'I will work hard to surpass Fang Yuan' - in truth, that was just cope said by many of the people envious of his recent success.
No matter how hard the tortoise worked, it would not outrun the hare in the same period of time.
Of course, in the story, the hare had gotten complacent and lazy which is what had allowed the tortoise to win.
But would Fang Yuan become complacent?
Absolutely not!
And now, with the Liquor Worm, undoubtedly he would be in the lead for every event in the school.
Many people approached him, wanting to buy the Liquor Worm, though he refused all of them.
He was a budding B-grade talent and future elder, there was little they could do to pressurize him.
As it was, if they were in his shoes, they wouldn't sell it either.
And anyway, many of them figured, the Liquor Worm was not a consumable gu after all. That meant that once Fang Yuan got to Rank 1 Peak Stage, it would be worthless to him.
By then, they all felt that it would only be natural for Fang Yuan to sell it; not knowing that he had a recipe for the Four Flavors Liquor Worm.
Fang Yuan immediately set to using the Liquor Worm.
In his primeval aperture, light green primeval essence was filled to 52%. The Moonlight Gu was resting in it, and the Liquor Worm then activated its ability.
Soon, the primeval essence darkened. This was a qualitative change in its nature, one drop of it was now worth twice as much as before.
The aperture was surrounded by a light membrane, and Fang Yuan now drove this improved primeval essence at the light membrane. This was how Gu Masters cultivated, by driving their primeval essence in order to destroy the walls of their aperture.
Its effect was apparent, and the difference between before and now was easily evident. By now, the initial cracks that Fang Yuan had made against the aperture walls earlier had completely regenerated as he had to spend primeval essence while refining gu worms, but now that he was effectively using 104% primeval essence, large fissures quickly appeared in the aperture walls.
Soon, all of his primeval essence was expended, and the fissures began to repair themselves. This meant that some of his progress would be reset the next day. If the rate of him damaging the walls could not overcome the rate of their repair, he would end up stuck at a bottleneck. That was why 'breakpoints' were so significant.
He took out a primeval stone and rapidly replenished his primeval essence, now driving more of it towards the aperture walls.
There were benefits and drawbacks now that the knowledge of the Liquor Worm was made public. A benefit was that no one would doubt why Fang Yuan was progressing so fast, and that meant that he wouldn't have to deliberately hamstring his own growth. He estimated that even Rank 2 might be possible before the year was over depending on how generous this system would be with increasing his aptitude.
The drawback was that people were not going to stop asking to buy it from him. It also put a spotlight upon him, which he would rather ignore.
However, it was not just by increasing his cultivation realm that he could get stronger.
The White Boar Gu was quite valuable as it would give him the strength of a boar, permanently. Meaning he would be strong even without any primeval essence. Without primeval essence, most Gu Masters were weaker than mortals in some way.
This still raised an issue for Fang Yuan, which is why he hadn't taken it out of his inventory yet. Namely, how was he going to feed it?
It needed boar meat to feed itself. Exposing a few primeval stones here and there was not a problem as he had publicly been handed 500 of them, but if he started ordering large amounts of boar meat, people would no doubt get suspicious. Many of them would be able to put two and two together and realize what kind of gu worm he had.
There was a way out of this- it involved taking advantage of the reputation he had gained thanks to the system. But it would also end up wasting a large amount of primeval stones.
The best thing for him was to simply go out and hunt wild boar. But this raised two problems. One, he needed to raise his battle capability to be able to do so without ending up as boar food. Two, he had to keep this on the down-low as well.
A stealth gu worm would be invaluable to him. It would be best if he could find one quickly.
The system had not given his any more main quests as of yet, and was silent for now.
Even now, the origin of the system were a complete mystery to Fang Yuan. That was why he couldn't rely upon it or pin his hopes upon it giving him some sort of miraculous solution to his problems.
He had a bigger issue to worry about, however. That was the Spring Autumn Cicada- although it was a valuable gu worm, there was a massive drawback to having it as his vital gu.
It was a Rank 6 gu worm, meaning that it had incomparable power when compared to his primeval aperture. If it were at full strength, his aperture would've already burst. It was good that it was currently weak and at death's door in a way because that meant that he could handle it.
However, it would slowly recover. He didn't have to spend anything to feed it, as thankfully, its food was the river of time itself. But, it was like having a ticking time bomb sewn into his abdomen.
As quickly as it was possible, he needed to progress further. Eventually only a Rank 6 aperture would be able to contain it.
There were many inheritances that he remembered which he could exploit, but to get to them, he needed to get to Rank 3 at the very least so that he could safely wander outside the walls of the village.
He was guaranteed to reach Rank 2 rather quickly now. He would have two Silver Steel Relic Gu meaning that he would speed through its minor realms- the main issue was getting to Rank 3.
Also, he needed to start collecting a set of gu worms that covered all aspects like defense, offense, and healing. Even if he didn't intend to hunt wild boar, he would need them eventually.
Soon, even the vast resources that he had managed to accumulate would seem small. No doubt, he needed to obtain his parent's inheritance as soon as he could once he graduated from the academy!