"I'm back!"
Zhou Ming stood in the house formed by the Mushroom House Gu, looking out the window. He saw a vast sky with high clouds, and green grass stretching to the horizon, a scene of immense and magnificent nature.
He had slept for nearly five hours, and now it was almost noon. The sun hung high, and the weather was gradually warming up.
"Come, the moment to witness a miracle has arrived."
Zhou Ming took out a World Tree leaf from the Flower Bud Gu.
"Let me see what kind of Gu this item, rated as high as eight stars, will be refined into!"
Zhou Ming was filled with anticipation.
The next moment, the World Tree leaf in his hand suddenly vanished.
"Hm?" Zhou Ming was startled.
Then, he felt an anomaly from within his body and quickly inspected his Aperture.
What he saw made Zhou Ming's face drain of color!
Within his Aperture, the True Essence Sea churned incessantly, and the sea level was actually rising continuously!
His Aptitude, which had reached 88% due to the use of Forest Spirit Gu, was rapidly increasing: 89%, 90%, 91%, 92%... 99%!
When Zhou Ming's Aptitude reached 99%, the entire Aperture was almost filled with the True Essence Sea, leaving only a tiny space at the very top. The True Essence was incredibly abundant, and the True Essence Sea gradually returned to calm.
Everything happened too fast, so fast that Zhou Ming didn't even have time to react.
"Is this... exchanging the World Tree leaf for an increase in my Aptitude?" Zhou Ming was first stunned, then filled with an uncontrollable rage.
"The Heavenly Dao can actually directly seize my things and even directly improve my Aptitude?"
"What a joke!"
Zhou Ming gritted his teeth, his face full of anger.
Is an increase in Aptitude a good thing?
Of course, it's a good thing.
But, if the Aptitude increases to 99%, and it's the Heavenly Dao that acted, then there's a big problem!
Gu Master Aptitude is divided into Grade A, Grade B, Grade C, and Grade D—this is common knowledge.
However, only a few Gu Masters know that above Grade A Aptitude, there are even more excellent Aptitudes, ten in total, collectively known as the Ten Extreme Physique!
The origin of humans in the Gu World came from the Human Ancestor, and the Human Ancestor had ten children in his lifetime, each representing a supreme Aptitude.
Even the most excellent Grade A Aptitude, the True Essence in the Aperture can at most reach 99%. But the total True Essence in a Ten Extreme Physique Aperture is 100%.
100% represents Perfection.
A Gu Master with Ten Extreme Physique Aptitude has an extremely fast True Essence recovery rate, almost never worrying about True Essence depletion. Even without Cultivating, their cultivation will automatically increase.
Furthermore, the Ten Extreme Physique has many more miraculous aspects, making it not difficult to crush Gu Masters of the same Rank.
However, the Heavenly Dao maintains balance; too much Perfection will inevitably invite envy from the heavens. The Ten Extreme Physique, being so powerful, is destined to suffer numerous tribulations and is extremely likely to perish before it can fully develop!
The most basic point is that 100% True Essence exerts immense pressure on the Aperture, and an overloaded Aperture is constantly at risk of destruction.
As the Gu Master's cultivation continuously increases, although the Aperture's foundation deepens, the pressure on the Aperture will also become greater and greater.
Until one day, the Aperture can no longer bear this pressure, and with a "boom," it explodes, causing the Gu Master to die and their Dao to vanish along with it.
However, Zhou Ming's current Aptitude is 99%, still Grade A, not the Ten Extreme Physique. Why is his expression still so grim?
This is because there have been many precedents in the Gu World where Gu Masters with 99% Aptitude suddenly advanced their Aptitude during their Cultivation, becoming a Ten Extreme Physique.
If this 99% Aptitude had been gradually increased by Zhou Ming through various means, then he wouldn't be so panicked.
But, this was the Heavenly Dao intervening, forcibly helping him to raise it!
Recalling the "offense" and "defiance" of the Forest Spirit Gu against the Heavenly Dao during the last mission interval, Zhou Ming had to prepare for the worst.
Once he became a Ten Extreme Physique, although it would greatly enhance Zhou Ming's strength, it would also significantly increase his mortality rate, a true coexistence of crisis and opportunity.
"The biggest problem isn't even this!"
Zhou Ming gradually sobered up from his shock and anger, trying to regain his rationality and not be swayed by emotions.
"The biggest problem is, the Heavenly Dao can actually directly change a Gu Master's Aptitude and forcibly seize a Gu Master's resources?"
Looking back at the content of the novel in his previous life, the Heavenly Dao's actions were always about gradually laying out plans, subtly influencing, guiding situations, and overwhelming with general trends.
But never once had it directly acted, snatching a Gu Master's items, changing a Gu Master's Aptitude, cultivation, and other specific things!
"Heavenly Dao! Heavenly Dao!"
Zhou Ming sat on a mushroom chair, hand on his forehead, staring blankly at the sky outside the window, letting out a long sigh.
Regardless of whether this Gu World was the same as the one in the novel he read, and no matter how the Heavenly Dao acted, ultimately, his own strength was insufficient. He was like a chess piece on a board, a catfish on a chopping block, with his life and death entirely out of his own control.
Since he couldn't resist, he could only try to accept it, lie low and build up strength, seize opportunities for profit, and quietly grow until he possessed the power to change everything and control his own destiny.
Before that, all talk of "defying the heavens" or "death before dishonor" was empty.
Zhou Ming was never a sentimental person and quickly adjusted his mindset from his disappointment.
"I didn't expect such a sudden change. All my subsequent plans need to be revised."
After some thought, a rough outline of another future development plan gradually formed in Zhou Ming's mind.
He pushed aside his thoughts and took out the deceiver's mask from the Flower Bud Gu.
The familiar descent of the Heavenly Dao appeared again, and the deceiver's mask in his hand silently transformed into a blurry ball of light.
At the same time, a piece of information entered Zhou Ming's consciousness.
"Deception Gu, Rank Five, can change a Gu Master's appearance for disguise. Looks, physique, and voice can all be strongly disguised."
"Deception Gu, Rank Five, can conceal and disguise a Gu Master's aura."
"Huh?" Zhou Ming was surprised.
Previously, the Heavenly Dao had always been overbearing, directly refining the things he brought back to the Gu World into Gu, and even recently, it didn't even refine Gu, directly snatching the World Tree leaf to boost his Aptitude. Now, it was actually giving him a choice?
What was this, a slap and then a date?
For a moment, Zhou Ming, made suspicious by the Heavenly Dao's capriciousness, somewhat hesitantly chose the second Gu Refinement direction.
What he primarily needed was the ability to conceal his Gu Master Aptitude, so as not to expose his Two-turn Peak cultivation in the Family.
There were Concealment Gu in the Gu World, which also had the effect of concealing one's aura and covering up one's cultivation.
But Concealment Gu was far away in Southern Border, and it only existed in Purple Gloom Mountain. It hadn't even been discovered by the world yet!
Therefore, Zhou Ming could only use this method to create a Gu for himself, to conceal his cultivation and continue to develop steadily within the Family.
In the more than ten years since Zhou Ming's Transmigration, he hadn't accurately figured out the specific era he was in, mainly due to his strength, which prevented him from accessing too much high-level information.
He only knew that he was in the same era as the protagonist of the original plot, but earlier in time, because based on the limited information he knew, he hadn't obtained information about some famous people and major events from the novel.
This indicated that those events hadn't happened yet, and those people hadn't become famous yet.
As for the specific time point Zhou Ming was at, he would only be able to determine it after his strength increased and he gained access to more information.