The First Lesson We Never Forget

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Today's Song is: The Score - In My Blood

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Suo Bai woke up early the next morning and got ready for his first day at the Gu gym.

Suo Bai and Fang Zheng walked towards the Gu academy side by side while chatting lightly.

"So, have you confessed your feelings to young Shen Cui?" Suo Bai asked Fang Zheng with a provocative smile.

"What? N-no, who says I like her?" Fang Zheng blushed as he revealed that he really liked young Shen Cui.

Fang Zheng scratched his cheek with his right index finger as he asked embarrassed: "Do you think I should confess? Would I have a chance?"

Suo Bai looked at Fang Zheng's expression and smiled as he ran a hand over his head: "A man without love is nothing but an empty shell."

"I think you should go ahead and do what your heart tells you, be confident and honest and I'm sure she'll accept it." Suo Bai advised his little brother to take it easy.

Fang Zheng smiled as he felt his brother stop stroking his head: "Thanks big brother!"

"huh? There's nothing to be thankful for." Suo Bai raised an eyebrow as he answered his little brother.

"No. It's not just about that, I wanted to thank you for everything you've done for me." Fang Zheng lowered his head as he felt ashamed.

"What are you talking about? I've done practically nothing." Suo Bai laughed when he heard his little brother's reply.

"No, it's just... In the dream yesterday, you- ...Oh forget it." Fang Zheng got confused and mistook what had happened in the dream for reality for a moment.

'Apparently the dreams aren't just helping his confidence and self-esteem, they're also making him see me in a better light. Suo Bai thought with a calm smile on his face.

After a while, Suo Bai raised his head and realized that they had already arrived at the academy, so he looked slightly at Fang Zheng while smiling.

"You don't have to thank me for that, I just did what an older brother should do." Suo Bai decided to play with his little brother for a while and stroked his head again before entering the classroom.

"Big brother..." Fang Zheng was thrilled as he stood in the middle of the classroom doorway in the way of the students.

"Err... Excuse me, could you let me through?!" A small girl with short brown hair asked lightly.

"Ah, yes. Sorry." Fang Zheng snapped out of his thoughts as he entered the room and made room for the students to enter as well.

Fang Zheng chose a seat at the front of the room right next to the other students with the greatest talents of the year. While Suo Bai himself was sitting in the third row near the window.

It took just over ten minutes for everyone to arrive and settle into their seats, and soon afterwards the academy elder who was to give the lecture today also arrived.

"All right, everyone calm down and pay attention. Today I'm going to talk about aperture and the development of Gu worms." The academy elder drew the attention of all the young people and began teaching his class.

"As soon as you went through the process of the ceremony you ended up awakening your aperture, the aperture is nothing more than a mysterious and enigmatic spherical space located inside Master Gu's body around the stomach area. 

Because it is ethereal, it doesn't take up physical space like an internal organ would. The aperture is infinitely large, but at the same time infinitely small." The elder explained patiently as he wrote and drew some shapes on the board at the front of the room.

"Its aperture produces and stores primitive essence depending on the Aptitude and Level of its Primitive Sea. The Primal Essence serves as the basis for the cultivation of a Gu Master and the basis for promoting its cultivation. Where it can also be used as a place for a Gu Master to safely place and store his Gu Worms."

The academy elder then spent the next few hours explaining the fundamentals and essence of what being a Gu Master entails. 

But even though the elder spent hours talking about a single subject, the students didn't disturb his lesson once, they were all extremely focused and learning as much as they could, some even asking questions and writing in their notebooks.

This was especially true for Suo Bai and Nexus themselves, who absorbed all the teachings that the elder passed on, and wrote down both mentally and physically all the subjects and formulas that the elder taught.

...

As soon as the class was over, it was almost evening, and all the students returned to their homes and summarized the knowledge they had learned today, or at least those who hadn't been formally taught before.

Suo Bai was no different either, he quickly returned home with his little brother. But he noticed some changes in his new lifestyle, firstly his servant Shen Cui, who had been replaced by an old servant.

