Enemies Chapter 10: This was an Unconcealed Scheme

Chapter Ten: This was an Unconcealed Scheme

Translated by Jouissance of Exiled Rebels Scanlations 

Editor: Addis

 

The grand elder’s eyes widened.

Gu Yu didn’t understand? Of course, he didn’t!

No one in the Gu Family had ever taught him anything about cultivation. None of them even treated him as human. How could Gu Yu know?

Earth spiritual root, this was an Earth spiritual root! Though it couldn’t compare to a Heaven spiritual root, but Foundation Establishment would be effortless, and maybe he would even reach Golden Core… or even Nascent Soul stage. Maybe, the Gu Family could have returned to ChuTian City.

What would this tiny, insignificant South City, or the City Master of South City matter then?

Yet… they had destroyed this. Everything had been destroyed by the very person they had viewed as and treated as their only hope!

The grand elder opened his mouth but was unable to say anything. How could he? Gu Yu was a prodigious talent. The very thought made him feel like his heart was being torn to pieces, it hurt down to his very soul.

He had thought he made the choice that was best for the Gu Family. He had thought the Gu Family could reach greater heights if it were left to that man… but, in reality, he was the one who was responsible for their decline!

He didn’t dare think back to what had happened in the past, all the things they had done to Gu Yu as well as his own lack of concern.

“Grand Elder, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you saying anything?” The embarrassment on Gu Yu’s face deepened; he looked like a shy and curious child, hoping to be taught, yet pushing the Grand Elder to the brink.

As a cultivator, he had been backed up into a corner… In the end, he was forced to explain it personally, “You’re… great… a prodigy beloved by the heavens.” After he spoke, the Gu Family Grand Elder seemed to have aged ten years, an air of defeat and despair surrounding him. His usual lofty arrogance was nowhere to be seen.

The other members of the Gu Family watched but were unable to say or do anything to interrupt. Gu Yu’s talent far exceeded what they thought possible. In this cultivation world where talent was everything, Gu Yu would reach heights they couldn’t even dream of.

The Gu Family Head’s heart thudded in his chest. Every thud was laced with fear and shock, every thud was a nightmare. He could feel cold sweat on his back… Gu Yu, there was no way Gu Yu would let him off lightly. Gu Yu would get him back tenfold for everything he had done to him. He might as well… might as well kill the other here and now!

“Family Head.” Gu Yu suddenly spoke up, small and soft and delicate-looking, yet giving the family head a fright. “Thank you for taking such good care of me all these years.” Gu Yu raised his head, giving a most sincere smile, “This nephew will never forget what you’ve done for me.”

These sincere and grateful words fell onto the Family Head’s ears like a death warrant. Even if Gu Yu didn’t kill him now, he definitely would come back for his life. Even though Gu Yu hadn’t even started cultivating yet, with his talent, it would only be a matter of time before he overtook the Family Head’s thirty-six years of accumulated effort, and there was nothing he could do about that!

He would be forced to leave the Gu Family and run for his life!

Gu Yu might even become his inner demon, forcing him to live in the fear of Gu Yu growing stronger and stronger as his remaining time to live dwindled, causing his cultivation to stagnate and become helpless against Gu Yu, unable to even flee!

He had to kill him now!

The Family Head plastered a kind, gentle smile onto his face, looking at Gu Yu like he was a beloved grandchild, and reached out to pat his head…

The Family Head didn’t gather any spiritual energy in his hand, looking ever so harmless. So much so that the youths from the Gu Family that had tagged along thought that the Family Head really was changing his attitude. His eyes were filled with gentle care and admiration… wanting to gain Gu Yu’s approval.

Cu WuQing naturally knew what the Family Head wanted to do. He didn’t move, allowing the Family Head’s hand to approach Gu Yu’s head. Gu Yu knew with even more certainty what he was going to try.

As expected, when the Family Head’s fingertips were mere inches away, the injured, fallen Grand Elder leaped up and sent a flash of some spell straight through the Family Head’s hand.

