12 The Calm Before the Storm

Chen Wei looks at the walls of his aperture, indicating that he has reached Rank 1 peak stage. "It only took eight months, and now I have only two months left before the final competition at the academy."

Unlike the Gu Yue clan, which is relatively peaceful, in the He An clan academy, small-scale championships and duels using Gu are common and recurring for training the students who will be prepared for war.

"From what I've seen, the war situation has calmed down in the last few months now that the Bleeding Eyes Gu is being used extensively. The number of ambushes has dropped to almost zero." The effect was so significant that the other two clans stopped their ambushes and are only defending themselves while trying to develop a method that can bypass the Bleeding Eyes Gu detection.

"But they are failing miserably, as they don't have any specialists in blood path. But I don't think this will last for more than a year, as they also have talented individuals in their clans." But this year is crucial because it could give the He An clan ample time to recover, prepare, and develop blood path without hindrances.

"But perhaps it's just my own paranoia, but I think this is the calm before the storm." This concern is not his alone; in fact, most powerful people in the clan have similar thoughts and are preparing for total war.

And with war comes opportunity and technological development, as evidenced by the first and second world wars on Earth, where most of the technologies of the current era were created for military purposes.

"This is truly the best opportunity for blood path development. It's a pity my atteimant isn't greater; otherwise, it could cause an even bigger stir!" During this period when Gu masters are preparing for war, the blood path, which has great attacking power and low feeding costs, is becoming very popular among the Rank 1 Gu masters, who are the majority in the clan.

In fact, he even developed a new healing Gu called the Good Blood Gu, which can heal using the blood of the healer to cure those who are injured. He also created the blood bag Gu, which allows the healer Gu master to recover their lost blood, complementing each other.

This applies to other aspects as well, such as attack, defense, and movement, but they are all limited to Rank 1, as Chen Wei focused on quantity rather than quality, and he focused more on base Gu masters who can easily switch paths.

In fact, due to so many Gu masters switching cultivation to the Blood path, the Chen Family, which has the blood path Gu recipes, earned a lot of money, despite his grandfather deciding to sell the Gu for a very cheap price after making an agreement with the clan leader.

You see, they could take advantage of the situation to make a fortune, but when the clan loses the war, they would be killed, conquered, and enslaved, and their wealth would only be a lure for those who want to loot.

So his grandfather made the wiser decision to prioritize the clan's common good so that they can win the war, and then they can gain a larger share of the spoils of war according to his agreement with the leader.

"You know, sometimes I wonder if I'm changing too much." During all this time, he wasn't talking to himself but with a blood creature that he's caressing while it's trying to kill him but can't even cut his hand.

"When I was on Earth, I would never kill anyone, and I was strongly in favor of peace. But now..." He thinks for a while, feeling like he's slowly losing his humanity. "...I'm excited for a war that will kill thousands of innocents just so I can achieve my goal faster."

Chen Wei never considered himself a good person, and when he lived on Earth, he came from a poor family in a third world country, so he tried his best to climb the social ladder, understanding the suffering of those at the bottom of society.

But it seems that after coming to this world, he awakened a killer that has always been inside him but that he never noticed before because he had never been in a situation where someone's life was in his hands before on Earth.

"Well, so be it. This war is inevitable so what's the problem with me trying to make the most of it?" Like any normal person would, Chen Wei tries to rationalize and justify his sins.

He was about to do more experiments when a knock on the door distracts him. "Young master, your sister is looking for you," a trusted butler of his grandfather comes to inform him. "Tell Hua'er that I'm coming."

Chen Wei packs his things and then leaves the dungeon and follows the butler as he takes the blood creature with him, holding her with one hand while it tries to resist.

"Brother!!!" A 9-year-old girl runs and hugs Chen Wei. "Blood creature!!!" She tries to take the blood creature from Chen Wei's hands, but he doesn't let her.

"Hua'er, promise you'll be careful. Our father will really scold me if you get hurt." She nods her head and takes the blood creature while running around with it.

Yes, this blood creature is so weak that it can't resist or harm a little girl, but of course, Chen Wei weakened it intentionally beforehand.

While Chen Wei watches his sister playing with the blood creature, Chen Ming comes to talk to him. "Ah, a creature with the potential to be one of the most destructive war weapons reduced to a little girl's toy... it's really sad to see."

"Did you come here to talk about when the academy year ends, and I officially become a clan soldier?" Chen Wei gets straight to the point since he knows where this conversation will lead, so he wants to expedite it a bit to save both his and his brother's time.

"Do you already have the certainty that you can reach Rank 2 before the end of the school year? Honestly, if you achieve that, it will be an impressive feat." His brother, like most talented students, finished the academy at Rank 1 peak Stage, but Chen Wei has already reached that point, and there are still a little over two months left until the end of the school year.

"Probably, but when I get there, my cultivation will have a significant speed drop due to the war." Chen Wei planned to reach Rank 3 at age 18 or 19, but he feels that because of the war, it will take longer.

"Well, it's not like what you think is slow is really slow. I'm already 23 years old and still in the Rank 2 upper stage." Chen Ming gives him a Gu with confidential information from the clan "Our informants in both clans have informed us that the other two clans have killing you as one of their priorities."

Chen Wei looks at the information on the Gu with calm eyes since he already had an idea that things would be like this. "Can't I just stay inside the clan without doing anything? It would be much safer." Chen Wei is, of course, joking. He doesn't want to and do not have the freedom to stay at home while others die fighting on the front lines.

Although he is talented and has an A grade, someone with talent but who doesn't die for the clan willing is considered worthless for the clan's survival in everyone's eyes, much less than a D grade who is willing to die for the clan's good.

Not that he cares about the clan's opinion, but for now, he doesn't have the necessary strength to suppress the clan's entire opinion and do what he wants.

"This war will probably be the greatest risk to my life that I will experience, but it will also be my greatest opportunity!" Chen Wei thinks, looking at the Heaven with a look of pure hatred.