I look into a clear pond, my own reflection looks back at me. My hair goes all the way to my waist, which has now become feminine. I glance at my chest, which is slightly on the larger side, before looking towards where my missing treasure would be.
Having boobs and looking like a girl doesn't really bother me, neither does actually being a girl, but the lack of a dick does. I still have the Yang gu, so I can turn back into a man at any time, but doing so immediately would be unwise.
That immortal knows what 'Fang Yuan' looks like, he almost certainly knows my name as well by now. Sheng Cui and Wang Luli's association with me being known to him is likely, but not assured. It's still going to be prudent for them to change their names for the time being.
Bai Ning Bing and her association with me should be unknown to him. He had no beef with the Bai clan, so questioning them would not be high in his list of priorities, but the option shouldn't be outright discounted.
Laying low for some time would be wise. Worst case scenario I can come up with some killer move to grow a dick or something. I need to keep the Yang Gu as safe as possible, this specific Yang gu is the only mortal one able to turn me back into a man.
The only gu capable of completely reversing the effect of Yin gu and Yang gu are the Yang gu or Yin gu of the same pair, or an immortal Yang or Yin gu. Almost all other gu worms will have mostly superficial effects.
Still, Bai Ning Bing's words weren't without merit, I do actually look prettier as a girl. I turn my gaze from the pond to our camp.
Right now we're all sleeping in a single, large tent that we prepare every night. Each morning the tent goes back into a storage gu and we just move on our way. If we happen to stop near a cave, which has happened every single day thus far, we make camp inside the cave.
We are in a cave right now, with a campfire a few feet away from the mouth of the cave. The plan is to continue travelling on foot for a day or two, after which we can use gu worms to travel faster.
Ning Bing, who is sitting down at the campfire cooking a rabbit, gives me a smirk. "Are you done masturbating to yourself?"
I snort. "For now."
Sheng Cui and Wang Luli are preparing stew, the rabbit is just something that passed by us and Ning Bing decided to catch.
I walk over to the campfire and sit down. The sun has already set, so it won't be long until it gets dark. We've not had any encounters with either beasts or demonic cultivators just yet, the travel has been pretty peaceful.
When we begin traveling with mount type gu worms it is unlikely for the peacefulness to last. We will almost certainly cross paths with a few beats.
I turn my head towards Wang Luli and Sheng Cui. "We should stop near a village to awaken your apertures."
We hadn't had the time to do so in our village before everything went to complete shit there. Ning Bing rubs her chin in thought. "Are you confident that the two of us are strong enough to bully a village into submission for that?"
Bai Ning Bing and I both have extreme physiques, that boost our combat power when using gu worms of the paths of our physiques. I have thankfully managed to figure out which extreme physique I possess.
The Desolate Ancient Moon Physique, which means that all of my time path and moon path gu have their effects increased as if they were a rank higher.
While that's not enough to take the effects of a rank 5 gu worm into the territory of a rank 6 immortal gu, when combined with my other gu worms and used in a killer move it is just enough of a boost to do so.
This makes the moonlight gu series vital to my current combat power. I have enough food to keep my moonlight gu series gu worms fed for quite a while, but I'll need to figure out a way to get more Moon Orchid's.
I don't have the seeds for them, so growing them is out of the question for now. Treasure Yellow Heaven is ninety nine percent certain to contain either seeds, or a method of making the seeds, but that requires access to Treasure Yellow Heaven.
I give Ning Bing a nof. Finding an immortal inheritance would give us access to it, which is nothing that a bit of luck can't solve. I flip a coin into the air as a giant six eyed, pink feathered crow flies above us.
That one has been flying around the area for a few minutes now. It doesn't seem to have noticed us specifically, but there is definitely something in this area that's caught its attention.
The coin lands on tails, there's no inheritance nearby. I flip the coin again as the beast flies overhead once more. Heads, there is something interesting around us.
