Fei Cai returned home slightly exhausted. From the beginning, he had been focused on hunting the apes while creating a foothold in the team. Despite being the only son of Chieftain of the Fei Tribe, Fei Cai would be damned if he, for once, attracted kind intentions and exceptions without any strings attached. Even Fei Sau's invitation to his team under Elder Fei Kao's force was due to returning the favor of Fei Cai helping Fei Jun— Fei Sau's younger sister.

'As stated in Thieving Heaven's journal. Cultivation of more than one path with utmost seriousness is an extremely difficult task. Right now, I'm pressed against time to elevate my refinement experience by upgrading my gu worms myself but it is already time-consuming.'

'Not only do I have to factor in mental exhaustion that can best be taken care of by sleeping, but I would be in an even more terrible condition if I couldn't refine gu worms at the first or second try.'

Thinking of this, Fei Cai sat on the mattress and summoned Lo. The clumsy slave hurriedly entered Fei Cai's room and knelt in front of the young master.

"I asked you to harvest a few Snow Pine. Did you do it?" 

"Yes," Lo instantly nodded and revealed his rank 1 Lizard Mouth Gu worm. After Fei Cai reached rank 2, he had already transferred most of his non-ice and unimportant rank 1 gu worms to Lo. Presently, Lo was equipped with rank 1 Phantom Blossom, Lizard Mouth, Ground Eye, Copper Leaf, Yellow Tongue, and Poison Arrow gu worms so he had the ability to travel into the outskirts of the forest. 

In fact, Lo considered himself to be lucky when it comes to being a slave for not only did he get gu worms, he can also earn for himself by selling the remaining materials he finds.

Gazing at eleven snow pines, Cai nodded with a slightly tired expression. 

"Master, Old Master also wanted me to give you these three vials," Lo continued and produced three vials from the Lizard Mouth gu before taking to his leave as Cai shuffled open the mouth of the first vial, revealing a liquid with a pungent scent but without any hesitation, Cai drank the bitter liquid.

His throat went dry but the moment he ingested the liquid, he instantly felt refreshed. His thoughts started to move in a positive direction once again while his eerie stare fell on the eleven snow pines.

"I have been thinking about it the wrong way. Not only do I want to cultivate the Theft path, and Ice Path, I am also stretching myself to focus on my refinement. These are not two cultivation paths but three. I have also been impatient due to my rapid progress. Being able to reach rank 2 in the very first two months of cultivation is groundbreaking already but I have been wanting more unconsciously. More and more."

"More progress, more gu worms, more experience, more Primeval stones, more merit points."

"Although Thieving Heaven stated that innovating and refining more gu worms would bring great effects to me later in my path, he never mentioned all of this to be accomplished in a few months!"

Fei Cai's gaze flickered as he took out the Hollow Spike gu worm and stored the eleven snow pines into the gu worm.

"I need to use my merit points more efficiently. I need to refine gu worms that are not present in the merit boards. Only in that manner will I truly have trump cards. For instance, my Invasion Gu and Sneak Attack Gu."

Instead of hurriedly refining another gu worm, Fei Cai took the chance of his mind being refreshed and started using rank 1 Sharpen Mind Gu worm on himself. Just like strength path Wolf Strength gu, the sharpen mind gu is moderately uncommon wisdom path passive-type gu worm which can make one's mind sharper and more attentive.

After using Sharpen Mind Gu for fifteen minutes, Fei Cai began using the rank 1 Soul Mist Gu worm to strengthen his soul but both the gu worms had extremely limited effects. A rank 1 gu worm couldn't truly sharpen a gu master's mind to its limits since humans already utilize an extremely small portion of their mind meanwhile, the same was even truer for the soul of a human being.

But with a clear mind, Fei Cai understood that being impatient would only tire him.

Next, he drank another portion of plight wine before entering the space of computer gu that held Thieving Heaven's inheritance alongside using Memorize gu to learn as much as he can. This time, he went all out and studied till 2 in the morning before drinking another portion of plight wine and starting the quiz randomly generated by the computer gu worm. This time, he scored his personal high— 23/60

---

Later in the morning, Fei Cai promptly left for the merit board. He was going to use up his merit points and purchase the materials that truly mattered alongside the rank 2 versions of his gu worms while exchanging his current gu worms for more merit points.

Now, his arsenal included rank 1 Aperture Nurture, Invasion, Bookworm, Sharpen Mind, Memorize, Computer, Snow Beast Heart, Snow Beast Skin, Snow Beast Head, Snow Beast Arms, Snow Beast Legs, Snow Beast Strength, and Galloping Thought gu worms.

Meanwhile, his rank 2 gu worms were increased greatly with Shrewd gu, Flaring Instinct gu, Firm Soul Gu, Hollow Spike gu, Sneak Attack Gu, 2× Horse Enslavement Gu, Floating Chill Crystal Wall Gu, Spiral Snow Sword gu, Icy Hail gu, Snow Snout gu, Ice Skates Gu, Ice Restructure Gu, and Ice Shed Gu.

With the usage of almost all the rank 2 versions of his previous arsenal being the same, Fei Cai took little time to get used to the gu worms. 

Meanwhile, he was left with a little over 3000 merit points, his purchasing spree shocking every passerby!

The rank 2 Snow Snout gu had a range of 120 meters, far greater than the previous rank.

