**Chapter 37: The world does not stop...**
Hey guys, I'm not dead, just busy with work and school this past week.
The good news is that we have two new Reverend Insanity fics!!!
1. *Reverend Insanity: Mystery Prying Immortal Venerable* by Moist_BedBugs
2. *Reverend Insanity: Otherworldly Demon Venerable* by fotohhatab
Check them out!
1. Did you miss my novel?
2. How expensive do you think relic gu and talent-raising gu are to immortals?
3. Would you be mentally able to trade lifespan gu like FY did in the novel?
Discord: 5efZtawZKC
...
In a small underground room that was nonetheless well-lit, something magical was happening at the moment.
To the untrained eye, it would look as if the room was lit by a single light. But a trained one, that of a gu master—preferably one with experience in refinement—would see it for what it was: two gu fusing, while seven empty pots stood below them. In front of them sat a young man with blond hair, drenched in sweat, concentrating on the refinement process.
There were dozens of strings threaded through the two smaller balls of light, putting pressure on the gu to fuse.
*POV: Zhen Wei*
At the moment, I was using my Needle Refinement Gu, my primeval essence, and most importantly, my will to the best of my ability.
*Boom*
But apparently, it was not enough....
As I felt blood travel up my throat, I saw the two four-flavor liquor worms get violently pushed in opposite directions.
The headache—or more precisely, the pain from the soul damage—hit at the same time, and I spat out blood.
"Uhhhh..." I did not know what I was expecting, but I can confirm that the pain did not become more or less painful than last time.
'It has honestly been a while since that happened to me.... This was the first time since I gained quasi-master attainment in the refinement path....'
There I was, sitting in the same position I had just failed the refinement at, waiting for the pain to go away, or at least recede slightly.
After half an hour passed and I felt like I could get some work done again, I picked up the two four-flavor liquor worms.
'The damage on this one is okay...'
'This one, on the other hand...'
Both of the Gu were damaged, one significantly worse than the other.
Mobilizing my primeval essence, I summoned a gu from my aperture. It was a meter long and 20 centimeters thick, covered in slime.
Taking the more damaged four-flavor liquor worm, I gently put it into the worm's mouth.
*Squelch*
The sound and feeling of my actions were absolutely disgusting.
*Squelch*
*Squelch*
It was a real struggle getting my hand out of it, as its function was to store a gu, and apparently, it could not differentiate between the liquor worm and my hand.
But as soon as I did get it out, I started wiping it off with a towel to get the slime off me....
And after 5 minutes of washing my hands, I hopefully got rid of everything....
'Being absolutely repulsive to use aside, that gu is really a miracle....'
The Slimy Worm Gu was one that I can only assume to be a refinement and food path gu, and a good one too.
It works by accelerating the healing of a damaged gu placed inside it. The only downside is that the gu being repaired will consume food a lot faster than normal... but that's not a problem for me.
As for why I was so impressed? Well, in the original story, there was a saying: "man as before gu and landscape as before gu," but it was said that there was never a gu as before gu.
Now sure, the Slimy Worm Gu is not nearly as impressive as a theoretical "Gu as before Gu," but it's still really nice.
Normally, when you damage your gu through overuse or refinement, you just have to wait a very long time for them to regenerate naturally. While they are in that condition, they are more vulnerable to further overuse or starvation.
And that is the best-case scenario as well, as some damage never recovers naturally and has to be fixed through further investment of resources and a refinement process.
A good example of that would be the slave master, shackling every living being at the moment...
Fate Gu.
'Serves that stupid gu right, and long live Red Lotus!'
Smiling at my own stupid joke, I made my way over to my desk again, as the refinement of my Snake Poison Gu should have come to an end, as more than a day had passed since I started it.
And sure enough, the five clay pots that stood next to my desk had stopped moving entirely.
'I hope at least there is some good news here....'
Without delay, I picked up the first pot and carefully placed it on my desk.
Feeling quite nervous, I slowly opened the pot, and there it was....
Two dead gu floating at the surface of the poisonous mixture I had created....
'It's funny how one can be nervous beforehand, and then feel absolutely nothing, even when the worst case happens....'
"Hehehe..."
Not discouraged, I picked both of the gu out of the poisonous water with my left hand and laid them to the side.
'These might still be useful for death refinement experiments, so I will not discard them just yet.'
...
...
The second refinement was a failure as well, but this time at least one of the gu had the decency to survive.... Albeit barely....
Next were more dead gu....
