Mo Bei and Chi Cheng audibly guffawed upon seeing Fang Yuan's performance. It was unbecoming of them, but they had been quite tense when thinking about how Fang Yuan might do.
Instead of shocking everyone- well, he still shocked everyone, but in the opposite way. His performance was little better than Li Mei's.
Fang Zheng was more concealed with his emotions, but visibly relaxed when he saw this.
'Oh no!' Li Mei thought. 'I was right. Fang Yuan spent so much time helping me and other people- that caused his performance to decline. Fang Yuan, if only you weren't such a good person and were a bit more selfish, this wouldn't have happened!'
It was true, Li Mei came to realize, that being too good in this world was a crime in and of itself. Someone like Fang Yuan, who was righteous, would no doubt be schemed against and taken advantage of by unscrupulous characters. Wasn't the tale of the fourth generation clan head a warning about that?
Several of the people around her were giggling and taunting Fang Yuan. The only thing that people wanted to see more than a genius, was to see a genius fail.
The academy elder, however, was not laughing and had a twisted expression on his face. He wanted to yell out, "Fang Yuan, what is wrong with you? I think a blind person could've thrown something better than you did!" However, he did not voice his concerns.
Mo Bei and Chi Cheng were absolutely certain by this point that Fang Yuan was out of the race entirely.
And then, Fang Yuan let out two moonblades in two successive swift movements.
They arced through the air, and decapitate the grass puppet.
The laughter stopped.
Fang Yuan had expertly sent the moonblades one after the other so that one of them would trail behind the other's path, which is why he was able to behead the grass puppet while someone like Fang Zhen could only make a deep cut. Someone like the academy elder who relied on more concentrated primeval essence could do it without having to rely on such manipulation.
"Ah, looks like I got lucky with those two shots," Fang Yuan said, turning around and rubbing his neck awkwardly.
The silence that followed was broken by someone clapping- it was Li Mei, and after that, a few other students followed. Herd mentality was a thing, after all.
"Very well done, Fang Yuan," the academy elder said after clearing his throat. "Though, all of you should do well to remember than in actual fights, you will not be trying to hit a stationary target, but a moving opponent."
Mission completed!
Aptitude raised by 2% permanently!
Fang Yuan now had a 56% aptitude, meaning that Rank 3 was somewhat just barely in his reach.
The academy elder sighed. Fang Yuan had won another round, which he was not happy about. It might discourage the others, as it was, Fang Yuan had a major leg up thanks to the Liquor Worm.
But, there was little that he could do about it.
That evening, Fang Yuan was given his reward of ten primeval stones for winning the moonblade contest.
The elders gathered were not happy either, but could do little against Fang Yuan's supposedly meteoric rise.
"Alright," the academy elder said. "Now that many of you have learned the basics of refining gu and using gu, the next step will be on using your primeval essence to nurture your aperture. All of you are at Rank 1 Initial Realm right now, and using your primeval essence, you can advance a stage to Rank 1 Middle Realm. The first person to advance to Rank 1 Middle Realm will be rewarded with being able to choose their second gu worm from our storage before the others. On top of that, we will also give this person 30 primeval stones. Three month's from now, we will choose a class president and two vice-presidents based on everyone's performance."
New Main Mission Unlocked!
Rank 1 Middle Stage
Description: Become the first person to reach Rank 1 Middle Stage.
Reward: Rank 2 One With Scenery Gu (x 1)
Fang Yuan had already started nourishing his aperture and was well on his way to reach Rank 1 Middle Stage already. The increases to his aptitude combined with the Liquor Worm, in addition to a steady supply of primeval stones meant that he was leaving his classmates way behind in the dust.
Even with having to spend some time on doing the daily quests, it was still worth it for the rewards. Not to mention his 500 years of experience meant that he could charge ahead where other people might stumble and could make the optimal use of his resources.
However, even his 500 years of experience failed him here as he didn't know what One With Scenery Gu was.
There were countless number of gu worms- not only could gu worms be found naturally, but they could be advanced in many ways and even reverse-refined to create different gu worms entirely. The clan's signature Rank 1 Moonlight Gu, for example, was obtained by reverse-refinement from a higher ranked gu worm. And then, there were new recipes obtained from such gu which were reverse-refined, leading to dozens if not hundreds of new recipes.
Despite Fang Yuan's extensive battle experience, he only knew of a fraction of the gu in the entire world because there were just so many of them.
Even as he thought of that, the system did not give him an answer to it, so it seemed to assume that giving him that kind of answer was not necessary. As it was, he was already on track to winning the contest.
It was a Rank 2 gu worm, meaning that he would likely not be able to make any use of it until he was at Rank 1 Peak Realm.
New Main Mission Unlocked!
Whatever You Say, Mr. President
Description: Become class president.
Reward: 2 Human Path dao marks for every week that you remain class president.
Fang Yuan's eyes rippled as that notification popped up.
Dao Marks?
Mortal Gu Masters did not know what dao marks were, but Fang Yuan had been an immortal in his past life.
The Dao was everywhere, and the world was riddle with dao marks as an embodiment of the dao.
People could not 'see' dao marks without using special techniques which most of them would not have. But they were present everywhere. Water had Water Path dao marks. Fire had Fire Path dao marks.
All things in this world could be explained in terms of dao marks and their interactions. As an example, when fire and water were mixed, the dao marks would collide and the fire path dao marks would combine with the water path ones to make steam.
Of course, ordinary fire and water only had fractions of a single dao mark. Immortal materials would have a far larger number.
In addition to naturally occurring dao marks, Gu Masters, particularly immortals, relied on engraving dao marks onto their own bodies. By doing so, their strength would increase. Water Path Gu Immortals would have Water Path dao marks, sometimes numbering in the tens if not hundreds of thousands at the higher ranks of Gu Master cultivation. For every ten dao marks one's body had, the power of the corresponding path would increase by 1%. Having one hundred dao marks meant that a corresponding move's power would increase by 10%, and having one thousand would increase it by 100%, meaning it's power would double, and so on and so forth.
As a simpler example, when Fang Yuan used the White Boar Gu he was engraving Strength Path dao marks on his body, which were what increased his strength.
However, having more dao marks was not always a good thing.
That was why Fang Yuan intended to reject the second mission of becoming president.