A black haired, middle aged man has burst through the ceiling. He is holding a severely burnt, old man by the scruff of his robes. The black haired man's brown robes are unremarkable, but the aura he has is not.
This man is, without a shadow of a doubt, a gu immortal. He could kill the Gu Yue ancestor, me and all of the clans on Qing Mao mountain without even breaking a sweat.
His arrival has made the fight between me and the ancestor completely pointless, all that's for the two of us now is to try and survive. "That face of you-"
He punches the old man in the ribs hard enough to make him vomit. "Silence dog! You there-" He points at my clan's ancestor. "-You have ten breaths to tell me where the Blood Sea Ancestor's inheritance is!"
My ancestor immediately prostrates himself, shouting as hard as his dead lungs allow him. "I am not aware of an-"
There is no warning, no sign. One moment the gu immortal is just floating there, the other moment fire engulfs the entire cave.
The armor given to me by Rank 5 Heavenly Moon Armor Gu is broken almost immediately. I reactivate it fast enough to avoid death, but it breaks almost immediately again.
I fall down on my hands and knees as I feel my flesh get singed, continuously activating the Heavenly Moon Armor only for it to break again and again and again.
The effect of Blood Frenzy Gu allows me to activate it without consuming any of my primeval essence, but that doesn't mean that the gu worm can survive being used over and over again like this.
As a drop of my own melted fat lands on the floor I realise that I might not survive that long either. Teleporting away would not help, this gu immortal almost certainly has a method to find me if I were to vanish without a trace.
It's on the thirty sixth use of my Heavenly Moon Armor Gu that the flames stop. I glance towards where the Gu Yu Ancestor was, only to find his now smoking body there.
There's no way for me to tell if he's truly dead or not, I need t-
"You've survived? Interesting."
I catch a burst of flames from the corner of my right eye, before the gu immortal's speaks again, this time his voice is much closer. "You have ten breaths, where is the inheritance?"
I don't know where exactly the inheritance is, but telling him that would lead him to kill me.
My luck might help, it might make his killer move backfire. It might make him reconsider. But I don't want to take that risk, I have the gut feeling that telling him that would lead to my death as well.
I blurt out the first place that comes to mind. "At the bottom of the blood pool!"
No fire comes to burn me, instead the man remains silent for a few seconds, before snorting. "I give you permission to rise, mortal."
I slowly stand up, a few more drops of my fat land on the ground as I do. The gu immortal stands right in front of me, still holding that old man.
The gu immortal gives me an appraising look. "That zombie surviving wasn't unexpected, but for a mere rank three gu mortal to do so?"
He points his hand at the pool of blood, which immediately starts to violently bubble and steam. I watch as it quickly boils away, leaving nothing but the stone that the pool was carved from.
The gu immortal throws the old man away as if he was a dirty rag. He hits his head into the ground of the cave, cracking his skull and exposing his brain.
He slams into the ground hard enough to bounce slightly, when he hits the ground the second time his head slams into the floor once again, spreading his brain all over.
A burst of flame briefly erupts on my clan's ancestor, which makes his not so dead corpse immediately stand up. "As for you, the next time you think yourself able to fool me I will inflict upon you a fate worse than death. Jump into the pit."
Neither of us dare to disobey. We jump into the now bloodless, still steaming pool without hesitation.
The bottom of the pool is made of the same rock as the cave, it's when my feet touch the ground and I can take a better look around that I find a rocky gate on the side of the walls.
It wouldn't be visible from up top, the pool is too deep for that to be possible, but someone diving could have easily found it.
The Gu Yue Ancestor is the second to land, with the immortal simply floating down afterwards. He points at the gate. "Open it."
My ancestor immediately rushes to the door, before slowly and carefully opening it. "Now go inside, stay there for five breaths time and then come back."
The Gu Yue Ancestor immediately follows the order. I glance at the gu immortal, whose back is towards me, before looking at the gate.
There's nothing of note visible from where we are, just another rocky cave.
He is wary of the dangers of the inheritance, possibly even more than the ancestor or I would be.
There are many differences between the inheritances of those belonging to the righteous path cultivator and those of the demonic path, the biggest of which is danger.
A righteous path inheritance would test the would-be inheritor, to see whether they are righteous, virtuous and therefore worthy of the inheritance.
A demonic path inheritance would instead test the would-be inheritor to see whether they are willful, determined and callous enough to be worthy of the inheritance.
The most danger a righteous path inheritance might pose is a waste of time, perhaps bodily harm as well. A demonic path inheritance will almost certainly lead to the death, if not worse, of anyone who fails.
Blood Sea Ancestor was a rank 7 gu immortal, one exceptionally talented and strong for his rank, A true inheritance from him would without doubt hold enough dangers to kill even a rank 6 gu immortal.
