1 Xue Mingyu

Part 1 - Xue Clan

In the center of a dark room only lit by a few candles, a boy, who seemed to be of-age, but wasn't quite a man yet was meditating. Any Gu Master could tell what he was doing, because every Gu Master had done the same thing countless times. He was nurturing his aperture. The black green primeval essence poured into the crystal membrane walls of Xue Mingyu's Rank 1 Peak Stage aperture. Inside the aperture were five Gu, all similarly Rank 1, but the boy didn't pay attention to the Gu at this moment, instead focusing on himself.

Originally, Xue Mingyu's aperture was filled sixty percent of the way with his primeval essence, enough to barely qualify as B Grade, but his constant usage of primeval essence to nurture his aperture had caused it to fall to below twenty percent. Most of the time when Gu Masters nurtured their apertures with their primeval essence, they would not use more than half of it at a time, as it would be bad if they were surprised with little primeval essence. However, Xue Mingyu was currently in the very secure seclusion room of the clan's communal residence area.

The primeval essence continued to push into the aperture walls, gradually breaking more crystal membrane off. Xue Mingyu's cultivation had advanced to the limit of Rank 1 while he was still at the academy, and in the year since then, he had failed over and over again to break through. This time, he was going to push until he broke through, no matter the cost.

Feeling the crystal membrane wall start to shake, Xue Mingyu's expression shifted into that of delight. He was at the final step of the breakthrough process!

The more Xue Mingyu attacked the walls, the more he could feel that the primeval essence he was slowly regenerating was getting stronger. He started to use the new primeval essence to nurture his aperture, which had a compounding effect.

Then, the crystal membrane shattered.

Xue Mingyu opened his glittering eyes and felt the power of his now light red Rank 2 Initial Stage primeval essence. He stretched his arms while pushing his head back to crack his neck, standing up shortly after.

The door to the seclusion room was blockaded by a small formation which would only open from the inside. The food and drink that the secluded cultivator needed was provided through a hole in the back which was only accessible to the clan elder in charge of residence. There was a toilet in the corner, just out of sight from the hole.

However, Xue Mingyu didn't need to focus on any of this for any longer. He had spent the past three days in this room and wanted no more of it. Rather, he was starting to anticipate the missions he once despised.

"Am I going insane?" Xue Mingyu asked himself, shaking his head.

Xue Mingyu left the seclusion room and notified the clan elder, who he saw was using some primeval essence after being told that Xue Mingyu was done. As he didn't see any physical Gu worms, Xue Mingyu assumed he was recording something in an information path Gu still in his aperture.

When Xue Mingyu left the communal residence area to re-register for his squad at the mission center, the moon was near its peak in the night sky. Judging by the fact that some shops still had their lights on, Xue Mingyu assumed that he would be able to make it to the mission center in time. He didn't know exactly when it closed, but as an administrative building in charge of every squad in the clan, it couldn't be the first place to close, right?

He didn't want to run, but figuring that walking normally would make him late, Xue Mingyu moved at a brisk pace.

"Mingyu?" A mature voice appeared from the left when Xue Mingyu walked past a small tea shop. He stopped in his tracks and smiled in the direction of the voice. Xue Xiao Pan, the leader of Xue Mingyu's squad, was drinking tea at a table set outside the tea shop.

"Squad leader, good to see you."

"Please Mingyu, it's been a year and you still won't call me by my name?"

"Ah." Xue Mingyu started to stutter. He had indeed been told to call the squad leader by his name, but it wasn't a year ago. No, the squad leader only told him to call him Xiao Pan about half a month ago.

"Whatever. Weren't you in seclusion? Did you break through to Rank 2?" Xiao Pan asked.

"Sure did! It took a while, but I'm glad to finally have that bottleneck over with. Honestly, even Liangren advanced to Rank 2 before me, and she's a C Grade talent…" remembering Xue Liangren, a fellow orphan from the beast tide who he had a crush on at the academy, Xue Mingyu couldn't help but start to frown a bit.

