He did not voice this discovery to Huang Fei - who knew how Huang Fei felt about Gu Masters? Wang Tian hadn't seen Huang Fei using any gu worms, so it made sense to assume that he either thought the same as his former tribe members, or that Huang Fei couldn't use gu worms period. In any case, it was best to keep quiet.
When Wang Tian suggested that they go back if the reindeer were just going to be dead, Huang Fei said no. So he asked, "Do you want revenge on them?"
"More than that, I want the reindeer back," Huang Fei said. "And there are still eleven of them alive, right? One dead means that there are still some waiting for us."
The two boys moved constantly, pushing their limits, until they were finally able to happen upon them. The group was lying down in a valley near a stream, laughing with each other, the reindeer around them. The fighting amongst their own group as well as the rough terrain had allowed the two boys to catch up.
"Wait," Wang Tian said, Huang Fei knocked an arrow and seemed ready to burst in. "Let's wait until nightfall."
They did so. Although the two of them were prepared to fight, Huang Fei slowly crept out of where they were hidden and caught one of the reindeer's attention. The reindeer in question must have recognized Huang Fei, or his scent, and began following him. Being herd animals, the other reindeer also woke up, and without making too much noise to wake the men sleeping there, they followed Huang Fei as well.
"All right, let's grab them and bolt," Huang Fei said.
He got atop one of them, being used to reindeer riding, before he glanced at Wang Tian.
"Don't worry about me," Wang Tian said. "Go back to your tribe now that you've found what you're looking for."
"But how can I possibly do this all without thanking you?" Huang Fei asked.
"Don't worry. If you want to thank me, you can come back to where we met first later on. Otherwise, I'll just slow you down," Wang Tian said.
Huang Fei nodded. "All right then. Wang Tian... I won't forget what you've done for me. I will come back, just you wait. Thank you."
The reindeer moved along with Huang Fei, away from the thieves, who were none the wiser until two hours later when they woke up cursing their luck. But by then, both Huang Fei and Wang Tian were long gone. The thieves hadn't even seen their faces and some of them were wondering whether the reindeer had simply slipped away on their own. Any hope of catching them was basically nonexistent.
Huang Fei returned with the deer back home.
His 'tribe' so to speak consisted of only a dozen people. They had been part of a larger tribe, but his father had been ousted by his brothers and so he, his parents, stepmother, and cousins and half-siblings were cast away.
To say that they were shocked when Huang Fei returned was an understatement. The loss of the reindeer was a big blow. Without them, they would be forced to spend the coming winter scavenging on loose rodents and other such small prey. Many of them might end up going hungry more nights than not.
However, with the reindeer herd retrieved, these worries were alleviated.
His father walked up to him first of all. His father's leg was broken in the chaos that ensued when Fang Yuan had tried to cross the Miasma Regional Wall, which is why he hadn't come along with Huang Fei - and even suggested that they forget about the reindeer entirely in the first place. Losses were simply a part of life, he had reasoned.
"How did you manage to fight off so many people yourself?" his father asked.
"I didn't," Huang Fei said. "But Father, we should move elsewhere. Those thieves might have other friends, and they might want to come back for us."
His father nodded. The reindeer were good to serve as mounts for his family, and while the main tribe they had been excommunicated from occupied the best herding areas, he still knew of some others they could use. Especially after the recent events which had changed the landscape.
Wang Tian went back to his cave. Although Huang Fei had said that he would come back, Wang Tian didn't really think so and assumed that was just youthful exuberance.
He went to cultivating. His Vital Gu was fine now but after a few more days, he noticed that it began withering again as if it hadn't been fed.
That confused him. He managed to find an assortment of other gu worms around the area. He even was well on his way to advancing to Rank 2 Middle Stage.
'But to advance further I need to find one of those... a primeval spring!' he thought to himself. He had heard tales of such a place where primeval stones seemed to erupt from the water itself. But he had never seen one for himself and only had found scattered fragments of primeval stones.
If he had access to a spirit spring though, he could start advancing faster.
***
'So the time has finally come,' Fang Yuan thought to himself.
His preparations were as ready as they ever could be, as his Blessed Land suddenly opened to the outside, Heaven and Earth Qi rushing in as his tribulation began forming. Fang Yuan saw the earthly tribulation forming in the distance: a miasma of dark clouds that was shifting as Heaven's will considered what earthly calamity best to send his way. It could take the form of nearly any kind of earthly calamity; even those which Fang Yuan had never seen before. There were many factors that influenced its strength with the wealth of the Blessed Land in question being one of the major factors.
Fang Yuan was already ready. Hundreds of gu worms flew around him as he activated his killer move. He had studied The Legends of Ren Zu including the sections involving Ambition Gu, not only that, but how that ambition resonated with his own life: the ambition to continue climbing higher and higher, the ambition to see the world, the ambition to eventually attain eternal life.
What limited this ambition of men in The Legends of Ren Zu is said to be the crystal walls of one's aperture. That may have been true at the mortal level, but at the Immortal level, what limited one's ambition were calamities and tribulations.
He had not, as of yet, managed to make anything that used Rank 6 Ambition Gu. But the idea had given him the inspiration for this killer move using mortal Ambition Gu.
Rank 5 mortal killer move - Ambition Triumphing Over Heaven!
Several of the Rank 5 Ambition Gu were consumed as this killer move launched towards the developing earthly calamity. One aspect of the Human Path was how it could counter the Heaven Path, as well as its other aspects, and this included Heaven's Will. Calamities and tribulations were simply a product of Heaven's Will, and this killer move did not deal with any specific calamity or tribulation in particular, but it dealt directly with the Heaven's Will creating them.
Granted, Fang Yuan had been unable to test it as he didn't have a target to use against and could only work on it theoretically. But it looks like his calculations had been successful.
Fang Yuan's earthly calamity broke apart. The killer move had been quite effective.
For one, it shrank the size of the calamity in question meaning its overall threat had been weakened, and two, it split it into smaller fragments, indicating that not only had the calamity gotten weaker, but Fang Yuan had managed to separate it into sections that were easier to handle piecemeal. The pieces seemed to be having difficulty in merging back together, which was overall good for him. It was easier to handle a few smaller tribulations than a single massive one.
It had also started taking form but turned back into being a smoky formless object once it had been struck by his killer move - Fang Yuan's killer move had also 'stunned' it, meaning that it took longer for the earthly calamity to take form.