Perhaps even especially for a gu immortal. I avoid glancing at said gu immortal.
Dao marks conflict with one another, someone who has already ascended into being a gu immortal will already have a small amount of dao marks from their ascension, the further they progress the more dao marks they will already have.
If the inheritance is of a different path, let's say blood path, compared to the gu immortal, who might, coincidentally, be a fire path cultivator, then the inheritance would pose significant danger to them.
Gu Yue clan's ancestor comes back, his zombified face is too burnt for me to recognize anything of it. I give my melted hand a quick glance.
I wonder what my face looks like right now?
The immortal motions for me to follow as he heads towards the gate. Inside we find a cavern almost identical to the one we were already in.
There's a blood pool in the middle, just as wide as the one we were in, and the wall to our left has been smoothed and written on.
'Refine rank five blood skull gu, sacrifice it to the pool to progress.'
Sacrifice to the pool?
I look back towards the pool of blood, this time trying to discern whether there is anything of note. For the first second I notice nothing, on the second I catch the tail of a serpent.
That brief glance was not enough for me to discern whether that's supposed to be a gu worm or a beast.
The immortal stares thoughtfully at the written wall. "No recipe is mentioned, which means one of the two of you must know the recipe."
Gu Yue clan's ancestor and I glance at each other. We have fought, but calling the other mortal enemies would be an exaggeration.
From the way he's looking at me he doesn't have a rank 5 blood skull gu and he's either not confident on refining one or not aware of how to do so.
I take out my own Blood Skull Gu and offer it to the immortal. "This one found this gu worm in a false inheritance of the Blood Sea Immortal."
Gu Yue village is not far from us, refining one would make this immortal attack the village.
Sheng Cui and Wang Luli are still there, if the village was attacked by him for it they would almost certainly die. I am not too attached to Luli, and I doubt she is particularly in love with her family's killer. Sheng Cui is another matter though.
If neither me or the ancestor give the gu worm or its recipe to the gu immortal then we are dead. If the immortal has the gu worm then I am dad, and if he has the recipe then the village gets attacked.
This is the only choice I have right now.
The gu immortal gives the gu worm a greedy look, before immediately taking it from my hands.
Gu worms that can raise aptitude are rare, ones that are as effective and reusable as the blood skull gu are even rarer. A gu worm like the Blood Skull Gu would be desirable even for a gu immortal.
Gu Yue clan's ancestor stares at me with what I assume is astonishment and horror, his face is too burnt for me to tell for sure. From his perspective some random rank 3 gu master just pulled something that even a gu immortal would salivate over out of his ass.
The Gu immortal walks over to the pool, before dropping the rank 5 Blood Skull Gu into it. Before it can even enter the blood pool a red eel snaps out and bites it, before going back down into the pool.
That was a gu worm, a rank 2 blood eel gu worm to be more precise. Nothing happens for the first couple of seconds, until a pillar rises from the blood pool.
It stops just high enough to be out of the pool, but low enough for small waves of blood to wash over it. On top of the pillar there's an altar with a stone knife.
The altar has some writing on its lower part.
'Offer your blood to the pool, Those worthy will proceed. Those unworthy will die.'
The gu immortal stays silent and still, seemingly thinking.
I glance at our clan's ancestor, who does not seem to give anything away. Having your face zombified, then melted and burnt away gives one a hell of a poker face.
His body language tells me that he's become somewhat more confident, which is worrying.
Worthy can mean a lot of things, the worst of which would be if the inheritor was predetermined.
If this inheritance was left for a specific individual, either as part of a larger inheritance or some form of scheme then the gu immortal is screwed.
I am in the body of the protagonist, so theoretically I should have some kind of edge in a situation like this. Perhaps I can trick the ancestor, he's gotten somewhat more confident since reading that inscription.
The gu immortal turns towards me. "You, go there an-""Illustrious immortal, please allow this one to take the test!"
The two of us turn towards the ancestor, who has bowed and cupped his fists. I can tell that the immortal is barely holding back from killing the two of us, his facial expression tells that much.
Without the two of us he cannot proceed any further though, and his greed seems to be greater than his anger for now. His response shows his barely held back rage. "If you dare to interrupt me again I will personally burn you alive from the inside out, slowly, while forcing you to watch as I burn away every single thing you ever cared for or held dear."
Neither the ancestor nor I dare to give a response. The gu immortal spits on the ancestor. "Go."
The spit sizzles on the ancestor's skin as he rises from his bow. He walks towards the altar, jumps over the pool and then takes the knife in one hand, before cutting his other hand to spill his blood.
It takes a few seconds for his blood to gather and drip on the altar. The ancestor and I both stare at him, waiting for something to happen.
