Getting your feet wet

The will of Bao Zhi in the refinement formation was to assist the newly refined immortal gu, in forming a human body. The formation used the earth qi which the active Immortal Gu Verdant Heart Seed graciously absorbed, converting it to a new human form.

The will of Bao Zhi noticed the abnormality of the tribulations a moment sooner than the new body. The formation had basic investigative abilities, which the new body could not match with just its five senses.

"Danger, save the body!"

This single thought rang in the will within the formation like a siren, there was no time to waste. Stopping the current operations would take at least a breath of time to conclude. The situation was urgent, destruction and peril were imminent at this moment.

The formation creaked and shook as the body was forcefully transported with the greatest haste this formation could muster.

Bao Zhi has just noticed the problem when his view turned blurry, intense pain assaulted him immediately.

"Guh!"

He suffered a backlash as the activation of the immortal gu was interrupted midway.

He fell to the ground, in a half-kneeling position. His ears were ringing, the world seemingly spinning around him, overwhelming dizziness assaulted Bao Zhi. A small pool of blood was gathering under his feet. He was seriously injured.

Bao Zhi gritted his teeth, he started to regulate his breathing gradually, focusing on stabilizing his mental state.

He began inspecting his body. He found out that he was recovering already, faster than expected, his body was unusually filled with vitality.

Wounds on his body were mended, skin growing with a perceptible quickness.

"The body formation was interrupted midway. It injured me, but part of the energy meant to form my immortal body is still present. This is why the healing is quickened."

He was guessing the cause of this phenomenon.

His attention turned to the outside now. He turned his head to look around, but there was nothing he could discern. There was only darkness.

"Did I lose my vision?"

He raised his hands to touch his face and eyes. He tried to feel his surroundings next. The ground below him was cold, hard to the touch.

"This is most likely a cave, the formation teleported me here."

He came to a logical conclusion.

"If that is the case I should first recuperate here until all my injures are healed. Then I should look for an exit."

Bao Zhi sat down in a meditating position, his heart and breathing already calm, working with clockwork-like precision.

He started to collate his old and new memories.

"I secretly set up this revival method as my soul was beyond saving."

"I left my inheritance and core gu worms in the Flying Leaf Coiling Vine Formation. I saw it activate so those gu are still preserved to this day. But it is too early to think about those now. A rank eight gu would not help me at this stage, it would just put a huge target on me."

"Then the refinement formation teleported me out just in time... The formation could not resist the attack."

"Unfortunately, the cultivation resources I left behind are also destroyed. I need to formulate a new plan of action."

* * * * *

Great Root Manor.

The gu immortals were still shell-shocked. Even though this wasn't their first time cooperating to pass a myriad tribulation, the sheer destructive power left a lasting impression on them, filling their hearts with after-fear.

"Never have I heard of such a vicious tribulation. It directly pierced the aperture wall!"

"We were fortunate to have supreme elder redirect the lightning bolt at the crucial moment."

Bao Lang Chao did not object to the false credit he was attributed. Who would turn down any prestige? Certainly not the old fox, Bao Lang Chao. He had a glib tongue and great political skills.

He diverted the topic at hand: "The more important matter is that the hole was quickly sealed with the help of the formation. We cannot risk exposing the grotto to outside forces. We are at our lowest now."

A rank six immortal arrived with urgency:

"Reporting to supreme elder, Bao Deng Hai's injuries are still critical. He requests that lord pays a visit."

Bao Lang Chao turned to the immortals around him:

"Tend to your injuries, I will be back shortly."

"What about Wen clan, should we involve them?"

Came the question from the second supreme elder, Bao Yijun.

Bao Lang Chao hesitated for a bit, this was a serious matter involving the two clan's relationship.

"I will contact them. We will need to rely on them to repair the damaged formation after all."

He knew this favor would cost them a small fortune, to restore the rank eight Flying Leaf Coiling Vine Formation sufficient formation path and refinement path expertise was needed.

They could not get around this, the formation was indispensable to the clan's future. Bao clan specialized in wood path methods, only their aperture management skills were exemplary.

...

Bao Deng Hai passed away that same day.

This time the tribulation has taken the lives of two elders, an unprecedented event in the clan's long history. There were accidents, of course, sustaining injuries was not uncommon, and rarely did deaths occur. But never to this extent.

The most frightening part was that the tribulation didn't even attack them directly, they died from the backlash while operating the formation. Just thinking about the consequences in case the black lighting hit true, to the aperture core, was a thought they did not dare entertain.

This was a huge loss of face for Bao clan, with many implications for the future political landscape.

* * * * *

Inside a nameless cave.

Bao Zhi was walking with careful steps. His hands brushing against the cave walls beside him, he was feeling his way forward.

"Hm? The air is moving here. I'm getting closer, there's an exit nearby."

He abandoned the cave wall, following the weak draft he felt. After hours of walking and climbing in the cold and damp caves he saw an opening. It was radiating the light from outside. Dazzling to the eyes, he raised his arm to shield his eyes as he squinted. He picked up his pace reaching the mouth of this cave.

