Chapter 145

Fang Yuan undergoes the clan’s investigation into the mountain path battle, though the wolf tide’s demands leave it shallow; his Earth Communication Ear Grass and Stealth Scales Gu stay hidden and could be blamed on the caravan if found, and with the wolf tide having cut off caravan contact the clan cannot confirm anything, so Fang Yuan expects to reach rank three and leave Qing Mao Mountain before any result comes. He judges that exposure of the Four Flavors Liquor worm or the Spring Autumn Cicada would be a different matter entirely: the Liquor worm represents an entirely new fusion recipe he could not explain away, and the Spring Autumn Cicada, a rank six Gu, would draw even Gu Yue Bo to set aside kinship and clan head courtesy and seize it by force. ^{ch. 145}

By July the wolf tide has grown to a scale rarely seen in the clan’s history: bold lightning wolf packs are reduced to a secondary threat as thousand beast king frenzy lightning wolf packs roam near the village, nine in ten houses at the mountain’s foot stand empty, and most villagers who cannot shelter within the clan set out on a journey to another mountain village that the clan itself regards as hopeless against the fierce beasts, wild Gu, and lightning wolves in their path. Retired Gu Masters and even elders take up arms again, and the chapter states that of the Gu Masters enlisted this way, those who survive to the wolf tide’s end will not amount to even one tenth of their number. ^{ch. 145}

Meditating on his aperture, Fang Yuan finds 44% of it filled with surging dark red, rank two peak stage red steel primeval essence, the aperture wall itself now a thick stone membrane rather than the watery, light flowing wall it once was; White Jade Gu and Stealth Scales Gu rest deep in that sea, the Four Flavors Liquor worm plays near the surface, and the Spring Autumn Cicada, whose wings have fully recovered though its body is still withered, calms the whole sea to stillness whenever it appears. Two new arrivals from Bai Ning Bing’s plunder float there as well, a jellyfish like Water Shield Gu and an unused red steel Relic Gu. ^{ch. 145}

By cultivation alone, with Xiong Li and Qing Shu both dead, Fang Yuan judges himself third highest among the Gu Yue clan’s rank two Gu Masters and inside the top five of all Qing Mao Mountain’s, while Chi Shan and Mo Yan have just advanced from upper to peak stage, a rise the clan reads as morale recovering after Qing Shu’s death. But by fighting strength, Fang Yuan calculates himself the single strongest rank two Gu Master on the whole mountain, reasoning that using the red steel Relic Gu would push his cultivation to peak stage and let his experience contend with rank three Gu Masters to some degree without defeating one outright, a height that even the A grade Fang Zheng, whose aptitude outclasses Fang Yuan’s own C grade, has not reached at only rank two middle stage. He recognizes that Bai Ning Bing and Qing Shu could each fight above their rank only because of the Northern Dark Ice Soul physique and the Wood Charm Gu, and that his own true trump card, the Spring Autumn Cicada, outclasses both, but he refuses to use it since it has not fully recovered and forcing it risks its ability to rebirth. ^{ch. 145}

Fang Yuan is about to use the red steel Relic Gu when Jiang Ya knocks asking for more vitality leaves at a ten percent higher price, having brought along Gu Yue Ye, a Gu Master whose cultivation once peaked at rank three but has since dropped to rank two upper stage with age and injury; Fang Yuan mocks Gu Yue Ye’s claim to reputation and refuses him respect. Gu Yue Ye, embittered but unwilling to leave without the leaves he knows can decide life or death in this wolf tide, reflects that he was once young and hot blooded but has grown cold after losing several children, and thinks that every organisation demands sacrifice, that resources are limited, and that Gu Yue Qing Shu’s own death, however honoured with a name carved on a gravestone, brought him no benefit he could still enjoy. ^{ch. 145}