In that moment, fresh blood splattered onto Gu Yu’s face.

“Gu ChangLin, you dare!” There was a gust of wind and the Grand Elder appeared in front of Gu Yu. His fingers brushed his storage bag and a whip shaped artefact appeared. “Bind him!”

The whip wound itself tightly around the Gu Family Head, imprisoning him.

“Gu Yu, we were fools. All the blame is ours,” the Grand Elder announced, “We don’t ask for forgiveness, but please, we beg you to consider the Gu Family and everything your father has done for the family! We beg you to consider the Gu Family main branch blood that runs through your veins; the ancestral tablets of our ancestors are all watching! Reviving the Gu family and returning it to its former glory is your dream and the dream of all your ancestors! You can take revenge; I allow you to take revenge! You can do with Gu ChangLin whatever you desire. As for the other family members, I implore you to allow them to keep their lives. Anything else, and I shall turn a blind eye to it.

“Right now, I’m shedding my pride, my dignity of being the Grand Elder of the Gu Family to implore you, beg you to be the Head of the Gu Family.” The Gu Family’s Grand Elder gazed at Gu Yu and bowed his body. “Though the current Gu Family is weak, we’re willing to use all that we have to support your cultivation. I, and the rest of your family seniors, are willing to drag our old bones out there and fight tooth and nail for resources for you to use. Gu Yu, dear Gu Yu, you’re a member of the main branch of the Gu Family. How can you lower yourself to become someone else’s servant?

“How can you forget the glory days of your ancestors? With your talent, even the greatest clans of the realm would give you their respect and allow you to become their inner disciples instantly. You don’t need to rely on any outsider. You’ll even have a chance to obtain a place in ChuTian City. Do you know what kind of place ChuTian City is? It’s a world we living in South City couldn’t even dream of!”

The Grand Elder got progressively more excited as he spoke. Seeing that Gu Yu was silent, he thought that the other was wavering, and that he could convince Gu Yu with just a little more effort.

His cunning gaze landed on Chu WuQing. For the Gu family, he could shake off all his fears. So what if he offended an outsider if it were for the sake of the Gu Family? So long as the Gu Family had Gu Yu, they had everything, so he continued to speak, “Conversely, other people can rely on you to become Foundation Establishment experts, gaining power and influence they had never dreamed of, or even follow you into ChuTian City someday. No matter how much the Gu Family wronged you, we are still your family and we’re willing to put everything on the line for you.”

He gazed deeply at Gu Yu once he finished speaking.

Chu WuQing’s gaze landed on the Grand Elder’s face almost as if granting him an honor, and it made the Grand Elder’s heart leap into his throat. After several tense moments, Chu WuQing’s gaze shifted. He didn’t do anything, merely took out a handkerchief and spoke to Gu Yu, “Wipe it off. You’re dirty.”

The perfect and pure white handkerchief was held in a pale hand, trapped between long and delicate fingers, infused with the aura of the hand’s owner.

As Gu Yu accepted it, his ears went faintly red. He had to do his best to keep the trembling in his hand under control. He pinched on corner of the handkerchief and slowly wiped off the blood on his face, as if it would allow him to bask in the other’s aura longer.

Gu Yu’s silence was like a mountain on the Grand Elder’s shoulders. His words had come from desperation, hoping that his resolution and decisiveness would shake Gu Yu.

Sacrificing patience in hopes of winning a bigger piece.

He had lived in this world, been cultivating in this world for over eighty years. He had experienced much in this time, but never had he felt such tremendous pressure.

“No matter what, I’m still family? How is your decision today any different from the one all those years ago when you decided it would be fine for Gu ChangLin to humiliate me and do whatever he wanted with me?” Gu Yu chuckled softly, “When the Gu Family main branch ancestors put their lives on the line to do everything they could, they probably never imagined that a day would come when their descendent lived lower than a dog, fearing that they might not open their eyes the next day whenever they went to sleep. Grand Elder, I wonder if you felt the countless eyes watching you every time you stepped into the ancestral hall of the Gu Family?” Gu Yu’s voice was quiet like it was flickering in and out of existence, as if coming from another world. He was clearly smiling, yet it sent chills up everyone’s backs.

