A new life in Tie city

The Tie clan was one of most prominent super forces in Southern border. It acted as the beacon of righteousness in the region and was widely known for its Demon Suppression Tower imprisoning thousands of demonic gu masters. The Tie clan city was bustling with millions of people and the streets were filled with busy people moving in carriages. The shops in the market were well regulated unlike the chaotic shops in Jia city. The city was patrolled regularly by the gu masters belonging to the security hall and crime was non existent. Tie clan was known for its investigative capabilities and the security forces took every crime as a stain to their reputation till it was solved.

For the first time since Gu Guangzhi entered the world of Reverend Insanity, he felt that he had returned to a civilized world. Though the Southern border was filled with clans and placed a heavy emphasis on the continuation of bloodline, talented gu masters were always welcomed as external members. Gu Yue Chao was once an external member and subsequently rose to become an external elder after countless services to the Tie clan. But Gu Yue Chao couldn't bring his descendants into the clan. Gu Guangzhi still had to prove himself as an asset to the clan to become an external member. Gu Guangzhi demonstrated his battle prowess easily and having an external elder as his grandfather helped him a bit. He became an external member of the Tie clan. Yu Wen Zi, on the other hand, was still looking weak and declined to participate. He settled in the outskirts of Tie city as a visiting resident. The backlash of using a Rank 5 Fire escape Gu was still affecting him. Gu Guangzhi and Gu Yue Chao had their residences in central part of Tie clan city.

Before going their separate ways they had a small discussion. Gu Yue Chao brought up the topic of refinements and asked Gu Guangzhi not to perform his refinements anymore. Gu Guangzhi felt cheated.

"Grandpa, this is not fair! You promised me before leaving Jia city that you would help me in continuing my experiments to improve my gu insects. It is not fair on your part to renege on your promise after arriving here."

"I'm not saying that you shouldn't continue your experiments. However, you must know by now that your refinements are not exactly what I would call conventional. If you perform them in the city, they will surely cause a ruckus. There are refinement facilities in the city but they are not suited for your way of refinement.", explained Gu Yue Chao.

"What?! Then I will go and live in the outskirts. I can find an isolated place for myself and continue my experiments there.", said a disgruntled Gu Guangzhi.

"There's no need for that. I will talk to the Higher Academy here in Tie city. One of the elders is a master in refinement path and I will put in a good word for you. You can learn from them and perform your experiments here in the city."

Gu Guangzhi was taken aback. He was a master in refinement path as well. The notion of learning refinement from another master did not sit well with him. He was about to say that he was a master in refinement path as well, Yu Wen Zi spoke up, "Your intuition must already be telling you the extent of their ignorance. So, in order to progress in your path, the master must once again become a student."

Gu Yue Chao knew of his grandson's circumstances. He knew of the death of the girl his grandson loved and how heartbroken he was after losing her. Gu Guangzhi's sole reason for becoming strong was to attack Xiong clan for causing his loved one's death. So u Yue Chao and Yu Wen Zi concocted this plan to shift Gu Guangzhi's mind from revenge by placing him in an academic setting. They didn't give much room for Gu Guangzhi to say no. Thus Gu Guangzhi became a student under Tie Gui Tian, a Rank 4 gu master proficient in refinement.

When he first received the odd request from external elder Gu Yue Chao to teach his twenty one year old grandson refinement techniques from scratch, he wanted to brush the task aside to one of his disciples. However Gu Guangzhi proved too good for them to handle. He observed that Gu Guangzhi had an odd way of refining gu insects and Gu Yu Chao's request was to teach him the conventional way of refinement. He was impressed by Gu Guangzhi's ability to learn but teaching him proved quite difficult at times. Gu Guangzhi wouldn't let go of his odd way of refinement and they would have academic debates very often. Tie Gui Tian was annoyed at first but he too began to enjoy these debates.

Gu Guangzhi's initial goal was to experiment and create a killer move using his hybrid gu insects and transform into a human - ground bear hybrid but his progress stalled. Nevertheless, his knowledge about refinement grew. His foundation grew stronger day by day and he could come up with interesting recipes for refinement. His success rate when he tried them was amateurish though. He still needed a lot of time to perfect this way of refinement.

He was steadily making progress in his cultivation as well. With his false A grade aptitude, he quietly reached Rank 3 middle stage. His nether river wolf, as a mutant species, Rank 3 peak stage aura but could fight a Rank 4 gu master on its own.

A few months passed quietly in this manner. Suddenly, there was an air of excitement in the Academy. The excitement soon spread to the Higher Academy of Refinement as well where Gu Guangzhi was reading various research materials. The juniors of the Tie clan who had awakened their apertures last spring were having their year end assessment. While this assessment takes place every year, this year, there was a prominent figure among the students. Everyone was eager to see her performance. She was the daughter of the Divine Investigator Tie Xue Leng. Her name was Tie Ruo Nan!