"Gu Yue Clan…." Xiong Li stood at the mountainside and gazed at the distant Gu Yue village; a complicated expression on his face.
Cool autumn wind was breezing gently.
The color of autumn dyed the mountain.
Tree leaves were a mix of yellow and red, with wild fruits growing all over the place. Only the Qing Mao bamboo remained green and erect.
"Not long ago, Gu Yue Clan was like these Qing Mao bamboo, evergreen all the year, the overlord of Qing Mao mountain. Now, they are actually falling behind," Xiong Li's lips curved with a cold mocking smile.
But quickly, he thought of the Bai village and the curve of his lips smoothed out; his mood turned serious.
Bai village's uprising had already broken the old balance of Qing Mao mountain. The traditional hedgemon, the Gu Yue clan had weakened; Xiong village's operations were not running properly; all these were pushing the situation in the Qing Mao mountain towards an upheaval.
Xiong Li knew this upheaval hadn't erupted yet because of the pressure from the wolf tide. The three villages needed to collaborate if they wanted to overcome this wolf tide, thus they tacitly maintained peace and threw away grievances for the time being.
"Once the wolf tide is gone, Qing Mao mountain's old structure will be shattered. Bai Ning Bing has already reached Rank three in only a couple of years. It's really terrifying….." Xiong Li recalled the figure of a white-clothed youth, and he felt stifled as if he was pressed down by a huge rock.
He, Xiong Li, was the top amongst the Xiong village's Rank two Gu Masters. He had fought all sorts of battles and won most of them, establishing his name. He held the Grand Bear Gu and could erupt with a bear's strength. He was also known as the strongest person in Qing Mao mountain.
He had already made his debut and had personally seen the rocket-like emergence of Bai Ning Bing, so he was clearer than others regarding the terror of this youth.
"Group leader, that is Gu Yue village! It's still far away, why are we stopping here?" From the side, Xiong Lin raised his two hands and clasped them behind his head as he curiously asked.
In this five-person group, Xiong Lin was the youngest and was a newbie who just made his debut. He was the same age as Fang Yuan and was this year's top genius of Xiong village.
His stature was short and he had shaved his head which seemed to shine under the sunlight.
Xiong Li looked at this new talent of the clan, his heavy mood eased up a little. He answered in a deep voice, "We are here on a diplomatic mission and not on a scouting mission. This area is already the warning area of the Gu Yue clan, and we will probably be treated as enemies if we boldly enter."
"Oh, so it was like that." Xiong Lin realized.
"We have two objectives this time. One is to hand the clan head's personal letter to Gu Yue's clan head. Another is to investigate the matter regarding the River Swallowing Toad. Gu Yue village is not our area, so make sure to keep your temper in check when we get there. However, you absolutely can't degrade the prestige of our Xiong village, understood?" Xiong Li's gaze swept all around and shouted.
The rest of the Gu Master's expressions all turned serious and silently nodded.
"Group leader, someone's here," the scouting Gu Master in the group suddenly spoke.
"We have revealed our movements for so long, they should be here by now. But who would it be... hmm? So it was Chi Shan." Soon after, Xiong Li also discovered Chi Shan group; his eyes flashed.
"Wow! That person is so tall, is he Chi Shan? He is even taller than the group leader. Such muscles, piece by piece… group leader, isn't he the guy born with super strength who has been trying to seize the title of the strongest person of the Qing Mao mountain?" Xiong Lin immediately looked straight at Chi Shan.
"Hmph, it had to be him….." Xiong Jiang spoke gloomily and twisted her lips in disdain.
"Xiong Li!"
"Chi Shan."
The two groups were fifty steps apart from each other. The two group leaders came face to face, their gazes clashed in the air and seemed to form sparks."Looks like you are Xiong village's special envoy this time," Chi Shan snorted coldly; he had fought many times with Xiong Li.
"That's right. Has the special envoy from the Bai village arrived?" Xiong Li's expression steeled up.
"Why ask so much? Follow me," Chi Shan cautiously turned and invited.
