Chapter 250: Growing Rejection; Fateful Inheritor |
Becoming a gu immortal brought its set of challenges, one in particular—hilariously— was none other than Lo Jik's appearance. Though uncommon, a gu immortal ascension changed a gu immortal's appearance, making them more beautiful and handsome. Lo Jik's features, too, appeared slightly different.
Although not as striking as Feng Jiu Ge or as devilish as Shang Yan Fei, Lo Jik's appearance was now more refined. Being washed by heaven and earth qi removed the effects of Love Gu on his body, regrowing hair everywhere. So… eyebrows and eyelashes did wonders to his overall presence. He no longer looked like a terrible convict with a terrifying smile but a scholar who knew his way around bodybuilding. Though clear, the color of his skin did not turn fairer, making him stand out compared to most gu immortals in Central Continent.
'I forgot how good I used to look. How the girls tolerated the hairless me going down on them is anybody's mystery.' Lo Jik stroked his cleanly-shaven chin. Of course, a thick beard would look good too, he thought vainly.
'Alas… I cannot go out there looking like this.' He sighed.
He didn't need to be a wisdom path grandmaster to realize the benefits in keeping his ascension a secret. Furthermore, letting other supreme elders know about his breakthrough was the same as inviting a round of investigation since he took this significant step without alerting them, thoroughly crumbling the trust he built with them.
His main considerations were preparing for his expedition in Bai La's dream realm and to change his appearance. He still had six days to do all of that with loads of inheritances he obtained through recent platinum achievements.
Becoming a rank 6 gu immortal brought a qualitative change for Lo Jik. He gained the one advantage he truly lacked against other gu immortals—unlimited primeval essence.
Lo Jik directed his attention to his blessed land, observing it carefully. A bead of green grape immortal essence appeared to his view. A gu immortal produced immortal essence as opposed to a mortal's primeval essence. The gap in quality between these two was simply too massive. It was even beyond the comparison of heaven and earth.
The single bead of green grape immortal essence diffused and melted with the surroundings. A wave of endless primeval essence instantly filled his blessed land to the brim!
Back then, even the self-destruction of two peak stage rank 5 gu masters with extreme aptitudes—Bai Ning Bing and Empress Wu Ji—failed to destroy Shang Mi Zhu, a gu immortal who did not possess any offensive or defensive immortal gu worms.
Lo Jik's expression couldn't help but ease slightly.
He activated several rank 5 gu worms at once without feeling any strain.
After diluting one bead of immortal essence, Lo Jik was left with forty-nine beads of green grape essence. Like a gu master regenerates primeval essence, a gu immortal replenishes immortal essence in time. The rate of regeneration was not only based on the grade of the blessed land but also its foundation, leading to no accurate measurement of this aspect because it was different for every gu immortal.
'My blessed land currently regenerates fifty beads of immortal essence every year, which is about twelve days based on main continent's flow of time. So, about four beads of immortal essence every day.'
Cultivation for the gu immortals and gu masters relied on nurturing the aperture. A gu master nourished the aperture walls with primeval essence. Meanwhile, a gu immortal developed the immortal aperture and endured calamities and tribulations to advance.
Lo Jik, who had taken his first step in the world of gu immortals, already had the foundation of a grotto-heaven to develop his blessed land and deepen his foundation.
'Let's see what this gu worm does.' He thought about one peculiarity of his ascension after experiencing the benefits of being a gu immortal first-hand.
Refinement Hall, Secret Hall, Martial Hall, Earth Hall, and Brewery Hall Gu Worms resonated with heaven and earth to refine this immortal gu worm. In this case, it wasn't Lo Jik's thoughts and gu recipe directing the creation of the rank 6 immortal gu worm but instead the process was influenced by the dao marks carried within these five gu worms.
The rank 6 immortal gu worm let out a faint aura after its initial outburst. All his immortal gu worms needed to be fed since they were just refined. Needless to say, the cost of feeding immortal gu worms was greater and more burdensome than mortal gu worms.
The immortal gu worm in Lo Jik's hand resembled the other human path house-type gu worms, looking like a silver dung beetle with the carapace on its back extending upwards and mimicking a miniature three-tiered pagoda.
Lo Jik injected a bead of immortal essence into the immortal gu worm. He approached the process cautiously. Immortal gu worms possessed mighty strength and a single accident could result in grave losses. That's why Lo Jik tested this immortal gu worm while keeping Old Man Desolate as his guard to prevent any unforeseen disaster.
The immortal gu worm floated after ingesting the bead of green grape essence, flashing a bright silver shine before transforming into a nine-meter tall, three-tiered, six-cornered silver pagoda with golden eaves.