This didn't matter much to Suo Bai, but it made Fang Zheng very happy to receive Shen Cui herself as his new servant. The treatment between the brothers also changed a little, the servants began to treat Fang Zheng more cordially while they were more unruly with Suo Bai.

Fang Zheng's own room also received new improvements, such as a new bed, a new wardrobe and a private desk. Not to mention the new clothes and decorations that were put up during their class periods.

His aunt and uncle had really gone all out to improve Fang Zheng's lifestyle and hadn't even bothered to try to hide their current dislike of Suo Bai.

But all this hasn't affected Suo Bai at all, as long as he has a roof over his head and food to eat he has nothing to complain about, Suo Bai's only concern at the moment is Gu cultivation.

Entering his room, Suo Bai quietly closed the door and talked to Nexus. "Say Nexus, how many Dao Marks do you currently have stored up? Is it enough to replicate the Liquor Worm?"

[I can't exactly quantify the amount of Dao Marks I currently have stored in a number, since they are more like scattered fragments of the real Dao Marks]

[But I believe I have enough Dao Marks stored to replicate at least 4 Liquor worms]

"I see, so replicate a liquor worm now." Suo Bai asked.

[Understood, Sir!]

[Interacting with the Database...]

[Starting possible simulations...]

"Show me the Nexus simulations." Suo Bai wanted to help with the simulation process before seeing the real thing.

[Yes, Sir!]

Suo Bai's consciousness was then pulled into a completely white environment, a place that was familiar to him, since he had come here a lot to study with the Nexus ways to escape from Chaos. That's the core of Nexus.

A place where the whole process of calculating and learning the Nexus takes place, a place where only the Nexus and Suo Bai himself can enter.

Suddenly the completely blank environment changed color to a darker gray and dots of colored lights began to dance across the sky like shooting stars, and sometimes some collided with each other and produced more stars that followed their path.

It was a very beautiful and involving process, but Suo Bai wasn't surprised by it, since he had seen it countless times before. This is Nexus deriving and simulating possibilities according to its current database.

Suo Bai closed his eyes to the environment and absorbed a few points of light and then returned others with his ideas, it was a gentle exchange of knowledge. With Suo Bai's help, the Nexus simulation process went much faster than usual and they quickly managed to find a safe and efficient enough way to replicate the Liquor worm in the Gu world.

All this simulation action was unnecessary to actually replicate the liquor worm, but as it was the first time Nexus was actually going to put this skill into practice. They both thought it would be more prudent to simulate the possibilities of such an action in case something unforeseen happened.

"Come on, Nexus!"Suo Bai and Nexus were satisfied with the results they had achieved and then began the real process of replication.

[Starting Replication Process!]

Suo Bai stretched both arms out in front of him as he sat on his bed. In the palm of Suo Bai's outstretched hands, a light began to glow, the light was white with a slightly pinkish tinge.

The light slowly began to rotate and strengthen its glow. Over time, the light took the form of a pinkish-white ball of energy. The pink ball of light kept spinning, but accelerated its speed every few cycles.

As it spun, it emitted a few pulses of light as if it were a beating heart. The pulses of light began to become more and more frequent, until suddenly the pink ball of light pulsed one last time with a strong light and then slowly faded away.

As the light slowly dimmed, it was possible to see that in Suo Bai's palm rested a small, fat white worm. This was the Liquor Worm they were trying to replicate.

[The replication was a success, Sir! Try to refine it according to the teachings of the academy elder]

And that's what Suo Bai did, he did it just as the elder had taught him. Carry your will with your primitive energy and slowly conquer the will of the Gu worm. Be careful not to be too aggressive and end up damaging the gu worm.

Since this was a completely new and freshly 'refined' Gu worm that Nexus had just replicated, he didn't have a will formed yet that could fight back, so the process went smoothly with Suo Bai finishing refining the liquor worm in less than a minute.

