Chapter 107

In a curtained-off corner of his wine tavern, Fang Yuan meets Jiang Ya to settle the week’s trade, checking four money bags of primeval stones by weight alone rather than opening them, a habit he credits to over a hundred years of experience in deals and transactions. Satisfied, he hands over a small cloth bag holding nine vitality leaves, which Jiang Ya counts three times before confirming the number and pocketing it, meaning to resell the rank one healing grass Gu to the clan through his own shop rather than have Fang Yuan deal with clansmen directly. Jiang Ya is Jiang He’s brother, and the two men had already met once before, while Fang Yuan was searching for a Liquor worm; his brother’s half-alliance bond with Fang Yuan is part of why Fang Yuan trusts him with the resale. ^{ch. 107}

Jiang Ya’s admiration edges toward jealousy as he pours wine for them both: within a year Fang Yuan has gone from a student without the right to wear a Gu Master’s battle attire to the owner of a wine tavern, bamboo buildings, and the nine leaf vitality grass, while Jiang Ya himself still wears a rank one green belt against Fang Yuan’s rank two red one. He reports that the clan sells vitality leaves at fifty-five primeval stones apiece against Fang Yuan’s own instructed price of fifty, and with demand outstripping supply he urges Fang Yuan to grow more leaves each day, but Fang Yuan refuses outright, saying nine leaves is already his limit and already wastes too much of his cultivating time, an answer that still nets him four hundred primeval stones a day. Jiang Ya presses no further, only musing aloud that Fang Yuan could empty a bamboo building for himself, take a wife, and keep several servants instead of living in his rented flat, a suggestion Fang Yuan answers with nothing but a light laugh. ^{ch. 107}

Watching the spring thaw outside the window, Fang Yuan turns over his own position: with the Fang Zheng family-asset matter settled and his White Jade Gu and Moonglow Gu both refined for defense and offense, his priority is fusing a second Liquor worm into a Four Flavour Liquor worm, for which he still needs sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy wine, and he plans to use the coming caravan as an occasion to show his true fighting strength. He judges that between his Moonglow Gu, his White Jade Gu, and five hundred years of combat experience he now outmatches group leaders like Jiao San, but still falls short of Chi Shan, Mo Yan, and Qing Shu, who hold higher cultivation and more Gu worms with deeper trump cards than the two he carries. Among his own age group he ranks Fang Zheng, Mo Bei, and Chi Cheng as the clear leaders, and worries in particular that Fang Zheng’s new rank two Moon Raiment already lets him contend with Fang Yuan and will only widen the gap unless the Four Flavour Liquor worm keeps his cultivation pace even with it; beyond his own generation he still counts himself too weak to challenge a rank three or rank four Gu Master, and reasons he still needs a movement-type and a reconnaissance-type Gu worm to round out his strength. ^{ch. 107}

Jiang Ya breaks his train of thought to ask about recent trouble at Fang Yuan’s properties, and Fang Yuan confirms he has traced it to his uncle Gu Yue Dong Tu, who stopped using Fang Zheng to stir conflict after Gu Yue Qing Shu warned him off but has since paid other Gu Masters to harass Fang Yuan’s businesses out of unspent anger. A clerk soon reports fresh trouble in progress, and Jiang Ya, checking outside, comes back pale to name the instigator as Gu Yue Man Shi, a rank two Gu Master Fang Yuan already knows by reputation as a defense specialist and leader of the Man Shi group, slightly more famous than Jiao San. A crash sounds from the main hall, followed by a loud complaint that the tavern’s wine tastes foul and a demand for compensation, and Fang Yuan rises with a cold light in his eyes. ^{ch. 107}