Howl!

The sounds of the wolf tide increasing echoed throughout Gu Yue village even in the middle of the night.

With the horde growing in number, naturally the weaker wolves were ejected from the pack so that the strong could eat.

Whether human or wolf, both employed the same tactics. Only the humans were more indirect about it.

Initially, ordinary lightning wolves were the only dangers that the Gu Masters faced. With time however, Hundred Beast Kings had also begun to appear to the point where they were nearly commonplace, and so only Rank 2 Gu Master teams dared to venture out far from the village.

Putting them aside, it looked like the Thousand Beast Kings – the wolve’s equivalent of the clan’s elders, would also be making their move.

The elders of each of the three clans were naturally perturbed by this turn of events. The wolf tide this time seemed to be far more dangerous than any other in recent memory.

As a matter of fact, they were still underestimating its severity based on Fang Yuan’s recollection of events. Soon, the wolf tide would reach a peak and annihilate most of the periphery of the village. It would only be held back by Qing Shu’s timely sacrifice using Wood Charm Gu- though he would die as a result.

“Fang Zheng, move to the left,” Fang Yuan instructed as Fang Zheng narrowly avoided the fangs of a lightning wolf waiting in ambush for him.

As Fang Zheng ducked and weave, a blood-red crescent would occasionally fly from Fang Yuan’s hand, creating an opening where it cut through the ordinary lightning wolves like they were made of paper.

As an elder, Fang Yuan had no need to go around hunting ordinary wolves to meet the village’s quota – but Fang Zheng did not have this luxury. Fang Yuan did not care for Fang Zheng’s reputation necessarily, but if too much scrutiny was placed on him there was a chance the Four Flavors Liquor Worm might be discovered. Although Fang Yuan had a plausible explanation for the same, this initial suspicion could then spiral into an investigation into him, which could be disastrous.

Although he had skyrocketed from Rank 3 to Rank 4, it could not be said that the trade off was worth it given the fact that the Spring Autumn Cicada was now sealed away. If it had been Genesis Lotus’s plot to weaken Fang Yuan, it could be said to have succeeded magnificently.

However, along with this misfortune Fang Yuan did have some gains as well. Being at Rank 4 Initial Stage was nothing to sneeze at, even if his cultivation was currently suppressed by Training Weights Gu.

Speaking of, he had discovered the reason that someone might end up using this gu worm. Although it had suppressed his cultivation by an entire stage, he found that after ten days of keeping it in his aperture, his aptitude had grown by 1%, to the point where it was now 76%.

He had done some experimenting with it over the past few weeks, and with his attainment in Human Path, had been able to deduce several details regarding its functioning.

For one, it had to be kept in his aperture continuously to have this aptitude boosting effect. This effect was permanent, as the moment he took it out of his aperture, golden primeval essence began to fill his aperture, but the ‘clock’ for the effect of the gu worm was also reset.

Keeping it for 10 days would give a boost of 1%, to get the next boost of 1%, one needed to keep it continuously for an additional 20 days. The next 1% boost would then take 30 days more than that and so on and so forth. Unfortunately, one could not get the initial 1% boost, take it out, and then wait just ten days for another boost – if one did so, they would have to wait 30 days (twenty and then ten) as the clock was reset.

Fang Yuan had not tested it out completely, but it was also likely that there was a limit to its effectiveness. What that was, he currently did not know.

‘So this is the true purpose of this gu worm, to suppress one’s cultivation for some time but increasing one’s potential,’ Fang Yuan thought. It was inferior to talent-raising gu worms in the regard that they did not require this long time period to work nor did they hamper one in the short term, but it had one benefit – this gu worm was not consumable.

Meaning that Fang Yuan could take it out after use and give it to Fang Zheng. The only problem was that one needed Rank 4 cultivation to use Rank 4 Training Weights Gu, but if he could deduce a recipe to reverse-refine it to Rank 2, it could help Fang Zheng break through to Rank 3.

As it was, to effectively use this gu worm, one needed to weigh its benefits against its risks. If Fang Yuan could rely on the clan to protect him, he would keep it in his aperture for as long as possible to get his aptitude as high as he could. However, he could not- but he had the benefit of hindsight. He knew when it was that the wolf tide would increase, and so knew when the best time to remove it might be.

Based on his calculations, it was best to keep it for a total of 60 days, raising his aptitude permanently by another 2% to bring it to 78%. That would bring him very close to the breakpoints needed to advance through each minor realm of Rank 4. The Training Weights Gu needed someone who was astute at balancing current and future benefits. One who focused entirely on current benefits would sacrifice his future entirely, but one could not focus entirely on the future – else they would end up starving today.

Misfortune and benefits were often tied together. The wolf tide would become increasingly dangerous as time went on, but that would also mean that if Fang Yuan then suddenly revealed his Rank 4 cultivation, the elders instead of being jealous and prying into his matters, would only be joyous and put aside such feelings for the time being until the tide was dealt with.

‘What’s important is timing,’ Fang Yuan thought, as he sent out an attack that cut a lightning wolf in two, flying through it and into its companion as well.

Two wolves with one moonblade!

“Thank you for your help, brother,” Fang Zheng said, as he now stood among a pile of corpses.

“It is no worry,” Fang Yuan said, waving his hand. “Time for us to head back to the village then after collecting their eyeballs.”

As they were heading back, they saw another group of Gu Yue clansmen in the distance.

Naturally, these clansmen noticed Fang Yuan. It was a mixed group of Rank 2 and Rank 1 Gu Masters, and they began calling for help.

The wolf group around them was large, but not strong individually. It would only take a few moves from Fang Yuan, and the wolf tide would be crippled and allow for a decisive human victory while minimizing casualties.

New daily quest!

Save the humans from this wolf group.

Reward: Guts Gu (x 1)

“How are you on primeval essence?” Fang Yuan asked.

“Still about 25%,” Fang Zheng said.

“Good enough,” Fang Yuan said, as he led Fang Zheng to strike the wolf group from the right flank.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep