Chapter 1330

Chi Shang works the wisdom sweat formation on the third problem. He meets a challenge really difficult enough that the first two, added together and multiplied by ten, could not match it. In parallel, Fang Yuan reflects that this final obstacle in modifying the coiling thread caves has likely surpassed grandmaster-level limits. Earlier help from Chi Shang had let him take a huge step forward with an immense breakthrough, but right before completing the modification he meets an obstacle that greatly surpasses his expectations, after managing the first two steps cleanly. ^{ch. 1330}

Chi clan’s first supreme elder, Chi Qu You, learns of the Fang Yuan-Chi Shang dispute through Chi Gui’s report and, recognizing the problem is beyond even grandmaster level, worries that Chi Shang’s obsessive nature could get him hurt or killed pursuing it. He suspects Wu clan may be scheming to eliminate Chi clan’s future hope, judges that unlikely given Wu clan’s current weak position, but decides not to be careless. He sends Chi Shang, through Chi Gui, an immortal inheritance. It is secluded cultivator Tu Yuan’s unique earth water wind fire four elements formation, something Chi Shang had long sought. ^{ch. 1330}

Chi Shang is elated and grateful, believing his effort has finally been noticed. He briefly wonders if using the gift counts as cheating, then decides it probably does not, since the elder supplied only the inheritance and not the solution itself. Using it, he works the wisdom sweat formation again, and two days later concludes the problem cannot be solved, accusing Wu Yi Hai of scheming to trick him. He is still very angry at feeling toyed with, having barely slept at all through the ordeal, but reasons that exposing the unsolvability itself counts as a win, and resolves to tell Fairy Si Liu so as to embarrass Wu Yi Hai. ^{ch. 1330}

Chi Shang sends two information Gu, one to Fang Yuan declaring the problem unsolvable and one to Qiao Si Liu about the outcome. Fang Yuan reads this as Chi Shang having really improved, and wonders whether informing her first was meant to keep him from retaliating. His own modification has failed. Before a deduction succeeds, an idea can turn out to be merely illusions with no possible route to success, and some prove unsolvable only at the very end. So he abandons the eightfold plan and looks for a different modification. ^{ch. 1330}

Having lost the challenge, he invites Chi Shang to a banquet. He finds Chi Shang an interesting person. Chi Shang agrees, attending this time as the winner rather than the invited rival, and immediately asks Wu Yi Hai whether he will relent. Fang Yuan smilingly admits defeat at once, praising Chi Shang as a genius, and the immediate concession, which Chi Shang had not prepared for, leaves him with nothing to say. ^{ch. 1330}