Chapter 1331

At a small banquet with only Wu An present besides them, Fang Yuan toasts Chi Shang and praises his formation path attainment. Chi Shang drinks a lot of wine. Straightforward and unschooled in company, he starts reassessing Fang Yuan, uncertain whether the earlier challenge was meant to provoke him or whether Fang Yuan wants something from him. Fang Yuan openly states his admiration for talented people like Chi Shang, and though Chi Shang stays alert, suspecting Fang Yuan is very scheming, he cannot help feeling deep accomplishment at praise from a love rival. ^{ch. 1331}

Fang Yuan then hands Chi Shang an information Gu carrying a letter meant for Qiao Si Liu. In it he calls his own admiration overwhelming, admits that challenging Chi Shang by formation path was overestimating himself, calls himself truly ignorant, unable to see Mount Tai, and names Chi Shang a true Southern Border hero. Chi Shang is embarrassed and moved by such exaggerated praise. His suspicions of Fang Yuan fade. Fang Yuan declares that throughout the Southern Border Gu Immortal world only Chi Shang is talented enough for Fairy Si Liu, and adds that he will keep pursuing her himself but compete fairly from now on, treating the current contest as settled. Chi Shang accepts this as a fair contest between gentlemen, and the two go on drinking as growing friends. ^{ch. 1331}

Fang Yuan privately keeps turning over what he knows of Chi Shang from very reliable Wu clan intelligence, while outwardly appearing very friendly. He recognizes the banquet as the third deliberate step in his own scheme, after the formation path challenge and the letter, and Chi Shang’s performance up to now has not gone outside his expectations. Chi Qu You noticed Chi Shang’s formation path talent when he was young and nurtured him deeply by sending him to secluded study in Myriad Snake Mountain for thirty years. He emerged at forty with only rank three cultivation. His formation path attainment already surpassed rank four and five Gu Masters. ^{ch. 1331}

He rejected the fame, fortune and women that followed and asked only to keep researching. Chi Qu You built him a private cave for it. When his hair turned white and his lifespan neared its end, Chi Qu You granted him a lifespan Gu in admiration, and personally guided him for three days and nights before naming him the clan’s hope for a future great grandmaster. Chi Shang rose to rank seven Gu Immortal within decades on the clan’s resources without changing his devotion to formation path. The one exception was his uncharacteristic, firm pursuit of Qiao Si Liu, which caught Chi clan by surprise. ^{ch. 1331}

Qiao Si Liu’s letter, received earlier, told Fang Yuan of her first meeting with Chi Bang, Chi Qu You’s son, who courted her with poetry while she served as Qiao clan’s envoy, disrespect she resented. To put Chi Bang off, she deliberately grew close to Chi Shang, the one Chi clansman who dared trifle with Chi Bang. Chi Shang had shown no interest in her before, but grew deeply attracted. From this, Fang Yuan works out that Chi clan’s first supreme elder, his own lifespan exhausted with no lifespan Gu left, wants his son Chi Bang to succeed him. Chi Bang, immortal only through his father’s protection, has limited ability of his own, so Chi Qu You has cultivated Chi Shang, and his gratitude toward the elder, as Chi Bang’s future support. Chi Shang breaks Fang Yuan’s train of thought by toasting him for the first time. He tells Fang Yuan not to be too upset when he and Fairy Si Liu get together, since Fang Yuan is very sincere and talented, even though formation path knowledge is rare among women. ^{ch. 1331}