We learned about how to cultivate our apertures today in the academy and it was very insightful for me. I had a couple of theories on how it worked before, but now I know exactly how it works.
Some of my ideas had to be thrown away and some were even a lot more true than I expected. I can optimize a few areas and it will be extremely effective. I can also use the gravity-induced natural flow of my primeval essence to nurture the aperture without wasting even a tiny bit of it.
Short version, I can cultivate as well as a 75% talent if I use primeval stones in a pretty risky way and my optimizations are effective. Optimization is truly my ninja way! As it turns out, my ninja way was the correct one.
I tried using passive absorbing and optimal recovery time. For aperture nurturing the optimal was nonexistent. The optimal is making sure you use 1% every 30 seconds to nourish your aperture walls. The passive absorbing was me putting the primeval stone in my mouth and slowly biting pieces off of it and swallowing them. It is risky, as your organs might get damaged because of eating them, but brings good results and my body is tough enough to endure it.
If it work it works! Though my calculations were a bit off. My efficiency was as high as someone with a 70% talent rather than 75%, but it is still better than me being dumb and using my 55% without optimizing. I could cultivate for 2 hours straight before I had to stop and let my aperture recover.
"I should be able to break through in a couple of weeks. For now, I am out of primeval essence and it is time to do something about the new lord in town!" I walked over to my slave, who was swinging Guts with shaky hands. "You have gotten better at this. You truly haven't disappointed your master. Today we are going to investigate the beast King situation in the forest. See if we can hunt it down and find any useful Gu worms. Old man Wang should also be informed of the new thousand beast king's presence!"
My slave nodded his head and we went out. Oh, I forgot to mention this. The reason my initial 75% went down to 70% was because I forgot I have to recover the primeval essence and my recovery can't be optimized, as that would be detrimental to cultivation.
It takes me 1 hour, so I cycle 3 hours and can fully cultivate 3-5 times a day. If I reach 55% in the forest, then my slave can guard me for the 2 hours I will be cultivating. He's strong, he can handle it!
Now, back on track! We need to find the beast king and hunt it down! The main reason we are going after the thousand beast King is it might have a strength type Gu worms. It's bones would also be stronger than my brother's current ones and will be a lot more useful to him.
He has gotten better at using Guts, but he is still a notice and wouldn't even be able to cut down a hundred beast King after fully cultivating with the White Boar Strength Gu.
Still, we can deal with wild beasts just fine. A couple of wolves attacked us on our way to old man Wang's house, but we can quite literally rip wolves in half using our strength. In fact, I am doing that right now! "Rwaaaaarghooull!"
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The wolf screamed in pain as I held its two back paws and pulled. I am good at manipulating my strength, so I actually ripped the wolf into two halves, rather than just tearing off it's hind legs. Some blood splashed on my face, but it's no biggy.
The other 6 wolves just limped away in fear upon seeing this. Can you blame them? My brother literally swung his giant sword and smash a wolf into the ground. I would run in fear if I saw a guy smash someone into meat paste!
I do have a small problem with him doing that, though. He has been using that sword as if it were a bat, which isn't a good thing. It's a sword, if you use it incorrectly, you will only build a shitty foundation and bad mentality. "Brother, that is a sword you are using. Even if it is an inanimate object, don't disrespect it by using it to club your opponents to death. It's job is to cut it's wielder's enemies, not break their limbs or plant them for next year's harvest."
He looked at me and sighed. "I am sorry, but this is too heavy and hard to use. Why did you even give me such a sword? It's more like a slab of iron than a sword." I laughed at the comment. The response was just too perfect! "Chun Jack, let me ask you a question. How strong do you think a thousand beast King is? The answer is: not something a mortal can kil And that is why you need that sword. This sword is big enough to cut through the giant beasts we will be facing in the future. It is the giant sword of a small man, who wishes to cut down the Giants of this world! Tell me, what other sword suits you better than this one?!"
I don't know what I said, but I caught a spark of realization and joy in his eyes. My brother looked at the handle of the giant sword on his back with a deep gaze and said. "You are right! This sword is meant to cut Giants, exactly what a small man like me needs."
"My brother is right. I am a mortal trying to fight against Gu masters. I am defying the logic of this world and trying to reach the top. What can a normal sword do against those Gu masters? This sword is my greatest asset and my destiny! Using any other sword just won't do. Guess I still have a long way to go till I can reach my brother's level of insight."
The thoughts inside my brother's head were completely unknown to me. I couldn't even imagine what he was going through and will probably never understand, but something inside him changed. The next pack of 10 wolves we had to fight, he didn't bash any of them. All I saw were unstable and unrefined cuts on their body parts along with traces of the bruises my fists caused.
Normally it only takes us like 45 minutes to reach Old man Wang's house, but my Guts slowed us down quite a bit. We walked for 1 hour and I was completely maxed out on my primeval essence. Sigh, guess this forest will have to do. I quickly put a primeval stone into my mouth and sat down to cultivate. I warned my brother of this beforehand, so he quickly picked up his sword and got ready to protect me. "Don't let the beasts reach me. My body will not be able to defend itself, so I need to rely on you completely." He nodded his head and I began cultivating.
Time passed slowly for me. I was focused on maintaining my primeval essence flow and condensation, but I could still hear sounds of pain, wild beasts and my brother's screaming. He would probably wake me up if his life was in danger or something, so I cultivated without worry.
The two hours passed and I stopped concentrating on my aperture. I slowly opened my eyes and regained my senses. Primeval stones taste kinda crunchy and sparkly, if you were wondering about that.
I stood up and looked around me. Horror filled me the moment I focused on the sight around me. The corpses of over 30 boars and 50 different wolves laid around us. My brother was covered in bite marks and claw marks. He was barely holding onto his sword as he swung it from his left side to his right and cleaved a wolf jumping at him in half.
The blood from the wolf splattered all over him and I could see his shaking arms. A huge breath of carbon dioxide escaped his mouth as the last wolf's body was cut in half. Looking at the beast corpses closely, I could see one common trend. They were all either cleaved into pieces, or died from cuts near their vital organs. Not a single one had died do to crushed organs or body parts.
My brother stood there, covered in blood and wounds, barely holding onto his sword with a shaky grip and panting like a beast. He looked at me and said "Puff, it's time to continue walking." I felt pride at that moment. Even though he was half dead, he still kept going.
This is the result of our training and hard work! The mentality of a true berserker and an unyielding beast. He truly reminded me of Guts the berserker at that moment.
I went over to him and held him up with his left hand slung over my should and we continued walking towards old man Wang's House, with Guts tightly held in his right hand the entire time.