I give the beast a closer look. It's almost definitely a mutated beast, so the thing is comparable to rank 4 gu masters. Ning Bing has the combat power of a rank 4 gu master. With all of my advantages combined I can easily fight at the level of a rank 5 gu master, especially now that I have an extreme physique of my own.
The only problem is guarding Shen Cui and Wang Luli. I give Bai Ning Bing a thoughtful look. "Can you stay here while I fight that bird? There might be something of interest to us nearby."
Ning Bing tilts her head at me, then looks at Sheng Cui and Luli, then looks back at me. "Fine, but you owe me a favor."
I blink. "What favor?"
She rubs her chin thoughtfully, before her expression turns uncharacteristically serious. "Actually, forget the favor. I'll follow you under a single condition."
I tilt my head. "What would that be?"
She points at herself. "You help me deal with my extreme physique."
An extreme physique is a blessing, it increases one's combat power, cultivation speed, potential, primeval essence regeneration and more. An extreme physique is also a curse, having one is practically a death sentence for most people.
I give her a nod. "I'll get an ice or soul path immortal gu for you and help you with your immortal ascension, in exchange you will be my subordinate. Is that good for you?"
She stares at me, deep in thought, before giving a slight nod. "That is good for me, but I want to seal the deal with a poison vow gu."
Ning Bing takes a gu worm out of her aperture, a rank 3 poison vow gu worm. The gu worm is a small, purple leech the size of a fingernail. I walk towards her, before taking said gu from her.
We spend a few minutes hashing out the details of our deal, most of said details are just clauses preventing one of us from trying to screw over the other. Once we're done I activate the gu worm, it bites my hand and sucks blood, only stopping once it doubles in size.
She injects primeval essence into the gu worm, activating its effect. It bites her hand and doubles in size yet again, before exploding.
What comes out of the explosion is not blood and gore, but red motes of light. The motes move into Ning Bing and I, before settling in our bodies.
The poison vow gu's effect has been successfully activated. If either Ning Bing or I violate our deal then we will die.
There's no clause stopping me from using Eating One's Words gu to remove the effect from myself, but from the way we worded it that would automatically invalidate the contract from Ning Bing's side.
For our deal Poison Vow Gu's effect would only trigger to kill us under specific circumstances, all of which are varieties of one of us trying to work against the other. So long as I help Ning Bing with her extreme physique she is forced to work for me. If I get an immortal gu for her immortal ascension then she will continue to do so.
A freshly ascended immortal does not have enough dao marks to become completely invulnerable to mortal gu, so the effect of Poison Vow Gu worm should still hold on her for after the ascension while until I manage to find an alternative binding.
Ning Bing giggles and turns over her rabbit. "I'll guard your women, now make sure you don't die until you find me an immortal gu."
I give her a nod. "Thanks." Then turn my attention to the beast flying above. It's head seems to be locked on to something a fair bit away from us.
I teleport right on top of the mutated crow beast, before using a Rank 3 Golden Moon Gu killer move. Amplified Golden Moon Gu.
Amplify effect gu triples the range and power of the Golden Moon Gu, Rank 3 Large Light Gu boosts the effect even further. My extreme physique turns the effect of Golden Moon Gu from having the power of a rank 3 gu worm to that of a rank 4 gu worm.
Thanks to all of this the moonblade that strikes the beast is just as strong as it would be if it was the result of a rank 5 gu worm, immediately bisecting it from head to tail.
I look at the area that the crow was looking towards.
There's a ruined caravan there, with almost the whole party dead. A heavily injured, large bear is eating the remains of the caravan workers. Smaller bears are present around it as well, some heavily injured, some lightly injured with a few dead bears spread through the wreckage.
A small minority of the caravan are still alive, but they don't seem to be in good condition. They are either too crippled to run away or on the brink of death.
The Caravan got attacked by beasts, that giant bear is definitely a Myriad Beast King. I teleport behind the large bear, where I am immediately spotted by the smaller ones around it.
I wave my hand and use Amplified Golden Moon Gu, the resulting moonblade kills the large bear on the spot and either incapacitates or kills the smaller bears.