Lo Jik and Old Man Desolate entered the structure. Like most house gu worms, he could control its doors and windows. It was a rank 6 house gu worm with nothing special to be observed at a glance. However, this did not discourage Lo Jik. Being a human path great grandmaster, he followed his instincts and tried a few things.
The rank 6 immortal gu worm let out a bright light after a while, making Lo Jik feel something amiss. He walked out of the house gu and realized that the walls were now golden and the eaves took on the silver color.
'It inversed the color scheme?' He blinked before his eyes briefly widened. Even Old Man Desolate looked shocked and horrified by the realization—
"Where is this place, master?! How can I leave my grotto-heaven?"
Lo Jik looked around, too. The sky was blue and clear. The lush vegetation rustled with the drifting wind. Streams of clean drinking water ran down the snow-capped mountains.
This was his blessed land!
'How is this possible?' Lo Jik was also shaken.
A blessed land was inside a gu immortal. When a gu immortal places their blessed lands in the outside world, they are automatically transported inside their blessed lands. So, gu immortals could not leave their blessed land in one location and travel the outside world.
Since a grotto-heaven was also a small world like a blessed land, Lo Jik could not reasonably place his blessed land in Immemorial Desolate Grotto-Heaven without the latter annexing his blessed land. The small worlds could annex each other under certain conditions.
'This immortal gu worm forms a bridge between a gu immortal and their blessed land without affecting the natural laws.'
Lo Jik and Old Man Desolate hurriedly entered the immortal gu worm again. He needed to use another bead of immortal essence before the gu worm glowed sharply and inverted its color once again. The walls were now silver and the eaves of the pagoda were golden.
The duo stepped out and entered the grotto-heaven.
"Thankfully…" Old Man Desolate patted himself everywhere before heaving a loud sigh of relief.
'I developed the hall-type series to cut costs in every possible aspect and allow the clone gu worms to cultivate peacefully. As such, those house gu worms could only be used inside one's aperture. It looks like the resonance of the dao marks was related to this aspect of the gu worms and led to creation of this unique human path immortal gu worm with the ability to let a gu immortal freely enter and leave their own blessed land.'
Lo Jik's earlier disappointment vanished into thin air. While Accumulation Immortal Gu would have been a very outstanding addition to Lo Jik's set, he could not look down on such a gu worm displaying the effects of a movement and house-type gu worms.
'I will name it Inviting Pagoda Immortal Gu. After all, it can even invite a heavenly spirit in my blessed land.' He glanced at Old Man Desolate before addressing the bearded dwarf about his experience. As expected, Old Man Desolate instantly regained his control over the grotto-heaven once they returned… leading Lo Jik to test it again with just the heavenly spirit this time.
This meant expending two more beads of green grape essence.
Lo Jik observed Old Man Desolate within his blessed land using a Divine Sense Gu before confirming that the heavenly spirit did not gain the ability to influence his blessed land. Meanwhile, Old Man Desolate couldn't affect his grotto-heaven either!
Lo Jik could have effortlessly plundered the grotto-heaven by imprisoning Old Man Desolate in such a vulnerable state. The realization did not escape the heavenly spirit as the Old Man whined and begged Lo Jik to return to his grotto-heaven, stating how uncomfortable and distressed he was with the situation.
'Amazing!' Lo Jik laughed as he let Old Man Desolate back into the grotto-heaven.
"Now I should test another thing. Bring me some immortal essence stones, Old Man. I need to replenish my immortal essence."
<<<>>>
Lo Jik held an immortal essence stone with a complex expression. Immortal essence stones, aside from being the most common currency among gu immortals, served the purpose of replenishing one's immortal essence similar to a primeval stone recovering one's primeval essence. As such, not even billions of primeval stones could be used to exchange for a single immortal essence stone due to the gap between primeval essence and immortal essence.
But for Lo Jik, primeval stone was a window to another mystery. His body released an intense aura of rejection whenever he absorbed primeval energy from a primeval stone. He accidentally replicated the same event when using Heaven's Will Gu to try and connect with his surroundings. Surprisingly, primeval stones created from the Lotus Gu did not have this interaction with Lo Jik's body… an effect left by Nina's trait.
He remembered Nina's words about how she sensed something encroaching him. Her trait continued to protect him and acted similar to Divine Concealment in the way that both were passive defenses.
This was another test.
Would his body react to immortal essence stones in the same manner?
The immortal essence stone in Lo Jik's grip was round like a pearl. It caught the light of Lo Jik's surroundings and sparkled like a crystal but felt no different from a jade to his touch.
With a thought, Lo Jik absorbed the abundant essence in the immortal essence stone, allowing his blessed land's origin core to transform the stream of immortal essence into a bead of green grape immortal essence.
