Reverend Insanity: Insatiable

A/n( thanks to all that still give me power stones even when I don't deserve them. Especially Jantipopo much love)

The players' shop had vastly improved from what it once was in the beginning. At the start, most players were exchanging information or trading gu. Not many were selling other goods, but as time went by, the need for materials grew larger.

Now, most of the things sold in the players' shop were materials, with gu being sold or traded as the second most common business. A few places sold gu recipes or bought them, but the most popular services were the hardcore players buying goods with real-life cash.

Some who were buying goods were just wealthy people, but most were from organizations, such as sects that were now growing in strength. Soon, these sects would even be recognized in the mortal world. As for immortals, by the time they realized they should take them seriously, it would be too late.

Once a player in a sect became immortal, they'd be able to help another pass their tribulation and ascend to rank 6. They would also place talented or rich players in their blessed land to nurture them more quickly.

As I looked at the materials being sold, I made sure to buy any good materials I saw, from luck path to some wisdom path, along with a few qi path goods. Obviously, they were all mortal goods, but I could use them to refine or grow more of some items.

The qi path goods and wisdom path goods that could be planted or raised would flourish in each of my blessed lands. As for the luck path goods, I could only use them for refinement as they were or as luck wine.

One stall caught my attention. It specialized in selling and buying sound path goods. Sound path... A path that will flourish alongside blood path and strength path. It's already progressing thanks to players' shops selling goods, but soon, it will be much stronger.

 As more players joined Gu Online and the fame of the game grew in the real world, more players began to play. As a reward for reaching so many players, the game developers released the next event early: The Sound of Harmony.

From the name, it was obviously an event about sound path. However, it was very different from the last event, where players fought one-on-one. This was a group event where a team of players would work together to succeed or fail as one.

I performed worse in that event than in the strength path one, but that was because of my team. My team was random, but it had traitors who sabotaged us. I won't fail in this life, though. I'll be sure to form a proper team and win. Looks like I should form my own sect soon.

I bought just about all the materials I could get from the sound path and then left the players' shop. "Master, here is your gu," the formless spirit handed me liquid gu. "Keep an eye out for an information path gu roaming around this blessed land. If you see one, let it in," I told him.

"An information path gu? Wouldn't it be dangerous to let anything in? Our position could get compromised..." He started complaining, but I raised my hand to stop him.

"I have another blessed land and have informed him to send over a gu for me once he refines it," I said.

 He looked like he wanted to say more, but I moved on to the next stage. I activated a rank 4 qi shape gu and used it to take all the qi dao water in the cauldron. Lifting it above my head, I made a small tube that reached my face.

I then lifted up my shirt and removed my small appetite gu from my stomach. I began to feel incredibly hungry, and with the large appetite gu being rank 4, its need to feed on the dao fragments was larger. With the small appetite gu gone, which had been keeping large appetite gu in check, I felt like a man on the verge of starving to death.

"Here, place this gu on the stomach of one of the subdued beasts," I told the formless spirit, as he flew off with it. I then started to nurture my aperture. I was just a step away from reaching rank 4 peak stage. My primeval sea essence was at rank 4 middle stage, but with steep tea gu, it was at peak stage. However, now with a boundless amount of primeval dao water, it didn't matter.

My use of primeval sea essence to activate qi shape gu and nurture my aperture was constantly refilled with primeval dao water. I soon reached rank 4 peak stage, but I wasn't stopping there. I began to break through to rank 5. Cultivation is normally a pain for many, with players and npc's hitting walls that require outside help to overcome. But for me, it was nothing.

One of food path's greatest uses was to aid in cultivation. Liquid gu gave me the primeval dao water, and with large appetite gu, I could handle drinking so much constantly. After a while, I broke through to rank 5. I stopped drinking the primeval dao water and stopped cultivating.

I put all the primeval dao water back into the cauldron and stood up. "Congratulations on the breakthrough, master," the formless land spirit said.

"Bring me back my gu," I told him, and he flew off, returning shortly with the small appetite gu, which I placed back on my stomach, restoring my sense of hunger to normal.

"Are you going to rest before you continue cultivating, master?" the formless spirit asked.

"Kind of. I need one of my gu to advance first, and while I'm at it, I might as well advance my other key gu too." I wanted to use steep tea gu to help me break through the minor stages quicker, but the advancement takes time. I'll have to wait a week, maybe two, if it fails the first time.

