The uncertainty of the future

Spring came and went in the blink of an eye 15 years passed.

In a room of a shabby bamboo house, a beautiful young man sat on his bed as he stared at the dazzling moon from the open window.

"Tomorrow I turn 15 and will leave this village to head to the soul toad sect. By the time I get there the entrance examinations should still be ongoing with my talent and knowledge, I should be able to get in and when my extreme physique is revealed I will be immediately taken as an immortal seed as long as I prove my loyalty to the sect."

Liang Lu inwardly thought as a pressure that had long been looming over him fell on his shoulders, it felt as if a mountain had fallen on him as he thought of his biggest threat.

"It should be about now when Fang Yuan regresses to his former self in Qing Mao Mountain. Tomorrow he will awaken his aperture and start his cultivation journey while I still have to travel for a week to awaken mine." Liang Lu thought as he closed his eyes and sighed.

"I've done everything I could with the time and resources I had. I read the legends of Ren Zu analyzing it as best as I could. I focused as much as I could on comprehending the human path and the wisdom path as they are my supreme and quasi-supreme talents respectively but I haven't had much progress as I don't have Gu and haven't even awakened my aperture. I constantly exercised my body and trained in martial arts and the bow. Thankfully my grandpa from my mother's side was a martial arts instructor for the soul toad sect in his younger years and my other grandpa is a hunter who is an expert with the bow and laying traps.

That was for my own growth as for establishing my reputation as a genius, a filial son, and a hardworking person that will help me convince the Gu immortals that I can be a good investment. I copied what Fang Yuan did. I talked at 3 months old, walked at 4 fourth months old, and recited poetry at 5 years old. I let myself get beaten by my father while I acted as a loyal and loving son who wanted to close the gap we had and wanted to know why his father hated him. Who knew having an abusive father who hated his own son would be useful? As for the hardworking part, I didn't let myself be distracted by women, did my chores without complaining, and worked hard."

Liang Lu summarized in his head what he had done and realized the probabilities were currently against him. He had master attainment in refinement path, human path, and dream path, he wasn't completely blank in the wisdom path but he wasn't even a quasi-master.

As for Fang Yuan not only did he have 500 years of experience he had legitimately reached master attainment in the refinement path and had much experience in that aspect, had grandmaster attainment in the blood path, master in earth path, master in flying path, about master in slavement path, had insane perseverance, insane willpower, had no morality, didn't bat an eye when killing, and most importantly until he stopped spectral soul fate would protect him.

But Liang Lu's most important disadvantage was the morality aspect even after knowing one day he had to kill another human or even a child. When the time came he wasn't confident if he would be able to do it.

He wasn't a psychopath in his previous life he loved reverend insanity and even cheered when Fang yuan refined the Bai twins into bone flesh unity gu but it was different back then all he knew was that they were fictional characters but now they were real people. And the peaceful environment of this mortal village hadn't helped him much in that aspect.

"Sigh…"

Liang Lu sighed as the cold and gentle breeze of the night blew against his beautiful face. His long pitch black hair that reached his shoulders and seemed to absorb light swayed with the breeze giving him a sagely appearance.

The moonlight bounced off his smooth pale skin free of any imperfections making him stand out as it highlighted his black hair, sharp eyebrows, sharp nose, and small lips that made him look elegant and frail like a scholar.

He opened his eyelids revealing a pair of blue jewel-like eyes that seemed to sparkle under the moon.

"Oh, moon you are beautiful yet lonely, everlasting yet short-lived, shiny yet overshadowed. Oh, moon you are proof that one can't have everything in this life but one can only try and show up like you do every night."

Liang Lu spoke about what came to mind. He wasn't good at making his own poems and many even went against the knowledge he had but when he recited the poem he felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

"I get it now just like the moon and its never ending job I need to try even if I don't have the advantage. I need to at least try and give my all!" Liang Lu made up his mind.

It was late and he needed to sleep having that thought he took one last look at the moon as if thanking it and closed the wooden door of the window.

"Tomorrow will mark my true start in my cultivation journey I will travel to the soul toad sect and fully show off my wisdom path talent it won't raise suspicion as I have the carefree wisdom heart physique after some time I will disguise my refinement attainment as talent to get more resources and improve my refinement attainment as for showing my dream path and human path attainment…" Liang Lu paused for a moment.

"It is out of the question. The Gu immortals will greedily investigate me and even search my soul to extract any information as dream path mortal materials are extremely rare… no almost nonexistent not to mention having master attainment. The human path although not as suspicious is still rare and will put me on the list to be highly monitored as even the heavenly court only has Zheng Yuan a rank 7 gu immortal that is even older than Duke Long if I show that I have master attainment in the human path when I haven't even touched a Gu just what would they do to me?"

Countless thoughts passed through his mind but soon those thoughts stopped as he fell asleep.

…

Qing Mao Mountain.

In the Gu Yue village, an ominous rain fell along with lightning from time to time as if they were warning of the imminent danger that would soon be brought by the seemingly normal youngster who stood in front of a window.

"Gu Yue village, this is 500 years ago?! Looks like the spring autumn cicada really worked…" Fang Yuan quietly gazed with his abyss-like pupils, standing by the window, letting the rain from the wind hit his body.