Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 1032: Trading

What followed was a complicated negotiation that took far too long to complete. In the end though, Sage got what he wanted. It was his intention from the start to share everything about the Blastids, but it was a tricky thing to ensure he could receive all he wanted in return. With a team of negotiators to advise him from the Inner World, he only had to follow their directions and allow them to worry about the delicate back and forth. They took turns pointing out flaws in the other party's offerings and withholding benefits. Then theyd go and make concessions offering this for that.

Sage didnt care about the extra things either side kept trying to use to sweeten the deal, as his real obstacle was getting them to trust him. Only once theyd offered enough extra little treats and incentives did they finally seem to believe in his sincerity. Turns out they were still wary of the Blastids being a trick so the whole deal had to be bundled together as part of another big trade deal.

With that finally finished, Sage brought out the natural treasures, finished goods, manuals, and eggs for their side of the deal while receiving local specialties in return. Then he was escorted into the Die Clans library and given a pair of assistants which he knew were not just there to help, but to watch him carefully. He didnt really care as he wasnt trying to figure out their weaknesses or steal their secret weapons. The Die Clan was so far removed from the Lang Clan that there was little chance theyd ever meet, let alone fight, without specifically intending to. Even if the Lang Clan eventually grew to sell goods to the whole of the Dou Kingdom, they would have to improve and expand exponentially to do business with the whole of the Tianxia Empire. Even at that point theyd only worry about expanding into the neighboring empires. There were a few of them between Tianxia and Xuanyuan, which meant the Die and Lang would have to be doing extremely well before they could compete over this market. If either group ever became that big they would surely be strong enough that his personal intervention wouldnt matter anymore. He was less concerned about them having the exclusive product of the Lang Clan than he was excited to see what direction the Die Clan could take them. He didnt even try to ban them from selling the Blastid raising techniques.

Personally, he was hesitant to do such a thing as he was concerned that someone might build an immense army of mortals and fill the world with rivers of blood. After a certain point, the karma of it all would likely crush the cultivation of those responsible with inner demons, but many tens of thousands could probably die before that happened. This place was just so far away from the Lang Clan that such a problem would likely be dealt with long before it reached that far. It would be surprising if theyd conquer a single kingdom let alone a whole empire. Since there was a connection between the Die Clan and Lang Clan, Sage was willing to let them become a test case.

Would they usher in a whole new paradigm for their part of the world like Gu, or would they accidentally unleash a war that could topple whole kingdoms? They probably wouldnt screw up that badly in the few decades that Sage was set to stay here, but if that happened he still wasnt very concerned since even if he couldnt escape in time he had ways to sabotage the Blastids.

As long as they dont modify them too drastically at least. Why am I setting flags?

Putting aside these silly thoughts, Sage dove into the knowledge in the library. He found confirmation that the Die and Kuo Clans were there at the start of the Xuanyuan Empire and that they worked together to create the very first Gu. They used them to rapidly create a large force to overthrow the previous rulers of the Empire that then became Xuanyuan. The two clans did not become the rulers of the Empire, nor did they even become the royal families of Kingdoms. Instead, they were hidden powers with great influence at the Xuanyuan Capital, even if their home wasnt located there. Combining this with what he knew of Bear Three, the political structure of Xuanyuan seemed quite different from Tianxia. Or, perhaps he was just exposed to the secret higher ups of the Empire here that he never had a clue about back in Tianxia.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

This story also came with another important detail: any Gu Cultivator could reach the sixth rank. It wasnt just a saying as it was for Qi Cultivators. Anyone could stumble into the comprehension of a Law and advance, but there were no guarantees or stable paths, at least not any available to the public. This was not the case for Gu Cultivators. As long as enough Natural Treasures were fed to a Gu, they would eventually attune to a Law and break through. Instead of relying on luck and exceedingly rare comprehension talent, those in the Xuanyuan Empire only had to rely on money. They overthrew the rulers of the previous empire by relying on this ability, using a vast amount of resources to train a huge army in a short amount of time. The richest groups had grown tired of being abused by their rulers and with the invention of Gu they forged a new path.

This reminded Sage of the high tier Demonic Beasts. Once they matured their Ancestral Memories unlocked and gave them access to Laws, ensuring the strength of their species. Unfortunately, that bit of information was never really confirmed. Sage had been able to gain a law from a high tier beast by fusing with it, namely the Genesis Spider, but the same was not true for those who had fused with beast species before they matured and had any intelligence. Theyd so far never been able to find any Ancestral Memories containing laws through their merges with different Demonic Beasts. The vast majority of which consisted of mixing their essence into another egg and then fusing with the newly born hybrid.

This assumption was broken by this trip to the Die Clans library. They had come to a similar conclusion in the past and found that it was only partially true. They theorized there was a higher tier of inheritance than Ancestral Memories which they had been unable to access. There had been only a few successful records of such a thing and happened in similar circumstances as Sage had experienced. A fully mature and law wielding Beast was merged with and only then were the laws inherited. Any beast that had combined with a human would never get access to these racial laws. There were a few theories about the core of Demonic Beasts and their different paths of cultivation, but few were willing to go to such extreme lengths and none who tried succeeded.

Yet, this was one obstacle that the miraculous Gu had conquered. The biggest thing Sage wanted to know was related to this: How did Gu work? It turns out they were based upon two major abilities, upon which the whole Cultivation of an Empire rested. A whole path of cultivation based upon two factors.

First, a worm that could bond with the soul and share cultivation. The worm gathered the energy of the heavens and earth, refined it, then cycled it into the cultivator and then back into its own body. The two of them went through the cultivation process together, slowly getting stronger and stronger. At lower levels a Cultivator could rely on multiple Gu, using them all to strengthen themselves, but at a certain point they had to choose one to make into their Core Gu and integrate it into their body.

That is where the second ability came into play, and was also the reason Gu Cultivation took off. A creature was discovered that when fed enough Natural Treasures would spontaneously form an affinity with Laws. This beast was then combined with the cultivation sharing worm and created the first Gu. The Die Clan had done many tests in this area, creating hybrids of powerful high tier beasts with the precursors to Gu in order to try and copy their Laws, but the ability of the mysterious creature would always win out. The Gu never inherited the Laws of their parent species and still followed the path of the mysterious creature. The laws awakened were related to the Natural Treasures it consumed, not the bloodlines of its parents.

That said, there was still room for improvement. Different lines of Gu started to come into existence as they found that while they couldnt inherit the laws of powerful species, the resulting Gu could still gain different affinities and racial abilities. These affinities and abilities could help them withstand the consumption of more dangerous Natural Treasures or to have an easier time consuming them, which then reduced the cost of awakening a Law.

Great Clans, Sects, and other organizations then formed around those who invented new Gu species and controlled a flow of resources that matched up with them. Instead of a battle over youngsters with talent and comprehension ability, the Xuanyuan Kingdom became more about logistics and efficiency. Those who were better at raising Gu or making money were the ones that rose to the top of the power system.