Trust and deception

A gu worm streaked across the sky and arrived inside the Wondrous Inspiration Pagoda. It was a letter gu that Bao Zhi received expectantly.

It was an invitation to the Tian Qucheng blessed land's upcoming banquet and festivities.

After looking into Treasure Yellow Heaven, Bao Zhi learned of this approaching event of Tian Qucheng blessed land.

This was the main reason for staying at this location.

He wanted to handle the feeding of his immortal gu as soon as possible, but that required more immortal essence stones.

Bao Zhi recalled in his memories the years when he was just a lone, rank six gu immortal, struggling to make ends meet. It was a similar situation in some regard.

But now, even if he was just a false immortal with only an aperture origin core and no immortal aperture. He possessed precious experiences and his understanding of the great dao.

Great grandmaster attainment in wood path and grandmaster attainment in human, refinement and formation paths.

This was something not a single elite gu immortal at rank six could compare with. They were already exceptional if they reached quasi-gandmaster attainment in their main path.

But they would be even more shocked and envious if they found out how many immortal gu Bao Zhi possessed.

Verdant Heart Seed, Perception Warp and Hole Earth immortal gu. Two of which were of the mysterious human path. Their worth was arguably much more than most rank six immortal gu, granted, only if someone could utilize them.

However, there were no strongest gu worms, only strongest gu masters. Gu worms had only a single ability after all. It was up to the gu master to find the best ways to take advantage of the gu worm's effect.

Bao Zhi spent his free time creating and modifying his killer moves. Concealed human qi was his first human path killer move. Originally it only used qi path gu and his naturally abundant human qi as the core.

When he obtained Perception Warp immortal gu, he hastily made it the new core, elevating the rank five killer move to an immortal killer move, greatly increasing its effect.

* * * * *

Later at a lower level of the immortal gu house.

Qinyang: "How is your gu immortal cultivation going?"

Hao Meng: "Good! I bought a set of fire path gu and a small scale immortal resource point."

"Oh? Let's see it! What resource does it produce?" She inquired.

"I don't have it yet. I just received the gu worms now. I have to wait for the transporting of the resource point. It will take some time." He explained.

"Huh? But you can just transfer stuff like that too. Even super sized resource points can be sold in Treasure Yellow Heaven..." Qinyang reasoned. "Wait! Did you pay in advance?"

"Yes, the seller sent the gu worms in advance and they will contact me when the resource point is ready."

"..." Qinyang facepalmed. "You got scammed. You know, right? Wasn't the price already suspicious?"

"What?"

"Look, the seller will not contact you at all. He is off with your money and you will never see them again." Qinyang sighed with frustration. "Well, it is not your fault. You really lived a sheltered life, huh. The whole time under a roof, never really feeling the storm."

"But I don't think I was scammed. The seller is just taking his time. Stop joking."

Qinyang looked at him with sympathy without saying anything.

Hao Meng: "So what if I got scammed! Then I will not make the same mistake again."

Qinyang: "Treasure Yellow Heaven has the treasure light immortal gu. It can show you the rough value of items. It helps you to not get ripped off! Do you know how much an immortal essence stone is worth? One immortal essence stone is worth more than tens of millions of primeval stones. Didn't your inheritance tell you these basics?"

"So much...?" Hao Meng contemplated for a moment and shook his head. "I don't think they knew about immortal essence stones or Treasure Yellow Heaven back in the grotto."

"That makes sense if they were cut off from the outside." Qinyang added.

"Tomorrow, master and I will go to the Tian Qucheng banquet. We will make some big gains there. You should not worry about immortal essence stones by then."

"Master?! Did you let Bao Zhi entice you with something? I told you, he is a swindler, a two-faced crook. He is not who he seems!"

Hao Meng's easygoing expression shifted instantly. His brow furrowed, casting shadows over his narrowed eyes.

"Qinyang!" This was the first time Hao Meng raised his voice against her.

"Do not talk of my master in such a tone! Disgracing the master is disgracing the disciple!"

He caught himself, clearing his throat. His next words came quieter. "It was me who asked for his help." He explained. "I was a student without a teacher. It is only proper I seek the teachings of those who know better, no? Didn't you also take Jue Shi as your mentor?"

"..." Qinyang was tongue tied, she couldn't divulge those circumstances.

Hao Meng: "You should have more trust in people, you know. If you don't trust my master, then you can still trust me."

He paused with emphasis. "You know, a little trust can go a long way."

"That's exactly how someone ends up dead in the gu world!" Qinyang added in her mind.

"Yes, a little trust goes a long way..." She began. "But then, I say, no trust goes all the way!"

"Huh?"

"You need to be wary of the hidden intentions! Only assume that people will do what is best for themselves. If the two interests are aligned then you can rest easy."

"..." Hao Meng felt arguing over this was futile. "You are right." He said and left his thoughts to himself. "Qinyang, you start to sound like my mother, you should hear yourself..." He left to clear his head and continue cultivating.

* * * * *

The next day.

Qinyang was using the gu house's controls to make changes to her floor when she stumbled into something unexpected.

"There are people in the walls?"

She discovered the slumbering wills inside the hidden space of the immortal gu house.

"Hmph! These? Just inferior trash!" Jue Shi appeared before her. "It is time I get rid of these poor imitations for good."

Jue Shi waved his little hand and a bunch of wills appeared from below. Suppressed by the immortal gu house, they were frozen and unable to think.

