shady business man

Tide waited for more memories to come, but after a while, no other memories came to mind, [At least now I know that this life is the one where Fang Yuan has used spring autumn cicada Maybe I won't get all my memories back in one go, or maybe I have to go to the river of time to get them. The question, for now, is how many of the venerables are in on this. Hopefully, just Paradise Earth and Red Lotus. Red Lotus is likely involved in some way due to how I'm likely connected to spring autumn cicada. If I had to guess the reason why Paradise Earth was distracting heavens will, was so that my existence would be hidden from everyone else. But it would be best to play it safe and assume the worst-case scenario], "Hey! Hong Yu, now that we know the mini apertures are a good training method can you get me more gu for them to train with?"

"A good training method? I'm not convinced. You haven't even tested it yet. How do you know it will be effective against the beasts?"

"No, sorry I jumped the gun there, it would probably be best to build some muscle memory", [I wonder what type of beasts I'll be fighting: thunder-wolves, strong-arm monkeys, or maybe some type of fish]

"Gun?... Is this another one of your secrets you won't tell me about, (sigh) well whatever, if your mini apertures method does work, I'll go get you more gu worms", [He doesn't have any experience fighting against beasts and only people. It would be best to make him fight against some type of grass soldier]

"When do we begin?" - Tide was excited to test out his newly acquired fighting skills. Due to his head feeling constant pain from the training, he accumulated a lot of pent-up stress, which he needed to release one way or another

Hong Yu notices Tide's excitement and hopes that he doesn't lose it after he gets beat up a few times, "You can fight when your headache goes away"

. . .

{Purple-water grass field}

Tide is busy fighting against a grass soldier, and Hong Yu is thoroughly enjoying it, "Charge! Break That punks bones! I want to see blood!"

Tide amazed at the blatant lack of concern Hong Yu has for him, wonders if Hong Yu is a sadist.

Fighting the grass soldier with the awkwardness of someone who has just picked up a spear and shield, Tide was fighting for his life. [Damn, this thing's strength is incredible. My arms are already numb, but I'm not done yet. I have a trick up my sleeve. You're about to see the barrel role.] - As Tide does the barrel roll, his shield gets caught stuck in the grass, causing him to lose momentum and fall on his back, [I hope that looked better than it feels right now]

The grass soldier: "__"

Hong Yu: "__"

"What are you doing? Why are you doing things that your mini apertures didn't do?", [I'll have to check his head for trauma later]

"hehehe, thought it would work", Tide rubs his sore muscles a bit before standing up again

Hong Yu shakes his head

The grass soldier tosses his sword away and pulls up his fists for hand-to-hand combat.

Tide tosses his spear away as well. [The grass soldier may be stronger than me, but I have experience in hand-to-hand combat, from my world and this one. Wait... is that grass soldier grinning?]

The grass soldier now grinning from ear to ear proceeds to charge. Tide seeing this coming side steps, grabs it by the shoulder arm, and twists the arm, but there was no expected snap.

Due to this grass soldier not having any bones. Such moves like the arm lock have little to no effect.

The grass soldier does a backward punch. Tide quickly let's go and dodges the attack.

[If I can't snap the joints, then how am I supposed to win? Do grass soldiers have a heart? It was grinning so maybe it has one, but why would it have such a weakness? Did Hong Yu make it that way?]

constantly dodging attack after attack, Tide was trying to think of a way to beat this guy in hand-to-hand combat

Hong Yu was impressed by how calm Tide was in the middle of combat. [It won't do him any good though that thing's only weakness is that it doesn't even have loyalty directly to the user who made it, it's called a violent respected grass soldier, it simply likes fighting, if you bow to it and show respect, then it will leave you alone]

After dodging for a while Tide loses balance and falls, but while falling he notices that the grass soldier hesitated for a brief moment.

[This either means that this is how the grass soldier is or that Hong Yu is directly commanding it, more likely the grass soldier, because Hong Yu looks like he wants to see blood, should I try surrendering and bow? The worst that will happen is a couple of broken bones, which I can more than endure]

Tide decides to brace himself for the worst and bows to his opponent, "well played good sir!"

