Pain creates heroes

With Chun Jack on our side, not even thousand beast kings could harm us. The most they could do was Send their armies, which I could easily with slashes of light. They have rank 3 power and only cost me 10% light red(low grade) primeval essence. I have 200% crimson(high grade) primeval essence thanks to my rank 2 Liquor Worm, which means I can use this attack 80 times and the casting speed is 20 per second, so I can technically disintegrate an entire army of beasts within seconds.

Actually, that could be a new name, Lights Of Disintegration sounds a lot better than slashes of light. Basically with one huge 4 second burst, I can destroy at least 100 beasts. I would be extremely vulnerable afterwards, so doing that is completely idiotic, but I could and that is the fun part! I have gotten quite familiar with this technique.

My Extreme Physique's primeval essence regeneration rate, coupled with my 12.5k% scarlet red primeval essence per day from the treasure lotus, means I am literally the god of cultivation! I can probably even reach rank 3 with one of my apertures before we arrive at Shang clan city!

My total regeneration speed between the two apertures and the essence lotus is 40k% scarlet red primeval essence a day or 10k% crimson red primeval essence a day.

Boy are these Extreme Physiques a cheat! Just one Extreme Physique can contend with a rank 4 Gu in primeval essence production at rank 2.

With no obstacles and a constant cultivation rhythm, I just kept going and continued cultivating for the entire journey, untill we ran into a caravan. They saw my group of mortals and only 4 Gu masters, with 1 even being a zombie and didn't get scared.

A guy, who I presume to be a Gu master hopped down and came towards me. I probably looked like the guy in charge, with how I was sitting on an almost 2 meter tall giant, with an even bigger sword on his back.

The Gu master quickly approached us and I gently hop down from my brother's shoulder. The Gu master seems my gesture and nods, begining his introduction "My name is Zhang Zhu of Zhang clan and we are the managers of this caravan. Might I ask you who I am in the presence of?"

I smile politely and say "Good day sir Zhang. My name is Kai Nem and we are only distant travels. Our village was destroyed in a beast tide and we were left stranded. After the catastrophy we decided to head to Shang Clan City and settle there. On our way we discovered the young princess of Zhang clan, mis Zhang over here and decided to escort her back to her clan."

The man nods and I continue "Would you mind allowing us to join your caravan? I am quite a great businessman and am in an urgent need of a job change. My previous one was destroyed, along with my village."

The guy didn't understand what was wrong with me probably. A Gu master as young as me and with as high of a cultivation being humble and asking politely to join a mortal's caravan is unheard of. Hell, even I am surprised at how polite I have been throughout my journey.

The only time I threw my weight around was when I wanted to spread my fame. The rest of the time I have just been a simple hermit. I need to learn how to show off more, but showing off can wait for when I reach rank 5.

With such manpower proposing a service they couldn't really refuse. Zhang Zhu agreed to let us join the caravan and guided us to the main group. The mortals all around watched us, as we entered and Zhang Bei Yun quickly noticed the "evil" presence here. I could feel her anxiety through the slave link, but she dared not make a sound and I quickly suppressed her anger.

Zhang Zhu quickly took me to some skinny looking mortal, a fat looking mortal and... My oh my was the description not exaggerated. Decent chest, decent legs, hourglass figure and a face as smooth and gentle as they get. If you are into pure girls over bitches, then this is the ultimate pure girl of this world.

Guess I was wrong. Even after seeing her appearance and looks, my body hasn't been moved. I know I feel something for most women, but she just makes me feel neutral and calm. No anything, just a simple 'she exists'.

Well, guess eternal pain and loneliness it is! If such a beautiful person can't even spark a simple sign of love in me, then I might as well just give up. There is no love left in my heart. A heart of loneliness really is painful, but at least I have a different kind of love to share my burden.

I just simply bow my head to the three and say "Good day gentlemen and young fairy. My name is Kai Nem, a young Gu refiner. I am stranded homeless in this outside world, with only my family and friends around to help.

Sir Zhang Zhu has told us you are from Zhang clan and we were wondering if you could help escort us to the clan's main city. We wish to being their young princess back and then set out on our own. I am willing to pay quite a handsome amount in exchange for the escorting."

The three mortals looked at me with conflicted expressions and nodded their heads after a couple of minutes of negotiating. I paid them 700 primeval stones to escort me to the Zhang Clan city and boy were they surprised.

Did they think the handsome reward I was talking about was not killing them or something? Are Gu masters really that petty and small minded to kill any mortal, who disobeys them? I get the attitude, but come one! That is just ridiculous! Okay, maybe Ni Eli being carried like a potato sack isn't a good look, but that is still discrimination!

