Nightfall arrived. The moon was like a silver plate, appearing among the clouds. The thinly spread stars decorated the surroundings.
Gu Yue Mo Bei stood in the courtyard, raising his head up, his eyes glistening under the reflection of the moon.
"Little brother, I heard you got injured today." Behind him, his sister Gu Yue Mo Yan's voice resounded.
"Sister, you are worried that after being beaten till I vomited blood today, I would have long lasting trauma?" Mo bei turned around and curled his lips.
Seeing her brother laughing, Mo Yan's heart felt at ease. Although she had truly worried, she said instead, "No way, big sis here understands you best. Good brother, you have an indomitable will, the future head of our Mo family. How can you be frightened off by such a small injury?"
"Hehehe, I knew sister doted on me the most," Mo Bei scratched the back of his head as he laughed sheepishly.
"You know what, sister?" Under the glow of the moonlight, this fifteen year old teenager's eyes radiated brightly. "Although I failed this time, I heard Fang Yuan panting during the match. Back then he easily beaten me in two or three strikes with a calm and composed manner. But his gasping already revealed his weakness. He is definitely not as strong as everyone else thinks.
One day, I will defeat him fair and square."
"Good, as expected of a good man from my Mo bloodline!" Mo Yan laughed, patting her brother's head, showing concern on her face, "However, you suffered internal injuries, so please don't practise your martial arts these few days."
"Don't touch my head sister, I am already old enough." Mo Bei shrugged his head, using an unhappy tone, "I understand what you are saying, I have a plan. These few days, I'm going to nurture my aperture walls. To completely breakthrough from initial stage to middle stage and obtain the position of class chairman, and suppress Fang Yuan's dominance.
I'll let him know that, what truly matters to a Gu Master's cultivation is still talent!"
"I'm glad you can think this way. I was only a vice chairman last time. If you manage to become chairman, it will fulfill my regrets too."
"Don't worry sister. The position of chairman, I certainly must obtain it!"
At the same time, in the Chi family.
Inside the secret room, there was only one torch, attached to an opening in the limestone walls.
The flame burned on, illuminating this small room.
One of the two elders in power, Gu Yue Chi Lian, was sitting facing his grandson, Gu Yue Chi Cheng. The two sat on a praying mat with their shadows projected on the ground, wavering with the flickering of the flame.
Gu Yue Chi Lian stretched out his hand, using his palm to touch Chi Cheng's abdomen.
Gu Yue Chi Chen's face was full of anxiety, his mind entering his aperture, suppressing the ripples in his Primeval Sea with all his concentration.
In this world, there were no two identical tree leaves. Similarly to Gu Masters, there was no identical primeval essence as well.
Once primeval essence from an external source enters the aperture, it will result in the natural resistance of the original primeval essence in the aperture.
If Gu Yue Chi Cheng didn't suppress it, and instead allowed his primeval essence to resist, it would result in a clash between the essences. Such intensive reaction could cause great damage to the aperture.
The aperture's Primeval Sea was the foundation and roots of a Gu Master's cultivation, and was of utmost importance.
Once the aperture was damaged, the consequences would range from having one's cultivation lowered to having their latent talent lowered as well. Once the aperture was completely shattered, the Gu Master would die immediately.
After a while, Gu Yue Chi Lian gradually stopped transmitting his primeval essence, slowly taking back his hand.
Gu Yue Chi Cheng took a deep breath of relief, his tense body relaxing. "Thank you Grandfather, for nurturing my aperture and transfusing primeval essence to me every three days. It has been hard on you!"
Gu Yue Chi Lian's forehead was full of sweat, and he sighed and said, "This is inevitable. Your talent is only C grade, so if we rely on your ability alone to rise to middle stage, it'll take a long time. The time will usually be twice a B grade's, and four times an A grade's. In such a situation, your talent will be exposed. Thus, even if this method is dangerous, we have to use it."
"Grandson understands grandfather's intentions."
"As long as you understand." The old man sighed. "This method also has another sequela. After your aperture has been nurtured by my silver primeval essence, although the silver primeval essence has a greater effect, it is still an external source of primeval essence to you. Henceforth, even if your aperture walls change from a light wall to a water wall, it would still be mixed with my energy.
The more external energy there is, the more impure your aperture will be, and this will stifle your talent, limiting your development in the future."
Gu Yue Chi Cheng bit his lips, "Grandfather, for the future of the Chi family, I am willing to sacrifice my future prospects!"
Gu Yue Chi Lian was pleased, stroking his beard. "It is good that you have such thoughts. But the heavens always leave a glimmer of hope for you, for you are not hopeless yet. If we can find the Cleansing Water Gu, it will be able to cleanse your aperture walls and flush out all the external energies in your aperture sea, removing this sequela."
"In addition, I have also used my relationships to search for a Liquor worm for you. This worm is able to help a Rank one Gu Master refine their primeval essence and raise it by one small realm. In this way the primeval essence that is refined will be your body's own primeval essence and not an external one.
Using this way to nurture your aperture leaves no repercussions and risks, it is a much better nurturing effect!"
Gu Yue Chi Lian was overjoyed. "Thank you grandfather!"
