While all of this was going on, a group of male students were planning something.
There was a reason that a lot of them had ultimately decided upon the hot springs even though most of them were more interested in hunting. They were just 'hunting' in a different sense.
While the girls wanted to enjoy the benefits of the hot spring, namely, in better skin and the like, the boys chose it for the opportunities it provided.
Namely, they were thinking of peeping on the girls!
Of course, if they went ahead and simply tried to go peer over the wall separating the women and men's sections, they would be caught quite quickly. No, they needed a plan. But a plan needed a leader- a figure that they could all rally behind. Who would be the captain to whom they swore their allegiance?
The first choice, Fang Yuan, was discarded immediately. No one thought that they could convince him to join them, and even if they had tried, it would have gone badly.
The next person in line was Fang Zheng, but he rejected them wholeheartedly.
'If I go ahead with this, I'll probably be caught and end up bringing infamy to the family name,' Fang Zheng thought. 'Not to mention, I have to remain loyal to Cui-Cui! As it is, we can bathe together almost anytime at home. Who cares about these other girls? I only need her in my heart. Besides, I need to work hard right now.'
Mo Bei also turned them down and told them to work harder. He was vice-president and couldn't be caught being involved in something like this. Not to mention he still felt sore from the beating Fang Yuan had given him, as well as the extra work they had to do to organize this trip; therefore lacking the energy to cause any kind of mischief. As it was, he finally had some peace and quiet to refine his second gu worm and didn't want to lose to Fang Zheng or Fang Yuan - he hadn't realized that Fang Yuan was already done refining his 'second' gu worm weeks ago and was rushing towards Rank 1 Upper Stage.
With these targets out of the way, they then approached Chi Chen. Chi Chen considered it for a moment, before saying, "Have you seen the girls in our class? None of them are worth peeping on."
With these four people rejecting them, it seemed that the party of Peeping Toms was demoralized enough that they were about to give up.
"Maybe we should just focus on refining our second gu worms..."
"We'll probably get caught and beaten for no reason anyway..."
"Chi Chen was pretty right too, all the girls are 6/10 at best..."
Among this cloud of despair, however, a heroic(?) figure emerged.
"I can't believe that all of you are giving up so soon," Yu Sai said, walking in on the group. "Are you all not ashamed to call yourselves men? Tell me, can you all really say in your heart of hearts that you don't want to see what's on the other side of that wall."
The others were momentarily speechless. It was true, being young boys, they were quite curious as to what the sight on the other side of that wall was like. So what if all the girls were 'mid' at best? Wasn't it the allure of what was forbidden fruit which was really exciting them? Didn't they all want to go venture out and do something like that, and then get away with it? Wasn't that what they were really after?
"Fang Yuan and the rest might be a bunch of eunuchs and refused to join us," Yu Sai said. "But can you all really say that you lack the stones to go where no other man would dare?"
The boy's found their morale raised kudos to Yu Sai's rousing speech, but now they had a new problem.
"But... what are we going to do?"
Some people with a little less self-control had already tried to peep on the girls by just climbing over the wall or such similar measures and had naturally gotten into trouble. They needed a far better plan than that.
"Those people failed because they didn't use their brains and acted as no better than mortals," Yu Sai said. "What are we? Normal people? No, we are Gu Masters! We use, raise, and refine gu! There is a gu worm for every purpose, and this is no exception!"
He then pulled out his 'trump card.'
"Is that...?"
"That's right," Yu Sai said. This had been his choice of second gu. "This is an Audio-Visual Gu! We just have to somehow get it on the other side, and we don't even need to wander there ourselves! We'll get the images right to us! No risk whatsoever! That's how smart people would do something like this."
Audio-Visual Gu was an extremely bizarre choice for a second gu worm given how niche it's use was, but given how bad Yu Sai's aptitude was no one really paid him any attention or had noticed his choice. As it was, it did have the upside of not needing to be fed with anything other than light, allowing Yu Sai to save on a few primeval stones. He had been one of the last to choose his second gu worm, but that had been what allowed him to pick this based on the news of where they were going on their trip.
"Ah, but there is a catch," Yu Sai said. "I need some help refining this gu. Come on, I just need a few primeval stones to do so... either that or one of you needs to refine it for me."
He didn't dare ask Fang Yuan to refine it as it would naturally bring attention to the fact as to why he wanted this gu in particular, and in his eyes Fang Yuan was an upstanding class president and definitely crack down on him.
Some of the boys grumbled but they ultimately agreed to his plan.
Meanwhile, Fang Yuan was making his way down the marked path that the system had set up for him.
He lacked an investigative-type gu worm, but this was mostly just open fields and there was little room for things like wolves or enemies to hide. Not that there couldn't be dangers- some creatures could lurk underground, and there could be wild gu worms. However, this close to the village, this was rather unlikely.
If he wandered a bit further south, he might be able to find a group of wild boar and get some boar meat. However, that would take too long and then his absence would without a doubt be noticed. As it was, he had left the White Boar Gu at home.
He considered using One With Scenery Gu, though it didn't look like anyone had noticed he had left. As it was, he was technically not doing anything wrong so he wasn't afraid of being tailed, if anything, that even guaranteed him a small layer of protection.
A short distance away, a mortal hunter by the name of Ji Han was squatting near a curious specimen.
It was a deerling- barely a few weeks old, but it looked like its parents were either dead or had abandoned it. It was clearly struggling, and the man had found it while surveying the surrounding area.
Suddenly, he felt a chill crawl down his spine. It was as if he felt a great evil was bearing down on him, and his hunter's instincts, without which he would have perished long ago, and he grabbed his weapon- a makeshift spear, as he saw someone approach out of the corner of his eye.
He relaxed and lowered his weapon as he saw who it was that had approached. It was a student Gu Master, but a student was still a Gu Master- the gap between their statuses could not be overemphasized as he lowered his head. "Ah, Young Master, what brings you here?"
Fang Yuan surveyed the man quickly. This was the 'hunter' the system wanted him to help out with, and there was the young deer child that was the main subject of the mission. "Nothing, I was merely out for a walk- but what is this?"
"Oh this," Ji Han began, "it's a bit of a sad story. I think this deer was abandoned by its family. It can't live on its own for much longer... I was out for a hunt, but it seems too cruel to kill something so young." He sighed. Perhaps a hunter should not have that kind of reservations in such a dog-eat-dog world, but he couldn't bring himself to kill the deer. Despite the fact that it was doomed to die soon, he did not want to accelerate that process.
Fang Yuan, however, looked at the deer with great interest. 'Could this be... if I'm not mistaken...'