Reverend Insanity: Bald Senior
Northern Plains
Unnamed mortal village
“Sir, the steps recollection gu seems to lead to here”
“Mhm”
I was the leader of this group of four. Our task was to hunt a certain thief who had managed to escape after stealing three precious formation path gu worms from the Mao Clan caravan.
We were ordered to capture if possible, but killing him was also an acceptible outcome.
“To think that a mere rank 2 Gu master dares to steal from the Mao clan, he must be seeking death!”
Said one of my younger rank 2 subordinates
“Don’t be so quick to underestimate him.”
I said in a much calmer tone
“He is Lu Tu and he had a fortuitous encounter, managing to find the true inheritance of a rank three Gu master”
“Ha! With the captain here what do we have to fear from him?”
Although it was obvious that he was trying to curry more favor from me I allowed myself to put on a slight smile to appease him. Though he isn’t wrong to think that.
We are a party of 4 with me a rank 3 Gu master and three rank 2 Gu masters, we should be able to take care of any tricks a normal rank two could pull.
But, if one thing my thirty years of life have taught me is to never underestimate your opponent no matter how weak he may seem.
It seems that the young master leading the caravan also understands this principle because he sent the four of us instead of the two rank 2 Gu masters that were recommended.
Also, this isn’t just any Gu master, this Lu Tu has inherited a formation path inheritance. This means that with sufficient preparation he could fight on par with a rank 3 Gu masters.
Knowing this the young master gave us two gu worms to counter him, the steps recollection gu capable of tracking his footprints wherever they go, and the formation shock gu which is enough to disrupt and cause backlash for his formations.
“Okay let's move out”
“Yes, Captain”
As we approached the village we saw a few mortals dressed in what I would only consider rags coming to greet us. They all kowtowed and the one I assumed to be the village chief bowed a little closer while proclaiming his greetings
“We greet you Gu masters and welcome you to our Carn village”
[AN: props to those who get this reference]
“Hmph, have you seen this Gu master come through this village?”
My deputy said as he held up a drawing of Lu Tu. It was a picture of an older Gu master who looked to be in his mid-fifties.
Seeing that he was only a rank 2 after all this time spoke of his lack of innate talent. He had a bald head and his eyes were a bit sunken.
His build was also nothing to look at as he was very skinny almost malnourished. But, most couldn’t tell because of the oversized dark cloak he usually had on.
Besides the fear already prevalent on this village head's face a flash of recognition also flared as he gazed at the paper. It seemed that my deputy caught it also as he raised his voice a bit.
“ So you have seen it! Tell us where he is hiding and don’t dare miss lead us if you value your life”
“I wouldn’t dare, I wouldn’t dare!”
“Well get on with it then!”
Not daring to dally further the village head continued.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“Ah yes, we did see that man and he told us that if anyone came looking for him to send them to the cave behind the village”
I looked at the holder of the steps recollection guide and he nodded then said
“It seems that his steps are heading into the village they do go deeper into the mountains”
I nodded in acknowledgment and after prompting the villagers to stay out of the way of our search we were off again toward the mountain.
But as we were walking I made sure my subordinates were aware of our current situation.
“It seems that he most likely built his formation in that cave using the gu worms he stole so he must have a gu worm that allows him to refine gu at an accelerated pace. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have the time since we’ve been after him for two days now leaving him little time to rest”
Flickers of greed passed through all my men as I said that and I can hardly blame them for it. Being able to refine gu that fast would certainly help them in their cultivation journey.
“As for the battle formation well go with the basic one we practiced but be mindful of the ground and walls for traps he has a formation path inheritance after all.”
“Yes, Captain”
As I nodded we moved out toward the cave with me at the front and my subordinates to my left and right respectively leaving the last man to the rear because of his role as the healer of the party.
The cave wasn’t deep nor dark and we quickly ran into a figure sitting cross-legged on a stone protruding in the middle of the cave.
It was unmistakably Lu Tu though he looked a bit different from two days ago. His eyes were more sunken a side effect of the long chase I presumed and he was missing his characteristic black cloak but those details didn’t matter now.
Although not personally knowing him Lu Tu could be considered an amiable senior with few flaws in his character. Who knew he hid such a demonic heart?
Although he seemed calm I could catch the hint of anticipation at what was probably the formation around us though I have to give him props because even now I couldn’t tell where he hid the formation’s gu worms.
“Lu Tu hand back the gu you stole from the caravan and peacefully follow us back to accept your punishment”
--
MC POV
As I watched these soon-to-be dead men come into what would be their soon-to-be grave site I reflected on my life so far.
I was a normal high school student living in America when one day I fell asleep in class and was transmigrated into my favorite novel Reverend Insanity in the body of a fifty-seven-year-old geezer during the late antiquity era
At first, I was confused then the memories came flooding into my mind as to who exactly I was transmigrated into. His name was Lu Tu and he was born in a mortal village in the northern plains.
