It's night as usual when I wake up. Shen Cui is still sleeping, so I take the phone gu and begin reading the inheritance, skimming through the section on rank 1 gu. I'm pretty glad that this guy was so anal about cataloguing all of his knowledge like this instead of just focusing on blood path, since this time I managed to find the amplify effect gu. It increases the effect of any other gu, the drawback being that it consumes more primeval essence when used. After manifesting it into my aperture I try using it with the liquor worm, which ends up boosting primeval essence by another minor stage, turning my rank 1 initial stage essence into rank 1 upper stage essence.
By the time that Shen Cui begins to stir awake I've already finished skimming through all of the rank 1 gu, having found nothing about any of the remaining gu in my set. That's both good, since it probably means they are absurdly broken, and bad, since it means their functions are probably overly opaque and esoteric.
Thankfully, unlike most college campuses, each room in the academy has its own private bath. Shen Cui leads me to the bath and begins to fill up a wooden bathtub. While she is washing my back she says. "Young Master, I… Your uncle and aunt wish to disinherit you. They wanted me to give my body to young master, only to then falsely confess that young master had raped me."
Her confessing to this is a pretty good sign that she's now on my side. With Fang Zheng being dead and buried I am now her only hope at advancing in life. The social hierarchy for gu masters in the clan is pretty simple. Anyone with a higher cultivation and/or aptitude is above anyone with a lesser cultivation and/or aptitude. When it comes to mortals it's somewhat more complicated. Mortal clan members are considered to be 'free men', they are free to own property, trade, etc. Mortals that are not clan members are slaves, no one would even bat an eye if someone killed ten random mortals for the funsies. The most severe punishment for a person doing such would be a hefty fine.
Which does lead to the question, why would anyone care if she was raped? I try to get a bit more comfy in the bathtub, I'll have to get a bigger one from the market. "And how would me raping you help them disinherit me? You are an outsider and my personal servant after all".
I hear her nervously gulp. "I… This one was not informed of more about their plan. Please forgive this one."
I'll put some faith in that peach blossom luck. If she fucks me over and I get disinherited it's honestly not the end of the world. The lotus gu guarantees that I'll have enough resources to continue cultivating regardless of anything that happens. "Keep in contact with them. Pretend that you're still following their plans. Serve me well and I will forgive you"
I hear her nervously shuffle behind me as she begins to clean my shoulders. "What should this one do if your uncle commands your servant to betray you?"
I close my eyes and relax as she begins massaging my shoulders. "Inform me before doing anything that would be a detriment to me. If you're pressed for time then intentionally fail your task."
I hear Shen Cui nervously gulp from behind me. Her voice takes a resolute tone. "I will serve you well young master!"
I lean back once she begins washing my hair. "Make sure to buy a larger bathtub and about ten wine jugs today. Remind me to give you the primeval stones for them before I leave."
Neither of us say anything for the rest of the bath. Shen Cui is alternating between being nervous and attempting to prove her sincerity. Meanwhile I'm thinking of how to increase my aptitude. Breaking through to rank 2 is going to be difficult, the essence lotus gu will turn the breakthrough from difficult to manageable. Reaching rank 3 is going to be practically impossible. Hopefully the inheritance has a solution, otherwise I'm hard stuck at rank 2 like a yasuo main is hard stuck in iron.
Once Shen Cui finishes cleaning me she then helps me get dressed and, since there's still some time left until the academy lesson starts, I have her teach me the written language. Thanks to my eidetic memory all I need is to be told what each symbol is supposed to represent once, with no need for any repetition. After half an hour I hand her two primeval essence stones and leave for the classroom. Getting into my usual seat once I'm there.
Instead of the academy elder it's the martial arts instructor that arrives. He leads everyone to the courtyard and begins to have us continue our exercises. His yapping is not absent. "Discipline comes from hard work! If you are not disciplined how do you expect to protect the village?! How do you expect to survive out there without complete control over your mind and body?!".
His rants have nothing to do with actual martial arts. Half an hour into practice he stops us from practicing in order to arrange us into a small sparring tournament. "The winner of this tournament shall receive three primeval stones! Show your best and do not hold back, for in a true battle defeat means death!"
This was not a thing in cannon. Is this an effect of my luck or just the butterfly effect? The academy guards bring over a table. The only thing on the table is a wooden box with a spherical entry on its top. The martial arts instructor takes a deep breath. "Each of you will come and pick a wooden tablet from the box. First is Mo Bei."
Mo Bei goes to the table. Before he can stick his hand into the box the martial arts instructor takes the box and shakes it, loudly rattling the wooden tablets inside of it. "There will be no favoritism! Without a good foundation even a mortal can effortlessly end your lives!"
