Stepping out of the Three Star Cave's oppressive, rigidly stratified core district, Lin Mu was met head-on by the boiling, earthly vitality of the Middle and Outer Ring markets.
The noise was deafening.
The air was thick with the fatty aroma of dripping roasted meat, the sharp bite of cheap tobacco, and the red-faced haggling of wandering cultivators fighting over a handful of broken Primeval Stones.
This grounded, chaotic clamor actually eased the tension that had been wound to its limit in Lin Mu's nerves.
In his previous life, his way of unwinding had been to wander through a city and soak in the ordinary world around him.
"This is where I belong."
Lin Mu tugged his bamboo hat lower and merged into the flow of people, walking and calculating at the same time.
He knew his current combat system was solid, but after stepping into Rank 2, his hardware had fallen behind.
The Red Mud Gu, Blood Scent Gu, and Dust Escape Gu were his absolute core — all three needed to be advanced through refinement to keep pace with the more intense battles ahead.
"Refining Rank 2 Gu carries too much risk. If I'm not completely certain I can do it myself, I'll just pay to hire a professional Refinement Path Gu Master from the black market or the caravan."
"A risk that money can solve doesn't need to be paid for with one's life."
Lin Mu settled the matter in his mind.
As for the transitional Rank 1 support Gu he currently carried — the Eagle Eye Gu, Swift Ant Gu, and Hemostasis Gu — they had already begun to strain under the powerful drive of his Rank 2 Red Iron Primeval Essence. Keeping them was wasteful.
With a once-in-decades grand market right in front of him, it made far more sense to trade them away and exchange them for Rank 2 Gu worms that would actually serve him.
Decision made, Lin Mu began his true foray into the market.
He stopped in front of a large tent in the Middle Ring that dealt in miscellaneous Gu worms.
The stall owner was a shrewd, round-faced man with a perpetually oily sheen to his skin. His stall was covered in a dazzling spread of scouting and movement-type Gu worms of varying grades.
Lin Mu did not put on any airs. He crouched down in a thoroughly unpretentious manner and launched into a round of haggling with full market-stall energy.
He picked apart the quality, talked down the effects, and dangled the lure of a bulk deal. Lin Mu applied every lesson in bargaining he had absorbed in his previous life with complete fluency.
After a full half-hour of grinding, the fat stall owner wiped the sweat from his forehead and finally agreed through gritted teeth.
Lin Mu surrendered the Eagle Eye Gu and Swift Ant Gu from his Aperture, along with a steep supplementary payment of four hundred Primeval Stones, and walked away with two highly practical Rank 2 Gu worms.
Rank 2 — Far-Sight Gu.
It dramatically extended the range of vision, allowing the user to see farther and with greater clarity, with a built-in degree of night vision. A perfect replacement for the Eagle Eye Gu, which had only been able to sharpen fine detail at close range.
Rank 2 — Leaping Hare Gu.
A pure leg-power movement Gu. It lacked the Swift Ant Gu's long-distance endurance, but its instantaneous burst and jumping force were extraordinary — capable of providing shocking evasion speed and explosive closing distance over short ranges.
"The Leaping Hare Gu is essentially an upgrade over the Swift Ant Gu, and it can be adapted to work with my Earth Ring Body Killer Move."
Lin Mu absorbed both Gu worms into his Aperture and turned the thought over carefully. "But the Red Mud Gu is still Rank 1. It won't be able to withstand the Leaping Hare Gu's full burst output for long. Advancing the Red Mud Gu needs to move up the priority list."
With his scouting and movement slots updated, Lin Mu followed the crowd to a stall thick with the smell of medicinal herbs.
There, he sold the Hemostasis Gu that had carried him through the second half of the competition, added a substantial number of Primeval Stones, and purchased a Rank 2 Wound-Healing Gu.
Compared to the Rank 1 Gu that could only stop bleeding, this Rank 2 version not only closed wounds at speed — it could stimulate granulation tissue in an extremely short time, forcibly sealing deep slash wounds and even penetrating injuries.
For the Rank 2 stage, it was an exceptionally cost-effective guarantee of survival.
As for the Tracking Gu and Stone-Shard Gu still sitting in his Aperture, Lin Mu had no intention of selling them.
He had a specific use in mind for both — they were ideal base materials for the future advancement of the Blood Scent Gu and the Red Mud Gu.
After the long stretch of purchasing, Lin Mu found himself genuinely hungry.