"…Well, you've advanced now. There's no use worrying about the past, is there?"

"True. Thanks, squad leader-er, Xiao, Xiao Pan." Xue Mingyu said. He had instinctively used the polite way to refer to Xiao Pan even though he had been told not to just a few minutes before.

"Oh, by the way, can we take more missions? I finally advanced, but it doesn't mean much if my Gu are still Rank 1. I need a lot of money to refine my set to Rank 2, so I need to rely on you for a bit." Xue Mingyu bowed while asking.

"Mingyu, don't forget what I always tell you. Things progress smoothly when you don't force it. You will have enough primeval stones in due time, but if we take too many missions, it would come off as us competing with the other teams. We don't need more internal conflict in this clan, and we certainly don't want to lose our lives in dangerous missions." Xiao Pan said. Xue Mingyu frowned, but didn't say anything to that.

The squad may not like it, hell even the clan may not like it, but Xue Mingyu was willing to do whatever it took to become a Venerable. Ever since he was a child, Xue Mingyu had heard the tales of Giant Sun Immortal Venerable. Sure, he was on the opposite side of the world, but for a Venerable, that distance was meaningless. When Xue Mingyu heard these stories, he felt a deep sense of envy. He was not inspired like the other kids, but rather thought that he too should be that strong. It wasn't until after he became a Gu Master that he understood just how much effort he would need to put in in order to reach that height. He didn't care though. When he set his mind on becoming a Venerable, Xue Mingyu would not stop until that goal was accomplished.

"I guess I'll have to find an alternate way to acquire funds… it might be a little troublesome."

After that, Xue Mingyu told Xue Xiao Pan that he was going to the mission center to get certified for missions again. The squad leader bid him farewell, and he walked forward into the night.

"Shit, I spent so long talking to the squad leader that I might have missed the deadline." Xue Mingyu thought.

When he arrived at the mission center, most of the lights were already off. However, Xue Mingyu felt some primeval essence and realized that someone was using a Reading Light Gu to create some light only they could see. He knocked on the door, and just as he thought, someone opened it for him.

"Welcome." A large, muscular man said when he saw Xue Mingyu, "I assume you're here for something?"

"Ah. Yes, I am Xue Mingyu, and I have just completed my secluded cultivation. I wish to be confirmed for mission activity once again."

"Hmm… usually, you would come to be registered in the morning, when there is someone besides a clan elder here." The man revealed his blossom silver primeval essence as he spoke, obviously trying to scare this young man away and get out of his own work.

"So you won't register me?" Xue Mingyu asked, unaware of why the elder was trying to scare him.

"Tsk. Fine, come on in boy." The elder said. He whispered under his breath something like "kids these days," but Xue Mingyu didn't hear it all, so he ignored it.

The elder walked over to a desk and urged Xue Mingyu to follow. Xue Mingyu, who was familiar with the mission center from the past year he spent doing missions with his squad, had no trouble navigating it even in the dark. He actually had a good idea of where things were thanks to his Infrared Gu, which he activated when it got too dark to see outside.

"Alright, you said your name was Xue Mingyue?"

"No, my name is Xue Mingyu. With a 'Yu' character."

The elder stared up at the annoying little brat but decided that the clan would not take it very well if he beat up a kid with Rank 2 Cultivation before he could complete any missions.

"Okay… ah, here it is. Xue Mingyu, asked for leave on August 27th, which was accepted by Xue Bo Qi and squad leader Xue Xiao Pan… and done. By the way boy, it's past midnight already, so I'm marking you as being finished with your seclusion on September 1st."

"Ugh. Fine, I guess I owe you what, three primeval stones?"

"Five, actually." The elder said, motioning for Xue Mingyu to give him the primeval stones quickly.

"What? I could've sworn it was three!" Although Xue Mingyu said this, he did not delay the elder, quickly handing over five primeval stones.

When Xue Mingyu got home, he looked at the clock and saw that it read 11:50. Because the mission center was too dark, Xue Mingyu could not see the clock fully, and didn't realize it was still August 31st. He had been on time.