There are many blizzards in life
Three moonblades tear through a chasing crowd of jade eye stone monkeys, killing sixteen to seventeen of them on the spot and cutting the pursuing group down by a small half; Fang Yuan holds his ground rather than retreat, and checks his aperture afterward to find greater half of his dark red primeval essence still remaining. The Moonglow Gu costs ten percent of light red primeval essence per moonblade, and at rank two initial stage Fang Yuan can cast only four moonblades in succession, a number that rises to eight at middle stage and doubles again to sixteen at upper stage; though not truly at upper stage, the Four Flavours Liquor worm’s refining of upper-stage primeval essence lets him fight at what he judges a false upper stage, sharply raising his fighting strength. ch. 122
Fang Yuan reflects that he has cleared three stone pillars within just two days, a pace many times faster than before, and reasons that at this rate he could reopen a path to the stone forest’s central area within about half a month. Recalling the blood-soaked Flower Wine Monk on the image wall and the monk’s rushed, poorly-prepared state, he judges that the barrier under the central pillar likely holds another Earth Treasure Flower Gu, and reckons Flower Wine Monk’s legacy is nearly spent, with at most two more obstacles left, hoping the remaining Gu worms lean toward scouting or movement. ch. 122
Autumn passes and the first snow of early winter falls over Qing Mao mountain as Fang Yuan hurries back from the secret cave; food has grown scarce for the wolf packs, and the crippled wolves this produces, cast out and banding together, begin moving near the village even as hunter families stop climbing the mountain and some villagers are lost to wolf attacks. Gu Yue village mobilizes many Gu Masters, scouts among them, to clean up the threat, and Fang Yuan responds by visiting the stone crack’s secret cave less often, which he notes has steeply slowed his progress through the stone forest; over two months pass with little to show for it. ch. 122
A small-scale pack of about twenty or more lightning wolves closes in, the eighth such beast group Fang Yuan has met this month, and he meets them with the Moonglow Gu, beheading three wolves with one moonblade before a fourth cleverly dodges; maimed, blind, or missing tails as they are, the crippled wolves fight with a cunning built from long survival, and a normal rank two middle stage Gu Master would be in real danger surrounded by such a group. Fang Yuan fights on calmly, drawing on his battle experience and his refined upper-stage primeval essence, and the pack’s numbers are sharply cut by half before the wolves, sensing him too tough a target, break off and retreat; once he confirms they are gone, he collects wolf skin and teeth from the corpses and kills off the wounded stragglers still breathing. ch. 122
Fang Yuan judges a crippled wolf’s fighting strength as higher than that of two jade eye stone monkeys, doubling again when the pack coordinates, and reflects that with the Moonglow Gu and Jade Skin Gu giving him both offense and defense on top of the Four Flavours Liquor worm’s boost, plus his previous life’s deep experience, he can be ranked barely among Qing Mao Mountain’s top rank two Gu Masters alongside Qing Shu, Chi Shan and Mo Yan, held back only by not being truly upper stage and by an aptitude that is merely C grade. He resolves that surviving the coming wolf tide will need a scouting or movement-type Gu worm, hoping Flower Wine Monk’s legacy provides one and planning, if not, to trade his contribution points for one from Bai or Xiong village once the three clans’ wolf-tide exchange opens; as he carries his spoils back through the village drawing praise, curiosity, and envy from onlookers, Chi Shan suddenly appears from a corner and calls out to him. ch. 122
