Gu Yue Village

The novel opens in Gu Yue Village on Qing Mao Mountain as the Gu Yue clan prepares its annual Awakening Ceremony.

Fang Yuan returns to his youth by the Spring Autumn Cicada after a first life of about five hundred years. He means to remain a demon if reborn.^{ch. 1} He carries into this life a heart set on immortality. His twin brother is Gu Yue Fang Zheng.^{ch. 2} The Gu Yue clan migrated from the central lands to the South Border. Talent grades from A to D by how far a fifteen-year-old walks into the moon orchid sea.^{ch. 4} Pressure on that walk comes from a spirit spring deep in the flower sea.^{ch. 5} Fang Yuan opens as a rank one Gu Master with C grade talent; Fang Zheng is A grade, and the clan head names himself Gu Yue Bo.^{ch. 6} A week later the academy teaches the nine Gu Master ranks, retells the Flower Wine Monk’s fight with the fourth clan head, and Fang Yuan begins hunting a Liquor worm he remembers from that inheritance.^{ch. 7}

Entities introduced

Fang Yuan, reborn in Gu Yue Village on Qing Mao Mountain.^{ch. 1}
Spring Autumn Cicada, the Gu whose use returns him to this youth.^{ch. 1}
The Gu Yue clan, holding the village and the ceremony.^{ch. 1}
Gu Yue Fang Zheng, his twin brother.^{ch. 2}
Gu Yue Bo, the clan head named during the ceremony dispute over Fang Zheng.^{ch. 6}
Liquor worm and Moonlight Gu, named when Fang Yuan weighs vital Gu choices against the clan’s academy path.^{ch. 7}

Liquor worm inheritance

In Fang Yuan’s memory, a heartbroken clan Gu Master’s wine draws a Liquor worm, and following it into a hole he finds the Flower Wine Monk’s bones and inheritance.^{ch. 7} Fang Yuan follows a Liquor worm into a cliff chamber and finds the Flower Wine Monk’s bones.^{ch. 14} In that chamber a Photo-audio Gu projects a looping motion picture with sound on the stone wall: the Flower Wine Monk’s fight with the fourth generation clan head, recorded once and left to feed on light and sound while it repeats.^{ch. 16} He finishes refining the Liquor worm by pressing it with the Spring Autumn Cicada’s aura, then refines a Moonlight Gu the same way and reports to the academy as the first finisher under his own name.^{ch. 20}

Merchant caravan

Jia Fu, rank four leader of the Jia merchant caravan, reaches Gu Yue Village on a Treasure Brass Toad.^{ch. 39} Jia Jin Sheng names himself when he barges into the rock gambling den and tries to buy Fang Yuan’s unfinished mudball.^{ch. 42}

Image wall night

Before that night Fang Yuan still weighs selling the image wall, noting that the Flower Wine Monk slapped the Photo-audio Gu onto the wall so the recording would loop and show the truth.^{ch. 45} At the image wall cave, after Jia Jin Sheng presses him about what he gained from the Flower Wine Monk, Fang Yuan kills him with moonblades.^{ch. 46}

Merchant investigation close

Later Jia Fu interrogates him with the rank four Bamboo Gentleman; under the Spring Autumn Cicada’s aura the Gu fails to mark his answers as lies. Jia Fu leaves Gu Yue Village planning to hire Tie Xue Leng.^{ch. 57} The same hire is also called Tie Leng Xue, and Fang Yuan treats the murder trouble as settled.^{ch. 59} Qing Mao Mountain continues from chapter 60.