Fang Yuan made his decision right then.
He was balancing on a knife's edge, though he had been in far more uncertain situations than this.
"No, sorry, my foot just got caught somehow," Fang Yuan explained, giving a lame excuse. He then activated the Cultivation Blessing, and found that the pressure that was pressing against him had suddenly lifted, and he took a step forward.
The Hope Gu swarmed into his aperture, though his aptitude did not increase. No one could see this however, as the formation of his aperture was noticed only by Fang Yuan.
"Thirty-nine steps!" one person called out, as Fang Yuan could truly not move forward.
It marked him down as a B-grade talent, and he had even walked further than either Chi Chen and Mo Bei.
True to its word, the system granted him his reward.
Some of the Hope Gu dissolved, increasing his aptitude to 46%!
While a 2% difference was not much, in the long run, it would save him a large amount when it came to primeval stones. Well worth the risk of accepting this mission.
There was of course, another dimension to this.
A lie was no longer a lie if it were true.
In other words, if the 'system' could raise his aptitude by 2%, it could likely raise it even further.
If it went above 60%, he would be a true B-grade Gu Master! If that happened, he could become a Rank 3 Gu Master without having to resort to some unsavory means. Not to mention that his battle strength would surge greatly!
That was assuming he could get further increases, however.
"So, not A-grade, but B-grade instead..."
"Having three B-grades in one class isn't bad..."
They had expected Fang Yuan to be A-grade, but B-grade wasn't bad. It meant that Fang Yuan would be an elder in the future. It was like looking for gold and finding silver instead, though silver was still better than copper (C-grade talent).
Chi Chen and Chi Lian were calm on the surface but were likely very agitated inside, as it meant that a new player was on the field.
"So brother is only a B-grade..." Fang Zheng said, eyes downcast. While not A-grade, it still meant that Fang Yuan was a future elder of the clan. Already, Fang Zheng could feel his elder brother towering over him.
Worries began to besiege him. What if he was only D-grade? What if he had no talent at all?
He was so preoccupied with this that he didn't even hear his name until it was called out four times.
"Coming!" Fang Zheng said, before tripping and landing on his face. He felt himself turn as red as a tomato as laughter entered his ears. It took him quite a bit of willpower to not burst into tears.
The elders shook their heads.
"Get up," a voice said to Fang Zheng calmly. He looked up to see his brother, who had waded out back to reach him and had extended a hand to him. Fang Zheng took his brother's hand. "The road to the future will be interesting. So long as you can persevere and put one foot in front of the other, who knows what you can't accomplish?"
Fang Yuan helped Fang Zheng gain his footing, and Fang Zheng began to walk. The laughter was soon replaced by exclamations of astonishment.
No one was laughing now.
"Forty-six steps! An A-grade talent!"
"The Fang brothers- one of them B-grade, and the other A-grade!"
Simply put, Fang Yuan had the capability to become an elder in the future.
Fang Zheng had the capability to go even further, to potentially become clan head!
The two of them combined would make great waves in the future, that was what everyone felt.
Fang Yuan, however, was concentrated on something else.
Secret quest complete!
An Elder Brother's Guidance!
Reward: Green Copper Relic Gu (x1).
He had not expected a quest to appear like that, nor for a reward like that to appear.
Green Copper Relic Gu could raise his cultivation by a minor realm at Rank 1. Needless to say this was quite valuable, worth several thousand primeval stones, and could save him several months of effort.
However, it was precisely because of such that he couldn't use it!
For the first year of his cultivating life, his aperture would be regularly examined. How would he explain how he had suddenly soared in his cultivation level?
Not to mention there was the problem of feeding this Gu. Relic Gu required primeval essence of the corresponding Rank to feed, so this was put a strain on his primeval essence the longer he didn't use it.
It was like being handed a very fancy car but being so busy that you couldn't actually drive it. Instead, it would just eat away at your wallet with maintenance costs.
Fang Yuan could not even sell it.
Just as he was bemoaning this, a notification popped up.
Gu worms given as rewards do not need to be fed unless they are taken out of the inventory. Once removed from inventory, however, they cannot be put back.
He raised an eyebrow slightly.
That was extremely convenient but...
How did that work? Oftentimes, the greatest limiting factor to the number of gu worms that one could have was the costs involved with feeding them.
Every gu worm ate something different, and the higher the rank, the harder it was to obtain those materials.
The only way that this 'system' could accomplish this was if it had some kind of Food path method. Fang Yuan, despite his plentiful experience, knew next to nothing when it came to the Food path.
Or alternatively, it 'created' the gu worms once they were taken out of his 'inventory.'
But that was something even harder to wrap his head around than some kind of Food path method existing.
The mysteries of this 'system' deepened in his mind, as well as to what it really wished to accomplish.
He was a B-grade talent in the eyes of his clansmen, though that was as of yet, a falsehood.