Wu Clan's Conflict
Wu Du Xiu wakes to another day. A rank eight food path healing Immortal Gu, Medicine Fragrance, fills her house with a thick smell of medicine, but her own rotting stench is intense enough that even Gu Immortals cannot stand the mixture. She knows she is very close to dying. ch. 1215
Wu Du Xiu’s punishment dates from her time as a rank six Gu Immortal, when a demonic path lover earned her the clan’s anger. She spent fifteen years locked away in this same house for it. There she found a Wu clan ancestor’s inheritance, cultivated it in secret, and used that blessed land to meet her lover, undetected by the clan. She has long since forgotten the lover himself, and the pain has faded too. ch. 1215
The door opens on a middle aged man, well mannered, who kneels and bows deeply, calling her mother. She tells him he has a younger illegitimate half brother, born in Eastern Sea. Wu clan itself passes to him, she says, while her own personal inheritance goes to that half brother instead, and he accepts without protest and leaves. ch. 1215
Once safely inside his own Immortal Gu House, the man, Wu Yong, breaks into fury at his mother for wanting to bring back the half brother he calls a bastard. Without her two rank eight wind path Immortal Gu, he expects to remain bullied by Ba clan, Tie clan and Shang clan. His hunchbacked rank seven aide urges him to mind his health. Wu Yong kicks him away, roaring that he wants the Gu, not the resources. ch. 1215
The same aide then urges him to finish the half brother off, since Wu Du Xiu has only these two sons and Wu Yong would inherit everything if the other died. Wu Yong refuses at first, fearing his mother and doubting a mere rank seven. The aide presses back with the rank eight inheritance, but Wu Yong answers that his own dao marks still outmatch his brother’s. Neither of them need act directly: Ba clan, Tie clan, Chi clan and others already covet Wu clan’s standing, and leaking the half brother’s travel route would let a rival clan do the killing instead. Wu Yong is delighted, and praises his aide, promising him reward. ch. 1215
Once outside, the aide’s eyes flash with a sharp, hidden light. His true identity is not simply Wu Yong’s servant: he is Xu Tuo, a Ba clan spy planted inside Wu clan with the highest authority among Ba clan’s agents there. Convincing Wu Yong to want the half brother dead means that even if the leaked route is traced, Wu Yong’s protection hides Xu Tuo’s identity. ch. 1215
Southern Border’s righteous path politics differ from Northern Plains and Central Continent: one clan, Wu clan, dominates outright. At its historical peak Wu clan held three rank eight Gu Immortals at once, and has always kept at least one. Wu Yong, though rank eight, is unimpressive beside Southern Border’s other righteous rank eights. His illegitimate half brother Wu Yi Hai, a lone cultivator in Eastern Sea, is said to have incredible talent, formidable battle strength and fame even there. ch. 1215
Killing Wu Yi Hai would weaken Wu clan, damage Wu Yong’s reputation, and throw the clan into suspicion, and Xu Tuo sets to work with high hope. Some days later, three Gu Immortals are almost through the miasma regional wall. Uncle Zhang, an elderly Gu Immortal, warns that the final stretch out is the most dangerous, since pursuers will have fewer chances once they clear it. ch. 1215
Wu Yi Hai says he cares nothing for rewards, only for meeting the birth mother who abandoned him yet still arranged for Uncle Zhang to guide his cultivation. He affirms he became immortal, and remains, an Eastern Sea Gu Immortal. Uncle Zhang reassures him that Wu Du Xiu prepared an immortal killer move to cleanse his heaven and earth qi, letting him undergo tribulation as a Southern Border Gu Immortal. A lone cultivator who knows the weakness of standing alone, he is overjoyed to hear it. Then dragon breath resembling sword light strikes at his face. ch. 1215