The grass soldier immediately stops with its fist a few inches away from Tide's face, then takes a step back and bows

"(Tch) you may have found his weakness, but you still lost!" - Hong Yu acted angry, but was secretly impressed by Tide's ingenuity.

"That grass soldier didn't seem to have any physical weaknesses that I could exploit, you can't blame me for that"

Hong Yu raises an eye, "And? You're the fool who tossed his spear away"

"You want me to fight an unarmed man with a spear in hand?" - Tide believed in fighting fair and square in a dual, using a weapon against someone clearly unarmed, was the type of thing only a coward would do.

"Unarmed man? He's a grass soldier, he lives to serve, to one day die fighting, and you're just as dumb as he is. Going easy on your opponent, only a fool does that! This isn't a fun little spar to pass the times, it's training so that you will be ready for the harsh and cruel world"

Tide bows his head, he knows what he did was foolish, [I need to remember that this is a cruel world, If I show kindness, I'd better be prepared to face the consequences], "might I go again?"

Hong Yu softens his expression and nods his head, "Get your spear, and maybe don't use a shield this time"

{1 minute later}

Tide was sweating with a few deep gashes 2 on his torso, 1 on his left shoulder, and 1 on his right hand, blood pouring from his hand to the tip of his spear, he stood there taking deep breaths, waiting for the grass soldier to make move.

The grass soldier wanted to move, but 3 of its limbs were separated from its body, it paused for a moment, looking around at its limb on the ground and then back to Tide, looking into Tide's eyes it lowered its head as a sign of defeat

"I did it! I actually did it!"

"Oh? That was pretty quick, maybe you just needed some time to get used to applying what's inside your head to your body, but it would still be best to test a bit more"

Now ecstatic at his first win, Tide was feeling energized, "Alright I'm ready for the next one!"

{10 seconds later}

A grass soldier lay beheaded on the ground from a single strike, the blades of grass that connected the head to the body were so smooth that no one would have thought that this was done by someone who had only picked up the spear for a day.

"I've gotten a lot better at fighting them now", [At this rate maybe I should pick combat path] - Tide was fantasizing about himself fighting in the air covered in armor, looking like some sort of war god

"Ya your improvement is pretty quick, but let's try two of them at the same time"

{30 seconds later}

Two grass soldiers decapitated fell to the ground. Tide was sitting down on the ground, his foot lying 3 feet away separated from his body. [Thought having my foot cut off would hurt more, or maybe I'm just getting used to pain]

Hong Yu brought out some healing gu worms, "Your fighting has improved at an exponential rate"

"Would you say mini apertures are a success?" - Tide said with a light chuckle

"More than just a success! We can reduce months of combat experience to that of just a day!", [I'll have to prepare an area with a faster time flow for better training efficiency]

. . .

Over the next month Tide steadily made it to peak rank 2, "fighting rank 2 grass soldiers with just spear in hand has gotten very easy"

"Your spear is made of rank 2 material, also I've looked into this Fang Yuan fellow. I sent a rank 5 gu master to secretly monitor him. He's not normal. Incredibly talented at hand-to-hand combat, also he found an inheritance"

[That confirms that my vision was real], "Can we be sure the that rank 5 gu master won't take the inheritance?"

"Positive, the rank 5 gu master is on the side of Paradise Earth Immortal Venerable"

[Probably one of those mushroom men], "alright that's good. Also, you can stop investigating him now."

"Why?"

"It might cause some unforeseen variables if we interfere in his life", [besides I already know everything he's going to do], "I'll be attempting rank three. This time I will attack my membrane with 900 of my mini apertures. The other 99 will attack one mini aperture."

"It would be best if they use their hands, wouldn't want it to still be rank 2 peak stage when it rebuilds itself" - Hong Yu was getting more and more comfortable with Tide like they had been good friends for a long time

"Good point", [It's been tuff getting this far, but I'll persevere, just like certain someone]

{10 minutes later}

[Peak rank 2 does so much more damage to the membrane. For now, I'll slow down the damage and make sure the membrane stays in a heavily damaged state]

{6 hours later}

[Due to sustained damage for a long period, they have stayed weakened with little to no regeneration, that mini aperture is almost done for. It will probably only take a few more minutes]

Tide closed his eyes and counted to help distract him from the pain, "1, 2, 3... 10... 60... 200"

(crack)

Tide breathes a sigh of relief upon hearing the sound of the mini aperture shattering, "It's finally over"

"Well done, you have a strong will" - Hong Yu was pleased with the improvement that Tide showed in not only combat, but also the strength of his character.

