**Chapter 43: Freedom, or...?**

Hey guys, I've been kind of busy the last few weeks, and that will continue into the future (unfortunately). But the fic is not dropped.

I will try to do a chapter a week from now on.

Also, shoutout to Ligheris and his fic "Reverend Insanity: Nature's Dominion Venerable." His MC is trying to become the Avatar in the world of RI.

Do you think the reincarnation aspect of the Avatar would be possible in the world of RI too?

Do you think there is a physical (like in terms of space) limit to how many Gu a mortal Gu Master can have?

If you had rank 8 strength and your only goal is to be remembered by the entire Gu world forever, what would you do to achieve the most amount of fame?

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*Hummmm*

In what would normally be called a town square, but wasn't in a town, a few hundred young men and women stood.

Most of them looked anxious, worried, some had already given up on hope, and very few of them looked confident. But at the moment, the expressions left their faces, as they mostly looked more worried or annoyed, as they had to cover their ears with their hands.

It was a protection, to prevent their hearing from being permanently damaged.

I did the same, but just as a pretense, as I could have easily resisted with a gu all the same, like some people were doing.

'Just have to pretend a little bit more….'

Those that did not pretend were the ones at the peak of rank 2, and I am sure a few of them reached rank 3 as well….

'With most clans focusing their resources on one person, like their lives depend on it, this does not come as a surprise to me.'

'It's only that in this case their lives actually depend on this….'

It's not even the end of bad news, that others reached rank 3 too, I glanced to my right, and saw Mu Bao, who had reached rank 3.

'It seems that the ruling party in the Fei Yu clan made its choice about who to support.'

I was not bitter about that, just cautious. What made me angry though, was that this happened because I was considered to be in the third elder's faction.

The third elder has not contacted me, neither has he supported me in any way up until now. He just seems fully uninterested in politics, autistically obsessing with refinement.

But at the moment, I did not care, as I looked about 30 meters to my front and saw a young man, with short black hair, and a grey robe, who showed me the widest grin.

'This Motherf…'

It took all my restraint, to not brutally murder him right here…

To understand why… We have to go back a bit…

*24 hours ago*

Fei Yu Zhen Wei sat in his tent, concentrated and in absolute silence. His eyes were closed and there was no expression on his face, as he was cultivating with dedication.

The key to progress is consistency. It does not matter that the Immortal Inheritance can start at any moment, nor does the pressure on me matter. The way to succeed in life is with consistent effort.

The Blossom Silver Primeval Essence, created by the liquor worm, crashed against the walls of his Aperture.

All of a sudden, his eyes widened, and his hand shot up into the air, as if trying to block a phantom attack directed at his head.

It did not take long for him to open his hand, and show that he was not imagining something.

"Hmmm…. Rank 2 Silent Messenger Dove…" muttered the young man to the bird-like gu, that ironically looked nothing like a dove.

"Let's see what's important enough to interrupt my cultivation…" he said with a tired and annoyed expression on his face.

He mobilized his primeval essence, and injected a minute amount into the gu, that suddenly appeared in his tent.

All of a sudden, the head of the small bird exploded into a mist of blood, from which a myriad of colored light escaped. In the span of a few seconds, the bird's body withered into a dry corpse, as the lights formed a black screen in front of Zhen Wei.

It was not black for long, as very soon sound started, and a video started playing.

In it, one could see a man, chained and beaten, in a dark room, with wounds that made it obvious he had been tortured. If one did not know better, they would assume he was dead, but his breathing could still be heard in the video, albeit very quietly.

*Splash*

A bucket of water was thrown onto the prisoner, who woke up in a state of alarm and confusion, before seemingly remembering where he was, and switching to becoming scared.

"Look into the Gu and tell me who you are," came a deep voice, from a point that was unclear.

…

…

…

*Zap* a small but seemingly not very powerful bolt of electricity shot at the prisoner, who promptly started to writhe and scream in pain.

*Ahhhh*

"Don't make me repeat myself," the deep voice from before returned, sounding a bit more cold this time.

The prisoner slowly pushed himself off the ground, with a lot of effort, looked at the camera and began to talk.

"My name is Fei Yu Zhen Li, I am a rank 3 gu Master of the Fei Yu clan."

And while the young man in front of the screen was intently watching and listening, with a calm expression, the video continued.

"Very well, explain how you got here," the voice said, sounding pleased.

"I was out of the clan to gather some refinement materials, and was attacked and subsequently captured by some NUE CLAN COWARDS!"

*Zap*

"Ahhhhh"

"Prisoner, you would do well to only answer the questions I give you. And nothing more!"

"Now tell me, why do you think we let you live?" said the voice with a playful tone.

"Kill yourself…." came the weakened voice of the prisoner, the screaming obviously having done some damage to his voice.

*Zap*

"Well if you don't want to answer, I will do so for you."