Meanwhile.In the second secret room, four wine jars were in front of Fang Yuan.
Sour, sweet, bitter and spicy, four flavors of wine. Sweet belonged to golden honey wine; spicy was white grains liquid; sour came from redberry wine; bitter was from bitter shell wine.
Fang Yuan sat cross-legged on the ground. He then willed the two Liquor worms to fly out of his aperture.
The fusion process of Four Flavours Liquor worm was slightly different from normal fusion.
The two Liquor worms followed Fang Yuan's will and entered the redberry wine jar.
They started the fusion within the redberry wine. A white ball of light formed in the wine jar, its majestic light pierced out of the wine jar and shone on the wall.
Fang Yuan threw primeval stones in the wine jar; one piece, ten pieces, fifty pieces…..
When it reached the hundredth piece, the light ball shrunk to a fist's size and floated in the wine jar.
The redberry wine was completely used up. Fang Yuan picked the second wine jar—golden honey wine—and poured it into the jar.
The white ball of light was immersed in the honey wine, suddenly swelling up to its original size.
Fang Yuan's head was soaked with sweat; he was constantly maintaining the fusion of the two Liquor worms' consciousness, and such multitasking was extremely taxing on the mind.
He continued to throw primeval stones towards the wine jar.
Every piece of primeval stones caused the ball of light to shrink by a bit, until it condensed to a fist's size again, reaching its limit.
Fang Yuan followed the pattern and successively poured the bitter shell wine, then the white grains liquid.
When the four types of wine were completely used up, the light in the wine jar suddenly flourished before disappearing completely.
"Success." Fang Yuan knew he had succeeded without even looking in the wine jar.
He willed and a Gu shakingly flew out of the wine jar.
It was the Four Flavours Liquor worm.
Comparing it with the Liquor worm, there wasn't much change in its external form, except that it was slightly bigger.
It also resembled a silkworm and had a tiny pair of shiny black eyes.
The difference was that the Liquor worm's body was completely white, but this Four Flavours Liquor worm's body continuously flickered with four colors; red representing spicy, blue representing bitter, green representing sour and yellow representing sweet. Fang Yuan couldn't help but associate it with the neon lights on Earth.
"Huff…" Fang Yuan let out a big sigh of relief. His luck was good this time and didn't encounter failure, succeeding the first time.
If it failed, the Liquor worms could suffer serious damage and one of them could even die, or the bitter shell wine might be used up. Either of these outcomes would be troublesome.
Fortunately, this situation didn't occur.
A Gu Master needs to use, nurture and refine Gu; none of them were easy. And in the aspect of fusing Gu worms, many Gu Masters would go through a lot to look for recipes and collect materials.
There were various recipes and they might not necessarily be suitable. As for collecting materials, Gu Masters might even spend over ten years of efforts on it. Even if they find the recipe and collect all the materials, if the fusion failed, the materials would be used up, and all their previous efforts and preparations would go down the drain.
"Gu Master's cultivation is difficult….." Fang Yuan sighed.
Fusing Gu worms were easy at the beginning stage of the cultivation. But the success rate for Rank four and Rank five fusion would often not reach even one in ten times.
Rank six fusion success rate was even as low as one percent. Every failure when fusing high rank Gu worms meant a loss of a great sum of resources.
However, once succeeded, the benefits would be extremely high.
Taking Fang Yuan's newly refined Four Flavours Liquor worm into account, it could refine Rank two primeval essence and increase it by a small realm.
Fang Yuan used a red steel Relic Gu to advance to middle stage. Now, with the Four Flavours Liquor worm, he would have upper stage primeval essence.
His fighting strength was now doubled. At the same time, the Four Flavours Liquor worm would nourish his aperture which meant faster cultivation speed.
However, with advantages comes disadvantages.
Using the Four Flavours Liquor worm to refine his primeval essence would definitely lead to an increased consumption of primeval stones. Just by relying on the income from selling vitality leaves was already not enough to maintain his cultivation expenditure.
