- Tie Clan: Throne Room -
Walls stretching to the height of a dragon. Seats crafted using the finest of rank-5 wood path materials, each with their own unique pattern corresponding to the role of the elder seated upon them.
The elders showed expressions of anticipation, as their eyes stared down at the ferocious-looking individual standing before them.
Today was a paramount day, out of all the reports shown today, not one of them held a candle to the one in their hands. The emotions written across the faces of elders were a mix of impressed, confused, and utter disbelief.
Tie Mu Bai showed a look of skepticism, "The report says you're the one who killed the duo Hun Cho and Qi Cuo?" The first thing he noticed was naturally the claws adorned across the mysterious man's body, and secondly, one of his feet had been replaced with wood. This was highly uncommon, one might replace a lost limb with a Gu that could fill in for it, but nearly no Gu masters, especially rank-5, would replace a limb with wood, at least none that he'd ever heard of. The wood also contained many strange gears and joints, Mu Bai theorized it to likely be for better motion, however, he lacked any specialization in this field to make any solid judgment.
Giving a light bow with his hands clasped together, Xie Ling replied with a tone that left none questioning the validity of his words, "That is indeed me. I believe the reports should also include the heads of Gao Xia, Hao Lee, and Vai Tao."
If asked a mere ten minutes ago whether or not a single man could not only take on a fight but also kill these five demons, every elder in here would have answered, 'Impossible!'. Their only reason for entertaining such an impossibility was due to the undeniable amount of evidence recorded in the reports resting in their hands. Along with the fact that not a single one of these Demonic Gu Masters has shown their faces in a while, let alone a peep. And the last straw that broke the camel's back, was all Blood Path Methods used on the heads, returned positive, they were indeed the exact heads priorly attached to Gao Xia, Hao Lee, Vai Tao, Hun Cho, and Qi Cuo.
Everyone was showing expressions of shock. However, for Xie Ling, their reactions were due to nothing more than their ignorance. For if they knew how he did it, they would in fear all work together to strike him down.
Hard work, fairness, and effort. Xie Ling would only utter those words if they directly benefitted him.
Tie Mu Bai stroked his beard three times, before a large smile grew along his face, showing his pearly white teeth. "On behalf of Tie Clan, I thank you for your incredible work!"
After making the statement an awkward silence followed, with Xie Ling showing a blank stare. Fighting those five Demonic Gu Masters taught him much about this world. Especially that Vai Tao, he whistled like a bright cockatoo struggling for its life. Through careful calculation and deduction, Xie Ling realized why this world lacked skill in so many fields like Biology, Marketing, Philosophy, Theory, and surprisingly many close combat fields like Grappling.
Xie Ling could have attributed it to things like the people don't have time to think about such things, why learn surgery or medication when a Gu will do the same job, and better.
Why learn marketing tricks when the only guarantee in life is strength? In other words, a person will buy a Gu worm if they believe they need it to become stronger, no persuasion from the seller was necessary.
Who would spend their time figuring out why they exist when they are already too busy killing a beast that threatens their very existence?
Theorizing? My time would be better spent cultivating my aperture and practicing better ways to use my Gu worms.
If one is a Strength Path Gu Master then they don't need any complicated grappling maneuvers, a simple tight hug would just about do the job.
These were rather simple explanations and at first glance, they did make sense, however, Xie Ling attributed this world's lack of expansion into such fields to something much bigger. Heaven's Will wanted things this way.
Tie Mu Bai watched as Xie Ling gave no response to his statement, and as he was about to ask 'Are you alright?', he immediately realized his mistake, he had yet to hand out the bounties for the five heads. "I believe the reward for each head in order is 2.820.288, 2.930.911, 2.365.630, 3.511.146, and 3.372.025."
The reason for the last two heads(Hun Cho and Qi Cuo) holding such an insane value compared to the rest was quite simple. They are always together, hunting one was no different than painting a target on your back by the other. It also didn't help with the fact that Emotion Path and Soul Path while appearing weak physically, were tricky paths to defend against.
It wasn't like an Earth Path Gu Master fighting against a Wood Path Gu Master, as even if the Earth Gu Master didn't have any direct experience with Wood Path he could still build up a decent defense! However, if he wanted to fight against an Emotion Path Gu Master, he at the bare minimum had to have some defensive methods against Emotion Path.
