The night within the Ma tribe's territory was peaceful. The moon hung low in the sky, full and bright, casting its heavenly silvery light across the land and upon every living creature. Most of the mortal shops, stalls, and taverns had already closed their doors. The streets were nearly deserted, save for the guards stationed at the gates of some large estates and the occasional patrolling Gu Masters.
These Gu Masters were on patrol for obvious reasons, protecting Gu Masters' shops and properties, such as private Gu material or Gu worm stores, from any demonic cultivators who might have snuck into the tribe and were considering something foolish, or even local ones.
However, the patrolling Gu Masters didn't watch over all shops and properties in the tribe. They weren't paid to. In fact, the tribe wasn't even the one paying them in the first place.
They were on a mission, tasked with patrolling just a few streets for the night. If anything happened to a specific group of shops, they were required to intervene and do their best to preserve the shops' stock, even if it meant letting the thief, be they demonic or local, escape.
These missions were quite common. Five to six shops, usually close in proximity, just two or three streets apart, would pool together a sum of primeval essence stones to commission a mission for some Gu Masters to accept.
And it was effective. Many small teams took these missions daily, providing them with a somewhat stable source of primeval essence stones. But it never lasted long. Some shops would stop issuing the missions, whether due to forming private deals with specific teams, tiring of paying when nothing ever happened, or going bankrupt.
Still, with the Ma tribe's vast territory and the number of shops within it, these patrol missions supported a good portion of the small Gu Master teams, either those composed of aging Gu Masters whose strength had waned, or those looking to accumulate missions for qualifications like captain or squad leader, regardless of how little these tasks paid.
Thus, the streets weren't completely empty. On every other street, there was the occasional Gu Master or two, either keeping watch over a couple of shops or sitting cross-legged on the ground cultivating, as if they didn't need to keep their eyes open to remain alert.
"Did you know my Lin tribe contributes extra primeval essence stones out-of-pocket for some of these missions to further promote them?" a voice whispered from the shadows of a large building, two figures hidden in the dark.
"Yes, I know. The Ma tribe does the same. But it's really inefficient... Anyway, Chen Huan, focus on getting out of here. Where did you agree to meet, and how will she know the timing?" the other figure replied casually, immediately shifting the topic.
"Huh? Inefficient? What do you mean, Mas... err... Rue Bu…" She seemed about to call him something else but quickly corrected herself. "That bitch said she'd stay near the border of the Desolate Desert. Her tribe has a hideout in the far west of the desert. She said if you don't arrive within two days, she'll return to her tribe and come back another two days later to avoid raising suspicion. Ah, she also gave me the hideout location…"
"Okay, lead the way." They stepped from the shadows, dashing to another building to avoid being seen by a Gu Master leaning against a nearby shop. He appeared to be keeping watch but didn't seem to notice them.
'The assassin is actually from the Jin tribe... I guess only the Jin tribe's assassins would take on a job involving alliance members... but I thought she was a demonic cultivator... Heh, this is even better. I can squeeze her dry, and she'll recover on her own... Hehe, she even gave up her tribe's hideout so easily... The mindless wasp is truly... amazing...' His thoughts drifted as he looked inside his aperture.
On the surface of his dark green primeval essence sea hovered an unlit black candle. Its ability was mundane, and Ma Rue Bu considered it the weakest Gu he possessed. It was called Ominous Candle, and all it did was produce a small flame, not for combat, merely for illumination. But that didn't make it useless. On the contrary, he considered it one of his most important Gu, despite its low utility. Its food was any type of wax, the better the quality, the less required. Ma Rue Bu fed it a moderate amount of rice barn wax every few days.
Not far from the Ominous Candle, a spider played atop the sea's surface. Its body was pure white, with eight darting legs that splashed primeval essence in all directions. Its eyes were crimson, like fresh blood, and could send chills down the spine of anyone who stared too long. This was the Berserk Gu.
It wasn't splashing randomly, it was chasing something. If one looked closely, they could spot an insect darting away from its legs, weaving through the primeval essence with skill and speed.