The instructor then slams the box back on the table. Mo Bei takes a deep breath and reaches into the box, pulling out a wooden tablet. The instructor nods. "Number twelve, you will be facing whoever draws number eleven."
Chi Cheng gets number seven.
Some random D-rank gets number thirteen.
The instructor continues to shout out names. "Jin Ye, number twelve. Fang Yuan".
I go to the table and reach into the wooden box. The number eight is carved into the wooden tablet that I pulled. The instructor nods. "Fang Yuan, number eight. Lin Li."
On my way back to the group I see Chi Cheng give me a mean look, as if to say 'I'm going to kick your ass you C-Rank trash.'. Which is somewhat ironic considering that he is also C-Rank trash. He gets somewhat unsettled when I just smile back at him.
Once everyone has drawn their lots the matches begin. The instructor takes a deep breath and shouts. "First Match! Mo Bei against Jin Ye." Mo Bei is facing an orphan, someone with no backing. He opens the match by lunging at his opponent, trying to punch him. His punch gets sidestepped but he then seamlessly flows into a roundhouse kick which lands on his opponent's liver, knocking him out. This kind of pattern continues to emerge, where the students without significant backing get demolished by the ones who do have a good backing.
It doesn't take long for me to realize why this is the case. The children of elders and high ranking gu masters got martial arts training from an early age. Orphans and the like didn't, leading to them getting their asses kicked.
The martial arts instructor shouts. "Chi Cheng against Fang Yuan!". Chi Cheng and I move into the sparring ring. The rules are simple, we either push the other person out, knock them out or they surrender. Chi Cheng and I are both at opposite ends of the sparring ring. The martial arts instructor shouts. "Begin!"
The students begin gossiping. "Fang Yuan stands no chance, Chi Cheng is the young master of the Chi faction!"
"I've heard that Chi Cheng is already refining a strength gu! His family's foundations run deep, they prepared him from birth to inherit the faction!"
"Hmph did you hear? Fang Yuan could not face reality after his brother's death and ran away from home! They say that his uncle searched for him tirelessly throughout the whole night!"
I sincerely doubt that. If anything he's begun weaving some tale that will lead into him getting an excuse to disinherit me for some form of perceived insult.
Chi Cheng begins to rush towards me, I just stay still. Once he gets close he jumps, attempting to fly-kick me. I calmly sidestep his kick, grab his ankle and then hold him up-side down with a single hand. The look he makes is pretty funny.
The martial arts instructor does not end the match, so I just throw him out of the ring. The instructor nods. "Fang Yuan wins! Fang Yuan will face off against Hou Luli."
I leave the sparring ring and go back to watching the matches. Everyone else sans the instructor are still speechless after that display. The primeval stone reward is honestly worthless to me, since I've essentially got a discount infinite money printer. What I'm interested in instead is showing off. There are only two things that decide your worth in this world, and they are strength and potential. People will suck up to someone weak if they have potential, investing into them early.
I have shit potential, so no one will bat an eye at whatever scheme my uncle or anyone else would try to pull against me. The solution to this is simple, I just need to show my strength. Even if I get hard-stuck at rank 2, people would still need to respect me in spite of my crap aptitude if I am strong enough. Or at least that's my train of thought, for all that I know that could just lead to me getting turned into a social outcast.
Once I hear my name I go back into the sparring ring. My opponent this time is a black-haired girl. She didn't show any exceptional skill in martial arts in her previous match. Unlike Chi Cheng she is much more cautious once the match starts, waiting for me to make the first move.
I begin casually walking towards her. Once I'm in range she throws a jab at me. I sidestep, grab her arm and pull. She lands on the floor with an oomph. Before I can kick her out of the sparring ring she raises her arms. "Concede! I concede!."
My following Matches are much the same, regardless of my opponents skill level. I am simply too fast and physically strong for them to do anything. The last match of the impromptu tournament is me against Mo Bei. I decide to show off a bit more this time.
Mo Bei is just as cautious as all of my other opponents were following the embarrassment of Chi Cheng. I begin walking towards him. When he throws a punch I don't bother dodging, I just let it land on my face and show no reaction as I feel one of his fingers break on my nose. He pulls his fist and hisses in pain.
He looks at the martial arts instructor, who is showing no outward reaction. He then gulps, takes a deep breath and goes for a spinning back kick. It lands on my chest. The force of the kick pushes him backwards and makes him fall, as if he had just kicked a stone wall. I silently approach him and kick him out of the ring. The martial arts instructor nods. "Fang Yuan is the winner! Approach to receive your reward."
I come close to him and he hands me three primeval stones, which I put in my pockets. A quick trip to my room reveals that Shen Cui hasn't come back from her errands yet. I leave the stones in my room, pick up a sharp skinning knife and head into the forest outside of the village.
