An ordinary person would not have recognized anything 'abnormal' about the fawn, but to Fang Yuan's trained eye sharpened by 500 years' worth of experience. The fawn's eyes had slit pupils, and upon examination of its mouth one could barely make out the pointed teeth that would later grow into fangs. Its hooves had the slight vermillion tinge of what would later acquire a sanguineous hue.
The Crimsonhoof Deer!
It was a type of mutant beast.
Normally beasts were divided into ordinary beasts, Hundred Beast Kings, Thousand Beast Kings, Myriad Beast Kings, and Beast Emperors! These corresponded to Rank One through Rank Five Gu Masters in terms of strength. Normally beasts would grow into higher stages over ti if they were capable enough, however, the Crimsonhoof Deer was a Mutated Beast. Its strength would soon jump up and rival that of a Myriad Beast King, in other words, that of a Rank Four Gu Master. If it was lucky, it could even turn into the Crimsonhoof Deer Emperor- on par with a Rank Five Gu Master.
The above classification, was of course, only for mortal beasts. For immortal beasts there was a different classification.
Mutated Beasts appeared at random within herds of animals. They were extrely valuable- Fang Yuan would've been able to sell it for a great profit, or, if he was a Blood Path Immortal, would raise it in his aperture. It was classified as a type of Blood Path beast.
But, he had no easy way to sell it.
The next best thing would be to raise it. Although he did not have the strength and power to enslave a Rank Four beast, one did not need to subdue it by force in order to use it. If he was the one to raise it from infancy, it would naturally grow to follow him even when it grew up.
Even humans were similar; Fang Yuan couldn't help but think. Fang Zheng would, if allowed, grow to be not only Rank 3 but Rank 4 later on. And they would still have him on a leash- even a mortal like Shen Cui could make him dance in the palm of her hand. No Enslavent Gu was needed for that.
As it was, Rank One Deer Enslavemnt Gu would not work on this creature. Once it exceeded the boundaries of an ordinary beast, it would break free from Fang Yuan's control.
He could not raise it, however. He didn't even have a room for himself, and was living in the academy dorm. There was no way that he could provide the constant care a fawn like this would need. Pay soone else to do it? He could do so, but that would raise a large number of questions. Not to ntion that it would eventually be discovered as a mutated beast, and would likely be taken from him by the clan or cause large amounts of damage and be killed. While he might be able to get the mutated beast to acclimatize to his presence, keeping it in Gu Yue village was out of the question. It would attack the other humans.
These thoughts passed through his mind in nearly an instant. However, there had been a reason as to why he had been called to this place.
"What concerns you so much, Young Master?" Ji Han asked. It was odd to him that a Gu Master would be concerned with sothing so petty.
"I wanted to find a way to save this fawn," Fang Yuan said. His mind was going through several things as to what to do.
"Truly? I also could not bear to kill it, thinking of it living such a sad life but to think there was soone else who thought the sa..." the hunter mused.
"It has always been my philosophy in life that, 'helping soone in need is always the right thing to do,'" Fang Yuan said. "As a matter of fact, if I saw soone in trouble and didn't do sothing to help them out, I wouldn't be able to eat dinner that day as the guilt within would gnaw at relentlessly- that is just the kind of person I am."
The hunter was greatly moved. To think that he had initially pointed his weapon at Fang Yuan because he believed he sense evil- no, this young Gu Master clearly had a heart of gold.
As a matter of fact, now that Fang Yuan was here, the hunter felt that he could not longer just walk away from the fawn. Perhaps, together, they could do sothing?
"Do you happen to know if there are any deer nearby?" Fang Yuan asked. "Adults, I an."
"In that direction, about an hour away, but..."
"Can you stay here while I try sothing?" Fang Yuan asked, wandering away slightly. It didn't look like he was out to hunt the deer, so the hunter wasn't sure what was going on but obliged nonetheless. Sothing about the way Fang Yuan behaved made him believe that he was quite reliable and could be trusted.
anwhile, back in the retreat, Fang Zheng was done refining his second gu worm and decided to take a break.
So of his newly acquired 'friends' approached him. "Fang Zheng, we had a new idea that we thought could help you?"
"Oh?"
"You were trying to write poems to beat Fang Yuan, right, but, he's a genius when it cos to poetry," soone said. "But there's sothing else that you can do- sothing that might get you famous as well in that area. It's called writing novels! Anyone without talent can easily do it! I an, not to say that you lack talent but..."
Fang Zheng went around this group, who included so people who were not part of Yu Sai's peeping expedition. They had started working on their own stories, and seeing them, and with nothing better to do, Fang Zheng decided to try his hand at it.
Gu Daoist Apprentice
By: Fang Zheng
Once upon a ti, in the weakest corner of the weakest region in the world, there was the weakest clan who lived in the weakest village. There, in the weakest family, a child was born with the lowest talent among the family. His na was...
Fang Zheng contemplated what to call his protagonist. He wanted to make it a self-insert, but he couldn't be too obvious about it.
...Zheng Fang. Zheng Fang had no talent and the people in the village always bullied him and considered him to be less worthy than his older brother. However, he had one person who always supported him- the family maid whose na was Cui Shen. She always supported Zheng Fang, saying "I believe in you Zheng Fang, even if the world turns against you, I'll always keep supporting you." Everyti he would hear those words, no matter how badly Zheng Fang felt, he always cheered up. She had a smile that could light up his day, no matter how dark things were.
However, Zheng Fang had little talent and continued to be overshadowed and oppressed, until one day while running away from so bullies, he ended up falling off a cliff.
"Ouch... that could've really hurt..."
As he was about to get up though, he found sothing strange on the ground.
It was a small gu worm, which looked like little more than a flea.
"Wow! I wonder what kind of gu worm this is..."
"Welco, young traveler," a voice echoed from within the gu worm.
"Ah!"
"Relax, I was an ancient master and my soul got trapped within this gu worm. When you fell, you freed from where I was trapped. I thank you kindly."
Fang Zhen paused before continuing to write.
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