Without my extreme physique that slash would have at most severely injured the big bear, with it it has defeated almost all of them. There are a few stragglers left, who were either not in the path of the moonblade or were lucky enough to be merely grazed.
Dealing with the remaining bears should be easy. I pull the rank 2 Red Steel Longsword gu from my aperture into my hand, before teleporting behind one of the remaining bears and chopping right at its spine.
The slash goes clean through, severing its spine and crippling the bear. The remaining bears haven't turned around towards me yet, so I teleport behind another bear and sever its spine.
Repeating these kinds of sneak attacks lets me clear the area in less than five seconds. Where before the caravan wreck was littered with dead and dying humans, it's now littered with dead and dying humans and beasts.
The Myriad Beast King bear is going to be pretty useful in advancing my strength path foundation, which means that Cui and Luli's stew is going to go to waste for today.
I scan the site for anything of interest. There's crates of goods, dead gu worms, a few living gu worms, none of which catch my interest and surprisingly no living gu masters.
The few men and women in decent condition are mortals, the gu masters are all dead. They all give me wary, but hopeful stares. I chop off a leg of the bear and start nibbling on it. By now I've already gotten used to the taste of raw flesh, be it human or animal.
Exploring the caravan a bit more in depth allows me to find a somewhat intact flag. On it is the symbol of a clan.
It takes me a bit of thinking to recognise what clan it belongs to. This is the symbol of the Zhang clan, a clan subordinate to the Wu clan. We are heading towards Wu clan clan right, bringing in some of these guys with us should give us some brownie points.
It's as I'm debating who to bring with me that I feel something tug the bottom of my robe. A glance reveals said something to be a woman.
Said woman looks to be about sixteen years old. Her jet black hair is long enough to reach all the way to her ankles and her face is pretty beautiful.
Even with half of it covered in dried blood, a leg with two bleeding open fractures and a clearly broken jaw her face is, somehow, still pretty. Her determined expression contrasts her currently pitiful appearance.
She tries to speak, but only gargles out nonsense. Her tongue looks fine, it's her jaw that's fucked.
I'm honestly pretty impressed. She doesn't look to be in shock or pumped of adrenaline, I can clearly tell that she's feeling every single bit of pain she's supposed to be in, but she doesn't seem to be giving up anytime soon.
She points her finger at the corpse of an elderly man, then at the corpse of a woman around her age, before gargling at me some more.
I shake my head. "Those two are dead, there's nothing I can do for them."
She stares at me for a few seconds, before collapsing under her own weight. She's still breathing, but with how that leg is bleeding it won't be for long.
I lean down and touch her back, before using a vitality leaf on her. Amplify Effect gu makes that vitality leaf thrice as effective, which is enough to stabilise her from the time being.
One of the men to my right yells out to me. "Honored gu master!"
I turn towards him, he prostrates himself before me. His left arm is broken, but he seems to otherwise be fairly stable. He continues yelling. "Please save this one!"
That wakes up all of the other mortals.
"I will serve you for the rest of my life!" Yells out a thirty year old woman.
"My daughter is waiting for me in Wu clan's city!" Shouts a middle aged man.
"I am the nephew of Wu Xiaopeng! He will reward you handsomely for saving me!" Yells out a young man.
Each of them shouts a reason for me to save them, each of them disinterest me.
If they were anyone really important then they wouldn't be here, dying. They'd either be kept somewhere safe in the case they were weak, or they would have prevailed against the bears if they were strong.
Still, my luck has only failed me once so far, so there has to be something more here. I lean down and grab the girl who's impressed me, if nothing else she's got enough guts to have earned being saved.
I look thoughtfully at the grovelling men and women, trying to weigh which one would bring me the most benefits. I pick up the unconscious woman, taking care not to worsen her injuries, and walk over to the 'nephew of Wu Xiaopeng'.
He gives me a hopeful look, I smile. "Are you certain that saving you will reward me?"
