Chapter 125

Fang Yuan takes in the assembled alliance, the Gu Yue clan represented among its rank two elite by Qing Shu, Chi Shan and Mo Yan alongside the Xiong and Bai clans’ own standouts, with each clan’s heads and elders watching from the rock building above; talk in the crowd turns to the absent Bai Ning Bing, already rank three, whom onlookers recall stepping out first to start a Gu battle on this same slope three years before and, while still rank two, defeating a Xiong clan elder, with some predicting he could reach rank four or even five and others scoffing at talk of rank six, since rank five is called mortal and rank six immortal. ^{ch. 125}

Gu Yue Bo, flanked by the Bai and Xiong clan heads, opens the alliance’s Gu battle tournament with an order that competitors stop short of any fatality; the crowd hesitates, since a public loss shames both the fighter and the clan elders watching, until Xiong Li’s group of five steps forward first and crosses onto the Bai clan’s ground. ^{ch. 125}

Rather than Xiong Li himself, the slight Xiong Jiang steps up to challenge Bai Bing Yi, offering to let him land three attacks against his defense; Bai Bing Yi warns him off the rank two Water Drill Gu before Xiong Jiang activates the Roaming Zombie Gu, turning dry and green-skinned with four long fangs bared. Bai Bing Yi’s fist, wrapped in a spiraling water drill, tears the muscle from Xiong Jiang’s arms and throws him back five to six steps, but moments later Bai Bing Yi himself coughs blood: Xiong Jiang’s shadow, distorted across the snow, is bound to his own by a Shadow Bond Gu that, as Xiong Jiang explains it, returns ten percent of his own injuries onto Bai Bing Yi, more than enough given Bai Bing Yi’s frail health. Bai Bing Yi concedes the loss outright, and after Xiong Jiang praises him as the true stronger fighter and asks for his protection in the coming wolf tide, Bai Bing Yi agrees, the two clans settling into grudging respect. ^{ch. 125}

Emboldened, Xiong Li’s group crosses next onto the Gu Yue clan’s ground, and rather than challenge Qing Shu, Chi Shan or Mo Yan, Xiong Li calls out for Fang Yuan by name, citing the story that he alone drove off the River Swallowing Toad; some in the crowd who have never heard the name dismiss the feat as mere coincidence and luck, while others react with shock that the toad was supposedly a rank five Gu. ^{ch. 125}

The Gu Yue crowd parts and pushes Fang Yuan into view; facing Xiong Li’s mocking invitation to “generously teach” him, Fang Yuan only shrugs and says plainly that he admits defeat, leaving the onlookers dumbfounded. ^{ch. 125}