The insect had an elongated body with a long tail and two pairs of wings, the front pair larger than the rear. Its diamond-like body shimmered with all kinds of colors under the primeval essence's illumination. Two large compound eyes dominated its head, along with three smaller, simple eyes arranged in a triangle atop it.
This was the Swift Wings Gu. Its use was simple but potent, it increased the Gu Master's speed depending on its rank. The rank one version only boosted speed by 5%. It fed on insects like bees and ants. Unfortunately, it was a troublesome Gu to maintain. Ma Rue Bu had to catch its food himself, as the tribe's shops rarely stocked anything it ate. He gave up after five unsuccessful store visits.
These three Gu worms were combined to form the killer move Fire Fly. So, even though Ominous Candle was a chore to maintain, it was ultimately worthwhile.
He had two other Gu worms. They weren't as lively as the last two. One lay on the surface of the water, far from the Berserk and Swift Wings Gu. It resembled a frog, though its lower half was more lizard-like. Its pitch-black eyes matched its skin, which gave off an ominous aura, only slightly softened by the occasional yellow patches across its body. This was the Devouring Salamander Gu.
Its name came from the wild beast it resembled, though it was much smaller. It emitted a harmless fire that circulated the body and accelerated natural recovery. However, it couldn't heal injuries the body couldn't recover from naturally, such as regrowing a lost limb.
The final Gu worm was a fiery red rope. When activated, it would expand and wrap around the Gu Master, offering a decent level of defense relative to its primeval essence cost.
These two Gu worms shared the same food, any kind of fire, even that created by the Ominous Candle. One reason Ma Rue Bu chose the Devouring Salamander was because it had the same food as the fiery rope, allowing him to use the Ominous Candle to feed both if he ever lacked the means to start a fire otherwise.
Most of the students of the Ma tribe had just one Gu worm. Some hardworking ones managed to sustain the feeding of two or even three, and only 4 or so students had the talent and primeval essence stones needed to care for almost a full set of Gu worms that covered offense, defense, movement, and healing.
Ma Rue Bu was one of them. He had managed to come first all three months that the ranking lasted, and despite it unexpectedly—for the first time in the tribe's history—ending early, it was arguably for the better. The missions they took offered way more rewards, for a risk, obviously, of being injured or worse—killed. The latter had already happened twice.
But Ma Rue Bu didn't just have these four Gu worms. He ignored them as he concentrated on something else that was flying above all of them. It looked like a wasp—its body was made of metal, emerald green in color. Its eyes were deep black, gazing at the aperture as it continued hovering without making a sound, giving off a metallic green luster like an emperor hovering above its kingdom.
Despite that, the marks on its body were clearly visible—or the scars. Big and small cracks ran across its green body, dimming the luster in those areas. Its wings weren't as they used to be, delicate with veins running across them. Instead, one of them was half-missing and the other was completely gone—just a stump was what remained from it.
Its legs were also affected, and it was missing a leg or two, with the rest having various amounts of cracks and tears as well.
It looked out of place, like a crippled soldier who had barely survived a devastating war, and none of the other Gu worms wanted to get close to it, creating a visible gap between them.
Yet, Ma Rue Bu wasn't worried about any of these apparent injuries.
...
"The Mindless Wasp—a very unique Gu worm. As I mentioned, its usage and nurturing are linked together, as in, if you wanted to use it, you had to provide it with food first." He began to remember his conversation with Lin Chen Huan back at their family residence, where she explained everything to him.
"Oh, that's interesting. I heard about some Gu that have special activation requirements before, but that's the first time I hear about something like that. But why is it dangerous exactly?" He already knew its effect, but enslavement Gu worms weren't rare, per se—just that enslavement Gu Masters required astronomical amounts of resources, not because there was more "danger."
"Oh, it's an extremely dangerous and demonic Gu worm, because its usage requirement—or food—is... humans." She stretched her words, visibly uncomfortable about the Gu worm.
"What?!" Ma Rue Bu and Shui Tao were both astonished.