He grabbed a skewer of beast meat from a roadside vendor — glistening and sizzling with fat — and ate in large bites as he moved through the crowd, his mind running continuous simulations and reviews of his newly upgraded combat system.
"In my current combat configuration, the Rank 2 Metal Rend Leaf Gu handles primary offense — output is more than sufficient. Speed and scouting have both been upgraded to Rank 2, giving me exceptional mobility."
"Combined with the Dust Escape Gu, it's nearly a perfect assassin build."
Lin Mu swallowed a mouthful of roasted meat, but his brow furrowed slightly. "The problem is, the moment I face an enemy who specializes in keeping distance, I have no mid-range pressure tool."
The metal leaves could be launched as projectiles, but their trajectory was too predictable — easy to read and dodge.
He was still turning over this gap in his arsenal when his peripheral vision caught a small, out-of-the-way stall ahead that dealt in Earth Path resources. His gaze locked on immediately.
On the rough cloth spread across the stall, a Gu worm lay still — shaped like a short, grey-brown stone cone, its surface covered in spiral ridges.
Rank 2 — Earth Spike Gu.
Lin Mu's eyes lit up. A tactical concept snapped together in his mind with perfect clarity.
The Earth Spike Gu's attack method was to thrust sharp, hard stone pillars upward from underground in an instant.
Under normal circumstances, it was a fairly standard Gu — the Primeval Essence fluctuations beneath the ground were easy to detect, giving opponents time to evade. But what if... it was paired with his Red Mud Gu?
"If I first use the Red Mud Gu to spread a layer of mud across the ground — perfectly masking the Primeval Essence fluctuations below — and then wait for the enemy to step into the mud, slowed by the adhesion and thrown off balance..."
"The Earth Spike Gu drives straight up through the mud beneath their feet."
No defense against it. An absolutely vicious, hidden kill.
The moment the idea formed, Lin Mu had no hesitation left. He finished the skewer in two or three bites, strode forward, and bought it on the spot.
With that, Lin Mu's buying spree came to a close.
Walking through the loud, bustling streets, he ran a final, clear-headed review of his completely overhauled combat profile.
Cultivation and Foundation: Rank 2 initial stage. A Primeval Sea equivalent to a Pseudo-A grade, with burst power exceeding that of an ordinary Rank 1 peak cultivator by more than tenfold.
Refinement Materials Pending Advancement: Rank 1 Blood Scent Gu + Tracking Gu (awaiting advancement refinement). Rank 1 Red Mud Gu + Stone-Shard Gu (awaiting advancement refinement).
Combat System: Rank 2 Leaping Hare Gu, Dust Escape Gu; Rank 2 Vital Gu — Metal Rend Leaf Gu; Rank 2 Earth Spike Gu; Rank 2 Wound-Healing Gu; Rank 2 Far-Sight Gu.
Asset Foundation: Three Rank 2 Gourd Gu filled with Primeval Stones; a Bookworm and Photo-Audio Gu carrying the secrets of the Rank 5 inheritance.
Combat Assessment: In a direct confrontation, capable of defeating most Rank 2 initial stage cultivators with ease.
Against a Rank 2 middle stage expert, a genuine fight — or even a reversal — was possible. Against a Rank 3 powerhouse, victory was out of the question, but whether this hand of cards was enough to escape cleanly remained to be tested.
"Only now do I have something that could genuinely be called a foundation for self-preservation on this Southern Border."
Lin Mu drew a long breath, his mood lifting considerably. He turned and made his way back toward the heavily guarded Inner Ring tent to rest.
But just as he passed the edge of the Middle Ring — at a noisy, out-of-the-way fork in the path — his steps stopped dead.
In a shadowed corner entirely at odds with the lively atmosphere around it, a strange stall owner sat cross-legged on the ground.
The figure was wrapped head to toe in a wide grey robe, face buried deep inside a hood.
From the guarded energy radiating off them and the rough, plain clothing, this was clearly no local cultivator from around Black Blood Stockade — this was a wandering rogue cultivator who had drifted here to peddle contraband under the cover of the crowd.
But what had rooted Lin Mu to the spot was not the figure's suspicious identity.
It was the few unremarkable items laid out on the worn black cloth spread across the ground.
Drifting faintly through the air was a scent — barely perceptible, yet one that sent a strange, involuntary tremor through the Primeval Essence deep within Lin Mu's Aperture.
A sweet, metallic smell.
The pure scent of blood.
"Blood Path Gu worms..."
The eyes hidden beneath Lin Mu's bamboo hat narrowed slightly. A surge of interest and hunger rose in their depths — impossible to suppress.