700 primeval stones is quite a lot, even for me, but it will be worth it. The Zhang Clan should pay quite a lot in exchange for their princes, especially that elder called Zhang Wang Dong.

I will ask for a few rank 3 Gu worms. Or maybe a rank 4 one, as her life is most definitely worth at least a few Gu worms. Our journey together began that day and we continued to ride for two day before arriving at the Zhang Clan city.

The city guard noticed the caravan coming back and laughed out-loud "HAHAHAHA! Did miss Xin Ci fail? Did she meet a few rank hundred beast kings? Oooh, how scawy! Hahaha!"

Okay, with these two idiots ruining the credibility of all Gu masters by just existing, I can kinda understand the discrimination. Like, why are they even being such jerks? I hopped down from the carriage and towered over the tiny, barely 6 feet tall wimps and released my killing intent a bit. "I was escorted by my friends here to Zhang clan for a special tribute."

'Zhang Bei Yun, get over here!' I sent her a message and she jumped down from a side caravan and appeared next to me. The two guards saw her without the dumb vail on and instantly recognised her. They gulped and I said "We were wondering if you could let us meet her father."

The guards didn't dare waste our time and directly brought us to her family compound. 'What an impoverished place'. Seriously, this place is a shit hole. The mortals are starving to death, the Gu masters just abuse mortals to take out their frustrations and it is just generally what you would expect from an economically inferior place. Rivals of Shang clan, more like the trash bins of Shang clan!

Trying to fight an economic giant like Shang Clan and win is idiotic. The leader of this clan made an idiotic choice to fight a dumb battle with Shang clan and now the mortals have to deal with the consequences, while the top brass only have to make sure a certain percentage of the mortals survive, so they can keep exploiting them.

I was half expecting these starving people to attack us or beg for food, but they looked at the guard, me and Zhang Bei Yun with fear. Their hunger and survival instincts were suppressed by absolute fear. How the hell did Shang Xin Ci survive here? She would have been devoured by these wolves!

Guess now I understand how she got the favour of Zhang Zhu. If not for him regulating her, she would have probably starved to death from giving away all of her food.

"Don't bother with these beasts. They have even eaten eachother on a couple occasions. These beasts don't deserve sympathy!" I know I ordered her to talk to me along the way, but this isn't what I was expecting. She is trying to show the guard how she is "looking out for me". I don't like it here, but these people aren't going to get healthier from my pity. Even if I give them some money, it will only incentivize robbery and violence.

I want to help, but my mind is telling me to leave and it objectively right. Helping these guys won't bring me benefits. Actually, I can get in the good books of the Shang Xin Ci. But that means I will have to potentially sacrifice a lot of mortals.

No, they are useless already and are just waiting to die. I am giving them an opportunity to live and reaping some benefits from it. Ya, that will bring me quite a lot of benefits. I'll give them a few primeval stones.

I looked at Zhang Bei Yun and said "I don't want anything. Just get back to your father by yourself. I have more important things to do!" and here I go. Sigh, maybe coming here wasn't such a good idea. I thought I could just ignore these poor people, but it is harder than you would think. This world may be full of cold and calculating demons, but these poor people aren't my enemies.

I have a lot of money in my primeval elder Gu, so I can afford to give some money to people in need. Why am I making excuses about being kind? I am confusing even myself at this point. Maybe trying to create a peaceful world wasn't such a bad idea and the frog guy wasn't such a big idiot.

...

I would like to just move on. No one needs to know of what happened afterwards. I did my thing, helped the people, got the reward from returning their princess and ordered her to act like her usual self.

I now have 183,230 Gu points thanks to the rank 3 Gu worms he gifted me. This chapter of my life is over and now we can peacefully move on with our lives. The fat merchant decided to self off his caravan to Shang Xin Ci and the skinny guy. He made off with 800 primeval essence stones and just... Retired? Didn't expect that TBH. Good for me, I guess.

With me directly delaying the caravan by 4 days, I don't think we will be running into any brother "Hei Tu" or whatever the heck Fang Yuan's alias was. I hope at least we have a good journey. Even if it doesn't end with me becoming friends with Shang Xin Ci, her potential is only rank 5 or something. With my Extreme Physique, I can go much higher and ascend all the way to God rank, so she is inconsequential really.

Let's see if my luck is going to hold up against the wilderness this time. Quite a lot of obstacles are out there and my main one is still Fang Yuan! I can feel his location and maybe fate will have us meet, even though I delayed it by multiple days.