*Whoosh*
A patch of sky above the central lake in Lo Jik's blessed land darkened. He observed the water in the lake bubble and froth excitedly as something dangerous and dark brewed within.
The lake in the center represented the blessed land's headquarters, the location where the immortal essence takes it shape and form. Now, a stream of darkness flooded out from this center, surging up until it tore out from the surface of the calm lake and collected into dark clouds filled with resentment and intense agitation. The scope of this aura of rejection surpassed Lo Jik's imagination.
'What the fuck…'
Even more astonishing was the fact that the immortal essence stone did not form a complete bead of immortal essence!
Lo Jik furrowed and noticed that the bead was only 99% complete.
Didn't it mean that those clouds formed from an intense aura of rejection comprised for one percent of an immortal essence stone?
'Are immortal essence stones… impure?' Lo Jik thinned his lips, pondering. 'Primeval stones also showed similar reaction but the amount of primeval essence replenished was never lowered like this back then.'
Lo Jik allowed the starving Disguise Immortal Gu to consume the clouds of rejection and continued replenishing his immortal essence.
A gu master's aperture could only recover a limited amount of primeval essence based on their aptitude. However, a gu immortal was not limited by such concepts. Just because Lo Jik refined fifty beads of immortal essence during his ascension did not mean this was the limit of his immortal aperture. Instead, Lo Jik continued refining immortal essence stones to create several beads of green grape immortal essence while feeding the resulting clouds of rejection to Disguise Immortal Gu, which soon grew livelier and more spirited.
Lo Jik stopped converting immortal essence stones once his reserve of immortal essence reached a hundred beads.
'I can start developing my blessed land after forming clear plans. So, I should focus on purchasing the food for my immortal gu worms and then focus on refining dream path gu worms.'
Among his immortal gu worms, Disguise and Divine Travel Immortal Gu Worms were fairly easy to feed. Lo Jik had yet to deduce the feeding requirements for Inviting Pagoda Immortal Gu. The other immortal gu worms on his person were Flying Bear Immortal Gu, Undefeated Myriad Battles Immortal Gu, Wine Drinker Immortal Gu, and Fake Aperture Immortal Gu worms.
Seven immortal gu worms!
Such wealth would even leave most rank 7 gu immortals green with envy.
<<<>>>
Blue radiance threatened to overtake everything around Lo Jik as thousands upon thousands of derivation thoughts moved outside his half-sunk body within Pool of Wisdom Gu House. Lo Jik could activate several rank 5 Derivation Thoughts and use them to deduce recipes and killer moves. He obtained a wealth of information during his ascension and needed to convert everything he gained into killer moves more suited to his current needs.
'Unfamiliar Face, Vaguely Familiar Face, and Familiar Face are a series of transformation path killer moves created by Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable with Familiar Face renowned for causing the demise of two rank 8 experts. There is much to be learned from here.'
Lo Jik gained several things from his trait, including many inheritances from a legendary entity famous for being approached by two venerables of his time. Focusing on Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable, Lo Jik had accumulated a fair bit of his inheritances due to their inherent connection as otherworldly demons.
Lo Jik's first encounter with one of these inheritances was from a reward through Bai Lin, namely, her ancestor's inheritance. Apparently, the inheritance was left within a series of refinement recipes. There was not a single immortal gu recipe and the act left Lo Jik confused for a long while. He would use to read the inheritance every now and then and wondered if becoming a theft path grandmaster would change anything.
Surprisingly, Lo Jik needed a great attainment in space path instead. The previous inheritors assumed the inheritance to be related to theft path due to Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable's notoriety.
The inheritance hidden in thousands of gu refinement recipes was a space path immortal killer move!
Spaceless Bubble.
Lo Jik's next encounter with Thieving Heaven was in the form of a clue left for the inheritors hinting at Northern Plains. Back then, Lo Jik had been unable to understand the true value of this hint and only kept this bit of information in his mind.
His third boon related to Thieving Heaven came from Li Xian, who fled Eastern Sea after obtaining a true inheritance related to the human path immortal gu, Fake Aperture. In there, Lo Jik familiarized himself with several other theft path gu worms such as Plunder, Stealth Refinement, Filthy Paws, Sneak Attack, Corrode Aperture, Snatch Aperture, and more.
There was yet another clue about a certain bet in Northern Plains within this inheritance.
Only later, after his trait's evolution, did Lo Jik obtain more Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable's killer moves as he pieced together the various clues and glimpsed into the secrets buried by River of Time in the annals of history.
It was the same situation as Lo Jik scheming against the slumbering Immemorial Desolate Immortal as he obtained the true inheritance with the secrets of inheriting this grotto-heaven.
