Fang Yuan went back to his room, glaring at the paintings that lined the wall which were the products of Genesis Lotus. He had managed to fill three of them up until now. One showed the scenes of the Gu Masters of Gu Yue Village during the mass burial. The other showed the scene of the awakening ceremony. Since he had brought it to Shang Clan City, another one had already been filled, showing a scene of people on a sidewalk when Shang Xin Ci had been found by her father, though the actual event was obscured by the crowd.
Two of them were from Gu Yue Village, and one was from Shang Clan City. However, the third had been filled within a matter of days of arriving here.
While he had taken months to fill the other two, the speed at which they were being filled was far greater. Now that he was in Shang Clan City, how many of them did he have to fill in total?
The blank paintings looked like they were in multiple stacks, not just one extra this time. As Fang Yuan took one of them off the wall, another one seemed to emerge, and then another one. Suddenly, Fang Yuan had a dozen blank paintings piled on top of his bed, but there seemed to be no end to them.
He scratched his head. "Just how many of them are there, and how many am I supposed to fill?" he wondered.
At that moment, a flash of something passed over one of the blank paintings, and the words appeared: "Only slightly more than a thousand."
Fang Yuan almost wanted to put his fist through it. It had taken him months to fill in two of them. Did Genesis Lotus really think that he could fill in thousands, and was filling in thousands really necessary? The words disappeared the moment he had seen them, so he could only sigh. Filling in the paintings was just half of his plan. He had already anticipated the fact that there might have been dozens to be filled, which is why he was going along with this sort of scheme.
He had not, however, anticipated there being hundreds upon hundreds. As far as he could tell, the paintings were much like the Integration Gu, in that they accumulated human experiences. Whenever there were experiences of great value or importance, such as the funeral in the village or the latest awakening ceremony, it would collect them and form a painting on its own.
In Shang Clan City, just because there were far more people, it was easier for it to do so.
Still, that meant Fang Yuan needed a way to distribute these blank paintings all around the city.
Shang Clan City was huge; even if he spent two years here, he might not be able to explore all of it.
Fang Yuan was naturally someone who preferred to rely upon his own strength rather than others. However, he was going to need help if he wanted to fill in these paintings. 'Perhaps that was what Genesis Lotus was planning all along,' he thought to himself.
The second matter was that of obtaining the Righteous Virtue Physique. Up until now, his Steal Virtue Gu had not managed to accumulate much lately because Shang Xin Ci was being secluded in isolation somewhere and did not have the ability to do anything significant.
'The only real thing I can do now is wait,' he thought to himself. He had a way of dealing with both of these problems in one fell swoop, but right now, while he was being probed by Shang Yan Fei, he couldn't do much.
The next day, Wei Yang, while taking them towards the battle arena, first took them to a few other areas, as the arena tended to open up around noon.
There was the auction house, which naturally Fang Yuan was quite interested in. Several of the things that he needed, such as the ink from a Twin-Headed Octopus, the most common kind of ink that could be used to feed his Ink Dragon, might be put up for auction here.
Bai Ning Bing also wanted to see if there were any good gu worms for auction, however, the major ones would only occur every few months. Until then, it was best that they accumulate their primeval stones.
While passing by the red light district, Fang Yuan thought he saw someone familiar emerge from a building with a large rose on top, looking quite satisfied, though he had other things to deal with.
"Look, as promised. This is the battle arena," Wei Yang said. "Here you can have competitive as well as casual battles. If you want to register for the battle arena, I can help you do so."
Bai Ning Bing was already itching to get into a fight, and Wei Yang could easily tell. "Let's test our metal against these people, Fang Yuan," Bai Ning Bing said
Fang Yuan shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't participate."
"Hmm, why not?" Bai Ning Bing asked. It was unlike Fang Yuan to shirk a fight.
"Oh, that," Wei Yang said sheepishly. "Rank 5 Gu Masters can't really compete in the arena."
"It's a safety issue," Fang Yuan said. "The people in the arena need to make sure that the guests, as well as the opposing Gu Master, cannot be readily injured. Rank 5 gu worms, however, are just too strong, and the chances of someone in the crowd being killed are very high.
"Not to mention it really wouldn't be fair," Wei Yang said. "For you, Lord Fang Yuan, you wouldn't want to fight someone if they weren't Rank 5 as well. And I don't think that there is a worthy opponent for you. They might be able to arrange for a special kind of coliseum or event for two Rank 5 Gu Masters to fight. I have no doubt that would draw quite the crowd. However, there was just no one in the city who would want to fight with Fang Yuan."
"So being strong has its drawbacks," Bai Ning Bing said, smirking.
"Since the matches have already started, would you like to try a casual fight with me?" Wei Yang asked.
Bai Ning Bing stared. He was Rank 3 Peak Stage, and she was Rank 4 Initial Stage. Did he really want to fight her?
"Senior Brother Wei!" someone called out, approaching them.
"Oh, Little Xiao, to think that I would find you here," Wei Yang said, smiling. "How have you been doing?"
"I'm doing rather good," he said. "I'm about to advance to the third inner city." His attention, as he drew near, naturally then went to Fang Yuan and Bai Ning Bing. Fang Yuan's Rank 5 cultivation was immediately apparent, causing him to shrink back a little. And Bai Ning Bing's Rank 4 aura was also quite exceptional.
"This is one of my juniors," Wei Yang explained, patting the man on the shoulders. "I no longer fight in the arena regularly. However, he definitely has some potential. These two are guests of Lord Clan Leader."
Little Xiao lowered his head slightly, mainly towards Fang Yuan.
"I wanted to have a little practice match. Do you want to watch and see me in action?"
"Oh, you were amazing, even when you were Rank 3 Middle stage. Now that you're Rank 3 Peak Stage...." he then paused, noting Bai Ning Bing was Rank 4 Initial Stage. This could not be said to be an equal fight, however, Bai Ning Bing was itching to test out her new Gu worms now that she was rank four. Wei Yang also did not shirk from the battle as the two of them got ready.