"The refinement process is really very mysterious and deep, Nexus, record everything so we can study it later" Suo Bai slowly opened his eyes as he instructed Nexus.

Waving his hand lightly, the liquor worm that was now completely under his control flew into his aperture and began to swim and play with the primitive essence of his aperture.

The chubby little worm would occasionally drink some of the primitive essence from the initial stage of the aperture and then begin to release a faint mist of alcohol. If someone could smell this mist, they would surely remember the smell of a good wine.

The faint alcohol mist gathered into a small cloud and was converted into tiny pale green drops that fell into Suo Bai's primitive sea and sank as if they were denser than the jade green liquid.

This was the primitive essence of the middler stage that the liquor worm converted. The fat worm devoured some more primitive essence and continued the process of refining primitive essence under Suo Bai's command.

"Fascinating. Nexus, record everything!" Suo Bai was still concentrating on converting his primitive essence, but he didn't stop paying attention to the interesting process that the little fat worm was carrying out naturally.

Once the liquor worm had used up all its primal essence from the initial stage, Suo Bai used one of the primal stones he had taken from the corpse of the flower wine monk and restored its primal essence again.

Then the liquor worm continued its work of refining its primitive essence. After finishing converting all his primitive essence to the middler stage, Suo Bai took the liquor worm out of its aperture and looked at it.

"Really very interesting, I can really feel that he's hungry." Suo Bai watched the little liquor worm half-heartedly, almost as if it were sad.

"Maybe it must be because it was a recently refined Gu worm, so it's already hungry, or it could be because the replication process caused it, take note of that too Nexus." Suo Bai put the liquor worm away in its aperture and got up from his bed.

It was late at night and there was no one else awake in the house at that time, so Suo Bai quietly left his room and headed towards the kitchen.

Remembering the basic layout of the house, Suo Bai went down to the second floor and passed through a few rooms before finally arriving in the kitchen.

The kitchen was large and perfectly clean, with a large wooden table in the center with various utensils and spices on top. Behind it was a large clay stove fueled by wood, and to the sides were the shelves and pantries where the spices were kept.

Approaching one of the pantries, Suo Bai opened it and saw a small collection of wines. Without a moment's hesitation, Suo Bai grabbed the liquor worm and made it drink three whole jugs of wine.

Looking at the liquor worm in his hand, Suo Bai saw that he had a full belly and was completely drunk and much happier too - it was almost possible to see him slapping his stomach in satisfaction.

Suo Bai laughed a little and then put the liquor worm away in its aperture and threw away the wine bottles. Three bottles of ordinary wine wouldn't have been necessary for the kitchen, as the owner of the house had his own wine tavern.

So, without worrying, Suo Bai went back to his room. As he climbed the stairs to his room, he remembered his little brother's nightmares and walked towards his room.

This time Suo Bai didn't hear anything as he approached Fang Zheng's room, which made him think that perhaps he had gotten over the nightmares. But he still went in to check.

When he entered the room, Suo Bai saw that Fang Zheng was sleeping comfortably in his new bed with newer blankets that better protected him from the cold. The only thing abnormal about him were his frowning eyebrows.

Suo Bai didn't take long and simply repeated what he had done the previous times and made the Nexus positively influence his thoughts so that he would do better in his nightmares and build his own dreams.

This will certainly shape you into a person with a better character in a short space of time. 

As soon as he had finished his work, Suo Bai left the room and went back to his room to sleep, only to wake up the next morning and repeat the same process.

...

The week had passed quickly since Suo Bai had awakened his aperture at the awakening ceremony. He was currently at the gu academy receiving the elder's teachings just as he had done all week.

"Throughout this week I have taught you all the basics of the way of a Gu Master. Now that you're ready, I'll send you all to the clan's Gu Room, where you can choose your first Gu Worm." The academy elder had his hands behind his back as he explained in a dignified manner to all the students in the room.

"Remember to choose your first Gu worm carefully as they will be a crucial factor for your future, your first Gu worm is the most important and the core of the path you plan to follow in the future." The elder firmly insisted on making the importance of Gu vital clear to the students.