"Uhh... as far as I know, this Gu worm was created by some demonic Enslavement Gu Master, who wasn't content with enslaving beasts. But as it was harder to enslave humans with normal methods, he created the Mindless Wasp after a lot of research and trial and error. They say he might have been a dual Enslavement and Refinement Master." They were a little skeptical and confused about how she knew all of this, but when they remembered who her grandfather was, they continued to listen with much more interest.
She continued, "The problem with enslaving humans was with soul foundation. If one didn't have enough soul foundation, they wouldn't be able to enslave even one human. It was way easier to enslave beasts because of their lower intelligence and soul foundation, but they weren't nearly as useful as enslaving humans. So this demonic Gu Master found a way of enslaving humans without involving the soul..."
"Huh? That's nonsense! Enslavement is closely tied to soul foundation because, in essence, the Enslavement Gu Master puts 'shackles' on the target's soul and binds them to his own soul." Shui Tao didn't believe a word she said.
"...Yeah, that's what I said to Grandpa as well... I still don't fully get it, but the Mindless Wasp doesn't 'enslave' anything really. It manipulates and alters the target's memories, thoughts and emotions and makes it so that it 'thinks' of the Gu Master as its 'master'..."
"...As I said, I don't even understand it fully. My grandfather even said that the soul wasn't entirely free either. The Mindless Wasp still affects the target's soul, but using the foundation of its 'food' instead. He even said something about carving those 'shackles' too, but I don't know..." She shrugged and continued, "But what we know for sure—as it was documented in all three of our tribes, actually—is his creation wasn't perfect, and he still wasn't satisfied with it."
"Because the Mindless Wasp was able to 'enslave' just one Gu Master of its own rank or two of a lower rank than its own. Otherwise, if you pushed it further, it would detonate—and if the Gu Master didn't have another way to keep his slaves under control, he would be dead meat."
"There were even some rumors that the demonic Gu Master was from the Jin tribe initially. And after his creation was exposed and he wanted to use the tribe's resources to perfect it even more, he got captured and was supposed to die, but he managed to escape. And some even say he continued his research and managed to advance it even further—linking its refinement to its nurturing as well. But those are just baseless rumors... Oh, and surprisingly, you don't have to feed it as often as other Gu worms, just when using it, and..."
...
He finished his recollection and tried to sort his thoughts. 'There is a big difference between what Chen Huan said back then about the Mindless Wasp and the actual thing.' He glanced at her.
'I had already enslaved the Jin tribe assassin. How did it also affect Chen Huan without detonating? Was she wrong about the exact number it can affect? But she said that was the only thing she was confident about... or were those rumours true...' His thoughts drifted, but he was brought back to reality as they arrived at one of the Ma tribe's gates.
"Wait, there are guards stationed at every gate. We can't just stroll out if we don't want anybody to notice us. There's a spot over there that nobody bothers to guard, as it's mostly mortals living there. We should be able to go unnoticed." He gave her a general direction, and she continued to lead the way, avoiding the guards and the patrolling Gu Masters at the same time, while he kept an eye on their back.
'But besides that, is this Gu really an Enslavement Path Gu? It's more like a Wisdom Path one, isn't it? Affecting memories, thoughts, and emotions? Using the soul foundation of its "food"—another human? Connecting the usage, nurturing, and possibly even refinement? How can just one person be this talented—and not in just one path either...' The more he thought about it, the more confusing it became.
'But... the most confusing thing that's related to the Mindless Wasp is that place it "sent" me to...' He wasn't even sure if it was the Gu's doing, but that was the only explanation he had at the moment. 'I hope that assassin will know something. She is from the same tribe as that demonic Gu Master, after all.' At first, he had wanted to meet her immediately because he had assumed she had the Mindless Wasp on her and he didn't trust her with it, but when Lin Chen Huan handed it to him before leaving, he was first worried about its condition.
And eventually, he was confused. Because, even though the Gu was clearly hanging on by a thread, it didn't seem to be in any immediate danger. And he was even more confused as to why it didn't detonate like Lin Chen Huan said it would. She didn't know either.
So when he learned that the assassin was from the Jin tribe, he wanted to meet with her even more now, in case she knew anything about the Mindless Wasp or the demonic Gu Master who created it.