There are currently only eight direct descendants of the third generation of the Gu Family.
The eldest uncle, Gu Qian, has three sons: the eldest son Gu Changqing, the second sister Gu Huaiyu, and the fourth brother Zhengqing.
Gu Feng's father has only this one son.
The fourth uncle, Gu Zuo, has three sons: the fifth sister Gu Tongyun, the sixth brother Gu Lingyun, and the seventh brother Gu Zhe.
The fifth uncle, Gu You, has only one daughter, Gu Guyue.
Gu Lingyun is one of only two special exceptions among the eight siblings.
While the other seven are legitimate descendants of the main branch, he alone is the son of a concubine.
Furthermore, his mother was originally just an ordinary maidservant in the estate.
Growing up in such an environment led to Gu Lingyun's exceptional "politeness."
Beneath his excessive "politeness" lay a profound sense of alienation.
He observed etiquette with such rigid stiffness even when speaking with his own siblings; perhaps he had never truly integrated into the Gu Family at all.
As for why he was one of only two exceptions, the other exception was, of course, Gu Feng.
Since childhood, Gu Feng could be considered a notorious figure within both the Gu Family and the entire Anshuang County.
Naturally, since his reputation was hardly a good one, he generally chose to keep a low profile and avoid mentioning it.
……
"Is this the renowned Blood-Changing Pill?"
After Gu Feng returned from the martial arts arena, Gu Hou had tossed him a bottle containing just eight Blood-Changing Pills.
At that moment, he was alone in his room, holding a single Blood-Changing Pill and examining it closely.
The Blood-Changing Pill was entirely dark red, its surface marked with fine patterns and shimmering with a faint, bloody luster.
As he brought it closer, he could catch a faint, ethereal, fresh fragrance.
The Blood-Changing Pill was a common pill used by Grade 6 Martial Artists to advance their cultivation. A single pill provided an amount of cultivation energy equivalent to what a Grade 6 Martial Artist of medium aptitude would gain in about ten days of practice.
The energy contained within a single Blood-Changing Pill was roughly fixed.
Therefore, it was impossible for someone of inferior aptitude and someone of superior aptitude to both gain ten days of cultivation after taking it.
After all, the cultivation speed of a genius with superior aptitude could be anywhere from a dozen to several dozen times faster than that of someone with inferior aptitude.
Thus, the exact same Blood-Changing Pill would save a person of lower aptitude a dozen to twenty days of bitter cultivation once refined.
For a genius, however, a single Blood-Changing Pill would only save two or three days of cultivation time.
A single Blood-Changing Pill was worth ten gold coins.
One must know that the total annual expenses of an ordinary family of four in Anshuang County amounted to no more than three or four gold coins.
To the scion of a noble family, a Blood-Changing Pill merely saved a few days of time.
To ordinary commoners, however, it represented several years' worth of food and clothing.
This cruel world reminded Gu Feng of his past life, where a wealthy family's pet dog lived better than ordinary commoners by more than tenfold.
"To think that even after transmigrating to another world, the gap between the rich and the poor remains this vast!"
Gu Feng could not help but sigh inwardly.
In the Taicang Kingdom, one gold coin could be exchanged for one hundred silver coins, and one silver coin for one hundred copper coins.
A few copper coins were enough to buy breakfast at an eatery in the county town.
Gu Feng swallowed the Blood-Changing Pill in a single gulp. Immediately, he felt a massive surge of energy erupt in his lower abdomen, rapidly rushing along the cultivation pathways he had already opened up.
Just as Gu Feng circulated the family technique, the Star-Shattering Art, to refine this massive ball of energy, a sudden anomaly occurred.
Gu Feng felt a mysterious energy appear out of thin air within his body.
No! It hadn't suddenly appeared; rather, it had always been there, only Gu Feng had never noticed it before.
It was as if "it" had always been a part of Gu Feng, but because it was normally dormant, Gu Feng's brain had subconsciously ignored it.
Now, as the medicinal pill entered his body, "it" seemed to be suddenly activated.
