On the cliff, Bai Ning Bing watched with interest.
As he sat at the cliff, a life and death battle was on full display.
The bold lightning wolf took its move, slowly approaching.
Two Gu Masters blocked its path with a grim expression.
Behind them, Xiong Zhan was half-kneeling on the ground, his left hand grabbing his right wrist, his right hand in the shape of a claw, aiming at the bold lightning wolf.
"Plunder Gu!" Suddenly, he shouted loudly, all the primeval essence in his body gushing towards the Plunder Gu.
An invisible grabbing force exploded from within.
Xiong Zhan's right hand grabbed the air, and a sense of illusion made him feel that he had grabbed onto a Gu worm.
But this Gu worm continued to struggle, contesting with him.
This force was very large; his center of gravity had already been very low, but he still felt a very strong force dragging him forward.
"Plunder Gu's success rate is very low, but I have to succeed this time, otherwise we're doomed!" He gritted his teeth, veins popping up on his forehead as his expression turned ferocious, contesting with all his ability.
Xiong Zhan had no other way.
Failure means death!
Under the pressure of death, he infused the Plunder Gu with all the primeval essence he could muster. With the infusion of the primeval essence, the Plunder Gu residing in his right palm also increased its sucking force. The bold lightning wolf felt something amiss, and started howling, attacking in a frenzy.
The two Gu Masters could hardly block it.
Just when Xiong Zhan felt that his plunder was going to succeed, his expression changed.
"Damn it, not enough primeval essence!" He suddenly vomited a mouthful of blood, his state of health being at the worst. Once a plunder fails, he would face some backlash. This was a flaw of the Plunder Gu.
Howl!
Without the Plunder Gu's restriction, the bold lightning wolf opened its mouth, and started to howl.
The Gu worm that lived within it used its ability, and made its teeth shine with lightning.
Eerie blue lightning discharged and finally shot out from its mouth.
The lightning shot through the middle of both Gu Masters, aiming for the half kneeling Xiong Zhan.
Xiong Zhan did not even have time to cry before he got hit by the lightning, turning into a piece of charred black cooked meat, instantly dead.
"Run!" The remaining two Gu Masters no longer had any fighting spirit as they ran in two directions.
The bold lightning wolf chased up to one of them, pouncing on him and biting the throat.
The final Bai clan Gu Master was blocked by the bold lightning wolf, and could only retreat towards the cliff.
"Ahhhhh. I'm going to die!" With his back against the cliff, he roared in despair, venting out the fear in his heart.
But suddenly his voice came to a stop—He saw Bai Ning Bing on top of the cliff.
"Lord Bai Ning Bing! Lord Bai Ning Bing, is that really you?" He was stunned but then started shouting, overjoyed.
"Oops, you found me," Bai Ning Bing laughed, and raised his right hand.
His right index finger pointed downwards and an icicle instantly formed, shooting downwards.
The icicle hit the Gu Master crying for help, penetrating his skull, all the way to his chin.
"Ah!" His face was still fixed with intense joy after finding hope, but then fell to the ground with a plop.
The bold lightning wolf was shocked by the event.
It stared at Bai Ning Bing, its mouth opening. Within, lightning coiled around its teeth.
"Ignorant beast." Bai Ning Bing stared plainly, jumping down lightly from the five metre cliff.
In the air, he clapped his palms together, and icy mist instantly formed.
Next his palms splitted, and an ice blade appeared.
This ice blade was around 1.7m, like the katana on Earth, with a transparent icy body. The handle was grabbed by Bai Ning Bing.
Bold lightning wolf shot out electric light from bottom to up, and Bai Ning Bing laughed while two lines of white water vapour poured out of his nose.
The water vapour swirled around, wrapping around his body into a layer of water barrier.
The water ball continued to rotate on its own, and the bold lightning wolf's lightning dissipated upon hitting this barrier.
The water ball burst open, and the white clothed young man appeared from within.
"Die." The young man's iris turned from black to pure blue, like two pieces of blue crystal, devoid of feelings and emotion.
The light of the blade shone.
Bai Ning Bing landed lightly, and from his half-transparent white ice blade, a drop of blood fell.
Meanwhile, the bold lightning wolf stayed still like a statue.
A breath later, fresh blood poured from its neck as the large wolf head fell on the ground, rolling several times. As for the body, it collapsed on the ground.
The Lightning Current Gu that resided in its body shot out like lightning towards Bai Ning Bing.
Bai Ning Bing flicked his wrist, and a light shot out from his blade.
The Lightning Current Gu, under his sword, exploded into a ball of eerie blue lightning current with a bang, perishing instantly.
Bai Ning Bing slowly walked towards Xiong Zhan's corpse.
"The other Gu worms, they are all ordinary. But this Plunder Gu is slightly interesting." From Xiong Zhan's corpse, he extracted the Plunder Gu and held it near his chest.
Even though the three clans have an agreement—after a Gu Master dies, if anyone after that obtains a Gu worm that has lost its Gu Master, they need to hand it over.