He's in pretty good shape, certainly not wounded enough to need any healing from me. He nods repeatedly. "Of course! My uncle trusted me to lead the caravan, he will definitely reward you greatly for it!"
I lean down, he continues. "Xiaopeng is the genius of our generation! There is even a chance for him to become clan leader someday!"
The other mortals all start shouting over one another. "Zhizheng, you have to convince the gu master to save me as well!" yells out a fifty year old woman.
I don't bother listening to anything else they have to say. One touch on this guys back and then I teleport the three of us back to camp.
The guy looks around fearfully, the girl is still unconscious. I put her down as Ning Bing stares at the two mortals I've brought. "I didn't know you were into guys too."
I give her the middle finger and teleport to the Myriad Beast King bear, another teleport takes me and the bear back into camp.
There I find Ning Bing ignoring the two mortals I brought in favor of talking with Cui. "-bit is perfectly cooked!"
Sheng Cui shakes her head. "No, the rabbit is barely edible. You used no salt, no spice, nothing and slightly burned it, which makes it too dry."
Wang Luli pretends that she's not hearing anything, the guy I brought has fallen unconscious and the girl is still unconscious.
The vitality leaf didn't do shit for her broken bones. She's thankfully still good enough to not die in the next few days.
I finish the piece of the bear I was eating and cut myself another. "Cui, Luli, Ning Bing."
They all turn towards me, I take a bite from the new bear meat. "We're going to resume travel as soon as possible and mount the Gold Talon Eagle gu. We're leaving once we're done eating."
Wu clan is fairly close, but we still have a few pit stops to make.
Getting Cui and Luli's apertures awakened has increased in priority, I want to check and see if the man I saved lied to me or not.
If he's someone important he definitely went through an awakening ceremony, if he failed there he will fail now. If he doesn't fail the awakening ceremony then he lied, in which case his life will rest on a coin flip.
I take the final bite of the slice of bear, before mentally trying to examine what effect it's had on my strength. A small, but welcome increase in strength is what I find.
Taking another slice and biting into it reveals that the corpse has become too old to be properly used for improving my strength path foundation.
With nothing else to do I roll up the sleeves of my robe and get to work on the girl.
It's been quite a while since I've actually performed surgery, it feels kind of nostalgic.
Fixing her leg comes first. Normally her leg would be completely unsalvageable even with modern medicine, with gu worms it's quite a fair bit different however.
The vitality leaf healed the flesh around the bones, and it did it pretty well all things considered, but it did nothing to heal the fracture.
Her leg is broken in two places, once at the femur and once at the hip. Both are open fractures, the bone is poking out of her leg. The knee is fine, so all that's needed is to line up the three bones and use a healing gu on her.
First things first is cutting the flesh around the fracture area, revealing the bone beneath. Both sides of both fracture areas get cut open, with the middle bone having to be completely exposed.
I line up the bones, remove any debris from the surgery site and then start stitching her flesh back.
Once I'm done her leg has gone from looking completely unsalvageable to simply crippled. If left alone she'd probably die of sepsis.
As I look for anything I might have missed I hear Luli speak under her breath from behind me. "Poor girl…"
I shrug. "She'll get better."
Enough time has passed since I used a vitality leaf on her for it to be possible to use another one on her. Amplify effect gu makes the effect strong enough to completely heal the leg.
A pretty nasty scar has been left behind, but she'll be able to use that leg mostly fine going forward.
I pick the girl back up and turn towards Luli, behind which a prepared Cui is waiting. Ning Bing is sitting down cross legged, a bored expression on her face.
I pull out the rank 3 Gold Talon Eagle gu from my aperture, throw the still unconscious man on it before hopping on the eagle. "Let's go."
Cui and Luli calmly climb, Ning Bing eagerly jumps on the eagle. "Finally!"
—
AN:
Best girl has arrived (If you know, you know [plain]:p[/plain])
Hope you enjoyed the read [plain]:)[/plain].