I take my focus off of my aperture and stretch, giving a big yawn afterwards..
The morning sunlight is pouring into the room from the open window, bathing everything in its shine. Shen Cui is still sleeping peacefully, so I begin reading the inheritance while waiting for her to wake up.
I am not far from reaching rank one middle stage. By my estimation that should not take any more time than two weeks even if I don't use primeval stones. With primeval stones reaching the middle stage in a week is not out of the question. The liquor worm and the amplify effect gu are speeding up my cultivation my leaps and bounds.
The section of the inheritance that I am reading is wholly dedicated to immortal gu, which are gu of rank 6 and higher. Unlike the previous sections, where each gu had many details regarding them noted down, immortal gu have much less, with most of the notes being speculation. For the gu of ranks 1 to 5 each gu had their recipe and abilities documented in detail, whilst most of the immortal gu have theories and speculation instead.
Unlike mortal gu, immortal gu are unique. Only a single copy of each type can exist at any one time, regardless of its rank. The Gu professor perk allows me to know whether or not an immortal gu exists. Trying to refine an immortal gu that already exists will always, without question, fail.
It's in this section that I finally find the rest of my gu. Dream travel, Dream wings and Dream pillow gu are all dream path gu. This is a path that was supposedly still relatively in its infancy even during the vampire gu immortal's time.
Immortal dream travel gu allows a gu master to travel to other people's dreams or to any dream realm instantly. Notes on the rank 1 to 5 versions are nonexistent, meaning that I'll have to find out the limits of my version on my own. Its immortal version is not refined yet.
Immortal dream wings gu allows a gu master to travel freely between reality and dreams. The only downside is that the gu master will immediately fall asleep if they go into a dream. Just like the immortal dream travel gu notes on the rank 1 to 5 versions don't exist. Its immortal version is already refined.
Immortal Dream pillow gu allows a gu master to explore their own dreams. Unlike the previous two gu this one has some speculation regarding its rank 1 to 5 versions. Immortal Dream pillow gu does not function for gu immortals of ranks higher than the gu worm. A gu immortal of rank 7 trying to use immortal dream pillow gu of rank 6 will fail. The same rules almost certainly apply to mortal dream pillow gu. Its immortal version has not been refined yet.
Unlike the other gu Immortal dogshit luck gu is more unique. It is a luck path gu that boosts the user's luck when used. Higher ranks of dogshit luck will boost luck by more. There are no notes regarding its rank 1 to 5 variants, but this gu is simple enough to extrapolate the differences. There is no limit to how much it can boost luck, the only limit is how much it is used. Its immortal version has already been refined.
The main downside to using dogshit luck is that it consumes primeval essence to do so. Using it is a trade-off between boosting your luck and increasing your cultivation. I already have enough luck, so using it regularly right now isn't practical.
I continue reading throughout the section on immortal gu, checking whether or not the gu listed exist out of curiosity. Some of them do, some do not. One thing that is almost always true for all of the immortal gu is that their refinement is extremely costly and difficult. Some of them even require materials noted to have become extinct.
There's about ten percent of the inheritance left to read after I finish reading the immortal gu section. Skimming through some of it reveals it to be mostly things that did not fit anywhere else in the inheritance itself. Speculations on the nature of gu and of the dao, those sort of things. Whilst interesting they are not immediately useful, so they're not a priority.
Shen Cui is waking up, so I put the phone gu back in my aperture and begin preparing for the day.
—
There's a lot of hubbub in the village by the time that I come back from hunting. Apparently there's a caravan that has just arrived at the village gates. This is not unusual, caravan's occasionally arrive throughout the year, carrying various goods and sometimes even gu. Traveling through the wilderness is dangerous, so caravans always employ multiple gu masters.
"I wonder what could've caused them to have such severe losses, I've heard that almost all of them are sporting grievous wounds, more than enough to kill a man!"
"The wilderness is dangerous, they either encountered a demonic gu master or a thousand beast king."
"From what I have examined they were almost certainly attacked by a myriad beast king!"
"Are you stupid? They'd all be dead then."
"He just likes gossip and always believes the most ridiculous things he hears, just ignore him."
I change course, going towards the south gate instead of my apartment. Once I reach the gate I find the caravan parked outside, with who I assume is their leader talking with one of the village elders. When guests arrive it is customary that they are received by a member of the clan, the more important the guests the higher ranking the person receiving them will be. Since they are being received by an elder that means that the leader of the caravan is almost certainly a gu master of rank 3.
The elder continues talking. "-ell. We agree to provide housing for the duration of your stay to your gu masters at twenty primeval stones per apartment per month. The mortals and labourers will need to find their own accommodations. My associate, Gu Yue Ji Gun, will lead you to your residences."