But Bai Ning Bing did not care about this rule.
Even if they found out, so what?
He was the symbol of the Bai clan's rise, and the clan would definitely protect him.
This, he was very sure of.
"Only… this wolf tide is really boring." He used his hand to caress his ice blade, feeling the intense freezing sensation.
"Come to think about it, it is more fun competing with someone." He yawned, suddenly smiling, "I wonder how Qing Shu, Xiong Li and the others are doing, how much have they grown? After cultivating behind closed doors for so long, maybe they can give me a surprise, maybe."
Days later.
At the square where it was overflowing with people, Fang Yuan stared at a giant flag.
On the flag, words were formed by the Swimword Gu. The content was about the resources co-supplied by the three clans.
These resources were very broadly categorized, from food used to feed Gu worms, rice and condiments for humans, oil and other living necessities, to Gu worms themselves and primeval stones.
But behind these resources, there was a number attached to them, corresponding to the amount of merit points needed to exchange for them.
A wolf's eye was ten merit points, and five merit points was for a bag of 500g of rice. Using twenty-five merit points could let a Gu Master exchange for one primeval stone.
Undoubtedly, the arrival of the wolf tide brought about an opportunity never seen before during peaceful times.
The battle merit board and this resource board urged on many Gu Masters, making them willingly bath in warm blood, hunting lightning wolves day and night.
Especially recently, as the wolf tide intensified, the three clans brought out the savings they had and spurred on the Gu Masters' battle spirit, also raising their battle capability to help the village survive this ordeal.
Thus, the resource board had many things that were not commonly seen.
Like now, Fang Yuan's attention was on this Gu.
"Three Step Fragrant Grass Gu," he muttered, staring at the description on the large flag.
Three Step Fragrant Grass Gu was a Gu worm Fang Yuan needed, as it could assist with movement, raising Fang Yuan's running speed.
Honestly speaking, these days, the resource board had many new Gu worms. But only this Three Step Fragrant Grass Gu was what Fang Yuan wanted.
Except that this grass Gu was not easy to get. It was not only the only one of its kind on the resource board, but the merit points required to exchange for it is also very high.
"If I use my true ability, I can definitely gather enough merit points to exchange for this Three Step Fragrant Grass Gu. But if I do that, it would invite the suspicion of the clan, and that is not desirable."
Fang Yuan thought silently.
"There is another way, and that is to produce a large amount of vitality leaves and sell these Rank one Gu to the clan, exchanging it for merit points. But this method is slow, by the time I get enough points, someone might have exchanged it already."
Fang Yuan shook his head internally, this method had a flaw that would lead to failure.
Then what should he do?
He stared at the resource board and the merit board, falling into deep thought.
Towards the merit points, he had a clearer and deeper understanding of it compared to all the surrounding people.
Merit points are basically a kind of emergency currency.
During peacetime, primeval stones are the common medium of exchange. They were hard currency and had high commercial value in themselves, thus would never devalue.
But with the wolf tide, the need for primeval stones surged, and it could no longer be used as a currency. Thus, an emergency currency was needed to take over.
Thus, merit points were born.
"With an alternate currency like the merit point, it can prevent the economy from collapsing temporarily. Like on Earth, when there's a war, the government would print large amounts of paper money. Of course, that causes inflation and rising price levels. The merit points are the same; the more it drags on, the more it devalues.
But during the time of the village's life and death situation, without merit points and using only primeval stones is not sustainable. Thus, they can only pick the lesser poison. Hence after the wolf tide, the economy always has signs of depression."
"Sigh, this rough form of an economy is nothing worth mentioning. If I am a Rank three, I can easily play around. But unfortunately, I do not have enough strength, so I'm unable to handle the risks. If I push on, it is equivalent to playing with fire."
Fang Yuan sighed internally.
The point was that his cultivation was not high, and his strength was not sufficient.
Without strength, only having wisdom, it is useless.
Thus, in Ren Zu's story, Ren Zu chose to deal with the Strength Gu, obtaining strength and giving up on wisdom.
That is because, strength is the foundation.
Fang Yuan was still thinking deeply when he heard the discussions of the people around him.
"Do you guys know? Bai Ning Bing struck again!"
"What, what, which unlucky Gu Master is it this time?"
"It's Xiong clan's Xiong Li, that dejected-looking one."
"Sigh, what is this Bai Ning Bing doing? Last time, injuring Chi Shan, and now attacking Xiong Li. With the wolf tide coming, he is still fooling around!"
"He's always does what he wants, he is already a Rank three Gu Master and is still finding problem with Rank two Gu Masters. For fairness, he even used a Gu worm to suppress his own cultivation to Rank two, he is really bored and hard to understand!"
"Bai Ning Bing huh… hmph, a person halfway into the coffin. But that reminded me of something." Fang Yuan upon hearing this felt something in his heart stir.
He knew how to get a large amount of merit points quickly.