2 Chapter 2 Arrival in the Gu world

Hello, Kamule here.

I would like to clarify my upload schedule. I will be posting at least one chapter a week, with an extra thrown in if I feel like it.

furthermore, you are all probably aware of this, but there are other RI fanfictions on Webnovel that I would like to recommend if you haven't already found them.

These are:

Reverend Insanity— Jade Light Guardian by supernerd4000

Reverend Insanity :Savage Truth and Reverend Insanity: Insatiable by forthememes

Reverend Insanity: The Rule Path's Inheritance by redlotusvenerable

And finally, Reverend Insanity: Eternal Flame by Forbiddenlord

These fanfictions are all being updated actively and are all a joy to read.

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Arthur Smith POV

The initial sensation that swept over Arthur was pain. As he embraced the Seed Star's gift, he sensed the seed begin to burrow through his soul.

 As the seed passed it left stains that started to arrange themselves like dark roots, which began to burrow their way through the glowing essence of his soul. If Arthur still inhabited a physical body of flesh and blood he was sure he would have been screeching and howling in pain until he wore his vocal chord ragged. 

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh... cough... Ahhh, cough, cough,"

he gasped, abruptly yanked from his pain-fueled stupor by a violent fit of coughing. 

Struggling to rise from his prone position Arthur only managed to get on one knee before his legs betrayed him, sending him crashing back into the unforgiving sand.

Rolling to his side, Arthur attempted to expel the mixture of sand, saliva, and blood that filled his mouth. Having expelled the foul mixture Arthur started taking multiple deep breaths to calm himself and assess his surroundings. Having filled his lungs with something other than sand Arthur started to examine his body.

The body Arthur now inhabited was in a wretched state. It bore the marks of numerous cuts, burns, and bruises. 

what once might have been a robe or a similar garment had been shredded beyond repair leaving Arthur's body covered only with blood-soaked rags. Wincing as he surveyed the wounds, Arthur began to register the distress signals his body was transmitting, each jolt of pain and agony a testament to the ordeal it had endured.

Most of the wounds had already stopped bleeding as wet sand had covered most of his open wounds solidifying as the blood clotted. 

Racing his left hand Arthur grunted in pain as he scratched at the side of his face attempting to remove a strap holding the broken remains of what once might have been a protective cowl meant to ward against the sand but now it had started to stick to Arthur's face.

 As he pulled away the cloth and widened his field of view Arthur finally got a chance to look around 

Squinting as the light from the sun almost blinded him, Arthur surveyed his surroundings as they came into focus.

Arthur was lying on the slope of a sand dune, his previous attempt to stand up had caused him to slide down a meter or two causing sand to be rubbed along his half-naked form. 

[What the hell did the previous owner of this body go through? I feel like I have been thrown into a blender before being sandpapered, seasoned, and then cooked alive.]

As Arthur experienced another large jolt of pain from his left arm he finally started to inspect his body in detail. 

His legs were the least damaged part of his body with them only carrying minor to intermediate cuts, these wounds certainly hurt and would have been debilitating for any normal human but the body Arthur now inhabited seemed able to shrug off such wounds as trivial. 

Similar cuts covered Arthur's entire body with his chest, head, and arms all bearing these cuts to some degree. Though what drew Arthur's attention the most was the condition of his left arm, previously he had still been reeling from the shock of the Seed star entering his soul so he had not registered the pain from his body as significant but now that he could see the condition of his left arm he grew worried 

Under the light layer of sand that had formed over the arm Arthur could see that his left arm was covered in fourth and third-degree burns. The previous owner of the body seemed to have used his left side as a sacrifice to tank some kind of an attack as the cuts were far more prevalent on this side of his body and combined with the burns Arthur was amazed that he had managed to move the limb at all. 

Frowning Arthur thought 

[I need to find a way to heal these wounds, especially those burns. I don't know how durable this body is but I don't want the wounds to fester and allow this world's version of bacteria, fungi, and viruses to take hold.]

Thinking of this Arthur centred himself before attempting to stand once again. This time he managed to stand although he felt that his legs could give out at any moment. 

Taking deep breaths in and out Arthur thought about what his next actions should be. 

[First of all, I need to find a way to heal my wounds, I should see if this body is that of a Gu master. If he has some healing Gu worm in his aperture that would be the best.] 

Thinking of this Arthur started to try and imagine something in his lower abdomen, and after searching fruitlessly for some time he finally found it. Taking a peek inside Arthur frowned at what he perceived. 

