"Chainsaw Golden Centipede…." Bai Ning Bing mumbled with a complex expression as she stroked the dark golden carapace of this Rank three Gu.
She had suffered quite a lot due to this Chainsaw Golden Centipede during her battle with Fang Yuan. Who would have thought that there would be a time where Fang Yuan himself would lend it to her?
The way Fang Yuan used the Chainsaw Golden Centipede had left a lasting impression on her.
Bai Ning Bing immediately copied Fang Yuan's method and waved the Chainsaw Golden Centipede like a greatsword.
From time to time, she willed the Chainsaw Golden Centipede to lengthen or shorten, waving it around like a whip. The silver blades of the chainsaw rotated and cut through the air, producing a strange distortion of the light.
"Sky Canopy Gu!" She put the Sky Canopy Gu in her aperture, and inwardly poured white silver primeval essence on it with her brows raised. Immediately, her body was covered with an armor of white light.
"Fate really works mysteriously. To think, there would be a day where I would be using your Gu," she sighed while looking towards Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan was silent; he was sitting cross-legged beside the warm coal with his eyes closed.
His attention was on his aperture, where the full primeval sea of an A grade aptitude appeared in front of him.Ninety percent!
His aptitude had only been just over forty percent, and now it had increased by more than double.
"Although my cultivation has dropped from Rank three to Rank one, with my years of hard work wasted, it is still all worth it!" Fang Yuan was satisfied.
In a Gu Master's cultivation journey, there were three most important things.
Aptitude, resources and Gu worms.
None of these three aspects could be lacking!
Previously, Fang Yuan only had C grade aptitude and had to resort to all kinds of means of resources and Gu worms to try to make up for the deficiency in his aptitude. Those years spent in Qing Mao mountain had been quite difficult and exhausting. His cultivation speed had been pretty good, but that was the result of him exhausting all the means available to him and taking high risks.
If his aptitude had been A grade at that time, he would have faced a completely different scene and be able to easily reach Rank three.
"Such a twist of fate... I now have an A grade aptitude, but don't have the safe environment to grow up like in the village. Additionally, the resources and the Gu worms I have now can't compare to before."
Fang Yuan was now wandering outside his homeground, and with his weak cultivation he could face mortal dangers at any moment; this situation naturally couldn't compare with the safe and stable environment back at Qing Mao mountain. And of course, there would be no stable trading areas to exchange for mutual benefits.
"Fortunately, with the Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus, the greatest problem that is resources is resolved, so at least there will be no worries before I reach Rank three." Fang Yuan looked through his ninety percent green copper primeval sea, where a blue and white lotus had taken roots in the depths of his aperture; its petals were healthy and plump, giving off a holy and immortal aura.
This Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus was a Rank three and had an enormous potential for development. Just to refine it, Gu Yue clan's foundation spirit spring had to be wasted.
It was equivalent to a miniature portable spirit spring, and back when Fang Yuan still had Rank three cultivation, it continuously recovered Fang Yuan's primeval essence, giving him the recovery speed of a B grade aptitude.
Rank three cultivation possessed white silver primeval essence. Fang Yuan was now only a Rank one initial stage with green copper primeval essence; with the Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus in his aperture, his primeval essence recovery speed was raised to an extreme rate.
"If I only use Rank one Gu, my primeval essence recovery speed would be shocking and almost inexhaustible. Using one or two Rank two Gu worms might cause the primeval sea to decrease, but the recovery speed would continuously balance it, causing it to be relatively stable. Using a Rank three Gu will exhaust the primeval essence very rapidly, and the consumption would far surpass the recovery speed.
My primeval sea would be thoroughly dry within few moments," Fang Yuan calculated in his mind.
After all, he now only possessed green copper primeval essence and that too was the initial stage jade green primeval essence; the quality was far too low.
Other than Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus, Fang Yuan still had other Gu.
First of all was his vital gu: Spring Autumn Cicada.
