As Wuxian was enjoying the feeling of learning a new mystic art, Big North appeared beside him, a frown etched into his frigid face. He watched on silently as Wuxian familiarised himself with the Natural Spirit Blood technique.

After some time passed, Wuxian's eyes opened. Seeing Big North, his eyes widened in slight surprise.

"Greetings, senior North."

"Hello, junior. How's your practice going?" He asked.

"Quite well," Wuxian responded, feeling happy with his progress, "though I have not accomplished much in the grand scheme of things, I have taken the first step of my journey of a thousand miles."

Big North nodded, a faint smile on his lips, though he still looked a little aloof despite it. He squinted his eyes and stared at Wuxian's abdomen briefly. A second later, he retracted his gaze.

"Mn, Natural Spirit Blood is a good starting technique with lots of benefits outside of its active duration. I suppose you're looking to learn the 'Zhurong's Breath' technique next, before moving on to 'Turning Stone'?"

"Correct, I then plan to learn the two generic techniques after refining the metal and water major meridians. After that, on the second run of the five phases cycle, I will learn the remaining techniques after refining the remaining major meridians." Wuxian explained.

"You've picked a good order of meridians to go through, without my help too. Well done." Big North complimented stoically.

His body hovered in the air, his untied hair bobbing up and down as he moved.

"I've been thinking about our previous discussion. It is already too late to leave and escape from the city. It would be better for you to remain but avoid going out and putting yourself in a vulnerable position."

Intrigued, Wuxian couldn't help but question Big North's reasoning.

"But you said that the threat of gu in this city is precisely why I should leave. With my weakness, staying within the city makes me a sitting duck."

"Indeed, but I misspoke. With the way the Nightwatchers are treating you, it is obvious they do not want you as an enemy, though they do not trust you as a whole yet. Let's say you leave for maybe a week or two but suddenly have a change of heart and return. Do you think they'd kill you on the spot or bar you from entering the city? Or would they let you back inside, but under surveillance?"

Wuxian shook his head. Though he did not have much of a grasp on chief Li's thinking, from the man's behaviour, he seemed to be taking somewhat of a 'wait and see' approach, evidenced by the monitoring and the act of keeping Wuxian close to the cadres.

"Then what if you were secretly parasitized by a gu?"

A look of understanding dawned on Wuxian's face and he involuntarily shuddered.

"The gu master would not only have a mole close to the Nightwatch's gold badge cadres, he'd presumably gain access to all of my techniques and knowledge too. Everything about master's inheritance would be lost and my future would be over before it even began."

Big North chuckled icily.

"Not quite. Mortal gu are not so powerful. From my understanding, only immortal gu masters are able to breed and control mind-reading gu and even then, it's extremely rare and requires the target to be fully incapacitated. No, a mortal gu that's parasitized you can only hear what you hear and see what you see. It cannot access your inner network."

Wuxian shrugged in response.

"Still, the gu master would be able to learn a lot. I am likely not the final target, only a stepping-stone so to speak."

"Correct. Now, let's bring this discussion back a little- allow me to explain how some parasitic gu work."

Wuxian nodded, seating himself comfortably and preparing for the lecture. Clearing his throat, Big North began.

"Of the many types of gu, parasitic gu are special in that after they've obtained their first host, they can no longer live for long without one. For most of them, they're implanted in the target as eggs or larvae. Over time, they begin the process of taking over as they mature. For the majority of these kinds of gu, leaving their host voluntarily will cause the host's death."

"However, for cultivators and some martial practitioners, this process is survivable, though it leaves behind long-lasting wounds. So, for the already heavily injured white robed man that you fought, it is possible that the blood-loss combined with the gu's departure could have caused his death."

"Now, a gu never moves without the command of its master unless under very special circumstances. From its host's movements, we can ascertain some of its master's motives. Let's think about the brown fly gu for a moment. It was using its host to stalk you.

Why would it do that?

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

There are a few potential motives and it is also possible that none of them are mutually exclusive and that all are true.

The first is that your visit to the prefecture office drew the attention of the gu master. Perhaps they're scouting out the city's defences and personnel. Maybe they're plotting something in the dark and cannot stand for any variables. Your not-so secretive visit to chief Li might have made the gu master assume that you were a new enemy, someone that might get in their way.

Finding out that you'd joined the Nightwatchers, it is likely they'd move to wipe you out before you have a chance to become a thorn in their side. It is also likely that they merely wanted to monitor you and find out whether you were already a threat or not.

The second draws on from this. As someone who's working alongside a gold badge Nightwatcher, Wan Qiushou, it can be seen that you were not of little importance. Although, it had to be noted that Wan Qiushou was monitoring you as well, it is possible that the white robed man and the gu master assumed that he was guarding you from the shadows instead.

Thirdly, what would the gu master do upon falling to the conclusion that you were a higher up Nightwatcher returning from elsewhere, or perhaps some sort of diplomatic envoy that needed protecting?