It's not a problem, though. In the meantime, I can advance my other food path gu and maybe refine some others while I'm at it. So, I started to refine my food path gu to the next rank. There were almost no issues with them, as food path gu were my expertise. That and I had an abundance of resources and a strong soul to redo anything—even from scratch.

I opened up a sealed bottle, and a strong, sweet smell hit me. Inside was a small stick leaf bug gu that gave off the aura of a rank 5 gu. Ah, I'll never tire of refining this gu. I pulled out my newly refined rank 5 steep tea gu.

I tossed it into my aperture, where my light purple primeval sea essence slowly turned into a violet purple. "Oh, that one's not a liquor worm, Master?" the formless land spirit asked.

"No, this one is special, and I won't tell you how to refine it. Now keep making the liquor I taught you," I replied.

I had him make several bottles of liquor that had a chance to refine the liquor worm. If I want to start a sect, I need incentives, and what better bait than the famous liquor worm? Countless players were D-grade or C-grade talents, but they had great potential.

With a proper contract on the players' shop, I could help grow them and have a proper sect in the future. Just the liquor worm and wine alone could allow me to create my own sect. With the contract enforced by the players' shop, I don't have to worry about people trying to use it as their vital gu, let alone trying to sell/trade it.

Even with all that, I'm sure the liquor worm will end up in other people's hands one way or another. However, it will take years for someone to create higher-rank recipes. As long as I continue refining the liquor worm for everyone, it will be even harder for others to do so. With wills, I don't even have to do it personally.

Now that my steep tea gu was at rank 5, I could continue to cultivate. I brought out a gu that had taken me the longest to refine. I had to restart a few times with it, but it was necessary. It was a small grey beetle with a hollow circle on its wings. A time path gu from a mortal time path inheritance I had bought in my past life. It was called fast forward gu, and just like its name implies, it can fast forward time.

It fast-forwards time on one target. It's a one-time use gu. About a month gets fast-forwarded for the target. It was a very handy gu for me, and even now, it had its use. I got ready to cultivate again, but this time, I activated fast forward gu, and the target was none other than myself.

With my rate of time accelerated, steep tea gu would be able to advance my primeval sea essence faster. Normally, it takes three minutes for steep tea gu to further refine my primeval sea essence to the next stage, but now it's just about instant.

With the never-ending advance of my primeval sea essence to help nurture my aperture, my cultivation would be a breeze. As I nurtured my aperture, I quickly advanced to the middle stage, and with steep tea gu and the accelerated time, my primeval sea essence advanced to the upper stage almost instantly thanks to these two factors.

All the minor stages were nothing, and I was quickly able to advance my primeval sea essence all the way to rank 5 peak stage. Only then did I stop, as all that would be left would be to advance to the immortal level. I can't advance inside of formless blessed land, as it lacks food path dao marks.

I could advance here, but formless blessed land would be in chaos. With the food path dao marks gone, things would starve to death from hunger or kill and destroy anything else to try to eat it. Not to mention, if I advance here, I'd get far fewer dao marks than I would in a proper place.

If I were to advance in a place with low food path dao marks, I'd end up with fewer dao marks myself. But if I advanced in a place with abundant food path dao marks, then not only would I get more food path dao marks, but my tribulation would also be more food path-based.

"I've never seen or heard of anyone advancing so quickly in my life. Master, if people had your methods, immortals wouldn't be so rare, and higher-ranked mortals would be the norm," the formless land spirit said.

"Well, it's not like I plan to tell the world my methods. Now, bring me to where you set up the whole earth gu." I said. As I did, the formless spirit turned into a giant frowning face.

"Master, I still think we shouldn't have connected our blessed lands. His tribulations could come over here if they're not stopped," the giant frowning face said.

"Quit complaining about this. Masked spirit has better killer moves and an immortal gu that he can use well. He's much more capable of handling tribulations than you. He's the one with more risk than you, but now that you have me as a master, you have nothing to worry about. Now, take me there."

The formless land spirit took me over to a more barren side of the blessed land, where he then reluctantly activated the hole earth gu. I had masked spirit refine hole earth gu while I was away and instructed him to send it over once it was done. It was in the gu I had formless look out for while I was busy.

The gate opened up and revealed the inside of the masked blessed land, where masked spirit was waiting.