"However, the Liquor worm is hard to find. Among the Rank one Gu worms, the Liquor worm, boar Gu, and Bookworm etc, are all extremely rare Gu. Once they appear in the market they would be snatched up immediately. Of course, there are also some Gu in this world that are rumored to change a Gu Master's talent.
But at this age, grandfather has never seen one, only hearing occasional rumors about them." The old man explained.
The night winds blew in gently from the windows and into the room.
Gu Yue Fang Zheng sat on his bed with his eyes shut, holding a primeval stone in both hands.
The green copper Primeval Sea was raging without any winds, the waves crashing towards the white aperture walls.
He had A grade rank talent, and his primeval essence occupied 80% of the aperture. His natural rate of recovery was twice of Fang Yuan!
With such godblessed advantage, he was already close to Rank one middle stage.
Phew.
A while later, Gu Yue Fang Zheng puffed out a breath of air and opened his eyes.
The moon was bright and stars sparse outside the window, the bluish green bamboo houses arranged in a line.
A scene of peace and harmony.
"Time always flies when cultivating. In the blink of an eye, it is already late into the night," Fang Zheng muttered softly. He slowly opened his hands, and two piles of rock powder fell onto the floor in front of his bed.
After a primeval stone's essence had been fully retrieved, it would turn into a pile of powder.
Looking at the powder pile, Fang Zheng frowned.
He took out his money bag; it was already close to empty.
Opening it, he saw three primeval stones left inside.
Fang Zheng would retrieve three pieces every seven days from the academy as resources, but since Fang Yuan would snatch a piece from him, he only had two left every week.
Uncle and Aunt would also give him living expenses, but it was also three stones every seven days.
Just with these primeval stones, how was it enough?
Fang Zheng was determined to surpass his brother Fang Yuan, thus he took the initiative to approach his uncle and aunt multiple times to beg for some primeval stones.
After many times, his aunt would look for him to have a heart-to-heart chat, telling him about how poor the family was, and how they had cash flow difficulties, having no spare money left. Since then, Fang Zheng did not have the desire to continue asking.
"Father and mother are already doing all they can to support my cultivation. I cannot make things difficult for them and ask for more primeval stones. I only have three left. I can only be more thrifty. If I use one piece a day, I'll have enough for three days."
"I have a feeling that in three or four days, I will definitely advance to middle stage! The only thing is, what is brother's progress now?" Thinking so, Fang Zheng subconsciously looked towards to academy living quarters.
"I have A grade talent, while brother only has C grade talent. His speed is definitely slower than me. Brother is not my match this time! Brother, I will let you know the true power of an A grade talent!"
Thinking of this, Fang Zheng clenched his fists.
...
Academy dormitory.
Fang Yuan's door was shut tight.
In the darkness, he was not asleep, but sitting on his bed.
A Gu Master's cultivation cannot replace sleep. Normally at this time, Fang Yuan would already have fallen asleep.
But in cultivating earlier today, he already felt that he was just one step away from middle stage.
"I might as well not sleep tonight, I'll rush straight for middle stage!" His eyes shone with determination.
Soon after, he shut his eyes and his mind went into the aperture.
44% of green copper Primeval Sea. Just a moment ago, they were all refined into pale green coloured middle stage primeval essence by the liquor worm.
"Rise." With a thought, the peaceful green copper Primeval Sea began to stir.
The commotion got larger and larger, until waves were formed.
Splash, splash, splash…
The tides raced against each other, rushing towards the surrounding aperture walls.
Like crashing on a reef, most of the primeval essence would break into emerald ripples and fuse back into the sea.
A small amount of primeval essence was expended, turning into a small hint of invisible energy, penetrating into the white coloured light aperture wall.
"Rise again," Fang Yuan thought as the emerald ripples became larger in scale. The waves earlier were like rabbits and dogs, but now they were like troops of horses, marching towards the aperture walls.
A horse-like dragon, the waves like the heavens!
The primeval essence was expended quickly, and the water level fell sharply.
Splash, splash, splash…
The waves struck relentlessly, finally resulting in a change. The white coloured wall shook suddenly, the originally mild white colour radiating an eye-piercing brilliance.
Seeing this scene, Fang Yuan was overjoyed as he knew that the crucial part had arrived, and he quickly activated all of his primeval essence to rush at the walls.
The white light grew brighter, the light rays distorted and tangling together, giving people a feeling of thickness. After more than ten breaths, white strips of light bands appeared on the light wall, and the strips collided with each other like water flowing nonstop. In the process of collision, they continued to combine and merge, forming a white flowing light.
Finally, the flowing light gathered into one piece and completely covered the light wall.
The white light dimmed, and the original white light wall of the aperture was gone, replaced by a layer of spherical shaped white water wall. The light wall's surface was smooth with no impurities. The water wall however, was thicker than the light wall, the ripples of light flowing and flickering on it.
The Primeval Sea regained its peace, the aperture still having 20% primeval essence left.
"I advanced to middle stage!" Fang Yuan laughed heartily, opening his eyes.
The bright sunlight crept in through the cracks in the curtains.
Unknowingly, the night had passed, and it was already morning.