"Next, I need to fuse the Stealth Rock Gu into Stealth Scales Gu. This will add on to another expenditure."
Fusion, whether success or failure, used up primeval stones every time. Fang Yuan had used up over four hundred primeval stones earlier for refining the Four Flavours Liquor worm.
The clan had awarded him with five hundred primeval stones for chasing away the River Swallowing Toad. Five hundred primeval stones was enough for other Gu Masters to spend for a long while, but Fang Yuan had almost used it completely.
Fortunately, from the reselling of the assets, after using up most of it to purchase the red steel Relic Gu, some of it still remained. There was no need to worry for a short period of time.
But it was necessary to refine the Scales Stealth Gu.
Fang Yuan had obtained the Stealth Rock Gu after he killed the stone monkey king. However, it had no practical use.
It could only conceal the body. That meant, once Fang Yuan used it, his body would be concealed and be invisible to people.
But the clothes on his body—his wrist guards, leg wrappings and bamboo shoes would still be visible to the naked eyes.
The stone monkey king had no worries about this; it was a wild beast and didn't need clothes.
But Fang Yuan would be in an awkward situation. To use the Stealth Rock Gu to the best of its ability and be invisible, he would need to take of all the clothes on his body. Otherwise, even if he concealed his body, others would see a set of 'walking' Rank two Gu Master's uniform.
Stealth Rock Gu was a Rank one Gu worm. Once it advanced to Rank two Stealth Scales Gu, this problem would be resolved.
Stealth Scales Gu could conceal even the clothes. If the stone monkey king had Stealth Scales Gu, then even if Fang Yuan's shirt covered its body, the shirt would also become invisible.
Supposing that the stone monkey king had Stealth Scales Gu, then the matter of whether Fang Yuan could defeat it was rather suspenseful.
Refining a Stealth Scales Gu naturally required other materials other than the Stealth Rock Gu. These materials were quite common and Fang Yuan had already requested Jiang Ya's help to gather them.
"If I could refine Stealth Scales Gu, it will become very convenient for me to enter the secret cave. Moreover, during the wolf tide, I could easily attack and retreat with this method," Fang Yuan pondered.
It was getting late, he retrieved the Four Flavours Liquor worm into his aperture and exited the cave, walking towards the village.
He had instantly attracted a lot of attention after successfully chasing away the River Swallowing Toad. It was not easy moving about these days, so he was slightly worried that if he stayed for long in the secret cave, people would harbor suspicions.
At the village gate, a bout of strength contest had concluded.
Xiong Li's group was proudly standing whereas Chi Shan's group along with the Gu Masters guarding the gate had heavy faces.
Xiong Li wasn't as tall as Chi Shan but his gaze seemed to be overlooking everything at this moment. He slowly spoke, "Chi Shan, you are indeed blessed with super strength. But I have Brown Bear Innate Strength Gu and I possess the strength of a bear. You saw from the battle just now that you are still not my match."
"Hmph, wanting to get the title of the strongest in Qing Mao mountain, dream on," Xiong Jiang sneered from the side.
Chi Shen's face was ashen, he knew the other party had intentionally challenged him and their conduct was filled with political intentions. His loss now was no longer just his personal affair; rather, it was tarnishing Gu Yue clan's name.
"What are you being proud over defeating me? You don't know that I am no longer the strongest person in the clan. If you have skills, then speak after defeating Fang Yuan," Chi Shan had no choice but to mention Fang Yuan.
"Oh, Fang Yuan? I heard an A grade genius emerged in Gu Yue clan and his name was Fang Zheng. But who is this Fang Yuan?" Xiong Li asked, doubtfully.
Chi Shan sneered, "Fang Yuan is Fang Zheng's older brother, he is also blessed with innate super strength and similarly possesses a strength-increasing Gu worm. Previously, he alone pushed the Rank five River Swallowing Toad over a hundred meters, finally driving it away.
If you don't believe me, you can ask anyone in the village."Xiong Li group's expressions couldn't help but change.Rank five River Swallowing Toad!Fang Yuan!
This name was instantly engraved in their minds.