"Take this as another little present from me," Fang Yuan said. He handed her a gu worm about the size of her finger and shaped much like it, though it was as white as Bei Gu Mountain. "This is a Rank One Bone Spear Gu. It's one of my clan's new specialties."
"I couldn't possibly-" Zhang Xin Ci began.
"Don't worry about the price," Fang Yuan told her. "As it is, this is more than covered by what you have given me for rescuing the merchant caravan."
Regarding those goods, most of them were irrelevant to Fang Yuan at this level, and he had distributed quite a portion of them among the clansmen for their "hard work" and to maintain their loyalty. Also, to show that when he left the clan, he wasn't just goofing off somewhere and that they, too, could benefit from it.
This was met with a bit of mixed reception, because his donations tended to go to both the elders and the common members of the clan. The elders felt that the common members were living a bit too well compared to how they had been before, but what could they say?
A lot of some of the items were of no use to the elders. What would they do with rank one or rank two refinement materials? The common folk, on the other hand, could definitely use an extra gu worm, so long as they could maintain it.
Not only that, but the clan's own storage could now be filled with some refinement materials and some other resources. He had also brought a variety of foods that the clansmen appreciated. One could only eat milk and milk-based products for so long. For other things, they were still dependent on either going out of the mountain to hunt bone beasts for the rich marrow that they had, or trading with the Bei Clan near the foot of the mountain.
The Moon Orchids were growing beautifully. However, any attempt to grow large-scale crops was met with failure. They could barely sustain the foundation. Most bamboo buildings, and atop those, floors from the bones of wild beasts were now being placed as a new kind of hybrid architecture within the new Gu Yue Village.
"As it is, we tend to give a free gu worm to our academy students. Consider this part of your gift, if you were to be trained here," Fang Yuan said.
"But I'm not an academy student, and you already gave me one..."
"This is also a test for you," Fang Yuan explained. "You've never refined a gu worm, have you?"
He had given her the Accumulate Virtue Gu, and he had not felt anything different as of yet, despite having used Steal Virtue Gu on her as well. However, its effect would only become apparent after some time, so he could not be impatient. Once she had accumulated enough, he would once again try to refine the Righteous Virtue Physique.
"Refining gu worms is an essential part of being a Gu Master. You do still have the two primeval stones I gave you?"
"Indeed, I do," she said, picking them up. To a mortal like Zhang Xin Ci, even though she was used to dealing with higher-tiered goods, two primeval stones were a large amount.
"Use them in order to help you refine this gu worm," Fang Yuan explained. "Also, it is very good for close combat and does not need much training, unlike our clan's signature Moonlight Gu." There was another reason, of course, that he was not handing her the Moonlight Gu; because that was a Gu Clan specialty. The Bone Spear Gu, on the other hand, he was going to sell off anyway, so that was not a problem if it happened to get into the Shang Clan's hands.
However, for now, he would like to keep the Moonlight Gu and its variants a secret.
"It creates a small little bone spear that you can use to ward off enemies with. It may not be very useful without any practice, but you can at least deter someone or some animal. Is that not what you wanted?"
Why did she want to become a Gu Master? Certainly, she was after power, the power to protect herself and her friend, Xiao Die. The power to protect others as well. However, she had quickly realized after losing Zhang Zhu that without the power to protect oneself, she could not help others either.
Additionally, she remembered how vulnerable she had been back when the merchant caravan had attacked. With this - could she make a difference? No, but it was a start.
"I see. I will definitely make you proud!" she said.
"It will take you a few days to refine the Gu worm," Fang Yuan explained. "Try your best, but if you're unable to, let me know, and I'll see if I can do something about it." Fang Yuan had chosen a gu which was of a medium difficulty to refine, and this was more to give her the basic grasp of how to refine the gu worm in question rather than actually using it.
He could tell that she was getting antsy to go back to Shang Clan City, but this would keep her occupied for a while, like giving a child a new toy to play with.
The system, however, also seemed to be eager to send him towards Shang Clan City as a new notification popped up.
So long as you remain the leader of the clan, even if you are not nominally the clan head, you may continue receiving Human Path Dao Marks.
It was a roundabout way of saying that if Fang Yuan declared himself to be the Supreme Elder rather than just the Clan Head, then things could still work. That more than suited his agenda. He could declare himself Supreme Elder and let Fang Zheng handle things as clan head.
He went over towards Bai Ning Bing. If they were going to head towards Shang Clan City, it was best to have the White Form Immortal Snake with them. Bai Ning Bing spent most of her time in the Dollhouse, trying to figure out if there was some secret within it.
Fang Yuan had also tried to do so, practicing his control over the Puppet Path. However, neither of them had stumbled upon the Dollhouse's innermost secrets.
"I'm going to Shang Clan City and I'll be needing the White Form Immortal Snake," Fang Yuan said.
Bai Ning Bing snorted.
"Oh, you can come with me. Don't worry," Fang Yuan said.
"Going to Shang Clan City..." Bai Ning Bing considered. "Is it true that you can buy anything within Shang Clan City?"
"When it comes to low-level goods, yes," Fang Yuan said. "When it comes to higher demand goods, perhaps you cannot buy them there. Regardless, however, it is a good place to buy and sell things. It's the largest market that we could possibly be welcome to."
He did not want to go to the Tie Clan simply because of his cautious nature, and the Wu Clan was at some distance. "Not only that, but there's a battle arena where you can test your fighting skills and earn a good amount of primeval stones. You're still lacking a full set of Rank 4 gu worms, aren't you?" Fang Yuan knew that had to be the case because the Bai Clan had lost most of their resources, and so finding a rank four Ice or Snow path Gu worm would have been incredibly difficult. "You might be able to get them in Shang Clan City."
Bai Ning Bing considered it. "We cannot take the Dollhouse now, then, can we?"