For 30 years of his life, he lived the hard life of an ordinary mortal farmer when at the age of 32 while plowing the field alone on an especially sunny day he found a strange blue rock that upon his investigation turned out to be a gu master's inheritance.
After touching the rock his aperture was open and although half the gu in the inheritance had either died or come close the information gu worm had survived.
After his aperture was awakened all the gu worms that were still alive flew into it almost like they were programmed to do that to the inheritor.
Thrilled he quickly finished his work and went back home that evening with a bounce to his steps.
Mortals in the northern plains mostly lived in tents because the harsh winters forced them to travel in groups he was no exception to this rule.
He was also unmarried with few social connections except for his occasional coworkers, so he could reach his tent without incident. He enthusiastically looked at what he had inherited.
Although a mortal from time to time gu masters would come to the village to rest and resupply themselves and over the years he learned a bit about cultivation including the need to refine gu worms before using them.
Refinement came easy almost as if the gu wanted to be refined. After he refined them all he decided to activate the only one he knew the name and function.
It was an information well gu specialized in storing information for gu masters to pass on. Inside he found out about the gu inheritance and that it originated from a peak rank 3 gu master who specialized in formations.
The inheritance was supposed to have a total of 12 gu worms but as mentioned before ¼ died and ¼ were malnourished. Leaving only 6 usable gu worms.
After going through the inheritance’s information he learned about the goings of the gu master world. Because of the method used to open my aperture and my advanced age, he had only a 25% D grade aptitude.
Worthless even among D grades but, he did not lament because of this and tried to cultivate diligently. Of his gu worms, there was a rank 1 stone skin gu which probably regressed due to starvation.
But that didn’t bother him much seeing he was only rank one. Next gu was a bit more precious tiger strength gu though it was rank 2 and would need days for him to activate with his pitiful primeval essence.
Next was next gu was even more impressive than being the rank 1 nourished belly gu which can be used to fill the stomachs of gu worms allowing them to not need feeding.
Next was the rank 1 formation core gu which is used to create the core of formations.
He also had the rank 2 formation cloak gu which can used to hide formations. The last of his working gu worms was formation barrier gu that can make barriers in formations.
Although he tried to feed the other damaged gu worms because of his inexperience they all died except one quick refinement gu.
But that didn’t deter him from cultivating his best abilities. After a few months, he was able to obtain tiger strength allowing him entry into the passing Mao clan caravan where he would spend another 20 years traveling the northern plains as part of the caravan.
Although he worked hard he realized that to become powerful he would have to start taking drastic measures and after planning for a few months he managed to steal three gu from the caravan.
But when he was making his escape he was wounded on his left shoulder by a water drill gu and was only able to make it to this village before succumbing to his injuries and passing.
That's when I awoke and after the brief panic and confusion that plagues all transmigrators, I slowly calmed down only to panic again realizing my situation. But that's when I noticed it… it's more like them, they were dao marks and they were everywhere.
I couldn’t literally “see” them but I had an instinctual knowledge of their presence and how they shaped the matter around me.
Stuck in this daze for what felt like hours I snapped back when I felt a sudden pain on my left shoulder looking down I realized that neat white bandage was oozing a little blood from my squirming.
Without realizing it I tried to touch them but my hands passed right through them or simply felt earth and wind. Of course, I couldn’t touch them I was in the gu world after all I need gu worms to interact with dao marks.
And upon that thought myriad gu worms from this body’s memories came to my mind as potential solutions to my current problem.
The blueprints of dozens of killer moves came to mind after a bit of pondering on how to touch or influence Dao Marks to do what I want.
After I was able to pull myself out of that state I could finally somewhat understand what happened.
“Was that what it feels like to have attainment levels?”
It felt like my mind was exploding with creativity in that state and it wasn’t just one path of gu worms that came to mind multiple earth, fire, and even rule path gu worms came to mind and if it wasn’t for my lack of knowledge on most of the gu in the world I probably would have been able to come up with better methods to influence dao marks.
Soon though my shoulder pain rang again, I forgot about it for an instant then I also remembered about the gu masters hunting me down for this body’s earlier thievery.
It seemed through a few threats the real Lu Tu managed to convince the villagers to give him medical aid, a shame it was too late though without his death I would probably still have to deal with Mr Parker in chemistry class.
[AN: Yes, this is a Spiderman reference, and yes, I’ll be doing more references later on (:< ]
But since I’m here might as well fulfill his wishes also. Knowing this world his soul is probably in the belly of a spectral soul seeing as I’m in the late antiquity era.
Saying a silent thanks to whatever deity allowed me to reincarnate I start planning what to do in the foreseeable future.
[AN: yer welcm]