At the village inn, Fang Yuan broods that more than a week spent luring the Liquor worm has caught him nothing, since only the Flower Wine Monk’s hoard can solve his troubles. Six drunken hunters at a nearby table argue over an expensive jar of green bamboo wine, and a mocking voice from a dark corner needles one of them into buying it out of anger. The stranger steps out as a Gu Master, young but wearing a rank one badge, and the hunter who challenged him freezes in terror. ch. 12
Narration notes that starting cultivation at fifteen and only reaching rank one’s upper stage by twenty marks him as D grade talent, a grade below Fang Yuan’s own. He smashes the jar instead of accepting it as an apology, snapping that hunters richer than a Gu Master have no right to flaunt wine money. Only Fang Yuan watches without flinching. He privately concludes that power alone decides who stands on top, the strong preying on the weak in any world. His companion, a woman seated with him, tells him to stop shaming mortals, and he breaks off and returns to his table. ch. 12
Fang Yuan then sets down two primeval stones and orders his own jar of the same wine. The hall freezes, since the Gu Master had just warned no one should dare drink it after him. He turns with a cold glare, but Fang Yuan stares back without fear. Sensing the aura of primeval essence on him, the Gu Master recognizes a fellow cultivator and warmly calls him junior brother. The waiter brings the wine, and Fang Yuan takes it and walks out of the inn. ch. 12