Arthur had indeed been transmigrated into the body of a Gu master, a rank 2 upper stage Gu master at that. But this was not what was worrying Arthur, the aperture walls were cracked with large visible rifts crisscrossing the upper part of the aperture. The aperture had clearly suffered significant damage perhaps enough to permanently damage it. 

Arthur's hope for a healing Gu had also been dashed as he could not find a single Gu worm in the aperture. 

[Did the previous owner destroy his Gu worms when he thought he would die? The bastard! How am i going to survive without any Gu!]

As Arthur continued to look through the aperture he found traces that he assumed to be the remains of Gu worms.

[I've found 5 distinct traces, sure enough, there are no living Gu in the aperture. I wish I could know the talent of this Gu master but the primeval essence is only beginning to recover now. I need to have a look around and see if I can discover some clues to how this body got damaged to this extent and hopefully find something to help me deal with the wounds.]

As Arthur's consciousness retreated from the aperture he sensed something that he had dismissed before. There was a faint aura coming from his right side, searching for the origin Arthur discovered something black and shiny partially buried in the sand. 

Reaching down with his relatively undamaged right hand Arthur picked up the item that caught his attention. 

It was a dark beetle reminiscent of a ladybug, its carapace glistened in the sun as Arthur cleaned the sand of it with his damaged left hand. The dark ladybug was clearly a Gu worm of some type, the aura it emitted was clearly of higher rank than Arthur as he fealt slightly pressured by the tiny insect. 

[What do we have here? This is clearly a Gu worm of some type but why was it half buried in the sand?]

As Arthur cleaned the Gu he felt something react to its presence, the Seed star that had so far been inactive since it buried its way through his soul seemed to react to the Gu worm's presence. As Arthur looked at the Gu he felt a primal hunger originating from his soul.

Acting on some kind of instinct Arthur moved his soul and somehow absorbed the dark ladybug Gu. But when it had left his hand he realized that his soul or more accurately the secluded domain of heaven and earth within his soul was attempting to consume the Gu.

Acting quickly Arthur tried to force the Gu out of his soul.

[i cant let the secluded domain consume this Gu, it might as well be my only way of survival in this desert.] 

Sensing Arthur's unwillingness the secluded domain stopped attempting to consume the Gu, and this caused the Gu to appear once again in Arthur's right hand. 

This gave Arthur an idea, he then prompted his secluded domain to attempt to consume the Gu again. But when it entered his soul he ordered the secluded domain to decrease the attractive force. 

[success!]

If Arthur was to describe what he was doing then he would describe it as holding the Gu worm in his metaphysical mouth. The Gu, was not being consumed but it was not outside his secluded domain either. 

[I guess i can use this as a storage method until I can refine this dark ladybug Gu]

Having found a way to store the Gu worm Arthur started to investigate his surroundings quickly finding the remains of the 10 Gu masters that had ambushed Zhao Wen. 

[wow, this Gu master had his head ripped off his shoulders and that one seems to have had his head popped like an overripe watermelon.]

[It seems that the previous owner of this body was a strength path Gu master, this is good, it means that I can fight without Gu worms at least until I get the chance to refine that dark ladybug Gu.]

When Arthur first saw the state of the corpses he had felt slightly nauseous but the feeling quickly passed as Arthur focused on his critical situation. 

[I need to check the apertures of these dead Gu masters to see if they have destroyed all of their Gu. I hope they haven't, perhaps some might have held out hope of rescue by their fellows.]

And sure enough one of the corpses almost completely buried in the sand still had 3 living Gu worms in his aperture with the remains of 2 Gu visible within the aperture. 

[looks like this one got hit in the head early in the fight, he might have passed out which would explain why his Gu worms are still fine.]

The first Gu, looked like a green butterfly with blue markings covering its wings it gave off an aura that Arthur assumed to be rank 2.

The second Gu looked like a deep green ant it gave off the aura of a rank 2 Gu.

 The third Gu looked like a praying mantis it was colored green and light blue and it also gave off the aura of a rank 2 Gu.

[jackpot, these Gu are all rank 2, and going by the color I think these might be a part of a clear set of Gu worms. The two dead Gu are probably the remaining two to complete the set of Gu worms.]

Having finished his scavenging Arthur moved to the top of the highest dune and looked around 

[Now I need to find a safe place to recover the primeval essence in my aperture and possibly refine the rank 2 Gu I found. Hopefully one of them might be a healing type Gu worm.]

—

A dark figure could be seen traversing the dunes, it moved slowly and carefully constantly looking around itself in vigilance. 

