25 Cleaning a clock
We left the town center after the confrontation. My main goal was to draw all the attention to me, making my teammates less conspicuous, so they can gather information more easily.
My brother is a lone force and is going to go visit pubs and such places to find drunk Gu masters with loose mouths to get information out of them.
It is quite easy to get a drunk man bragging about "his" strength. Like how many rank 3 elders does his great clan have, how strong his leader truly is and who are the up and coming stars of the new generation along with a few older ones.
He is a mortal with enough strength and fame to contend with a rank 2 Gu master, so that will also get the prideful bunch bragging about how good their Gu masters are.
Chun Jack is the ultimate humiliation to Gu masters and that gets them so riled up they start talking in an instant.
Jiang Kang is to go around the tea houses and dining areas to find information from the local gossips. Gossips are a lot more useful for information gathering that you would think. And what is a more prominent gossip place than a small cafe(tea house) full of young ladies with too much time on their hands?
How Kai is stationed in such a location he can see two of the four entrances and the assignment hall, so he can scout out how many people go out to perform missions each day and how much money they earn.
Bang Shou is with me. He is, once again, completely worthless. His introverted and socially awkward personality and the nonexistent skills he has make him completely worthless in this mission.
His job is to follow me around and be my hypeman for the big battle I have in mind. It's going to be glorious! It is such a grand plan no one will even suspect I came to spy on this clan!
The position and role assignment, along with the terrain scouting took me the entire day, so I couldn't get much done in terms of spreading my fame.
I just cultivated for a while and then rested my mind for like 2 hours. Not needing sleep has given me 6 extra hours to cultivate my aperture. It is such an amazing Gu!
Imagine cultivating 24/7 with 100% talent for like 100 years! Even reaching immortality would not be a problem.
Speaking of immortality, I am actually an immortal right now! My system can create Lifespan Gus'. They cost like 100 Gu points for 1 year of life!
That's too OP if you ask me! I can quite literally just sit in a cave underground with my system and cultivate all the way to rank 9 if I have enough Gu points.
There is probably a parallel world where I actually do that, but, lucky for you, I am the version of me that won't do that! I wanna watch the world burn and receive endless opportunities.
I also kinda want a second aperture, so I need to grind Gu points. I also want to do some research and find out if a third aperture Gu can also be crafted.
Enough about cultivation and boring plans! It is high noon and this town ain't big enough for the two of us!
I swapped out Chun Jack as my hypeman and assigned Bang Shou to go look in the Gu market and find any useful looking Gus' there. He isn't allowed to buy anything! All he can do is record down the names of every Gu he sees and mark the ones he thinks would be useful.
Knowing what Gus' your enemy might have is also useful information. I can also see if they are any good and buy them for myself or Chun Jack.
"So, you actually do have balls and did come to my arena! Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, you will see it for yourself!" The giant of a man, named Xiong Li, greeted me himself and I laughed in his face
"Guess bigger heads don't mean more brains! People do say imitation is the greatest form of flattery, still I would rather not be imitated by shit like you, as that is an insult rather than flattery!" 10 years of Xbox, reddit and online games have nurture my insulting ability to the limit!
This little sucker is not even a match for all the 12 year olds saying shit about mums online! How can he compete with me!
He frowned his face and said "let's get this over with! Beating you down will he nothing short of a breeze!"
I laughed at him once more "Only a muscle-brain like you would consider such a thing a contest of strength! We are not going to punch eachother to decide the victor! I have made an extension an extension plan of competitions we will partake in to prove our strength to the entire Qing Mao mountain!"
That got his eyebrows raised and he looked at me with interest. "Toady we will battle in the most ancient test of strength there is! A test that even appeared in Ren Zu's story! We are armwrestling!"
Chun Jack threw a 200kg atone table he had been carrying towards me and I slammed it down on the stage in between me and Xiong Li!
I got on my knees with my right elbow firmly pushed onto the table and my left hand behind my back and challenged him "Are you man enough to put your arm down and lose in front of your entire clan!"
"Who does this brat think he is?!", "How dare he insult the Xiong clan like that!", "He is too full of himself!", "Xiong Li, teach this brat some manners!"
The spectators screamed in anger. I am really good at riling people up, aren't I? I could have settled this with a quick spar and lost. That would have done enough to prove the strength difference between us, but I decided to drag it out and made a small bout about the position of the strongest on this mountain into a giant confrontation between Xiong and Gu Yue clan.
I love myself! How did Fang Yuan give up such earthly pleasures? This is literally the most effective way to spy on the entire clan and I am literally having the time of my life!
Xiong Ki smiled and got on his knees, his left hand behind his back and his right elbow slammed onto the stone table, creating small cracks around it and spreading the breaking sound all through the arena.
"Yaaaaahhh!", "That is our Xiong Li for you!", "Such devine momentum!", "Make sure he regrets being born out of humiliation!"
These people really have too much time on their hands. They are acting as if this dumbass already won, but, whether I lose or win, I will still be the true victor in this battle.
"One is not truly strong if he can only show his strength once and at one motion! We will compete in strength 3 times at three different days. Today is the first day! 5 rounds, first to 3 points wins! First two rounds with our right hands, next two with our lefts and the last one with our rights once again!"