"The reason you are alive, is that your son, Fei Yu Zhen Wei, is a promising contestant in the immortals inheritance."

"And as for you… " he said as the gu turned, now showing his face on the screen.

"…. the life of your father depends on your obedience to my Nue Clan." said the middle-aged bald man with a smile.

"So what is it going to be Zhen Wei? Your father, or your freedom?"

….

Not sooner than the words had finished, did the video end, the shriveled corpse of the gu turning into dust in Zhen Wei's hand.

"What will it be indeed?" a barely noticeable smile graced his lips, that left as soon as it came.

*Back to the Inheritance*

Analyzing the young man, that was smirking at me with a calm mind, I knew a lot about him, how could I not, when he was the reason I am currently being extorted.

He has reached the peak of rank 2, an impressive feat, undoubtedly only possible because he is the chosen heir to his clan. But still impressive, they are a rank 4 clan after all, and not an impressive one as well.

He is not at the absolute peak in power, like me and a few other anomalies, but cultivation is not everything, after all, I don't know his gu or natural talent.

The Nue clan had one rank 4 gu master, their clan leader, who was at rank 4 middle stage. They do not have an impressive, or particularly long history. All in all, they are ordinary.

Except in courage of course, as they dared abduct a rank 3 elder of the Fei Yu clan, and judging from the 4 other people staring daggers at that young man, they kidnapped a handful of others as well.

'They do have courage in abundance…. Hehehe'

'Let's see if it will pay off for you….'

*Hummmm*

A loud humming sound came from the fully filled-out tattoos of every inheritance participant, signifying that another contestant has made the breakthrough.

The sound appeared only for a second, before it vanished into nothingness, taking the young gu masters with them.

"Hello, and welcome back to Dasheng Anjing blessed land!!!" rang the voice of the visibly excited land spirit into the ears of the contestants.

Zhen Wei only heard the humming of his tattoo for a fraction of a second, before he found himself back in the overly bright blessed land.

Looking around, it looked exactly the same as last time, a flat seemingly endless space, with a glowing white floor.

"Half of you have reached rank 2, well done!"

*Snap*

As the land spirit snapped, the white floor slowly lost its light and color, becoming transparent.

It revealed the 'true' blessed land beneath our feet, with us seemingly floating about 500 meters above it.

The true form was nothing like it looked like before, with mountains, trees and rivers. It resembles a miniature version of the southern border, with the only notable difference being that a myriad of animals, insects and resources of the sound path.

'The poison thought gu is truly a miracle….' I thought, as I looked below, knowing that just a few months ago, I would have not been this unbothered.

'How high is this? 500 meters, maybe 600…. in any case, so much more than I tested it with…' I thought in satisfaction, silently making more plans for my use of the Poison Thought Gu.

"Impressive isn't it?? This is what you are competing for…."

"I have spread hundreds of inheritances in there, from the lowest of rank 1 gu masters, to the highest rank 5's, everything is there." the land spirit said, while pointing at the blessed land below.

I could not shake the feeling that the words 'highest rank 5's' had been spoken by the land spirit with a sense of irony, disregarding it in the end, as I think a land spirit is not complex enough for irony…

"In a few minutes, I will teleport you down there." As a reaction to this, some people swallowed hard, some became visibly more nervous, while others showed no reaction at all.

"There, you will have to fight for opportunities, against beasts as well as other contestants." With this announcement, the mood for the majority of contestants reached rock bottom.

"Listen carefully, and be quiet. The rules are the following:

1. The contest will last 1 month, no more and no less.

2. For every 100 beasts of the same rank you kill, you will gain a hint to a random inheritance that I hid."

'Why did I have to advance to rank 3…' a thought echoed by all the few people that managed to reach rank 3.

"3. If you defeat another contestant, you can choose to kill them or to eliminate them from the competition. You will be rewarded with a hint to a hidden inheritance in either case."

'Never mind…'

"4. Once you have joined, you cannot give up the competition. So if you are defeated, your fate lies with the victor.

As I am not heartless, I will give you the option to give up right now. There will be no such chance at any point in the future, so choose wisely."

'But where will my hints come from now?'

"Anyway, you have 5 minutes to raise your hand if you do not want to participate in this inheritance."

One hand after another shot into the air, and after they were teleported out of the Aperture, everything happened so fast that you blink and miss it.

About four minutes later, most of the rank 1 Gu Masters had given up and were teleported away, with a few frankly greedy ones remaining.

The shocking thing to me was that about 20% of the rank 2 Gu Masters quit as well, likely those who did not specialize in fighting or did not want to risk death.

'Still, that's risky… I don't know how the clans will react to that. The rank 1s are probably still fine, but the rank 2s might get themselves killed like that as well… Difficult…'

*Snap*

I got violently pulled out of my thoughts as the disorienting feeling of being forcefully teleported came and went, leaving me somewhere in the blessed land.