**Chapter 20: Wood Spiritual Root Gu**
Many problems awaited Zhou Ming's verification, and verification required the input of resources.
If the verification failed, he might lose all the reward points he had painstakingly earned, and even the primeval stones accumulated in the main world might be depleted, leading to double bankruptcy.
However, after some thought, Zhou Ming still came up with a preliminary plan.
He had never thought of giving up this great opportunity, even if the final outcome was not as he expected.
High returns naturally came with high risks, but Zhou Ming never lacked the courage to take a gamble. In his opinion, this wasn't even a high risk.
"Main God, I want to exchange for twenty Grass Root Gu."
Zhou Ming said loudly.
"Exchange successful. 2000 reward points consumed."
A pillar of light descended, and within it, twenty Grass Root Gu floated before Zhou Ming.
The Gu exchanged from the Main God had no self-awareness, so Zhou Ming easily refined all twenty Grass Root Gu and stored them in his aperture.
After some thought, he exchanged for two more Sword Qi Gu and also stored them in his aperture.
Then, Zhou Ming began to build his space.
During his recovery period after the Cronus headquarters explosion in the previous mission world, Yang Zhisheng and Yu Man had told Zhou Ming a lot about the Main God Space.
Some of this information, like the construction of the Main God Space, would be directly told by the Main God upon entering. Other information would not be directly given by the Main God and required reincarnators to explore it themselves.
This knowledge greatly benefited Zhou Ming, allowing him to avoid many detours and save a large number of reward points.
With a thought, buildings rose from the ground in the empty Main God Space.
First, a two-story villa, then a storage room, a tool room, a research lab, a gym, a small garden, a swimming pool… For that small garden, Zhou Ming spent another 100 reward points – soil, plants, water, microorganisms – that was the price for building a small ecosystem.
Compared to other exchanges, this price was incredibly reasonable.
After designing the buildings came the infrastructure: electricity, water, furniture, appliances, daily necessities. While these items could be generated for free, their use had strict limitations, such as not being able to take them out of the Main God Space, and extra charges for using the local electricity to charge his modern equipment, and so on.
Of course, free generated items did not include food. Food needed to be exchanged separately, with prices ranging from low to high. Ingredients were incredibly abundant, allowing reincarnators to choose freely.
After all this was done, Zhou Ming had a very comfortable living environment – assuming, of course, that he was the only one there.
Finally, Zhou Ming stepped into the living room of the villa and took a perpetual calendar clock off the wall.
Zhou Ming carefully examined the clock and solemnly set its time.
0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds.
He rehung the perpetual calendar clock on the wall and then took out a mechanical watch from his pocket, setting its time to match the perpetual calendar clock.
He wanted to measure the time flow difference between the Main God Space and the Gu World.
This matter was extremely important, directly affecting all his future arrangements. Of course, he had consulted the Main God, but the Main God had not given him any answer.
After completing all this, Zhou Ming directly exited the Main God Space.
The surroundings suddenly changed, and the next moment, Zhou Ming was directly submerged in water.
"What the hell."
Zhou Ming suddenly stood up, only then remembering that he had been taking a bath before entering the last mission world.
Soaking wet, he climbed out of the wooden tub. Zhou Ming simply took off his drenched clothes and used a towel to wipe the water from his body.
"This was a miscalculation. Now I have to figure out how to dispose of these clothes."
Zhou Ming shook his head with a bitter smile. Ten days had passed in the mission world, and he had been so preoccupied with Gu trading that he had completely forgotten about this.
However, he soon noticed something else.
"The water is cool, but not completely cold. I left this world and came back, with about half an hour in between."
"I completed the world mission and returned to the Main God Space, and I stayed in the Main God Space for about half an hour as well."
"How interesting. Does the time spent in the mission world only amount to an instant in the main world?"
He raised his wrist and saw that the watch on his hand was still ticking normally.
Because he was worried about different world rules, he had exchanged for a mechanical watch, driven by winding and gears. Indeed, it was useful.
"Then..."
Zhou Ming was about to push open the window to look at the sky outside when, suddenly, a strange change occurred within his body.
A Gu had naturally formed within him.
"What?"
Zhou Ming's face was filled with shock and surprise.
How could a Gu naturally form within his body?
He quickly immersed his mind into his aperture to examine the newly appeared Gu.
He saw that the Gu was verdant in color, shaped like a root, quietly resting in the bronze true essence sea, and it was naturally refined by Zhou Ming.
The moment Zhou Ming's mind touched this Gu, a piece of information automatically transmitted into his consciousness.
**"Wood Spiritual Root Gu, Rank Four, can enhance a Gu Master's aptitude, raising Grade C aptitude to Grade B aptitude."**
"How is this possible?"
Zhou Ming was even more shocked.
He wasn't shocked by the Gu's effect. While Gu that could enhance aptitude were rare, he knew of quite a few.
