"Blocking an attack will reduce the damage dealt to you! Dodging an attack will nullify the damage dealt to you! Countering an attack will reverse the damage dealt to you! Countering an enemy's attack is the ideal response! Dodging an enemy's attack is an acceptable response! Blocking an enemy's attack is a desperate response!"
"Failure means death! Failing a counter will be devastating! Failing a dodge will be devastating! Failing a block will be devastating! If a counter is not assured then dodge! If a dodge is not assured then block! If a block is not assured you are dead!"
The martial arts instructor switches from demonstrating punching to demonstrating high kicks, we follow him and begin kicking as well. "The clan has ten elders, every year an average of two of you will have B-rank aptitude! Do you know what this means?! This means that most of you will die! Martial arts will help you survive! Without martial arts you will become wolf food! Dog food is what you will be! You will run out of primeval essence and get eaten in the first beast tide! Learn martial arts or you will die!"
Did he have a fight with his wife this morning or what?
—
I've been preparing myself for the arrival of the Jia clan caravan, since they're supposed to arrive any day now. I mentally sum up what my overall disposable assets are at this moment.
2867 primeval essence stones.
A Wine tavern.
Three apartment buildings.
A liquor worm gu.
The white boar gu and jade skin gu I'm keeping for now, since they are both easy to feed and can be combined into the rank 2 white jade skin gu. The rock fist and rock shin gu I don't plan to sell either, since they are pretty good for my overall combat style at this point.
Selling the wine tavern and apartment buildings isn't a good idea, since they're both making quite a nice amount of primeval essence stones with no input from me. The paste shop is rented, so there's no assets to sell there.
The only real option that I have to sell is the liquor worm from the wine flower monk's inheritance, since I have the liquor worm from the 'superior gu set' perk I don't need to worry about losing the liquor worm that I am currently using. The problem with selling it now is that I wouldn't get a fair price, since everyone is waiting to see if the Jia caravan happens to carry one.
Chi Lian is the most likely person to want to buy one, since he needs to speedrun Chi Cheng's cultivation.
In short all that I have as truly disposable assets are the 2867 primeval stones and any primeval stones that the tavern and paste shop will make. I'll also need to buy some gambling stones, since not taking advantage of my luck when an opportunity like this comes would be pretty dumb.
The village doesn't really have any big gambling dens, so I haven't had the opportunity to use my luck to the fullest up until now.
—
News quickly spreads throughout the clan that the Jia clan caravan will arrive in about two hours time, they will be opening up shop tomorrow, so going out to greet them today will be pretty pointless.
After finishing the academy class I just spend the rest of the day practicing martial arts moves. Once night time comes I head to take the paste stores income from Cui Wen and then head over to my apartment, take a bath and go to sleep.
On the following day I head over to the Jia clan immediately after the academy lesson. They've set up camp in tents, each one dedicated to a facet of their business. There's a tent for refinement materials, one for gambling, one for buying rank 1 gu, one for selling rank 1 gu and so on.
I go into the tents where they're selling gu and look through what they've got available for sale.
Rank 1 liquor worm gu: Boosts primeval essence by one small stage. Eats wine. Price starts from five hundred primeval essence stones.
Rank 1 white boar gu: Boosts gu masters strength through repetitive use, will stop increasing strength after the gu master has gained the strength of one boar. Price starts from four hundred and fifty primeval stones.
Rank 1 green copper relic gu : Boosts a gu masters cultivation by a small stage. Is a single use gu. Price starts from two thousand primeval stones.
The other gu on display aren't really of much worth. The liquor worm is a tempting buy but not a necessary one. The main point in buying it would be to use it to fleece Chi Lian.
I already have a white boar gu, so buying this one is pretty pointless.
The green copper relic gu is the most tempting buy out of them all, since it would let me advance instantly to rank 1 peak stage, from there I could attempt to breakthrough as soon as I stockpile enough primeval stones.
I go to the clerk in charge of this tent, a brunette in her mid forties. "Excuse me, how are sales handled?"
The lady gives me a polite smile, the exact smile that I used to give customers when I was working part time. "We are selling in a closed auction, whoever offers the highest price will win the auction. The offers are anonymous, you simply write your offer on a piece of paper and leave it in the box next to the gu that you wish to purchase."
I give the lady a nod. "Thanks."
Now, how much should I offer for the green copper relic gu?
My main opponent in this auction is Chi Lian, who is the one who has the most need for the green copper relic gu in our clan. There's also the option of relying on my luck to purchase it with one primeval stone more than him. There's no real risk of death if I fail here, so I'm not adverse to just relying on my luck for this.
I take a piece of paper and write out a random number, 2503. That leaves me with a total of 401 primeval stones, since the store made some primeval stones the previous day, more than enough for some gambling.