This mysterious energy erupted from every part of his body, traveling through countless tiny meridians and blood vessels until it finally reached the main meridians, where it tightly trapped the energy transformed from the pill.
What was going on?
Caught off guard by the sudden anomaly, Gu Feng attempted to control this mysterious, blood-colored power.
Only to find that he had no control over it whatsoever.
With no other choice, Gu Feng abandoned the idea of controlling it and instead mobilized his own Qi and Blood Power, moving it close to the energy.
This time, he smoothly touched the mysterious power and began testing whether he could pry open an opening to look inside.
Yet no matter how Gu Feng tried, he failed to pry open even the tiniest gap.
Although he failed to breach the barrier formed by this mysterious energy, Gu Feng was not empty-handed.
Amidst the collision of energy against energy, he faintly sensed a feeling of familiarity emanating from the mysterious energy.
This felt incredible to Gu Feng—could energy even emit emotions?
Ultimately, Gu Feng chose to trust his intuition and decided to wait and see how things developed.
At that moment, Gu Feng suddenly felt this mysterious blood-colored energy rotate gently.
Immediately, wisps of extremely pure and rare energy seeped out from within it.
Subconsciously, Gu Feng controlled his Qi and Blood Power to refine these pure wisps of energy.
To his pleasant surprise, Gu Feng discovered that these pure streams of energy were refined instantly, and he could feel his cultivation increase by a microscopic fraction.
Could the function of this mysterious blood-colored energy be to purify energy?
For a moment, Gu Feng was both startled and overjoyed. For now, it seemed this mysterious blood-colored energy was beneficial and harmless.
Yet the fact that this thing seemed somewhat uncontrollable still made him feel quite uneasy.
An hour later,
the medicinal power within Gu Feng's body was finally completely purified by the mysterious blood-colored energy, after which the mysterious energy instantly vanished without a trace.
Yet Gu Feng sensed that it hadn't truly vanished; rather, in an instant, it had returned to every corner of his body.
Viewed this way, perhaps this mysterious blood-colored energy was a good thing, and he didn't need to be so terrified after all, Gu Feng thought thoughtfully.
Never mind all that; practice is the sole criterion for testing truth.
Whether it was good or bad, a few more tests would tell, Gu Feng decided inwardly.
Without hesitation, he picked up another Blood-Changing Pill and swallowed it. Sure enough, that mysterious blood-colored energy appeared once again.
Just as before, after trapping the pill's potency, it began purifying the medicinal power.
The next morning, at dawn,
Gu Feng walked out of his room with a beaming smile. The experiments from the previous night filled him with bright prospects for the future.
Normally, after refining a Blood-Changing Pill, a Grade 6 Martial Artist had to wait three full days before taking a second one.
Because all medicinal pills in the world carried drug resistance.
When a martial artist first consumed a certain pill, their body's resistance to it was at its peak.
If they took the same pill again right after, they might not even absorb one-tenth of its medicinal efficacy.
Of course, this strong drug resistance was only temporary.
After a period of time, most of this resistance would gradually fade away, leaving behind only a trace of stubborn, permanent resistance.
This was why the same pill could not be taken in large quantities over a short period.
Doing so would yield far more harm than good and could even cause the permanent drug resistance within the martial artist's body to increase drastically.
Last night, however, Gu Feng discovered that the pure energy purified by the mysterious blood-colored energy did not carry this drawback of drug resistance.
In other words, from now on, Gu Feng could continuously pop pills to cultivate.
Judging by Gu Feng's speed of refining one Blood-Changing Pill per hour the previous night, he could refine a maximum of twelve Blood-Changing Pills a day.
Moreover, because this purification process required no active control from Gu Feng,
it meant he didn't even need to sit in meditation to refine it; he could automatically refine the pill's energy to advance his cultivation even while practicing martial arts.
With the help of this mysterious energy, Gu Feng could unscrupulously refine pills, and his cultivation speed would increase by at least severalfold, if not dozens of times.
"Even if the energy required for each of my blood-changes is a dozen or twenty times that of an ordinary person, I now have the confidence to catch up to them."
Gu Feng thought to himself.