The air beneath the blanket was stifling and damp, filled with nothing but Lin Mu's own rapid breathing.
The thick cotton quilt blocked out all noise from the outside world.
In this cramped, coffin-like darkness, Lin Mu was making a silent gamble.
The Liquor Worm in his palm emitted a soft, lustrous glow.
Though the light was gentle, to Lin Mu's eyes it cut sharper than any blade.
"Begin."
He forced his racing heart under control and mobilized the remaining fifty percent of Primeval Essence within his Aperture.
The Green Copper sea of Primeval Essence churned violently.
With a single thought, streams of essence flowed out of his Aperture like trickling water, traveling through his meridians to his palm, enveloping the plump white Gu completely.
Hissss...
The moment his Primeval Essence touched the Gu's surface, the spirit-creature born of heaven and earth instinctively sensed danger.
Its docile body shuddered violently, then began thrashing with desperate force.
A primal will—ancient and savage—slammed through the connection of Primeval Essence and crashed directly into Lin Mu's mind.
Pure. Stubborn. Utterly defiant.
Any ordinary sixteen-year-old struck by such a spiritual assault would lose control instantly.
The Gu's backlash alone could scatter their Primeval Essence, or worse, damage their mind permanently.
But Lin Mu was no ordinary boy.
"Hmph. A mere Rank 1 Gu thinks it can shake my will?"
He sneered inwardly.
Two lifetimes of existence had forged a soul far tougher than his peers could imagine.
The information overload and corporate backstabbing of his previous life on Earth had already tempered his mind into cold steel.
He held firm. Rather than retreat, he intensified the assault.
"Submit."
A silent roar from the depths of his consciousness.
Wave after wave of Primeval Essence crashed against the Liquor Worm's body. This was a war of attrition. A conquest through brute force.
The Liquor Worm was rare, yes—but it was merely a support-type Gu, and its nature as an alcoholic made its will sluggish, perpetually drunk.
Had this been a vicious offensive Gu like a Wolf Soul Gu or Tiger Strength Gu, Lin Mu would be in serious trouble.
Against the Liquor Worm, he held every advantage.
Fifteen minutes passed.
The Gu's struggles weakened. Cracks began forming in its defiant will under Lin Mu's relentless mental pressure.
Thirty minutes passed.
Cold sweat drenched Lin Mu's entire body.
His Primeval Essence had dropped to critical levels—barely ten percent remaining.
The mental exhaustion split his skull like someone was driving a chisel into his temples.
"Hold on... almost there!"
He bit through his tongue, using the sharp pain to stay conscious.
He understood perfectly: refining a Gu was like rowing against the current.
Any lapse meant losing everything. Worse, the Gu could develop resistance, making future attempts nearly impossible.
Finally.
The instant before Lin Mu felt consciousness slipping away, the Liquor Worm in his palm went completely still.
It released a faint, almost relieved whimper. Then its tense body relaxed entirely.
A strange sensation of blood-bond flooded Lin Mu's heart.
"Done."
Joy surged through him.
The Liquor Worm transformed into a streak of light, burrowing through his palm into his body.
It passed through his meridians without resistance and dove straight into the Aperture below his navel.
The sea of Primeval Essence inside was nearly dry.
But the new resident didn't seem to mind. It swam happily across the shallow surface, greedily inhaling the thin mist of essence around it.
Then something miraculous happened.
As the Liquor Worm breathed in and out, the impure, pale-green Initial Stage Primeval Essence—hastily recovered and crude in quality—underwent a fundamental transformation after passing through its body.
The color deepened.
From pale green to a profound, steady dark green.
The volume compressed by half, but Lin Mu could feel it clearly: each drop of dark green essence now contained at least twice the explosive power of before.
Rank 1 Middle Stage Primeval Essence.
This was the Liquor Worm's heaven-defying ability. It could transcend minor realms and purify essence quality.
"With this Middle Stage essence, when I activate the Iron Leaf Gu, the hardness and flight speed of those serrated leaves will increase by at least thirty percent. If I encounter someone like Gao Xiong again, I won't even need a sneak attack—I can break through his defense head-on."
Lin Mu stared at the drop of dark green essence hovering above the sea, a feverish gleam in his eyes.
But the next second, that fever froze solid, as if doused with ice water.
"Wrong. This color is too conspicuous."
Lin Mu snapped to full alertness.
