Passive Gluttony

Southern Border

Because of its climate and geography, the Southern Border was covered in jungles and venomous insects.

Coupled with the heat, humidity, miasma, and other conditions, it was sparsely populated.

Yet everything had two sides. Though the environment here was harsh and people were few,

its unique resources were correspondingly abundant, drawing many people to carve out a place for themselves in the Southern Border.

"Tomorrow is the day of Gu Planting?"

Zhou Feng was somewhat stunned.

He had only transmigrated into this world three days ago.

Over those brief three days, he had barely managed to adapt to this world.

At the same time, he had only barely learned about it. There were still many things he did not understand.

What he knew so far was that this was a world where one could cultivate, and Zhou Feng was currently in a cultivation sect.

Moreover, he was a new disciple of this sect.

If that had been all, it would not have been so bad.

But after investigating over the past few days, he discovered that he was in an unorthodox sect.

The sect he was in was called the Three Gu Sect. Judging by its name, it seemed to specialize in raising Gu.

It seemed that the original owner of Zhou Feng's body had been forcibly captured from a nearby stockade and dragged up the mountain.

Forcibly abducting people into the sect—no matter how he looked at it, that was not the conduct of an orthodox sect.

As for this so-called day of Gu Planting, simply put, every disciple had to plant a Gu insect inside their body tomorrow.

Only after planting a Gu insect would one count as having officially entered the sect.

Plant a Gu insect inside his body?

Just hearing it made every inch of Zhou Feng's body scream in refusal.

Once a Gu insect was planted inside him, what consequences would follow? What effects would it have?

He had no control over any of it, nor did he know.

"Escape? That's not very likely!"

The moment he thought of his future days, Zhou Feng's first thought was to run.

But after considering it, he realized that was simply unrealistic.

There were not only patrols around the mountain, but all kinds of miasma as well.

Even if an ordinary person like him somehow escaped, he would still be unable to survive.

He had no confidence that he could stay alive in this dense forest.

And even if he escaped, what could he do?

He knew next to nothing about this world. He might as well muddle along in the Three Gu Sect.

In that case, it was still more promising to obediently become an ordinary disciple of the Three Gu Sect.

Besides, it was not as if he had no cheat.

At that moment, a Skill Panel appeared before his eyes.

It was the Skill Panel from a game he had played in his previous life, a game called Passive Master.

In short, every skill in that game was passive—even the enemies' skills were passive.

Combat came down to seeing whose passives were stronger, with the two sides simply hacking at each other.

He had no idea what changes would occur now that this Skill Panel had followed him across worlds.

"Huh? A progress bar? It's at one hundred percent?"

Zhou Feng suddenly noticed that there was a progress bar beneath the Skill Panel.

And that progress bar was already full.

"Drawing passive skill..."

Once the progress bar filled, a lottery interface appeared on the Skill Panel.

Then, he drew a passive skill called Gluttony.

Gluttony (Level 1): Whenever you digest food, you can digest it faster and more thoroughly. At the same time, you will become hungry faster.

Zhou Feng immediately felt a strange warm current remaking his stomach.

"Gluttony? This passive skill..."

Zhou Feng's brow furrowed slightly.

In the game, this skill counted as a late-game skill.

Because in the early stages, this passive was simply too weak.

It could neither immediately increase combat strength nor offer much early-game benefit.

Its only advantage was that it let him eat more without worrying about indigestion.

As he thought, Zhou Feng's stomach began to growl.

Yet there were only two steamed buns in front of him. Since he had not undergone Gu Planting, he was not yet a disciple of the Three Gu Sect.

Therefore, this was all the food he had.

"Just endure it for a while!"

Zhou Feng picked up the somewhat hardened steamed buns and comforted himself inwardly.

Since he was here, he might as well make the best of it. Since he could not change this reality, he would have to learn to bear it.

Because he was starving, he finished the two steamed buns in just a few bites.

The moment the buns went down his throat, he felt no fullness at all. Instead, he felt even hungrier.

He could even sense the blood in his stomach rapidly flowing.

The two steamed buns he had just eaten seemed to have been digested immediately.

"This..."

Was the first passive skill he had obtained really this trash?

Zhou Feng glanced outside and noticed people still patrolling. He immediately abandoned the thought in his heart.

There was no helping it. He could only endure for one night.

And so, Zhou Feng spent the night with an empty stomach.

At dawn, all the Three Gu Sect's probationary disciples gathered together.

Following the crowd, he mixed in among them and began observing his surroundings.

At the same time, he searched for food. Having been hungry since last night, he felt as though the lining of his stomach were burning.

He had already gone from being extremely hungry to feeling somewhat numb.

To his surprise, these probationary disciples were actually divided into ranks.

Those dressed in rags like Zhou Feng made up the majority and were basically relegated to the back.

Or rather, they had been directly pushed out to the fringes.

Then came those dressed more cleanly, with neat appearances, standing in the second group.

Finally, a mere handful stood at the very front.

It was as though everyone were following some unspoken rule.

The three groups were as distinct as the Jing and Wei Rivers, with a clear boundary between them.

"Something's wrong!"

Seeing this, the unease in Zhou Feng's heart grew increasingly severe.

Compared with those at the front, the group at the very back looked as though they were merely there to make up the numbers.

Most of the people around him also looked completely baffled.

They had no idea what was going on.

Just as he was feeling uneasy, he saw a group of people at the front begin talking.

Zhou Feng immediately stepped forward two paces and pricked up his ears.

Several raggedly dressed people beside him shot Zhou Feng a surprised look.

Then they immediately lowered their heads and stood quietly where they were, waiting.

Perhaps they had never expected those abandoned people at the back to eavesdrop.

That was why the stockade folk at the front were discussing things loudly.

"Are you planning to choose the Five Poisons Lineage or the Bloodthirsty Lineage?"

"I haven't decided yet!"

"If I could, I'd choose the Sect Master Lineage!"

"You? You want to choose the Sect Master Lineage? Stop dreaming!"

"..."

From the topic these people were discussing, Zhou Feng made a simple deduction.

It turned out that the Three Gu Sect should have three factions.

They were directly divided according to three kinds of Gu insects: the Five Poisons Gu, Bloodthirsty Gu, and Ice Spirit Gu.

The Gu insect held by the Sect Master Lineage was the Ice Spirit Gu.

Below them were the elder factions formed by the Five Poisons Gu and Bloodthirsty Gu.

For today's Gu Planting, only people from the Bloodthirsty Gu and Five Poisons Gu factions were present.

Simply put, there were only two choices: Five Poisons Gu or Bloodthirsty Gu. He could choose which kind of Gu insect to plant in his body.

So that was how it was. After learning this information, he nodded to himself.