This time I find two boars. The first one I heel kicked in the head, bursting its cranium open. The second one ended up hitting a boulder and breaking its neck as it slipped during its charge. I tried to skin both boars before feeding them to the white boar gu. The first one I mangled horridly, ruining the pelt, but the second one turned out a little better. The second boar was only half eaten by the white boar gu, meaning that the gu is finally full. I take the remaining half along with the hides with me to the village. Worst case scenario I just get Shen Cui to sell them.
It's while I'm dragging the pig towards the waterfall that a tree trunk is violently slammed right next to me. Looking back I see that a tall, bald man wearing beast hides is the source of said slamming. He quickly and effortlessly raises the tree trunk while murderously glaring at me. I activate the blood-step gu and haul ass away from this guy. I don't want to use the slavery gu right now since it's part of the recipe for the Immortal Vampire Gu.
Running away fails miserably, For every leap that I take the tree trunk slams right next to me, with the man having begun to intelligibly curse after the second miss. Running towards the village with this guy chasing me would put way too much of a spotlight on me. After the fifth time he misses a slam I decide to put some trust in my luck, seeing that it's been working just fine in making him miss so far.
I turn around and charge at the man. He tries to forcibly reroute his slam but ends up slipping on mud, falling down and accidentally slamming the tree trunk on his chest, which honestly does not seem to have phased him at all.
When I reach him I activate the blood-step gu on my right foot and throw a kick at him with it. My kick ends up missing but I thankfully don't lose balance. He slips again while trying to rise up, which allows me to try an unempowered kick. The pain that follows that kick makes me pretty sure that I ended up hurting myself more than I hurt him. If I had actually landed that empowered kick my foot would be beyond broken.
Since Killing him with martial arts is a no go I instead try to stab him with the skinning knife but his skin turns into bronze and bends the tip of the knife. He slips while trying to get up once again, landing on his back. I do the only thing that comes to my mind at this point. I make a vertical on my forearm, opening my veins and gushing blood on his face. Activating the blood qi gu with the amplify effect gu makes the blood flow even faster, with him beginning to drown in it.
He continues flailing around in this manner. Trying to get up, only to fail and land on his back every single time. After the twentieth attempt he falls unconscious. I continue pouring blood on him for a bit. Once I'm certain he is dead I decide to leave his body here, I'll check it out and see if I can find out whatever the fuck was going on with him later. I take the hide pelt he is wearing, press down on my arm to keep the wound as closed as possible and rush to the waterfall.
Before putting on my clothes I cut the pelt and make a makeshift tourniquet. The tourniquet goes above the cut and the pelt goes around the cut, mostly just to hide the bleeding.
The first thing that I do once I reach the village is buy some medical supplies. Stitches, bandages, pastes and the like. The second thing that I do is rush towards my apartment and get my wound stitched. Thankfully I think that I managed to hide the wound successfully, since no one seems to have noticed anything. By this time Shen Cui is already there, so I get her to help me get myself stitched up.
I mostly need her to hand me things, since both of my hands are occupied. "Thread a needle and hand it to me, be prepared with the medicinal paste afterwards."
Shen Cui nods in panic and rushes to get the needle and thread. She fumbles the first try at threading the needle, but manages to get it done on the second, handing it to me afterwards.
I'll need to buy some bracers as well later, so that I can hide the wound while it's healing. I take a deep breath and begin stitching, gritting my teeth in pain as I do so. Once I'm done I throw the needle on the floor and begin applying the medicinal paste. Shen Cui is holding the small wooden box that the paste is in and I take some of the paste with my finger, rubbing it on my wound afterwards. It thankfully does not take long for the paste to have an effect, as the pain almost immediately begins to calm down.
After the paste I bandage the wound and collapse on the bed. I glance at the nervous Shen Cui. "Dump the thread, needle and bandages into a pot of water and boil it. That will get them properly cleaned."
She does not hesitate to bow and say. "Of course, young master!"
Shen Cui runs out of the apartment, I keep looking at the ceiling. That was terrifying. It wasn't an adrenaline fueled fight, it was me being comically lucky and then literally drowning my flailing opponent in blood. Was that the nemesis from the perk?
Once Shen Cui comes back with a cast iron pot of boiling water she dumps the needle, thread and bandages into the pot. I then take a deep breath, close my eyes and begin cultivating with more motivation than I ever had for anything else in my life. Using upper stage primeval essence instead of initial stage primeval essence speeds up the process of cultivation enormously. The only downside to using the liquor worm gu with the amplify effect gu is that cultivation speed will slow down at upper stage, since it will cap at peak stage primeval essence, and won't help the breakthrough to rank 2.