They could take the passive approach and allow you to go about your business, merely making leeway for any complications you might cause. As previously mentioned, they could instead decide to eliminate you completely- this is the middle-ground option. Most extremely, they could decide to parasitize you and hit the jackpot in terms of information."

Wuxian found Big North's explanation to be enlightening, nodding along as the man spoke.

"And here's another thing to consider. Gu masters sometimes parasitize their own people- not only enemies. In this case, do you think that the white robed man was in cahoots with the gu master who'd parasitized him?"

Wuxian cupped his face in his hands, slowly thinking it over.

'Senior North said that there were three main ways to react to my appearance in the city. The first would be pure moderation, merely observing and making changes when necessary. The second would be the middle-ground, killing me to make sure potential changes I cause are minimised. The third would be the extreme-greed strategy, possessing me and finding out what I know and then using me further to gather information from within.

Assuming the white robed man was fully loyal to the gu master's cause, he would have acted out to fulfil the gu master's goal even after the brown fly gu left his body. We know for certain that the gu master did not intend to take the approach of moderation, since he ordered the white robed man to engage in battle. If they were being moderate, the white robed man would have immediately escaped from Wan Qiushou- it's not like Qiushou would have been able to catch up anyway.

If the gu master wanted me dead, he would not have commanded the brown fly gu to leave the man's body. Seeing how the white robed man was able to escape the scene, he definitely had the energy to kill me if he wanted to.

So the gu master wanted to parasitize me; to take the greedy approach. If he'd failed, then the contingency plan would have been to kill me instead, ensuring that there are no surviving witnesses. After all, once the Nightwatchers find out that there are gu within the city and that potentially any of their colleagues could be possessed by the enemy, it'll be much harder for the gu master to remain hidden.

Seeing as the white robed man did not do so, it is likely that the two were not on the same side. Perhaps he came from a different faction that merely wanted to monitor my actions and ascertain my position, only to be parasitized by the gu master.

However in the scenario where the white robed man was not willing to risk his life to carry out the gu master's orders, it's also possible that he preferred to save his own skin instead and flee the scene upon seeing the brown fly gu get killed by the talisman-wearing stranger.'

He turned to look at Big North, who had his eyes shut as he meditated in mid-air.

"I'm not certain. I think it's most likely that the two do not belong to the same faction since the white robed man fled the scene rather than killing me. But the biggest variable is the talisman-wearing stranger- perhaps his presence deterred the white robed man from doing so." He said slowly, simplifying his thought process.

Big North replied, but his eyes stayed shut.

"Good analysis. I have definitive a understanding of this though. Previously, I asked the talisman-wearing stranger to kill the white-robed man to reduce the number of threats towards you, but he did not. He shook his head. Thinking back to it now, I feel that he was indicating that the white-robed man and the gu master were not in leagues. The talisman-wearing stranger was there only to thwart the gu master's plans. Allowing the white-robed man to escape alive and inform his respective faction about the parasitism was likely his plan."

Wuxian cupped his hands.

"I have been enlightened."

Big North waved his hand in response.

"These things come with time. Soon, you'll find that a mortal adept at plots and schemes can fell an immortal."

With this revelation in mind, strangely, Wuxian felt encouraged rather than discouraged. Though the net of schemes that encapsulated the city of Cang'An, this small glimpse into the web made him feel like the dark and haunting woods had been lit up with a small candle.

Though it could not truly penetrate the darkness, it allowed him a moment of brief respite to find his courage and prepare himself for the horrors to come.

So he channelled this newfound energy into cultivation. He had previously refined the Triple Burner and the pericardium, which were neutral and polarity-free. Then, he'd refined the liver meridian, which was of the wood element and yin polarity.

So now the best option was to refine the small intestine meridian, which was of the fire element and yang polarity. The most exciting thing to Wuxian was that after refining it, he'd be able to learn the Zhurong's Breath mystic art.

Unlike the Natural Spirit Blood technique, Zhurong's Breath did not require the injection of qi energy into the physical body. Instead, it used the protection granted by the Triple Burner and pericardium to turn refined qi into volatile and unstable qi using the small intestine major meridian.

Naturally, it required the use of fire qi. Though, it was likely that there existed similar techniques for other elements too.

Then, it would be projected out of the body through the nose or mouth as a plume of fire. Undoubtedly, not only was it a strong offensive ranged-technique, it was also very cool.

'After refining the small intestine meridian and learning Zhurong's Breath, I'll be half a step towards becoming a hidden dragon.' He mused, chuckling to himself.

A minute spent was a minute wasted. Without any further ado, he dragged his attention back to his inner network, beginning the process of balanced refinement once again.

However, unlike when he refined his previous meridians- not stopping until completion or to eat, this time, he had to make sure to stop twice a day. This was so that he could circulate the Natural Spirit Blood technique and condition his body to the poisonous wood qi.

Only then would he be able to progress to the next stage.