei Cai realized that there were options he could utilize which he transmigrated with. The answer was simple. A comparison table. The inheritance computer gu worm seemed to work like a holographic chip that was dreamt by every youth of Fei Cai's previous life but he could use it to his own advantage. Using the computer gu worm, Fei Cai began to filter the enslavement type gu worms and pulled their rank 1 versions in a horizontal table that marked the resources needed to refine one. Aside from his father's gu recipe, Fei Cai compared the materials of Rank 1 beast enslavement gu, horse enslavement gu, love enslavement gu, and many more.
If it wasn't for Compute Gu worm, Fei Cai could have never achieved such a detailed comparison without a month of hard work, which wouldn't be worth it or possible since he wouldn't have so many rank 1 enslavement gu recipes.
But as he read through all the recipes, Fei Cai soon began to find a similar type of gu materials that was now quite ordinary in nature and it brought Fei Cai great joy when he was able to form a semblance of gu recipes formed by the careful selection of gu materials that were present in the tribe. Of course, Fei Cai held no doubt that like every form of production, this recipe was merely at the beginning stages but Fei Cai had effectively cut away a few expensive materials with ordinary ones.
To others, this might seem a task worthy of celebration, especially for their kids, but to Fei Cai, a boy with the cautious mind of a middle-aged man still in its nascent stage to understand the secrets of this world, the act of altering a few materials was not worth festivities.
Still, the act of comparison took hours and turned Fei Cai's joints numb and his calves tingling. With the effect of Aperture Nurture Gu still effective, Fei Cai began cultivating without minding the temporary loss of movement and the need for recuperation. He had heard about his father's act of breaking through to the middle stages of Rank 1 aperture in two weeks and upper stages in six weeks. But Fei Cai was pushed back from cultivating due to groundbreaking inheritances which, sadly, couldn't be brought to their full potential. With more than five hundred primeval stones stored within Lizard Mouth Gu, Fei Cai began the cultivation of his aperture alongside the refinement of his control of primeval essence. Now realizing the long-term benefit of impeccable control, Fei Cai naturally gave priority to the latter even if it causes his cultivation to hinder by a slight margin.
Such was his life for the next two days. Fei Cai only left for hunting for three hours the next day and that was to familiarise himself with the Poison Arrow Gu. The gu worm was in the shape of a green mosquito that buzzed within Fei Cai's aperture. The use of the gu worm was hidden between the second lock of his right index and middle finger. The moment he would knock and empty bow, he needed to send primeval essence to the dart-shaped spot on the inner side of his right index and middle finger and a venomous dark green arrow would generate to its life, ready to shoot its mark and poison it down with a moderately paralyzing venom. However, the arrow would crumble apart after traveling a hundred steps away from the user so the Gu Master needed to be adept in kiting one's opponent be they a beast or another gu master.
With the passive utilization of rank 1 instinct gu, the use of poison arrow gu was definitely to Fei Cai's satisfaction. But from the guidance of Venerable, and his own experiences for that matter, Fei Cai was deeply aware of accumulating more methods to keep himself safe against most odds. With that in mind, he returned to his abode and began cultivating despite his father's action of giving him a 'homework.' Fei Cai wasn't planning to refine enslavement gu. Not in the eyes of the tribe, at least. He was planning to find most of the resources in the forest and the beginning of that would be from the Beast Trials. In the next two days, the excitement of the tribe reached an overwhelming level. Even the slaves were treated kindly for the most manner and the mortals of the tribe were given adequate food to feed themselves heartily.
After all, not only Fei Qing returned victoriously from a one-man war, he brought the coffers of the Mid-force Pei Tribe which was a mighty boon to the Fei Tribe alongside Gu Master Slaves of ranks 1-3 and an even greater lot of mortal slaves. Not only that, the loss of thirty thousand terror horses during Fei Chang's ambush was recuperated by almost 20,000 Wood Horses reared by Pei Tribe.
But most importantly, Beast Trials were on the verge of beginning and...
Elder Fei Nai had joined the ranks of accomplished members of the tribe with a sudden breakthrough. But much to Fei Sheng's indignance, Fei Nai wasn't the only one to accomplish a breakthrough.