This Rank six gu was numbered 7 in the list of mysterious Gu. Once it turned into one's vital Gu, it could no longer be taken out of the aperture and was now residing in the middle of the aperture.
After going through another rebirth, its aura was no longer the same; its bright yellow-green light was completely gone and now looked dispirited and extremely weak.
It was concealing its figure, and as time flowed, it silently absorbed time from the river of time and began another round of convalescence.
Fang Yuan comprehended inwardly, "I absolutely can't use Spring Autumn Cicada within a short period of time. In such a dangerous state, if I used it, it would be absorbed by the river of time and I would just be throwing away my life by self-detonating."
Without the pressure from Spring Autumn Cicada, other Gu worms could freely let out their instincts.
Four kinds of light flashed around the Rank two Four Flavors Liquor worm's chubby body as it swam around the surface of the primeval sea, enjoying the moment.
The carp fossil-like hidden Scales Gu calmly laid on the bottom of the sea, letting the primeval sea water cleanse its scales.
A black beetle with a pair of iron pincers on its head was soaring in the air above the sea; it was the Plunder Gu.
And similarly, spiralling with it and having a fun time was the white armored Yang Gu of the Yin Yang Rotation Gu.
Rank four Blood Skull Gu was lying deep in the sea, bright red blood light occasionally flashing on its surface.
As for the other Gu worms - Blood Moon Gu had turned into a red crescent imprint on Fang Yuan's palm; Earth Communication Ear grass Gu had turned into one of Fang Yuan's ears and wouldn't normally show up; the tusita flower resided on Fang Yuan's tongue as a tattoo.
Sky Canopy Gu and Chainsaw Golden Centipede were lent to Bai Ning Bing.
Calculating the numbers, Fang Yuan possessed a total of twelve Gu worms.
This was a truly big number!
Generally speaking, it was normal for a low level Gu Master to have two or three Gu. When one reached Rank four or five, they would raise this number to four or five. Even Divine investigator Tie Xue Leng only raised about seven Gu.
Do not be fooled by Gu Yue first head or Lord Sky Crane, both were special cases and were old monsters with centuries of accumulation.
The amount of Gu worms possessed by Fang Yuan was three to four times more than normal Gu Masters. More numbers meant huge economical burden on the Gu Masters along with the pressure of managing and raising them.
Fang Yuan may have chosen his Gu carefully with most of them being easy to raise, but with the limited goods and resources in the tusita flower now, Fang Yuan was under a huge burden.
Facing the brunt of this burden was the Four Flavors Liquor worm as its food was fine liquors; there was a lot of wine stored in the tusita flower, but it would only be able to support the Four Flavors Liquor worm for half a year.
"I need to find new source of liquors within these six months, or I have no choice but to reverse-refine the Four Flavors Liquor worm back to Liquor worm."
Next was the Plunder Gu.
Plunder Gu's food was difficult to find and the amount of the food stored for it in the tusita flower could only last for five months.
Then, it was the Earth Communication Ear grass.
Earth Communication Ear grass's food was ginseng roots, but thankfully there were a lot of it in the tusita flower, enough to support it for a year.
As for the Blood Skull Gu and Blood Moon Gu, both required blood which needed to be thought out properly.
And for the Yin Yang Rotation Gu, if they were intact and formed a complete Taiji light sphere, they would be self-sufficient in feeding on the transformation of the yin and yang qi. However, only Yang Gu was left now; Fang Yuan would need to take out some time to release it and let it absorb the yang qi in the air.
Raising this Yang Gu was very important. Only with the Yang Gu could Fang Yuan suppress Bai Ning Bing — gaining a cheap bodyguard and a guarantee for survival.
This signified that Fang Yuan couldn't casually enter mountain and underground caves. If by any chance were he to be trapped in a special situation where yang qi wasn't available, the Yang Gu would die from starvation, and at that time, Bai Ning Bing - in all his fury and despair - would become the greatest enemy to Fang Yuan.