When he turned his head and looked towards the youth of the Gu Family who were there, these young people who originally looked down at Gu Yu from high above and treated him like an insignificant plaything felt a mounting sense of panic and horror.

“For those who are useful to you, you could give them everything, but once their use has run out, you can easily push them into the abyss. I want to ask you all, which one of you contributed more to the Gu Family than my father, my grandfather, my ancestors? Which one of you thinks themselves higher than all those main branch ancestors and preceding clan heads? If this is how I’m treated, what will happen to you or your descendants when an accident occurs?”

Each and every one of Gu Yu’s words were like a hammer coming down on their hearts, crashing down on their deepest, most tightly concealed fears and most personal interests. Though they knew that Gu Yu was only saying this to sow discord in the Gu Family, their hearts couldn’t help but obey Gu Yu’s desires.

This was an unconcealed scheme.

“Gu-Gu…” Yu. The Grand Elder wanted to refute his words, but he couldn’t formulate anything. Had he made the wrong decision? Had he truly been wrong? Not just for being a fool and not seeing what was in front of his eyes, but also his entire doctrine these years?

The Grand Elder’s mind roared, completely in disarray. His muddled consciousness was barely able to hold himself up, on the verge of giving up and letting him pass out. But he couldn’t. Whenever he closed his eyes, all he could see were the ancestral tablets of the Gu Family ancestors.

With just a few words, Gu Yu had sent the Gu Family’s resolve into chaos. A family with such a long and prestigious history had been defeated just like that, in heart and in soul, never to recover.

From now on, even if it was just in this small South City, the Gu Family was over!

Gu Yu didn’t spare them another glance, walking up to Chu WuQing instead and kneeling in front of him, looking up with a worshipful gaze as he asked, “Master, shall we go?” To him, Chu WuQing was god, and he shouldn’t be subjected to the slightest amount of disrespect, verbal or otherwise. “Please don’t abandon XiaoYu.”

Chu WuQing was feeling great after watching such a good show, and ruffled Gu Yu’s hair as a reward. “I’m not planning to anytime soon…” Then, as Gu Yu’s eyes lit up, Chu WuQing continued, “As for the future, it depends on your behavior.”

Once he finished speaking, Chu WuQing decided against wasting any more time. With a gust of wind, he and Gu Yu soared off.

“A flight artefact, Foundation Establishment Stage!?” One of the Gu Family Elders cried out in disbelief.

Cultivators of the Qi Condensation stage had yet to completely shed their mortality and thus were unable to use flight artifacts and the like. Only Foundation Establishment cultivators were able to wander the heavens and earth as they wished.

That XianShi that had left with Gu Yu was actually a Foundation Establishment cultivator! Had he been concealing his cultivation level the entire time?

The Gu Family wouldn’t be too afraid of offending a Qi Condensation Stage cultivator, but a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator was enough for them to despair!

The Grand Elder suddenly snapped back to reality. “Foundation Establishment stage?” That cultivator couldn’t be any older than sixteen.

Foundation Establishment stage at sixteen years old… Just the thought made it hard to breathe. Someone who could achieve Foundation Establishment stage at the age of sixteen had to be an Aberrant spiritual root cultivator! In addition, he surely had an unimaginably powerful sect behind him to provide him with the best of resources to have reached such a stage so fast.

Thinking of what he had said before, the Grand Elder could taste blood at the back of his throat. That cultivator relying on and using Gu Yu? No, he was the one who was going to take Gu Yu to unimaginable heights!

