Ju Shuang Xue

More than a century ago, the Ju Clan were in their peak! They had multiple Rank 4 Gu Masters within the Clan disputing the Clan Head position, not to mention Rank 3 Elders, there used to be dozens of them, even B-Grade talents were quite ordinary, the Ju Clan was on it's way to becoming a Large-Scale Clan!

The Clan's rules have been and probably will be the same until the end of it's existence, Rank ones and twos would be the working force of the Clan, enslaved by the system, forced to apply for missions that wouldn't even pay them to feed their own Gu Worms, Rank 3 Elders were those that managed to break out from the Clan's oppression and became the oppressor! As for Rank 4 Gu Masters, those were the ones that truly benefited from the system, from Gu Worms to Primeval Stones, they had it all.

Ju Shuang Xue came from an ordinary family, he didn't have any brothers or cousins, but "fortunately" for him, he was surnamed Ju, and got the opportunity to have his aperture awakened and walk on the path of a Gu Master.

Blessed with a B grade aptitude, Ju Shuang Xue rapidly rose the rankings and even became slightly famous inside the Clan, in just three years, he rose all the way to Rank 2 Peak Stage, catching the eye of many of the Clan's higher ups, the pay he got from his missions were enough to have both his parents retire and even live a prosperous life.

All went well... But something always felt a bit wrong to him... Why would he owe something to his Clan? Wasn't he just cheap workforce? No wonder he hadn't reached Rank 3 yet, he would barely have any spare Primeval Stones in the end of a month! All his Primeval Stones were sucked dry by the maintenance of his Gu Worms so that he could successfully complete missions and make more Primeval Stones, it was a vicious cycle.

As he gazed at the full moon and the stars, Shuang Xue had finally decided to accept the truth, in reality, he was forced to work and even had to feel happy about it! Feel grateful!? What if his own son didn't have any aptitude? Who would pay for his retirement? Certainly not the Clan... If he wasn't backed by one of the families who would rarely take in outsiders, he would have to work until he died of old age?!

in that day, realization seemed to strike Shuang Xue, he decided that if it meant living like a dog, he would forsake the values of the righteous path and live freely, and if others called him a demon, so be it, they're just frogs in the well, explored by a ruthless Clan System.

Shuang Xue began by leaving his own faction, that way, he would receive a higher pay for the missions he completed, back then, the leader of his old faction had greatly helped him, and in gratitude, Shuang Xue promised to help him, but now... He couldn't keep such a promise... How could he live only for others and not himself?

In that year, the Ju Clan faced a Wind calamity which came every ten years, the Clan was naturally already used to these calamities, they had developed some Wind Path formation methods just deal with them, their combined strength could hold off any hurricanes or tornadoes.

Gu Masters would be split in parties assigned by Clan Elders and contribution points would be awarded to those who dealt with more small Wind calamities.

"Shuang Xue, stay back and support us! This formation can be quite complicated for first-timers like you... The rest of you, with me, assemble the formation!". Another Peak Stage Rank 2 Gu Master lead a group of 3 other Initial and Medium Stage Rank 2 Gu Masters.

Shuang Xue was assigned to that squad as a vice-leader, he didn't intended to make any moves at first, but considering the circumstances, he felt like it was worth it, his right palm touched his face as he let out a devilish smile. "Trying to boycott my performance.... haha! Good! I don't blame you! For I am also greedy!".

Shuang Xue's figure became blurry in a windy day like that, it seemed like he had blended with the wind! Almost invisible, he moved toward his party members.

The Leader of the squad had a smirk on his face. "Hah! That foolish kid should know to respect his Elders! He won't even sniff these contribution points!". He stood at the front of the formation, so he couldn't properly see what was happening in his rear, he just wanted to get this over with and collect his contribution points.

If he could see it though, not to mention his smile, his whole body would freeze in horror! The originally white leaves of the Wind Willows were painted blood red! Three corpses laid on the ground one beheaded, another had been ripped in half and the last one had a whole on his chest, his heart had been ripped out!

"Why has the formation weakened? Sigh... Useless juniors". The Squad Leader had previously seen this as light work, it even looked like the Hurricane had considerably shrunk in size, but seemingly out of nowhere! It began growing and growing until it grew even bigger than it's original size, forcing the remaining Gu Master retreat.

Although he didn't manage to extinguish the hurricane, he at least drove it away and then proceed to jump high in the air, performing a back flip with his eyes closed, even when he landed his eyes were only half open. "What's the matter with yo-".

He couldn't finish his phrase when he opened his eyes, the sheer brutality of the scene in front of him made him wanting to vomit, in all his life, he had never seen such a scene.

Before he could even move, a cold feeling suddenly came from the lower parts of his back, a feeling which quickly transformed into a sharp pain, piercing his back all the way trough his stomach.

At that moment, The Rank 2 Gu Master looked down and froze, his belly was pierced by a couple of long sharp icicles, his vision gradually darkened as he tried to look up, only to see Shuang Xue's smiling figure, his robes tainted red!.

"Shuang... Xue...". These were his last words as he dropped dead, he died with his eyes opened, his face showed his bitterness and unwillingness, this was the law of this world, to kill or be killed, tomorrow could be your turn to die!

"Hahahaha!". Shuang Xue laughed maniacally, this time he had profited big! He acquired the combined accumulations of 4 other Rank 2 Gu Masters, and if anyone asked, he could just say they died dealing with the hurricanes, he intended to quickly exchange those for contribution points, he didn't want to hold them for too long and attract suspicion.

"A fortune indeed!". Shuang Xue's eyes were bright as he counted the amount of primeval stones and examined his former Clansmen's Gu Worms.

The scene of Shuang Xue laughing while standing in a pool of blood would be enough to terrify even the most courageous Gu Masters, he looked like a Demon God, laughing maniacally after mercilessly murdering 4 people, his own Clansmen!

Blood came out of their bodies and quickly entered the soil Shuang Xue was stepping on, the soil seemed to suck the corpses blood even faster, which caused an alarmed Shuang Xue to jump on top of a Wind Willow.

Just as Shuang Xue jumped up, all the blood began abruptly gathering on a single spot, forming a sinister pond of dark red blood.

"What is this..? Shuang Xue's curiosity peaked as he decided to jump down and examine the blood pond, step by step, he carefully approached it, and when he got to the distance of one meter, he crouched down to carefully see it, the blood pond seemed to be drying up, but as the level of blood diminished, 3 strangely shaped things were revealed!

"Gu Worms!" Shuang Xue's mind speedily reacted as he got even closer, taking a better look, a fourth Gu Worm could be seen, it was pitch black and it had the weakest aura of all four, it released a strange yet destructive aura.

Deciding to take a better look, Shuang Xue was about to get even closer, but at that moment, the strange Gu Worm flew 10 meters high in the air and exploded! Startling Shuang Xue who hopped several meters back, only to be even more surprised by what he saw next.

The explosion formed a projection, of an extremely powerful Gu Master using several blood path methods, his overbearingness and confidence could be deeply felt just by looking at this projection, it probably wasn't going to be able to repeat the projection, so Shuang Xue carefully watched every part of the projection and memorized what he could.

Soon, his mind came into realization. "The infamous Blood Sea Ancestor! This is a Blood Path Inheritance!". Shuang Xue's eyes showed joy after a long time, he has reached a stage as a Gu Master that happiness would only come through getting stronger, and this was a heaven sent opportunity!