"Thanks, served for roughly 35 years", [Oops, I need to learn to hold my tongue when I'm tired]

"How old are you?" - Hong Yu wasn't trying to fish for information this time around, he was just genuinely curious

"hmm... Should be 45 in about 1...2...3 weeks"

"You've been working for Paradise Earth Immortal Venerable for 35 years?! Since you were 10?" Hong Yu is surprised by this revelation, and he thinks to himself, "That would make him a very important part of Paradise Earth's plan."

"Ahh... Let's just say I'm a part of something big," Tide responds evasively.

"You're quite the enigmatic fellow," Hong Yu says, noticing Tide's secretive nature.

"Could you please give me some time to recover?" Tide asks, clearly in need of a break.

"I'll go count my fish then", Hong Yu grumbles a little before swimming off.

As he swims away, Tide thinks to himself, [Hehehe, that's funny, a fish counting fish. . . Man I'm tired. Oh, it's starting to take form, what color is it? Silver with a hint of red. . . Maybe it just needs to be refined more.]

. . . . .

After a few hours, the pain from the membrane finally subsided. Tide decides that it's time to go ask for some more gu, [I'll ask for some beast thought gu to practice fighting against beasts.]

.....

{Vision of future}

Tide was lying down on a bed of water, with tiger stripes covering his body

Hong Yu: "there is a problem with this tiger thought gu," Hong Yu says gravely. "It has been tampered with. I knew there was something off about that immortal, he better pray I don't find him! Looking all shady with that beast mask on his face! Who does that rat think he's fooling!" - Hong Yu sighs and takes and pauses for a breath moment, "It looks like it's going to take months for you to recover from this injury."

{End of vision}

.....

[Well this is quite troubling, I'll have to use a different method], "Mr. Fish!"

"What?" - Hong Yu was using a communication method from far away to talk back to Tide

"I'm going to need you to refine some wolf beast thought gu for me"

"Why not just buy them?", [What's he up to this time?]

[Well he has a point it was only those tiger ones, but I can't deny the possibility that the same person who sold the tiger thought gu doesn't have multiple beasts thought gu of different types], "I have this gut feeling that we should refine them ourselves"

[Does he have luck path attainment!?], "hmm well alright then, I'll have to go get multiple different types of beasts for refinement, for now, you can use this dazzling carp thought gu, it's designed to distract a person's thoughts"

[My mini apertures are helping my combat experience improve at an immense speed, but the only problem is they are in some way always me, I won't learn how to fight people who think completely differently to me, I could try fighting the thoughts of others, but that would be very risky, what if they actually win, and then attack my brain. I could fight them outside my body, but my mini apertures can't leave my body, I'll have to come up with some tight methods that will allow me to push them out of my brain if I lose. . . Why is Hong Yu coming back so quickly]

"There's this guy in treasure yellow heaven, oh wait I'll have to explain what treasure yellow heaven is"

Tide interjects, "I already know what it is"

"Ah, ok. So he's selling hundreds of different types of beast thought gu for very cheap, he's very nice too."

[That's not what you said about him in the vision. Well, I suppose it could be a different person, no! It would be better to not risk it], "we'll be refining them and that's final"

"Alright, alright", [I can tell he's certain that buying them would be a bad thing, but luck path is usually not this accurate.]

"Ask him for some recipes, it's not like your poor. You've lived for well over 100,000 years with no tribulations", [Why is this Fish being a stooge, they're just mortal recipes]

"Just because I'm rich doesn't mean I should waste Immortal Essence Beads, but I'll trust your gut this time" - Hong Yu goes to treasure yellow heaven in one of his disguises (common blue-carp)

{Treasure yellow heaven}

Hong Yu is busy bargaining with a trader in treasure yellow heaven, "I don't want to buy beast thought gu, I want to buy the recipes for them", [I know that selling recipes is like shooting yourself in the foot, but it's not like your the only one in treasure yellow heaven selling beast thought gu recipes]

'Trustworthy Beast Thought Tradesman': [What is this fish doing here again? does he know that I've been selling these beast thought gu to foolish humans using different names? If I were to put a faulty recipe in yellow treasure heaven it will be obvious that it's a fake. Based on how bright it glows it's easy to tell a fake from the real deal. (Hmf) I'll just give him ones with very low success rates to slowly bleed him dry], "I could sell you the recipes, but it's not cheap. We'll have to do one thousand times the glow provided by yellow treasure heaven to determine its wealth"

"One thousand!! I know these are mortal recipes, so they aren't going to cost me all my wealth, but one thousand times is way too much!"

