Chapter 124

Fang Yuan asks why Yao Ji does not simply approach the Gu Master who actually bought the Liquor worm, and Qing Shu explains that inspecting another Gu Master’s aperture is the biggest taboo among Gu Masters, so nobody can be identified from a small matter like this; only Jia Fu knows Fang Yuan was the buyer, but even Jia Fu would assume he bought it for someone else, since Fang Yuan already had a Liquor worm of his own at the time. Fang Yuan privately stays firm on refusing to give it up, reasoning that Gu Yue Yao Ji, though a rank three Gu Master and far stronger than him, is bound by the same rules and reputation as he is, and so cannot simply take the worm by force. ^{ch. 124}

Fang Zheng, present in the room, urges his brother to give up a worm he no longer needs to the kindly Yao Ji and her granddaughter Yao Le, invoking the honor Fang Yuan’s deed already brought their family; Fang Yuan turns cold, asking if he is being lectured and declaring the Liquor worm his own business even if it rots in his hands. Qing Shu, privately regretting having brought along a brother the two of them get along poorly with, sends Fang Zheng out of the room; Fang Zheng leaves declaring he cannot understand his brother in this, and Fang Yuan answers flatly that his actions do not require Fang Zheng’s understanding, the door swinging shut behind him and leaving the room’s mood soured. ^{ch. 124}

With that matter closed, Fang Yuan moves to see Qing Shu out, but Qing Shu raises a second request, asking to buy the vitality leaves Fang Yuan’s Nine Leaf Vitality Grass produces for his own group’s use; Fang Yuan names a price of sixty-five primeval stones per leaf, above the clan’s original fifty-five-primeval-stone rate and even above the clan’s current wolf-tide price of sixty primeval stones, and dismisses Qing Shu’s warning that overpricing will breed resentment, reasoning that with the wolf tide near he could die any day and has no patience for such concerns. Qing Shu, though it is by the text’s own reckoning only a five-primeval-stone rise over the clan’s current rate, drops the purchase for now rather than commit to a wolf tide expected to last at least a year, warning as he leaves that Yao Ji will not give up easily; Fang Yuan, watching him go, is certain he will be back, recalling from his previous life that vitality leaf prices rocketed past a hundred primeval stones once the wolf tide reached its peak. ^{ch. 124}

As the winter deepens, more crippled wolves gather around Gu Yue village and the clan sends out a wave of extermination missions; in December, at the crippled wolves’ worst, a hamlet at the mountain’s foot is slaughtered by a large group of wolves, though the village’s own dozen Gu Masters retreat in time, and grief spreads through the village even as the clan’s higher-ups privately weigh a Gu Master’s life as worth more than a hundred mortal ones. The mounting pressure finally breaks the three clans’ stalled negotiation, and a month later, at winter’s end, the Three Clan Alliance Meeting convenes on the Alliance Slope, where Fang Yuan, standing among the rank two Gu Masters who make up the true mobile troops below a huge rock building holding the clan heads and elders, notes that the mid-size Gu Yue clan counts only a little more than twenty rank three clan elders in total. ^{ch. 124}

Below the stage, Gu Yue clan’s Gu Masters run to the skinny side, Xiong clan’s to the strong and robust, and Bai clan’s to whitish-skinned with a Yin aura the crowd attributes to their home behind the mountain waterfall; onlookers point out the long-haired Gu Yue Qing Shu, named rank two peak stage and the Gu Yue clan’s foremost rank two Gu Master, the Xiong clan’s Xiong Jiao Man riding a giant bear, and the Bai clan’s Bai Zhong Shui, a rank two upper stage fighter who carries the Water Boar Gu, while one onlooker inwardly nurses a grudge against Mo Yan, blaming her for the loss of an arm and vowing revenge once the wolf tide passes. ^{ch. 124}