This figure was of course Arthur, he had gone through the pockets of the dead Gu masters and he had looked for some kind of campsite but had only found a handful of primeval stones stored in hidden folds in the clothes of the Gu masters.

 Knowing that he had to find shelter before nighttime Arthur had taken the cleanest clothes he could find on the dead Gu masters and attempted to clean his wounds to the best of his ability.

He had attempted to store the Gu worms in his secluded domain as he had done with the dark ladybug-looking Gu but this attempt had failed.

 Arthur was incapable of balancing the attractive force with so many Gu so he decided to wrap the rank 2 Gu in cloth and carry them together with the primeval stones in a makeshift bag. 

Arthur had of course attempted to use the primeval stones to recover his essence but this had sent a giant spike of pain from his aperture. After that Arthur had concluded that he couldn't attempt to absorb primeval essence until the rifts in his aperture had closed or he got the opinion of someone who knew what had happened to his aperture. 

Closing his eyes and sighing, Arthur continued walking forward.

[wonderful, it seems I'm lost. Well it is not like I know where I am anyway but this desert is beginning to lose its appeal really quickly.]

Suddenly Arthur turned his head to the left, he was certain he had seen something move. Quickly dropping the cloth holding the Gu and primeval stones Arthur took the best approximation to a combat-ready stance he knew. 

Seeing Arthur react the hidden person shouted

" We have you surrounded, surrender now and reveal your identity! "

As Arthur heard the shout he quickly located the person shouting. 

Originally having been hidden behind a sand dune, a Gu master covered from head to toe in brown robes had crested the hill pointing what looked like a sword in Arthur's direction. 

[damn it, he is giving off the aura of a rank 2 middle-stage Gu master, and he is not alone I can feel two more rank 2 Gu masters one to my back and another to my right.] 

[Can I fight? No, I don't have any Gu worms to use and my aperture is damaged. Let's see if I can negotiate and if that doesn't work I can use the discussion as a cover to plan my escape.]

" sure sure, don't attack! Can I ask whom I will be surrendering to? " 

" You have entered the vicinity of the campground of the Ye Clans caravan. We have recently suffered an attack from demonic path bandits and will not allow strangers to approach the caravan. "

As Arthur was about to reply someone else interjected 

" Wait! That's Brother Zhao Wen! Brother, what happened to you? The last we heard was that you were leading a team to hunt down the bandits. Yet you're in such a terrible condition, quickly we need to get Brother Zhao to the medical tent, immediately! " 

The Gu master who was speaking was quickly approaching Arthur, his cultivation was only rank 1 peak stage but he rushed towards Arthur fearlessly with great concern visible on his young face. 

[Do I play along? This could be a ploy to get close to me. Hmmmmm, no they have no need for such tricks and the chances are higher that this body is related to this Ye clan. But how should I behave?]

[I have no idea about the personality of this Zhao Wen and neither do I know the identities of these Gu masters. If I act out of character they might become suspicious of me. What should I do? That rank 1 Gu master calling me brother must know the original Zhao Wen quite well. What can I do to deceive him? Perhaps if I say that I have suffered soul damage? It is a gamble but I think faking soul damage is the best option here. I can use the apparent injury to my aperture as an explanation why my soul is damaged and why I have lost some memories.]

[I hope my acting will be convincing enough]

Coming up with a plan Arthur acted promptly. As the rank 1 Gu master reached within 5 metres of him he made it seem like his legs were about to give out. As the rank 1 Gu master sped up his approach Arthur deliberately collapsed to one knee as the Gu master arrived. 

Closing his eyes and wincing from the pain Arthur spoke weakly 

"Brother I was ambushed by the bandits. I had to activate a hidden trump card to save my life, but the backlash was extremely harsh. I have damaged my aperture and taken significant damage to my soul. In truth, I don't remember where I am or who you are." 

" what! Impossible! How can you forget me, Brother Zhao Wen! We used to play together under the palm trees in Ye hu oasis, when you entered the academy I was your right-hand man, when we fought the snake tide we defended each other's backs ensuring the safety of the Rock gambling wagon! No, it's impossible, I don't believe it! "

While the rank 1 Gu master was ranting the other 6 Gu masters that originally surrounded Arthur had approached, the Gu master that had originally spoken said 

" Zhao Wen if what you say is true we need to get you to healer Wang right away, we need to heal your aperture quickly so that you aren't permanently crippled. " saying this he then turned to his comrades and said 

" you four help Zhao Wen to get back to the caravan. I will take Ye Zhang and locate the battleground where Zhao Wen was ambushed. " 

" Yes, leader Mo. Zhao Wen come with us we don't have much time. "