All the students in the room nodded seriously as they thought about which Gu to choose for themselves, while others had already decided on the path they wanted to follow.

Seeing that all the students realized the importance of their choices, the academy elder decided to continue: "As soon as you have chosen your Gu Worm I want you to go home and concentrate fully on refining your Gu. You'll only be able to go back to class once you've finished refining your Gu, and to motivate you, the academy has decided to give a reward of 30 Primordial Stones to the first person to refine their Gu Worm."

All the students were elated at the news of the reward in primitive stones that the first place winner would receive. Some had already given up on winning the reward as they looked at the talents sitting in the front row of the room, but others had a fire of ambition in their eyes as they felt motivated.

In the front row were this year's top talents; Fang Zheng as the only Grade A talent, sitting on the left side of the room, while on the right side were Mo Bei and Chi Cheng as Grade B talents.

They were this year's top talents at the academy and the main heirs of their respective factions. This year's Gu academy was sure to have a lot of competition and rivalry, which the elders approved of wholeheartedly.

The elder looked at the three young talents sitting in front of him and let out a satisfied smile as he thought: 'The clan has certainly received many good seedlings this year. Especially Fang Zheng where he is extremely focused and well-behaved.

The elder then turned his gaze to the other young man who sat further back from the geniuses of the year, this young man was naturally Suo Bai. "Even though the eldest didn't awaken as a Grade A talent as expected, he still showed a lot of self-control and determination, and didn't let himself be rattled for a single moment, always being the first in theoretical questions. But it's a real shame, because even if he tries hard, he'll never be able to surpass real talent."

Soon the elder dispersed everyone from the classroom and guided everyone to the place where they would choose their main Gu worm.

Arriving in front of a room of approximately 60m², the students were excited and impatient to choose their Gu worm, until the academy elder put the place in order and asked everyone to organize themselves.

"Everyone calm down and form a line!" The elder raised his voice as he waited for all the young people to get organized. The young people organized themselves and stood in order in front of the door to the Gu room, which was protected by two large guards.

Fang Zheng was the first to be invited into the Gu room, then Mo Bei and then Chi Cheng, the order of the queue being organized by each person's talent. The most talented youngsters went in one by one and chose what they considered to be the best Gu worms for themselves.

It wasn't long before it was Suo Bai's turn, so he entered the room while observing everything around him.

It was a strange room, where all four walls were filled with holes of various sizes and shapes with some items inside. Some had clay pots in the center, others with porcelain plates, and some with vessels of an unknown material.

But what they all had in common was that a dormant Gu worm resided inside each of these containers, some were like insects, others like grasses, and even some resembled stones and minerals.

It was a magical place and incredibly full of life, as some of these Gu made strange sounds as if they were real insects. Some whistled, chirped, snorted and some even grunted like a wild animal.

All the Gu worms in this room were Rank 1 and Suo Bai was a little tempted to get his hands on all these Gu worms so that he could study them and expand the Nexus database.

'Nexus, how long would it take you to scan all the Gu worms in this room without devouring them?' Suo Bai knew that this room was heavily guarded and any change would be noticed by the guardian of this room, so he couldn't allow Nexus to devour all these Gu worms.

But he knew that Nexus could still scan and study items without having to devour them, the problem was that it would take much longer than usual.

[It's hard to say, Sir. Since each Gu worm is different in its own way, but I believe that the more Gu worms I scan, the faster I can scan the next one]

[So doing a quick math, I believe it would take at least 1 to 2 hours to scan all the Gu worms in this room]

'That's a long time, we can only stay in this room for 10 minutes before we're called to leave. Suo Bai clicked his tongue in frustration.

'We don't have much choice, start scanning as much as you can in those 10 minutes, and try to pick out the ones you think are most useful or rare. Suo Bai said as he began to walk around the room assessing all the Gu in the room while waiting for Nexus to complete the procedure.

[Understood Sir!]

[Starting Analysis...]