Chapter 1320

Unable to criticize Fang Yuan’s poem without embarrassing Qiao Si Liu, who had approved of it, Luo Mu Zi and Lun Fei are forced to praise it instead. Fang Yuan presses each for specifics. Luo Mu Zi calls it clear and easy to understand. Lun Fei concedes it is a good poem. Both suppress a fury they cannot show. Fang Yuan tells Qiao Si Liu he is really pleased, hinting he has discovered a talent for poetry. She moves the gathering on to dissecting rocks. ^{ch. 1320}

Qiao Si Liu supplies a large stock of rocks for the group to break open in search of Gu worms. Gu Immortals have methods to detect mortal Gu inside a rock beforehand. The chapter states the group deliberately sets those methods aside tonight and relies only on insight and luck. Mortal Gu are otherwise easy for a Gu Immortal to obtain, and an Immortal Gu can only be found by chance, never sought, so no one expects to turn one up. Fang Yuan leads throughout, drawing on rock-dissecting skill from once running his own rock-gambling den. His luck is sharpened by a luck Gu and by linking his fortune to others. Luo Mu Zi pushes him hardest and finishes only slightly behind, which leaves Fang Yuan suspecting Luo Mu Zi’s luck, not just skill, explains how he knew Qi Jue’s poem. ^{ch. 1320}

Fang Yuan judges moving against Lun Fei simple but against Luo Mu Zi complicated. Luo Mu Zi belongs to Luo clan, one of Southern Border’s super forces. Whatever he decides, Fang Yuan resolves, Wu Yi Hai’s identity must not be implicated. The festival ends late, and Qiao Si Liu personally sees Fang Yuan off. This angers Luo Mu Zi and Lun Fei, who leave together, their old rivalry now an unspoken alliance against him. Fairy Tian Lu and her lover, left behind, sigh over how tiring the night was and depart together. ^{ch. 1320}

Alone, Luo Mu Zi and Lun Fei vent their fury at Fang Yuan’s poem and at Qiao Si Liu’s favor toward him. Lun Fei proposes turning her biggest pursuer, a Chi clan Gu Immortal, against Fang Yuan by revealing he was left uninvited tonight, and calls him definitely stronger than Wu Yi Hai. Luo Mu Zi weighs that Wu clan can still back Wu Yi Hai despite its troubles. He agrees to inform Chi Shang. ^{ch. 1320}

After parting from Fang Yuan, Qiao Si Liu returns to the pavilion. Qiao clan’s first supreme elder, the same elder who earlier helped Fang Yuan return to Wu clan, is waiting there. He notes Wu Yi Hai is Wu Du Xiu’s son and asks her opinion. She agrees. The chapter frames Fang Yuan’s stunt, forcing his rivals to praise a poem they hated, as an indirect strike at Qiao Si Liu within the righteous path’s smiling style of confrontation. The elder tells her Qiao clan has long allied with Wu clan without ever penetrating its core. Wu Yi Hai, he says, is a huge opportunity toward that, and she reluctantly agrees again. ^{ch. 1320}