Familiar Face, Vaguely Familiar Face, Unfamiliar Face, one of the top refinement path killer moves—Slumbering Lightning Python, and even the secrets of one of the most popular immortal gu houses—Eighty-Eight True Yang Building pointed to the same entity who exchanged the recipe for rank 1-5 Shape Luck Gu for Extreme Aptitude Gu refined by Lo Jik.
Old Man Lang Ya.
Or rather, this legendary individual was none other than one of the three supreme grandmasters in the history of the gu world.
Long Hair Ancestor.
A refinement path gu immortal who lived past Thieving Heaven's lifespan and even refined gu worms and a gu house for Giant Sun Immortal Venerable!
Not only did this gu immortal's grotto-heaven exist until now, but it was something Lo Jik's trait tapped into most recently.
He now understood quite a lot about Long Hair Ancestor and realized why he possessed true inheritances of the two venerables.
It was no wonder Long Hair Ancestor possessed such lucrative inheritances. The thought of it made Lo Jik salivate.
After his demise, Long Hair Ancestor, alongside the two other refinement path supreme grandmasters, was called one of the Three Olds. There was remote antiquity era's Old Eccentric Tian Nan, olden antiquity era's Old Immortal Kong Jue, and medieval antiquity era's Long Hair Ancestor.
'Among the three, Old Eccentric Tian Nan, aptly named, had a weird personality and tried refining the sky, which led to his demise. Old Immortal Kong Jue had the deepest insight on apertures and helped gu masters with ten extreme aptitudes become gu immortals. As for Long Hair Ancestor, he had the longest lifespan and refined the greatest number of immortal gu worms.' Lo Jik licked his lips. 'There were even rumors about Long Hair Ancestor deducing a recipe for Lifespan Gu Worm. It attracted Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's envy, who attacked Long Hair Ancestor for the recipe.'
Lo Jik's heart calmed down. There was no known recipe for Lifespan Gu. Perhaps one could try reverse-refining Wood Charm series gu worms to refine a Lifespan Gu, but Lo Jik did not receive any result from this train of thought during natural inspiration.
Similarly, Long Hair Ancestor never refined any Lifespan Gu.
'It was simply a way to suppress Long Hair Ancestor and coerce him into refining Eighty-Eight True Yang Building by Giant Sun Immortal Venerable.'
'Eighty-Eight True Yang Building… the more I read about it through the notes I got from my trait, the more I wonder what else Long Hair Ancestor created. Alas, I cannot travel to Northern Plains yet or I might have tried snatching Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable's true inheritance left with Long Hair Ancestor's heavenly spirit. The best I can do is please Qin Juan even more. Most of rewards from Long Hair's grotto-heaven came from her. Hopefully, I will get the lion's share before Long Hair's fateful inheritor comes along.'
<<<>>>
The grassland was consumed by dark-purplish miasma. Ghastly noises and wolf howls terrorized the land as dark shadows moved in the distance. The poisonous mist blanketing sky and the ground alike reduced visibility as groups of wolves hunted rabbits and rats.
A gentle purple glow sparkled above a patch of land. In the surroundings echoed the noise of moving water, like the flow of a river. It was gentle at first before becoming more intense. The source of light flickered around its edges before expanding wildly. One could see a shadow of a distant yet grand river above the human-sized sparkling source of light. The river exuded a sense of grandness and finality. The waves of the river flowed with a certain intent, burying the past and ushering future. And in the present was the fluctuating source of light.
A figure suddenly stepped out of the light. The previous display of light and the strange river vanished as if a dream. His figure almost seemed to bleed into the darkness around him with his black clothes and glossy black hair if not for his pale skin. A pair of deep black eyes scanned the surroundings. The aura of the immortal gu worm around the youth vanished, leaving him appear ordinary.
'I'm here…' He mused. 'To think one could even experience immortal ascension in the legendary River of Time. It's all thanks to that inheritance.'
'I can now focus on Eighty-Eight True Yang Building and even snatch that Ma Hong Yun's fated fortune.'
A cold and calm smile greeted the poison grassland as the figure carefreely stepped forward, unhindered by all the mortal obstacles.
***
Alternate Title: Mfers out there sharing fortune and misfortune; Qin Juan supremacy; Useful Inviting Pagoda Immortal Gu Worm; Leaving heavenly spirits helpless; Tests; Difference between a gu immortal and mortal; Reverend Insanity cultivation system was a management simulator all along; Human path immortal house gu; One percent rejection, 99%… horni?; Long Hair's brilliance; A collection of Thieving Heaven's inheritance; Lo Jik later on: I must have more THDV inheritances… looks at Xin Cheng *Xin Cheng: Sweating bullets from her inner thighs*; A demon appears in poisonous grassland; Another gu immortal; Lo Jik and the mysterious man becoming gu immortals at the same time; Ma Hong Yun's fortune?
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