"Come on man I've put my life's work into these, besides I've heard from others that you have plenty of money to spare, you don't need it, share some of it with the poor"

[Damn! Should have come here in less known disguise], "Still one thousand is way too much. The best I'll ever do is 100. That should be more than enough for mortal recipes!"

[This guy is clearly a blessed land spirit. While land spirits don't lie, it doesn't mean they can't change their minds], "Oh have a heart benevolent immortal, recently many of my refinements ended failure, I'm sure you know what that's like. The best I can do is 800"

"Benevolent my butt! I've been doing business in treasure yellow heaven for over 100,000 years, a greenhorn like yourself trying to butter me up is laughable, if you don't give it to me for 100 times right now, I'll go elsewhere to get beast thought gu recipes", [If you had losses during refinement, then that likely means that you have been experimenting to create new and better recipes, and you would only experiment if you were financially stable] - Hong Yu was smug, but he didn't show it, instead, he kept and angry face, to show that he would swim off if this dealer tried to haggle for anything higher than 100

[If only I had a monopoly on different beast thought gu], "fine, here's a list of all the different recipes I have, you won't find any better recipes than here", [all the bad ones that is]

Hong Yu takes one look at the list, and is disgusted by it, "what is this nonsense, one of them needs blue-eyed cyan bear eyes, how in the world am I gonna get that? If you don't show me the good stuff right now, I'm will leave"

[He's a perceptive fish I'll give him that], "Alright, alright, here's a list of all the different ones I'm willing to sell", [what would this old fish want with beast thought gu anyhow, trying to make his fishes learn how to hunt like a tiger]

[I knew he was conning me! But, how does he have so many recipes? Well whatever I'll just pick a few good ones and leave] - Hong Yu hands the list back, along with a different list for all the ones he wants to buy

Trustworthy was slightly impressed by how good Hong Yu's eye was for picking out the best recipes, [Guess I should expect this much from a fish that's lived 100 times longer than I have]

Trustworthy Beast Thought Tradesman brings out the recipes, "based on the glow, that'll be..."

"Here 2 and a half white essence beads"

"Sh, ya... Pleasure doing business with you, huh where did he go?"

{Purple-water grass field}

Hong Yu: [Tide asked for wolf thought gu, so I'll start with that, I picked these because the refinement works best-using water path methods, hmm, I wonder if Tide's mini apertures can refine gu, this could be a good experience]

. . .

"How will my mini apertures refine gu when they don't have physical hands"

"When you get high up in the ranks you don't use your hands anymore, you use your will that's inside the gu to move the gu, and for gu that can't fly you can use other gu to move them, because your hands can't contain all the gu you're using to refine"

[makes sense], "Refinement is known to be incredibly difficult, so if I have no talent for it, don't blame me for your loses"

"Yaya, sure whatever" - Hong Yu gives Tide the recipes along with some water path refinement methods, [Ah, how it feels to teach the young again]

{1 hour later}

"HOW! your better at it than most people with master-level attainment", [These mini apertures keep getting more and more impressive as time goes on]

"Really?" - Tide was getting used to learning things fast, so much so that he didn't notice how impressive it was to have a 90% success rate on rank 3 gu refinement. Of course, he did it with the help of a water path refinement method, but 90% for a beginner was practically unheard of.

"well yes and no. . . Because your mini apertures have some form of conscience, it allows them to help you, it's like 1000 people working together in unity, poor unity, but unity. Based on how poor it is, I'd say no, you're not master level in refinement, but your results are better"

"hmm I do find that I've used very little mental energy in this, I've been going at it for about an hour, but my mind is still about as clear as it was when I started"