Nothing does, at first.
A second passes, then another, and another, before blood flows out of the ancestor's mouth.
He stays still as blood pours out of his closed lips, before suddenly dropping dead like a puppet with its string cut.
The gu immortal snorts. "Your turn now."
I move towards the altar, as I pass by the gu immortal a thought passes through my head.
I have a few gu worms that might be able to deal with him. I could try taking him with me into the dream realm and teleport away, leaving him there. I could try using the aging gu on him, making him die of old age.
He would almost certainly kill me the second I activate any gu worm. I might be able to leave him in the dream realm, but I would die in the process. If I leave he'll chase me, probably turn down the whole mountain afterwards as well.
I glance at the dead body of the ancestor as I land next to the altar, he is almost certainly dead at this point. before taking the knife in my hand, giving it a thoughtful look, before stabbing my other hand. Blood immediately flows out of the wound and onto the altar.
My breath is held as I wait to either die or progress. Nothing happens at first, until a stream of information enters my mind.
Recipes of blood path gu worms, ranging from rank one to rank eight. Insights regarding recipes, alternative uses for gu worms, killer moves and more all are pushed directly into my mind. By the time I process everything I realise that something has appeared in the cavern, a gu worm.
I raise my head and stare at the rank 7 Blood Skull Gu above myself. A glance behind myself reveals the gu immortal to be staring at it greedily.
He turns his gaze towards me, before waving his hand. Nothing happens.
He stares at me, puzzled. If he was a mortal gu master I could feel him activating gu and killer moves, but as a gu immortal he possesses an immortal aperture.
His gu worms and immortal essence are practically in an entirely other dimension. His gaze turns more and more incredulous, before he bursts into flames and appears right in front of me.
He was trying to kill me.
I use one of the rank 2 aging gu on him, he turns from being middle aged to someone approaching old age. Instantly his hair turns gray and his face becomes slightly wrinkled.
He disappears before I can use another, as does the rank 7 Blood Skull Gu that was floating above me.
I feel something grab my leg as I teleport to my apartment in my Inn. A glance downwards reveals what grabbed my leg.
Our clans ancestor has, how the fuck is this guy not dead?
I use plunder gu on him, hoping to get whatever it is that's making him survive, and get a rank 5 Yin Yang Rotation Gu.
Ying Yang Rotation Gu isn't a gu worm by itself, it's a set of two gu worms. A rank 5 Ying Rotation gu worm and a rank 5 Yang Rotation gu worm. Both are single use gu worms, completely healing a gu master when used.
They also change the user's gender, the Yin Rotation gu making a male into a female and the Yang Rotation gu making a female into a male. Used together they can revive a zombie, giving them life once again.
This isn't how he's still alive. I use plunder gu again as the ancestor tries to jump back, only for his leg to split in half from the force used.
That nets me a half dead rank 4 Resist Fire gu. The effect of Blood Frenzy gu is already present in this gu worm, even if it was healthy it doesn't have much time left until it dies from that.
I quickly scan the room while I still have time. Sheng Cui isn't here, but Wang Luli is. She's just noticed the ancestor and I. I shout to her. "Go to the basement, take Sheng Cui with you!"
The basement is dug deep, more than deep enough to protect them from heat. Running away would be pointless, once that gu immortal gets here he's burning down the whole village
Gu Yue clan's ancestor raises himself from the ground, grabbing the frame of a door to prop himself up. "We need to help each other, that's the only way that the two of us can survive."
I turn towards him as Luli rushes out of the room. He continues. "I am at the peak of rank five, If you give me back the Ying Yang Rotation Gu you just stole from me I can save you and kill the gu immortal!"
—
AN:
Good news, this story is replacing joy of living.
I tried to, and failed, to continue writing that one. If it was longer than 2 chapters I might have hesitated to drop it. (I'll have to make a snippet thread for stories that fizzle out at the start.)
I am well aware that this isn't exactly canonical (the inheritance existing, bnb's gender, and some other things), but this, along with some other changes, do have an instory reason for happening. A few more of them are going to become apparent.
When I first started writing this story I wanted to try out a CYOA, see what they're all about and allat. In the end it more stifled some aspects of the story more than anything. I was also still kinda bad (And still am Lmao) at writing, so the beginning kinda suffered.
The future plot I planned would have some things that might give some pushback, that was also somewhat of a downer for me at the time. Now I have grown wiser, and learnt not to care that much anymore.
If you want to ask what those plans are I'll answer, I'm not planning surprise NTR or anything on that level of bullcrap :>.
Yapping session over, hope you enjoyed the chapter [plain]:)[/plain]. (If you notice any mistakes please let me know, I'm sure I have a few.)