He laughed out loud and said "You make it sound like you already know you're going to lose at least two rounds! Just what I would expect from a brat from Gu Yue!"
Damn! That was actually a solid hit. I have no comeback for that. "We will see about that!" is the best I can manage in this situation.
I am actually planning to lose twice, but he doesn't need to know that! If you have ever seen an armwrestling match, you know how the wrestlers grab each other's hands.
That was what I did and put my elbow down on the table, ready to begin and push the shit out of him! There are two referees, one is my brother and the other is a rank 2 peak stage guy named Xiong Xia.
"The battle will begin once the countdown is over. 3... 2.. 1... BEGIN!"
Boom!
Cracks spread across the stone table as we both pushed with all of our might and continued pushing. Both of our muscles bulged up and you could see the tense veins in both of our arms.
"Aaaaaaahh!" We both screamed as sweat rolled down our foreheada and I began overpowering him.
He is scheming something! There is no way I am actually overpowering him. He is physically stronger than me. That must mean he is holding back and preserving his strength for the later rounds, while exhausting mine.
Sly little bitch. Sadly for him, I have a Gu specialized at giving me stamina and making sure I can keep going and an aperture full of primeval essence.
The rank of my nourishing Gu doesn't matter. It gives stamina appropriate to how much primeval essence it receives. The higher rank ones are better at converting, but my strength is barely equal to a rank 2 strength path Gu master, so I don't require any rank 3 stamina Gu's help!
He made the mistake of comparing our endurance! My effective stamina is 10 times greater than any strength path cultivator of my rank!
I smirked at his action and completely pushed his arm down after a minute passed. "1:0. Victor Gu Yue Kai Nem!"
The crowd "cheered" for me. The beautiful boos and birds I saw while waving my sweaty and veiny arm around were too many to count. "IS THIS ALL THAT THE XIONG CLAN HAS TO OFFER AS A CHALLENGE!"
"This little barbarian!", "That was only a fluke!", "Don't get cocky, brat!", "You're luck has run out! Don't expect to win any more!", "Show him who is the strongest, big brother Li!"
They love me! Well... Love and hate are the same thing, according to tye Uchiha clan, that is. I wiped away my sweat and sat knelt back down with my eight hand ready. "Old man, you ready for another round?!"
The smug look on my face agitated Xiong Li to the fullest and convinced him of my cockiness. He was expecting it to go like this! I can read this man like a book and know exactly what he is thinking and what he is going to do!
He is going to use his full strength now and push me down to earth from heaven and then use half of his strength in the first round of the left hand and then defeat me once more, sending me to hell and finish me off in the 5th round with minimal resistance on my part.
Quite cunning, but how can such simple psychological warfare effect me! It would effect me if I was the cocky barbarian I was selling myself for, but I am not and I will win without even revealing the slightest hint of slyness or arousing suspicion!
Xiong Li grabbed my hand and sat down after relaxing his wrist and got ready. "3... 2... 1... BEGIN!"
There it is! The difference I was expecting. The pressure I was given increased by almost double. He had been holding back so much the previous round! Too bad it won't make a difference!
I gave up pushing as soon as the round began and focused on exhausting his stamina. Without a doubt, I lost that round, after 2 minutes of continuous effort from him!
The crowd cheered as my hand hit the stone table and Xiong Xia and my brother announced "1:1. Victor Xiong Li! Switch hand!"
"Just like we said, it was only a fluke!", "Our Xiong Li won't lose to a brat! He is our pride and hero!"
I looked at my right hand with a dazed expression and looked at the now smug Xiong Li. He had "achieved" the result he wanted. My mental state took a "hit" and he had "affected" me.
I clutched my hand and out it behind my back and put my left hand on my table. "Again!" I showed the impatience and anger he was expecting and he smiled at me "Your funeral!"
The third round went as I expected. I dragged it out and used all my strength, barely defeating him. "YEAAAAHHH!"
I screamed as I won and the and the referee said "2:1. Victor Gu Yue Kai Nem!" I taunted Xiong Ki a bit and then was defeated in the fourth round after 3 minutes of struggling.
And so arrived the 5th round. One side was the relaxed Xiong Ki and the other was "mentally ltraumatized" me. I had completely "lost" my mental fortitude and fell for his simple schemes! Oh the humanity!
I smiled at the cheering Xiong Li and said "It is now tied. Too bad you didn't know 1 thing about me. My stamina regenerates really quick!"
I put down my rested right hand, which only took 5% of my primeval, and smiled at Xiong Li "You're funeral awaits you!"
I could see the surprise in his eyes and the small amount of fear. He knew this was his loss, but he didn't want to lose.
Sadly, reality is really cruel. the 5th round ended with my complete victory after 3 minutes of him struggling to defeat me.
I laughed at the Xiong clan in all of my glory and said "This shame is the champion of Xiong clan?! What a shame! To think my title is held by such a disgrace of a man! But I am benevolent and will give him another chance at proving himself! Tomorrow, near Lion cliff side, 12 o'clock, don't be late! The funeral can't ceremony can't be held without its obligatory corpse!"
The crowd grumbled as me and my brother mocked them and left the arena. He went his own way to gather information and I went to rest my body. Fuck! That was hard as hell and boy do my arms hurt like hell! I wish mum were here.