The caravan leader nods at the person next to him, who then proceeds to lead the gu masters and labourers of the caravan into our village. The leader of the caravan then looks at our clan elder and gives him a bow. "That is agreeable. Now, I wish to go and rest, since the journey has been arduous. I thank the Gu Yue clan for its hospitality."
The clan elder bows back a little less deeply than the caravan leader. "You are most welcome. Please enjoy your stay in our village."
With that their exchange is over, with both of them leaving. I quickly head on over to the shop, there's work to be done. Inside of the shop I find Cui Wen finishing negotiations with a young couple. I head towards him. "Buy ingredients and prepare as many pastes as you can. A beaten and battered caravan has come to our village."
The main bottleneck of the shop isn't making the medicinal paste, it's selling it. The ingredients themselves are cheap and the paste sells for a pretty nice amount. Right now we have the opportunity to sell them in bulk for a good price.
Cui Wen nods and begins preparing to go out and buy ingredients. "It'd be a good idea to hire or buy some more workers too. There's a limit to how many I can do on my own until tomorrow morning."
I hand him a bag of primeval stones. "Buy whatever you consider necessary. Why focus on tomorrow though?"
Cui Wen begins counting the primeval stones. "Because right now they'll be rushing and buying from the healing hall. Tomorrow onwards they'll be searching for cheaper alternatives."
That makes sense. I give Cui Wen a nod after he finishes counting the stones and leave towards my apartment. The caravan is settling in for today, they will open shop tomorrow. Hopefully they will be selling their goods cheaper since they are wounded and recovering.
Shen Cui is not in the apartment when I get home, she's probably buying groceries. I sit on the bed, grab a primeval stone and begin cultivating. Shen Cui with groceries arrives right as I pick up the fourth primeval stone. I just continue cultivating until I finish the tenth stone.
It's not nighttime just yet, so I go to the academy courtyard and practice martial arts for the rest of the day. By now I've noticed that I tend to pick things up much more quickly compared to back when I was on earth, regardless of what the subject matter is. I'm not entirely sure whether this is a result of my luck, of the 'eidetic memory perk' or something else, but it is welcome nonetheless.
Once nighttime is near I stop and go to my apartment. Shen Cui helps me clean up, we have our fun and then she goes to sleep. I decide to test the dream gu for the next few nights instead of cultivating. The first one on the list is the dream pillow gu. I manifest it into my aperture and take a good look at it. It's a light green silk cocoon. Pushing primeval essence into it does nothing.
I pull it into my open palm out of my aperture. It's as big as a finger, so I don't think I can use it as a pillow. I put it back into my aperture and then manifest the dream wings gu into my aperture.
The dream wings gu is a translucent butterfly, flying around the open space in my aperture. The moment that I think about activating it activates. Transparent butterfly wings appear on my back. Going into a dream is supposed to make me fall asleep, but I don't think that falling asleep with these wings on my back will work. Focusing on going into a dream, of which I'm not exactly sure of the exact meaning, makes me get extremely sleepy instantly. I close my eyes.
I find myself standing on a giant grey tree branch. Looking around reveals identical tree branches everywhere, they are so abundant that they obscure my vision of anything else. There are various fruits and leaves growing intermittently on the branches, each of them of differing colors and brightness. Dull red leaves, grey apples, yellow strawberries, grey leaves.
Most of the fruits and leaves are a dark grey, a small minority have some color and an extremely small amount are of a dull color. The only bright color visible is a bright red pear.
There's a tree branch with a greyish blue plum intersecting the one that I am standing on about fifty meters from me, so I walk towards it. Once I arrive at the branch I touch the greyish blue plum and my vision immediately changes.
I can recognize that I am in the Gu Yue village, but I can't tell exactly where. Looking around makes me certain that something is different, but I can't put my finger on what exactly is different. Someone touches my shoulder from behind me. "Ye Ning, what are you doing? You are going to be late for the awakening ceremony!"
I look behind me and see the speaker, a red-haired young woman. I give her an awkward smile, unsure of what to do. I try to inspect my aperture but find nothing, thankfully I can still feel the dream wings gu. I look downwards and see a pair of tits. "Sorry, sorry. Let's go"
She squints at me and grumbles but does not say anything else. I follow her once she turns around. I keep looking around, trying to figure out what exactly is off about the village. It's when the shrine finally comes into view that I realize what is wrong. The village looks too new, as if it was built just fifty years ago instead of a few hundred.
