Wang Tian slowly walked over to where the girl was laying, ready to run away at a moment's notice. With his foot, he nudged the sword out of her hands and she didn't resist.
'So it looks like she really is sick...' he noted.
He turned her over. She had barely had time to get dressed and a good amount of her clothes had come undone, revealing the upper part of her chest. Wang Tian did his best not to notice her pair of treasures as he went to feel for a pulse. She had one, but her body was icy cold. Almost like that of a corpse's, and her breathing was haggard.
'What do I do?' Wang Tian wondered, clutching his hair. He wouldn't be able to take her back to the village on his own with ease. He needed a gu worm capable of healing, but he didn't have anything like that. Or did he...?
He remembered the gu worm he had just caught. Could it be used to heal?
It was his only chance, he figured. He had a voluminous quantity of Rank 3 Middle Stage primeval essence, and began pouring it into this new gu worm he'd found. It seemed to have a weak will as he refined it quickly, and hoping for the best, he activated it.
The gu worm exited his aperture and then transformed into the form of an elderly man with a gentle smile on his face.
"What kind of gu are you?" Wang Tian asked. Many Human Path gu worms could speak or at least identify themselves.
"I am Rank 3 Doctor Gu, young master," the gu worm replied, bowing his head slightly. "And how can I be of service?"
"A doctor gu? Right, I need you help healing her," Wang Tian said, thanking Heaven that he had been lucky enough to stumble upon the right gu needed for the situation.
Doctor Gu went to go look over the woman and said, "Ah, Young Master... I can see the issue here. This young lady has the Ancient Moon Desolate Yin Physique."
"Ancient Moon Desolate Yin Physique?" Wang Tian asked.
"Yes, that is why she is so cold and frigid," Doctor Gu said. "This physique is overreacting in her leading to this kind of outcome as it has no outlet to it. Thankfully, there is a cure."
"What is it?" Wang Tian asked.
"It appears that Young Master has the Verdant Sun Great Yang Physique," Doctor Gu said. "Young Master, your physique is compatible with this lady's disease, if you were to dual cultivate with her you would be able to extract the extra yin energy from her."
"Oh I see..." Wang Tian said. He blushed slightly, but if that was what it was going to take...
"Ah, Young Master..." Doctor Gu said, after seeing that Wang Tian had taken off his pants. "...that was simply a joke."
"A joke!?" Wang Tian yelped, quite angry at this rather unhelpful gu worm.
"Yes, a joke," Doctor Gu said. "I did not think that the Young Master would take it so seriously..."
This was not the same Doctor Gu that Fang Yuan had used back in Gu Yue Village, but it appeared that all Doctor Gu had this kind of temperament. Only thing was that Fang Yuan had realized that it was a joke, unlike Wang Tian, and hadn't fallen for it.
"Stop wasting time joking! How can I fix this?" Wang Tian asked, embarrassed as he put his pants back on.
"Simply put, she is like this as her extreme physique does not have an outlet," Doctor Gu said. "She has not yet awakened her aperture though she is far beyond the ripe age for her to do so. Because of this, her extreme physique does not have an outlet to express itself and so has manifested in this way with chills and a near-coma. I would wager that she oftentimes gets fevers and chills on nights of the full moon like these... if this is not treated, that is to say, she doesn't find an outlet for this, it will progress and eventually she will grow so cold her heart will stop."
One could not escape from the destruction that awaited the ten extreme physiques by simply not awakening one's aperture. If one did so, their physique would still end up manifesting eventually in this kind of manner. Their self-detonation would be far less spectacular, but it would end up in their death all the same. The same thing was for simply not advancing - Wang Tian eventually did make it to Rank 3 on his own but even if he hadn't, his own extreme physique would begin manifesting on its own until it drove him to Rank 3 and fully established itself anyway.
There was no escaping from one's fate as a child with one of the extreme physiques!
"Right, so in that case," Wang Tian said. "I just have to go ahead and bring her to the primeval spring!" If he did so, her aperture would awaken, and then she would get better! The only issue was getting her there...
Wang Tian put Doctor Gu back in his aperture. He had a Rank 2 gu worm called Laborer Gu which was useful for moving heavy objects and could help him transport the girl in question and her belongings.
"I really came rather far, didn't I?" he wondered as it was almost near midnight by the time that they reached the primeval spring.
Huang Er, and Bai Xiao, funnily enough, were still awake. And the reason for such was clear as they spotted him using the light of their lanterns.
"Wang Tian! We were going to send a rescue party to find you!" they said. They had gotten worried when Wang Tian had vanished and had not returned for some time.
"Ah, I got lost and hit my head," Wang Tian said. "But look what I found!"
Huang Fei and Bai Xiao both looked at the unconscious half-dressed woman that Wang Tian was carrying with him, and then at Wang Tian's excited face.
"Brother Wang Tian, just because you've had trouble finding a woman doesn't mean you can just kidnap random woman you find in the woods," Huang Fei said, crossing his arms.
"Indeed. I can overlook you using gu worms like slaves, but this is taking it a step too far, even if you are my friend I'll have to oppose you on this," Bai Xaio said.
"What? No, wait, you guys have the wrong idea," Wang Tian said, explaining what had gone on to them.
After that, Wang Tian took the young lady to their primeval spring.
Hope Gu were already there in large numbers, glowing like fireflies in the middle of the night. The lady had no way to walk, so Wang Tian could think of nothing other than to dump her body into the middle of the spring while keeping her head afloat.
Immediately, a massive number of Hope Gu reacted and began entering the space between her navel and xiphoid process, creating an aperture. The number exceeded anything most people would ever see, and the resultant explosion formed an aperture with 90% primeval essence within it.
Wang Tian examined the woman's aperture - his had been mostly like this as well, but once he reached Rank 3 the full extent of his own physique had played out.
The woman slowly came to. With her aperture awakened, the power of her physique finally had somewhere to go and she was recovering. Her body no longer felt ice cold.
When she opened her eyes, she saw Wang Tian smiling down at her.
Immediately, she came to the wrong conclusion and punched him in the face.
"Ow!" Wang Tian yelled out. "I haven't even had a chance to explain myself!"
The woman looked around for her sword, though naturally Wang Tian hadn't left it laying around for her to pick up.
"You can explain yourself in the afterlife, fiend! What did you do to me?"
"Nothing! You had collapsed so I simply helped you open up your aperture!"
"My what... oh!?" the woman said, glancing down at her newly opened aperture. The sensation was strange to her, it was like another organ sprouting deep within her body. She could feel it, and yet at the same time, she was exactly the same as before. "This means that I'm a... I'm a..."
"Gu Master, yes," Wang Tian said.
The woman glanced at him with a blank look. Wang Tian had to admit that even while angry she was quite beautiful with lovely almond-colored eyes and delicate cheekbones. The memory of her body immediately came to mind and almost made him blush before she screamed and terror gripped his heart instead, "You fiend! You dare do this to me! I'll kill you!"
It took Wang Tian quite a while to calm her down.