The gambling tent has ten stalls selling different types of different gambling rocks, green rocks, red rocks, stellar rocks, white rocks and more.
When a gu is about to die from starvation it can sometimes enter a form of hibernation, allowing it to preserve its life. Over time rocks can form around these hibernating gu, encasing the gu in the rock. These forms of rocks are then collected and sold. Many of them don't even contain a gu, most contain dead gu and only a small minority contain living gu. These rocks are called gambling rocks.
The more expensive options are more likely to hold a gu, whilst the cheaper options are less likely to do so. I go to the first stall and wordlessly roll a d10, it lands on a 0. I shrug at the perplexed look of the clerk. "It's my lucky die."
Gamblers have a lot of superstitions, some of them are personal and some of them are general, so the clerk doesn't even bat an eye at me deciding my purchases using dice.
The second stall is also a dud, with the die landing on a 0. For the third stall the die lands on a 2. I look at the rocks at display at this stall, yellow gambling rocks. I point at two random rocks, with the clerk retrieving them for me. "Do you wish for us to open them for you or do you want to open them yourself? We recommend that you allow us to open the rocks for you, since the service is free and in the eventuality that the rock holds a gu it will be extremely weak, likely to die if excessive force is used to crack the rock."
I shake my head. "I will be opening them myself at my home."
The last thing that I want is for everyone to see me having picked only valuable rocks with no duds. The clerk puts the two rocks in a bag and hands it to me. "The total payment is thirty primeval stones."
I go to the next stall after handing her the primeval stones. Rolling my d10 reveals another 0. The next stall rolls a 1. I point at a random grey rock, the clerk bags it for me and I pay twenty primeval stones.
In this manner I end up buying a total of two yellow rocks, one grey rock, one dark green rock, one white rock and one blue rock. All of my expenses in the gambling den total to 290, leaving me with a total of 101 primeval stones if I win the auction for the green copper relic gu.
Selling the liquor worm to them isn't that good of an idea, since they are planning to buy it for reselling the offered price would be lower than someone buying it for personal use. That's of course unless Chi Lian somehow gets outbid by someone, which would be pretty lucky for me.
… He's getting outbid isn't he?
—
My next stop is my apartment, where I begin to slowly open each gambling rock under the curious eyes of Shen Cui. I reach into the bag with the rocks before realising that I should have just moved into the wine tavern by now. Opening them in the student dormitories is still pretty risky, since there's not as much privacy as I would like for me to do this comfortably.
I'd even put Wang Luli to work there as a cook, since I couldn't figure out anything else for her to do. I turn to Shen Cui. "Pack our things, we're moving to the wine tavern."
Shen Cui smiles. "Of course, young master, this one will prepare our luggage immediately!"
It doesn't take her long to pack everything, since neither her nor I really have a lot of stuff to pack. After we arrive in the wine tavern we head to an empty room to settle in. While Shen Cui is unpacking and arranging everything I begin opening the gambling rocks.
The first are the two yellow rocks. I take one of them and pinch one end, slowly pulling until a small piece of the rock snaps. I slowly continue in this manner, until I finally manage to reveal what was inside of the rock.
A golden cricket stands in my palm. I recognize this gu, it is a rank 2 light barrier gu. It is a very effective defensive gu. Using it forms a small torso sized barrier anywhere around the user, allowing a gu master to easily defend against strong predictable attacks. Its weakness is that it doesn't cover the whole body in the same manner as the jade skin gu, which provides a sort of 'use and forget' type of defense. Its food is solid gold, thankfully a small enough amount of it to not be prohibitively expensive to feed, even for me. Higher rank gu also feed less often, so while they eat much more they don't eat as often as lower rank gu.
I pick up a pencil and write on a piece of paper. 'Gold, 9 grams.' I'll need to start sending someone to buy food for my gu, since with the increased amount of gu I will probably have after opening these rocks it'll take too much time for me to keep shopping for them.
The next yellow rock is opened just as slowly and carefully as the first, this time revealing a small onion like bulb. Intuition tells me that it's a gu used to store other gu, it also tells me to open it in the forest, away from civilization. I listen to my intuition.
The next rock on the list is the white rock, which reveals a long thick tongue. I don't recognize this gu. I push a small amount of primeval essence into it and refine it, then I push a larger amount and use the gu. My tongue lengthens and jumps out of my mouth, pushes through my closed teeth, thankfully without breaking any, and smacks a corner of the table, breaking it off. Thankfully my tongue quickly retracts back and goes back to normal. I'm going to be calling this the chameleon tongue gu. It has the aura of a rank 2 gu, so this is the rank 2 chameleon tongue gu.
The next on the list is the grey rock. Opening it reveals a small metallic ladybug. I don't recognize this gu either. I use the gu after refining it, feeling the tip of my tongue turn solid. Looking into a mirror reveals that the tip of my tongue has turned into iron. Thankfully the transformation ends after ten seconds. I'm calling this the iron tongue gu. It has the aura of a rank 1 gu.