All in all, Fang Yuan was in an awkward situation now.
He had a lot of high ranked Gu in his possession — Rank three, Rank four and even a Rank six Gu. But the unfortunate thing was that he only had Rank one cultivation at the moment.
To him now, using the high ranked Gu was quite troublesome and inconvenient.
The more crucial point was that he seriously lacked Gu with healing and movement abilities.
"Now what I need to do is gather some wild Gu worms and resolve these issues. If only I get lucky and come across a suitable Gu… Being able to escape from the shuttle swordfish groups could be considered my good luck. But there is no way I could be so lucky every time."After Fang Yuan sorted out his thoughts, he slowly opened his eyes with a grave expression.
When he had just opened his eyes, he saw Bai Ning Bing walking over with a white eggshell on his hand.
"Look at this. I was just trying out the Chainsaw Golden Centipede and drilled the ground, but to think there is an egg hidden under this beach! Too bad it was smashed by Chainsaw Golden Centipede," Bai Ning Bing said.
This egg was the size of half of a washbasin, and the white eggshell was thoroughly smashed and only some yolk remained in it.
Fang Yuan only took a glance at this eggshell before his expression turned tense, "This is bad, this is the egg of a six-foot crocodile. Is this beach a breeding ground for the six-footed crocodiles?"
He quickly stood up: "Quick, use the Chainsaw Golden Centipede and check if there are more of such eggs in this beach."
Bai Ning Bing's gaze shook and pointed behind Fang Yuan, "It's too late, look!"
Fang Yuan turned around and saw hundreds of 'dead logs' floating towards the beach from the river.
The 'dead logs' came ashore and revealed their true forms; they were all enormous crocodiles.
These crocodiles had thick carapaces, sharp teeth and three pairs of feet. Right now, their bloodshot eyes were tightly staring at Bai Ning Bing.
Six legged crocodile groups!
Bai Ning Bing subconsciously loosened her hand under the glares of the crocodiles; the white eggshell fell onto the sand, smashing further in the process and what little yolk left in it seeped into the sand.
Hisss!
The six legged crocodiles hissed in rage before charging forward on their six legs towards the two youths.
...
At the same time, in Qing Mao mountain, in the former site of Gu Yue village.
Snow covered everything and glaciers had formed everywhere.
A group of people were standing on the snow like iron nails nailed into this white world.
"Father…" Tie Ruo Nan kneeled down on the snow and shouted out her father's name with tears flowing down her face.
Five to six days ago, Tie Xue Leng had an intense battle with the Gu Yue first head but when he was at death's door, he kept his daughter's safety in mind and sent out the Mountain Giant Puppet Gu and Iron Fist Grappling Gu.
The Mountain Giant Puppet Gu formed into a copper mask and covered Tie Ruo Nan's face, protecting her; the Iron Fist Grappling Gu turned into a giant hand, taking her away from the mess at Qing Mao mountain.
However, these two had already been infected by the Blood Frenzy Gu and had turned into a pool of blood not long after completing their tasks.
Tie Ruo Nan rushed back to Qing Mao mountain in a crazed state, but on the way, she was besieged by a group of beasts.
In the moment of her great danger, Tie family's reinforcements had arrived. They had come because of Tie Xue Leng; Tie Xue Leng always executed matters earnestly. Just to be safe, he had sent a letter for reinforcements to their clan.
Tie Ruo Nan was able to rush here with the help of the reinforcements. However, the scene that appeared before her was a mountain filled with ice and snow where all the living beings were frozen, and there were no traces of her father.
She and the Tie family reinforcements searched for several days and nights, before finally accepting the cruel reality.
Divine investigator had fallen; her father had died!
"Father…!" Tie Ruo Nan cried out with a hoarse voice filled with extreme sorrow like the wail of the wild goose.