Chapter 118

Fang Yuan recalls the legend of Jiang Fan, a mortal family servant from roughly two hundred years later in his previous life, whose fame rested on a single River Swallowing Toad. Left tending his cruel master’s fishery, Jiang Fan found the toad lying belly-up in the water, seemingly dead, blocking his catch and threatening the quota that, if missed, would cost him his head. Unable to move it, he spent his final days before the deadline lying on its belly, cursing and confiding in it as if it were dying alongside him. When the deadline arrived and he went to bid the “corpse” farewell, the toad suddenly woke, sucked in the river until the bed was nearly dry, and vomited out a mountain of fish, prawns, turtles, crabs, snails and eels that let Jiang Fan meet his quota. ^{ch. 118}

Investigating Gu Masters discovered the toad was a rank five Gu and moved to expel it; when they were about to kill Jiang Fan for pleading on its behalf, the toad itself struck, carrying him off and vomiting a stream of river water that engulfed the village and drowned half the hill, a battle that shook the whole southern continent. Rank five Gu Masters were rare even in Gu Yue clan history, with only the first and fourth generation clan leaders ever reaching that rank, and Jiang Fan’s ownership of a rank five Gu worm as an ordinary mortal with no awakened aperture stunned the wider Gu Master world. He went on to found a hamlet that drew mortals seeking equality and freedom from oppression, but was eventually assassinated; after his death the toad departed, and Gu Masters razed the hamlet and killed those who resisted. ^{ch. 118}

Fang Yuan laughs, wondering if a new Jiang Fan will emerge from his own influence this time. Chi Shan, however, returns from the mountain’s foot grim-faced and unsuccessful, and the villagers there, having failed to move the toad themselves, kneel outside the village gates begging to be let in, their panic spreading. In the hall, the punishment hall’s clan elder wants the kneeling commoners killed outright, but Gu Yue Yao Ji objects that killing only a few is enough to frighten the rest away without turning the clan into a spectacle for the other villages. Gu Yue Chi Lian argues that the more urgent matter is finding someone who can wake the toad, and proposes asking the Xiong clan, whose strength is their specialty, even at a price; the other elders, and Gu Yue Bo himself, are moved by the suggestion. ^{ch. 118}

Chi Shan then asks to speak, questioning whether waking the toad truly requires a single person’s strength alone. Gu Yue Bo explains that, by the previous clan head’s account, the mildly tempered toad will not rage if pushed by one unaided person, which is why the village’s strongest was sent and still failed. When Chi Shan requests a Brute Force Longhorn Beetle Gu to add a bull’s strength to his own, an elder immediately refuses, warning that a Gu worm’s aura would alert the toad and could provoke a rampage, and Gu Yue Bo confirms that only one person’s own strength, without such aid, can earn the toad’s recognition and make it withdraw, much as a wild beast yields territory only to a rival that proves itself alone. Understanding this, Chi Shan recommends someone stronger than himself: Gu Yue Fang Yuan. ^{ch. 118}