The room inside is just as it was the first time that I entered. The clan leader, a man with long black hair in his fifties, begins shouting names. The first name he calls is Ye Ning, which is what the red haired girl called me. I step forward and begin walking in the pool. I can feel no resistance whatsoever at any single point. I quickly reach the other end of the pool, having felt no resistance at any point while walking through it.
Almost everyone is stunned into silence, the only exception to this is the clan leader. He is giving me the same look that a person dying of thirst in a desert would give to a spring of cold water. When a glowing, red skull dripping blood appears into his hand I quickly use the dream wings gu and leave this dream realm. My vision changes.
I'm right in front of the same fruit that I had touched. I deliberate whether or not to touch it again. The inheritance mentioned that immortal dream wings gu allows a gu master to safely explore dream realms without fear. Some of my perks mentioned me being able to explore them safely as well. I touch the greyish blue plum again.
I follow the same actions that I did before, the only difference being that I stop at the thirty ninth step instead of going all the way to the end of the pool. The ceremony continues without any further consequences, and once it is over my vision changes again.
I'm now near a camp in the middle of a forest. Inspecting my aperture reveals that everything is back to normal, looking downwards reveals a lack of tits. I examine the camp. There's three tents, two backpacks and an extinguished campfire. I walk closer to the camp.
Looking inside one of the tents reveals that same red haired woman from the beginning, she is sleeping peacefully, looking about five years older. One of the other tents is empty and the final tent holds a sleeping purple haired woman. I sit down next to the campfire to think a little.
Some of the gu in the inheritance mentioned dreams and dream realms, but they were never explained in detail up to where I got into reading it. This is almost certainly a form of dream realm. Dream realms are rare and mysterious phenomena. They are supposedly dangerous to explore unprepared but can be a treasure trove of attainment for a prepared explorer.
Each layer has a form of goal, with the person inside the dream realm gaining more attainment the deeper they go into the dream realm. The goal of the first realm was probably to not display excessive talent. I'm not quite sure what this one's go-
I hear a loud thud from behind me. I swiftly rise up and turn around. A giant featherless red skinned bird has crashed from the sky, its head and a part of its freakishly long neck is currently buried in the ground as it is blindly flailing around. I give its exposed neck a good kick, breaking it. My vision changes once again.
I am on the ground, looking at the sky. Looking at my aperture reveals that I have crystal purple primeval essence! This is the primeval essence of a rank 5 peak stage gu master!
The aperture is at 98% and filling up absurdly fast. Inside it there are no living gu, only the corpses of nine gu. I try to get up, feeling immense pain everywhere in the process. In front of me is another gu master, encased in a golden barrier. He is blond with blue eyes.
The man sneers. "Is this all that there is to the desolate ancient moon physique?! I expected much more from yo-"
I begin glowing purple. My aperture has reached 100%, distracting me with unbearable pain the moment it does so. Despite being full it continues trying to replenish, the pressure this causes the aperture walls becomes increasingly more painful.
The man's face is instantly etched with despair. I try to get up, only to fall back to the ground the moment that my aperture breaks. My vision changes.
I am back on the branch. I look at my outstretched hand and find the greyish plum on top of it. Intuition tells me to eat it. I hesitate.
This is probably the 'reward' from the dream realm. Speaking of that dream realm, what is it that happened there?
The first layer had me as a woman, where if I showed too much talent I would supposedly get killed. The second layer was an ambush by a beast. I'll assume the purple haired woman was whom I was in the first and third layers. The third layer was the woman exploding.
I try to use the dream wings gu to fly and succeed. I slowly drift underneath the branch and search for any fruits. There's a gray apple thirty meters away from me, in the opposite direction to where the plum was. I slowly float towards it, touching it once it is in range. My vision changes.
I am in a dimly lit basement, with an old man standing with his back towards me. Inspecting my aperture reveals that I'm myself for this layer. Looking around reveals that I'm surrounded by stands, a transparent glass box sits on each stand. Inside each box is a single gu.
I hear the old man take a deep breath. "I will not live for much longer. There are two, maybe three good years left in me. I will train you to take over our Yao faction."
I have no idea what it is that I'm supposed to do now, so I just go with the flow. "I promise to make you proud, the Yao faction will certainly rise under my leadership."
The man chuckles. "Good, good. Then lis-" My vision changes.
I am once again floating. The grey apple is in my hand, next to it is the greyish plum. I float back to the branch, standing on it once again. I eat the greyish plum and see if anything feels different. Nothing feels any different. I eat the grey apple and nothing noticeable occurs again..
I go back to where I was when I first appeared here, just in case my location has any effect. I activate the dream wings gu and wake up.