Ever since Jue Shi decided to appear, these wills couldn't come and go as they pleased inside the gu house.

"Wait! I saw in the records, aren't they from Wen clan? What are they still doing here?"

Jue Shi furrowed his brows for a moment, shaking his head.

"You should know about the competition of the Bao and Wen clans by now." He began. "Wen clan wanted to preserve their knowledge, accumulating it generation by generation."

"After studying this immortal gu house, they came up with their scheme, a new type of will. They called it the everlasting will." Jue Shi scoffed at this notion.

"They would convert their will into this new type of will. As long as it remained inside the gu house, it would be replenished so it wouldn't disappear just by thinking and exhausting their thoughts."

"Ah, wisdom path shenanigans again..." Qinyang thought to herself.

"Then they would take this 'everlasting' will and put it inside an inheritors mind. A type of possession, if you will. But the new vessel would still produce its own will."

"But how would that work? The will would still disappear then, no?" She asked.

"They suppressed the original will and used a killer move, Clear Mind Unity, to mix the two together temporarily. It gave the new body the abilities of the old."

"Of course, it was full of flaws." He sneered. "First, the vessel would have to be highly compatible, both in body and mind. Then, they would have to replenish the will regularly. But even so, a fatal weakness remained."

Jue Shi stopped for a moment, a mocking expression on his little face. "The vessel's lifespan is used up more than twice as fast!"

"This is why these wills are still here. They had no suitable vessels." Jue Shi motioned at the hidden space.

"So, are you telling me these wills are from the top experts of Wen clan?"

"Mmm. The best among trash is still trash."

Qinyang couldn't understand why Jue Shi had such a disdain and superiority complex when speaking of these wills.

"Give them to me. I might have a use for them."

Jue Shi looked at her curiously.

"If you think you can take one inside of your body and suppress it. I will have to stop that. The relevant wisdom path methods are left behind with their supreme elder anyway."

"I wouldn't let anyone in my head. Don't worry." She laughed.

"Good then. I need you to be yourself." With that said Jue Shi left.

Qinyang glanced at these wills.

"So are you telling me I was sitting on this treasure trove the whole time? These wills have a super clan's gu immortal inheritances. Surely there is a way I can make use of them, right?"

She looked through the slumbering wills, like she was browsing wares to buy.

Her gaze stopped at one of the names.

"Shou Xin? Is this the same Shou Xin that wrote my mortal information path inheritance?"

She reviewed the footage from the Treasure Blue Beaver blessed land.

It was just as she suspected.

"Indeed she was the one who removed Bao clan's agreement. Jackpot!"

A mischievous smirk appeared on her face.

"I don't know how, but I'm going to pry out all your secrets."

She took out one of the motionless wills and began to conduct experiments.

The will's body was split in two by Qinyang's methods. The two parts wobbled and became faded. Then after a while the two regenerated.

"Hmm. Good, the will didn't die. If I keep a copy, I don't have to worry about losing its data accidentally." She noted and continued.

Qinyang had no talent for wisdom path. Extracting information from wills was even harder than extracting memories from a soul, she knew this as well. So she opted for a different approach.

"Before I can continue, I need to confirm one last thing. If this doesn't work, it will be a pain to solve this..." She prepared the next experiment.

But this time the will she wanted to test was not one of the suppressed everlasting wills, but her own will.

It took her a while but she successfully produced a type of will called curious will with the help of a wisdom path gu.

Next, she created a puzzle with the help of her information path methods and gave it to the will to study and solve it.

She was eagerly observing as the will acted on its own. The will knew its purpose, there was no need for any explanations.

"Done." The will announced before it returned to Qinyang's mind and presented the solution to the puzzle.

"Yes!!" Qinyang pumped her fist enthusiastically. "This proves that wills can not only store information but they can learn as well!"

She was careful not to create the puzzle before the will, this way the will had to work its way through, understand and learn the rules of the puzzle.

She started to configure and tweak her information path killer move. After a few hours, she felt she could proceed.

Qinyang took one of the wills and placed it inside the range of her killer move.

"So far so good. Next, I'll release the restraints." She controlled the gu house in the meanwhile.

The will came to life suddenly!

"Why did I wake up? Where am I?" The will looked around in confusion. All it could see was an empty white space.

Qinyang's will also appeared next to it. "Senior, the time is short, Bao clan is attacking this place. Supreme elder sent me here to rescue you all."

The Wen clan immortal's will didn't believe her. "I'm in a formation. You want to deceive me!"

Bang!

Qinyang activated the immortal gu house again, she exploded the will instantly.

"I knew there were flaws... But it found out instantly, hmm." She split the will again, adjusted her methods and sent in the new will.

"Senior! Bao clan is about to remove their restrictions..."

Bang!

"I carry the supreme elder's decree! Hand over the inheritance..."

Bang!

Qinyang tried various situations, but the wills were alert and suspicious, always catching onto some detail or inaccuracy.

She tried again and again.

Each time her ploy was uncovered, she destroyed the will.

She couldn't keep the wills that discovered and remembered these probings.

It turned out Qinyang found another shortcoming of the everlasting wills, or rather, she was turning their advantage of replenishment against them.

"I don't believe it. Security's weakest link is always the human factor! Social engineering will work, it is only a matter of time until I find the right lies to tell."

...

"I should also focus on making the environment more believable."

...

"Oh! Why don't I use the recordings from the immortal gu house? I bet I could cut together a good scene from those!" She rubbed her hands mentally.

* * * * *