Next on the list is the dark green rock. Inside of it I find the rank 2 sleep gas gu. It's a white butterfly. This gu is a one time use gu, when used the butterfly will fly to a location and explode, releasing sleeping gas. This might help with the chainsawpede. I add 'sleeping pills 100 grams' to the shopping list.
The last gambling rock left is the blue one. I slowly chip away at the rock, taking care not to accidentally chip too much at a time. The gu inside of this rock is the most precious one yet.
I am staring at a blue scarab with a clock on its back. This is the rank 5 third watch gu!
Using it will speed up the rate at which time flows in my aperture by three times, allowing for my primeval essence to regenerate three times as fast!
This is not without its downsides, with time passing three times as fast any gu inside of my aperture will need to be fed three times as often. My lifespan would also get cut by a third, but the immortal vampire gu is capable of fixing that issue for me once it is refined. Its feeding requirement is the flow of the river of time, which in practice means that I don't need to feed it.
This has proved itself to be my most profitable venture yet, and it has also proved something that I've suspected until now. I need to leave Gu Yue village in order to grow. There's not many opportunities to accumulate benefits here.
Staying here will only limit me in the long term, the only things really keeping me here are me not being strong enough for the wilderness yet, Shen Cui's safety and the potential inheritance of the Blood Sea Ancestor.
Once all three of those are done there's nothing to hold me in the village anymore. The wine flower monk's inheritance isn't precious enough for me to stay here. It's clear that it was made in a hurry, the recording and his decayed skeleton can attest to that.
The next stop is the forest. I need to open that onion bulb and test an idea that came to my mind.
—
I activate the iron tongue gu, then use the chameleon tongue gu before the effect of the iron tongue gu can run out. My tongue shoots out of my mouth, the iron tip allowing it to cleanly penetrate through the thick oak tree that I've aimed at.
This is a fairly simple killer move. A killer move is a sequence of gu used in order to create an effect much stronger than the sum of its parts. In this case the iron tongue gu reinforces my tongue, allowing the chameleon tongue gu to deal significantly more damage.
After my tongue turns back to normal I pull out the onion bulb from my aperture, pushing a little primeval essence into it allows me to use my will to open it. The bulb explodes, revealing a heavily wounded near death three meter tall eagle with golden talons. I immediately push my primeval essence into it, it's near death state allowing me to instantly refine it. Using a vitality leaf gu on it allows me to heal it, preventing it from dying.
I wait for an hour to pass and use another vitality leaf, which thankfully seems to have saved this eagle from death. I pull it into my aperture and smile. This is the rank 3 golden talon eagle!
This is a mount type gu, which serve kind of like a form of discount pokemon for a gu master. It can fight alongside me and let me fly with it in the skies. Its food is fish, which it can simply hunt for on its own. I pull it into my aperture and begin to feel a slight pressure. I can't fit any more gu inside of it, I'll need to advance my cultivation if i want any more gu.
—
On the second day I immediately head towards the Jia clan caravan after finishing my academy class. I go to a clerk in the tent they sell gu in and ask him about the auction results. He takes me to a secluded tent and hands me the green copper relic gu.
The man gives me a polite smile."Congratulations! You won the bid by a single primeval stone."
I take the green copper relic gu and immediately use it, boosting myself to rank 1 peak stage. I give the man a sincere smile. "Nah, I'm the one thanking you for this."
The Jia clan's caravan arrival has proved itself to be extremely lucrative for me. Advancing to rank 1 peak stage is worth the price paid in primeval stones and more, since now reaching rank 2 is right around the corner. This speed in cultivation is unprecedented for the Gu Yue clan!
Advancing to rank 2 is going to boost my primeval essence density by ten times even without the effect of a rank 2 liquor worm! With the combined effects of the liquor worm and amplify effect, my primeval essence will be boosted by forty times!
—
Gu Yue Bo stares vacantly at his newly won rank 1 liquor worm. He had written 5113 primeval stones as his bid for the rank 2 four flavours liquor worm, the rank 2 equivalent of the liquor worm. For the rank 1 liquor worm he had bid 531, as while the gu is useful it only functions for rank 1 gu masters.
He mistakenly bid 5113 for the rank 1 liquor worm and 531 for the rank 2 four flavours liquor worm.
Admitting to such a mistake would only damage the relationship between the Jia clan and the Gu Yue clan, as the Jia clan leader had personally asked him whether he was sure of his bids, even insisting for him to check them again multiple times!
Gu Yue Bo has no choice but to purchase the rank 1 liquor worm at ten times the market price. Selling it in the clan or to the Jia caravan is not even a viable option to recoup his losses, as the reveal of such a mistake would lead to him losing a significant amount of face.