Literally effortless
Standing at the river’s edge beside the sleeping, hill-sized River Swallowing Toad, Fang Yuan weighs his chances: the White Boar Gu and Black Boar Gu together give him the strength of two boars, which combined with his own leaves him with roughly the strength of five or six adults, still short of the two bull’s strength he judges the push will need, so he plans to borrow the power of the incoming tide. ch. 120
Waves begin crashing against the toad, and Fang Yuan, soon drenched, pushes with the surge of each one; the toad, a creature of rivers and seas, is undisturbed by ordinary wave force and stays deeply asleep as he works it loose from its resting place and, helped by the widening riverbed downstream, pushes it roughly three hundred meters before it finally opens its eyes and meets his fearless gaze. ch. 120
The toad lets out a deafening croak that echoes across Qing Mao mountain, then lowers its head and sucks in the river at ten times its normal speed, the water level dropping visibly as seafood is drawn in along with it; the Chi Shan group hurries over and watches in astonishment, Chi Cheng marveling at the sight, as the toad then vomits the seafood back out onto the ground. Amid the smell of wine, the group’s female Gu Master identifies a broken black, ring-marked shell as a Hundred year bitter shell, and Chi Shan explains that its aged bitter water becomes the bitter shell wine loved by Bai clan’s current clan leader; Fang Yuan, who had already claimed the shell, goes on to collect six little Hundred year bitter shells in total, two broken and four intact. ch. 120
The toad croaks once more, looks at Fang Yuan, and swims off downstream; Chi Shan, relieved and impressed, calls him the clan’s hero, while Chi Cheng grumbles with envy that they could have done it themselves. Fang Yuan is indifferent to the praise, caring nothing for the title and continuing instead to search the scattered seafood for more bitter shells. ch. 120
News of the toad’s departure reaches the village, and Gu Yue Bo praises the outcome repeatedly as the hall’s tension lifts; the internal affairs elder, who had criticized Fang Yuan not long before, is left uneasy as Gu Yue Bo promotes Fang Yuan to team leader and rewards him five hundred primeval stones. In the tavern, the news causes an uproar, and the male Gu Master who bears Fang Yuan a grudge is caught off guard; his group leader, fearing that their earlier slander could reach detection-type Gu Masters and ruin their standing now that Fang Yuan has become a hero, orders his group to kill the mortal clerks who spoke against Fang Yuan and then praise him publicly to cover themselves. The old shopkeeper is beheaded by a moonblade, more clerks are struck down as they beg for mercy, and the watching Gu Masters look on with amusement or indifference, reasoning that a few mortal lives are cheaply compensated. ch. 120