His displayed cultivation was Rank 1 Initial Stage. Initial Stage Apertures could only contain pale-green Primeval Essence.
If the clan inspected his Aperture tomorrow because of Gao Xiong's death and saw this out-of-place drop of dark green...
It would be a drop of ink on white paper. Even a blind man could see the problem.
"No large-scale purification. At least until this blows over, I cannot let Middle Stage essence fill my Aperture."
Lin Mu made the decision instantly.
He focused his will and forcibly dispersed that precious drop of dark green essence, letting it dissolve back into the vast pale-green sea until it became virtually undetectable.
"And then there's the Liquor Worm itself..."
He looked at the plump white creature now resting beside his natal Iron Leaf Gu inside his Aperture. His brow furrowed.
A common Iron Leaf Gu sitting next to a rare Liquor Worm?
That was like a beggar's cracked bowl holding a luminous pearl. No evidence needed—that greedy old clan elder would arrest him as a "suspect" on the spot. Or simply kill him and take the treasure.
The crime of possessing jade. Without sufficient strength, treasure was nothing but a curse.
"I have to hide it. Remove it from my Aperture and store it outside."
Doing so would weaken the Liquor Worm over time without constant nourishment, but survival came first. There was no other choice.
Lin Mu forced his exhausted body off the bed.
First, he willed the newly refined Liquor Worm out of his body, then wrapped it carefully in layers of oiled paper and wax seal he'd prepared beforehand.
Next, he pulled out the heavy money pouch he'd taken from Gao Xiong's corpse. Twenty-five Primeval Stones.
For a branch disciple, this "fortune" was equally impossible to explain.
"Both of these cannot see the light of day."
By the faint moonlight, Lin Mu stuffed both the wrapped Liquor Worm and the money pouch into the hidden lining of a filthy old straw sandal caked with grime and reeking of foot odor.
Then he kicked it into the deepest corner beneath his bed, into a pile of dust.
Rat droppings. Ancient cobwebs. A nauseating smell of mold.
To Lin Mu, it was the safest vault imaginable—hiding in plain sight.
With everything done, he exhaled slowly.
"Liquor Worm hidden. Stolen money hidden. Primeval Essence color normal. Right now, I look like nothing more than a poor, innocent student."
Yet his extreme exhaustion made him overlook one final detail.
In the corner of his Aperture, the Heat Source Gu he'd casually refined and suppressed earlier had shrunk into an inconspicuous red dot, cowed by the Liquor Worm's presence.
Subconsciously, Lin Mu felt this Gu was already "internal" and—unlike the Liquor Worm—didn't need to be removed and risk losing nourishment.
This blind spot in his thinking expanded infinitely under extreme fatigue.
Lin Mu's strength finally gave out. His vision went black, and he sank into unconsciousness.
He slept deeply, yet remained alert on some primal level.
The moment the first rays of dawn pierced through the heavy miasma of Broken Soul Mountain and touched the watchtower of Black Blood Stockade—
CLANG—!!
CLANG—!!
CLANG—!!
A series of urgent, piercing bell tolls—carrying unmistakable menace—exploded across the entire stockade.
The sound tore through the morning silence like a death knell.
This wasn't the usual morning bell to wake students for class. This was Black Blood Stockade's highest-level alarm—the Assembly Bell.
It rang only when the clan faced a major crisis or a hostile incursion.
"What's happening?!"
"That bell... is it a beast tide?"
"No—enemy attack! Get up!"
The dormitory erupted into chaos.
The other boys scrambled out of bed in panic. One had his pants on backward. Another knocked over the chamber pot in his haste. The room descended into complete disorder.
Lin Mu "woke" at the same instant.
He sat up sharply, letting a hint of confusion flash across his eyes before shifting it to fear.
He fumbled with his clothes alongside everyone else, deliberately mis-buttoning his collar so he looked just as pathetic as the inexperienced boys around him.
"Move! All academy students—assemble at the training grounds immediately! No delays! Violators will be executed!"
From outside the window came the thunderous roar of a clan elder, his voice infused with powerful Primeval Essence.
The window frames rattled from the force. Clearly a Rank 2 expert.
"A Rank 2 Gu Master... So this is the authority of a clan elder."
Lin Mu's heart tightened, but his body didn't slow for a second.
He blended into the panicked crowd and stumbled out of the dormitory.