33 **Chapter 33: Breakthrough(s)**
Yo, here's a chapter for you guys...
1. If you had to make a list of 'how good' the Venerables were as people, what would it be? Number one is Paradise Earth...
2. What do you plan to do with the holiday tomorrow?
3. How many RI fics that are active do you know of? How many do you read?
Discord: 5efZtawZKC
...….
"Let me check one more time..."
"I have told the servants not to disturb me. Check."
As I look at my room, filled with bags of primeval stones, I mentally check this off my list as well.
"My Aperture has been nurtured to the absolute peak of rank 1 peak stage. Check."
"Perfect, I will not leave here before I am a rank 2 Gu Master, so let's start…"
*Swoosh*
The black-green primeval Essence in my Aperture started to move and assaulted the crystal wall of my Aperture.
This was not like the other times when I was cultivating; the waves were more aggressive, intended not to nurture, but to destroy.
*Crash*
*Swoosh*
After half an hour had passed and I had used 25% of my primeval essence...
*Crack*
"Finally…"
I had not broken through yet, but I had taken a step in the right direction; a first crack started to show at the top of my Aperture. It was small, but a point to start with.
"This should not be too difficult; Fang Yuan had been able to do this without other Gu, and he had 26% less talent and 2.6% less regeneration per hour."
*Swoosh*
As the primeval essence in my Aperture lowered to 40%, I began picking up primeval stones in both of my hands for the first time since I started this attempt to break through.
They turned into dust at a visible speed, replenishing my primeval essence in the process.
Multitasking was the most basic requirement for the breakthrough to a higher rank. If I were to even stop my relentless assault for a short time to eat, sleep, go to the toilet, or regenerate primeval essence, my Aperture walls would heal.
For any Gu Master, with the exception of maybe only the extreme physiques, there would come a time in their life when their talent alone could not keep up with a breakthrough attempt.
That is where primeval stones come in. If you want to become a rank 4 or 5 Gu master, you will not be able to achieve that without them, or Gu that could be exchanged for millions of them.
Now, with a talent of 70%, I am right on the edge of… I might be able to do this without primeval stones.
"But that would have taken a lot of willpower, and more importantly, time."
"Time which I am very short on at the moment…"
*Swoosh*
*Crash*
*Crack*
A second crack spread through the walls of my Aperture, but both of them were still only the width of a hair.
"I don't think I am doing this the right way…"
Up until now, I was just attacking my Aperture equally in every direction…
"Let's just try…"
*Crash*
The waves in my Aperture seemed more focused and crashed only into one specific part of the crystal wall. And the part it hit was exactly the one that had the second of the two cracks on it.
*Crack*
*Crack*
From the crack, spread another one, while the original one expanded to about three times its original size.
"Well, this is definitely the better way to do it…"
My failure to realize this earlier had no effect on my emotional state.
"It only makes sense that someone who has been an immortal in their past life, like the Great Love Immortal Venerable, would know any and all tricks when it came to mortal cultivation, while I would have to figure them out myself."
Now my question is, does my father not know this information?
"The answer is maybe…"
But does nobody in the clan know about this?
"The answer is definitely no!"
*Swoosh*
*Crack*
Leading me to the conclusion that the clan was intentionally suppressing this information.
Now why would they do this?
"The answer has to be obvious to anyone; they are thinking of that damn inheritance…"
"I bet they have secretly made a deal with at least the other two rank 5 clans to delay rank 2 advancement so that by the time the inheritance starts, the average contestant of the two clans is at rank 1 peak stage."
"They are playing a dangerous game here… trying to increase the survival rate to save the future of the clan."
*Crack*
*Crack*
"It's only that the downside is that it's stupid…"
"But I might just be seeing conspiracies where there are none… I will have to get to the bottom of this."
"I can imagine them convincing my father of this, though, as I am already so far ahead in cultivation in comparison to most others…"
"This is the downside to living in a righteous clan; all the people you know are one step away from becoming brainless righteous puppets. It's either that or they are hypocrites… so pick your poison…
*Splash*
*Crack*
Looking into my Aperture, all I see was a ball of crystal, with countless cracks on it, and filled up to 30% with primeval essence.
"Fang Yuan had 44% Talent, and he still left enough in his Aperture to start a final attack; I have used 40% of my primeval essence, so it should be time now."
"Let's attack…"
*Swoosh*
My primeval essence started moving into all directions again, trying to increase the internal pressure of the Aperture as a whole.
*Swoosh*
At this point, I stopped using Primeval Stones to regenerate, focusing all of my attention on trying to destroy the walls of my Aperture.
*Swoosh*
*Tremble*
*Swoosh*
*Tremble*
"I am nearly there…"
*Swoosh*
*Crack*
A small smile spread on my face as the Aperture started to tremble more and more.
