Clan history holds that the fourth clan head, a genius who reached rank five Gu Master while young, defeated the demonic Flower Wine Monk in battle, making him kneel and beg for mercy. Growing careless, he let the monk land a sneak attack, then executed him in anger before dying himself from his own wounds. Fang Yuan judges the story does not hold together, since his own memory of a previous life holds a different account. In that memory, a spurned Gu Master, drunk from heartbreak, follows a Liquor worm to the Flower Wine Monk’s remains inside a hidden cave, then reports the find to the clan. As the storm subsides, he gains the Liquor worm, his cultivation grows, his lover returns to him, and he becomes the talk of the village for a while. Fang Yuan cannot explain the choice. He wonders why the finder would betray his own greed and hand the clan such a fortune rather than keep it secret, and decides his few clues are too thin to settle it. ch. 13
With only two primeval stones left after buying the green bamboo wine, Fang Yuan treats tonight as his final gamble on the Liquor worm. He counts three reasons for confidence: three days of steady rain have washed the mountain air clean enough to carry scent far, a week of prior searching has ruled out where the monk did not die, and green bamboo wine is the village’s finest. He walks the bamboo forest, dripping wine on the grass at one spot after another, and waits each time without seeing any movement. After pouring out the last of the jar, he nearly gives up, certain that failure tonight would leave him only two primeval stones and no way to refine the Moonlight Gu. Then the clouds part. Moonlight floods the bamboo forest, nightingales answer each other, Dragonpill crickets glow like scattered red agate, and turning to leave, Fang Yuan spots a dot of white on a bamboo stalk that turns out to be the Liquor worm. ch. 13
