Chapter 4: They’re just rats… right?

The spring neared its peak as any traces of the previous season faded into the memories of the past.

Yao Le was taking a scroll through the Toad caravan which will take its leave in just a few days. She wouldn't want to miss any opportunities.

She had about five hundred primeval stones in her possession, all of them by smuggling and selling vitality leafs. Quite the lucrative business , right?

Especially when the caravan arrived, the market price for vitality leaves increased from 50 to 60 primeval stones, because the escorting gu master from the caravan had to restock healing gu.

She entered one of the tents selling Gu worms. If she were to buy a gu now, what kind of gu would it be? 

At first thought, an attacking Gu would be most ideal. Strike a threat first before it can harm you and pasta.

But her main objective was cultivating in the shadows. She was "restricted" by Fang Yuan so to say, thus diverging from the timeline would cause him to lay his attention on her. That is less than desired.

She halted at the rank one Gu exposition. Her eyes flashed in light as she recognized them due to her accumulated studies. 

Rank one wolf enslavement Gu, rank one iron fist gu, rank one rock stealth gu…

'Rank one stealth rock gu? Am I daring enough…?' Her cheeks flushed as she imagined her stripping herself to use stealth rock gu's invisibility effect to its fullest.

She pushed that thought aside.

She remembered how the Gu Yue Bo, the clan leader, once mentioned in the novel: "The type of gu worm a hi master chooses reveals their nature."

So what is she going to choose?

'A healing is unnecessary, I got the medicine hall backing me here… defense alone is useless… an enslagement gu? No, too noticeable…' She scrutinized each gu individually, gradually from the one to the next.

Suddenly a female store clerk stepped in front of her. Yao Le eyes shifted upwards to the woman's who easily had one head more adding to her height.

"What can I do for you, little miss? Is there something which caught your eye? The sales have been bad these days, so there are plenty of guys to choose. Don't be shy, little miss." Yao Le didn't like her tone. It reminds her of people who are pressing her to buy their wares even though she was only passing by.

Yao Le pointed at the direction of the rank one gu. "I am looking for a gu which would complement my small icicle gu. But I am not sure what kind of path I should take." Revealing her identity would only make questions befall her, due to her assumed mortal status, so she gave off the impression of hailing from Bai Clan, which excels in ice path gu worms.

"Ah, so a young gu master looking for a second gu, am I right? How about the safest option, the rank one turtle shell gu? When activated a turtle shell will from on your forearm, excellent in durability!" The female store clerk made great use of her arms, borderline comical, to illustrate the Gu worm's use.

Yao Le shook her head. "I preferred to have a Gu worm also aiding me outside of battle. What do you have in stock?" 

After some back and forth Yao Le managed to buy rank one toad belly gu for exactly 521 primeval stones. It was obvious that Yao Le was spent from negotiating with that insistent bitch, who constantly argued that she won't sell it to her unless she paid 550 primeval stones. The store clerk finally relented as 521 was all Yao Le had.

But this Gu had potential.

The Toad belly Gu was a storage type Gu worm able to carry up to 50kg of wares. It feed on river mud, so despite its low capacity, it was very convenient to feed while traveling.

Yao Le's battle power was still comparable to a mortal's, but her versatility and potential already overtook most rank one Gu master.

Her eyes listlessly skimmed through every passing stand as she returned to the entrance of the tent.

Once outside, Yao Le reflexively held her ears shut, when the crowd surrounding the Gambling rock den erupted in roars.

The collective crowd overshadowed each individual voice but once a teenage boy with eyes as deep as the abyss escaped the mass with hurried steps, her eyes widened.

It was Fang Yuan! Worst of all, Fang Yuan was smiling!

What could have caused that eternally indifferent expression to twist into that happy smile? 

Yao Le's heart raced, yet she remained unchanged in the outside. She then asked a passerby what has occurred to stir the crowd in such manner.

"Are you deaf? Some Newbie bought 5 gambling rocks and… and…", the passerby let out an exasperated gasp, clenching his fist, "… and won two Gu worms! Worst of all, one of them was a liquor worm!"

Seeing her equally shocked expression the passerby's voice gradually fell. "And look at me! 6 stones bought, won nothing but dust. Curse the heavens for my misfortune."