Before I could will the next wave to assault the Aperture, a very small piece fell from the top of my Aperture into my primeval essence.
*Plop*
This was the first step in a giant chain reaction.
*Plop*
*Plop*
*Plop*
*Plop*
One after the other, pieces of my Aperture wall began falling into my primeval sea, and I could see a light membrane appearing where just a few seconds ago was a crystal membrane.
*Plop*
*Plop*
It took less than a minute for my Aperture wall to be replaced, signifying my advancement to rank 2.
*Hummm*
The tattoo on my hand gave off a hum, the same one it did 54 times in the last two weeks. It just meant that another contestant had advanced to rank 2, the contestant in question being myself.
"Pfff…"
All in all, I had spent 12 hours attempting this breakthrough.
"Much faster than Fang Yuan."
And if I were to compare primeval stones consumption, I am sure that I had spent only a fraction of what he did.
"The advantages of talent…"
"I am tired, and could noticeably feel my concentration decrease through the whole process…"
"Fang Yuan did this on and off for days; his willpower is insane… just another thing I will have to work on."
"But that does not matter right now…"
Normally, I am not someone who shows a lot of emotions, but the small smile on my face would have been a big grin if I had the energy in the moment.
A small wisp of light red primeval essence entered what I had left of my black-green primeval essence.
Putting my mental exhaustion aside, I think
"I am not done yet…"
My mostly black-green primeval essence surged towards a Red Steel Relic Gu, giving off a red glow.
As it activates, most of my other Gu hid at the bottom of my Aperture, as if scared of its aura.
The Gu began to produce red light that shone upon the newly formed light walls of my Aperture. And as it did, they began to thicken at a speed that was visible to the naked eye.
This was the moment I advanced to rank 2 middle stage.
"For this Gu, I have killed two people…"
I activate the second Red Steel Relic Gu that previously had retreated to the bottom of my Aperture but was now floating in the middle of it, on top of the primeval sea.
"I killed for this one as well…"
"But they were the same people, so a minor stage for live??"
You do not have to look at demons like Fang Yuan or Spectral Soul to find a person to take that deal in this world.
"This would have been an unthinkable tragedy in my past world, but in this, it's as natural as eating or breathing…"
"You could say this world is heartless and cruel, but at least it gives you hope, which is more than could be said about my past world."
"I guess in that sense, I am the opposite of Thieving Heaven, for him, it was soul-crushing torture to be reborn in this world, while for me, it's the biggest chance of my life."
While I was here philosophizing, the Red Steel Relic Gu's life came to an end, fulfilling its only purpose, changing my Aperture wall from rank 2 middle to upper stage.
And while minuscule amounts of crimson-red primeval essence are being generated by my stone membrane Aperture walls, I focus on activating the last red steel relic Gu I own.
Red Light
Thickening Aperture Walls
…
…
As I look at my Aperture, I realize that I am likely one of the very few people throughout history that had Black-Green, Light Red, Scarlet Red, Crimson Red, as well as Dark Red Primeval essence in my Aperture at the same time.
"Well, most of them are only trace amounts that even I would not notice if I didn't focus on it, but it is what it is…"
"I wonder what the record for the most kinds of primeval essence in an Aperture at the same time is…"
Suppressing the slight desire to collect the traces of my old primeval essence to set some kind of record, I expelled all the primeval essence out of my Aperture.
"Now in just 10 hours, I will have an Aperture full of Rank 2 Peak Stage primeval essence."
Reaching Rank 2 Peak Stage almost instantly should have given me a deep feeling of joy. My midterm plan worked after all…
But I felt absolutely nothing, only thinking about what I sacrificed for that last Gu…
"That number one place will get a lot of eyes on me…"
"My problem lies less in the fact that I exchanged my being unknown against benefits, and more in the fact that I don't think the benefits were big enough…"
"It all comes back to that greedy land spirit…"
Cursing the land spirit in my mind, I look at the little booklet my father had gotten me a few days ago.
It was kind of like the one we got from the clan before we entered the Immortal Inheritance, to study our enemies.
Except that this one had bounties on it.
Fei Yue Zhen Wei, 30,000 primeval stones
That is right, as I had the first place in that competition, I had the highest bounty out of all of the contestants.
Not everyone had an individual bounty listed in the book, only the ones that had a reputation before or did exceptionally well in the inheritance did.
"Unfortunately, I fit into both of those categories."
Up until now, three people have died in some way, presumably assassinations. I knew this only because the tattoo on my hand would give off a sound that is only rivaled by the sound of my alarm in my past life when it comes to being annoying.
In the last few weeks, I have heard a lot, mostly from my father, but I have seen nothing, as I never went out.
"30,000 primeval stones is a lot of money, and if some rank 4 individual gets funny ideas, which is more likely when I go out a lot, then I am pretty much dead."
"Yes, my clan might avenge me, but I am not too interested in seeing that future…"
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