As I opened the fourth pot, my wallet was already bleeding. While the rank 1 Snake Poison Gu was not that expensive to refine, it was also not cheap by any stretch of the imagination.
What greeted me was only one gu for the second time, although this one was different in that it had two heads....
A smile spread on my face, as no matter what was in the fifth and last pot, I had already achieved my goal.
This was the first Gu I truly think I truly invented.... With my vital gu, Poison Refining Gu, being a point of contention, as I think Heaven's will had a hand in that.
All the others, I just applied refinement ideas from recipes that the clan already had to my poison path ideas.
The gu did not defend itself when I picked it up, as the two gu it was refined from were in turn mine, meaning it was already mine from the start.
With my mood lightened, I continued to open the fifth pot, and found nothing but death again.
The end result being 10 invested gu, 7 of which died, one of which survived, and two that had fused to become a rank 2 version....
'If I am being honest with myself, this is a terrible success rate... or at least a terrible value for money. The 10 gu I used could have probably been traded for 3 or 4 rank 2 gu, just not the one I wanted....'
This was a problem present in a lot of my refinements as well. I think it is a combination of the recipe not being optimized enough and my low refinement and poison path attainment, so I will have to continue working on these.
...
On the fifth of this month, Elder Wu of the Suri clan, who was a rank 4 middle stage Elder, was killed.
This incident happened after the Elder's grandson had been beaten by a backgroundless young orphan of the Suri clan. Both the grandson and the other man were rank 1 gu masters who are contestants in the Immortal's Inheritance.
The cause of death for the Elder was the tattoo left by the inheritance, which activated a sound path killer move post-mortem.
Suri Wu Ren had specialized in earth-type defensive moves. Before his death, he was able to activate a killer move that sources told us could defend against a rank 4 peak stage gu master's attacks for a while.
All this had proven to be futile, as his defenses did not stop or even delay his instantaneous death.
This story has been cause for speculation that all contestants in this inheritance will cause such a reaction once killed.
Speculations have been confirmed in the last few days, as three additional deaths occurred through the same methods. All victims, whether of assassination or the sound type killer move, were from different clans and had no seeming connection.
!!! It is important to note that this does not apply to one person killing the other if they are both taking part in the Inheritance! !!!
As I was walking through the streets of Fei Yu Island, on my way to the outskirts of the village to test a few of my new gu and hopefully new killer moves, I read the briefing the clan had given me about the general information concerning the inheritance.
*Flip*
'The rules about killing explain why my father encouraged me to go out more. This is basically a promise that no rank 4 gu masters will come after me.'
'Realistically, the only people that will go after me still are the death soldiers each clan trains, and these are mostly rank 2s.'
'Even if the rank 5 clans have a few rank 3 elders willing to die for the clan, I don't think they are likely to use them yet, seeing as the last part of the inheritance was mostly theoretical, and there are too many contestants still alive.'
'In the eyes of the clan leaders, it is too soon to see who the real threats are, which would make it foolish to waste a rank 3 pawn this early on....'
The second reason I was not afraid to go out anymore was that Fei Yu Island was solely controlled by the Fei Yu clan, and no one has been allowed to enter the island since we returned from the inheritance.
With traitors and spies being unveiled and killed very often for the first few weeks after the inheritance.
'The spies that are still left probably have to worry about their own lives at the moment, too busy to pass on info to the outside, much less plan an assassination....'
So here I was strolling through the village as if I owned it and reading classified information in public.
Updated bounties:
1. Yu Jia Li
Age: 15
Cultivation: rank 2 middle stage (likely)
Bounty: 145,000 primeval stones (100,000 from the Yu clan, 45,000 by various other clans and individuals) + Position of honorary Elder of the Yu clan
Wanted for:
- Part of the Immortal's Inheritance
- Slaughtering several villages around the Yu, Zhi, and Bo clans
- Victims include 32 rank 1 Gu Masters, 7 rank 2 Gu Masters, 1 rank 3 Gu Master, and approximately 2,700 mortals
!!! This individual is on the run and has looted hundreds of gu from the Yu clan treasury and the Gu Masters he has killed. Extreme caution is advised!!!
...
...
...
'More good news for me... My bounty has increased to 50,000 primeval stones because more clans chipped in. The reason to be happy is that my ranking decreased from first to sixth.'
All of the ones above me were wanted for becoming lone cultivators (read: demonic cultivators) or killing their clansmen. At least, that is what the public reason is... Only Heaven knows at the end of the day.
The bounties that ranked lower than mine became higher too, as it turned out these were just the people that became the *young leaders* of their respective clans, painting a target on their backs in the process.
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