For example, the Rank Five wood path Gu, Wooden Gu, could raise a Grade B aptitude Gu Master to Grade A aptitude, making its effect stronger than this Wood Spiritual Root Gu.
He was shocked by two problems.
First, he had directly received information about this new Gu.
Normally, when Gu Masters obtained an unknown Gu and could not find any information about it, they could only activate the Gu themselves to learn its abilities, gradually understanding its information through repeated use and exploration.
There was no way to have information directly poured into one's consciousness upon first contact. This wasn't an exchange from the Main God.
Second, this Gu was clearly refined from the Wood Spiritual Root integrated into his body. But how could the Wood Spiritual Root inexplicably refine itself into a Gu?
The laws contained within the Wood Spiritual Root itself didn't even belong to this world.
"Wait. Perhaps it's precisely because the Wood Spiritual Root doesn't belong to this world..."
Zhou Ming subconsciously looked up at the sky, though all he saw was the ceiling. His mind, however, opened up at this moment, suddenly taking flight.
Gu were the direct embodiment of this world's unique laws. Immortal Gu carried a complete law, while mortal Gu carried incomplete fragments of law.
The Gu World was not without precedents for accommodating laws from other worlds. As far as he knew, the current Supreme Grand Elder of the Lin family in the Western Desert was also a transmigrator like him, and he even had sword path dao marks from another world on him.
Laws converged into dao marks, and the combination of dao marks materialized as Gu. The quantity of certain dao marks on a Gu Master determined his Gu Master faction and cultivation strength – this was the uniqueness of this world.
So, what did laws from another world mean to this world?
Thinking of this, Zhou Ming's spirit was once again invigorated, and he licked his lips with barely concealed excitement.
"If it's as I expect, I will create many new Gu in the future."
At this moment, Zhou Ming felt that his vision of a beautiful future had become more real.
After some thought, he did not immediately use this Wood Spiritual Root Gu to raise his cultivation aptitude to Grade B. He still had one more thing to test.
But tonight was enough.
For tomorrow's actions and gains, Zhou Ming decisively chose to rest early and recuperate.
The next day.
After getting up, Zhou Ming went directly to the family's shop.
"Zhou Ming, why are you here so early?"
Only a young man stood behind the counter in the shop. Seeing Zhou Ming, he greeted him warmly.
This person was Zhou Lu, also a Two-turn Gu Master, but he was already at the peak of Two-turn, only a step away from Three-turn.
"Yes, I want to sell a Gu." Zhou Ming said, taking out a Sword Qi Gu.
"You're going to..." Seeing that it was a Sword Qi Gu, Zhou Lu couldn't help but be stunned. "You want to sell it?"
"Yes." Zhou Ming nodded. "I can barely afford to keep it anymore."
"That's right." Zhou Lu said with a grin. "I've always said, instead of keeping this Gu and dwelling on the past, it's better to exchange it for primeval stones to improve your cultivation. If your parents saw you do this, I believe they would also be happy."
Previously, Zhou Lu had suggested to Zhou Ming that he sell the Sword Qi Gu and Water Armor Gu, but Zhou Ming had refused, citing that he didn't want to sell his parents' relics.
He didn't really have deep feelings for his parents in this life. It was just that the situation hadn't reached the point where he had to sell even these two Gu.
But now, things were different. This Sword Qi Gu was exchanged from the Main God, and Zhou Ming had decided to accumulate as many primeval stones as possible. None of the Gu on him were unsellable.
Saying he couldn't afford to keep it now was just an excuse to sell it.
Seeing that Zhou Ming had made up his mind, Zhou Lu stopped talking nonsense, quickly put away the Sword Qi Gu, and soon came out with a small cloth bag.
"As we agreed before, 850 primeval stones."
Zhou Lu handed the cloth bag to Zhou Ming, saying with a hint of envy in his tone, "These primeval stones are enough for you to cultivate to Two-turn."
"Thanks." Zhou Ming smiled faintly.
This Sword Qi Gu was not that rare. If sold in an outside shop, it would generally fetch 800 primeval stones, with little room for bargaining.
After all, it was the family's shop, and they always gave some preferential treatment to family members.
With the primeval stones in hand, Zhou Ming did not linger, leaving the family alone and heading toward a market near the family.
The natural environment of the Northern Plains dictated that most Northern Plains families were not fixed in one place, and their mobility was very high.
Sometimes, when several large tribes converged, they would spontaneously form a market to buy and sell various goods, and then disband as the tribes left one by one.
However, many tribes, due to having a good living environment, were stationed for long periods, and around these tribes, fixed markets would form.
The market Zhou Ming was going to was the closest one to Warm Pool Valley, basically established under the protection of the Zhou family.
For the Zhou family members, it was very safe, and they generally didn't have to worry about being forced to buy or sell or having their property stolen.