In truth, both of them separately are known to be quite weak. Weak enough that if they didn't collaborate together their bounties would actually be in the range of 1,200,000 to 1,500,000 Primeval Stones. However, early on they found out that their abilities perfectly complement one another, and as such they stuck together, causing an influx in battle capabilities, and consequently in both of their bounties.
The total added up to about 15,000,000 Primeval Stones, which would be around eleven high-tier rank-5 Gu or forty-four low-tier rank-5 Gu.
Some would think the reward of roughly three high-tier rank-5 Gu to be a bit much for just the head of a Demonic Gu Master. However, at the same time, the only people who could kill a rank-5 Gu Master would have to be someone on the level of a rank-5 Gu Master, add on the fact that rank-5 Gu Masters are skilled enough to ensure that none of their possessions will end up in the hands of their enemies should they parish, and you have an enemy that few are willing to go up against. Unless the reward itself is enough to save them roughly ten years' worth of work, no one is going to attempt such a risk.
Tie Mu Bai could feel his mind working at a rapid pace. For a small clan 15,000,000 Primeval Stones would be considered a lot, however, to Tie Clan, it was nothing more than a month's spending.
"Our guest Xie Ling, I must apologize as our vault has gone into lockdown mode, on account of a Demonic Gu Master trying to sneak in last night, as such preparing your reward will take a while. I'd expect it to take at least a day for us to prepare it."
Every elder ever so slightly raised their eyebrows at Tie Mu Bai's words, before quickly lowering them back down, as they all collectively understood exactly what was going on.
Tie Mu Bai wanted to increase the length of this man's stay. For a potential alliance? No, it wouldn't be correct to say he wanted a partnership, but instead, he wanted this man to become a member of Tie Clan.
Some felt reluctant to play this game, especially since it was an obvious insult to themselves and more importantly Tie Clan.
The great Tie Clan had an intruder make it into their vault?
If rumors began to spread it would damage Tie Clan's reputation, however, that just went to show how deeply Tie Mu Bai wanted Xie Ling.
Elders began nodding their heads as they shouted curses for the non-existent Demonic Gu Master.
"That damn demon broke into our vault in the dead of night! An obvious insult to our Tie Clan!"
"The three guarding the treasury were sent in for healing!"
"I heard that there's a high chance they'll all end up as cripples for the rest of their life!"
As each tale was spun, they began to intertwine like threads woven together to make a large tapestry, an ugly tapestry. Tie Mu Bai could feel himself growing a deeper frown, as he internally shouted, "Are you trying to bring our Tie Clan's reputation down to the dirt?!"
Xie Ling very easily picked up on the farce. It wasn't really difficult, the knowledge he gained from the five rank-5 Demonic Gu Masters explained many things about the power structure of Tie Clan, as a matter of fact, some of the Elders here had even used their services to get rid of competing elders or damage the weaker clans under them. Such information Xie Ling planned on making full use of.
Reaching his hand to the back of his neck, Xie Ling began scratching it. This stretched the skin on his chest.
Shocking everyone as they widened their eyes, staring at his skin.
The stretching of the skin on his flesh revealed gaps in the claws, revealing that the claws adorned upon his body weren't a piece of armor that could be taken on and off, but instead, the claws themselves had been embedded into his flesh, like the scales on a dragon. With one small exception, these claws weren't shaped like the scales of a dragon, as instead, when attacked they would push deeper into his flesh, cutting both him and the attacker at the same time.
Xie Ling did this to spread a misconception. A man that doesn't yield to force, the type that when struck will strike back. This is a blatant example of the saying, 'Don't play with fire if you don't want to get burned'. However, the truth wasn't so twisted, the skin around his whole body wasn't his, it was Gao Xia's.
At that moment a slight tinge of pain echoed in both Xie Ling's heart and arm.
The pain in his heart warned him that he would need to soon replace his Human Blood Heart Gu, before it popped, taking his life with it.
The pain in his arm brought back memories of when he fought against Gao Xia - The Three Armed Gatekeeper to the Underworld.