Fang Yuan went to the Gu room alone.
The academy's Gu room kept quite a few Rank one Gu worms. There were many types and variations, and Fang Yuan's Moonlight Gu was taken freely from inside.
Once in a while the students would have a free chance to pick a Gu worm. If one wanted to get extra Gu, they would need to pay up.
In this short time Fang Yuan had no wish to refine any other Gu. He walked to the building beside the Gu room – it was a small store.
In the store there were seven students, each of them negotiating over the counter with the store owner for buying grass puppets.
"It's you, junior." The Rank one Gu Master responsible for the store was in his twenties. When he saw Fang Yuan, he automatically greeted him while bargaining with his customers.
Fang Yuan was not surprise, finding out that this Gu Master was Jiang Ya. It was the young Gu Master that had taught the hunters a lesson in the inn.
"Ah, it's you senior." Fang Yuan nodded his head, his face expressionless.
Jiang Ya took out a grass puppet from the counter behind him, passing it to the student who purchased it. At the same time he threw Fang Yuan a friendly smile and asked, "Did junior brother come here to buy a grass puppet as well? If you want me to leave one for you, you just need three pieces of primeval stones. These things sell like hotcakes, right now there's only seven left, if you wait any longer there won't be any stock left."
Jiang Ya's attitude towards mortals was arrogant, but towards people like Fang Yuan, he was very kind and sincere.
Fang Yuan shook his head, laughing secretly as he thought, this Jiang Ya really did know how to do business. The grass puppets were made with the Scarecrow Gu. Even after including the primeval essence that was put in, the final cost should not be more than one and a half primeval stones.
"Senior, this isn't fair. It should be first come first serve, why leave any for him?"
"Yeah, we all came early. If you want to do business you should know the rules."
"Three pieces will be three pieces, here's the primeval stones, give me a grass puppet."
The youngsters in the store were all worried when they heard that the store only had seven puppets left. They stopped trying to negotiate, and took out their stones to buy it.
Very quickly, seven satisfied teenagers walked out.
"Does my junior want to buy a grass puppet?" Jiang Ya laughed as he asked, "It seems like they were sold out, but actually there's still the eighth puppet stowed away below the chest. If junior doesn't buy it now, you will miss the opportunity."
Fang Yuan had no interest towards the grass puppet. He shook his head and pulled out a piece of primeval stone, putting it on the counter. "I want to buy ten moon orchid petals."
Jiang Ya was stunned. He looked Fang Yuan deep in the eye, taking away the primeval stone and pulling open the counter drawer. Then he took out a paper bag, saying, "Ten pieces of moon orchid flower petals, not one less. Please make sure."
Fang Yuan checked the goods on the spot and found no mistake with it. Finally he left the small shop.
Gu have to be fed.
A Gu Master refines Gu, uses Gu, and at the same time needs to raise Gu.
Refining a Gu is difficult; there is the risk of counterattack. Using a Gu is not easy; one needs a lot of practice. The knowledge of raising a Gu is even more extensive and profound, because there are all kinds of Gu worms and their food are exceedingly strange. Some need to swallow soil, some need starlight, some require tears and some feed on the clouds and air from the nine skies.
After buying the bag of moon orchid petals, Fang Yuan went to the inn to buy green bamboo wine. The Liquor worm could also drink some turbid wine or rice wine to live. However with this kind of second-rate wine the amount it needed to drink would increase, and it would need many jars everyday.
"Young sir, you've come." The workers in the inn had already known Fang Yuan. Fang Yuan passed him three pieces of primeval stones directly, saying with a familiar ease, "Give me a jar of green bamboo wine. You don't need to give me the change, just put it here first. At the end of the month when it amounts up to one stone, you can subtract from my bill with it."
Even though Fang Yuan no longer stayed at the inn right now ever since he moved to the academy dormitories, he would sometimes have a meal here when he bought wine.
"Alright. Young sir please take a seat, the wine will be sent over immediately." The worker echoed, leading Fang Yuan to his seat. He took the cloth on top of his shoulder and gently wiped the table before leaving. Indeed as the worker said, the jar of Green Bamboo Wine was presented in front of Fang Yuan.
Fang Yuan took the jar of wine and headed straight toward the secret cave. He pulled out his money pouch, opened it, and took a look inside. "I have about 30 primeval stones left, after receiving the reward for first place," he thought to himself. In this life, he had around 10 or more primeval stones than he did in his previous life.
"This can only last me for a month." Fang Yuan calculated, He was not like his peers – they had relatives and friends to help them out, especially with the case of students like Gu Yue Mo Bei and Gu Yue Chi Cheng who were loaded with primeval stones.
Fang Yuan could only think of a way himself.
"Uncle and Aunt have already cut off my living expenses, but every weekend the clan academy would give out three pieces of primeval stones as subsidy to every student. Looks like I would need to show off in the moonblade assessment in three days and take that ten primeval stone prize." Fang Yuan pondered
Just as he was about to left, he heard the inn worker calling him.
"Young sir, young sir." The inn worker chased after him from behind and said, "Just to tell young sir something, but in less than a month the trading company will arrive to the village. By convention they would always buy the green bamboo wine in our shop. Young sir loves our green bamboo wine and always buys a few jars every week, so the innkeeper ordered me to tell young sir about this matter. The green bamboo wine in our store has limited supply, so after we sell it to the trading company I'm afraid we would be left with very little."
When Fang Yuan heard the news, he knew it was the truth. The shop worker and the young Gu Master Jiang Ya spoke with similar meaning, however Fang Yuan could naturally tell the difference with Jiang Ya's tricky words and the shop worker's truthful words.
"Then I'll buy another five jars. I will need you to carry them for me and follow me to put them in the academy dormitory."
"Alright, young sir." The worker immediately accepted the primeval stones.
The moon orchid flower petals could only last for five days without any special storage means, so Fang Yuan would only buy a bag every time. However the green bamboo wine could be kept for a very long time, thus there was no problem with this.
After the inn workers followed Fang Yuan into the academy dorms and placed the wine jars under his bed, he once again went straight towards his original destination; the secret cave.
Inside the cave.
"Finally my fourth Gu; Rank one White Boar Gu." After days of continues hard work, Fang Yuan managed to get through the rock wall and obtain the Rank one White Boar Gu from the Earth Treasury Flower Gu.
"Now the next problem is the White Boar Gu food, although I have no problem hunting wild boar and finding them, the problem will be if any hunters or worse any Gu master roaming around saw me take down one." Fang Yuan is only a Rank one Initial stage Gu master, other than the Moonlight Gu to help me, it is not wrong to said Fang Yuan is no different than a mortal.
"It seems like I must venture out further to be not seen or utilize the traps that the hunters have set up." Previously in his life, Fang Yuan had obtained the beast skin map of The Wang family –a mortal family that specializes in hunting; therefore he knew the places where the hunters placed their traps and places where wild boar gather.