For the first time since his rebirth, he took a deep breath. Fresh air filled his lungs, he felt the warmth of light all over his body. This was a rare moment, he let his emotions free, tasting them through and through. He felt a kind of happiness, this was a long-lost feeling, he even forgot this sort of sensation. Fires of ambition were burning in his eyes. He felt eagerness and anticipation for the future. He looked down at his palms:

"Ha-ha-ha..."

"Be it a different body."

"Be it a newly formed soul."

"Be it life and death!"

"My ambition is ceaseless! My will is unbroken!!!"

He raised his fist into the air exclaiming to himself.

He was inside a thick forest now, a common sight inside this small world. He walked leisurely, he was immersed in the sensations, that he was deprived of for hundreds of years. Sensations that his new body let him experience once again. This was a mysterious feeling that engulfed him.

"I get it! I understand now, this feeling. This is not just nostalgia of the lost senses, it is not just the joy of living."

"This body I refined, contains the profundity of human path. I am following in the steps of Ren Zu himself!"

"I have stepped on the road of true freedom! Only now could I comprehend this profound truth."

A new kind of purpose was materializing in his heart, it could be summarized in one word:

Freedom!

"Human path. This feeling, did my human path attainment advance to quasi-grandmaster?"

He had a foundation in human path already. In his previous life, he had researched it. This was linked to his first major fortuitous encounter, he had obtained a genuine branch of the Thousand Wish Tree.

This tree was special, after three hundred years it would finish growing, flowering after six hundred years. Upon the nine hundredth year, the tree would bear exactly a thousand fruits. These fruits could be turned into gu worms with the right gu recipes, even immortal gu could be produced in such a way.

In his early immortal years, he had understood the wood path meaning of the tree. He furthered his wood path methods.

In his middle age, he unraveled the refinement profundity of the tree. He created the killer move Thousand Wish Perpetual Refinement.

Only in his later years did he realize the true value this plant guarded. It was a human path desolate plant!

"Originally I did not know the recipe for Verdant Heart Seed Immortal Gu when I began the refinement. I had no time left to deduce it. I was aiming to create a wood path body. But over thousands of cycles of perpetual refinement, I guided the process in the right direction. Minuscule incremental changes accumulated, through this refinement method, I created Verdant Heart Seed."

"So is this a wood path gu worm with human path effect?"

His intuition was unclear on this part, he only had a vague feeling.

Absorbed in his thoughts, Bao Zhi has reached the end of this forest. A sizable red reed marsh filled his vision now. He did not remember having this kind of swamp in his aperture. But he recognized the flora.

"This was either created by the resident immortals or a tribulation influencing the environment."

"Going around takes too much time, I need to cross it. The sooner I can reach the inhabited areas the better."

He had no delusions about his safety, he might have half an immortal body, but there were mutated beasts and mutated beast kings roaming the lands. These beasts had rank 4 and rank 5 strength respectively, with wild gu on their bodies, they were not to be underestimated.

On the contrary, he had currently no cultivation, only a strengthened body.

He started treading the marshland. His feet sunk deep into the mud. Some parts were shallow, the water only reaching up to his knees, some parts were deep enough to swallow a horse.

Bao Zhi noticed some commotion on the horizon. A grayish-blue cloud was rolling on the surface of the swamp increasing in size if one focused on it. The pupils of Bao Zhi shrunk to pin size, he recognized this cloud. It was a huge swarm of insects, teal winged mosquitoes!

Teal winged mosquitoes fed on the large animals that wandered into the swamp and got stuck, in this sense Bao Zhi was prey on a silver plate in their eyes. Each insect was the size of an infant's fist.

"Too late, I cannot make it back to the shore now."

"Not that there is a need for that..."

An eerie expression appeared on his emotionless face.

He charged towards the oncoming swarm of ten thousand insects fearlessly!

He smelled the air carefully, it was putrid and nauseating.

"This way. It should be close now."

He continued charging towards the smell. The swarm has noticed him already. Detecting their new prey they lunged themselves towards Bao Zhi with mad abandon.

The stench was now nearing unbearable levels around him.

"Where is it? Where do you hide?"

He has stopped treading the murky waters, standing still in the mud. Not caring about the looming danger, he was observing the still water surface.

"Show yourself."

The first mosquitoes were already upon him, jabbing their needle-like proboscises into the nearest part they could reach.

Blub! - A small bubble.

"There!"

He dove into the water headfirst, insects still clinging to him desperately trying to get their fill. He reached into the mud right under where the bubble emerged from. After a short moment, his hands found purchase. He grabbed onto the squishy object he found and pulled it up.

He surfaced again, his right hand firmly holding a gu worm!

Rotten Mud Gu!

Bao Zhi raised the gu worm above his head, tightening his grip on it. His other hand tightly pinched his nose. The frightened gu worm, violently removed from its habitat, now trapped and squeezed in his hand activated trying to free itself.

The previous smell that the gu passively emanated - already difficult to bear - was nothing compared to the now unleashed violent stink, it was painful to smell it.

The previously orderly swarm turned into a chaotic mob, disorderly crashing into each other and the water surface. Soon all the earlier crazed insects were floating on the marsh water, their legs twitching.

Heaven and Earth were fair, like how the antidote for a venomous snake often exists near it, the Rotten Mud Gu was the natural counter to teal winged mosquitoes.