Fang Yuan had not heard of Beauty Gu, only that it was mentioned in passing sometime during his earlier life.
He had plans to try to integrate it within the Dollhouse to make it a Rank 6 Immortal Gu House, but that would have to wait until he was an Immortal.
As for Ambition Gu, its effects were not very clear. From the story, it seemed to help Gu Masters in breaking through the crystal walls of their apertures. However, it was an Immortal Gu - that seemed like a wasteful thing to have at that point. Or was its use more metaphorical?
Many of these issues would only be solved once he underwent Immortal ascension.
***
Once Fang Zheng had gotten up and recovered somewhat from breaking through to Rank 3, Fang Yuan called upon him.
"Oh, elder brother, what's going on?" Fang Zheng asked, wondering why he was here visiting him this early in the morning. Fang Yuan also looked like he was dressed up for some kind of grand occasion.
"Oh, you've been cultivating for so long... did you lose track of time?" Fang Yuan asked him. "Today is the Awakening Ceremony."
"Oh wait, that's today?" Fang Zheng thought.
News of him becoming an elder had still not spread throughout the village, but this was, without a doubt, more important. Fang Yuan announced to his brother his advancement to Rank 3 in the underground cavern.
"Everyone, I've got news. We have a new elder with us: Gu Yue Fang Zheng!" The other elders congratulated him briefly before the events of the Awakening Ceremony began.
Normally, there would be a bit more pomp and circumstance, but his advancement had coincided with the Awakening Ceremony and that took precedence for the time being. Any celebration could be done afterwards.
Still, Fang Zheng was not too upset about this. He had matured to the point where he no longer felt he needed recognition from other people; he knew he had advanced to Rank 3 and had done something great, which was more than enough for him.
"All right, then, let the Awakening Ceremony commence," Fang Yuan said.
'There are so few people here,' Fang Yuan thought to himself. He cast his mind back to his own Awakening Ceremony.
There had been a hundred or so hopefuls gathered on the other side of the spirit spring.
Now, however, there were only 23 youngsters. In addition to these 23 youngsters, though, there were 10 people who were far older: seven women and three men.
These were the mortals whom Fang Yuan had decided to give a chance to open up their apertures. Seeing how anemic the new class was, he could understand why.
Although Fang Yuan had opened up this opportunity to everyone, for now, there would only be opening it up to 10 people in order to still maintain original Gu Yue clansmen as the majority.
As it was, given they were mortals and did not share the first gen Gu Yue Ancestor's bloodline, it was expected that out of these 10 people, at maximum, maybe four or five would become Gu Masters.
Fang Yuan had his own reasons for trying to expand the clan.
For one, the more blood relatives he had, the easier it was to use - Blood is Thicker Than Water.
Secondly, it made collecting human wills either to use Hope of the Clansmen and for refining Hope Gu.
Third, he had a new mission.
New Main Mission Unlocked!
Village As Before
Description: Increase the Gu Yue clan's size to its prior numbers.
Reward: The daily Human Path dao marks you have for being clan head will be increased to ten.
Double the reward... without a doubt that was enticing.
He stood near a large platform. Fang Zheng took a glance at him. 'Just a while back it was us who was down there, wondering what the elders were thinking.' So much had happened since that Awakening Ceremony - so much that he still felt like it was an odd sort of dream. If someone had told him what the future was going to hold he wouldn't have believed them during that time.
Qing Shu glanced at Fang Yuan. "Who should go first? The mortals or the Gu Yue clansmen?"
Fang Yuan pondered the question for a moment before saying, "Let the Gu Yue clansmen go first!"
He still had to maintain the image that the Gu Yue clansmen were being treasured above all, and this was the best way to ensure it.
The youngsters nervously stepped forward as Qing Shu called out their names. The first hopeful found that he could only move three steps - he was not a Gu Master, and could only return to his family, ashamed.
Fang Zheng watched this all with a sense of apprehension. Although it wasn't him undergoing any of this, he couldn't help but feel a great deal of pity for all of them. With a chuckle, he remembered how he had tripped over his own feet before he had been encouraged to walk as far as he could. At that moment, he had felt mortified, but now, he could easily laugh at his former self.
No one did anything like that now, though some of them looked like they were close to it.
"Gu Yue Luo Mei - C grade talent!"
"Gu Yue Shi Lin - D grade talent!"
Many of the Gu Yue clansmen had not talent at all, and when all was said and done, there were only C and D grade talents in this new batch. Not even a single B grade talent could be found.
"What is going on here?"
"Only one in two had the capability to become a Gu Master..."
"Has the bloodline really thinned so much?"
Fang Yuan's best guess was that most of the children with talent had been killed in the fight with Lord Sky Crane - and it was only because of their bad luck that they had been left with these kinds of people. When there were usually only one or two B-grade and higher talents per class, it was easy to see how pure, random chance could lead to this kind of skewed result.
Still, his main problem was one of numbers, and they would do well enough to bolster them.
Now, the question moved on to the mortals.
They had been specifically selected after several rounds of vetting. After all, they were Fang Yuan's own pet project and if anything went wrong it would reflect badly on him. These were people with no reason to despise the clan, and were all hard-working. Additionally, there was an age limit - none of the men were over forty and none of the woman were over twenty-five. He had also not chosen any woman who already had living children.
Seven out of ten of them had no talent. The oldest among them, a man who was forty years old, happened to awaken his aperture and was found to have D-grade talent. It was bottom-of-the-barrel aptitude, but the man looked like he had just struck gold, eyes shining with newfound hope.
So what if he would have to adopt a Gu Yue clansmen? He could still find a mortal wife, and have children of his own! The fact that none of the other men had succeeded only made his victory, no matter how tiny, all the sweeter!
In one swift moment, his fate had greatly changed!
The other two people who were successful among the mortals were woman. Both of them were C-grade talents, but one of them was more promising than the rest as her aptitude was at 55%. This was technically still just C-grade in terms of talent, but was at the cusp of where one could potentially advance to Rank 3. This woman with long eyelashes actually had the highest aptitude out of everyone that had been tested today.
'We will need to keep an eye on her,' Fang Yuan thought to himself. As it was, with the restrictions he placed, her growth would be severely limited until the point where the clan would already begin recovering.
This ceremony had been for lack of a better word, rather boring. Without the usual faction fights between the Mo and the Chi clan given they were gone, there was no political maneuvering to watch, and none of the youngsters were promising. One could only look forward to next year's batch.