Floating Chill Crystal Wall Gu is actually the rank 2 version of Ice Wall and Floating Ice Crystal Shield Combined. In fact, Fei Cai wanted the rank 2 version by fusing the two rank 1 gu worms. Not only could Fei Cai control Icy Crystal Walls with great durability in the range of eighty meters, but he could also control the size of walls and make them float to have a mobile defensive shield. Even the number of shields that can be raised increased to a total of five walls simultaneously!

Icy Hail Gu worm's use is quite simple. The gu worm resided in Fei Cai's tongue in a form of a small blue mark. Every time Fei Cai activate the gu worm and blow harshly, his breath would become empowered and turn chilly as comparable to a hail.

With Fei Cai's right palm containing a mark of a blue sword, he can now activate the Spiral Snow Sword gu which will shoot out a sword in a spiral motion with great penetrative capabilities. 

Ice Skates Gu worm would cover Nik's feet with a protective film of ice that doesn't melt but can only be broken off by the gu master. This greatly removes the problem of wet shoes that the Ice Skid gu worm had.

Finally, Ice Restructure Gu would greatly increase the defense in Snow Beast transformation move while Ice Shed gu would take care of Fei Cai's injuries with greater efficiency.

Firm Soul gu worm was a better and stronger version of Soul Mist gu worm.

Finally, Fei Cai utilized the remaining merit points to purchase a few ice type materials that would be the food for his gu worms and purchased three materials needed for the refinement of rank 2 Invasion Gu.

"Hmm?" 

As Fei Cai was observing Lo while the slave carefully brushed the Hundred-beast Terror Horse King, he noticed that the left claw of the forelimb was slightly red than black.

'That is... rank 2, flame claw gu worm,' Fei Cai's eyes narrowed but he kept his silence. After enslaving the beast king, he was waiting for this. The natural attraction of a beast and gu worm. 

'But... a fire type gu worm? Could it be because of the increasingly cold temperature?' Fei Cai mused silently as he looked to his left and found Fei Hun Gong walking out of the entrance of the tribe.

"Brother Cai," Fei Hun Gong clasped his hand with a modest expression. This was merely an act but Fei Cai understood that this was the value of his reputation and strength. Yesterday, the very same Fei Hun Gong provoked him, today, due to his plan of slowly grasping Fei Sau and Fei Nai by manipulating Fei Jun and Fei Mang, alongside the strength and combat ability he displayed, Fei Hun Gong only had the choice of showing respect.

"Brother Gong," Fei Cai smiled with a narrowed gaze.

"Elder brother and Fei Kim are receiving next mission. They will be here shortly."

"Great," Fei Cai turned to look at his beast group once again. Deep down, he was reluctant to let go of the inheritance that Fei Qing wished to bestow him but having ten thousand beasts within the remaining month was unrealistic. 'How to have my way once again,' is what kept on going within Fei Cai's mind. Multiple galloping thoughts, under the effect of Shrewd Gu, continued to slam into each other. 

With Fei Cai loosely controlling only about tens of thoughts just to pass his time, the results were quite vague. One of the thoughts came with the answer of making Fei Qing feel pity for him. But if Fei Cai did that, the hard work of the past two months would vanish without a trace and he would go back to square one as the unreliable son of the Chieftain.

The other thought wished to give up, but this was simply a result that would come to be if nothing worked out.

Finally, the vaguest thought without any process was to trade with Fei Qing again.

This particular thought held Fei Cai's interest.

From the beginning of his cultivation, Fei Cai had always traded with Fei Qing. Although, Fei Qing had gone easy on Fei Cai and gave him good conditions, it was only due to Fei Qing's fatherly love for the young Cai.

'However, an equal value to inheritance would be another inheritance. With Fei Qing now secretly being a rank 5 gu master, and also controlling a beast emperor, it is prudent to assume that Fei Qing might have an inheritance equal to rank 5 gu master. Meanwhile, I have two inheritances only. One of them is the journal I received from the corpse of the gu master with the most valuable gu recipe being rank 4 lizard Enslavement and Earth Lizard Monarch House Gu.'

'The second inheritance belongs to Thieving Heaven, which is simply too valuable to be given out. Not to mention, Fei Qing's inheritance also holds wisdom path elements.'

"Brother Cai, I heard a few minutes ago that you made great purchases of gu worms. I believe you should hold onto your merit points to exchange them with the Bai Tribe."

Hun Gong broke the silence as Fei Cai looked at him with a confused expression however, internally, his mind finally formulated a concrete plan.

"Please, enlighten me, Brother Gong."

"The Bai Tribe is now our neighbor and on many occasions, the gu masters of Bai Tribe like to get a few gu worms from our merit board by trading gu worms from their own merit board. Hehe, now that Brother Cai has attracted Miss Bai Ding Ming's attention, you may even ask her to get a few resources that are not present in the Fei Tribe!"

'That's it!' Fei Cai's eyes brightened, 'If the current pieces are hard to move, add more pieces! Bai Ding Ming is attached to the famous fire path peak-stage rank 2 Bai Xao in a form of courtship. And how can a C-Grade aptitude gu master reach peak-stage rank 2 in 4 years? Of course... if he had a secret inheritance,' Fei Cai smiled and nodded at Fei Hun Gong, "Thank you for helping me."

Seeing Fei Cai's sincere expression, a pleased smile was plastered on Fei Hun Gong's face.