The Grand Elder fainted, coughing up blood.

~~~

When Chu WuQing arrived back at the Chu Clan with Gu Yu in tow, it was already the last day of the three days they had been given to prepare.

Out of his personal interests, Chu WuQing didn’t particularly want Gu Yu to have any interactions with the Chu Clan, and definitely didn’t want him becoming a disciple of the Chu Clan. Instead, he was going to make sure that Gu Yu followed and served no one but himself.

Though Chu WuQing knew only the basics about Runesmanship, as the only son of a Soul Formation powerhouse, he had access to resources a normal cultivator couldn’t even dream of. He could even obtain jade drives from Chu HuanZhi that contained copies of ancient killing arrays for Gu Yu to study.

When the protagonist originally met Gu Yu, he was in the middle of being hunted down by the Chu Clan, so he naturally didn’t have any Runesmanship scrolls or books for Gu Yu to study, so all Gu Yu could learn from were those basic Runesmanship foundation books that could be easily bought on the market. Yet even with these simple arrays and runes, Gu Yu was still able to grow magnificently and quickly create his own set of arrays. Those arrays were so powerful that many Runesmasters were all in awe, thinking they might’ve come from some long lost ancient Runesmanship grimoires. 

Now that he was spending all these resources to help Gu Yu grow, Gu Yu would only become even more powerful than he had been in his past life and would definitely become a Runesmaster much faster. How far could he go? Chu WuQing couldn’t wait to find out. Just the thought of using the protagonist’s original follower against him sent excited delight through Chu WuQing.

However, compared to all that, the current Gu Yu had to first gain a feel for Qi in order to step onto the path of cultivation.

After Chu WuQing took Gu Yu back to his abode, he immediately took out nine-nine eighty-one low-grade spirit stones and created a low-grade Spiritual Energy gathering array.

The places assigned to core disciples had dense spiritual energy, and now with the spiritual energy gathering array, the ambient spiritual energy condensed even further, practically tangible, brushing over the edges of his cloak.

Even Gu Yu, who had no feel for Qi, could sense the energy of the heavens and earth piercing him, enlightening him.

“Meditate.” Chu WuQing turned his palm skywards and a small jade bottle appeared. “This is a high-grade spiritual energy guiding elixir. It can help you feel the ambient spiritual energy and guide it towards your inner core, thus opening up the path to cultivation for you.”

Gu Yu immediately ingested the elixir, folding his legs in position.

Even with the help of arrays and elixirs, it was extremely difficult for a mortal to be able to sense spiritual energy and draw it within themselves without a good amount of time. It was because the slightest distraction could have you accidentally releasing the spiritual energy you sensed, or even fail to control it, causing that spiritual energy to crash through one’s meridians violently, possibly even damaging them. Once the meridians were damaged, it would need a significant time to heal. Many people were even traumatized by the experience, causing them to never be able to guide spiritual energy into them again.

Half a day to go from mortal to cultivator was tight, even for a quick-learning single root cultivator.

However, this excursion to the lower realm would be a turbulent one, so Chu WuQing had to place his bets.

That was when Chu HuanZhi’s voice transmission arrived. “WuQing, come to my abode as soon as possible.”

Chu WuQing’s eyes lit up. “Dad is finally back.”

At Chu WuQing’s current cultivation level, even if anything went out of control with Gu Yu’s spiritual energy, Chu WuQing couldn’t do anything about it. Only a cultivator of Foundation Establishment stage or above could do anything to prevent this sort of occurrence.

Chu WuJuan always liked to pretend to be respectful loving siblings with him, using things like this to show off his ability and generosity. In the past, he had refused all the help Chu WuJuan had offered, not wanting Chu WuJuan’s schemes to succeed. However, he was now very willing to use this to his own benefit.

With Chu WuJuan present, he could even show Gu Yu how it felt to have a cultivator’s spiritual energy flow through the body, increasing Gu Yu’s chances to at least eighty percent.

Chu WuQing immediately sent a message. “Cousin, I’ve brought back a double spiritual root follower. He’s currently in my room, getting a feel for spiritual energy. I need to go and see my father, so could you watch over him for me and help him reach Level One Qi Condensation stage by tomorrow?”
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