After giving some consoling words, Yao Le got back to her room in no time, pushed the ever prevailing mess aside and started to think.

'Heaven's will took action! Fang Yuan hasn't been abandoned, which means…' her mind ran through all sorts of possibilities. Dozens of minutes passed, making her long for a wisdom path gu. She had reached the end of thought. Her conclusion painted a smile on her face. '… whatever I do, Heaven's will won't do anything against me!'

Of course her theory needs more evidence, therefore a little experimentation would be required.

She threw herself on the desk and began brainstorming. 

…

Gu Yue village's Medicine Hall.

The ever present smell of disinfectants lingered in the air, reminding Yao Le of the hospitals in her previous life. 

After years of working as an assistant nurse and secretary in the medicine hall, she knew that place like the back of her hand.

It was rather advanced compared to the tech level of medieval Europe yet was stell miles away from any scientific understanding seen in the renaissance. And there was one obvious answer: the over reliance on Gu worms.

Of course traditional methods weren't extinct because of these magical insects but… they were too traditional for Yao Le's tastes.

Yes, they knew how to disinfect, they knew the anatomy of the human body and were pretty skilled when it came to surgery. 

And Gu worms can turn a death sentence into a full recovery if enough is sacrificed.

But as the saying goes: there is no strongest Gu, only the strongest Gu master. 

Yao Le saw people die of their wounds before they were admitted into the emergency room, she saw how (for them) incurable diseases crippled or even killed the unfortunate. Everything happened under her watch was gruesome.

Her inner voice screamed at her about how she could save them if she revealed her otherworldly knowledge of natural science, which included medicine. How she could have "invented" Antibiotics, how she could intervene when a doctor falsely diagnosed a patient, when it was far worse in actual.

Yet all her restraint was for the sake of her safety. 

Some would accuse her of being cowardly, she herself would agree. 

Yet she did nothing. Due to her cold rational side, which pulled the final trigger: "You lack strength. What would be afraid of if you were a Gu Immortal? yUo coUlD hA-"

In the end she grew indifferent to the cruelties of the world. She could have saved them, but she could save far more if she were stronger. And strength was just a faraway dream in the future. So she could only protect herself now to find that strength that she saught in the future.

'Is strength really the only answer…?' Yao Le sighted as she vailed another deceased Gu master covered in black patches under a blanket. This world was different from earth. The strong eats the weak is far more prevalent in the Gu world. She gritted her teeth.

'Commit smaller evil early in order to do greater good later? Sounds like the Great Love Venerable…' Yao Le's expression hinted on inattention, but her eyes glimmered in determination.

She held a syringe in her hand and penetrated the skin of that deceased Gu master, sucking a small amount of blood from the corpse.

Yao Le held it against the sunlight.

"This is what I call 'Madness'."

…

Summer arrived as spring's gentle sun rays grew more intense.

Yao Le's Room.

She struggled to restrain that fidgety little creature with a syringe in her other hand.

"Finally got you! Sigh… even trapped in a box, mice sure are slippery." She wiped off her sweat from her forehead with her forearm. She then proceeded to inject the contents in the syringe into the struggling mouse.

If any sane person understood what she was doing, they would immediately barge in and destroy everything hidden in her closet out of terror.

It was a laboratory! And it wasn't like any other lab…

She was cultivating the infamous Yersinia pestis, better known as the Black Death!

By holding a colony of mice, she could keep the deadly bacteria alive by periodically supplying it with a host. But that wasn't all she did.

She has developed a vaccine and vaccinated herself by injecting dead Yersinia pestis into her blood stream. 

And most devilishly, she is training the pathogen to be resistant to healing Gu! So far she could only use Vitality leafs, the most widespread Gu in the village, to upgrade that pest.

Yao Le felt conflicted yet this was the only way that she could spread chaos in the village to postpone the awakening ceremony until the wolf tide will take over that job.

'6 months… can one outbreak really paralyse the village for six months?' If she released the pathogen a week before the awakening ceremony would the

After that whole overall she closed her closet door shut, washed her hands and went on cultivating.

"Heh, I will reach rank two initial stage in a couple of weeks. B grade talent is nothing to look down upon." 

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Disclaimer: I do not advocate for biological weapons development. I am a noob when it comes for that and only use this subject as a means to make the story interesting. In reality developing one is much more complicated.