Meanwhile, on the Fang Yuan Continent:
Wang Tian observed the small 'village' that had emerged around the primeval spring he had found some time ago.
Many of these people were stragglers. Essentially refugees from areas where the Golden Shower had landed. Some of them were simply driven from their homes and had nowhere else to go. Others were the survivors of raids that had annihilated the rest of their villages, much like with Wang Tian.
A good chunk of them were Huang Fei's tribe who had eventually become fed up with his uncle's way of managing things and so had decided to uproot themselves and move here. This without a doubt was going to put a bee in his uncle's bonnet, but his uncle did not have the forces nor the time to march them over such a large distance to this primeval spring and so was leaving them alone.
Most of them were not Gu Masters - those who were capable were much like Huang Fei, still hesitant to go down that path.
Many of them did have tools brought over from where they had come. Gold was so abundant in certain areas of the Fang Yuan Continent that one could simply scoop it off the ground. Of course, gold was also quite soft and had to be melded with other metals to make it hard and actually usable. Most weapons were gold-tipped or made of gold alloys entirely. Those who could afford to use other kinds of metals were considered to be aristocrats.
Wang Tian watched this small community grow over time until they were nearly five hundred. He wasn't used to seeing so many people at once, nor was he used to people actually looking up to him as the 'owner' of this primeval spring. He tried telling him that this primeval spring was part of nature's bounty and that he had no desire to 'claim' it as his own, but these protests fell on deaf ears.
"Remember this," Bai Xiao had told him. "If you don't claim it someone else will. And if someone else takes ownership I doubt that they would be as good a steward as you."
Wang Tian reluctantly accepted this role, though most of the day-to-day management was still left to Bai Xiao and Huang Fei.
As for Wang Tian, he continued to cultivate. He didn't know what was the reason for his aptitude increasing nor did he realize that he had the Verdant Sun Great Yang Physique, but a small incident would reveal this fact to him.
Wang Tian had advanced to Rank 3 Middle Stage, but still only had one Rank 3 gu worm with him. He knew that Gu Masters were nothing without their gu worms, even a newbie like him was clear regarding this fact.
There was his Vital Gu, but he still didn't know of its effects.
And so, Wang Tian decided to spend his time during which he wasn't cultivating looking for wild gu worms.
One day, while traveling some distance from the primeval spring, he felt a strange aura.
"Rank 3 gu worm!" he yelled out, detecting it near a bush a spear throw's away.
He leapt towards it, but the gu worm was tricky. It had sense Wang Tian and seemed to realize that Wang Tian was trying to refine it.
Wang Tian began chasing the gu worm as it flitted around the area, eventually leading Wang Tian far away from the primeval spring in question.
He chased the gu worm for a long time, before he ended up tripped and rolling down a hill.
"Gotchu!" Wang Tian said excitedly, grabbing the gu worm and placing it in his aperture before realizing that he was falling a very long distance down to the ground.
Wang Tian awoke some time later, feeling that his head was swimming. As he wondered where he was and his vision came back into focus, he noticed that it was near nighttime with the sky being a scattered shade of all colors of the rainbow. The gentle spray of water stroked his face and a small gurgling noise reached his ears, meaning he had landed somewhere close to a waterfall.
As he regained his clarity, he decided to slowly get up while trying not to exert himself too much. As he raised his head, however, he was shocked at what he was seeing.
He had landed near a small crevice close to a waterfall which emptied into a small pond. The crevice made it so that his body was rather well-hidden and hard to notice.
That was why the young lady in question hadn't noticed him yet.
'Ah... is that... no...! AH!'
His heart began racing in his chest. This young lady had decided to take a bath right here, and had clearly not noticed Wang Tian.
Wang Tian had never seen a girl his age like this before, nor so up close either. He tried to close his eyes tightly and make no noise - after all, this situation was bad enough, but it would be all the worse if she happened to notice him!
Despite that, he couldn't help but glance occasionally seeing the young lady's curves and voluptuous figure... he felt like his heart was pounding so fast in his chest that he was shocked she hadn't noticed him yet.
The whole ordeal lasted for about ten minutes, though it felt like an eternity for Wang Tian.
Finally, it seemed that she was done bathing and was about to leave.
Wang Tian relaxed, it looked like he would be able to walk away in peace once she was done.
But at that very moment...
"ACHOO!"
Something irritated Wang Tian's sinuses and he sneezed. Loudly.
"Who is it?" the girl asked, shocked. She had been reaching for her clothes, though now she glanced around at the clearly human sound.
Wang Tian cursed his bad luck, hoping that perhaps she had either not heard it or would think it was just the wind.
But that was not the case.
The woman reappeared in his vision, this time armed with a sword that glinted of gold. She had quickly put on a respectable enough outfit, but was glaring around and shouting with venom. "Show yourself! Creep who seems to enjoy woman bathing! Come out here and face me!"
Wang Tian crouched down and tried to make as little noise as possible. He was still hoping that she'd ignore him.
But right then...
A wasp landed on his foot and decided it was a wonderful place to dig its stinger in. Wang Tian did not have any good defensive gu on him, despite being Rank 3. Or perhaps he did and had simply not checked what they did at the moment.
"AHHH!" Wang Tian leapt out of where he was hiding, startling the woman in question. She nearly fell over backwards before finding her footing in the water.
"You! You dare!" she yelled out. Her face had turned a bright shade of red at the embarrassment of having been peeped upon, and that too by a boy clearly around her age.
Wang Tian wanted to explain that all of this was a mistake. That he had landed here some time ago before she had even seen him, and that he hadn't been trying to spy on her. Not to mention he didn't exactly see that much anyway...
He wanted to say that, but much like the young lady, he too was tongue-tied by the awkwardness of the situation, and seeing that she was holding a sword, decided that booking it was the best course of action.
He figured that it would take her time to collect her belongings anyway, not to mention climb out of the pool. She was also holding a heavy weapon, giving him an advantage as he turned tail while yelling out, "Sorry!"
"Get back here and fight me like a man!" the girl yelled out. Thankfully it looked like she wasn't a Gu Master, either that, or didn't have any gu worms that helped with her movement. That meant that all she could do was try and chase him down.
The girl in question was rather persistent. Wang Tian did not have any footwear, but was used to running barefoot. The girl was losing ground on him, and wondered what to do. The sun was about to set, and she was panting and suddenly keeled over.
Wang Tian glanced behind him and noticed this change. A rational part of him told him to keep running and that this could be a ruse, but upon stopping to catch his breath and glance at her frame laying down in the dirt, he began thinking that this was no act.